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sufficient for the purpose. As to the desirability of securing the tenant's interest in his improvements by granting a compensation for disturbance there was no dispute.1 They even had had before them since 1845 and 1846 the bills by which Lord Stanley and Lord Lincoln had endeavoured to secure the tenant's improvements. through the appointment of a "State Commissioner to judge of, and to authorise improvements effected by the tenant so that the tenant might be paid for the improvements effected on his farm, if evicted, and on the declaration of the Commissioner that those improvements had been wise and necessary."" They had the authority of Mr. Disraeli, and of the majority of the Richmond Commission for going thus far: there were only two possible grounds for statesmen going further and thereby introducing all the elements of economic loss already discussed; either because the existing system was so bad that a desperate remedy was necessary, or because justice demanded that, at any risks, some additional right on the part of the tenant should be recognised.

3

There was of course great agitation in Ireland at the time of the passing of this measure, but no one could contend that temporary distress through bad seasons was a solid reason for revolutionising the land system of the country. And according to Mr. Gladstone, the system was on the whole working well. The cases in which rents were not raised were increasing, and the evictions. were steadily decreasing, while Mr. Bright averred that wages were rising. It could not therefore be supposed

5

4

1 Mr. W. H. Smith, 3 Hansard, cclx. 1576, Mr. A. J. Balfour, 3 Hansard, cclx. 1613.

23 Hansard, cclxi. 366.

4 Ibid. cclx. 925.

3 Ibid. cclxi. 602.
5 Ibid. cclxi, 110.

that the normal case was so desperate, that an heroic remedy was necessary.

Therefore we must suppose that the argument for the Bill rested on the necessity of doing Justice to the tenants, by admitting as a legal right a custom which was generally recognised. This right might be claimed either on the tradition as to ancient Irish custom which had been persistently ignored for centuries, or as the logical development of the position conferred on the tenant by the Act of 1870. But the conditions of the contract on which land

is let are not natural laws of right and wrong which are eternally binding, whether they are enforced or not; the fact that certain customs had been in vogue in Ireland once, by no means demonstrated that it was a necessity of Justice to revive them (p. 137). On the other hand the status given under the Act of 1870 had been conferred accidentally1 and in opposition to the expressed intentions of the proposer of that measure, and there was no necessity to expand it on the ground of Justice. But turning to the other side we see that the powers of dealing with their property-of which the landlords were deprivedwere theirs by every security that legal title can afford : it may have been politic to take them away, but it would have been hard to show any sense in which it was just. On consideration it seems that Justice had nothing to do with the measure, except to furnish phrases for the peroration of the speech that introduced it.

The reasons alleged then for going beyond the measures which all responsible statesmen were prepared to adopt, and thus introducing a risk of grave economic dangers, were wholly inadequate : one can only suppose that the promoters of the measure were unconsciously forced by the pressure

13 Hansard, cclxi. 902.

of outside agitation' to take a course which, on a retrospect at this distance of time, it is impossible to justify on the grounds of justice, necessity, or expediency.

89. It is too soon to judge satisfactorily of the effects of the measure, for both promoters and opposers appealed for justification to its influence on future generations. Sufficient time has elapsed however for us to be able to test some of the predictions which were made while the Bill was passing through the House.

a. The great object of the bill was "to remove the feeling of discontent "2 on the part of the Irish tenants. Mr. Parnell's speech on the second reading must have shown how faint that hope was, while the ministry have already confessed its failure to do so by amending their

own measure.

b. Mr. Bright and Mr. Forster agreed that rents would not, generally speaking, be lowered. Mr. Gibson anticipated a possible fall of a third. It is generally said that the reductions carried out by the Commissioners average a fourth.

c. The promoters of the Bill denied that it could be called a confiscatory measure; but it is difficult to give any other name to a measure which has reduced the annual value of landed property in Ireland by something approaching 25 per cent. Whatever their intentions may have been, the promoters of this measure passed an enactment which has as a matter of fact taken property from landlords generally and given it to their tenants.

d. The opponents of the measure alleged that the

1 Lord Randolph Churchill on third reading.
2 Mr. W. E. Forster, 3 Hansard, cclx. 1169.

attack on landed property in Ireland would spread to other parts of the realm: it has already obtained a firm footing in Scotland.

We need not follow out the matter into further anticipations on the effects as to the remaining property of the landlords in Ireland, or the influence on the loyal population of Ireland and consequently on the Union; so far the anticipations of the promoters have been falsified in every particular, while those of its opponents have on the whole been realised. But one word may be said on the right of property in land.

The secret of the success of the measure really lay in the fact that it was pushed forward in a spirit which harmonised with the popular doctrine advocated by Locke that labour is the sole title to property; the tenants laboured, and had improved the land, therefore the property ought to be secured to them. But the right to property rests on the power and ability to make a rational use of it; those landlords who by the moderation of their demands had given scope to the tenants to improve had made a far more rational use of their wealth than if they had taken a competition rent and carried out expensive improvement schemes of their own. Those who by their residence gave employment to labour were making a rational use of wealth. Those who by the firm but considerate exercise of their power of eviction were preventing the subdivision of holdings, were making a most rational use of their wealth in the interests of the country. There is no ethical maxim which can justify a man's title to the use of land on which he has worked, which does not tell with far greater force to secure the title of those who have wisely and rationally administered the wealth that has come to them by inheritance or purchase.

90. Besides the parts of the measure to which attention has been already called there were several sections which were intended to lead to the creation of a peasant proprietary. This scheme was supported on both sides of the house, but as Mr. Chaplin' anticipated, it has remained a dead letter: the position of the occupier became so profitable that no one could be expected to put himself to much trouble to become an owner. It is necessary to observe however, that the scheme of establishing peasant proprietors has been invariably advocated on political grounds; and that no sufficient attention has ever been directed to the economic conditions which are necessary to render the scheme permanent. There is no evidence that a peasant proprietary can subsist, unless there are bye industries as in Wales, or extraordinary fertility as in Jersey, or protection for the agriculturist against foreign competition as there was while the yeoman farmers of England held their own. The experience of recent years on the Church Estates is by no means conclusive as to the possibility of planting the system in Ireland.

13 Hansard, cclxi. 836.

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