It is an improvement on the past when the landlords fixed the rents for themselves." I did not remind him of what Lord George Hill tells us, that in the olden time at Gweedore the tenants fixed their own rents--and then did not pay them--but I asked him how this could be said when the tenant clearly must have accepted the rent, no matter who fixed it.

"Oh!" said Father M'Fadden, "that may be so, but the tenant was not free, he was coerced.

With all his life and labour represented in the holding and its improvements, he could not go and give up his holding.

It's a stand-and-deliver business with him--the landlord puts a pistol to his head!" "But is it not true," I said, "that under the new Land Bill the Land Commissioner's Court has power to fix the rents judicially without regard to landlord or tenant during fifteen years ?" "Yes, that is so," said Father M'Fadden.

"Under Mr.Gladstone's Act of 81, and under the later Act of the present Government, the rents so fixed from '81 to '86 inclusive are subject to revision for three years; but the people have no confidence in the constitution of the Courts, and, as a matter of fact, the improvements of the tenants are confiscated under the Act of '81, and the reductions allowed under the Act of '87 are incommensurate with the fall in prices by 100 per cent.
And there still remains the burden of arrears.