A Study in Congestion 199 



productive proportion ought to increase more 

 than that, but let us make generous allowances 

 for one who has been so unfortunate. The 

 peasant has no capital. If he had he might have 

 acquired land for himself. He has worse than no 

 knowledge, because he must unlearn before there 

 can be the least hope for his success ; and no 

 capitalist in the world, unless a Chancellor of the 

 Exchequer, will undertake to finance a man who 

 has neither capital of his own nor efficiency to use 

 the capital of others. However, the Chancellor 

 of the Exchequer has already set the precedent, 

 and we must take it at that or start a controversy on 

 Socialism, complicating the problem which we 

 have undertaken to simplify. Every Chancellor 

 of the Exchequer is a Socialist in Ireland, but 

 without the virtues of Socialism. 



As we have seen, the productive or earning 

 power of bullock land is 50 per cent, more than 

 that of peasant land, and the purchase value must 

 follow ; but here comes an additional com- 

 plication. Peasant land is under " dual owner- 

 ship," the landlord's interest and the tenant's 

 interest ; but the bullock land has in it the same 

 dual value vested in one owner. For instance, 

 the Duke of Abercorn has sold the tenant's 

 interest in his untenanted land, creating new 

 tenancies, and getting handsome prices for these, 

 and having established the new tenants, he has 

 sold to them the landlord's interest also, under 

 the Land Purchase Act. A Land Commissioner 

 tells me that by proceeding in this way the Duke 



