Present Irish Questions

Contents

	PAGES
CHAPTER I
IRELAND IN 1901
Ireland has passed through a revolution in the Victorian age—Material progress—Dublin—Belfast—Improvement in Catholic places of worship and in the habitations of the people—State of the Irish community—Symptoms of retrogression—Decline of agriculture—The progress of Ireland much less than that of England and Scotland, and why—State of the Irish land system—Recent legislation has done some good, but it has been unjust, and has had pernicious effects—Ireland divided into three peoples—Notwithstanding great reforms Catholic Ireland is still, in the main, disaffected—Presbyterian Ireland—Cry for the confiscation of the Irish land—Protestant Ireland—Fall of its old ascendency—Discontent among the landed gentry—Nature of the government of Ireland by the Imperial Parliament—Its merits and defects—Attitude of the greater part of Ireland towards it—The administration of Irish affairs—The bureaucracy of the Castle—The Anglican, Presbyterian, and Catholic Irish Churches—The administration of justice in Ireland—Irish literature and public opinion—General survey of the present state of Ireland—Irish policy of Lord Salisbury’s Ministry—‘Present Irish Questions’ to be discussed in this work	1-38

CHAPTER II
THE QUESTION OF HOME RULE
The question of Home Rule not extinct—The reasons—Butt’s scheme of Home Rule—It is denounced and ridiculed by Mr. Gladstone, and defeated in the House of Commons—Death of Butt—The Home Rule movement becomes allied with a foreign conspiracy—Davitt and Parnell—The Land League—Mr. Gladstone’s surrender to it—The movement makes no progress in the Parliament of 1880-85—The General Election of 1885—Mr. Gladstone suddenly adopts the policy of Home Rule—The probable reasons—The Home Rule Bill of 1886—Its nature and tendencies—Decisive objections to the measure—It is rejected at the General Election of 1886, having been previously rejected in the House of Commons—Policy and conduct of Mr. Gladstone—The Home Rule movement makes some progress in England, and why—The Home Rule Bill of 1893—It is much worse than that of 1886—The reasons—It is rejected by the House of Lords—Home Rule under different forms—The Union must be maintained—Proposal that Parliament should occasionally sit in Dublin—The over-representation of Ireland should be redressed	39-83

CHAPTER III
THE QUESTION OF THE IRISH LAND—SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE LAND SYSTEM OF IRELAND TO THE YEAR 1870
Great importance in the history of Ireland of the conditions of land tenure—The ancient Celtic land system and its characteristics—The Norman conquest of Ireland—Norman feudalism in the Irish land—The policy of Henry VII., and especially of Henry VIII.—The era of the conquest and confiscation of the Irish land—The possessions of the O’Connors of Offaly wrested from them—Forfeiture of the domains of Shane O’Neill, and of the Earl of Desmond—Attempts at colonisation—All Ireland made shire land—The extinction of the old Celtic land system—The Plantation of Ulster—Progress of confiscation during the reigns of the two first Stuarts—The Civil War—Immense confiscations made by Cromwell—His scheme of colonisation a failure—The era of confiscation closes after the battle of the Boyne and the fall of Limerick—The Penal Code of Ireland—Its fatal effects on the Irish land—Dismal period in Irish landed relations—Gradual improvement—The period described by Arthur Young—Evil traces of the past remain—Whiteboyism and agrarian disorder—State of Irish landed relations up to the rebellion of 1798, and after the Union—Over-population and the results—Distress after the Peace—State of Irish landed relations up to 1844—The Report of the Devon Commission—The Famine and its effects on the Irish land—The Encumbered Estates Acts—State of Irish landed relations from 1848 to 1868	84-129

CHAPTER IV
THE QUESTION OF THE IRISH LAND (continued)—THE IRISH LAND ACT OF 1870—THE LAND LEAGUE AND THE NATIONAL LEAGUE—THE LAND ACT OF 1881—SUBSEQUENT LEGISLATION AS REGARDS THE LAND SYSTEM OF IRELAND
State of landed relations in Ireland in 1869-70—Mr. Gladstone Prime Minister—The Land Act of 1870—Its merits and defects—A short period of prosperity in Ireland—Ominous symptoms—Michael Davitt—The teaching of John Finton Lalor in 1848—The ‘New Departure’ in Fenianism arranged in America—Foundation of the Land League—It was a foreign rebellious conspiracy, with an agrarian side, under a constitutional mask—Parnell the master spirit of the League—His visit to America and the results—A short period of distress in Ireland—Conduct of the Irish landlords—Progress of the Land League—Mr. Gladstone again Prime Minister in 1880—The Compensation for Disturbance Bill rejected by the House of Lords—Outburst of agrarian crime, as the Land League increases in power—Rents at Griffith’s valuation—Boycotting—Frightful state of Ireland in 1881—After a short attempt to repress it, Mr. Gladstone surrenders to the Land League—The Land Act of 1881—Mr. Gladstone breaks the pledges he had made in 1870—His promise of compensating the Irish landlords—The Land Act of 1881 a bad and unjust measure directly inconsistent with that of 1870—The ‘No Rent Manifesto’—The Kilmainham Treaty—The Phoenix Park tragedy—Coercion—Parnell founds the National League, the successor of the Land League—Renewal of agitation in 1886—Struggle with law and the Government—Subsequent agrarian legislation for Ireland—This is really a concession to agitation, for the benefit of Irish tenants, and to the injury of Irish landlords	130-187

CHAPTER V
THE QUESTION OF THE IRISH LAND (continued)—THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE IRISH LAND ACTS
The administration of the Land Act of 1870 in the main good—Difficulty about claims for tenants’ improvements—The administration of the Land Act of 1881, and of its supplements—The Land Commission and its Sub-Commissions—Allowances to be made for these tribunals—Principles which the Land Commission should have adopted in fixing ‘fair rents’—The procedure and practice it ought to have established—It made mistakes as to both—The natur Present Irish Questions Clyx.com