the discussion he pointed out how incredibly wasteful the method of
governing Ireland was; the Irish Civil Government grants, which had
averaged from 1833 to 1837 £762,000, had risen between 1888 and 1892 to
£4,042,000, and the cost of local government in Ireland was twice as much
per head as the like cost in England.
Under the scheme of 1886 Irish representatives were not to sit in the
Imperial Parliament, but the Government found that under existing
financial arrangements there must be financial connection, unless
Parliament was prepared to face a different system of trade laws between
the two countries, and provision must be made for that connection. Mr.
Gladstone, therefore, reversed the decision of the Government in 1886. He
proposed to retain Irish representatives at Westminster, reduced in number
to 80. They were not to vote on purely British questions, but in his
opinion it would be difficult to make that distinction as far as the mass
of business was concerned. The Irish representatives would not vote on any
tax which was not to be levied in Ireland or on any grant of money for
other than Imperial purposes as scheduled in the Bill. By this means
Ireland would have a voice, if emergency, such as war, rendered fresh
taxation necessary.
In the interval between 1886 and 1893 knowledge had been gained to some
extent as to what constituted the “true” revenue of Ireland, and the
Inland Revenue thought it possible to levy in Great Britain the Excise
duties collected in Ireland on articles consumed in Great Britain and
_vice versa_. These Excise duties represented the greater part of the sum
of £1,400,000, previously described as the difference between duties, so
to speak, belonging to Ireland and duties collected in Ireland, a
difference estimated in 1893 at £1,800,000. If Ireland retained that
difference, as contemplated by the scheme of 1886, it was equivalent to a
grant from Great Britain to Ireland. On the other hand the Customs were
not able to make the separation thought possible by the Excise.
With these facts before him Mr. Gladstone made an entire change in the
financial scheme. As in 1886, he held that Ireland must make a proper
contribution to Imperial expenditure, but he abandoned the principle,
adopted in 1886, of obtaining that contribution by a quota of
one-fifteenth of Imperial expenditure, that is a contribution of £2 by
Ireland to £28 by Great Britain. He retained instead the whole of the
Customs revenue collected in Ireland as the Irish contribution. He
proposed that Great Britain should pay any excess of the charge of
constabulary over £1,000,000, out of the contribution, the balance
representing Ireland’s share of Imperial expenditure. He justified the
change on the ground that as the management of trade was reserved to the
Imperial Government, the management of the Customs so closely connected
with trade should be Imperial also. The Customs were expected to produce a
net revenue of £2,370,000. He estimated it as equivalent to about 4 per
cent. of Imperial expenditure whereas the actual contribution was about 12
per cent. The contribution would, of course, vary as the net Customs
revenue rose or fell. On the other hand the Irish Government were to take
all the rest of the “true” revenue of Ireland and to defray out of it all
local Irish expenditure, including a fixed sum of £1,000,000 towards the
cost of the constabulary and Dublin police, which were temporarily to
remain Imperial services. Customs and Excise duties were to be regulated
and collected by the Imperial authority which was also to fix postal
rates; but all other taxes were to be imposed by the Irish Legislature.
The interests of existing judges, and existing civil servants, and of her
constabulary, which remained under the control of the Viceroy, were
secured. The constabulary would be gradually replaced by a force under the
control of the Irish authority. Two Exchequer Judges would be appointed to
guard observance of the Act, and appeals lay to the Privy Council which
would try on the motion of the Viceroy, or of the Secretary of State, any
question as to invalidity of an Irish Act. These arrangements might after
fifteen years be subject to revision in pursuance of an address to Her
Majesty from the House of Commons or the Irish Legislative Assembly.
The receipts and expenditure of the Irish Government under this scheme
would have stood as follows:
RECEIPTS.
(1) Excise true revenue exclusive of licences £3,220,000
(2) Local taxes:
Stamps, Income-tax, Excise licenses £1,495,000
(3) Postal revenue £740,000
(4) Other non-tax revenue £205,000
Total £5,660,000
EXPENDITURE.
(1) Civil Government charges, except Constabulary £3,210,000
(2) Collection of Inland revenue £160,000
(3) Postal service £790,000
(4) Contribution to Irish Constabulary £1,000,000
Total £5,160,000
Surplus £500,000
The Bill passed the House of Commons, but the financial clauses were
greatly recast in Committee. The changes originated in the fact that the
Inland revenue had overestimated the “true” revenue of Excise by a very
considerable sum, and the error would have reduced to an insignificant sum
the free starting balance for the Irish Government provided in the
original scheme. Mr. Gladstone decided in consequence not to keep the
Customs revenue as Ireland’s contribution to Imperial expenditure, but to
let that revenue fall into the common stock of Irish revenue and to take
out of that common stock one third of the “true” Irish revenue. This third
was to cover Ireland’s contribution to Imperial expenditure together with
one third of the cost of the Irish constabulary and Dublin police. Ireland
was to meet all her local charges out of the remaining Irish revenue. The
Imperial Government was to retain for six years the imposition and
collection of all taxes; the Irish Government having only supplementary
powers of taxation. At the end of six years the Irish contribution was to
be revised, and Ireland would be empowered to impose taxes other than
Customs and Excise, and she would collect taxes, the Customs alone being
retained by the Imperial authorities. The “true” revenue derived from the
Customs and Excise was to be ascertained by a Joint Committee of the
Treasury and the Irish Government. The financial result of these changes
is shown in the following figures:
(1) Customs:
Revenue collected in Ireland £2,136,000
_Add_ estimated allowance for duties paid in Great Britain on articles
consumed in Ireland £266,000
Total estimated Irish revenue £2,402,000; Amount Payable to Irish
Exchequer Two-Thirds £1,601,000
(2) Excise:
(_a_) Spirits. Revenue collected in Ireland £4,112,000
_Deduct_ duties ascertained to be paid in Ireland on spirits consumed
in Great Britain £1,872,000
Total £2,240,000
(_b_) Beer. Revenue collected in Ireland £811,000
_Deduct_ estimated allowance for duties paid in Ireland on beer
consumed in Great Britain £187,000
Total £624,000
(_c_) Licence duties collected in Ireland £194,000
Total estimated £3,058,000; payable to Exchequer £2,039,000
(3) Stamp duties collected in Ireland £707,000 estimated, £471,000
payable
(4) Income-tax collected in Ireland £552,000 estimated, £368,000 payable
(5) Crown Lands amount estimated to be due to £65,000 estimated, £43,000
payable
Total £6,784,000 estimated, £4,522,000 payable
(6) Miscellaneous Irish Revenue £138,000 estimated, £138,000 payable
Totals £6,922,000 estimated, £4,660,000 payable
Irish Expenditure, 1892-3.
(1) Civil Government charges (exclusive of Constabulary and salary of
Lord-Lieutenant, but inclusive of local charges met out of
local taxation account) £3,123,000
(2) Constabulary charges (£1,459,000) two-thirds of £973,000
(3) Estimated deficit on postal account £52,000
Total £4,148,000
Surplus £512,000
Total £4,660,000
The schemes of 1893 again illustrate the difficulties inherent in a
severance of the two Exchequers. The revise left more points open for
difference between the two Governments, and it had the serious defect of
revision after the short interval of six years.
The original scheme was far preferable. The retention of the Customs as
the Imperial contribution reduced opportunity for conflicts of opinion to
a minimum, and the interval of fifteen years before revision left ample
time for the new Irish Government to put its house in order. I venture to
think it would have been wise to make good the error in estimating the
“true” revenue of Ireland (which invalidated the scheme) by an Imperial
Grant, at all events for a time. Under the scheme the Imperial Government
provided £500,000 for the constabulary. If it had granted £300,000 or
£400,000 more, the net Imperial contribution derived from the Customs
would have been reduced to say £1,400,000, not a large sacrifice for the
end in view—reconciliation with Ireland.
The Bill as amended passed the House of Commons but was thrown out in the
Lords. This Parliament refused to accept Mr. Gladstone’s proposals to give
Ireland Home Rule, and nineteen years elapsed before a third Home Rule
Bill was submitted to Parliament.
In the three schemes of 1886 and 1893 the Imperial contribution was very
similar, perhaps somewhat larger in 1893. In all three schemes, also, the
net gain to the British Exchequer was reduced by the grant from that
Exchequer of £500,000 to the cost of the Irish Constabulary.
The difficulty of devising a financial scheme fairly simple and workable,
which was experienced in 1886 and 1893, has been disappointing, but not
discouraging. It was inevitable but it can be surmounted.
THE BILL OF 1912
In 1911, Mr. Asquith pledged the Government to take up again in the
ensuing session the question of Home Rule. In 1910 the Conservative Party,
at least a considerable part of it, in presence of a probable dissolution
on the Parliament Bill, showed, as in 1885, a disposition to coquette with
Home Rule, but the movement came to nothing, and the Party settled into
determined opposition to the Home Rule policy, submitting themselves to
the lead of the Ulster extremists, who preached sedition in no measured
terms. In other respects, the prospects of Home Rule are fairly
favourable. England, apart from Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, still
returns a majority opposed to Home Rule, but public opinion does not show
any signs of vigorous or violent opposition as in 1886. The Liberals, the
Irish, and the Labour Party are united in its favour. The passing of the
Land Acts is rapidly removing the agrarian evil, and the landlords have
not the same cause for anxiety as formerly. The grant of Local Government
is working well, and in spite of much poverty the condition of the people
is improving. Lastly, the passing of the Parliament Act has made it
possible, in spite of opposition in the Lords, to pass a Home Rule Act
within the limits of the present Parliament.
On April 11th, the Prime Minister introduced the Government Bill. He
regarded it as the first step in a comprehensive policy of devolution. It
retains permanently at Westminster 42 Irish Members, so that Ireland will
have a voice, not only on questions in the Imperial Parliament which
concern Ireland, but on questions of Imperial interest, such as war and
peace. The Bill of 1886 reserved to the Imperial Parliament certain
questions. The Bill of 1893 also made necessary reservations, though its
tendency was towards more complete autonomy; but in the interval between
1893 and 1912 great changes have taken place, and the Imperial Government
finds itself hampered by new liabilities. The Old-Age Pension Act, the
Land Purchase Act of 1903, the National Insurance Act, and Labour
Exchanges have added very greatly to Irish expenditure. On the other hand,
the contribution to Imperial expenditure, unluckily for the British
taxpayer, has disappeared. The problem is, therefore, a new one, and the
Government solves it, at all events for the present, by keeping in its own
hands a large number of Services, as will be seen hereafter.
