Yesterday week, in the Committee on the Arrears Bill, Mr.
Healy having called the Irish landlords " a set of thieves," and again having accused them of " robbing their tenants," it was moved, but not carried, that the words be taken down ; and an appeal to the Chairman elicited the opinion that, in Mr•. Play- fair's opinion, language of this kind, though objectionable and unworthy, was not a question of order, not being applied to• Members of that House as Members of that House. Mr. Healy then moved an amendment enabling an evicted tenant to make application to the Court for an enlargement of the term during which the tenancy might be redeemed; and his amendment was accepted by the Government and by the House by a majority of 114 (220 to 106), Mr. Gladstone promising to name a limit to this period of redemption before the Report of the Bill was brought up. This limit was ultimately named as a period of six months. On Monday, an amendment by Mr. Stanhope, to omit the words which throw on the Consolidated Fund the burden of any deficiency which there may be in the Church Surplus, for the purposes of the Arrears Act, was de- feated by a majority of 70 (243 to 173). At Tuesday's evening sitting, all the clauses of the Bill passed through Committee, and Mr. Gladstone brought up the new clause authorising loans to tenants whose holdings are between the value of £30 and £50, to be repaid in the course of thirty-five years ; and the clause was added to the Bill. On Thursday and Friday the new clauses authorising loans to Boards of Guardians for emigration purposes were discussed, but the result of the dis- cussion had not been reached on Friday, when we went to press. Nothing is more certain than that all the amendments of the Parnellite party have received the most candid and not unfrequently the most favourable reception from the Govern- ment, in spite of the obtrusive defiance of air with which not a few of them have been urged.
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