working of broad legislative measures, are of more importance than the multitude of petty and ineffectual experiments with Irish land law with which the Statute Book is crowded. Minor enactments have therefore been passed over in order to examine more fully those of extended scope. The national, religious, and political bias which has coloured so much of the literature connected with Ireland creates an obstacle in the way of an attempt to write an impartial history of the land law. In addition much of the recent land legislation is so involved with current politics as to render it hard to avoid the vexed questions of the day. I have, however, endeavoured to the best of my ability to write without prejudice and to carefully eschew present political controversy. WM. E. MONTGOMERY. 2, THE CLOISTERS, PUMP COURT, TEMPLE. "No rule of law dealing with the contracts of owners and hirers of land is in itself objectively good or bad; the law which is most advantageous in one society would, if suddenly introduced into another, seem unjust, and probably prove mischievous; the good or evil effects of any law depend upon its being applicable or inapplicable to the social condition of the society into which it is introduced."-A. G. RICHEY. “There has in general survived to the Irish farmer, through all vicissitudes, in despite of the seeming or real veto of the law, in apparent defiance of political economy, a living tradition of possessory right, such as belonged, in the more primitive ages of society, to the status of the man who tilled the soil."-Report of the Bessborough Commission. |