By the Act of 1870 no tenant could be turned out without being paid a sum averaging a fourth of the fee-simple in addition to being paid for his improvements, and there the most observant of us thought the worst had been reached.

When the Act of 1881 was passed, I met Lord Spencer, one of the authors of it, and said to him:—­

’This Act will have as much effect in settling Ireland as throwing a cup of dirty water into the Thames would have in creating a flood.’

My words were soon proved right, for the tenants, having obtained half the landlord’s property by it, thought that by well working their voting and shooting powers they would get the remainder.

I have been getting away from my own experiences to give my own convictions.  When you have meditated for twenty years amid the ruins of what you had been building up all your life long and know that it is due to Irish outrage and English misrule, there is a temptation to speak plainly on breaking silence.

The year 1878 was a wet year and yielded a bad harvest; 1879 was worse.  The prosperity of Ireland depends on its harvest, and starvation is the opportunity of the lying agitator.

On July 8, 1880, I gave evidence before the Royal Commission on Agriculture, being mainly examined by the president, the Duke of Richmond and Gordon, others on the board being Lord Carlingford, Mr. Stansfeld, afterwards Lord, Mr. Joseph Cowen, and Mr. Mitchell Henry.

Here are some of my statements on a then experience of thirty-one years:—­

’The expenditure by landlords on farm buildings is as great in Ireland as in Scotland.’

’In the exceptional state of things I strongly disapprove of tenant-right in Ireland, which, as Lord Palmerston said, is landlord wrong.’

’Small holdings are a very bad thing in Ireland where they are not mixed with large holdings.’

’The distress in Kerry is considerable, but has been considerably exaggerated.’

‘Every tenant in Ireland has six months to redeem after he is evicted.’

‘I have never known a man leave a farm unless compelled.’

’I contradict the statement that tenants make improvements which tend to increase the letting value of the land.’

’You pay four times as much for spade tillage as for ploughing by horse.’

’Bad farming in Ireland is due to want of education and to the enhanced subdivision of the land.  When the farmer gets higher up the social scale he will have more sense than to make beggars of his children by subdivision.’

‘Distress has not produced the discontent.’

‘Almost more land has been sold in Kerry than in any county in Ireland.’

Three months later, in my evidence before the Irish Land Act Commission, in answer to the Chairman, I stated that in my opinion it was simply impossible to arbitrate on rent.  I had two tenants of my own whose yearly rent was L20 and whose valuation was L20.  One of them in 1880 sold L135 worth of pigs and butter, and the other man’s children were assisted in charity from my house, though both had equal means of success.