First, the position of an Irish tenant is simply this: he is rather worse off than a slave.
I speak advisedly.

In Russia, the proprietors of large estates worked by slaves, are obliged to feed and clothe their slaves; in Ireland, it quite depends on the will of the proprietor whether he will let his lands to his tenants on terms which will enable them to feed their families on the coarsest food, and to clothe them in the coarsest raiment If a famine occurs--and in some parts of Ireland famines are of annual occurrence--the landlord is not obliged to do anything for his tenant, but the tenant _must_ pay his rent.

I admit there are humane landlords in Ireland; but these are questions of fact, not of feeling.
It is a most flagrant injustice that Irish landlords should have the power of dispossessing their tenants if they pay their rents.

But this is not all; although the penal laws have been repealed, the power of the landlord over the conscience of his tenant is unlimited.

It is true he cannot apply bodily torture, except, indeed, the torture of starvation, but he can apply mental torture.