On Saturday last it was announced in the House of
Commons that a compromise had been arrived at between the Government and the Opposition in regard to the Agri. cultural Land and Tithe Rating Bills, and that they would not be officially opposed to the point of obstruction if they were limited to four years. This made the debate on the second reading of the Continuance Bill which took place on Monday somewhat of a farce. The Opposition speakers splashed about in a marsh of dreary rhetoric about "doles" and "class legislation," or indulged in bewildered paradoxes in regard to hereditary burdens on land. The Government speakers, on the other band, met their opponents with all, and more than all, the ineptitude they have so often displayed is regard to this question. They made vague excuses based on a half-hearted use of statistics instead of boldly facing the question and setting forth the simple and absolutely incontro. vertible facts that control the whole problem.
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