Page:The Irish land acts; a short sketch of their history and development.djvu/15

( 7 ) had been evident for generations, we may say centuries, now attracted the attention of social and economic as well as of political reformers. Men's minds were ever turned to the examination of economic and social questions. All manner of theories were preached, and doctrines propounded for the amelioration of the condition of the people. It was universally recognised that the country was not prosperous, that the economic condition of the people was miserable. Some ascribed this state of things to the inertia and ignorance of the inhabitants. Others, including the writer of Lord Devon's Digest, to the use of the potato. A third opinion rested it on the perverse character of the people; in this following Bishop Berkeley, who attributed this disposition to the Tartars and Spaniards, from whom he believed Irishmen were descended; while others again thought that the condition of the people was due to the character of the laws.

During the first half of the 19th century, however, with the exception of some sub-letting Acts, there was little legislation of any importance dealing with Irish land. Perhaps, the first really important social measure that was passed after the union between the Parliaments of Great Britain and Ireland was the Poor Law Act of 1837, which established and created the Poor Law Union System that has been so large a factor in Irish life. About the same time the Grand Jury Act of 1837 became law, which regulated the government of the Irish counties, and a few years later, the Municipal Corporations Act of 1840, which provided for the Local Government of the larger cities—the Towns Improvement Act of 1854 doing the same for the smaller towns.

But the half century between the Famine and the present day was not barren in legal enactments. It soon became evident that the policy of "let alone" could not be maintained, and after a long period of controversy, strife and agitation, several Acts were put on the statute book that well-nigh revolutionised the conditions of the people.



The emigration from Ireland which commenced with the Famine affected the part of the country that was suitable for grazing far more than the poorer and lighter lands that required to be tilled in order to make them productive. The explanation is simple. The adoption of the policy of Free Trade in England, and the repeal of the Corn Laws, opened up English markets to the commerce of the world. Grain could be brought in from