William Frederick Bailey

“ The tenants of such tenancies—or the landlord if he wanted the rent raised—might "from time to time apply to the Court to fix the fair rent to be paid by such tenant to the landlord for the holding, and thereupon the Court, after hearing the parties, and having regard to the interest of the landlord and tenant respectively, and considering all the circumstances of the case, holding, and district may determine what is such fair rent" (Section 8) . The statutory term during which such fair rent could not be altered ran for fifteen years. ”

“ The fair rent provisions of the Act were limited to "present tenancies"—that is, practically to tenancies that were subsisting at the time of the passing of the Act—and to holdings that were agricultural or pastoral in character. ”

“ It was an admission that the Whig policy of laissez faire had broken down—at any rate, that it was not applicable to the relations between landlord and tenants in Ireland. It failed because of the timidity with which it was administered, and because it allowed landlords full power over the rents. The years that followed the passing of the Act were agriculturally prosperous in Ireland. Industrial prosperity in England was reflected in Ireland in the rise in the price of meat and farm produce. Ireland was the main source of supply to England. ”