The Land-purchase Bill passed its third reading on Monday by
225 to 9G, the thinness of the attendance showing how completely the opposition has died away. The Bill has been most skilfully piloted by Mr. Balfour, who in his final speech admitted that it was complicated, but declared that Ito com- plexity arose from the complexity of the Irish land system, which had been built up stratum by stratum, until it re- sembled a geological formation. He claimed for the Bill, in his peroration, that it was "a well-considered, a large, and a not ungenerous measure for the benefit of the great class of tenant-farmers in Ireland." That is perfectly true, and Mr. Balfour deserves the greatest credit for his judicious philan- thropy, as well as his statesmanship ; but we wish he had not, in the course of the controversy, expressed so strong an opinion as to the finality of the Bill. It is not final, and there is no reason why, if the principle is found successful, it should be.. The next Irish agrarian question will be the position of those estates the owners of which refuse to sell their properties. It is not reasonable to suppose that tenants on such estates will be content.
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