On Monday, the House of Lords went into Committee on
the Arrears Dill, when Lord Salisbury proposed, and carried by a majority of 71 (169 to 98), against the weighty protest of Lord Derby and Lord Lansdowne, the amendment making it optional for the landlord to refuse the offer of the Arrears Bill, and to extort his full pound of flesh, if he can ; and by a ma- jority of 75 (120 to 45), the second amendment,—second in mis- chievousness, as well as in order, but a good second in mis. chievousness,—making all unpaid arrears a mortgage on the tenant-right, whenever the tenant may sell that tenant-right. The most remarkable Tory speech delivered was Lord Cran- brook's on the first arnendment,—a rattling speech against the Bill itself, against the people of Ireland, against concilia- tion of any kind to that "blood stained" population. "The connivance at crime in Ireland was such, that the whole popula- tion was blood-stained. They knew what was going on. They knew beforehand. who were the criminals. And if the ven- geance of man did not overtake them in the Courts of Law, if there was a moral government in the world, they might depend upon it that the country itself guilty of such outrages will not escape." Lord Cranbrook is quite right. Ireland has not escaped, and is not escaping, from the retribution for her sins; but neither have we escaped, though we trust we are just be- ginning to escape,from the retribution for our ancestors' greater sins. After all, the moral Government of the Universe, when it has at last manifested itself to the people of Ireland, will probably prove to be at least as wide of the ideal Providence of Lord Craubrook, as it will prove to be of the ideal Providence of Mr. Parnell.
Previous page
