29 JUNE 1889, Page 2

An unexpected event occurred in the Upper House on Monday

night. Lord Halsbury's Bill for further facilitating the transfers of land had passed safely through Committee, and would, it was supposed, be sent down to the Commons stamped withthe nearly universal approval of the great proprietors. It contains, however, a clause abolishing primogeniture, and the Tory Peers gradually awoke to the fact that they did not like that. The Duke of Beaufort, therefore, moved the rejection of the Bill on the third reading, and Peer after Peer rose with objections of detail usually heard in Committee, though Lord Milltown bluntly.expressed the real objection. Lord Selbonne, Lord Herschell, and Lord Salisburyliterally crashed the argu- ments of detail ; but the Tory Lords had made up their minds, and the Premier, supposed to be so absolute in the Upper House, was nearly defeated, the division showing only 113 for the Bill to 104 against. This would in most cases be a suffi- cient majority, but it is supposed that the dislike of solicitors to certain clauses will influence the House of Commons, where, moreover, the Liberals are apt to believe that they have a patent right in such reforms as the abolition of primo- geniture. We should, however, strongly advise Lord Salisbury to amend the clause allowing agents to register lands, force his Bill through, and leave it to the Radicals to obstruct if they like, and explain themselves afterwards on the platform.