76 THE IRISH AGRARIAN PROBLEM. 



with it rose his outgoings. With splendid 

 harvests and high prices the farmer did not feel 

 the burden of the rent for a time. The Land 

 Act had given him an interest in his farm which 

 he used as a basis of credit.^ And so the good 

 years brought landlord and tenant alike into a 

 state of indebtedness which inevitably ended in 

 bankruptcy. 



The Act of 1870 protected the tenant only so 

 long as he paid his rent. In 1878 there began 

 a series of bad harvests, accompanied by a fall 

 in prices caused by transatlantic competition. 

 The harvest of 1879 was worth ^^lo, 000, 000 less 

 than that of 1878 — the potato harvest alone fell 

 ^6,000,000.^ The tenant could no longer pay 

 the increased rent and the figures of the eviction 

 statistics rose. There were evicted in 



Families. 



1877 ... ... ... ... 463 



1878 ... ... ... ... 980 



1879 ... ... ... ... 1,278 



1880 .. .. ... ... 2,110^ 



As usual the evictions were followed by 

 agrarian crime. The figures are : — 



1878 ... ... ... ... 301 



1879 863 



t88o 2,585 



t88i ... ... ... .. 4,439* 



^ Richey, " The Irish Land Laws," p. 99. 

 - Barry O'Brien, " Life of Parnell," I., p. 208. 

 ^ " Irish Landlord," p. 522. 

 ■' Ibid., p. 517. 



