148 THE IRISH AGRARIAN PROBLEM. 



scale. It worked best in Leinster, and worst in 

 Ulster where the most competent farmers are, 

 and in Connaught, where the worst poverty 

 exists. This ratio is less distinctly but still 

 perceptibly marked in the pending cases. ^ Above 

 all, we find that, in the Congested Districts, very 

 few sales have taken place. 



As yet, the Estates Commissioners have pur- 

 chased no estate. Twenty-eight have been 

 offered to them, and negotiations are proceeding 

 in the case of twenty-six of these. They have 

 bought 450 acres of untenanted land and estab- 

 lished twenty-four evicted tenants on it. They 

 are negotiating as to the purchase of 15,000 

 acres more. 



It is already possible to conclude from these 

 figures that a great part of the soil of Ireland 

 will really change hands through the operation 

 of the Wyndham Act. But even to-day it is also 

 possible to affirm that the Wyndham Act will 

 not be the last Irish Land Act. From various 

 sides difficulties have been placed in the way of 

 its success. The Ultras among the landlords 

 have attempted to hold back their colleagues 

 from selling, in order that higher prices may be 

 obtained. So, too, the Radical section of the 



