68 THE IRISH AGRARIAN PROBLEM. 



tax the capital of his tenant. This was done 

 by raising the rent. In the case of every farm 

 which is worked with a view to the market there 

 is a m.ore or less intimate connection between 

 rent and the prices of produce. Thus the con- 

 siderable rise of prices which took place between 

 the years 1850-70 occasioned a marked and in 

 part justifiable increase in rents. The rich and 

 aristocratic landlords seldom pushed to extremes 

 the advantages offered them by the economic 

 situation ; on the other hand the smaller and 

 poorer of the owners, as well as many of those 

 who had newly acquired their property in the 

 Landed Estates Court, demanded the highest 

 obtainable rents. The competition for tenancies 

 had always been keen. It is true that the con- 

 ception of the net yield of a farm fixed for the 

 purposes of taxation by Sir Richard Griffiths, 

 the so-called " Griffiths' Valuation," lingered in 

 the minds of the people as the true basis of all 

 rents for all time. But the abstract sentiment 

 did not translate itself into practice ; on the 

 contrary the sharpest competition prevailed 

 almost everywhere. The population was indeed 

 decreasing, but as the vacated holdings were 

 amalgamated into large farms, so the number 

 of holdings available for small tenants became 

 fewer and fewer. 



Ireland possessed no system of town indus- 

 tries in which the population might have found 

 employment, nor indeed had the people the 

 training or the inclination for such industries. 



