Page:The Irish land acts; a short sketch of their history and development.djvu/9

CONTENTS.

		pages.
Section 1.—Topography.
	Agricultural methods conditioned by geographical character	5—6
Section 2.—Economic Ireland before the Land Acts.
	The Famine the turning-point in Irish Economic History—Its sequel: national misery—The search for a remedy	6—7
Section 3.—Movement of Population during the last half of the 19th Century.
	The change from tillage to pasture and consequent emigration—A blessing or a curse?—Maximum population not the greatest good for a country—Healthy social life the criterion of national prosperity	7—10
Section 4.—Tendency of Irish Agriculture.
	Disproportionate increase in the quantity of pasture—Necessity of resting the national industry on a broader basis—"Too many eggs in one basket"	10—11
Section 5.—Relation of Landlord and Tenant up to 1860.
	Based on Tenure—Tenants under Common Law had certain advantages which were removed by the "Ejectment Code"—Facilities for eviction granted by legislature	12—14
Section 6.—Deasy's Act (1860) and its Effects.
	Relationship of landlord and tenant deemed to be founded on contract—Owing to the anomalous position of the Irish tenant with respect to improvements, his condition reaches its nadir	14—16
Section 7.—The Act of 1870.
	Its justification—Tenant had no legal property in his own improvements and was liable to capricious eviction and arbitrary increases of rent—The struggle for a settlement—What the Act did, and why it failed	17—18
Section 8.—The Fair Rent Acts.
	Their justification—Act of 1881—Establishment of the Land Commission—Amending Acts—Summary of progress made under the Fair Rent Acts	18—20
Section 9.—Agriculture Situation consequent on the Fair Bent Acts.
	Difference between the English and Irish systems the justification of the Fair Rent Acts—Adjustment of rents in Ireland tends to their diminution—Landlords anxious to sell their interest; hence Land Purchase	20—22
Section 10.—Land Purchase Acts up to 1896.
	Principal purchase provisions of the Irish Church Act, 1869, the "Bright Clauses" of the Act of 1870, the "Gladstone Act" of 1881, the "Ashbourne Act" of 1885, and the "Balfour Acts" of 1891 and 1896	22—25