The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-09-25 00:00:00

THE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION.

In the HOUSB OF COMMONS, the Chancellor of
the Exchequer told Sir G. Campbell that the Royal
Commission on the Clerical Establishments of the
Offices of State would inquire into the administration,
regulation, and organisation of the various offices, and
if they found that any practices existed which im-
paired their administration, regulation, and organisa-
tion they would certainly express their view upon it;
but it was not desirable to elaborate the present terms
of reference.

• THE TRANSFER OF LAND.
Replying to Mr. Hubbard, the Chancellor of the
Exchequer stated that it was the intention of the
Lord Chancellor to introduce next session a measure
for cheapening the legal costs and facilitating the
transfer of land. Should it be successful, it would
promote the acquisition of land by classes of persons to
whom the difficulties of transfer had acted as a serious
impediment.
The noble lord informed Mr. Kenyon that Ministers
hoped to be able next session to submit le2islation to
the House respecting the incidence of tithes, with a
view to removing the liability from the occupiers to
the owners upon terms just to the payer and re-
ceiver.

MR. PARNELL'S IRISH LAND BILL.

Mr. Parnell, in moving the second reading of the
Tenants' Relief (Ireland) Bill, said it consisted of three
provisions only. It provided that any tenant of a
statutory tenancy who had had his rent fixed judicially
might apply to the Land Commission to abate his rent,
and that the Commission might abate it on condition
that two requirements were satisfied. These were,
that the tenant should show to the satisfaction of the
Court that he had paid half the rent payable in respect
of 1886 and half the antecedent arrears, and that he was
unable to pay the remainder of the rent and arrears
without deprivation of the means necessary for
the cultivation of his holding. If the Court, on these
requirements being satisfied, made an abatement, that
abatement would apply to the ordinary rent payable in
1886, the antecedent arrears, and the rent accruing due
in 1887. The bill also provided for the admission at
once of leaseholders to the benefits of the rent-fixing
clauses of the Land Act; and, lastly, it suspended
eviction proceedings for the recovery of rent on pay.
ment of one-half the rent and the arrears due. The
bill was intended to meet a temporary emergency
arising out of the depression in the prices of agricul-
tural produce, which commenced in 1885. The hon.
member cited the prices of various articles of agricul-
tural produee to show the extent of the fall, and
drew from them the conclusion that since 1884
the average fall had been above 20 per cent. On the
other hand, the redaction of rents all over Ireland had
averaged only 9.5 below the poor-law valuation.
Returns showed that the landlords had recommenced
the system of evictions, the average of the current
quarter being higher than at any corresponding period
for 30 years. From his knowledge of the situation, be
recommended his bill as on the whole well calculated
to pull matters through in Ireland in the interval that
would elapse before the House turned its attention to
the settlement of the Irish question, and, if Parliament
adopted it, they would be richly rewarded by the
results, and the landlords themselves be greatly bene-
fited.

_
Mr. Penrose Fitzgerald moved, as an amendment,
that it was inexpedient at the present time to make
any alteration in the Irish Land Laws. He maintained
that it would be imrssible for the Court to find out
the difference between the tenant who was unable
and the tenant who was able, but unwilling to
pay his rent. He believed that Ireland would
not have to suffer from the depression which the
member for Cork anticipited in the coming winter.
The real difficulty to be dealt with was tha?there
were two bodies in Ireland endeavouring to get
rents one the landlords, the other the Land
League. In short, this double rent too frequently dis-
abled the tenants from meeting their obligations. He
looked on the bill with suspicion because of the quarter
from which it came. Ilia saw in it the brain and the
hand which had issuei the .No-rent Manifesto, and if
passed it would produce the same effect as that instru-
ment, and still further postpone the final settlement
of the land question. The amendment was seconded
by Mr. C. E. Lewis, who insisted that Mr. Parnell had
failed to prove the preamble of his bill.
In the subsequent debate the second reading was
supported by Mr. Gane and Mr. Pinkerton, and opposed
by Mr. Bartley.
The Solicitor-General for Ireland denounced the bill
as a violation of the safeguards provided by the Arrears
Act of 1882, and declared that its adoption would pre-
judge and defeat the proposed inquiry by Royal Corn.
mission. It would operate as a wholesale invitation to
every man in Ireland to apply to the Court to get his
rent reduced 50 per cent., and would seal the con-
demnation of the Land Act. _ _ _ _

Mr. Gladstone, who was received with prolonged
cheers, was sorry to find, notwithstanding the
rumours in various quarters, that there was no sign of
an amicable arrangement between the two sides ot the
House. The question whether that uncompromising
attitude was justified by facts was the only one to be
decided by the vote on the bill. It affected the welfare
especislly of the agricultural body in Ireland, and he
expressed his surprise that no representation of an
agricultural constituency in Irelsnd had come forward
to move the rejection of the bill, but had left this to
be done by gentlemen unconnected with ars Irish agri-
cultural constituency. He presumed the reason to be
that no such representadve could be found to under-
take the duty. It was the Government themselves
who had re-opened, in all its breadth, the subject of
judicial rents. The Irish question was wide enough
when the late Ministry were in office. It had now
been greatly widened by their successors adding two
other subjects of great extent and complexity—namely,
an inquiry into Public Works, and a probable
large application of public funds to its prosecution,
and a subject greater still and more complicated, into
which they had found their way, but out of
which they would find it difficult to discover an
exit—that was, the question of Irish rents. By
their issue of a Commission on that matter they pracs
tically asserted that there were cases of judicial rents
which could not, in consequence of the fall in prices,
be properly maintained. With regard to the bill, he
regarded it as a measure that called for second reading.
They could not with justice or decency send forth
the admission that there were classes of pertotas
who, in the opinion of the Government, were
unable to pay the judicial rents without taking
farther steps. And it was because he believed
in the necessity of giving relief that, while
retaining to himself full liberty to consider iii com-
mittee the best form of giving it, he felt bound in
honour and justice to vote for the second reading of
a bill which, irrespective of questions of general policy,
was an absolute and necessary result of the Govern-
ment having committed themselves to propositions
which might possibly involve the country in cons
sequences the magnitude of which no one was capable
of foreseeing.
Lit. Matthews maintained that Mr. Gladstone's
speech contained only this one argument, that the
Government had issued a Commission of Inquiry as to
what extent, and to what causes, the operation of the
Land Act had failed in any part of Ireland,
but he had not said one word in favour of
any part of the bill, whether preamble or clauses.
The bill was an invitation to afl the tenants in
Ireland to strike against rents, and, recognising in it
another step in the direction of the policy of expro-
prialion which would enable the Irish landlords to be
bought out at the price fixed by Mr. Parnell, the
Government recommended its decisive rejection.
On the motion of Mr, J. Morley the debate was
adjourned.
The Appropriation Bill was subsequently read a
second time.