The amount provided for the year 1937-38 is £3,617, which shows an increase of £119 on the provision of last year. It may be remembered that last year I was asked what a quit rent was, and I had to admit that my legal education had not reached the level which probably it ought to have reached. I have improved it in the meantime, and I am now in a position to inform the House what a quit rent is. The quit rents collected by the Quit Rent Office, as distinct from manorial rents, fixed in early times in discharge of certain feudal obligations and to which the term "quit rent" is generally applied, may be more accurately defined as an acreable rent reserved upon all the estates in Ireland which were forfeited by the rebellion of 1641, and granted by the Crown to adventurers, soldiers and debenturers; and on lands which were then seized and later restored to innocent persons by decrees and certificates; or on lands given to transplanters. These rents were fixed at the following rates per English statute acre: In Leinster, 3d.; in Munster, 2¼d.; in Ulster, 2d.; and in Connacht, 1½d. The term "quit rent" is derived from the fact that the lands affected were relieved from all other charges in favour of the new rents which were fixed in perpetuity. If any Deputy in the House desires to go more deeply into the subject I would refer him to Howard's "Exchequer and Revenue, Ireland, 1776," which contains a full description of these rents, page 31, et seq.