The Land Acts (officially Land Law (Ireland) Acts)The Short Titles Act 1896, section 2(1) and Schedule 2 were a series of measures to deal with the question of tenancy contracts and peasant proprietorship of land in Ireland in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Five such acts were introduced by the government of the United Kingdom between 1870 and 1909. Further acts were introduced by the governments of the Irish Free State after 1922 and more acts were passed for Northern Ireland.
The success of the Land Acts in reducing the concentration of land ownership is indicated by the fact that in 1870, only 3% of Irish farmers owned their own land while 97% were tenants. By 1929, this ratio had been reversed with 97.4% of farmers holding their farms in freehold. However, as Michael Davitt and other Georgists had foreseen, peasant proprietorship did not end hardship in the Irish countryside. Emigration and economic disadvantage continued while the greatest beneficiaries of land reform were the middle class of medium farmers.
Landlord and Tenant (Ireland) Act 1870
Background The British Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone, had taken up the "Irish question" in an effort to win the general election of 1868 by uniting the Liberal Party behind this single issue. The shock of Fenian violence, especially in England, as well as the growing awareness of the potency of strong nationalist feelings in pan-European politics, was a second reason to tackle the Irish question. Gladstone desired to bring peace with fairness to Ireland, and by extension, the rest of the UK, which was then at the zenith of worldwide Imperial power. The Landlord and Tenant (Ireland) Act 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. 46) was partly the work of Chichester Fortescue, John Bright and Gladstone. The Irish situation was favourable, with agriculture improving and pressure on the land decreasing since the Great Irish Famine. The Encumbered Estates' Court (1849) and agitation by the Tenant Right League had led to the sale of estates by debt-ridden mainly absentee landlords. Gladstone's Liberal government had no explicit mandate for the Act, unlike the Irish Church Act 1869, and so could expect some opposition from the English landlord class in the House of Lords, fearful for the implications of property rights in England, many of whom were Whigs that Gladstone relied on for support in Parliament. Partly for this reason, Gladstone's approach was cautious, even conservative, for he was dedicated to maintaining the landlord class whose "social and moral influence", he said in 1863, was "absolutely essential to the welfare of the country." Furthermore, Gladstone met resistance from Whigs in his Cabinet itself, especially Robert Lowe, and the resulting compromise measure was so weak that it had little difficulty in passing both Houses of Parliament, with one significant amendment. As well as the Land Act, the Liberal government also passed the Irish Church Act 1869 and put forward the Irish University Bill that failed to pass both Houses of Parliament.
Policymakers made much use of the statistical data recently collated in Griffith's Valuation (1853–68).
Terms 1. The Ulster custom or any similar custom prevailing elsewhere, was given the force of law where it existed. 2. Tenants not enjoying this protection (the vast majority) gained increased security by: a) compensation for improvements made to a farm if they surrendered their lease (these had previously been accredited to the landlord, hence no incentive to the tenant); b) compensation for 'disturbance', i.e. damages, for tenants evicted for causes other than non-payment of rent. 3. The John Bright Clauses, which Gladstone accepted reluctantly, allowed tenants to borrow from the government two-thirds of the cost of buying their holding, at 5% interest repayable over 35 years, provided the landlord was willing to sell (no compulsory powers).
To prevent eviction by rack-renting, and so avoiding paying compensation to tenants, the Bill said that rents must not be "excessive", leaving this for the courts to define. But the House of Lords in a wrecking amendment substituted "exorbitant" in its place. This enabled landlords to raise rents above what tenants could pay, and then to evict them for non-payment without giving any compensation.
Consequences However well-intentioned, the Act was at best irrelevant, at worst counter-productive. Fewer than 1,000 tenants took up the Bright Clauses, since the terms were beyond most tenants and many landlords did not wish to sell. Many substantial leasehold farmers, who had led the campaign for land reform, were excluded from the Act because their leases were longer than 31 years. Legal disputes over customary rights and "exorbitant" rents actually worsened landlord-tenant relations. Figures do not indicate any impact of the Act on the rate of eviction, which was anyway at a low level. In the late 1870s when depression struck, evictions for non-payment of rent mounted, tenants had no protection, and in reply 'outrages' and the campaign by the Land League, led by Michael Davitt, became known as the Land War. The government had to pass a Coercion Act as early as 1881 (the Protection of Persons and Property (Ireland) Act 1881 (44 & 45 Vict. c. 4)) because of the increase in violence in Ireland; it lost support to the Home Rule Movement, which won nine out of 14 Irish by-elections between 1870 and 1874, mainly formerly Liberal-held seats.
Friedrich Engels, a contemporary observer, professed not to know "what the Tories could have against this Bill, which is so indulgent with the Irish landlords and finally places their interests in the tested hands of the Irish lawyers". He thought it "very amusing if the brave Gladstone thinks he has settled the Irish question by means of this new prospect of endless lawsuits".Friedrich Engels to Karl Marc (17 February 1870) reprinted in Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The legislation, however, "had a symbolic significance far beyond its immediate effects." The Land Act turned the tide of laissez faire legislation favouring capitalist landlordism, and in principle, if not in practice, was a defeat for the concept of the absolute right of property. For the first time in Ireland tenants now had a legal interest in their holdings.
