We do not quite understand what Mr. Balfour has done
about evicted tenants. He on Thursday accepted a clause proposed by Mr. T. W. Russell, under which tenants evicted since May 1st, 1879, may purchase their former holdings under the Land-purchase Bill. That is kindly and reasonable, if they were evicted for bankruptcy, and the farms are derelict, or, as is usually the case, in their own hands as caretakers ; but is the privilege to be granted to tenants evicted because they combined not to pay, over the heads of those who risked their lives and suffered boycotting in order to cultivate the land ? There can be no justice, and no honour either, in a clause like that, and there must, therefore, be some other interpretation. We see, however, that the mistake is widely made, and trust that an opportunity will bo taken to explain the true intention of the clause. We would go great lengths to secure agrarian peace in Ireland, but not the length of depriving tenants of their clear rights because they acquired them by standing up for the law. That would not be "concession," but betrayal.
