Lord Crewe in moving the second reading of the Irish
Land Bill in the House of Lords on Tuesday declared that the Government had no desire for general compulsion to deal with congestion, but they would have to keep it as a weapon in the background for the purpose of effecting necessary sales. Lord Crewe asserted that, so far as obtain- ing land for the landless men was concerned, the Act of 1903 was the thin end of the wedge, and he defended the reconstitu- tion of the Congested Districts Board as tending to enlist public opinion in the districts chiefly interested. While admitting that Ireland had no better friend than Lord Dunraven, he expressed surprise that he, of all people, should be prepared to move the rejection of the measure,—a course which might have very grave results. Undeterred by this warning, Lord Dunraven denounced the Bill in a powerful and damaging speech. While reiterating his belief in Devolution, he condemned the Bill as wantonly violating the concordat between landlord and tenant of 1902. It was sent up to the Lords "a bundle of gagged clauses," though it affected vital interests in both England and Ireland. There was no case for compulsion except in the "agricultural slums" in the West, and he prophesied that the new Bill— which only aggravated the tyranny of Boards—would atop land purchase altogether.
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