the Land Acts strictly administered, unquestionably the greater portion of the small holdings on the western seaboard and other parts of Ireland would have been excluded, and applications to fix agricultural rents on them would have been dismissed. Confusion of Treatment of Occupiers of Economic and Uneconomic Holdings. The importance of the view here put forward lies mainly in the fact that until the passing of the Act of 1891, under which the Congested Districts Board was created, no attempt was made to distinguish between the two classes of occupiers of Irish land. The occupiers of economic and uneconomic farms were subject to the same laws, and were treated in the same manner. No attempt was ever made to distinguish between the man who could make his rent out of his land and the man who could not. Both were included in the Fair Rent provisions of the Act of 1881, as it was administered, and a rent was assessed on what was practically the site for a cabin as if it were a farm. This confusion of treatment of two different problems renders it necessary to trace the evolution of the Irish Land Acts if we are to understand intelligently the problem that presents itself in dealing with congestion in Ireland, and it is accordingly proposed to sketch shortly the steps by which Irish land legislation has advanced, and how it at present deals with the various classes of holdings that have to be taken into consideration. Special treatment for the congested districts was not thought of in the earlier remedial Land Acts. The Act of 1881, if strictly administered, as we have seen, would have excluded most of the holdings in such districts. After twenty years’ experience of this Act it was found that its provisions, even though amended repeatedly, did not meet the special difficulties. The Congested Districts were not withdrawn from the operations of the various Land Acts—merely additional powers were given for ameliorating the condition of the people in the defined localities. The Land Act of 1881 is naturally regarded in Ireland as the sheet-anchor of the peasant—as the Magna Charta of his rights. On the other hand, it has been looked on by many land-owners as an unjustifiable invasion of their rights, and it has often been blamed for results which it recorded rather than caused. To justify that Act of 1881, we must understand the preceding conditions that governed the tenure of land in Ireland. Complaints against Irish rents are not confined to recent years or to the last century. A continuous stream of emigration of Protestant dissenters from Ulster went on during the early part of the eighteenth century, and the Irish Government of the day was much concerned at losing so many of their most loyal citizens. In 1729 the Lord-Lieutenant forwarded a report on the subject to the King, which states: