900 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



the feudal conception was definitely removed, while the various 

 provisions of the law were consolidated in a convenient form. 

 During this period various compensation bills introduced by both 

 Conservative and Liberal governments had failed to pass ; and 

 insecurity of tenure, increased by the events of the famine and 

 the action of the new proprietors, became a cause of political 

 and social unrest, which culminated in the Fenian movement. This 

 led directly to Gladstone's first land act (1870), the earliest defi- 

 nite effort to deal with the grievances of the Irish tenant, as 

 distinct from reforms calculated to raise the efficiency of agricul- 

 ture. It recognized the body of usages which formed the Ulster 

 custom ; it laid down broadly the principle of compensation for 

 the tenants' improvements ; it introduced the new system of com- 

 pensation for disturbance, intended to impose a penalty on evic- 

 tions ; and, finally (by the "Bright" clauses), it sought to make 

 sales by landlord to tenant easier. This well-meant attempt proved 

 to be quite inadequate for the purpose, especially when a new 

 period of agricultural depression, starting from the bad harvests 

 of 1877 and the following years, made the payment of rent 

 difficult. The fierce agitation of the Land League (1879) was 

 met by the act of 188 1, which accepted the system of (1) "fixity 

 of tenure" and (2) "fair rent," with the right of (3) "free 

 sale" by the tenant of his interest (the three F's) and created a 

 special commission with power to determine the "fair rent" of 

 the usual tenant holdings. Unfortunately, this adoption of the 

 policy long advocated by the popular party in Ireland came at a 

 time when the value of land was falling in all western Europe, 

 and the newer idea of a complete expropriation of the landlords 

 had taken the place of the older plan of fixed tenures in the 

 Irish programme. The operation of the act was viewed with 

 suspicion by both landlords and tenants. Though its immediate 

 effect was a lowering of rent by over 20 per cent, this was 

 believed by the latter to be insufficient, and was treated as con- 

 fiscation by the former. The purchase clauses of the act failed 

 almost completely, and thus further legislative action became ex- 

 pedient. But all these later measures have been passed by the 

 Conservative and Unionist party. In 1885 the "Ashbourne" 



