ents, and fulfil the manorial conditions, regard themselves as
independent owners of their holdings. An Irish Land Bill, then, dealing
with tenanted estates, is, in fact, merely a Bill for converting the
small holders of tenements held at a fixed rent into fee-simple owners
by redemption of the rent due to the landlord and a transfer of the land
to the holders. Every scheme, therefore, for settling the Land question
in Ireland resolves itself into an inquiry as to the best mode of paying
off the rent-charges due to the landlord. The tenant cannot, of course,
raise the capital sufficient for paying off the redemption money; some
State authority must, therefore, intervene and advance the whole or the
greater part of that money, and recoup itself for the advance by the
creation in its own favour of an annual charge on the holding sufficient
to repay in a certain number of years both the principal and interest
due in respect of the advance.

The first problem, then, in an Irish Land Bill, is to settle the
conditions of this annuity in such a manner as to satisfy the landlord
and tenant; the first, as to the price of his estate; the second, as to
the amount of the annuity to be paid by him, at the same time to provide
the State authority with adequate security for the repayment of the
advance, or, in other words, for the punctual payments of the annuity
which is to discharge the advance. Next in importance to the financial
question of the adjustment of the annuity comes the administrative
difficulty of investigating the title, and thus securing to the tenant
the possession of the fee simple, and to the State authority the
position of a mortgagee. Under ordinary circumstances the investigation
of the title to an estate involves the examination of every document
relating thereto for a period of forty years, and the distribution of
the purchase-money amongst the head renters, mortgagees, and other
encumbrancers, who, in addition to the landlord, are found to be
interested in the ownership of almost every Irish estate. Such a
process is costly, even in the case of large estates, and involves an
expense almost, and, indeed, speaking generally, absolutely prohibitory
in the case of small properties. Some mode, then, must be devised for
reducing this expense within manageable limits, or any scheme for
dealing with Irish land, however well devised from a financial point of
view, will sink under the burden imposed by the expense atten