ON AGRICULTURE TO IRELAND 25 



landlord and competitor, if it had got a fair trial. In 1882, 

 however, a Committee of the House of Lords advocated that the 

 whole of the purchase money should be advanced to the Irish 

 tenant to enable him to purchase his holding. This, so far as 

 regards the effective working of the Act, was an unfortunate 

 suggestion made in the very year after the Act was passed. Both 

 political parties seemed anxious to get such an Act put on the 

 statute book. In 1885 the Conservative Government was success- 

 ful, and what is now well known as the Ashbourne Act became 

 law. The whole money was advanced to the tenant. He had 

 to pay interest at 3 per cent, with 1 per cent, sinking fund. At 

 the end of 49 years he was absolute owner. The landlord got 

 hard cash, with the exception of one-fifth of the purchase money, 

 which was held back as a guarantee. £5,000,000 was voted for 

 purchasing purposes. A tenant paying a rent of £100 could, if 

 his landlord agreed, redeem it for £1700. On this he paid 4 per 

 cent, for 49 years or £68 per year. He thus got a reduction of 

 32 per cent. It was cheaper, therefore, by £32 out of every £100 

 for an Irish farmer to become proprietor than remain tenant. The 

 Irish farmer in the circumstances naturally preferred to purchase. 

 It would have been madness to do otherwise. The 1885 Act thus 

 made the success of the 1881 Act impossible. 



Land Purchase 



While the whole trend of thought had been in favour of 

 tenancies till 1881, the seeds of land purchase had been sown 

 years before. John Bright delivered a speech in Dublin in 1866, 

 in which he advocated land purchase for Ireland. That was the 

 beginning of the present land purchase movement. In the Irish 

 Church Act of 1869, clauses were inserted enabling the holders 

 of glebe-lands to purchase. The State advanced three-fourths of 

 the purchase money, which was repayable at the rate of 4 per 

 cent, in 32 years. 6057 tenants, after some hesitation, acquired 

 their holdings. Inspired by the success of the land purchase 

 clauses in the Irish Disestablishment Act, Mr Bright secured 

 the introduction of clauses of land purchase in the 1870 Act. 

 The Government in this case advanced two-thirds of the purchase 

 money, and the tenant purchaser paid an annuity of 5 per cent, 

 for 35 years. Again, in the 1881 Act, similar clauses were 

 inserted. The Government advanced three-fourths of the money. 

 The annuity and the period of repayment were the same as in 

 the earlier Act. While- the Act of 1869 had been a success, 

 both the Acts of 1870 and 1881, from a land-purchase point of 

 view, had been comparative failures. Under the earlier Act 

 only 877 tenants purchased, and £514',000 was advanced. Under 

 the 1881 Act, only 731 tenants purchased, and £240,000 was 

 advanced. The reasons for the failure are not far to seek. In 

 1870 agriculture was booming, and the landlords of Ireland, 

 • who could have sold independently of the Act, to outside 

 purchasers, were not then inclined to sell. Besides, the legal 



