3-4 



The Counirv Gentlcuwjis Magazine 



THE IRISH LAND ACT. 



AN important speech on the above subject 

 has been deHvered at an agricuhural 

 dinner in the county of Cavan, by Lord 

 Lisgar, ex-Governor-General of Canada. The 

 speaker, an Irish landlord, well acquainted with 

 theviews and opinions held by his countrymen, 

 had but recently returned from the occupa- 

 tion of a post which gave him an excellent 

 opportunity of learning the true condition of 

 a country which forms no inconsiderable 

 portion of that great Western continent 

 whither so many Irishmen have in past times 

 turned their steps, and to which many still 

 look as affording the only field open to them 

 in which they can effect an amelioration of 

 their condition. The speech was dehvered 

 at a dinner given by the Marquis of Headfort 

 to about ninety of his tenantry at the close 

 of a cattle show, the competitors at which 

 consisted exclusively of his lordship's tenants, 

 while the prizes were his lordship's gifts. 

 Lord Lisgar was called on to respond to the 

 toast of " The Lord Lieutenant and Prosperity 

 to Ireland." Having remarked that Earl 

 Spencer possessed all the qualifications and 

 all the accomplishments which were necessary 

 for the discharge of his exalted functions, 

 Lord Lisgar briefly referred to his career 

 while representing the county of Cavan in 

 ■Parliament for twenty years. Now, after a 

 long absence from Ireland, he had returned 

 to it, and he was happy to think that he found 

 it prospering and increasing in material 

 wealth : — 



" He heard that agriculture was much improved, 

 and that the farmers as a class were rich beyond what 

 they were in former times. He trusted that was 

 the case. He returned to a country altered in 

 many respects, and, he beheved, greatly improved. 

 The conditions on which agriculture was carried on 

 had been altered, and the relations between landlord 

 and tenant were not exactly those which existed some 

 years ago. He would say nothing of the policy of 

 the measure, but this he must say, that he believed it 

 would be admitted that every intelligent and honest 

 man in his own closet would approve the principles of 



equity on which the Land Bill was founded, and they 

 would also see that the principles had been embodied 

 with the most admirable skill and patriotic views in 

 legislation by Mr Gladstone. No doubt, in so great 

 a measure there might be difficulties and differences of 

 opinion. At the present moment differences existed, 

 for no doubt some people thought a very great 

 change had been effected. Now, he had given his 

 very best attention to the measure, and, speaking of it 

 as it is, he was perfectly confident that before many 

 years elapsed it would be found that the extent of the 

 changes effected was very much smaller than they had 

 anticipated, and that, while it gave security on one 

 hand, it did not alter the relations between landlord 

 and tenant. He believed that, after some little fur- 

 ther experience of the working of the Act, the results 

 would be found to be most satisfactory. If it were 

 necessary for the proper and uniform working of the 

 Act that a declaratory Act should be passed by the 

 Legislature, that course ought to be adopted ; but he 

 did not think such action would be required, for he 

 believed if the law was accepted in the spirit in which 

 it was passed, it would be foimd that the landlords 

 lost little on the one hand, that no landlord would be 

 debarred of any right before claimed which just men 

 would have enforced in times past, and that though 

 tenants have greater security, they will not, on their 

 part, claim more than they have been accustomed to 

 in times past. If the law were received as it ought to 

 be— frankly — by the landlords, and in the same spirit 

 as the tenant-right and goodwill had been accepted 

 and worked on such estates as the Duke of Aber- 

 corn's, the Marquis of Downshire's, and on this Head- 

 fort estate for times past, and if, on the other hand, 

 tenants claimed nothing more than they had been ac- 

 customed to, and which the law means them to have 

 —if they did not allow themselves to be led astray by 

 those who only sought to create contention, and if 

 the two parties stood firmly and fairly on their own 

 ground, without encroachment — all would then be 

 right." 



Lord Lisgar then referred to the question 

 of emigration. He did not believe that the 

 Land Act would affect emigration one way or 

 the other : — 



" The young, strong, and hopeful would naturally 

 go abroad with the view of bettering their con- 

 dition, while those who were contented with their 

 condition in Ireland would remain, as they had done 

 in times past. What would really stay the tide of 

 emigration was the gradual assimilation of the wages 



