IRISH AGRARIAN TENURE. 95 



fall deeply into debt and would practise an 

 extensive sub-division of their lands. It was 

 also considered that the existing system of local 

 administration which was largely committed to 

 the great landowners would prove irreconcilable 

 with the creation of numerous small peasant 

 ownerships. And there was the fear that large 

 sums of money could not safely be lent to 

 Ireland. A country which had just set on foot 

 a great strike against rent might, not without 

 justice, be regarded as an unreliable debtor. In 

 spite of all, however, the idea of land purchase 

 made way. In 1884 the Liberal Chief Secretary, 

 Sir George Trevelyan, brought in a measure 

 according to which a sum of ;^20,ooo,ooo was to 

 be advanced for the purposes of land purchase, 

 at the rate of not more than ^5,000,000 a year. 

 Tenants who brought in one-fourth of the sum 

 themselves were to pay off the other three- 

 fourths in forty years, their yearly instalments 

 not exceeding the amount of their existing rent. 

 Tenants who received the whole sum from the 

 State were to discharge principal and interest 

 by paying 5 per cent, per annum. This measure 

 never became law. On the other hand, the new 

 Conservative Government, which with Parnell's 

 support had a majority, carried next year a 

 Land Purchase Bill, the so-called Ashbourne 

 Act. By this Act, which was passed in 1885, ^ 

 sum of ;f 5, 000, 000 was voted for land purchase. 

 The Act laid it down that owner and tenant 

 should come to an agreement about the price ; 



