Excerpt from The Irish People and the Irish Land: A Letter to Lord Lifford; With Comments on the Publications of Lord Dufferin and Lord Rosse Indeed, my Lord, I am disposed to think that very often in courts of justice, especially in "Nisi Prius" trials, there is a great opportunity for learning something of what is really passing in the every-day life of all classes in the country. This is peculiarly the case in the political and social disputes which so frequently give rise to litigation before our Irish tribunals. Within the last two years I have taken part in inquiring, in courts of justice, into the management, not of one Irish estate, but of many. I have fought the battle on one side or the other, not of one but of many evictions; I have heard more than one evicted tenant depose to his own wrongs; and more than one landlord, or agent, give his evidence to justify the act. It sometimes happens that the state and condition of the country becomes an element in determining the rights of litigants. The disclosures which arc thus incidentally made upon these subjects often afford information of the highest value. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The 'Land Question' occupied a central place in political and cultural debates in Britain for nearly two centuries. From parliamentary enclosure in the mid-eighteenth century to the fierce Labour party debate concerning the nationalization of land after World War Two, the fate of the land held the power to galvanize the attention of the nation.