The House of Commons has considered the Lords' Amend- ments,
and rejected all the more important of them by immense majorities. On Thursday night, even Mr. Goschen, we are happy to say, came back to his old position as a cordial ally of the Government, urging that whatever might be thought of the particular provision then in question—namely, that an Irish lease- holder, on the expiration of his lease, should have all the advan- tage of a "present tenant" in relation to the right of the Court to revise his rent,—it would be madness to encourage the Lords to persist in their amendments, when the result could only be the loss of the Bill. The result is that none of the amendments striking at the principle of tenant-right have been accepted ; while the Duke of Argyll's amendment exempting from the opera- tion of the Bill holdings managed on the English system,—i.e., genuinely improved by the landlord,—has been admitted, only on the strict condition that the improvements shall have been both made, and also substantially" maintained," by the landlord. In that form the amendment will do no harm. The Lords were to consider these amendments yesterday, but the result,—which must, we believe, be ultimate surrender, whatever fight is made, —will not be known yet. There is an unlikely rumour that while Lord Salisbury is for compromise, Lord Cairns is now for resistance to the death.
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