In 1885-6 Ireland contributed a surplus of considerably more than
£2,000,000 to Imperial expenditure; in 1895-6, £2,000,000.(103) The
Government estimates the true revenue of Ireland in 1912-13 at
£10,839,000; and the expenditure on Irish services at £12,354,000.
Therefore the new Irish Government will start with a deficit of
£1,515,000. That deficit is now charged on the British taxpayer. It
results from British management of Irish finance, for, on the one hand,
Irish revenue is limited by the relatively limited means of Irish
taxpayers; on the other hand, England has regulated Irish expenditure on
the lavish scale of her own expenditure.
The Government lays down certain principles on which Home Rule finance
will be based:
(1) Ireland must manage her own finance and must have powers of
taxation consistent with leaving to the Imperial Government a
field of taxation sufficiently wide for Imperial needs.
(2) The Budgets of the two countries must not hamper each other.
(3) Ireland must bear the cost of any increase arising hereafter
on Irish services, but she must benefit by economies in those
services.
(4) She must have power to reduce taxation if her economies permit
it.
The scheme which will give effect to these principles may be described as
follows.
In the first place the Imperial Government retains in its own hands the
imposition and collection of all Irish taxes, the Post Office duties alone
excepted, which will be transferred to the Irish Government. _Normal_
increase in Irish Revenue will not be applied to Irish services. It will
reduce the deficit. The Irish Government, however, will have supplementary
powers of taxation.
An Irish Exchequer and an Irish Consolidated Fund will be created, and an
Irish Auditor-General appointed. Further, a joint Exchequer Board,
consisting of Treasury and Irish officers, will adjust the accounts
between the two Exchequers, based upon what it declares to be the actual
cost of Irish services when the Act comes into operation. If the Irish
Government, using its supplementary powers of taxation, increases or
reduces taxes, the Exchequer Board will vary accordingly the sum to be
paid by the British to the Irish Exchequer on account of Irish
expenditure, and it will determine the effect of any other changes taking
place in the relations between the two Exchequers. Lastly, if and when
normal increase of Irish revenue puts an end, during a period of three
years, to the existing deficit, the Exchequer Board will make a report to
that effect, and the financial arrangement between the two countries will
then be reconsidered in order to secure a fair contribution from Ireland
to Imperial expenditure.
The Government, as I have stated, estimates the revenue of 1912-13 at
£10,839,000. That sum represents the whole “true” revenue of Ireland,
viz., taxes and miscellaneous, £9,485,000; Post Office Revenue,
£1,354,000. The Imperial Government adds to this revenue of £10,839,000 a
free gift of £500,000 at the cost of the British taxpayer, in order to
give the Irish Government a fair start. The total Irish income in the year
1912-13 will therefore be £11,339,000.
On the other side of the account, the Imperial Government retains in its
own hand various Irish Services, termed in the Bill “_Reserved Services_,”
described later. It transfers from the British to the Irish Exchequer the
sum allotted to Irish Expenditure (outside the Reserved Services),
estimated in 1912-13 at £5,462,000, the cost of the Postal Service
£1,600,000,(104) and £500,000, the free gift mentioned above, making a
total transfer of £7,562,000.
If in the future the sum of £5,462,000 allotted to Irish Expenditure and
the free gift of £500,000 are exceeded, the Irish Legislature must provide
the necessary ways and means.
The transfer of £7,562,000 from the British to the Irish Exchequer leaves
a balance on the British Exchequer on the Irish Account of £3,777,000(105)
free to that extent to meet the charge of the Reserved Services.
These Reserved Services are:
(1) Old-age Pensions £2,664,000
(2) National Insurance Labour Exchange £191,500
(3) Land Purchase £761,000
(4) Constabulary £1,377,500
(5) Collection of Revenue £298,000
Total £5,292,000
Therefore the excess of Irish Expenditure in 1912-13 over Irish Revenue as
provided results in a deficit of £1,515,000 payable by the British
taxpayer, and if the free gift of £500,000 by the British taxpayer
included in the provided revenue be added, the total charge on the British
taxpayer in 1912-13 on account of Irish Expenditure is £2,015,000.
This annual gift of £500,000 is after three years to diminish yearly by
£50,000, until a minimum of £200,000 is reached, which will eventually
represent the gift of Great Britain to Ireland, until prosperity or good
management enables Ireland to pay her own way, and at the last to make a
contribution to Imperial Expenditure.
The Government estimates a normal growth in Irish Revenue of £200,000 a
year, which, to the extent it is realised, will reduce the deficit payable
by the British taxpayer.
The Imperial guarantee on Irish Land Stock is to continue in full force.
EFFECT OF FUTURE MODIFICATION
If the Imperial Parliament increases or reduces taxation, the change will
not affect the Irish Budget, for the transferred sum will remain
unaltered.
The Irish Parliament will have power to reduce taxes levied in Ireland. It
will also have power to impose taxes. It may add at will to Excise duties,
and if so the Customs duties on beer or spirits must vary with the Excise
duties. It may levy new duties which do not interfere with the Imperial
system of taxation—for instance, a house duty, or establishment licences.
It may add to Income-tax or death duties, and also to Customs duties
(other than beer and spirits) provided that the addition does not exceed
10 per cent. of their yield. This 10 per cent. resembles the “centimes
additionels” which are levied in foreign countries on direct taxes, and
are applicable there to local expenditure. But the Irish Parliament must
not trench on Imperial taxes. This increase or reduction of Irish duties
will not affect the British Exchequer, but it will increase or diminish
the “sum transferred” to the Irish Exchequer.
The Irish Parliament will not have power to tax articles not subject to
Imperial taxes for the time being. If in the exercise of its power it
differentiates Customs or Excise duties in the two countries, there will
be a differential duty on such goods passing from one to the other.
Public Works Loans granted before the passing of the Home Rule Act will
remain under the management of the Imperial Government. Future loans will
be managed by the Irish Government.
The Irish Parliament will have power to raise loans on the security of the
“transferred” revenue, sufficient provision being made for interest and
sinking fund. If the Irish Government desires it, the Exchequer Board
above-mentioned, may issue an Irish Loan, deducting the charge from the
sum “transferred” to Ireland.
Such are the provisions of the Bill. It cannot be denied that they appear
complicated, but they will be found less so in practice. The machinery of
financial administration in a great State is necessarily complicated, and
a radical change in that machinery involves a multitude of changes in
detail for which the reforming Act must provide. Root and branch opponents
of Home Rule naturally criticise those provisions, and exaggerate with
_Ulster_ vehemence the administrative difficulties which attend radical
change, but the advocates of great measures, while recognising
difficulties can take juster views of their extent, and they know that
they can be surmounted.
In the first place an expert body (the Exchequer Board) will interpret the
financial provisions of the Act. It will consist of two members appointed
by the Treasury and two by the Irish Government, and a chairman appointed
by the Crown. Their decision is to be final. On these questions there is
therefore no power reserved to the Imperial Government, which might cause
friction. The Chairman should probably be a man of judicial rank. Possibly
a case might arise in which a revision of the Board’s decision would be
needed. So far this important section of the machinery is not complicated.
In the next place the Imperial Government remains responsible and liable
for all the “reserved” services. Here again there is no complication.
_Thirdly_, the Customs and Excise Clauses appear complicated, but they are
for the most part machinery clauses, common to Revenue Acts. _Fourthly_,
the Free Trade Clause offends of course the Unionist-Protectionist party,
but its merits need not be discussed here. I venture to doubt where
Ireland is likely to set up a Protectionist policy against Great Britain.
Our market is too important to her. If such a policy were established,
history tells us that British Protectionists will not consult Irish
interests. Lastly a certain, but not a great, inconvenience will attend
the taking of an official record of goods passing between the two
countries essential to determining the true revenue of Ireland.
Thus the apparent complications of the Bill dwindle greatly on
examination. The Bill of 1912 is no doubt much less simple than that of
1893 as introduced by Mr. Gladstone, but that Bill was not, however, so
simple as it appeared. It was based on the principle of autonomy, but it
retained great powers in Imperial hands. In fact it gave autonomy as far
as autonomy was practicable. Circumstances have changed much since 1893,
and the problem is now in some respects easier. The pivot and crux of Mr.
Gladstone’s scheme, the Imperial contribution, has, for the time,
disappeared.
Sir Henry Primrose’s Committee adopted unanimously and unhesitatingly the
principle of simplicity. They recommend that the power of imposing and
levying all taxation in Ireland, subject to reservations on questions of
trade and of foreign relations should rest with the Irish Government. They
urge that that policy accords with the general policy of Home Rule, as
removing causes of friction, as avoiding need for revision of the
arrangement (excepting a future question as to an Imperial contribution),
it terminates the extravagance inherent in the partnership, and makes the
responsibility of the Irish Government for Irish administration complete.
The Committee examine the objections to the grant of complete power of
taxation, viz., that (1) it would break up the fixed unity of the realm;
(2) that it would impair facilities of trade between the two countries;
(3) and that it is at variance with the principle of a Customs Union, said
to be a feature common to federations.
On the first point the Committee reply:
(1) That in their view the Irish Government should have power to
impose Customs duties only for the purpose of raising revenue, and
that the Imperial Government should reserve questions of tariff,
and foreign relations. Thus fiscal unity on important points would
be maintained. For sixty years from the Union separate machinery
existed for the collection of different rates of duty in the two
countries. If Union could dispense with fiscal unity, _a fortíorí_
can any less close form of association do so.
(2) The Committee do not attach importance to the second
objection. The Custom House does not seriously trammel the
convenience of traders between this country and the Continent, and
it was found endurable when the variance between England and
Ireland was more formidable than now.
(3) On the third objection the Committee argue that a Customs
Union is indispensable, when the boundaries of federated states
form a ring fence. It is not indispensable when, in a case like
that of England and Ireland, the two countries are separated by
sea.
These reserves diminish, of course, the severe simplicity of the scheme,
and the Committee’s answers to objections admit some inconvenience to
trade, but a great change like that of Home Rule must have some drawbacks,
and in the opinion of Home Rulers, the end to be gained far more than
compensates for slight inconveniences which attend its execution. It is
certain, moreover, that, whatever may be the measure adopted, it will be
necessary to take means for ascertaining the “true” Revenue of Ireland,
and to that extent there must be some slight interference with trade.
