Great importance in the history of Ireland of the conditions of land tenure--The ancient Celtic land system and its characteristics--The Norman conquest of Ireland--Norman feudalism in the Irish land--The policy of Henry VII., and especially of Henry VIII.--The era of the conquest and confiscation of the Irish land--The possessions of the O'Connors of Offaly wrested from them--Forfeiture of the domains of Shane O'Neill, and of the Earl of Desmond--Attempts at colonisation--All Ireland made shire land--The extinction of the old Celtic land system--The Plantation of Ulster--Progress of confiscation during the reigns of the two first Stuarts--The Civil War--Immense confiscations made by Cromwell--His scheme of colonisation a failure--The era of confiscation closes after the battle of the Boyne and the fall of Limerick--The Penal Code of Ireland--Its fatal effects on the Irish land--Dismal period in Irish landed relations--Gradual improvement--The period described by Arthur Young--Evil traces of the past remain--Whiteboyism and agrarian disorder--State of Irish landed relations up to the rebellion of 1798, and after the Union--Over-population and the results--Distress after the Peace--State of Irish landed relations up to 1844--The Report of the Devon Commission--The Famine and its effects on the Irish land--The Encumbered Estates Acts--State of Irish landed relations from 1848 to 1868. The fortunes of many communities, it has truly been said, have been decisively affected by the conditions of the ownership and the occupation of the soil. The social, even the political, life of modern Europe has been, in a great measure, moulded by the land tenures that have grown out of the feudal system; I need only refer to the history of England, of France, and of Germany. This remark, however, especially applies to the events that make up the annals of Ireland; that long and unhappy tale of misfortunes and errors is intimately associated, all through, with the land, and with the relations connected with it. Modern research has shown how grotesque and mischievous was the ignorance of the Tudor lawyers and statesmen, who described the ancient organisation of the Irish land as a medley of barbarian and pernicious usages; it was an archaic and imperfect specimen of the feudal system, with differences indeed, but marked with its essential features. Norman feudalism, lawless and ill-ordered, was for centuries, after the first Conquest, placed beside this primitive form of society, in parts of a country not half subdued; the results were seen in incessant strife and discord, and in social anarchy, which prevented civilisation growing up. The Irishry had well-nigh driven the Englishry into the sea, when Henry VII. tried to make his authority felt in Ireland; his successor, partly a Celt in blood, and a real statesman, devised a