1/2
per cent. Though sufficient time has not yet elapsed to show whether the
great bribe offered by the Act of 1885, at the expense of the British
taxpayer, will succeed in overcoming the apathy of the tenants, it
cannot escape notice that if the Act of 1885 succeeds better than the
previous Acts, it will owe that success solely to the greater amount of
risk which it imposes on the English Exchequer, and not to any
improvement in the scheme in respect of securing greater certainty of
sale to the Irish landlord, or of diminishing the danger of loss to the
English taxpayer.

Such being the state of legislation, and such the circumstances of the
land question in Ireland in the year 1886, the Irish Government Bill
afforded Mr. Gladstone the means and the opportunity of bringing in a
Land Bill which would secure to the Irish landlord the certainty of
selling his land at a fair price, without imposing any practical
liability on the English Exchequer, and would, at the same time,
diminish the annual sums payable by the tenant; while it also conferred
a benefit on the Irish Exchequer. These advantages were, as will be
seen, gained, firstly, by the pledge of English credit on good security,
instead of advancing money on a mere mortgage on Irish holdings, made
directly to the English Government; and, secondly, by the interposition
of the Irish Government, as the immediate creditor of the Irish tenant.
The scheme of the Land Purchase Bill is as follows:--The landlord of an
agricultural estate occupied by tenants may apply to a department of the
new Irish Government to purchase his estate. The tenants need not be
consulted, as the purchase, if completed, will necessarily better their
condition, and thus at the very outset the difficulty of procuring the
assent of the tenants, which has hitherto proved so formidable an
obstacle to all Irish land schemes, disappears. The landlord may require
the department to which he applies (called in the Bill the State
Authority) to pay him the statutory price of his estate, not in cash,
but in consols valued at par. This price, except in certain unusual
cases of great goodness or of great badness of the land, is twenty
years' purchase of the _net_ rental. The _net_ rental is the _gross_
rental after deducting from that rent tithe rent-charge, the average
percentage for expenses in respect of bad debts, any rates paid by the
landlord, and any like outgoings. The _gross_ rental of an estate is the