In the House of Commons on Monday, Mr. T. W.
Russell, in a speech of great ability, moved to reduce the vote for Special Commissions by £2,170, the cost of the Evicted Tenants Commission. If, he said, a Bill were to be brought in based on the recommendations of the Commission, it would be "a Bill to revise the Dec,alogue." The Commission, which was packed, was "a Commission for the purpose of finding out some way of relieving Messrs, John Dillon and William O'Brien from their responsibility" to the victims of the "Plan of Campaign." The majority of evictions were not evictions due to inability to pay rent. "They were evictions deliberately brought about for the purpose of making govern- ment in Ireland impossible, and for the purpose of humbugging the English electors They were the pawns of hon. Members opposite, who moved them about on the political chess-board as suited their purpose, and with a cruelty almost unparalleled." The clause in the Purchase Act which Mr. Rus- sell had himself supported, did not, he argued, in the least admit the principle relied on in the report of the Commission. The thirteenth section was not a compulsory proposal, but merely allowed landlord and ex-tenant, if they could agree, to use the machinery of the Purchase Act to do away with the evils caused by the "Plan of Campaign." After protesting against the lack of impartiality in the procedure of the Com- mission, Mr. Russell pointed out one effect of the proposals that the Poor-Law Guardians should lend the reinstated tenants money to restock their farms. "Lord Inchiquin paid the whole of the poor rates for the holdings on his property under £4, so that practically he would have to restock the farms of tenants whom be had evicted." Mr. Russell ended by reasserting what he has always said before, namely, that he was not against, but in favour, of a reasonable settlement,—" but it must not be in the nature of a reward to tenants for doing wrong."
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