The Achievement of the Land League
...ict a farmer for no reason or if a farmer decided to fix up his property, they would raise the rent the farmer had to pay for the land. Thus, began the effort of farmers to acquire what financial holdings they had. The Land League had three simple policies, the so-called “Three F’s”: 1. Fair rent. This meant that the rent would be fixed by judges appointed by the government. 2. Fixed tenure. This meant occupancy would have to be decided between tenants and the landowners. 3. Free sale of land. This meant that a farmer would be permitted the free sale of his lease if he wished to give up farming. The ultimate goal for creating the Land League was to give the farmers of Ireland control and ownership over their own land which they rightly should have. The main point of discussion with the Land League was that the enemy was not the individual landlord, rather, the institution of landlordism itself. This point gave the farmers a common issue to build strength and unity within the Land League. In 1880, Parnell publicly declared his conviction, “When a man takes a farm from which another has been evicted you must shun him on the roadside when you meet him, you must shun him in the streets of the town, you must shun him in the shop, you must shun him in the fairgreen and in the marketplace, and even in the place of worship, by leaving him alone, by putting him in a moral Coventry, by isolating him from the rest of his country as if he were the leper of old, you must show your detestation of the crime he has committed.” The first person so treated is a Captain Boycott. From this, a new verb enters the language “to boycott”. The Land ...