Patt after Westminster
Later in life, Patt served as a justice-of-the-peace, and hopefully, with his earlier views, he was a damned sight more reasonable and generous than other JPs and magistrates in Ireland at that time. He was also active in the Tenant Right League, principally led by Gavan Duffy, who was later to be the Premier of Victoria.
Tenniel, Two Forces, Punch 1881. This cartoon dates from well after Patt's death, but shows Britannia protecting poor, weeping, about to be ravished Hibernia (Ireland) from the anarchistic Irish-righters, particularly as regards land rights. It represents the kind of garbage the Irish had to put up with when asking for simple and basic rights. Lex has some Irish antecedents. They were protestant, although they also had land rights issues and had to put up with ethnic prejudice. And, of course, the disaster of 1848-1852 affected them as well, and they had to emigrate to Australia at much the same time as Peter Lalor.
The aim of the league was to secure the adoption and enforcement of the Three Fs, believe it or not, being:
This, then, would have been some of Peter's background to politics, the discussions around the dinner table. His father had a strong degree of independence; a belief in the importance of landholding; an objection to the iniquities of the tenancy system; a consequent belief in the importance of land ownership; sympathy and understanding of the poor and hard-done-by; and a powerful objection to the liberties taken by the governing authorities, and their representatives in the form of the police and judicial system.
- Fair rent — meaning rent control: for the first time in the United Kingdom, fair rent would be decided by land courts, and not by the landlords;
- Free sale — meaning a tenant could sell the interest in his holding to an incoming tenant without landlord interference;
- Fixity of tenure — meaning a nasty landlord, of which there were far too many, couldn't evict a tenant if the rent had been paid.
This, then, would have been some of Peter's background to politics, the discussions around the dinner table. His father had a strong degree of independence; a belief in the importance of landholding; an objection to the iniquities of the tenancy system; a consequent belief in the importance of land ownership; sympathy and understanding of the poor and hard-done-by; and a powerful objection to the liberties taken by the governing authorities, and their representatives in the form of the police and judicial system.