The Lords had an Irish debate of some importance on
Monday. Lord Lifford is under the impression that the Civil Bill Courts in Ulster give tenants who claim compensation too much money, and instanced one case in Donegal in which 42 years' purchase was granted for the tenant-right of a piece of land the fee-simple of which was worth only 21 years' purchase. He accordingly demanded a Committee of Inquiry into the working of the Act. The Government resisted, Lord Kimberley arguing for them that the Legislature ought to wait till a body of decisions had been issued from the Courts of Appeal, and explaining a good many .of the cases mentioned by Lord Lifford. He did not, however, explain the Donegal case, which struck the Lords as partly ludicrous and partly horrible, and they granted the Committee by .53 to 29. The ruling idea, as expressed by Lord Cairns, seems to be that the Judges appointed under the Act, the Assistant- Barristers, are not quite equal to sach responsibility, and are some- times a little inclined to curry favour with the peasantry. Lord Cairns therefore proposes to substitute for the 32 Assistant- Barristers two Judges of the stamp of the Judges in the Landed Estates' Court, who should divide the country into circuits.
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