The Committee on the Irish Land Bill was resumed on
Thurs- day night., and made some progress. Mr. Headlam's amendment was allowed to drop after a hot assault by him on the anonymous M.P. who writes to the Birmingham Daily Post, and who had de- scribed him as a deserter from the Liberal ranks, and spoken of listening to his " intolerably wearisome speech." Mr. lleadlam protested his utter innocence of any sinister design, asserting that he expected his amendment to be accepted at once by the whole Liberal party, excepting, perhaps, a few Irish Members. Mr. Ileadlain must have been, in his time, a very innocent Judge-Advocate, if he did. And, at all events, when it was pointed out to him that it could not be so, he might have at once explained his innocence to the Committee, which he did not. His amendment was negatived without a division,—very much, apparently, to his own satisfaction, after the wigging he had received from his Newcastle constituents. A number of other amendments were bowled over with much appa- rent ease by the Government, including one by Mr. Kavanagh against sub-letting, even in the case of sub-letting only a cottage and a half-acre of land to a labourer,—though only one such labourer's house and garden is to be allowable for every 25 acres. Mr. Chichester Fortescue got an easy victory over Mr. Kavanagh, both in his speech and in the division, gaining by a majority of 66 in a very full House-284 to 218. The House actually succeeded in reaching, on Thursday night, the end of sub-section 2, clause 3 !
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