Bessborough Commission
The "Report of her Majesty's Commissioners of Enquiry into the working of the Landlord and Tenant (Ireland) Act of 1870 and the acts amending the same", under the chairmanship of the 6th Earl of Bessborough and hence commonly known as the Bessborough Commission Report, was published in 1881 after lengthy hearings in 1880. It reported that the 1870 Act gave the tenant no real protection because compensation for improvements could only be claimed on giving up the lease, and tenants saw themselves as forced to accept rent increases to avoid sacrificing what they had put into their holdings. It declared that "Freedom of contract, in the case of the majority of Irish tenants, large and small, does not really exist". By a majority of 4 to 1 (Kavanagh dissenting) the commissioners declared in favour of the "Three Fs" as demanded by the Land League : fair rent, free sale, and fixity of tenure.
Read more about this topic: Irish Land Acts
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