These were the general principles which should have guided the Land Commission in approaching the question of fixing 'fair rent.' There was nothing in the Act of 1881 to prevent the Land Commissioners, as a Court of first instance, adjudicating directly in cases of this kind, or to compel them to refer these to their Sub-Commissions; indeed the plain intention of the law was in a contrary sense. Had the Land Commissioners adopted this course--and this, I venture to say, was their obvious duty--they would, no doubt, have considered the questions before them at length, and with close attention; have made their inquiries go back many years, and have laid down, in elaborate judgments, the maxims and rules to be applied in the fixing of 'fair rent.' The evidence that would have come before them would have been of two kinds: that which depended upon the statements of valuers, on the side of landlords and tenants alike; this, of course, would be of great importance; but it should have been borne in mind that it would be biassed evidence; and that, in the existing state of Ireland, and of Irish opinion, the statements of tenants' valuers would require to be strictly watched. The other head of evidence was of a much more trustworthy kind; it was indicated by the circumstances of the cases being heard, and was necessarily suggested by the inquiries themselves. This class of evidence would be desired from a consideration of the rate of rent in the neighbourhood or even of adjoining lands, in a word, of what may be called the market price of rent; from an examination of what a reasonable rent would be, payable by a solvent tenant to a fair-minded landlord; and even from a review of rent fixed by the competition of bidders for land, these circumstances, in every given case, being, of course, controlled by a due regard being had, in the words of the law, for the 'tenant's interest.' There was another and very important test; the sums paid in Ulster and elsewhere on the transfer of farms were usually large, sometimes not less than a third or even a half of the value of the fee simple; and as these sums were always subject to the existing rents, the first charges on the lands being sold, this would afford a strong presumption that such rents would be 'fair.' No doubt the Act of 1881 declared that such payments were not to be taken into account, _per se_, and apart from other considerations in the actual fixing of rent, so far as regards a given farm; but the law certainly allowed--and it has always been so held--that payments of this kind might be kept in view in forming, generally, an estimate of what a 'fair rent' should be.[93]