HOME RULE AND SOCIAL REFORM: When William E. GLADSTONE became Prime Minister of England in 1868, few Irish nationalists thought he would be very different from his predecessors. He was, after all, widely known for his staunch support for the Ascendancy. The rise of militant Fenianism, however, convinced him that concessions were necessary if Ireland was to remain a peaceful part of the United Kingdom. In short order he pushed through three landmark acts: 1. The Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland (1869); Irish Catholics (and Presbyterians for that matter) had long protested the law that required them to pay tithes to support a church whose membership was less than 1/8th of the Irish population. Henceforth the Anglican Church of Ireland would be a voluntary religion with no special privileges. 2. The Landlord and Tenant Act (1870): At the end of August 1850, nationalists and agrarian activists had formed the Irish Tenant Rights League. Its goal was to gain for Irish peasants the "three Fs": 1. Fair rents: Set by a board to prevent gouging of poor tenants by landlords. 2. Fixity of tenure: Protection from eviction. 3. Free sale: The right of a departing tenant to compensation for any improvements made to the land. Although the League folded by 1858, its main accomplishment was to link land reform (economic rights) with the nationalist cause. Twenty years later the Landlord and Tenant Act (1870) granted some Irish tenant farmers one of the "three Fs" -- free sale, or compensation for improvements they made to their holdings in the event that they were evicted. The law also contained a provision that allowed tenants to purchase their holdings. It was the first of many significant land reform laws enacted between 1870 and 1903. 3. The Ballot Act (1872): Irish tenant farmers could now vote secretly, thus freeing them from political manipulations by their landlords. GLADSTONE's reforms helped revive constitutional nationalism -- the moderate, nonviolent movement to regain an Irish Parliament, or simply, "home rule." In the 1874 election to Parliament, 60 pro-home rule MPs were elected to Ireland. They were led by a Protestant lawyer named Isaac BUTT (1813-79). Immediately, they introduced a home rule bill that was soundly defeated, but the next year the movement was energized by the emergence of a younger, more dynamic voice -- that of Charles Stewart PARNELL.