Mr. Forster, replying to the Irish demand for a promise
to investigate the land question, said that no statesman who had. given any attention to Irish subjects doubted that the attempt to improve Ireland always brought you back to the land ques.
tion. But a "ten minutes' Bill" on the land question, even though confined to the subject of temporarily suspending evic- tions, would have been a grave mistake. It was not a question which ought to be touched at all, till the principle on which it was to be dealt with had been arrived at. He believed that order would be preserved better in Ireland without the renewal of the Peace Preservation Act, than with it. Mr. Shaw sup- ported the amendment, not in a sense hostile to the Govern- ment, but merely as a mode of recording his view of the import- ance of the land question, which he did not doubt the Govern- ment thoroughly appreciated ; and Mr. Parnell supported it in a sense rather more hostile to the Government, though still with a great deal of self-restraint. The amendment was negatived by 300 votes against 47.
