Already in the year 1849, the State had interfered between the landlords in difficulties and their tenants, by the creation of a special tribunal for obligatory liquidation,—_the Encumbered Estates Court_. It finally came to interfere between landlord and tenant by instituting a new court of arbitration, the _Land Court_, entrusted with the care of fixing the “fair” rent in each case. That Court was no sooner opened than 75,807 affairs were inscribed upon its roll. It judged in one year 15,676. But there remained still 60,101 to be judged, and already the reductions of 18 to 27 per cent. imposed on the landlords appeared insufficient; already the farmers were loudly clamouring for further reductions. For in truth such remedies were too anodine for such rooted disease! But the wedge had nevertheless entered the tree. The State had appeared in the character of umpire between the landlord and the peasant. Henceforth all was or seemed possible. The essence of dogmas is to suffer no questioning. One cannot with impunity discuss for twenty years the basis of landed property’s law and the theory of “the three profits” before empty stomachs. As a parallel to these debates, the question of political rights for Ireland rose again, and ended insensibly by the conquest of the electoral franchise, of religious equality, and of national education. The moment arrived when the bulk of the population took an interest only in the truly vital question,—that of the soil. And all of a sudden they understood that there was only one remedy for the ills that weighed so grievously over them: Landlords and tenants cannot continue to live side by side. Either the one or the other must go. “Let the landlords decamp! They do not belong here,” said the peasants. “No, by G⸺! The peasants shall go,” answered the landlords; “the way is open....” It was thus that towards 1876 the Irish movement became agrarian, from being purely national. The League is the organ of that new function. Its primary idea belongs to two veterans of the Fenian plots, Michael Davitt and John Devoy. But what distinguishes it from those plots, besides a broader basis and larger aims, is that it acts in broad daylight, with face uncovered, appealing to all men of goodwill, using exclusively those constitutional weapons—the right of meeting, the right of association and coalition. “The Fenians saw only the green flag,” wrote John Devoy. “The men of to-day perceive that under its folds is the Irish land.” Nevertheless, it was to the remains of the Fenian associations that he and Michael Davitt had recourse at first to lay the foundations of the new association. They went to look for them even to the uttermost end of America, secured the co-operation of some of the most influential members of the Irish emigration, then came back to Europe, and summoned a great preliminary meeting at Irishtown.