Page:Irish Emigration and The Tenure of Land in Ireland.djvu/275

Rh illustrated the impracticability and injustice of any such system, based, as it is, upon a principle in direct

produce any rent; and between these two extremes it is clear that every intermediate degree is to be found." — Ibid. p. 708.

" It is somewhat discouraging to find by the evidence of the Ex- Professor of Political Economy, now Professor of Common Law in the Dublin University, that he is hopeless as to the power of reducing the right theory on this subject to successful practice."

" He appears to adopt Loudon's desponding opinion, that it is impossible in practice, to apply the true theory of estimating, from the value of the produce and cost of production, what may be the value of the land."

He does " not think that any man who ever lived, having all the data given to him, could, with any certainty, determine it. He would still be unable to form a judgment of the aggregate value of the produce of the land." — Ibid. p. 709 et seq.

" Several witnesses have suggested as a remedy, that some control should be exercised over the proprietor in determining the amount of rent payable to him for his land. It is, however, more than questionable whether even this interference with property would accomplish any of the good which those wit- nesses anticipate. What they complain of is only one out of many indications of other extensive evils ; the chief of these are, first, the omission to make the numerous resources which the country offers available for the employment of the indus- trious classes. This causes an extravagant competition for the inadequate supply of land offered for their use as the only chance of obtaining a livelihood for their families. The second, their deplorable ignorance and incapacity in the management of the land of which they thus become possessed. — Ibid. p. 756.

Appendix to Address by Judge Long field to Slat. Society. " The following cases are fair specimens of the discrepancies which are to be found in different valuations made of tho same property."

" Since I wrote the above, the estate of John Campbell Jones was offered for sale, and the following are the differences be-