ut, at the
bidding of the landlords, it was subsequently withdrawn, and, finally,
in July the Premier summoned his party and, telling them that if the
Bill were not altered Ulster would be lost to the Unionist cause, passed
into law a Bill sanctioning a general revision of judicial rents for
three years, and in this way did the Tories lower rents in breach of a
clause in the Act of 1881 that guaranteed rents fixed under its
provisions for a term of fifteen years.

As a speaker of the day put it--"You have the Prime Minister rejecting
in April the policy which in May he accepts, rejecting in June the
policy which he had accepted in May, and then in July accepting the
policy which he had rejected in June, and which had been within a few
weeks declared by himself and his colleagues to be inexpedient and
dishonest, to be madness and folly, and to be laying an axe to the very
root of the fabric of civilised society."

When the advance of five millions for land purchase under the Act of
1885 was nearly exhausted, a further sum of equal amount was earmarked
for the same purpose in 1888. Lord Randolph Churchill in 1889 expressed
the opinion that something like L100,000,000 of credit should be pledged
to effect purchase. In 1891 Mr. Balfour authorised the devotion of a
further sum of L33,000,000 for this purpose. The whole of the
purchase-money was to be advanced by the State by the issue of
guaranteed land stock, limited to the amount stated, and giving a
dividend at two and three-quarters per cent., repayment being effected
in forty-nine years by the purchaser by the payment of an annuity on his
holding of four per cent. The Act was too complicated to work well, but
under its provisions 30,000 sales occurred, in comparison with 25,000
which had been effected under the Acts of 1885 and 1888. The passing of
this Act marks the close of the experimental stage in land purchase.
Under the Land Act of 1896 was asserted the principle of compulsory sale
in the case of estates in the Landed Estates Court, whose duty it was to
sell bankrupt property, if they came under certain specified conditions,
and if a receiver had been appointed to them.

This roused the fury of the landlords to the highest pitch. "You would
suppose," said Sir Edward Carson, "the Government were revolutionists
verging on socialism.... I ask myself whether they are mad or I am mad?
I am quite sure one of us must be mad." In spite of denunciations of
this order th