y increased under the Land Purchase Act passed in 1891. If a
tenant wishes to buy his holding and arranges with his landlord as to
terms, he can change his position from an ordinary rentpayer into that
of a payer of an annuity, terminable in forty-nine years, and actually
less in amount than the rent! Most Irish landlords are willing to take
less than twenty years' purchase, but the tenants are by their leaders
advised not to buy. Otherwise the Government is prepared to advance
the necessary purchase money, to be repaid at the rate of four per
cent. per annum, which covers both principal and interest. Suppose the
tenant's rent to be L50, and that he agreed to buy at the seventeen
years' purchase so strongly discountenanced by the priest quoted in my
last. His rent or rather the annual payment substituted for rent,
would amount to L34, being a reduction of thirty-two per cent. If he
bought at fifteen years' purchase, rent L50, he would only pay L30 a
year, a reduction of forty per cent. If he bought at twenty years,
rent L50, he would have L40 a year to pay, being a reduction of twenty
per cent. In forty-nine years the holding would belong to him, or to
his children. In any case he must largely benefit. His rent is lower,
his share in the ownership is always becoming larger, and, if he
chooses, he can at any time sell his interest in the concern. Mr.
Palmer, of Tuam, said that those who had purchased under this Act were
happy and prosperous. Lord Shannon's tenants bought at twelve years'
purchase. In other words they exchanged their rent for one-half the
amount, payable to Government, the land to be their own in forty-nine
years. Lord Lansdowne's tenants agreed to buy at eighteen years'
purchase, all arrears to be forgiven on payment of half a year's rent.
These buyers are quiet and apparently contented. Their payments are
regular, and if they were left alone they would doubtless continue in
the path of rectitude. But the agitators, who find nick-names for
everything, have already begun to call this repayment of
purchase-money a Tribute to England; and the past history of Irish
leaders leads honest Irishmen, as well as Englishmen, to the
conviction that, once an Irish Parliament were established, with an
Irish constabulary under its rule, a No Tribute campaign would ensue,
which would lead to deplorable results. The privileges of Irish
tenants are far more numerous than I have space to indicate, but
perhaps enough has bee