Mr. G. Errington, the Member for Longford, a moderate and
sane politician, though a Home-ruler, recommends through the Times a working scheme for the settlement of Irish tenure. He would fuse the existing Land Courts into a Supreme Land Court, with local Divisional Courts, and. invest it with power, on application either from landlord or tenant, to settle the just rent, according to the agricultural history of the estate and holding. The rent settled, the tenant would enjoy fixity, and would be able to sell his holding ; but in the event of non- payment of rent, the Court would compel such sale. The Court would keep complete records of agricultural circum- stances, and on application from either side, at intervals fixed by law, say, twenty years, would revise rents, taking notice whether any rise in value had been the result of the tenant's action on the land, or of general economic circumstances. The rise in the former case would belong to the tenant, and in the latter to the landlord. . This is a reasonable and practicable scheme, and would need only the rider that the tenant on offering, say, twenty-five years' purchase, should have an absolute right of purchase, to be an effectual guarantee against bad landlordism. The right of purchase would seldom be used, but would be a guarantee against " worrit " from agents ; while eviction, being ordered only by a Court and with compensation for value, would cease to be regarded as a tyrannical sentence to the workhouse.
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