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Home History of Ireland since 1815 History of Ireland since 1815; Part 4 |
History of Ireland since 1815; Part 4Gladstone's ministry of 1880-5 had the full force of the new Irish leader and his tactics. A second Land Act, introduced by Gladstone, was passed in 1881. By this Act the landlords were converted into mere rent receivers; Land Courts were created to settle the rents that were to be paid, whilst tenants were given fixity of tenure, and could not, as long as they observed certain conditions, be removed. Even this Act did not satisfy the Irish. Refusals to pay rent were accompanied by violence and intimidation, and Gladstone was forced to pass a most stringent Coercion Act, and finally to imprison Parnell and other chiefs of the party. And then, just after Parnell had arrived at an understanding with Gladstone, and had been released, occurred the horrible assassination, in the Phoenix Park, of Lord Frederick Cavendish, who had recently been appointed the Irish secretary (1882). Moreover, various dynamite outrages were perpetrated, and fresh Coercion Acts were the result.In 1886 Gladstone himself, as has been related, became a supporter of Home Rule. The effects of his conversion upon the Liberal party have been already described, and of the later history of Ireland the time has not yet come to say anything. The Unionist Governments of 1886 to 1892 and 1895 to 1905 by firm administration succeeded - despite occasional outbreaks - in restoring order in Ireland. They were aided by the fact that the Irish party became hopelessly divided in 1890, when a divorce suit in which Parnell was implicated led to more than half his followers renouncing his leadership; though of late years the party has been again reunited under Mr. Redmond. 1 Meantime many reforms were passed. Railways were encouraged. Popular local government was introduced in 1898. Above all, the purchase by tenants of their holdings, already encouraged by the State, was enormously facilitated by an Act passed in 1903, under which the State may advance money to tenants and give a bonus to the landlord for selling his property, and by an other, , passed in 1909, by which the sale of the land was, under certain conditions, made compulsory. The process of converting the Irish tenant into an Irish proprietor is not yet complete; but the end is perhaps not far off. Home Kule still remains the objective of the Irish party; and the proposals of the Liberal Government in 1907 to extend the control of the Irish over their own affairs were rejected by the Irish party as an inadequate substitute for the complete self-government which they demand. |
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