6 AUGUST 1881, Page 1

On Tuesday, the House of Lords read the Irish Land

Bill a second time, not only without a division, but without the indi- cation of a single opinion that the rejection of the measure was even conceivable except to minds of the utmost rashness and folly. The debate has, nevertheless, been described as one in which "the Ministerialists were completely incapable of meeting their opponents on equal terms ;" but we are quite sure that that is- not in the least the impression which the deliberate study of the whole debate would leave on any impartial mind. On the contrary, we should say that there was not an orator, how- ever powerful, on the Opposition side, whose arguments were not much more than outweighed by those who—often with far less mere rhetorical skill—grappled with and replied to them. The Marquis of Waterford, the Marquis of Lansdowne, Lord Midleton, and Lord Inchiquin, were, indeed, the only Irish landowners who cordially dreaded the Bill. Lord Carlingford, Lord O'Hagan, Lord Monck, Lord Waveney, Lord Monteagle, and Lord Powerscourt, all defended the Bill heartily ; while Lord Dunraven and Lord Belmore—the last a steady Conserva- tive—were, on the whole, unmistakably desirous of it, as Irish proprietors. Nor could Lord Cairns in any way disguise that, much as he disliked the origin of the Bill, he had the greatest fear of its mutilation.