We referred last week, with cordial assent, to Lord Monteagle's
suggestion that in revising the fair rents, the land itself ought not to be revalued, considering that these revaluations play directly into the hands of the tenants who have neglected their holdings the most. It appears that it would hardly have been possible to carry such a provision at the present time, considering that some of the first fair rents were fixed in a haphazard sort of way and before the Commissioners had got any grasp of their duties, but Lord Winchilsea and Lord Monteagle proposed that such a rule should apply when the next fifteen years' period has elapsed, and we wish that Lord Lansdowne had accepted that proviso. Unfortunately, however, he rejected it on the ground that to look forward fifteen years is looking too far ahead, a view in which we cannot at all agree with him. We earnestly hope that this suggestion will be kept in mind, as we are convinced that the revaluing of the land at every separate revision of the fair rents, plays into the hands of indolent and helpless tenants.
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