Mr. Herbert Gladstone made a good speech at Leeds on
Friday week, in which he gave the following cheering figures, to prove the operativeness of the Irish Land Act and Arrears Act :—" Up to January 13th, the total number of notices to fix fair rents re- ceived were 88,744; the number of cases disposed of in court— contentious cases-27,449 ; the number of agreements out of Court—non-contentious cases—amounted to 24,462. In Novem- ber ]asta,000 contentious cases were settled in Court; under the new constitution of Sub-Commission it was expected that not less than 4,500 eases would be settled monthly, and the number of non-contentions cases, or agreements made out of Court, were over 3,000 per month, and were increasing. Very soon it was impeded by the authorities that they would be fixed in Court at • 8,000 monthly. These figures showed that most of the work in connection with the Land Act had been got through, and that the tenants in Ireland had availed themselves largely; of the Act; and also the large number of cases settled out of Court, showed clearly that the landlords had taken the coarse of meeting their tenants half-way, and settling the cases out of Court. With regard to the Arrears Act, the total number of applications received under the Arrears Act up to January 13th amounted• to 86,085, the number of holdings comprised. amounted to 185,385, the estimate of the money involved in these applications amounted to £806,000, and the total number of applications which had now been investigated amounted to 18,000. These figures showed that the Arrears Act was work- ing well, and that the authorities were losing no time in getting through the cases." Taking these figures with those which Mr. Herbert Gladstone quoted to show the rapid diminution of crime in Ireland, we may conclude that, however strong the Irish hatred of the Union may be, the Irish are content with the new Land and Arrears Acts, and are settling down under them into comparative social tranquillity.
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