I agree with the Committee in their preference for the simplicity of
complete autonomy.
Sir Henry Primrose and his colleagues agree to a great extent with a
Minority Report of the Financial Relations Committee (1896), signed by
Lord Farrer, Mr. Bertram Currie and myself. The advantages of complete
autonomy are obvious, and I cannot avoid a regret that it has not been
possible to adopt it. I note, however, that the greatest Irish authority
on Irish Government, Lord Macdonnell, though in favour of Home Rule, is
entirely opposed to the grant of fixed autonomy to Ireland.
We must not misunderstand the relations of the Committee to the
Government. They were not appointed to draw a Home Rule Bill. They were to
ascertain and consider the fiscal relations between Ireland and other
parts of the United Kingdom as they exist to-day, paying special regard to
the changes which have taken place in revenue and expenditure since 1896,
the date of the Report of the Royal Commission; to distinguish between
Irish Local Expenditure and Imperial Expenditure in Ireland; and to
consider, in the event of Home Rule being established, how the revenue
required to meet the necessary expenditure should be provided. The
function of the Committee was, therefore, purely financial. They had to
collect financial information, a necessary preliminary to a consideration
of the Bill, and to advise as to the method of providing the revenue
required. They had no mission to examine the political conditions which
must be satisfied by a Bill designed to effect a Constitutional
Revolution. That was the function of the Cabinet. The Committee, limiting
itself to its instructions, recommended the method of raising revenue
which they thought wisest, independently of any but financial
considerations. The Government consider the question from a wider point of
view. Their measure must be founded on policy as well as finance. They do
not adopt the Committee’s recommendations. They decide to retain for a
time, more or less indefinite, a closer relation between the two financial
systems. Much as I should like greater simplicity, a study of their
measure leads me to the conclusion that its provisions are, in the main,
wise. Let us then consider how far the provisions of the actual Bill
satisfy the conditions needed to insure the success of Home Rule.
In the first instance, and for an uncertain number of years, the Imperial
Government keeps a tight hand upon the Irish Government. It reserves large
powers enabling it to reject, postpone, or test the validity of Irish
Bills. It regulates and levies all taxes, and fixes postal rates. It
secures the interests of various classes of public servants, and retains
temporarily the police under its own control. It fixes Irish Local
Expenditure at a certain sum, and it issues that sum yearly to the Irish
Government together with a free gift of £500,000 a year for three years,
falling gradually to a permanent gift of £200,000. _Normal_ increase of
Irish Revenue is appropriated to reduce the deficit to be borne by the
British Exchequer. If, therefore, the Irish Government increases its own
expenditure beyond the fixed sum allotted to it, it must find the revenue
required, and for that purpose powers of taxation are given to it.
The nursing hand of the mother is, in fact, present at every point of the
Bill, but it must be remembered that a hostile step-mother may, at any
time, replace the kindly mother.
There is no escape from the conclusion that these reservations restrict
the autonomous power of the Irish Government. On the other hand, the whole
spirit of the Bill marks the greater part of them as temporary. The Bill,
in fact, confers autonomy by gradual steps, and holds out prospects that
eventually the relations between the two countries will be simple and
workable. At the outset, and for some time onward, the Irish Government,
freed from liability for the costly “reserved” services which the
“partnership” has bestowed or inflicted on Ireland, will occupy itself
with the organisation of its own home administration. It starts with no
previous experience of administration, and it is clearly desirable that it
should proceed by steps, gathering experience as it goes. Its field of
work at first should not be too wide, and six years is not too long a
period for it to reform and reconstitute its administrative organisation.
This is its first duty, and it undertakes it under favourable conditions.
In six years the constabulary will be transferred automatically from the
charge of the Imperial Government to that of the Irish Government with the
sum allotted to its support.(106) That sum will be increased by any saving
which accrues to the British Exchequer from the transfer, and in
determining that sum regard is to be had to the _prospect_ of any increase
or decrease in the cost of the service, expected to arise from causes not
being matters of administration.
In the next place, the Irish Parliament may, at any time, on twelve
months’ notice assume the legislative and executive control of three
reserved services, viz., Old-age Pensions, National Insurance, and Labour
Exchanges. If they are taken over, the sum transferred with them will be
determined on the same principle as in the case of the constabulary.
Autonomy, therefore, in regard to these services is granted to the Irish
Government, and they will only be retained under the control of the
Imperial Government, if, and so long as the Irish Government desires it.
The Postmaster-General said in his speech on the introduction of the Bill
that the old-age pension charge is now practically at its maximum,
gradually diminishing, and the Primrose Committee (paragraph 54), estimate
the charge at the time when the Bill becomes law at £3,000,000. The
question then arises what will be the amount transferred, if the Irish
Government, seeing its way to more economical administration, were to give
at once the twelve months’ notice and take over the service at the end of
a year. It would not, I presume, be £2,664,000 the charge at which the
Treasury in its “outline of financial provision” (paper 6154), estimated
it in 1912-13, but £3,000,000, modified to some extent by the prospect of
reduction.
The cost of National Insurance and Labour Exchanges is estimated by the
Treasury in 1912-13 at £191,500, increasing by £300,000 in ten or fifteen
years. If the Irish Government were in like manner to take them over, the
amount transferred would, I presume, be £190,000 with a sum added
representing the prospect of increase.
In the event then of those services being taken over by the Irish
Government, they would considerably exceed their charges as estimated by
the Treasury for 1912-13, and the excess would entail a corresponding
increase of charge on the British taxpayer, to be counterbalanced
gradually by the normal increase of Irish revenue, which the
Postmaster-General estimates, with due reserve, at £200,000 a year, and by
the gradual reduction (£50,000 a year) of the free gift of the British
taxpayer from £500,000 to £200,000.
It must be remembered that these increased charges on the British taxpayer
are not the result of Home Rule, they are an inheritance from the
“partnership.”
When these services are transferred from the Imperial to the Irish
Government, the Imperial Government will only retain control over the land
purchase charges and the regulation and collection of taxes. The former
will apparently remain permanently with the Imperial Government, involving
an estimated increase of charge on the British taxpayers of £450,000 a
year (Treasury Paper 6154). With regard to the latter, it is clearly
desirable that at the outset the Imperial Government should be responsible
for levying and collecting taxes. If difficulties on that subject should
arise in parts of Ireland, the Imperial Government will settle them with
an authority which the new Irish Government cannot possess. Clause 26,
however, holds out a possibility hereafter of extended autonomy to
Ireland. If for three years the revenue of Ireland exceeds the expenditure
on Irish services by the Imperial and Irish Governments, the Parliament of
the United Kingdom will revise the financial provisions of the Home Rule
Act, with a view to securing a proper contribution from Irish revenues to
Imperial expenditure, and extending the powers of the Irish Government
_with respect to the __ imposition and collection of taxes_, and if
extension were then granted in a liberal spirit, there would be little
left to desire.
CONCLUSION
I have thus traced the gradual progress towards autonomy contemplated by
the Act. It justifies the conclusion that the Government favours autonomy,
but seeks to achieve that end gradually and tentatively. With the path
thus marked out, it lies with the nation to pursue steadily and resolvedly
the great end of reconciliation with Ireland.
It is impossible to consider Home Rule in its financial aspect, without
casting a look backward and comparing the result which would have followed
the grant of Home Rule in 1886 with the result which has followed its
refusal. In the former case Ireland would have been reconciled long ago.
She would have been mistress in her own house, and it would have been her
interest as well as her policy so to conduct her administration as to
insure the success of her autonomy. She would have had full opportunity
for reorganising her establishments on a reasonable scale, substituting
for an expensive military police an ordinary police, with a saving, as Mr.
Gladstone once pointed out, of £900,000 a year. She would have been able
to maintain the reasonable contribution to Imperial expenditure which it
is her duty as an integral part of the United Kingdom to provide. It would
have been worth the while of Great Britain to make a great sacrifice at
the outset to attain this solution of the Irish problem, and long before
now the solution would have been complete.
The Conservative Party refused Home Rule. They have held power during
sixteen out of the twenty-five years elapsed in the interval, and they
have had full opportunity to try their alternative policy. That policy has
not indeed been the twenty years of “resolute Government,” a euphemism for
coercion, advocated by Lord Salisbury. They have tried a policy of bribes
and doles, with the result that the Imperial contribution of over
£2,000,000 made in 1885 has been dissipated, and that Irish local
expenditure alone shows now a deficit of £1,500,000 and a steadily
increasing deficit. In short, a total burthen of between £3,500,000 and
£4,000,000 has been inflicted on the British taxpayer. The Leader of the
Conservatives has now announced with splendid audacity that if the
“partnership” continues, if the Conservatives are allowed still to
mis-rule Ireland, and to maintain the baleful spirit of ascendancy, they
will endeavour to develop in every possible way the resources of Ireland.
That is to say, the policy of bribes and doles is to continue at the
expense of the British taxpayer. Let the British taxpayer note that, and
let him note also that the Conservative Party will find the ways and means
for these bribes and doles not by taxes on the wealthy, but by taxes on
the food of the people. Ireland will accept the doles; but she will not be
satisfied. She will still clamour at our gates for Home Rule, as she has
clamoured since 1886, and she will get Home Rule, but the burthen on the
British taxpayer will be then how much greater than now?
Appendix
This Report of the Primrose Committee, the Treasury outline of financial
provisions, and the speech of the Postmaster-General on the introduction
of the Bill offer some vague estimates, perhaps more properly guesses, of
Irish finance, one of which, Old-age Pensions, extends to twenty years. It
may be interesting to throw these figures together, not (God forbid) as an
estimate, but as illustrating opinion prevalent among the experts engaged
in the preparation of the Bill.
Income:
Estimate for the year 1912-1913 10,839,000
_Add_ free gift of £500,000 to be reduced in nine years to 200,000
The Postmaster-General’s Estimate of £200,000 normal yearly increase
of revenue in twenty years 4,000,000
Income in twenty years (round figures) 15,000,000
Expenditure:
Sum transferred to Ireland 1912-1913 5,462,000
Post Office, 1912-1913 1,600,000
Old-age pensions (Treasury Paper) 2,800,000
Land purchase (£761,000 in 1912-1913 increased by £450,000) 1,211,000
Insurance £191,500 in 1912-1913 increased by £300,000 491,500
(Say) 11,564,500-11,600,000
Balance available for Constabulary, collection of Revenue, Imperial
contribution and Irish services.
