We are sincerely glad to see that Lord Monteagle's vigorous
appeals for a conference, even at the eleventh hour, on the Irish Land Bill have met with a satisfactory response. When the Bill returned to the House of Lords on Wednesday, Lord Lansdowne announced that since the Bill had left the Commons there had been discussions between representatives of both parties with a view to effecting a compromise, the nature of which he then described. In view of the large sum—g50,000,000—involved, and the suspense in which hundred and seventy-five thousand tenants were kept, they thought it would be a. great calamity to jeopardise land purchase or abruptly bring it to an end. Lord Crewe replied in a concilia- tory speech. The amendments which be was about to move did not always embody the views of the Government. "They repre- sent in some cases to our minds the second-best or third-best thoughts, but so far as we are concerned, the amendments which are down in my name represent what we are prepared to undertake in another place." The generally harmonious course of the discussion was interrupted by a somewhat serious conflict of opinion on the constitution of the tribunal of appeal, where Lord Lansdowne rightly refused to give way to a demand which would have made certain members of the Court practically judges in their own cause. We can hardly believe that insistence on so vital a principle is likely to lead to the sacrifice of a Bill to preserve which Irish landlord have made very great concessions.
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