Ireland was an overpopulated and extremely poor country with no sign of improvement in the mid-19th century due to the "cottier" system in agriculture. Its working class could only rely on potatoes as their main source of food and what was worse was that people were not motivated to improve the situation. Mills regarded the cottiers system in Ireland as the poorest of all metayer agricultures in Britain and continental Europe. Irish farmers were deprived of their jobs. No matter how hard they worked, they would find themselves among the poorest in Europe. The cottier system disabled Labors' ability to be a permanent tenant. "There was, in fact, a numerous class of laborers who (we may presume owing to the refusal of both landlords and tenants in possession to permit any further subdivision) had been unable to obtain even the smallest piece of land as tenants permanent." (Mills, P352) Furthermore, landowners were usually unable to pay wages in money because there was not enough capital at the time. Therefore, peasants were paid in land. They were allowed to work the land for a certain period of time, and the production during that period was what they were paid as wages. (Population) As a supporter of the Malthusian theory of population, John Mill believed that population should be controlled so that the working population can enjoy a better life. This is because in a certain economy, the rate of profit would eventually fall due to decreasing agricultural yields and increasing population at a Malthusian rate. A very important assumption in Mill's economic idea is that, for the same total investment, the number of inhabitants has a negative influence on the average... half of the paper... on the other hand, the The rental system of “cottiers” were absolutely an obstacle to improving Irish education, as they did not encourage people to be more innovative. To make people more educated, they need to be proactive and undertake multiple tasks to improve, which was a common practice in the European continent. However this was absent in Ireland, the cottiers did not have the vigor or spirit to turn their lives around, resulting in a suffocating system. At that time, most countries did not realize the importance of compulsory education. Yet the situation could improve significantly if the Irish cottiers system were reformed, giving people more control over their lives and making progress. The poor conditions of education in Ireland were the result of the Cottiers' tenant system and the cottiers could only live in a vicious cycle of poverty and ignorance..