That catastrophe in rural life precipitated
Mr. Gladstone's Land Law Act (Ireland), 1881. Being precluded by his
political tenets from protecting Irish agriculture against foreign
competition, or assisting it with the resources of the State, Mr.
Gladstone aimed at alleviating the distress due to the decadence of a
national industry by defining with meticulous nicety the respective
shares which the two parties engaged in agriculture--landlord and
tenant--were to derive from its dwindling returns. He believed that the
proportion of diminishing profits due to the landlord, because of the
inherent capabilities of his property, and to the tenant, because of his
own and his predecessors' exertions, could be roughly determined by a
few leading cases in the Land Court; and, further, that landlords and
tenants throughout Ireland would conform to such guidance as these
decisions might afford. In this anticipation he ignored the vital
function of agriculture in Irish life, and the effect which the growing
stringency of agricultural conditions would have on a population that
loved the land and rejoiced in litigation.
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