Wednesday was devoted in the Commons to the Iirish Land
Law, Mr. Butt moving the second reading of a Bill which abolishes the landlords' right of eviction, except for non-payment of a rent to be fixed by the county chairman or a jury, and allows the tenant to sell his tenancy as a property. That is, in fact, the Bengalee tenure, and requires, as a century's experience has shown, a rider, which Mr. Butt has not added,—viz., that if the rent is not paid on quarter-day, the landlord becomes absolute owner again. Mr. Butt made an able though rather dreary speech, and was answered by several landlords, but it is useless to. analyse the debate. Mr. Butt is, in this matter, perfectly frank and straightforward. He proposes to change rent into rent- charge, very nearly as the Spectator did in 1870. We still believe that system, if fairly established, with a proviso that rents shall fluctuate like tithe, is the one which will most nearly satisfy Irish feeling about land ; but it was proposed, thoroughly discussed, and defeated in 1870, and ought to be laid aside for a generation. No country can go on prospering if the very founda- tions of property are to be resettled every six years. Mr. Butt might just as well propose to improve a hyacinth by transplanting the bulb to more suitable soil every quarter of an hour. There was no division, and the debate was adjourned, the Tories hoping that the Liberal leaders would say something that would increase their unpopularity among landlords. It was amusing to see how convinced the landlords were that they had a right to something more than rent,—that they were not shopkeepers selling goods, but rulers with moral prerogatives.
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