Yesterday week there were two remarkable little debates in the
House of Commons, the first arising on the Chancellor of the Exchequer's motion to give Supply preference over all other business. On this, Mr. Parnell not being present, Mr. Dillon rose and moved the amendment of which Mr. Parnell had given notice :—" That in the opinion of this House the state of Ireland is such as to require the proposal of remedial measures before the whole time of the House is appropriated by the business of Supply." He urged that the rents now fixed could not be paid at the present price of produce; that the number of ejectments that will be brought on the evidence of the inability of the tenants to pay the rents due in November would be very great ; that the landlords, encouraged by the Government to insist on the observance of the letter of the law, will be unyielding; that the people, no longer hoping for a Home-rule Parliament of their own, will become furious ; and that outrages will again multiply and make the winter full of danger. Sir William Harcourt, though declining to vote for the amendment, gave it his strongest• moral support, and Sir Michael Hicks-Beach reiterated his belief that the situation in Ireland is not so urgent as is represented, and that if the policy of the Government be announced in Feb- ruary, there is no reason, apart from political agitation, to expect a seriously disturbed winter.
