A correspondence on the Evicted Tenants' Commission, between Sir F.
Milner, M.P. for the Bassetlaw Division of Nottinghamshire, and Mr. John Morley, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, was published in Thursday's Times, which shows rather painfully how completely in the hands of the Anti- Parnellite Party Mr. Morley is. Sir F. Milner, in his first letter, remarks that the inquiries of the Commission cannot be satisfactory unless they show, what there is no evidence in the terms on which the Commission is appointed of there being any intention to show, for what reason the tenants were evicted ; whether for taking part in an illegal conspiracy like the "Plan of Campaign," or simply for inability to pay rent ;
and, again, why Clause 13 in the Irish Land Act of 1891 had so generally failed,—whether, for instance, because orders had been given by the Nationalist Members to the tenants not to avail themselves of that clause. This last inquiry was the more needed because, in the case of the tenants on the Ponsonby estate, the clause had been found to work very satisfactorily. Mr. Morley replied in a tone perfectly friendly towards Sir F. Milner, but at once lofty and evasive as regards the drift of Sir F. Milner's clear, reasonable, and courteous letter, that he had no intention of " opening a Court to try either Irish Members or Irish landlords." His purpose was purely practical,—to find " an agent of healing and of peace." Precisely ; but supposing a new Bankruptcy Bill proposed to find an " agent of healing and of peace," for innocent and for fraudulent bankrupts alike, and to ignore altogether the distinctions between them, does Mr. Morley think that such a Bill would be received with respect in the House of Commons ?
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