[159] Cd. 4412, 1908. The basis taken was the Poor Law valuation of the lands unsold, multiplied by the number of years purchase of the lands sold under the Act of 1903. On this basis the value of the land neither sold nor agreed to be sold in 1908 was L103,931,848. On the basis of acreage, the estimate worked out at L102,078,448, and on the basis of holdings (regarded as unreliable by the Commissioners) at L92,660,694. The total sum required from first to last, including sums already advanced under all the various Acts, was L208,366,175. [160] Pasture land let on eleven months' tenancies (a common form of tenure) counts as untenanted land, and is subject to purchase by the Land Commissioners, compulsorily, if necessary. [161] But not always. Heavily mortgaged landlords profited most, perhaps, under the Act of 1903. [162] Only once exercised up to October, 1911: over Lord Inchiquin's estate in Clare, to be acquired for the relief of congestion. [163] See p. 75. There the loan for compulsory Land Purchase was ultimately raised by the Dominion of Canada, as one of the conditions upon which Prince Edward Island entered the Federation in 1873. Under the Land Purchase Act, passed in 1875 by the Island Legislature, with the assent of the Dominion, three Commissioners adjudicated upon the sales; representing the Island Government, the Landlords, and the Dominion Government respectively. [164] Finance accounts of the United Kingdom, 1911. [165] Report of the Commissioners of Public Works, 1910. The amount in 1907-08 was L434,796; in 1908-09, L361,282. The Commissioners have been lending since 1819, and have lent since that date L48,792,319. CHAPTER XV THE IRISH CONSTITUTION[166] I have dealt with the major issues of Home Rule. The exclusion or retention of Irish Members at Westminster, and the powers--above all, the financial powers--of the Irish State, are the two points of cardinal importance. As I have shown, they are inseparably connected, and form, in reality, one great question. I have endeavoured to prove that from whatever angle we approach that central issue, whether we argue from representation to powers, or from powers to representation, and whether the particular powers we argue from be financial, legislative, or executive; whether we place Irish, British, or Imperial interests in the forefront of our exposition--we are led irresistibly to the colonial solution--that is, to the cessation of Irish representation at Westminster, coupled with a concession to Ireland of the full legislative and executive authority appropriate to that measure of independence, and, above all, with fiscal autonomy. All the other provisions of the Bill are secondary. They may be divided into two categories, which necessarily overlap: 1. Provisions concerning Ireland only. 2. Provisions defining the Imperial authority over Ireland.