It must be recollected that the Irish Government has to provide for
increase of Irish services beyond £5,462,000 by taxation.
VI.—The Judiciary, The Police, And The Maintenance Of Law And Order. BY
THOMAS F. MOLONY, K.C., HIS MAJESTY’S SECOND SERJEANT-AT-LAW, CROWN
COUNSEL FOR DUBLIN.
(1) _The Judiciary_
The Supreme Court of Judicature in Ireland is at present constituted as
follows: The Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice, the Master of the
Rolls, the Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, two Lords Justices of
Appeal, two Judges of the Chancery Division and six Puisne Judges of the
King’s Bench Division. On the occurrence of the next vacancy in the office
of Lord Chief Baron the office is to be abolished and a Puisne Judge
appointed instead. Since the year 1897, six judgeships have been abolished
in Ireland, and a large saving thereby effected. The duties formerly
discharged by the Probate and Matrimonial Judge, the Admiralty Judge and
the two Bankruptcy Judges have been transferred to the King’s Bench
Division and the number of the Puisne Judges of the King’s Bench Division
has been reduced by two.(107) With every desire for economy it is believed
that the Supreme Court Bench cannot be further reduced without interfering
with the efficiency of the public service. The Lord Chancellor of Ireland
is appointed by having the Great Seal delivered to him by the Crown, and
all the other Judges are appointed by His Majesty by Letters Patent. There
are also in Ireland five Recorders and sixteen County Court Judges, who
are appointed by the Lord-Lieutenant. The County Court Judges in Ireland
are also Chairmen of the Quarter Sessions of their respective counties. No
Judge of the Supreme Court or of the County Court can be removed from his
office except upon the address of both Houses of Parliament. Under the
Home Rule Bill the position of existing judges is to remain unchanged, and
future judges are to be appointed by the Irish Executive, and can only be
removed by a joint address of both Houses of the Irish Parliament which
gives them the same independence that the existing Judges now enjoy. Under
the Bill of 1893, the Imperial Executive was to have the appointment of
Judges for six years after the passing of the Act, but there seems to be
no justification for the suspensory period and it has been wisely dropped
from the present measure. The Irish Executive will not be “irresponsible
and inexperienced” as Mr. J. H. Campbell says in “Against Home Rule—The
Case for the Union” (page 54), but will be composed of men who for many
years have served in the Imperial Parliament, and are well qualified from
their ability and experience to at once take up the reins of Government.
(2) _The Police_
There are two distinct police forces in Ireland. The Dublin Metropolitan
force(108) has jurisdiction over the Dublin Metropolitan District, which
includes the whole of the City of Dublin and portion of the County. It
consists of 2 Commissioners, 7 Superintendents, 25 Inspectors, 187
Sergeants and 1,060 Constables, and costs £154,181 per annum.(109) Portion
of the cost is met by a police tax of 8d. in the £ on the rateable value
of the district, but a substantial balance—in the present year amounting
to £96,466—is borne by the Treasury. The Royal Irish Constabulary(110) has
jurisdiction over the rest of Ireland, including Belfast. It consists of 1
Inspector-General, 1 Deputy Inspector-General, 3 Assistant
Inspectors-General, 37 County Inspectors, 195 District Inspectors, 235
Head Constables, 2,068 Sergeants and 8,182 Constables. It costs £1,413,069
per annum, the whole of which is borne by the Treasury.(111) There is a
fundamental difference between the two forces. The Dublin force has been
founded on the model of the London Metropolitan Police, and is essentially
a civilian force. It is admirably trained in police duties, and has always
discharged its duty to the satisfaction of the citizens. The Royal Irish
Constabulary is drilled and trained in the use of the revolver, rifle, and
sword in the same manner as are the armed forces of the Crown, and is in
every essential a military organization. There is a reserve force always
kept at the Depôt in the Phœnix Park which at a moment’s notice is
available for service in any part of Ireland. The Bill proposes that the
control of the Dublin Metropolitan Police be transferred immediately to
the Irish Executive, but that the Royal Irish Constabulary shall remain
under Imperial control for six years. An Irish Executive which could not
control the police force of its own metropolis would be in a ridiculous
position, and no believer in self-government can object to the immediate
transfer of the Dublin force to the Irish Executive, and indeed, many
think that the same course ought to be adopted with regard to the Royal
Irish Constabulary. It has for a long period, been a constant source of
complaint that the numbers of the Royal Irish Constabulary, and its
consequent cost, are entirely out of proportion to the wants of the
country. It was created in a time of agrarian disturbance which has long
since passed away, and now that Ireland has been for many years far more
free from serious crime than either England or Scotland, it is absurd that
in Ireland it should cost 6s. 8d. per head of the population for police,
while an equally efficient force can be provided, in England for 3s. 4d.
per head, and in Scotland for 2s. 5d. per head. In Ireland there is one
policeman for every 365 inhabitants, while in England and Wales there is
only one for every 727 inhabitants.(112)
(3) _Law and Order_
The maintenance of law and order is the first duty of a Government, and if
it could be proved that the proposed measure of Home Rule for Ireland
would lead to crime and disorder, the cause would lose many of its more
prominent adherents. To those, however, who are interested in the
administration of the law—and particularly the criminal law—it is obvious
that Home Rule will have the effect of still further diminishing crime,
and will also enable considerable saving to be effected in the sums now
spent on law charges and criminal prosecutions. At the present time, and
indeed for many years past, Ireland has been practically crimeless. The
Judges at the Spring Assizes, 1912, were unanimous in describing all the
counties in Ireland, except two, as peaceable and orderly, and free from
serious crime. In two counties—Fermanagh and Carlow—there were no cases
whatever for trial, and it was only in Galway and Clare that
dissatisfaction was expressed with the present state of affairs, and even
in those counties the affected districts comprised a very limited area.
The following table taken from the report of the General Prisons Board for
Ireland for 1910, shows how the Government have been able to close prisons
in consequence of the diminution of crime and reduction in the number of
prisoners:
“The number of prisons and bridewells,” says the report, “under
the control of the General Prisons Board on the 1st April,
1878—the date when the local prisons and bridewells were
transferred to the Board—and now is as follows:—
1878. 1910.
4 Convict 1 Convict
Prisons. Prison.
38 Local 1 Joint Convict
Prisons. and Local
Prison.
95 Bridewells. 15 Local
Prisons.
6 Bridewells.”
The Unionist Associations of Ireland have recently published a handbook
called “The Home Rule ‘Nutshell’ Examined by an Irish Unionist” in which
it is stated (p. 69) “The only crime that is complained of in Ireland is
the organized crime due to the inspired agitation of the United Irish
League. Without that Ireland would be _comparatively crimeless_.” No proof
has ever been given that the United Irish League has taken any part in the
organization of crime, and beyond all doubt in many instances it has been
instrumental in preventing it. It cannot, of course, be denied that in
certain parts of the country instances of boycotting and cattle driving
occur, but such occurrences will certainly not increase, and are more
likely to cease altogether when Ireland is governed by an Irish Executive
chosen by the people, and responsible to the people for the good
government of the country. The Unionist complaint is, not so much that an
Irish Executive will not be able to enforce the law, but that it will be
unwilling to do so in certain cases, and will exercise a dispensing power
as to whether the decrees of the Courts shall or shall not, in particular
cases, be enforced.(113) If it were within the power of the Executive to
prevent the police or military from being called upon to protect the civil
officers of the law in the discharge of their duties, it would, no doubt,
be possible to paralyze the administration of justice, but it is well
settled that a sheriff, or anybody charged with the execution of a writ of
a competent Court, has the right to require the assistance of constables,
and indeed of any of the liege subjects of the Crown, and that the
Executive has no power to prevent such assistance being given. This was
laid down by the Common Law Judges in England in the well-known case of
“_Miller_ v. _Knox_”(114) and still more emphatically by the Lord Chief
Baron (Palles) of the Exchequer in Ireland in the case of the Woodford
prisoners at the Connaught Winter Assizes of 1886.(115) The Lord Chief
Baron said:
“I desire it to be thoroughly understood that the execution of the
decrees of the judiciary in this country does not depend—as it
does not, I believe, in any civilised country—upon the will of the
Executive who, for the moment, may happen to be in office. Into
the execution of our writ we cannot allow any question of party
politics to enter. If the law be wrong, let the law be altered by
the Legislature, and the judges will, at the moment, carry out the
law as altered. They cannot look beyond the law. They cannot, in
the administration of that law, contemplate alterations at a
future time. Their sworn duty is to give to him who asks it that
which he is entitled to by law. It is not competent to them, or to
any other person, to go behind the law and to ask whether, in his
own opinion, or in the opinion of others, the law is just or
unjust. With them the only consideration must be that is the law.
They are bound to pronounce the law. From that pronouncement there
is an appeal to the highest court in the realm. But when judgment
is once given—the judgment of a court of law, acting within the
scope of its jurisdiction—it is not competent to anyone in this
kingdom, I care not how high he may be, to say that a writ
regularly issued on foot of that judgment shall not be executed,
or to prevent those who by law are bound to aid in its execution
from giving that aid and assistance which the Constitution
requires.”
In 1893 the County Inspector of the Royal Irish Constabulary in County
Kerry, by the direction of the Executive, refused the assistance of the
Constabulary to the Sheriff of the County, when he desired to execute
certain writs of the superior Courts in the night time. The Sheriff
thereupon applied to the Queen’s Bench Division for an attachment against
the County Inspector, and the Court unanimously made the order.(116) The
Lord Chief Justice (Lord O’Brien) in giving judgment said (p. 238):
“I wish to point out that, according to the opinion of all the
judges who were called in to advise the House of Lords in the case
of _Miller_ v. _Knox_,(117) refusal, unjustified by the occasion,
as, in my opinion, the refusal in the present case was, to protect
the sheriff in the execution of his duty, when protection is
sought by him, in the honest exercise of his discretion, to enable
him to discharge his duty in the execution of civil process, is
punishable, by indictment, by criminal information, and, as was
established in _Miller_ v. _Knox_ by the summary process of this
court. The official, be he Under Secretary or Chief Secretary (I
do not, of course, refer to his Excellency the Lord-Lieutenant),
who directed Mr. Waters not to comply with the sheriff’s demand
for protection, has rendered himself amenable to the criminal law,
is liable to be tried by indictment, to have a criminal
information exhibited in this court against him, or to be attached
by the summary process of this court.”
