IRELAND. 



401 



The total number of ejectments executed 

 " for non-payment of rent '' was in 1878, 1,749 ; 

 in 1879, 2,077; and from January 1 to June 30, 

 1880, 1,696. The number of families evicted 

 for non-payment of rent was in 1877, 261 ; in 

 1878, 608 ; in 1879, 903 ; and from 1st of Janu- 

 ary to 30th of June, 1880, 995. The number 

 of agrarian outrages was in 1878, 280 ; in 1879, 

 870. 



The following statement of the number of 

 land-proprietors, who hold in fee-simple or 

 perpetuity, or on long leases at chief rents, is 

 founded on a return presented to the House of 

 Commons on the 23d of April, 1872 : 



The Irish peerage consists of one peer of 

 the royal blood, the Earl of Armagh, Ern- 

 est Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, 2 dukes 

 (Leinster, Abercorn), 11 marquesses (Water- 

 ford, Downshire, Donegal, Drogheda, Heud- 

 fort, Sligo, Ely, Londonderry, Conyngham, 

 Ormonde, Clanricarde), 63 earls, 38 viscounts, 

 67 barons; total, 185 Irish peers. Besides the 

 peer of the royal blood, there were, in 1880, 

 78 Irish peers who had also British titles, and, 

 on that account, sat and voted in the House of 

 Lords, and 105 peers who had no seat in the 

 House of Lords; of the latter class, 28 are 

 elected for life as representative peers for Ire- 

 land. Among the 185 Irish peers, there are 

 only 12 Roman Catholics, namely, the Earls 

 Westmeath, Desmond (Earl of Denbigh, in 

 England), Fingall, Granard, and Eenmare ; the 

 Viscounts of Gormanston, Netterville, Taaffe, 

 and Southwell ; the Barons Louth, Ffrench, 

 and Bellew. 



The chronic dissatisfaction with English law 

 which has existed in Ireland ever since its an- 

 nexation to England, and which again begins to 

 assume so large dimensions, is now more than 

 ever concentrating itself in a national uprising 

 against the land laws. The race question, 

 though it may embitter the strife, is no longer 

 the leading feature, for the opposition of the 

 Land League is no less directed against the 

 old Irish families which are landholders than 

 against those which are English. Moreover, 

 Ireland at present has not a more unmixed race 

 than England and Scotland, and on this account 

 an indelible hatred of one race against the oth- 

 er is hardly possible any longer. Of still less 

 VOL. xx. 26 A 



moment is the religious * question. During the 

 last forty years many of the most prominent 

 men of the Irish agitations have been Protest- 

 ants. Thus William Smith O'Brien, the lead- 

 er of the " Young Ireland " movement, was a 

 Protestant; so was Sir John Gray, who dis- 

 tinguished himself by his efforts in behalf of 

 the abolition of the State Church ; so was Isaac 

 Butt, by whose untimely death the Home Rul- 

 ers lost in 1878 their most gifted leader (see 

 " Annual Cyclopaedia " for 1878, article BUTT), 

 and so is Parnell (see PARNELL), the chosen 

 head ot the Land-League party. As the pres- 

 ent movement is essentially of an agrarian 

 character, a brief review of the land laws t pre- 

 vailing in Ireland will help us to understand 

 the importance of the whole question. 



There is strong reason for believing that, very 

 early in the history of Ireland, land was held 

 as common property, and the commons even 

 at the present time are remnants of that com- 

 munal tenure. At the time of the M"orman 

 invasion land was held under three forms of 

 tenure : commonage land, mensal land or land 

 connected with the land of chief magistracy, 

 and land held by the nobility. Part of this 

 land held by the nobles was held as demesne 

 land, and the remainder was given over to the 

 tenants. The demesne land was cultivated by 

 villeins of three classes, none of which pos- 

 sessed any political rights. First came the 



* The relation of the race and religious differences to the 

 present Irish question is fully treated of by Dr. Senner, "Die 

 irische Frage," in the " Augsburg Gazette." 1881. No. 29-33. 



t The following outline of the history of Irish land laws 

 is condensed from H. C. Adams, " The Irish Land Ques- 

 tion/' in the "New Englander," January, 1881. 



