The Devon Commission was a commission that was appointed by Sir Robert Peel to research the problems with land leases. It was formed by a queen's proclamation issued 20 November 1843 and reported 14 February 1845. This was a positive step for the government as it made the Irish believe that reform would come soon afterwards. In fact this was the first time that a British government had taken a step towards reforming the unfair leases.

The Devon Commission was headed by Lord Devon and it reported in 1845 that the population of Ireland had exploded from 6 million people to close on 8 million people. Similarly they concluded that the leases were unfair and were favorable to the landowners (Usually Anglo-Irish

Anglo-Irish

Anglo-Irish was a term used primarily in the 19th and early 20th centuries to identify a privileged social class in Ireland, whose members were the descendants and successors of the Protestant Ascendancy, mostly belonging to the Church of Ireland, which was the established church of Ireland until...

). Indeed the majority of Irish tenants had no form of protection, they could be, and often were, summarily evicted

Eviction

How you doing???? Eviction is the removal of a tenant from rental property by the landlord. Depending on the laws of the jurisdiction, eviction may also be known as unlawful detainer, summary possession, summary dispossess, forcible detainer, ejectment, and repossession, among other terms...

. They also had no claim to the Ulster Custom of landholding - this would have granted tenants the "3F's": Fixity of tenure

Tenure

Tenure commonly refers to life tenure in a job and specifically to a senior academic's contractual right not to have his or her position terminated without just cause.-19th century:...

, Fair rents and Free sale. The Devon Commission had wide reaching consequences and though too late to prevent the famine, it did galvanize change afterwards.