There can be no doubt, therefore, that the Irish Executive will be bound
to give assistance and protection to sheriffs or other lawful officers
executing any legal process of a competent Court, and if such assistance
is not given the Courts will be able to assert their supremacy in the
various ways pointed out by the Lord Chief Justice.
A great deal of capital has recently been made in the Unionist Press on
account of the promulgation of the _Motu Proprio_ “_Quantavis
Diligentia_.” It has been asserted that this decree applies to Ireland and
will necessarily embarrass catholic officials in the discharge of their
public duty. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin has, however, fully
explained the meaning of the decree, and has shown that it does not apply
to any country where there has prevailed against it, as there has long
prevailed against it in Ireland, a custom invested with the conditions
required by the Canon Law.(118) He further says (p. 36):
“The excommunication of the clause _Cogentes_, is not decreed
against all who oblige lay judges to compel the attendance of
ecclesiastics in their courts. It is decreed against those who do
this in violation of the Canon Law. There must first, then, be a
canonical offence. It is to that offence that the clause
_Cogentes_ attaches the penalty of excommunication. But, there
being no canonical offence in the discharge of their duty by our
Catholic Judges, and Catholic Law Officers of the Crown, our
Catholic Police Magistrates and Catholic Policemen, and our laity
in general—who were so ludicrously paraded before the public a few
weeks ago as the unhappy victims of the _Motu Proprio_—there is in
their case no offence to which an ecclesiastical penalty can be
attached, and so, no ecclesiastical penalty is incurred.”
Nothing is to be feared in Ireland from the _Motu Proprio_ “_Quantavis
Diligentia_,” and there is really no necessity for the restrictions
contained in Section 3 of the Bill, although no person will object to
their insertion as a matter of precaution. The Unionists profess to be
alarmed at the prospects of Ireland under Home Rule; but when their fears
are analyzed they are seen to be illusory, and when their arguments are
considered they are found to amount to a single assertion that a great
measure of reform is not to be passed, and the will of the people is not
to prevail, because a small minority is irrevocably opposed to any measure
which will give to the Irish people power to manage their own affairs.
When Unionists complain of an occasional case of boycotting or
cattle-driving—and it is almost all they have to complain of now—they
should read Lord Durham’s report on Canada in 1838, and they will see how
favourably Ireland, even in its darkest hour, contrasts with the Canada of
that day. Lord Durham adopted the courageous policy of trusting the
people, and his policy brought peace, prosperity and contentment to that
country. Mr. Asquith’s great measure is an embodiment of the same policy,
and will be attended with the same results, and indeed the situation could
not be better summed up than it was by Mr. John Redmond in the House of
Commons three years ago.(119)
“As it happened in Canada, so it will happen in Ireland—when you
throw responsibility on the shoulders of the people, and not till
then. Then respect for law will arise in Ireland; then confidence
in the administration of justice will arise; and when that day
comes, I am perfectly convinced that Ireland will become the most
peaceable and most law-abiding, as she is to-day the most
crimeless, part of your Empire.”
VII.—The Present Position Of The Irish Land Question. BY JONATHAN PIM,
K.C.
INTRODUCTORY
The following chapter contains an account of the change which has been
wrought by legislation in the position of the Irish tenant farmer and
labourer during the last forty years. The change is large—the benefit and
improvement equally great. The task is, however, not much more than half
completed. The holdings purchased, or agreed to be purchased, by tenants
under the Purchase Acts amount to about 378,000. There remain to be
purchased about 227,000. The Congested Districts Board have done good work
in the congested districts, but what has been done has hardly gone beyond
the experimental stage. The experiments have, to a large extent,
succeeded, but their very success enlarges the vista of work to be done in
the future. The work of the District Councils in providing better
dwellings for agricultural labourers is perhaps more nearly completed.
Nevertheless, much still remains to be done.
Under the second section of the proposed Bill “to amend the provision for
the Government of Ireland,” the “general subject matter of the Acts
relating to Land Purchase in Ireland” is reserved. This would seem to
include the Land Purchase work of the Congested Districts Board, but it is
doubtful if it would include any part of the Labourers’ Acts. Taken in
conjunction with the whole scheme of the Bill, and especially with its
financial provisions, the wisdom of this reservation is evident. That work
which has gone so far and has been so beneficial in its operation should
be stopped, or even hampered, in its development, would be an injury
which, even the undoubted benefits a Home Government will bring with it
would scarcely out-weigh. No doubt Ireland, if thrown altogether on her
own resources, could, after a few years’ time, continue the work of land
purchase and could finally complete it, but the interregnum would be most
mischievous. All those who had not purchased would be dissatisfied, and
the Irish Government would be subjected to a pressure which they would
find it hard to resist. The danger would be two-fold. On the one hand the
Government might attempt to raise money at an excessive rate of interest
and would thereby embarrass themselves financially; on the other hand an
attempt might be made to force the Government to pass a “Compulsory
Purchase Act” and to fix the price of purchase at a much lower figure than
could be obtained under a system of free agreement. The Imperial
Government itself runs no risk in reserving Land Purchase; on the
contrary, it will run less risk under Home Rule than it does now. At the
present moment, there is due to the Treasury a sum of about £71,000,000,
money advanced for the purchase of land. The amount of the annual
instalments payable on this sum is about £2,226,785, and on the 31st of
March, 1912, there was due for arrears the sum of £44,156.(120) The
purchase annuitants have up to the present discharged their obligations in
a most faithful and honest manner. There is not the slightest reason to
think that they will act differently in the future, but if, as some
political prophets seem to consider possible, they do, in the future,
strike against the payment of the instalments they themselves will be the
principal sufferers, for under the proposed Bill the Treasury may, out of
the sum to be transferred to the Irish Government, before making the
transfer, deduct each year the amount then due on account of purchase
annuities. This, if it happened to any large extent, would render fresh
taxation necessary—a contingency which would certainly not be desired by
the Irish Government. The proposed Bill does not contain any specific
provision giving power to the Irish administration, in the case of local
repudiation, to make the counties in which repudiation had taken place
repay to the Irish Treasury such sums as they had been forced to pay to
the Imperial Treasury. If such a provision were inserted, it would make
the position of the Treasury extremely secure.
When Mr. Gladstone introduced his first Home Rule Bill in 1886, the land
war was at its height. The country was, on the one hand, full of intense
and unreasoning bitterness and resentment, and, on the other hand, of
unreasoning terror of the consequences of the change of administration.
There are many persons, to-day convinced believers in the policy of Home
Rule, who do not regret that the Bill of 1886 failed to pass. Things were
not very much better in 1893, although, owing to the Land Act of 1881, the
land war was slowly losing its fierceness. Since then a slow, but no less
deep and far-reaching, change has passed over the tenant farmers of
Ireland. The bitterness and discontent which rightly possessed them during
the whole of the last century have at last given way to more kindly and
contented feelings. This is due in a great measure to the large remedial
measures passed first by Mr. Gladstone’s Government of 1880 to 1895, and
afterwards by the Conservative Administration between 1896 and 1905; but
it is perhaps even more due to the feeling which has slowly grown up among
the agricultural population that, at last, they are being listened to, and
that their wants are being attended to, imperfectly, no doubt, but still
with sympathy and with a desire to do what can be done to meet them.
Whatever dangers may attend the granting of Home Rule now, they will not
be the dangers which terrified and controlled public opinion in 1886 and
1893. Almost all the confusion, trouble, and crime of last century was due
to the vicious absurdity of the Irish land code and to the miserable
condition of the Irish tenant farmers produced thereby. That is now
changed and Ireland has become a quiet and comparatively crimeless
country. The danger which many foresee under a Home Government is of a
different kind. It is rather that the overwhelming peasant vote may render
the administration unduly parsimonious and so unwilling to place any
additional burden on the owners of land that a kind of political
stagnation may arise therefrom. Ireland cannot, of course, be kept
permanently out of the great movements of European thought, but, for the
moment, it may be safely alleged that in no part of Europe is property
safer.
Part I. The Fair Rent Acts and the Land Purchase Acts.(121)
Two Classes of Occupiers of Land in Ireland—Economic and Uneconomic.
The occupiers of Irish agricultural holdings are of two classes—those
whose farms are economic, and those whose farms are uneconomic. By an
economic holding is meant one of sufficient productive capacity to support
a family at a reasonable standard of comfort without help from outside
sources. One class holds land of a fertility, quantity, and situation that
enables the occupier to live at a reasonable standard of comfort out of
the produce, and pay a rent. The other class also lives on and partly out
of land, but land of a character, quantity, or situation that will not
support a family at a proper standard of living without extraneous help.
In the case of the first class, the fairness of the rent is the most
important consideration; in the case of the second, the land and rent are
often minor elements in the struggle for existence. The land is either so
limited in amount or of so unproductive a character that, without outside
help such as the wages of labour, or help from friends and relations, the
income of this class would sink below the line necessary for subsistence,
and actual starvation would ensue. It has often been pointed out that
agricultural rent is in many cases paid in Ireland for farms out of which
no true economic rent is earned. This means, as every economist knows,
that, were the ordinary and necessary cost of production, including the
remuneration of labour, deducted from the returns from the cultivation of
land, no surplus would remain for the payment of rent. Consequently, the
rent paid for such land is not true agricultural rent. It is more of the
nature of house-rent paid by working men in towns, who, out of the wages
that they earn in their various employments, spend certain portions in
food, clothing, and shelter. But the Irish peasant, who tries to support
his family on an insufficient farm, has not the advantage of having a
demand for his labour at hand. He has either to emigrate, to migrate, or
to live below the proper standard of decency and comfort. Consequently, he
is neither in the position of the farmer nor of the labourer. He is the
occupier of a piece of land on which he builds his cabin, and pays a rent
which is supposed to be agricultural, but which is really not earned out
of the land, but is paid out of whatever other supplementary income he is
able to obtain by working for wages in other countries; or by
contributions from outside sources. The Irish Fair Rent Acts are supposed
to deal only with agricultural holdings. The rents fixed under them are
intended to be agricultural and economic rents. It is evident to anyone
who has examined the circumstances of the small holdings of the West of
Ireland, that the rents assessed on them under the Land Acts in many cases
are not agricultural rents, but are payments more of the nature of site
rents, or the rents of non-agricultural holdings, which were not supposed
to be subject to the provisions of the Irish Fair Rent Acts at all. Were
the Land Acts strictly administered, unquestionably the greater portion of
the small holdings on the western seaboard and other parts of Ireland
would have been excluded, and applications to fix agricultural rents on
them would have been dismissed.
