2/ 3 SELECT COMMITTEE ON FICTITIOUS VOTES, IRELAND. 211 11580. In your opinion would a solvent tenant have given Michael Reynolds Mr. E. Rooney. 10 I. for his interest over and above the rent he paid?— Certainly. " — 11581. Have you any memorandums among your papers as to the buildings 25 May 1838. upon his land; the state of the farmhouses?— I have; that he had a very com- fortable farmhouse and offices, and also that he paid for his land at 48 s., before he got a new lease, to enable him to register; he is a tenant of Colonel White's. 11582. He had paid 485. an acre for that land, to a middleman, before he got a lease from Mr. White?— Precisely. 11583. Chairman.] What is his present rent?—£. 21. 11584. What is that per acre?— About 30 s. an acre. 11585. Mr. Lefroy.] You say a good and solvent tenant could afford to give him from 2 I. 8s. to 2 /. 10s. an acre?— I do. 11586. Is that the utmost a good and solvent tenant could afford to give him ? — I think that is the price it would go at in the market, if he were to set it. 11587. What would that give a solvent tenant as of profit to himself?— 1 did not calculate that; but the man told me he should be glad to hold it at 2 /. 8 an acre, sooner than leave it, if Mr. White chose to call upon him to give it up. 11588. But he would sooner pay that for it than give it up ?— Yes ; but he had paid it to a middleman and had lived well upon it; those were the words he told me. 11589. Mr. Hogg.] And what do you mean by going to market; setting it up by auction ?—' No ; advertising it to be set. 11590. Getting all the offers you could, and taking the best?— Yes. 11591. By auction or advertisement ?— Yes. 11592. ^ ou do not mean to say that is the general way that landlords let their land in Longford, by advertising ?— I am speaking of middlemen. 11593. In all these cases you are speaking of middlemen, who exact the utmost rent that can be exacted r— Yes ; who set it up in the market, and who exact the utmost they can. 11594. I believe the desire of people to get land is so great, that they will give the utmost possible rent for it, a rent that will allow them barely to subsist ? — Yes; persons looking for farms, and of course give a very high rent, sooner than be without them. 11595. Almost without reference to returns?— If they get the value of their own labour they will take it. 11596. If they barely get potatoes to subsist upon ?— If they barely get what would support them; at the same time they would be glad to get it cheaper if they could. ll597- Chairman.] What was the date of this man's lease ?— I cannot tell; it must have been a lease granted a very short time before, that. 11598. You mean a short time before February 1837?— Certainly before he registered, for he told me he had been originally paying 485. an acre, and he had got a new lease; I did not take the date of his lease. 11599. did not see the lease ?— I did. 11600. You did not think it worth while to look at the date?— Yes, I might have done so, but I could not tell you now. 11601. You took no memorandum of the date?— No. 11602. It must have been a recent lease ?— Yes. 11603. And having paid 48 s. an acre, he took a lease at 30 s. ?— Yes, he took it as cheap as he could get it. 11604. And do you say that Mr. White, his landlord, is in the habit of letting land at 50 or 100 percent, below the real value?— This is another Mr. White. 11605. He does not let his land so reasonably ?— Yes, he does, but that is a dif- ferent description of land. 11606. There is no moorland there?— There is some. 11607. How much?— There might be a small quantity at the bottom. 11608. How much ?— I cannot tell, it might be a small quantity; I consider the moorland to be as good as the other land, or very nearly. 11609. How much does the farm contain?— Thirteen acres, two roods, twenty- five perches. 11610. And how much lowland is there?— I cannot say; there was a small quantity at the bottom of the farm, but it was tillage land. 643. ee " 11611. Did