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
Based on Tenure—Tenants under Common Law had certain advantages which were removed by the "Ejectment Code"—Facilities for eviction granted by legislature
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
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
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
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
Inquiry into the condition of tenants who had purchased their holdings under the Land Acts, 1881 to 1896— General prosperity with occasional failure—Causes and remedies
Establishment of the Estates Commissioners—Purchase of "Estates" instead of separate holdings— The "Zones"— Bonus to Vendors on purchase money—Longer term -with reduced rate of annuity to tenants— Sale of untenanted lands—Powers of the Estates Commissioners with regard to improvements
Causes—Development Grant broken down—Bonus percentage—New bonus rates an inducement to Vendors to sell at a low price—Finance in stock in lieu of cash—Option to Vendors to take Stock in cases still pending under the 1903 Act
Preservation of ancient monuments—Timber, turbary, mining and mineral rights—Sporting rights—Mortgages on purchased holdings—Sub-division and sub-letting—Compulsory Registration