Act. No. of Purchasers. Amount of Advances. I.—Irish Church Act, 6,057 1,674,841 1869 II.—Landlord and 877 514,536 Tenant Act, 1870 III.—Land Law 731 240,801 (Ireland) Act, 1881 IV.—Land Purchase 25,367 9,992,536 Acts, 1885, 1887, 1888 and 1889 V.—Land Purchase 46,806 13,633,190 Acts, 1891, 1896 VI.—Irish Land Act, 117,010 41,293,564 1903 VII.—Evicted Tenants 550 307,550 Act, 1907 VIII.—Irish Land 1,444 422,562 Act, 1909 Total 198,842 68,079,580(156) Mr. Gladstone once said to me that he was deeply moved by the Parliamentary history of the Irish Land question. It was a subject of the greatest magnitude affecting as it did the life of the country. Yet the Imperial Parliament failed for three quarters of a century to realize the importance and the gravity of the case; and even then did not grapple successfully with it. “A sad and a discreditable story,” was his comment. Nowhere, I repeat, can a stronger argument in favour of Home Rule be found than in the history of the Irish Land Question. VI There is one fact in connection with the Government of Ireland during the nineteenth century with which, I think, English Statesmen are but imperfectly acquainted, viz., that the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 was an utter failure. It was thought that when Irish Catholics were admitted to the English Parliament all would go well with Ireland. But the Irish Catholic member in the English Parliament was absolutely useless to Ireland; and it was that uselessness which led to the Repeal Agitation, Young Ireland, Fenianism, and the Home Rule movement. The policy of the English Parliament in truth fostered the idea of Irish nationality. It is, perhaps, within the range of possibility, that good legislation, and good administration might have put out the fire. I know not. But as it was those who made the laws, and those who administered the laws, fed the flame. Every Coercion Act was a nail in the coffin of the Union; and a reminder that the foreigner ruled in the land. When O’Connell was “master of the situation” in 1835, he thought that the opportunity had at length arrived of obtaining important remedial measures for Ireland. We know how his hopes were disappointed. When the Irish Members held the balance between English parties in 1852, they thought that the time had come for securing a beneficial Land Act; but they also were doomed to disappointment. In fact between 1829 and 1869 the Irish Members failed to place upon the Statute book one single measure for which the Irish people had loudly called; and the measures of 1869 and 1870 were due to Fenianism and not to parliamentary action.