CHAPTER II. 



LEGISLATION FOR THE ABOLITION OF LAND- 

 LORDISM : THE LAND PURCHASE ACTS, 

 1869-1896. 



AFTER the tenants who hold under judicial 

 rents the most important class consists of those 

 former tenants who, by having taken advantage 

 of some one or other of the Land Purchase 

 Acts, are in process of becoming owners of their 

 holdings. The creation of peasant proprietor- 

 ships was first practically attempted at the 

 instance of John Bright, who in the year 1866 

 had proposed that five millions should be voted 

 for the purchase of Irish estates in the open 

 market. The State was to lend the money to 

 the tenants at 3^ per cent. The tenants were 

 to pay 6 per cent, on the loan, so that there 

 would be a sinking fund of 2j per cent, yearly. 1 

 When the Protestant Church was disestab- 

 lished in the year 1869, Bright obtained that 

 tenants upon glebe lands should be offered their 

 holdings for purchase, the State advancing 

 three-quarters of the purchase money. In this 

 way 6,057 tenants acquired property to the value 



1 Speeches of John Bright, Nov. 2, 1866. 



