'Small holdings are a very bad thing in Ireland where they are not mixed with large holdings.'
'The distress in Kerry is considerable, but has been considerably exaggerated.'
'Every tenant in Ireland has six months to redeem after he is evicted.'
'I have never known a man leave a farm unless compelled.'
'I contradict the statement that tenants make improvements which tend to increase the letting value of the land.'
'You pay four times as much for spade tillage as for ploughing by horse.'
'Bad farming in Ireland is due to want of education and to the enhanced subdivision of the land. When the farmer gets higher up the social scale he will have more sense than to make beggars of his children by subdivision.'
'Distress has not produced the discontent.'
'Almost more land has been sold in Kerry than in any county in Ireland.'
Three months later, in my evidence before the Irish Land Act Commission, in answer to the Chairman, I stated that in my opinion it was simply impossible to arbitrate on rent. I had two tenants of my own whose yearly rent was £20 and whose valuation was £20. One of them in 1880 sold £135 worth of pigs and butter, and the other man's children were assisted in charity from my house, though both had equal means of success.