several times told it to different people, it may have found its
way into print, though I have no recollection of ever seeing it in black
and white.

Allusion having just been made to the Arrears Act, it may be here
opportune to point out that this was the next step in Mr. Gladstone's
long sequence of Irish mismanagement. This iniquitous measure provided
that no matter how great the arrears owed by the tenant, by lodging one
year's rent another could be obtained from the Government, and the
landlord was compelled to wipe out the balance. So that if Jack, Tom,
and James were all tenants on town land, should Jack be an honest man he
obtained no redress, whereas if Tom and James were hardened defaulters
they obtained the complete settlement of all their arrears.

To obtain the grant of a year's rent from Government, the tenant had to
swear as to his assets and also as to the selling value of his farm.

Here is an illustration which came under my own observation.

A tenant named Richard Sweeney, whose rent was L48 a year, owed three
years' rent. He paid one year, the Government provided another, and the
landlord had to forgive the third.

To obtain this result, Sweeney swore that the selling value of his farm
was _nil_, and he received a receipt in full.

A few weeks later he served me--as agent for the landlord--with notice
that he had sold his interest in the property for L630.

That is not the end of my story.

The purchaser was a man named Murphy, and a very few years afterwards,
upon the ground that the rent was too dear, he took the farm for which
he had paid L630 to Sweeney into the Land Courts and got the rent
reduced to L36.

The absurdity of this system was well brought out before the Fry
Commission, when one high-commissioner and a sub-commissioner both said
that in valuing the land they took into consideration the tenant's
occupation interest.

The reader will see the way this works out, if he will accept the very
simple hypothetical case of two tenants holding land to the worth of L40
each, and one of them only paying L20 a year rent. When they both took
their cases into the Land Court, the man paying the lower rent of L20
would obtain the larger reduction, because he had the greater
occupation.

These facts will show that a Purchase Bill was an absolute necessity.
Lord Dufferin truly remarked that landlord and tenant were both in the
same bed, and Mr. Gladstone thought to settle their disputes by