Gladstones Mission to Pacify Ireland

             Gladstones mission to pacify Ireland was essentaillyan attempt to achieve a just relationship between landlord and tenantand grant Ireland certain independence.He attemtped to succeed in his conquest with the introduction of several Land Acts(1870-1881) and the disestablishment of the Protestant Church(1869).The first Land AAct was passed in 1870, following the Fenian uprising of 1867.This act legalised the Ulster Custom of fair rent, free sale and fixity of tenure in areas where it operated. Tenants leaving farms were to be compensated for improvements made and for disturbance.This act was also accompanied by a "Bright clause" which lent one third of the purchase price of the land to those who wished to but it.Concurrently, the act only had symbolic significance.It had little practical effect.Landlords could easily escape payments to tenats as the Ulster Custom was difficult to define in law. Landlords also had the ability to raise rents, thus forcing tenants into arrears,making them ineligible to benefit from the act.Loans were insufficient and many tenants lacked the capital to raise the deposit.Less than 1,000 tenants availed of this act.

             A second Land Act was introduced in 1881. A major policy which haunted Gladstone throughout his career,he sought to improve upon the first act, by meeting the demands of tenants.Agitation by The Land League and Home Rule MP's impressed on Gladstone the necessity of improving land conditions in Ireland.Through this act, a Land Court ws established to fix judicial rents for fifteen years, three quarters of the money required by tenant to purchase land was provided,the 3F's became law and the principle of co ownership was established.This act proved satisfactory to tenanats living in moderate conditions, however its exclusion of leaseholders and those in arrears, combined with its weak land purchase element,antagonised the more "extreme" tenants.

             The flaws evident in the 1881 Lnad Act were resolved through the unoffical "Kilmainham Treaty",Between Gladstone and Parnell.

Related Essays: