The debate in the Lords on the Evicted Tenants Bill,
which lasted through Monday and Tuesday evenings, was a rather lop-sided, though an extremely able, debate. The only speech of great force on the Ministerial side was Lord Herschell's,— for Lord Rosebery's, though lively, was not vigorous,—while it would be difficult to imagine abler speeches than the Duke of Argyll's, the Duke of Devonshire's, and Lord Salisbury's, in opposition to the measure. The Duke of Argyll was quite willing to devote public money to the settling of this threatening controversy, if the monstrous compulsory pro. visions could have been eliminated. The surplus on the Irish Church measure had been devoted by Mr. Gladstone to the benefit of " those who had lost their minds, who were lunatics," and he held that those who have lost their farms in Ireland under the favourable conditions they now enjoy, might well be treated as having lost their minds too. He denied absolutely that this was an Arbitration Bill. Its true title would have been, "A Bill to empower certain persons to deal with agricultural tenancies in Ireland so that the law may be a praise to them that do evil, and a terror to them that do well." He did not quote " Alice in Wonder- land; " but he intimated in language quite as perspicuous that if forty maids with forty mops were to sweep for half a year, they could not sweep away half the monstrosities of this Bill. One of its worst features was that it dissociated the rental of Ireland from the improvement of the land, and left the landlords to feel that they would never get back a shilling of what they might devote to that purpose. If the arbitrators were appointed, they could not do their work in two years, so that at the end of that time there would be two Commissions in Ireland,—one to declare what shall be a fair rent, and the other to let men off for not paying it.
