An association of Irish tenant farmers and others, organized in 1879 by Charles Stewart Parnell under the name of ‘The Irish National Land League’ (and suppressed by the Government in 1881), having for its object primarily the reduction of rent, and ultimately the carrying out of radical changes in the Irish land-laws, e.g., by the substitution of peasant proprietors for landlords. Hence Land-league v. trans., to treat according to the principles of the Land League. Land-leaguer, a member of or sympathizer with the Land League. Land-leaguism, the principles or practice of the Land League.
1820. Libr. Univ. Knowl. (N. Y.), VIII. 136. The incendiary speeches of the Land Leaguers.
1881. Davitt, in Times, 17 Jan., 12/2. The Land League strikes at the root of Irish misery.
1881. C. Gibbon, Heart’s Problem, iv. (1884), 56. He could quite believe that the old tailor and his family had gone to America on some Land League commission.
1881. Sullivan, in Macm. Mag., XLIV. 343. The Land League and Land Leaguism have kept the peace in Ulster on this occasion.
1886. Sat. Rev., 6 March, 315/2. A Welsh Parliament … in which they might disestablish the hated Church, land-league the landlords, [etc.].
