RISKS TO THE STATE 235 



The State has already, in the case of Ireland, 

 undertaken a liability for an amount at least ten times 

 as great as that named in the Bill. It has done this, 

 not for the love of any one class, but in the public 

 interest, with the object of securing, or attempting to 

 secure, contentment and prosperity in Ireland. It 

 would seem but fair that the English farmer should 

 have at least some of the advantages and opportuni- 

 ties so liberally conferred on the Irish tenant. A 

 Parliamentary Return states that the total estimated 

 purchase-money of estates sold or offered for sale to 

 the Irish Commissioners up to 18 March, 1905, was 

 ;i^i 9, 115,830.^ In order to quicken the sales of land 

 to tenants Mr. Walter Long has made such liberal 

 terms with the Treasury as will secure that at the end 

 of 1906 the British Government will have advanced 

 23 millions sterling for the purposes of the Irish Act 

 of 1903.^ While this is being done for Ireland we 

 are told that to advance the comparatively small sum 

 named in the Land Purchase Bill for the benefit of 

 English tenants " would involve too great a risk to 

 the State." 



Of course there are risks connected with every 

 undertaking, and in this, as in the Irish case, whatever 

 risks there are will rest with the State alone. But 

 experience shows that these risks are infinitesimal. 

 The many thousands of Irish tenants who have bought 

 their farms under the purchase clauses of the various 

 Irish Land Acts, have punctually paid their instal- 

 ments. After many years' experience, the loss to the 

 State up to now has been too trifling to be taken into 

 account. It is not for a moment to be held that the 



^ "Report of the Estates Commissioners" (1905), Cd. 2471. 



' See "Times." Letter to Sir John Colomb, 9 September, 1905. 