Confusion of Treatment of Occupiers of Economic and Uneconomic Holdings.
The importance of the view here put forward lies mainly in the fact that
until the passing of the Act of 1891, under which the Congested Districts
Board was created, no attempt was made to distinguish between the two
classes of occupiers of Irish land. The occupiers of economic and
uneconomic farms were subject to the same laws, and were treated in the
same manner. No attempt was ever made to distinguish between the man who
could make his rent out of his land and the man who could not. Both were
included in the Fair Rent provisions of the Act of 1881, as it was
administered, and a rent was assessed on what was practically the site for
a cabin as if it were a farm. This confusion of treatment of two different
problems renders it necessary to trace the evolution of the Irish Land
Acts if we are to understand intelligently the problem that presents
itself in dealing with congestion in Ireland, and it is accordingly
proposed to sketch shortly the steps by which Irish land legislation has
advanced, and how it at present deals with the various classes of holdings
that have to be taken into consideration.
Special treatment for the congested districts was not thought of in the
earlier remedial Land Acts. The Act of 1881, if strictly administered, as
we have seen, would have excluded most of the holdings in such districts.
After twenty years’ experience of this Act it was found that its
provisions, even though amended repeatedly, did not meet the special
difficulties. The Congested Districts were not withdrawn from the
operations of the various Land Acts—merely additional powers were given
for ameliorating the condition of the people in the defined localities.
The Land Act of 1881 is naturally regarded in Ireland as the sheet-anchor
of the peasant—as the Magna Charta of his rights. On the other hand, it
has been looked on by many land-owners as an unjustifiable invasion of
their rights, and it has often been blamed for results which it recorded
rather than caused. To justify that Act of 1881, we must understand the
preceding conditions that governed the tenure of land in Ireland.
Complaints against Irish rents are not confined to recent years or to the
last century. A continuous stream of emigration of Protestant dissenters
from Ulster went on during the early part of the eighteenth century, and
the Irish Government of the day was much concerned at losing so many of
their most loyal citizens. In 1729 the Lord-Lieutenant forwarded a report
on the subject to the King, which states:
“One great reason given by the people themselves for leaving the
Kingdom is the poverty to which that part of the country is
reduced, occasioned in a great measure, they say, by raising of
rents in many places above the real value of land, or what can be
paid out of the produce of them, if any tolerable subsistence be
allowed to the farmers using their utmost industry.”
Complaint was also made of the uncertain tenures, the short leases, and
“the usual method of late when lands are out of lease,” which was “to
invite and encourage all persons to make proposals and set them to the
highest bidder without regard to the tenants in possession.”
Relation of Landlord and Tenant in Ireland prior to 1860.
The relation of landlord and tenant in Ireland was, down to the year 1860,
based on tenure, not on contract. The old feudal tenures imported from
England were, during the last two or three centuries, modified and altered
by the existing Irish customs. The result was that a period of much doubt
and confusion arose, and an extraordinary collection of Acts dealing with
land was placed on the Irish Statute Book. In the reign of George III.
upwards of sixty of these Acts were passed for Ireland, while six sufficed
for England. The following reigns were equally productive in agrarian
legislation, and the condition of the occupiers became more and more
unsettled and unsatisfactory, and “wild doctrines,” to quote the words of
the eminent authors of a standard work on Irish Land Tenure, published in
1851, were agitated, including “extravagant demands for fixity of tenure
and compulsory valuation of rents.”
The relation of landlord and tenant, based on tenure that prevailed down
to the year 1860, gave no security of occupation to the tenant, and did
not protect his improvements, but the cost of ejectment and the legal
difficulties of proof that accompanied it exercised a powerful restraining
influence in preventing capricious eviction.
Position of Tenants under the Common Law as regards Eviction—in the case
of Leaseholds.
During the eighteenth and early part of the nineteenth centuries, while
many Irish tenants held under leases or written contracts the great
majority were tenants from year to year. Under the Common Law both in
England and Ireland, the right of the landlord to recover possession of
the land in the case of a lease or written contract depended on the
covenants and conditions in the contract, and no ejectment could take
place unless for “a condition broken.”
In the Case of Yearly Tenancies.
In the case of tenancies not created by writing—tenancies from year to
year—there was no power of eviction for non-payment of rent under the
Common Law. The tenant of such a tenancy could only be ejected by a notice
to quit, which notice must expire with the termination of the year of his
tenancy. This system caused much difficulty to the landlord, as the onus
lay on him of proving the commencement of the tenancy, and, frequently,
even where the tenant had failed to pay the rent, eighteen months passed
before possession could be obtained.
The Common Law of England and the tribunals that administered it
discouraged the forfeiture of tenants’ interests, and the landlord was
held strictly to the technical proofs required by law.
The Irish Ejectment Code—how it Pressed against the Tenant.
In Ireland a different course was followed. The Irish “Ejectment Code,”
which originated in the reign of Queen Anne, had for its object, to quote
an eminent Irish lawyer, the expediting and facilitating the eviction of
the tenant. It got rid of every formality by which the old Common Law
delayed and obstructed the forfeiture of the tenant’s estate. Statute
after Statute was passed for this purpose. The whole principle of the
Common Law was reversed. Chief Justice Pennefather judicially declared
that it was a code of law made solely for the benefit of the landlord, and
against the interest of the tenant, and that it was upon this principle
that judges must administer and interpret it.
Facilities given for Evicting Leaseholders.
The landlord who sought to evict a tenant holding under lease was, down to
the year 1816, obliged to proceed in one of the Superior Courts of law, a
practice which caused much expense and delay. When the European peace came
in 1815, after the Battle of Waterloo, the fall in agricultural prices
rendered it difficult, if not impossible, for tenants to pay the high
rents which had been fixed while war prices ruled. An Act was immediately
passed (56 George III., c. 88) which enabled an ejectment to be obtained
in the County Courts at a small cost, and without delay. In this respect
Ireland was forty years ahead of England, as a similar jurisdiction was
not given to the English County Courts until 1856.
Facilities given for Evicting Yearly Tenants.
The Irish Ejectment Code applied only to tenants holding under leases or
written contracts. As the country advanced, landlords gradually ceased to
give leases, and the great majority of small tenants held from year to
year. To meet this state of things the Civil Bill Court Act of 1851
extended the ejectment for non-payment of rent to tenancies from year to
year. Under the English statutes no similar power was given, and the
English landlord was obliged in the case of non-payment of rent to first
serve the tenant with a Notice to Quit, and then proceed to evict him by
the slow and costly process of an action in the Superior Courts.
The Land Act of 1860 (Deasy’s Act).
From this sketch it will be seen that the law governing the relations of
landlord and tenant in Ireland became more and more favourable to the
owner. This tendency culminated in 1860, when, by “Deasy’s Act” (23 & 24
Vic., c. 154)—which was passed through Parliament without amendment—the
relation between landlord and tenant was defined as founded on contract
and not upon tenure. The Act proceeded on the assumption that the land is
the exclusive property of the landlord, and that the tenant’s interest is
nothing more than that of a person who has agreed to pay a certain
remuneration for the use of the soil for a limited period. It simplified
and increased the remedies of the landlord for recovering possession of
the land, and rendered efficient the law of ejectment for non-payment of
rent and on notice to quit. Thus a default in payment of one year’s rent
entitled a landlord to evict the tenant and get possession of the land,
with all improvements on it, even where such improvements many times
exceeded in value the amount due. So also, by serving a Notice to Quit,
the landlord could similarly get rid of the tenant without cause, and take
possession of the holding and all its improvements, no matter how valuable
these might be, and without having to pay any compensation. The governing
principle of the Act was that whatever attached to the freehold became
part of the freehold.
Position of the Irish Tenant from 1860-1870.—The Devon Commission reported
(1844) that farm Improvements are made by the Tenants.
During the ten years after the passing of “Deasy’s Act” the position of
the Irish tenant reached its nadir. He had no right of any kind, except
such as the contract under which he held gave him. Almost all the
improvements which rendered the land capable of being worked were made by
him. He had built the houses, erected the fences, made the roads, drained
and manured the land, reclaimed it from bog or mountain—generally at a
cost out of all proportion to the return—and yet he could be turned out
without compensation at the will of the owner, either by the service of a
Notice to Quit or by ejectment for non-payment of one year’s rent. That
the tenants in Ireland made the improvements was universally admitted. The
Devon Commission (presided over by a leading Irish landlord) in the year
1844, reported:
“It is well known that in England and Scotland before a landlord
offers a farm for letting, he finds it necessary to provide a
suitable farm-house, with necessary farm buildings for the proper
management of the farm. He puts the gates and fences in good
order, and he also takes upon himself a great part of the burden
of keeping the buildings in repair during the term; and the rent
is fixed with reference to this state of things. In Ireland the
case is wholly different. It is admitted on all hands, that
according to the general practice in Ireland, the landlord builds
neither dwelling house nor farm offices, nor puts fences, gates,
&c., into good order, before he lets his land to the tenant. The
cases in which the landlord does any of these things are the
exception. In most cases whatever is done in the way of building
or fencing is done by the tenant, and in the ordinary language of
the country—dwelling houses, farm buildings, and even the making
of fences, are described by the general word _improvements_, which
is thus employed to denote the general adjuncts to a farm, without
which, in England or Scotland, no tenant would be found to rent
it.”
Effects of Political and Economic Changes on the Relations between
Landlord and Tenant during the Nineteenth Century.
In the early part of the last century the landlords, for political as well
as commercial reasons, encouraged the increase of the tenantry. The
political system that prevailed gave the landlord who had a large number
of tenants considerable power. The economic conditions of the time made
small tillage farming productive, and the demand caused by an ever-growing
agricultural population increased the competition for land, and enabled
the rents to be raised. About the middle of the century all these
conditions altered. The combined influence of the Famine and of the
introduction of Free Trade made it the interest of most landlords to get
rid of their small tenants as expeditiously and as completely as possible.
Now came the era of pasture and larger farms. Although the population
rapidly decreased, the consolidation of farms kept up the competition for
land, and rents rose rapidly. The clearances so common from the Famine to
1870 were made in many cases quite irrespective of the non-payment of
rent.
Attempts at Reform.—Land Act of 1870.
This state of things led to outrage and constant agrarian disturbance.
