THE IRISH LAND-PURCHASE BILL.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:1 SIR,-It surely would not be very far wide of the mark to describe the Irish Land-Purchase Bill as a measure for further and permanently redueingrjadicially reduced rents all over
Ireland, and this at a moment when rents, now being fixed judicially, are rising owing to the rise in prices. If this is so, it is not to be wondered at that the Land-Purchase Bill is not enthusiastically welcomed by the owners of a commodity now rising in the market. But it passes my humble wit to com- prehend how the Parliamentary representatives of Irish tenants and their organs in the Press conceive it to be in the interest of their clients to decry a measure the direct effect of which would be, wherever it was applied, to fin- mediately reduce actual judicial rents, and indirectly operate to reduce every agricultural rent all over Ireland.
Inasmuch as the inherent value of Irish land, being mostly under grass, is less depressed than that of the corn-growing portions of Great Britain, it is quite natural that Irish land- owners conceive that the terms of the Land-Purchase Bill are not sufficiently favourable to them. However, it seems hard that Mr. Balfour's firm government, under which Irish land- lords are for the moment better enabled to get in actual rents,. should operate to depreciate the value of his Land-Purchase Bill in the eyes of landlords.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Previous page
