150 THE IRISH AGRARIAN PROBLEM. 



utilize them for the enlargement of holdings. 

 Both the Congested Districts Board and the 

 Estates Commissioners may indeed buy to sell 

 again at a loss ; but the amount of this loss is 

 limited. Unless cottier tenants who are unable 

 to make a living from the land are to be turned 

 into peasant proprietors, the outlook for sales in 

 the West is a narrow one. 



There exist therefore large districts where the 

 Act in spite of all the inducements it offers will 

 not bring about voluntary sales. There the tenant 

 must go on paying 25 per cent, more than his 

 more fortunate neighbour; there also the old 

 elements of agitation will continue to exist. We 

 shall soon see the rise of a new agitation, whose 

 watchword will be Compulsory Expropriation. 



Where further difficulties of a more serious 

 nature have not yet shown themselves, we must 

 not conclude that they do not exist. Before the 

 indebtedness of the tenants to the Government 

 can be extinguished, 684- years must pass away. 

 In these 684- years the tenant must year by year 

 pay the same rent, whether the times be good or 

 bad. The danger attending this situation might 

 very well have been diminished if the sinking fund 

 had been fixed at a higher rate and the system of 

 decadal reductions had been retained in order to 

 make possible the reduction of the burden in the 

 later stages. 



It would then have been possible in years of 

 distress to give appreciable remissions without 

 entirely giving up the sinking fund. Of course. 



