This proposal was very well received by the Irish Members,
but with caustic criticisms by the Conservatives, who suggested that Mr. Redmond's name ought to have been on the back of the Bill. We believe that some such measure is absolutely necessary to relieve tenants loaded with what Mr. Gladstone called " in- veterate arrears,"—which, in point of fact, they are never ex- pected to pay, and never would pay—from the burden round their neck. At the same time, we must say, as we said two or three weeks ago, that we cannot well conceive how the tenant's " inability to pay " is to be really proved before any Court,
unless it be the landlord's interest,—which it often will not be, —to assert the tenant's ability to pay. We fear extremely that under this measure there will be a good deal of successful false swearing which may be productive of great demoralisation in parts of Ireland, if those tenants who are honest are made to feel how much they lose by their honesty, as compared with those tenants who are dishonest. At the same time, there can be no doubt that without some measure of this kind, a large number of moat unrighteous and cruel evictions cannot be stopped. And in choosing between the two evils, the Govern- ment have, we believe, chosen the less evil of the two.
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