In 1870, the same year that the Government undertook to provide for
the education of the masses (S602), Mr. Gladstone, who was still Prime
Minister and head of the Liberal Party (S601), brought in a bill for
the relief of small Irish farmers, those who had to support themselves
and their families from the little they could get from a few hired
acres. Since the union (S562) much of the general policy of England
toward Ireland had been described as "a quick alternation of kicks and
kindness." Mr. Gladstone did not hesitate to say that he believed the
misery of the island sprang mainly from its misgovernment. He thought
that the small farmer needed immediate help and that it was the duty
of the Liberal Party to grant it.
The circumstances under which the land was held in Ireland were
peculiar. A very large part of it was owned by Englishmen whose
ancestors obtained it through the wholesale confiscations of James I,
Cromwell, and later rulers (SS423, 453). Very few of these English
landlords cared to reside in the country or to do anything for its
improvement. Their agents or overseers generally forced the farm
tenants to pay the largest amount of rent that could be wrung from
them, and they could dispossess a tenant of his land whenever they saw
fit, without giving a reason for the act. If, by his labor, the
tenant made the land more fertile, he seldom reaped any additional
profit from his industry, for the rent was usually increased, and
swallowed up all that he raised. Such a system of extortion was
destructive to those who tilled the soil, and if it brought in more
money for the landlord, it produced nothing but misery and discontent
for his tenant.
Mr. Gladstone's new law endeavored to remedy these evils by the
following provisions:
1. In case a landlord ejected a rent-paying tenant, he was to pay him
damages, and allow him a fair sum for whatever improvement he had
made.
2. It secured a ready means of arbitration between landlord and
tenant, and if a tenant failed to pay an exorbitant rate he could
not be hastily or unjustly driven from his farm.
3. It made it possible for the tenant to borrow a certain sum from the
government for the purpose of purchasing the land in case the owner
was willing to sell.