Above : Photo Of John Russell, Prime Minister At The Time

The famine had aggravated the land troubles, and evictions with all their attendant misery were terribly frequent. Much of this was due to the wanton greed of men who wished to re-let at higher rents the land whose value the toil of the poor peasants’ hands had increased. But there were also numbers of land¬lords, naturally humane and anxious to do justice, whose estates were so much in debt that, when the interest on the various mortgages and so forth were paid, there remained but the narrowest margin for their own use.

They were, therefore, faced with the alternative of either exacting their full rents or starving.The British Government, considering this state of things, conceived a scheme for putting the lands of these practically insolvent proprietors in the market, hoping that those who purchased them would be able and willing to improve their estates, and consequently the condition of the tenantry. The Irish Encumbered Estates Bill was introduced into Parliament in February, 1848. It met with little opposition, and passed into late in the following July. According to its provisions the debt-encumbered estates could, on the petition of either the owner or the creditors, be put up for sale and disposed of by a summary process.

Whatever where the intentions of the framers of the Act, the time chosen for it was extremely unfortunate. The impossibility of obtaining rents during the famine had sunk in debt many estates which, if time had been allowed, could have gradually recovered and discharged their liabilities. This delay was not granted. Great quantities of land were hurried into the market, so that prices fell, and what was realised barely sufficed, in numerous instances, to pay off the charges, leaving practically nothing over for the former proprietor. As a rule, derive much benefit from the Act. The deed they found themselves in worse case than before. The landord did not unnaturally, desired to make a profit on his outlay, frequently did so by a general Raising of rents.