The new Irish Land Bill passed its second reading in
the Lords on Thursday, after a debate of a kind to which we are now unaccustomed,—a debate intended to improve the Bill. The clauses admitting leaseholders to the benefits of the Act of 1881 were generally approved, and hopes were expressed that the owners of grazing-farms might also be included in its provisions. The clauses allowing the landlord to re-enter with- out previous ejectment were only faintly decried ; but the arrangement for giving tenants relief through proceedings in bankruptcy was vigorously opposed. Lord Spencer maintained that such proceedings were far too costly, and that tenants who availed themselves of these clauses would be demoralised. Lard Kilmorey went much farther in this direction, declaring that under the Bill a tenant could hold land without paying any rent whatever, and that the peasant from the day it pasted would find himself without credit. The Irish Chancellor, who has charge of the Bill, admitted that one of its great objects was to enable the tenant to rid himself of arrears due to the usurer and the shopkeeper, as well as the landlord ; but he promised to reconsider the bankruptcy clauses in Committee. It is probable that when the Bill emerges from the Lords, it will be found to contain no bankruptcy clause, but that the tribunal which allows ejectment will be authorised to hear complaints, to grant time, to allow instalments, and generally to compromise between tenant and landlord.
Previous page
