The first of these arguments appears to me to be wholly irrelevant to the real question. Undoubtedly the tenant right of a farm represents the tenant's improvements and his interest in the land, and is completely distinct from the rent; and this is acquired on a sale by an incoming tenant. But the purchaser buys the tenant right, subject to the first charge, the rent; if the rent were excessive, or even high, either he would not buy at all, or he would pay a low price; when, therefore, we find the tenant right commanding very large sums, the conclusion is inevitable, that, taking human nature as it is, the rent must be in the nature of a 'fair rent.' The Sub-Commissions rejected a plain inference they ought to have drawn; that they refused to give weight to an all-important fact cannot be justified in any sense; and the result has been that in hundreds of cases they have done grave wrong to landlords. As for the second argument, it is very probable that in many instances tenants purchased farms in the anticipation of a reduction of rent; they speculated--a significant fact--that the Sub-Commissions would 'bear' the market; but even, on that supposition, this can hardly explain the huge sums paid for tenant right while the existing rents were current. For the rest, I refer to part of my own evidence given on this subject at the same inquiry; readers of ordinary intelligence may judge for themselves: 'The first question I ask the tenant is, "How much will you take for the land, L100, L200, L300; ten, fifteen, twenty, or forty years' rent?" But I never can get an answer. They say, "Oh, your honour, I am here to look after a 'fair rent,' and I am not going to tell your honour what I am going to ask for the land." However, I have a very shrewd notion.... You take into consideration in fixing the fair rent the price paid by the tenants?--Yes, the price which an incoming tenant would give, because I am not one of those who think that the Irish tenant is a fool; and when I find an incoming tenant giving ten, fifteen, twenty, and thirty years' purchase for a farm, I have a very shrewd suspicion that the rent is right.'[113]