The Irish Lord Justice Christian gave the Irish a great
fright yesterday week by a judgment in which he was understood to declare that the Landed Estates Court would absolutely free the land sold under its auspices from all the customary claims known as Ulster tenant-right, in spite of the clauses legalizing that tenant-right in the Land Act of last year. The Lord Justice repudiates the report given of his judgment, so we are bound to suppose that his drift may have been more or less misunder- stood. But to relieve Irishmen of the horrible doubt, Lord Cairns has generously come to the rescue, and introduced on Thursday into the House of Lords a simple declaratory Act, enacting that in case of any proceedings under the Landed Estates Court Act, the rights of tenants under the Land Act of last Session should remain valid, even though not specified or referred to in the conveyance. This is a very useful step of Lord Cairns, who seems to us to be decidedly liberalizing this session, and taking the role of a leader who puts his country so much above party, that he does not scruple to play occasionally even into the hands of op- ponents.
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