THE FAIK REKT PROVISIONS OF THE IRISH LAND ACTS 11 = 



in 1880 to inquire into the working of the Act, was that it failed to afford 

 tenants adequate security, particularly in protecting them against occa- 

 sional and unreasonable increases of rent, and the Commissioners state 

 that in some cases in Ulster the process of raising rent had " almost eaten 

 up the tenant right. " 



§ 2. The land law (Ireland) act, i88i. 



Irish history is full of strange contradictions, and the next great step 

 in Irish land legislation is an example of this. In 1870 Mr. Gladstone was 

 a strong opponent of the three F's — • Fair rent, Fixity of tenure, and 

 Free sale — which the Irish tenants claimed so persistently. " Perpetuity 

 of tenure," he said, " is a phrase that I flatter myself is a little going out 

 of fashion and if I have contributed anything towards disparaging it I 

 am not sorry... I have not heard, I do not know, and I cannot conceive 

 what is to be said for the prospective power to reduce excessive rents." (i) 



Again in March, 1880, Mr Gladstone said " there was an absence of crime 

 and outrage in Ireland and a general sense of comfort and satisfaction, such 

 as had been unknown in the previous history of the country." A few months 

 afterwards the coimtry was plunged into the horrors of what practically 

 amoimted to an agrarian war. And the next year saw the passing of the 

 Act of 1 881, which was to carry out the very ideas denounced by Mr. Glad- 

 stone a few years previously. The fact is the necessities of the case were 

 too much for him, and with commendable coiirage he recognised that the 

 exceptional conditions which prevailed in Ireland reqmred exceptional 

 remedies, and could not be dealt \\ath as if Ireland were merely an English 

 county. 



The Act of 1881 was largely based on the recommendations of the 

 Bessborough Commission and gave the tenants the three F's for which 

 they had fought so bitterly. It appointed a tribunal to fix the Fair Rent 

 of each holding, the rent to be re\'ised every fifteen years; it gave the ten- 

 ant lixity of tenure subject to such fair rent ; and it gave him the right 

 of free sale, subject to the landlord's right of pre-emption. 



There was no insuperable difiicuity in gi\'ing the tenant fixity of ten- 

 ure and the right of free sale. It was principally a question of Parliament- 

 ary draughtsmanship, once Parliament had determined to grant these 

 privileges to Irish tenants. But fixity of tenure and free sale without fair 

 rents would have gone but a short way towards settling the Irish problem. 

 The failure of the Act of 1870, which failed because it did not check the 

 landlord's power of raising rents, showed this clearly. The fixing of fair 

 rents, however, presented many difficulties and it is round it that most of 

 the contr< .versy , both at the time of the passing of the Act and subsequently, 

 has raged. 



(i) Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, Voi. CXCIX, pp. 1843-5. 



