Successive social and political changes that took place in the nineteenth century in Ireland, such as the abolishing of the Penal Laws and the 1801 Act of Union, and also the various land acts and reforms, served to level the privileges of the landed class with those of the previously disenfranchised and largely Roman Catholic Irish population. The Great Famine in Ireland in the mid-nineteenth century also served to impact many, though not all, Big houses and landed families. The inability of tenants to pay rents and the high eviction rates experienced during the famine led to extreme rent arrears that gravely affected the landlords income. Coupled with agricultural depression, increased land agitation, and the Land Acts of 1885 and 1891, the 'late nineteenth century saw considerable deterioration of 'big' houses and grand estates in Ireland.' For the majority, these factors 'led to landlord indebtedness which resulted in the selling off of household contents such as art and furniture and also the parcelling off and sale of demesne lands.' Attempts to end landlordism in Ireland with the Land Purchase (Ireland) Act 1903 saw financial incentives given to landlords to sell off their estates which resulted in "the sale of estates on a revolutionary scale."