THE IRISH AGRARIAN PROBLEM. 



tenant's interest in a farm is sod for ^"1,000 it 

 matters nothing whether the purchaser i 

 700 for the landlord's share and ^300 for the 

 tenant's, or ^500 for each. 1 



This unequal apportionment of the fall of 

 prices, which bore unequally against the share 

 of the landlord and that of the tenant, has 

 had unfortunate consequences. The stimulus to 

 combat the fall in prices by reducing the cost of 

 production has been wanting ; taking Ireland 

 as a whole the cost of production, according to 

 the Fry Commission, has remained unchanged. 2 

 The Act of 1881 took away from the sleeping 

 partner the possibility of influencing production, 

 while it took from the active partner the interest 

 in increasing it, since his partner would share in 

 the profit. 8 When the co-operative movement 

 began, some of the leaders of the Nationalist 

 party, especially John Dillon, offered it the 

 bitterest opposition. Higher returns were not 



1 Fry Commission, App. E, pp. 345-47. That the com- 

 petition for land has not become exhausted is also clear from 

 the prices which are paid for grazing lands, which are still in 

 the landlord's hands, under the eleven months' system ; as well 

 as from the rents obtained by sub-letting to labourers, etc. 



Ib., p. 24. 



3 [One might add, would share to an extent which the tenant 

 could never foresee and reckon on there being no definite 

 principle in the manner in which the profits of the farm were 

 to be divided. The tenant, therefore, never knew how much 

 of the fruits of his labour or enterprise he would reap himself, 

 and how much would be allotted (at the next revision) to the 

 other partner. Trans/.] 



