Dr. Hancock says the principle that in such cases the tenant should be protected, was neglected in subsequent measures.  Now, what must the tenants think of legislation that subjects them to be robbed of their dearly-bought leases because of flaws, frauds or blunders with which they could have nothing to do?  The leases granted to the tenants of Lord Donegal, however, in Belfast and the neighbourhood were generally valid, and to these perpetuities we must undoubtedly ascribe the existence of a middle class of remarkable independence of character, and the accumulation of capital for manufactures and commerce.  Had Lord Donegal been able to hold the town in a state of tutelage and dependence—­had he been an ‘improving landlord’ of the modern type, with an agent like Mr. Trench, so vigilant and curious that a dog could not bark on the estate without his knowledge and consent, Belfast might have been far behind Derry to-day—­as stationary as Bangor, Hillsborough, Antrim, or Randalstown.  Under such paternal care as Mr. Trench bestows upon tenants, with his omnipresent surveillance, there could be no manly self-reliance, no freedom of speech or action, no enterprise.  The agent would take care that no interests should grow up on the estate, which his chief could not control or knock down.  It is not likely that Lord Donegal would have suffered the landscape to be spoiled, the atmosphere of the deer park and gardens to be darkened and tainted by the smoke of factory chimneys, which could add nothing to his rental, while crowding around him the race which his great progenitor did so much to extirpate.  So Belfast may well be thankful that the Marquis of Donegal, for some generations, could not afford to be ‘an improving landlord,’ fond of paternal intermeddling with other people’s affairs, playing the part of Providence to an inferior race.

But there is one memorable fact connected with those perpetuity leases which applies more immediately to our purpose.  The tenants who were evicted to make way for the men who had money to advance to the lord of the soil, feeling themselves seriously aggrieved, formed the first of the more modern agrarian combinations under the title of ’the Hearts of Oak;’ which continued for a long time to disturb the peace in Antrim and Down.  The farms being extensively turned into pasture by the landlords and large graziers, there was no employment for the houseless wanderers, no provision of any kind for their support.  They consequently had no respect for the rights of property, in the vindication of which their homes had been demolished and their families sacrificed, because they were not able to purchase fixity of tenure.