The House of Lords, at a meeting held last week,
agreed not to reject the Arrears Bill, and accordingly they read it a second time on Thursday, without a division. It is feared, how- ever, that amendments so grave will be introduced—especially, probably, an amendment of Clause 1, which enables the Land 'Commission to settle the arrears on the application of either the landlord or the tenant, and into which the Lords propose to in- troduce an amendment requiring the previous assent of both landlord and tenant to any such application,—that the change would be fatal to the scheme of the Government ; and we do not suppose that the Commons would agree to it, on any pretence whatever. Nevertheless, the language both of Lord Salisbury and Lord Waterford on Thursday was very ominous, in spite -of Lord Lansdowne's able and manly defence of the Bill.
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