On Thursday, there was a very lively passage of arms
'between Sir S. Northcote and Mr. Gladstone, as to the pro- posal of the Government to help on an arrangement between those tenants who have paid their last hall-year's rent and their landlords, in relation to the arrears due for the very bad years 1878 and 1879. Sir Stafford Northcote said that he did not wish to cause further delay, because the greater the delay the more extraordinary were the new concessions made. As for "messages of peace" to Ireland, they were getting numerous. When be heard of a message of peace to Ireland, he grew suspicions, like the man who never heard any one talk of his conscience without buttoning up his pockets. In the Life of "Tom Thumb the Great," all the debts were to be paid by the State, and that seemed to him to be the goal of this legislation for Ireland. Mr. Gladstone replied that besides the authority of Tom Thumb the Great, there was the authority of the late Lord Derby for helping the Irish peasantry, on an occasion of emergency, oat of the Consolidated Fund ; and that he thought the late Lord Derby's authority might have had as much weight with Sir S. Northcote as that of Tom Thumb the Great. In the end, the arrears clause was carried by 213 to 97.
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