IRISH AGRARIAN TENURE. yy 



At the same time the Irish land question 

 entered upon a newpohtical phase. Until 1870 

 two poUtical movements ran side by side in 

 Ireland. There was the constitutional move- 

 ment under Butt, which sought by Parliamen- 

 tary action to obtain a far-reaching measure of 

 local government (Home Rule) and demanded 

 above all things a reform in the system of 

 agrarian tenure. This movement championed 

 what are called "the three F's " — fixity of 

 tenure, fair rents, and free sale. Over against 

 this movement stood the revolutionary move- 

 ment, which was guided from America, and 

 which aimed at national independence, hardly 

 thought of social reform, and preferred physical 

 force to other methods of agitation. Under the 

 influence of John Devoy and Michael Davitt 

 these parties approached each other in 1878.' 

 The revolutionary party, whose backbone had 

 hitherto been formed by a small circle of literary 

 enthusiasts, took hold of the agrarian question 

 in order to secure the interest of the masses. 

 It hoped, through the destruction of the 

 landlords, to drive out the English colonizing 

 element from Ireland and to accomplish a 

 nationalization of the land in which the primi- 

 tive Celtic forms of land tenure should reappear. 

 This amalgamation of the agrarian question 

 with the national movement certainly gave the 

 latter influence with the masses ; but at the 



' Barry O'Brien, "Life of Parnell," I., pp. 166-169. 