Various suggestions for reform of the Land Laws were made, but such
proposals were usually denounced as confiscatory. Mr. Butt’s proposal in
1866 that sixty-three years’ leases, with power to the landlord of varying
the rent, when any accidental circumstances increased the value of the
land, should be given by every landlord to his tenants, was described by
Lord Dufferin as “communistic” and “as subversive of the rights of
property.” Mr. John Stuart Mill, speaking on a Land Bill introduced by Mr.
Chichester Fortescue (May 17th, 1865), denounced the policy of clearing
away the small tenants to make room for capitalist farmers. “You cannot,”
he said, “evict a whole nation.” Various attempts to alter the law were
defeated, until at length, in 1870, Mr. Gladstone took the matter in hand,
and passed his Landlord and Tenant Act—the beginning of a new Land Code.
The justification for the Act of 1870 was the same as for the Act of 1881,
which followed it. The tenant had made all the improvements on the land,
and yet had no legal property in them. He was liable to capricious
eviction from a holding, the value of which was often mainly due to his
labour, and he was subject to arbitrary increases of rent.
The Act of 1870 did three things: (1) It gave compensation for
disturbance; (2) it gave compensation for improvements; and (3) it
legalised the Ulster Tenant Right Custom.
_Compensation for Disturbance._
I.—Compensation for disturbance was strictly limited to such loss
as “_the Court shall find_” to have been sustained by the tenant.
The loss was often held to be the less the higher the rent. The
amount of compensation could in no case exceed £250, and was
limited to tenancies created after the passing of the Act. No
compensation was to be given to tenants who had sublet or
subdivided their holdings without the consent in writing of the
landlord, or to any tenant under a lease for thirty-one years or
upwards, and the landlord had a right of deduction from the amount
awarded, for deterioration, &c.
_Compensation for Improvements._
II.—The right to compensation for his improvements to be awarded
to a tenant when quitting his holding was subject to so large a
variety of exceptions as to greatly limit the number of tenants
able to take advantage of the provision.
Even when compensation was awarded, the landlord could deduct from
the amount any arrears due for rates and taxes and for the loss
due to the non-observance of express or implied covenants or
agreements, and the Court in awarding compensation was required in
reduction of the claim of the tenant to take into consideration
the time during which the tenant had enjoyed the advantages of
such improvements, and also any other benefits he had had.
_Ulster Custom._
III.—The legalization of the Ulster Custom did not prevent the
landlord from increasing the rent from time to time so as almost
to destroy the tenant’s interest. The Act did not define the
custom, and the onus lay on the tenant of establishing that the
particular usage under which he held was within it.
The three great reforms introduced by the Act of 1870, namely: (1) The
right to compensation for disturbance; (2) to compensation for
improvements; and (3) the legalization of the Ulster Custom—could only be
brought into operation by proceedings before the County Court Judges, who
were thus entrusted with the administration of the Act.
Failure of the Act of 1870, Causes of.
The Act of 1870 failed in its object mainly for three reasons:
(1) The great variety and complexity of the exceptions from the
benefits of the Act.
(2) The principle of administration which, as a rule, tended to
reduce the compensation to as low a figure as possible.
(3) The insecurity of tenure of the tenant, and the right the
landlord still had of raising the rent at his pleasure. Thus the
legalization of the Ulster Custom was of little use, as the
landlord could practically destroy all the tenant’s interest under
it by raising the rent. The only remedy was to surrender the
holding and go before the County Court Judge for compensation,
which was usually much less than the tenant-right would fetch if
sold in the open market.
To protect the interest and property of the tenant in his holding and in
his improvements, both of which had now legal recognition—it was necessary
to give him: (1) Security of tenure at a fair rent; and (2) a special and
expert tribunal to decide on the amount of the rent at which he was to
hold.
The Land Act of 1881.
The Act of 1881 effected these reforms. It gave the tenant the right to
sell his interest in his holding—subject to the landlord’s right of
pre-emption—it gave fixity of tenure at a fair rent—subject to a fifteen
years’ re-valuation—and it established a special tribunal to fix the
rents.
The principles of the present Irish Land Code—which comprises a large
number of statutes—are contained in the Acts of 1870 and 1881. The Act of
1870 recognised for the first time that the Irish tenant had a right of
occupation and a property in his improvements. But the Act failed because
it recognised these rights grudgingly, and left untouched the power of the
landlord to fix what rent he pleased. The Land Act of 1881 for the first
time safeguarded the property of the tenant, and reversed the policy of
the Act of 1860 (Deasy’s Act) by removing the Irish Land system from the
domain of contract, and, in a manner, bringing it back to tenure.
Differences between the English and the Irish Land Systems.
To understand the agrarian situation in Ireland it is necessary to keep in
mind the fundamental difference between the English and the Irish systems,
which was pointed out in the Report of the Devon Commission. In England,
speaking generally, agricultural farms are let by the owners fully
equipped with buildings, fences, farm roads, and other improvements
necessary for the proper working of the holding. The tenant contracts to
pay a rent for the farm so equipped, and, if he finds that the particular
holding does not suit him, he gives it up at the end of his contract term,
and goes elsewhere. Under this system, what Adam Smith termed “the
higgling of the market!” is the easiest test of land value, as it is of
all other commodities with regard to which competition is free. In
Ireland, on the other hand, the landlord, speaking generally, owns only
the soil. The equipment of each farm is the property of or has been
effected by the tenant, who is practically a hereditary occupier. The
houses, fences, drainage, reclamation, farm roads, and other such
necessary improvements have been made by the tenant or his predecessors in
title. The landlord owns the soil, and the tenant the necessary
agricultural equipment. Consequently, the tenant is not free. He cannot
walk out at the end of his term and leave behind him his houses, roads,
fences, and drains. Besides, if he goes out, he has nowhere else to
settle.
The pressure of competition is so great—as is natural in a country in the
greater part of which there is no other employment or industry than that
of agriculture—that, very large sums, often far in excess of the value of
the land, measured by any standard of productive capacity are paid for the
mere right to occupy. Again, the nature of the land, in large parts of
Ireland, is such as to prevent owners from working it on the English
system of equipped farms. In the poorer parts of the country the land can
only be made to yield a profit to the owner by being worked by small
occupying tenants, who, without any economic return, are willing to expend
their labour and that of their families. Were such land to be handed back
to the owners to be worked by them without the intervention of tenants no
profit could be obtained, and the land would go out of cultivation, being
below the margin of economic profit.
Here we have the explanation and the justification of the series of Land
Acts from 1870 to 1896. They were an attempt to adjust the law of landlord
and tenant to the facts of the case. Before 1870 the law regarded the
landlord as the sole owner of the farm, while, in fact, the tenant was the
co-owner. The Act of 1870 recognised, to a limited extent, the
co-ownership, but gave insufficient relief. The Act of 1881 gave a more
complete recognition and relief, and various amendments and extensions
were introduced by subsequent Statutes.
Irish Land Purchase and the extent to which it has been carried on by
State aid.
Side by side with the legal recognition of dual ownership in Ireland there
proceeded a system for the creation of a peasant proprietary by the aid of
State loans, when both parties were agreed. The principal Acts under which
advances of public money to enable tenants to become proprietors of their
holdings were made are:
The Irish Church Act, 1869.
The Landlord and Tenant (Ireland) Act, 1870.
The Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1881.
The Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act, 1885.
The Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act, 1891 and 1896.
The Irish Land Act, 1903 and 1907.
The Evicted Tenant Act, 1907.
The Irish Land Act, 1909.
Irish Church Act, 1869.
Under this Act the Church Temporalities Commissioners were empowered to
sell to tenants of Church Lands their holdings at prices to be fixed by
the Commissioners themselves. If the tenants refused to buy on the terms
offered to them, the Commissioners could sell to the public. The Church
Temporalities Commissioners were empowered, if they thought well, to take
payment, as to one-fourth only, in cash and to leave the other
three-fourths outstanding as a legal charge on the holding, to be paid off
in thirty-two years by sixty-four half-yearly instalments.
The Commissioners sold in all to 6,057 tenants at an average price of
twenty-two and two-thirds years’ purchase of the rents, and the total
amount of the money advanced on loan was £1,674,841, which was issued by
the Commissioners of Public Works.
The terms of repayment and the rate of interest charged on loans were
afterwards altered and reduced under the Purchase of Land Act of 1885,
Section 23.
Landlord and Tenant (Ireland) Act, 1870.
Under what are known as the “Bright Clauses” of this Act, the landlords
and tenants of agricultural or pastoral holdings could arrange for a sale
of their holdings with State aid to be carried out in the Landed Estates
Court. Upwards of two-thirds of the price agreed upon could be advanced by
the Board of Works, to be repaid in thirty-five years by an annuity, at
the rate of five per cent. on the loan. Under this Act 877 tenants
purchased their holdings, and the amount of loans issued was £514,536. The
total purchase money paid by the tenant purchasers for their holdings was
£859,000, being at the rate of twenty-three and one-third years’ purchase
of the rents.
The Act of 1881 (the “Gladstone Act”).
Under this Act the Land Commission thereby established was empowered to
make advances to tenants for the purchase of their holdings, and was
enabled to purchase estates for re-sale to the tenants. The limit of
advance was extended from two-thirds of the purchase-money (as in the Act
of 1870) to three-quarters. The terms of repayment were the same—an
annuity of five per cent. for thirty-five years.
Upwards of 731 tenants purchased under this Act, and the advances made
amounted to £240,801. These included advances to 405 tenants on seven
estates bought under the Act (Section 26) by the Land Commission in the
Landed Estates Court.
The Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act, 1885 (the “Ashbourne Act”).
Under this Act—commonly known as the “Ashbourne Act”—a sum of £5,000,000
was authorised to be advanced to the Land Commission to enable sales to be
carried out between landlords and tenants by agreement, and to enable the
Land Commission to purchase estates in the Landed Estates Court for the
purpose of re-selling them to the tenants. The Land Commission was
empowered to advance the entire of the purchase-money subject to the
retention of one-fifth by way of guarantee deposit for a period of about
seventeen and a half years, by which time an equivalent amount of the
capital advanced had been repaid by means of the sinking fund. This
deposit could be utilised if the tenant purchaser made default in his
repayment, and if the amount in default could not otherwise be recovered.
Thus the landlord vendor was made a guarantor for the repayment of the
annuity by the tenant purchaser. (Section 3.)