Bessborough Commission The "Report of her Majesty's Commissioners of Enquiry into the working of the Landlord and Tenant (Ireland) Act 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. 46) and the acts amending the same", under the chairmanship of the 6th Earl of Bessborough and hence commonly known as the "Bessborough Commission Report," was published in 1881 after lengthy hearings in 1880. It reported that the 1870 act gave the tenant no real protection because compensation for improvements could be claimed only on giving up the lease and because tenants saw themselves as forced to accept rent increases to avoid sacrificing what they had put into their holdings. It declared, "Freedom of contract, in the case of the majority of Irish tenants, large and small, does not really exist". By a majority of four-to-one (Arthur MacMorrough Kavanagh dissenting) the commissioners declared in favour of the "Three Fs" as demanded by the Land League: fair rent, free sale, and fixity of tenure.
Agricultural depression From 1873 to 1896, farmers in Britain and Ireland suffered the "Long Depression" with its lower prices. Grain from America was cheaper and better, and was exported to Europe in ever-increasing amounts. Meat could be sent in refrigerated ships from as far as New Zealand and Argentina. For many tenant farmers in Ireland this meant lower net incomes with which to pay the rents they had agreed. This impacted most on the poorer, wetter western parts of the island that also suffered from the 1879 famine. This provided the context and arguments for further legal reforms.
Land Law (Ireland) Act 1881
The Land Law (Ireland) Act 1881 (44 & 45 Vict. c. 49) gave tenants real security, though by this time the Irish were demanding proprietorship. The Act established the principle of dual ownership by landlord and tenant, gave legal status to the Custom of Ulster throughout the country, provided for compensation for improvements and created the Irish Land Commission and a Land Court. In Gladstone's words, the intention of the act was to make landlordism impossible.Hickey, D.J. & Doherty, J.E., A new Dictionary of Irish History from 1800, Land Acts p. 287, Gill & MacMillan (2003) However, it was a complicated piece of legislation though it did provide for land purchase, three-quarters of the money to be advanced by the Land Commission, and to be repaid over 35 years at 5% interest. Under the Act, 731 tenants became proprietors.Hickey & Doherty: Land Acts p.287 More important was the fact that tenants had the right to take their rents to the Land Court for reduction under the fair rent clause, where in most cases a reduction of between 15% and 20% was awarded.Hickey & Doherty: Land Acts p.287
Despite a short-term reduction of rents (by about 20% by 1882) this act can generally be seen as economically ineffective. Instead of cutting costs or increasing productivity, Irish farmers increasingly turned to the Irish land courts to cut their rents and jack up their dwindling incomes. The land purchase element can be described as counterproductive because the conditions tenants now enjoyed under this Act gave them no incentive to buy, furthermore, some economic historians dispute the effectiveness of land purchase as a solution to the Irish land problem. Land purchase significantly reduced the amount of capital in Ireland that could have been invested to improve efficiency and competitiveness of Irish farms. Therefore, some headway is made towards lower rents but this is at the cost of lower rates of productivity growth in Irish farming.
The Arrears of Rent (Ireland) Act 1882 (45 & 46 Vict. c. 47) was the result of the No Rent Manifesto and the subsequent Kilmainham Treaty made between Parnell and Gladstone by which the Land Commission was empowered to cancel arrears of less than thirty pounds due by tenants. Two million pounds in arrears were estimated to have been written off.Hickey & Doherty: Land Acts, pp.287–88
The act was further amended by Arthur Balfour: the Land Law (Ireland) Act 1887 (50 & 51 Vict. c. 33) extended the terms of the act to leaseholders.Hickey & Doherty: Land Acts p.288
Overview The flawed economics that lay behind these acts exposes a political aim on Gladstone's part, to destroy the raison d'être of the Land League (following the recent Land War). Although the second Land Act ushered in a period of tentative calm, it became clear further reforms were necessary.
The act undermined the Land League by granting fair-rent control, fixity of tenure on leases, and freedom of sale: all to be overseen by the new government-sponsored Irish Land Commission. The 1881 act involved state participation in the redistribution of land-ownership. Because of attacks on landlords, the police and witnesses, the Protection of Persons and Property (Ireland) Act 1881 was passed, which added to the atmosphere of distrust of the authorities. An overview of the land war, the reforms and the effect of the Coercion Act was published in 1888 by the journalist WH Hurlbert, an Irish-American Catholic.Hurlbert 1888 vol.1 online Hurlbert vol.2
A symbolic significance of these land acts are how far Gladstone had come from his starting point. Judicial control of rent levels and the establishment of many land courts was a change from Gladstone's policy of 'retrenchment' and his commitment to free markets.