NEWS OF THE WEEK.
MR. JOHN MORLEY has given notice of the following motion as an instruction to the Committee on the Irish Land Bill,—" That it be an instruction to the Committee that they have power to make provision for the creation of elective authorities in each county of Ireland, which authorities shall have a vote in all transactions for the transfer of land under this Bill, and shall have a portion of the sum which will be raised for the tenants in the shape of rent, and shall become the landlords, and shall pay over to the Exchequer that portion of the rent belonging to the Exchequer in respect of the instalments, and shall have power to pledge the local revenues belonging or allotted to the respective counties towards guaranteeing the repayment thereof." This is virtually an instruction to the Committee to further embarrass and complicate a highly com- plex measure, with a mass of new legislation which would swamp a Bill of a single clause. Mr. Morley might as well propose that it be an instruction to the Committee to prepare an Irish Local Government Bill and tack it loosely on to the Land Bill. A policy so flagrantly obstructive can hardly, we fancy, be judicious, unless the Gladstonians are so sure of their majority that they can afford to disgust the waverers without even a colourable pretext.
