NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE Irish Land Bill passed through Committee on Wednes- day, after two or three days of additional discus. sion, in which no very momentous change was made. The most important change discussed was the proposal on Monday, supported by Mr. Parnell and Lord Randolph Churchill (though the latter expressed his intention, if the Govern- ment did not yield, to vote with them against his own wishes), to give the Courts a power of not only postponing eviction and spreading the payment of arrears over a considerable period, but of actually reducing the amount of arrears due, wherever the rent had, in the opinion of the Court, been too high. The Government, of coarse, resisted this proposal, which would have implied not a mere temporary redaction of judicial rents, but an abandonment of the judicial rents altogether. The proposal was defeated by a majority of 59 (199 to 140), after a smart brush between Mr. Chamberlain and Lord Randolph Churchill. On Wednesday, Mr. Balfour brought up the clause which is to grant a temporary reduction of judicial rents paid before 1886 in localities where the Land Court believes that the fall of prices has rendered the rent too high. The Court is to lay down rules by which, in every separate county, the reduction will be made, and these rules are to be made afresh in 1:.:8 and 1889, this power only extending for three years. All farther amend- ments were reserved for the Report stage, which was taken yester- day, and, it is hoped, will be concluded in the sitting of to-day.
