The objects of the Irish Land Act were, in conformity with the
conclusions of the Conference, to abolish dual ownership rapidly and, at
the same time, to deal systematically with "agricultural slums." Its
salient features fall under four heads.

A. _State assistance to voluntary bargaining._ For this purpose it was
provided that (1) cash payments should be resumed to the landlords; (2)
that the tenants' instalments should be L3 5_s._ for each L100 advanced,
divided into L2 15_s._ (2-3/4 per cent.) for interest and 10_s._ for
sinking fund. This was not, as the able and well-informed special
correspondent of the _Times_ suggests (February 9, 1912) a sudden
departure from an instalment of L4. "Decadal reductions" under the Act
of 1896 had, as I have said, diminished the instalments of purchasers
under the Act of 1891 to L3 8_s. 7d._ after ten years with further
prospective diminutions, and subjected the instalments of purchasers
under earlier Acts to a similar process. A wholesale expansion of
purchase was impossible unless would-be purchasers were offered terms
comparable to those accorded to their predecessors. For this reason the
tenantry of Ireland were offered repayment at L3 5_s._ per L100 for a
period of about 62 years, in lieu, under the Act of 1896, of repayment
at L3 8_s. 9d._, with further reductions, for about 72-1/2 years, and
their representatives accepted the offer. They would certainly have
refused, and rightly, the offer substituted by Mr. Birrell in the Act of
1909, viz. an instalment of L3 10_s._ with the same sinking
fund--10_s._--and interest increased to L3. The third feature to be
noted under this head is, that the terms agreed to by representatives of
landlords and tenants at the conference could not be ratified unless
the State added some help by way of cash to the assistance of its
credit. It was agreed by all parties that L12,000,000 should be
available to bridge the gap, at the rate of 12 per cent. on the amount
advanced, with the right to revise that rate after five years, but _only
for the purpose of extending the bonus_--as it was called--_to all
future transactions_. It was an integral part of a solemn covenant that
the bonus should not be diverted to any object other than the abolition
of dual ownership and the remedy of "congestion."

B. _The substitution of speedy purchase for dilatory litigation._ To all
members of the Conference of 1902 and of the House of Commons in 1903,
with, I beli