payment for a non-existing value. As a consequence, the new tenant commences his enterprise burdened with debt and destitute of capital. Hence low forming, inadequate profits, uneducated children, and too frequently, the ruin and emigration of the Ulster tenant, in spite of indulgent landlords and a secure tenure.
Evidence of John Forsyth, Esq., Agent.
"Supposing a man obliged to borrow money to purchase the tenant-right, and having to pay interest, and finding a difficulty in paying the interest and the rent, which is he most likely to complain of, the interest or the rent?—We do not hear much about the interest; but they frequently pay the interest where they do not pay the rent. I think they get the money very frequently from people in their own rank, who are associating with them."—Dig. Dev. Com. p. 292.
"That a portion of the borrower's farm is occasionally transferred to the lender as a security for the repayment of the debt, and that the use of the land is received instead of interest."—Ibid. Summary, p. 195.
"That the interest paid by the needy man to local usurers frequently ranges from "25 to 100 per cent."—Ibid. Sum. p. 195.
Charles A. Walker, Esq., Land Proprietor and Deputy Lieutenant.
"In the poorer parts of the country there are unfortunately some of those curses to society, usurers, who charge exorbitant interest to the distressed tenants, and have been the means of more injury to farmers and estates than any other cause.
"The usual way in which the interest is paid by the borrower is, he gives up to the lender the best field on his farm for three years or more, for the usurer to repay himself by the produce of it. The usurer takes wheat crop after wheat crop until the land can produce no more. The next loan is repaid in a similar manner with another field, and both tenant and land are ruined. I know miles in extent in this district which have been so treated."—Ibid. p. 207.