The advances made under this Act were to be repaid by annual instalments
(which included interest and sinking fund), extending over a period of
forty-nine years.
In 1888, the £5,000,000 given under the Act of 1883 being practically
exhausted, an additional sum of £5,000,000 was advanced to the Land
Commission for the purposes of land purchase (51 and 52 Vic., c. 49).
Under the “Ashbourne” Acts 25,367 tenants (on 1,355 estates) became
purchasers of their holdings, and the loans made amounted to £9,992,536.
The rate of sale was seventeen years’ purchase of the rents. (Report of
the Irish Land Commission, 1902, p. 89.) Under these Acts 101 estates were
purchased in the Landed Estates Court for re-sale to tenants, and loans
were issued to 2,029 tenants, amounting to £531,277.
Purchase of Land Acts, 1891 and 1896 (the “Balfour Acts”).
The funds advanced to the Irish Land Commission for the purposes of land
purchase having again become exhausted, Mr. Balfour, in 1891, introduced a
new system under which the landlord or vendor was paid in a specially
created guaranteed Land Stock (exchangeable for Consols at the option of
the vendor), equal in nominal amount to the purchase money. This stock
bears interest at the rate of 2-¾ per cent. per annum, and cannot be
redeemed until the expiration of thirty years from the date of the passing
of the Act of 1891. The dividends and sinking fund payments required for
this stock are paid out of a “Land Purchase Account,” established by the
Land Commission (Section 4), to which all moneys received on account of
any purchase annuity for the discharge of an advance are paid. If this
Land Purchase Account is at any time insufficient to meet the dividends
and sinking fund payments (owing, for instance, to default in the
repayment of instalments), the deficiency is to be a charge on a
“Guarantee Fund,” established for the purposes of the Act (Section 5).
This fund consists of a cash portion and a contingent portion. The cash
portion is mainly made up of the Irish Probate Duty (now Estate Duty)
grant, and an Exchequer contribution, and the contingent portion consists
of the Irish share of the local taxation (Customs and Excise) duties and
certain local grants (Section 5). Any deficiency in the Land Purchase
account is to be paid out of this Guarantee Fund. This financial
expedient, of course, throws the securing of the repayment of the advances
for land purchase on the ratepayers of the county, as any default will be
recouped by deductions from the various payments and contributions in aid
of rates that make up the Guarantee Fund. The amount of stock that could
be issued for each county for purposes of Land Purchase was limited to
twenty-five times the share of the county in the guarantee fund by the Act
of 1891 (Section 9). This limit, having been reached in the case of Co.
Wexford, by Mr. Wyndham’s Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act, 1901 (1 Edw.
VII., c. 3) the limit was extended to fifty times the share of that county
in the guarantee fund. By the Act of 1903 (Section 46) the limit for each
county was raised to thirty times its share in the guarantee fund, which
limit might be further raised to sixty times where the Treasury, on the
certificate of the Lord-Lieutenant, were of opinion that such increase in
advances could be made without any risk of loss to the Exchequer.
Taken on the basis of the financial year 1909-10 the Guarantee Fund for
all counties of Ireland amounted to £2,797,126. On the above figures the
capitalized value of the Guarantee Fund on the thirty times basis is at
present £83,913,780, but owing to increases beyond this thirty times limit
which have been sanctioned by the Treasury, in certain counties the
present capitalized value of the fund stands at £89,323,685.
The total charge on the fund up to March 31st, 1910, was about 48-¾
million pounds in respect of advances made on the security of the fund,
and, taking pending applications for advances into account, the
approximate charges amounted at that date to about 105 millions.
The Act of 1891 was amended in various respects by Mr. Gerald Balfour’s
Act of 1896, which introduced, among other changes, a method of reducing
every decade (up to thirty years after the advance was made), the annuity
to be paid by the tenant purchaser. As under the “Ashbourne Act” of 1885,
this annuity was calculated at £4 per cent. on the purchase money, 2-¾ per
cent. being for interest, and 1-¼ per cent. being for sinking fund. Under
Mr. Gerald Balfour’s system, during the first decade after the purchase
the annuity is calculated on the original advance, and during the second
and third decades on the portion of the advance which is ascertained to be
unpaid at the end of the previous decade. At the end of the third decade
the annuity is calculated on the amount of the advance then outstanding
and runs until the entire debt is paid off. The Act of 1896 also permitted
the Land Commission to dispense with the whole or any part of the
guarantee deposit required under the Act of 1885 if the security for the
repayment of the advance was considered to be sufficient without it
(Section 29).
The number of loans issued under these Acts of 1891 and 1896 to tenant
purchasers up to March 31st, 1910, was 46,828, amounting in all to
£13,145,762, and being at the rate of 17.7 years’ purchase of the rents
(Land Commission Report, 1910, p. 110).
Irish Land Act, 1903 (the “Wyndham Act”).
I have traced the history of the Irish Land Acts down to 1896. Some short
Acts were added to the code during the following years to clear away
certain difficulties, and in 1903 Mr. Wyndham brought in and passed his
Irish Land Act, which may be said to have opened a new era in Irish
agrarian legislation. Under it a new body known as Estates Commissioners
was formed, and included in the Land Commission to administer land
purchase in Ireland.
Sales under previous Purchase Acts were carried out by holdings. A
landlord could agree with one or more of his tenants to sell them their
farms, and if the Land Commission, after examination, found that the
particular holding was security for the advance asked for by the tenant,
such advance was made irrespective of any other sales on the estate. The
Act of 1903 introduced the system of sales by “Estates.” A landlord, to
obtain the benefit of the Act, is obliged to sell his entire estate, or
such portion of it as the Land Commission considers fit to be regarded as
a separate estate for the purposes of the Act. The Commissioners, before
defining any lands to be an estate, have to consider all the circumstances
of the district and of the property. Once the estate is “declared,” the
holdings comprised in it are dealt with in accordance with the provisions
of the Act. Those of them that are subject to judicial rents and are
within certain “zones” laid down in the Act are freed from the liability
to inspection as to security or equity of price. The Act presumes that a
holding subject to a judicial rent which is sold at a price the annuity on
which is from 10 to 30 per cent. less than the judicial rent, where that
rent was fixed since the passing of the Act of 1896, or from 20 to 40 per
cent. less where the rent was fixed before that date, is good security for
the payment of the annuity, and that the agreed price is equitable.
Holdings not subject to the “zone” provisions are liable in inspection as
to security and as to equity of price.
The Act also introduced the system of sales of estates to the
Commissioners under Section 6 (the direct sales to tenants by landlords
being under Section 1). When a landlord is willing to sell in this manner,
the Commissioners, after due enquiry as to the price that should be paid
by each tenant for his holding, may offer to purchase the estate for the
purpose of re-selling to the occupiers, provided that at least
three-fourths of the tenants agree to purchase their holdings from the
Commissioners at the estimated price.
To encourage sales of estates, and to enable owners to get such a sum as
would give them their net income out of the purchase money, when
reinvested in suitable securities, the Act provided that a bonus of 12 per
cent. on the purchase money should be paid to the owner on the completion
of the sale. At the same time the tenant was enabled to borrow the
purchase money of his holding on easier terms. As we have seen, under the
former Purchase Acts, the annuity rate was fixed at 4 per cent., of which
2-¾ per cent. was for interest and 1-¼ per cent. for a sinking fund, the
accumulation of which, with compound interest, would repay the sum
advanced in about forty-three years. Under the Act of 1903 the annuity
rate which the tenant had to repay was reduced to 3-¼ per cent., of which
2-¾ per cent. is for interest and a ½ per cent. for sinking fund. This
reduction in the sinking fund lengthens the period over which the
repayment will extend to sixty-eight and a half years, and, of course,
renders it practically impossible to continue the system of giving decadal
reductions in the annuities. The decadal reductions, which were abolished
by the Act of 1903, worked out at about 15 per cent. reduction in the
annuity every ten years.
The Act of 1903 also enabled owners to sell their demesnes and untenanted
lands to the Commissioners, and to repurchase them, or so much of them as
the Commissioners approved, with the aid of advances made to them in the
same manner and under the same conditions as to tenant purchasers.
The Act also gave considerable powers to the Commissioners of dealing with
poor and uneconomic holdings. It enabled (Section 2) parcels of untenanted
lands on the sale of an estate to be sold to the following persons:
(_a_) A person being the tenant of a holding on the estate;
(_b_) A person being the son of a tenant of a holding on the
estate;
(_c_) A person being the tenant or proprietor of a holding not
exceeding five pounds in rateable value, situate in the
neighbourhood of the estate; and,
(_d_) A person who within twenty-five years before the passing of
this Act was the tenant of a holding to which the Land Law Acts
apply, and who is not at the date of the purchase the tenant or
proprietor of that holding: Provided that in the case of the death
of a person to whom an advance under this paragraph might
otherwise have been made, the advance may be made to a person
nominated by the Land Commission as the personal representative of
the deceased person.
This last class (_d_) was intended to provide for the reinstatement of
tenants evicted from their holdings within the prescribed time.
It also gives power to the Commissioners to purchase untenanted lands for
the purpose of enlarging holdings and of creating new holdings, and to
enable this work to be carried out satisfactorily, the Land Commission is
given all the powers conferred on the Congested Districts Board by their
Act of 1901 for facilitating re-sales of land.
The Evicted Tenants Act, 1907.
A large number of evicted tenants had been reinstated in their holdings
under the Act of 1903 or had been provided with new holdings where their
former holdings were not available. Large sums of money (drawn from the
Reserve Fund established under the Act of 1891, which was made available
by Section 43 of the Act of 1903) were expended in equipping these
holdings and in financing reinstated tenants where in the opinion of the
Estates Commissioners this was necessary. The provisions of the Act of
1903 were, however, found to be insufficient to carry out the intentions
of the legislature, and in 1907 Mr. Birrell passed an Evicted Tenants Act
which enabled the Estates Commissioners to acquire untenanted land
compulsorily for the purpose of providing holdings for tenants who, or
whose predecessors, had been evicted from their holdings since the year
1878, and who had applied to the Commissioners before May 1st, 1907. Up to
March 31st, 1911, as many as 12,398 persons had applied for holdings as
Evicted Tenants. Of these 6,276 were rejected by the Commissioners after
enquiry; 2,631 did not apply within the prescribed time; 2,830 were
actually reinstated in holdings; and 661 were still under consideration by
the Commissioners.
Irish Land Act, 1909 (Mr. Birrell’s Act).