The third reading of the Irish Land Bill was moved
by Mr. Birrell in the Commons yesterday week. He justified the measure on the ground of the collapse of the financial basis of the Act of 1903, and indicated the new conditions attached to the advance of money for land purchase. Sir Edward Carson charged the Government with breaking their promise to grant ample time for discussion, pointing out that, out of seventy clauses, sixty had been disposed of in Committee without debate under the " guillotine." After Mr. Redmond had blessed the Bill for its salutary provisions dealing with congestion and as a wide-reaching measure of reform, Mr. Butcher, in a closely reasoned speech, exposed its inherent defects and inconsistencies. Mr. Birrell had successively espoused the cause of the congests and the landless men, whose interests were discordant and mutually destructive. The truth was that the trail of the cattle-drivers crossed the BilL After some further discussion, the amendment for the rejection having been defeated by 174 votes to 51, the Bill was read a third time.
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