Irish Land Act 1870

1. Irish Land Act 1870 Gladstone concluded that the main problem with the Irish land system was the landlord-tenant relationship, and that more economic security needed to be given to the tenant.

2. Aspects of Act • Courts had to make sure Landlords didn’t exorbitant rents. • Landlords had to compensate tenants who were evicted if they had made improvements they had made to their holding (even if they had been evicted for non-payment of rent.) • A scale was to be introduced showing how much damages people could claim for having been evicted. The amount paid varied according to the size of the holding, but no damages had to be paid if the tenant had been evicted for failure to pay his rent. • Tenants who wished to purchase his holding from a landlord were to obtain two-thirds of the purchase price as a grant from the state.

3. What were Gladstone’s Intentions? • He intended the Land Bill to be a one-off, distinctly Irish measure, with no implications for the rest of the United Kingdom. • He did not believe the bill was an attack on the rights of property. A lot of the bill was concerned with simply upholding customary rights. Therefore, some believe the bill was very much a “conservative” measure. • He wanted to make Irish landlords more like English landlords – he described it as: “a position marked by residence, by personal familiarity, and by sympathy among the people among whom the live”

4. Impacts of the Act • Some argue Gladstone was deluding himself with his aims. For example, the right of “free sale” implied that the tenant had an “interest” in the land he rented, making him almost a joint owner with the landlord, • The Act was almost a total failure. It did not define how high an exorbitant rent was, so landlords raised rents to very high levels, and then evicted them for non-payment of rent. • The bill’s clauses offered no incentive for the landlord to sell and few tenants could afford the one-third of the purchase price required to buy their holding. • Eviction clauses had little impact as the controlling of rents was ignored. • Some historians argue that Irish poverty was due to a lack of economic growth and a shortage of cultivable land, not the actions of the landlords.

5. What were Gladstone’s real aims? • Some say Gladstone wanted to bind Ireland to the Union by proving that the Westminster parliament was prepared to help the mass of Irish people with what they considered to be their legitimate grievances. • Some thought this was impossible to achieve. Lord Kimberley said: “Indeed no measure of any kind can satisfy the tenant right party: the utmost they can do is to lay the basis for a gradual improvement” • The main reason for the act being so ineffective was probably do to opposition in his own cabinet from Whig landowners.

6. Irish Universities Bill 1873

7. Why was University Reform needed? • The Catholics in Ireland, apart from a number of small colleges, had no major degree-awarding institutions of their own. • In contrast Anglicans did - Trinity College, Dublin was an Anglican foundation.

8. What did Gladstone propose? • He proposed the establishment of a national, non-denominational University of Dublin, which would embrace both Trinity College and the present and future Catholic colleges. • Practical problems of the teaching of “controversial” subjects such as history and theology. • Trinity had no wish to be involved in such an institution. • Any new Catholic college would get no financial help from the state. • The Irish Universities Bill was defeated in the Commons in March 1873 by three votes. Problems with the Bill