248 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



possession of the liberty of the subject, and allow 

 valuators to say, ' Well, Mr Landlord, there is the value 

 of your land. You can take what tenant you like.' " 



At the same time, it must be remembered that Mr 

 Fyshe considers "high rents" the first cause of agri- 

 cultural depression, and this intense competition is as 

 unwise as it is ruinous. And he, and many other 

 witnesses, who appear to doubt the practicability of 

 fixing fair rents, and compelling both parties to agree 

 upon terms which will alone make the working of a 

 farm an economic success, make the very strongest 

 recommendations as regards the securing of tenants 

 from being rented on their own improvements. 



With regard to the contention often advanced that 

 judicial rents would, in England, be unjust to the 

 landlords, and would not have the same justification 

 as in Ireland, because in Ireland permanent improve- 

 ments have been carried out by the tenants, while in 

 England they have been carried out by the landlords, 

 this contention, for reasons fully stated in chapter IX, 

 should be treated as fallacious, and should be discarded 

 in the settlement of this question. 



As Mr Wilkinson has pointed out, the English farmer 

 has often a larger money stake invested in his holding 

 than the Irish farmer; and it is matter of demonstration 

 that, for all intents and purposes, the so-called landlord's 

 improvements in England have been substantially paid 

 for by the tenant, and therefore the supposed distinction 

 does not, as a matter of fact, exist. 



On careful consideration of all the evidence as to the 

 dissent of practical farmers from any procedure for de- 

 termining fair rents, I am convinced that part of this 

 alleged repugnance is due to very natural disinclination 

 on the part of tenants to others knowing the state of 

 their affairs, and to the equally natural fear that the inter- 

 vention of an official between them and the landlord 

 or agent may suspend friendly relations. It is also 

 obvious, from the mass of evidence we have considered 

 as to the present unfortunate position of most farmers, 

 that they must be disinclined to face the risk of support- 



