Lord Lymington made a very able speech in defence of
the Bill, arguing the case for free sale in the interest of the landlord, and showing that it made it the interest of the tenant to keep and leave his farm in good condition. He was followed by Mr. Forster, who, answering Mr. Gibson on the subject of the direc- tions for the valuation of a "fair rent," affirmed that it was not in any way intended to carve the value of the tenant-right or the compensation for disturbance out of the rent, but that it was intended to prevent the Court from so raising the rent that nobody would be able to give as much for the tenant-right as had hitherto been given ; or, where there is as yet no tenant-right, as much as a Court would have hitherto given by way of com- pensation for disturbance. He showed that so far from plunging all Ireland into litigation, the tendency of the Bill was to prevent low-rented tenants from going into Court at all, lest their rent should be raised, and to induce rack-renting landlords to lower their rents, before the tenants appealed to the Court to lower them for them.
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