decision of the Land Courts to fix a "fair rent" on their holdings,
and as only 15,000 cases can be heard in one year, do you wonder at
the tenants refusing to pay their present rent?'

"Your faithful servant,

"G. THORPE BARTRAM."

"The Right Hon. A.J. Balfour, M.P."

"Irish Office, Great Queen Street, Nov. 22.

"Dear Sir,--I have made special inquiry into the subject of your
letter of the 14th inst., and find that on the 31st of the last
month the number of outstanding applications to have fair rents
fixed was 44,295, and that the number of cases disposed of in the
months of July and August (the latest month for which the figures
are made up) was 5,380. You will see, therefore, that the arrear is
less than one-half of the amount stated by the Separatist lecturer
to whom you refer, and the rate of progression in disposing of it
is considerably higher than that alleged by him. It may reasonably
be hoped also (though the statistics are not yet available) that
this rate has since been increased, as several additional
Sub-Commissioners have been appointed to hear the cases. I would
observe also that under the provisions of the Land Act, passed by
the present Government in 1887, the tenant gets the benefit of the
judicial rent from the date of his application, an advantage which
he did not possess under Mr. Gladstone's Act. Such unavoidable
delay as may occur, therefore, does not, under the existing law,
involve the serious injury to the tenant implied by the lecturer. I