The Common Law of England and the tribunals that administered it discouraged the forfeiture of tenants' interests, and the landlord was held strictly to the technical proofs required by law.
The Irish Ejectment Code—how it Pressed against the Tenant.
In Ireland a different course was followed. The Irish “Ejectment Code,” which originated in the reign of Queen Anne, had for its object, to quote an eminent Irish lawyer, the expediting and facilitating the eviction of the tenant. It got rid of every formality by which the old Common Law delayed and obstructed the forfeiture of the tenant's estate. Statute after Statute was passed for this purpose. The whole principle of the Common Law was reversed. Chief Justice Pennefather judicially declared that it was a code of law made solely for the benefit of the landlord, and against the interest of the tenant, and that it was upon this principle that judges must administer and interpret it.
Facilities given for Evicting Leaseholders.
The landlord who sought to evict a tenant holding under lease was, down to the year 1816, obliged to proceed in one of the Superior Courts of law, a practice which caused much expense and delay. When the European peace came in 1815, after the Battle of Waterloo, the fall in agricultural prices rendered it difficult, if not impossible, for tenants to pay the high rents which had been fixed while war prices ruled. An Act was immediately passed (56 George III., c. 88) which enabled an ejectment to be obtained in the County Courts at a small cost, and without delay. In this respect Ireland was forty years ahead of England, as a similar jurisdiction was not given to the English County Courts until 1856.
Facilities given for Evicting Yearly Tenants.
The Irish Ejectment Code applied only to tenants holding under leases or written contracts. As the country advanced, landlords gradually ceased to give leases, and the great majority of small tenants held from year to year. To meet this state of things the Civil Bill Court Act of 1851 extended the ejectment for non-payment of rent to tenancies from year to year. Under the English statutes no similar power was given, and the English landlord was obliged in the case of non-payment of rent to first serve the tenant with a Notice to Quit, and then proceed to evict him by the slow and costly process of an action in the Superior Courts.
The Land Act of 1860 (Deasy's Act).
From this sketch it will be seen that the law governing the relations of landlord and tenant in Ireland became more and more favourable to the owner. This [pg 177] tendency culminated in 1860, when, by “Deasy's Act” (23 & 24 Vic., c. 154)—which was passed through Parliament without amendment—the relation between landlord and tenant was defined as founded on contract and not upon tenure. The Act proceeded on the assumption that the land is the exclusive property of the landlord, and that the tenant's interest is nothing more than that of a person who has agreed to pay a certain remuneration for the use of the soil for a limited period. It simplified and increased the remedies of the landlord for recovering possession of the land, and rendered efficient the law of ejectment for non-payment of rent and on notice to quit. Thus a default in payment of one year's rent entitled a landlord to evict the tenant and get possession of the land, with all improvements on it, even where such improvements many times exceeded in value the amount due. So also, by serving a Notice to Quit, the landlord could similarly get rid of the tenant without cause, and take possession of the holding and all its improvements, no matter how valuable these might be, and without having to pay any compensation. The governing principle of the Act was that whatever attached to the freehold became part of the freehold.