these lands were to be possessed by the Irish Society without any reservation in favour of the inhabitants, except such lands as were allotted for the support of the dignity of the mayor.

The twelve companies have leased their estates in various ways; four of these, viz. the Vintners, the Haberdashers, the Merchant Taylors, and the Goldsmiths, have granted in perpetuity, with a small reserve rent generally between four and five hundred pounds per annum. Seven of the other companies have granted leases, which have been usually for sixty-one years and three lives. The estate of the Salters' Company is leased for years only.

The remaining proprietors, whether holding by fee-simple, or under the society and companies, or by copyhold, generally grant leases of twenty-one years with one life, which life is most frequently that of the lessee. There are but few instances of those leases which formerly were most common, viz. for thirty-one years and three lives.

The ecclesiastical lands are leased to the immediate tenants under the see, for the term of twenty-one years; no life can be annexed. But these tenants, being anxious to keep up the number of years, are in the habit, as the law and custom authorises, to pay annual fines for renewals. The rents, which are small, do not encrease; but the fine is augmented occasionally: the ratio of the fine is generally under one-fifth on the value, whether supposed or ascertained.

There are certain ecclesiastical leases, granted by the immediate lessees of the see-lands, to others holding under them; this species of tenure is called toties quoties, because the first tenant is bound to renew with the second so often as he shall renew for himself with the Bishop.

The tenures of the lands belonging to the deanery are held by the tenants for 21 years or three lives; they are called chapter lands, because their management is submitted in trust to the chapter, consisting of the dean with the prebendaries of the diocese.

The leases granted by the clergy of their glebe lands have this

manifest disadvantage, to the agriculture, to the tenant, and to the party in possession, that they cannot by law be leased except for the incumbency of the parson. I cannot see any good reason why the rectors of parishes are prohibited from conforming their leases to those of the other ecclesiastical lands; especially so, considering that their leases, if granted for the term of twenty-one years, would greatly encourage the agriculture, and would become more valuable to the incumbents; provision against underletting being entirely within the power of any statute, which might authorise glebes to be let as the chapter lands, subject to the scrutiny of commissioners appointed and acting under the authority of the Diocesan.

In this point of view, and considering at same time, the great deficiency of plantations within this county, it might conduce to very desirable advantages, if the incumbents of parishes were authorised by statute to plant a certain proportion (say not exceeding a twentieth or a thirtieth part) of their glebes, with forest trees; enjoying from these plantations the same benefits as have been provided for others, according to the acts now in existence for encouraging the growth of timber in Ireland.

Rents, Taxes, Lessees, &c.

I shall now endeavour to show, under one view, the various demands and imposts, to which the tenant in occupation is liable, in the county of London-Derry.

The table here submitted was constructed, for this purpose, from a number of remarks, noted with no other selection, but that of variety with respect to places, tenures, dates of leases, and other circumstances which seemed necessary to establish an assemblage of data, such as might warrant some generalised schedule.

The-church cess, in country places, is not a stated, but only an occasional demand; and when required, scarcely ever exceeding sixpence per acre on the best arable. It may therefore be considered as too minute for having place in a fixed and general estimate.

The reason why the supposed valuation of the lands seems greater than the amount of the rents, arises from this circumstance, that several leases remain still at the old rates of letting. As to all that have been lately let, the rent is at the full value, and sometimes even higher; and this applies to almost all lands, which have been leased within these last thirteen years; that being about the date succeeding to two years of scarcity, when a rise on the product of the farms (especially of barley for the private distilleries) induced the landlords to encrease the amount of the rents; which encrease resting on the false appetite for taking lands, combined with the real value of its products, it now seems as fair that the rents should subside to the level of these causes, as it was before reasonable that they should have been encreased with their rise.

With respect to tythes; if we allow the product of the farm to be equal to three times the amount of the rent, and that only one half of the product is liable to tythe, then we shall find that the real value of the tythe is twice as great as that of the amount actually paid. Nevertheless it should not be denied, that any tax which may occasionally be demandable from the first product of the joint profits of the skill, industry, and capital expended, may be ranked as a discouragement, to the improvement of new grounds in particular; yet, as it strikes me, this discouragement, whether felt or apprehended, would be entirely removed, if the cultivator were ascertained in the continuation of his composition for tythes, during any fixed term of years (say twenty-one). Considering how frequently the incumbents are removed, by death or otherwise, no such security, under the present circumstances, can be given. It may seem, therefore, that it is not any commutation, which is requisite for remedying these obstructions, but only an act of legislature, to enable incumbents of parishes to let their tythes, (as well as their glebe lands,) during the term of twenty-one years; and it might be, at the same time, provided, that all agreements and lettings should be subject to the rejection or approbation of a capitulate, to be

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held under the authority of the ordinary; at the head of which should preside a rural dean, conversant in the local value of the lands and tythes so to be let and bound by a special commission, together with such other commissioners acting under him, and such regulations as might appear advisable to carry this plan into effect. It seems very probable indeed that the cultivator would not be a gainer in any commutation, except in respect to the permanency and security of his bargains; because the landlord would know his right as well, and enforce it much better than the parson. In every commutation, therefore, the cultivator runs the risque of paying more to an absentee landlord than he now pays to a resident rector; but in the plan proposed, all which is needed on one side, or should be desired. on the other, is a settled tenure and a reasonable composition.

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Habitations of Farmers, mode of repair, &c. &c.

The size and convenience of a farmer's house, rates according to the wealth or the spirit of the tenant; and this rate varies from the hovel which approaches to the pig-stie, to the dwelling which may seem to be the residence of human comfort. The materials of which they are built are also various; and this variety depends much on the nature of the district; some districts afford stone, and there the countryman's house of every description is built of this material: But here too are more than shades of distinction. The poor man heaps together the wall of stone, either without cement or with mud; and were it not for the peat-stack, providently built against the gable, wretched indeed would be the winter's inmate of such a tenement. The whole family repose in the same room; nor is there any scruple to share the nightly shelter with the cow, the calf, the dog and the pig.

From this lowest stage, the climax ascends through every possible gradation to the well cemented dwelling built of stone or brick, of two stories; the intermediate description are generally constructed with two apartments, separated by a partition across the house; the