0 9
Less received from Irish Relief
  Association and for sales of
  manufactures 7,659 6 7
                                          _____________ 11,924 14 2
Ladies’ Industrial Society for
  encouragement of labour among the
  peasantry 1,968 12 8
 Less received from Irish Relief
  Association 1,500 0 0
                                          _____________ 468 12 8
Belfast Ladies’ Association for the
  relief of Irish Distress 2,617 1 6
Belfast Ladies’ Industrial Association
  for Connaught 4,615 16 1
There were also two collections in
  Belfast for general purposes, the
  amount of which exceeded 10,000 0 0

CHAPTER XVII.

TENANT-RIGHT IN ULSTER.

The Earl of Granard has taken a leading part in the movement for the settling of the land question, having presided at two great meetings in the counties in which he has large estates, Wexford and Longford, supported on each occasion by influential landlords.  He was the first of his class to propose that the question should be settled on the basis of tenant-right, by legalising and extending the Ulster custom.  A reference to this custom has been frequently made recently, in discussions on the platform and in the press.  I have studied the history of that province with care; and I have during the year 1869 gone through several of its counties with the special object of inquiring how the tenant-right operates, and whether, and to what extent, it affords the requisite security to the cultivators of the soil; and it may be of some service that I should give here the result of my enquiries.

Of the six counties confiscated and planted in Ulster, Londonderry, as I have already remarked, was allotted to the London companies.  The aspect of their estates, is on the whole, very pleasing.  In the midst of each there is a small town, built in the form of a square, with a market-house and a town-hall in the centre, and streets running off at each side.  There are almost invariably three substantial and handsome places of worship—­the parish church, always best and most prominent, the presbyterian meeting-house, and the catholic chapel, with nice manses for the ministers, all built wholly or in part by grants from the companies.

Complaints were constantly made against the Irish Society for its neglect of its trust, for refusing to give proper building leases, and for wasting the funds placed at its disposal for public purposes.  The details are curious and interesting, throwing much light on the social history of the times.  The whole subject of its duties and responsibilities, and of its anomalous powers, was fully discussed at a meeting of the principal citizens, most of them strongly