the compensation which they had to pay to an evicted tenant by raising
the rent on his successor in the tenancy in the comparatively few cases
in which the evicted tenant could afford the legal costs which the
filing of a claim for compensation entailed, but this much at least had
been secured, that the virtual confiscation of the tenants' improvements
had been stopped. The Act of 1870 had been passed to prevent arbitrary
evictions and to secure to the tenant compensation for improvements, and
in certain cases for disturbance. It succeeded only in making arbitrary
evictions more costly for the landlord, it gave the tenant no fixity of
tenure since the compensation for disturbance was inadequate. To remedy
this Isaac Butt in 1876 introduced a Bill based on the "three F.s"--fair
rent, free sale, and fixity of tenure--but it was rejected by 290 votes
to 56, and several other amending Bills were thrown out by the House of
Commons between 1876 and 1879. In 1880 the Government were at last
stirred to action in the introduction of the Compensation for
Disturbance Bill, which caused the retirement of Lord Lansdowne from the
Cabinet, and was followed by threats of resignation on the part of the
Duke of Argyll. Under the Act of 1870 only those occupiers were entitled
to claim compensation for disturbance whose rents were not in arrear. By
this Bill it was proposed to extend the right to that claim to all those
who were unable to pay as a result of bad harvests, and who were willing
to hold their farms on just and reasonable terms, which the landlord
refused.

After passing through the House of Commons, in spite of Lord Randolph
Churchill's denunciation of it as the first step in a social war, the
Bill, although there had been a large majority in its favour in the
lower House, was thrown out by the House of Lords at a time when the
need for remedial legislation was illustrated by the presence in Ireland
of 30,000 soldiers and 12,000 policemen for the protection of life and