The Express.
London, England, 1866-05-18 00:00:00

THE GENERAL BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE.

In reply to Sir S. Notrotccrrz,
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said he
hoped to take the National Debt Reduction Bill on Thurs-
day next, and on the Friday in the next week to move the
second reading of the Church-rates Abolition Bill. On
Monday, after the Whitsuntide recess, he proposed to con-
tinue the consideration of the Reform Bills.
TENURE AND IMPROVEMENT OF LAND (IRE-
LAND) BILL.

On the motion for the second reading of this bill,
Lord NAAS rose to move the following amendment:—
"That this house, though desirous of simplifying the
method of securing to tenants compensation for outlay
made in permanent improvements, is of opinion that, in
any measure relating to the tenure and improvement of
land in Ireland, it is expedient to maintain the principle
affirmed by the act of H6O, namely, that compensation to
tenants should be secured in respect of those improve-
' meats only which are made with the consent of the land-
lord. That, in the opinion of this house, the provisions as
to the improvement of land in Ireland contained in the
measure of her Majesty's government would operate in-
juriously on the position of holders of small farms in
that country." The principles upon which this bill
was founded were condemned last year by Lord
Palmerston, the present Attorney-General for Ireland,
the present Chief Secretary for Ireland, and by Lord
Dufferin, who he was rejoiced to see a member
of the government, and who was examined before the
committee, and gave the moat valuable evidence upon
this subject. After the retirement from office of the right
hon. baronet the member for Tamworth the whole policy
of the government with regard to Ireland appeared to have
changed. (Cheers.) Since that time some most important
announcements had been made by members of the admi-
nistration. Some time ago the Secretary of State for the
Home Department announced that important changes were
about to be introdueed into the system of the Queen's
Colleges ; only the other night the Chief Secretary for Ire-
land promised material alterations in the rules of the
Commissioner, of National Education ; and on another oc-
casion, when a motion was made by a member
below the gangway, directed against the estab-
lished church in Ireland, the same right honour-
able gentleman wished the movement God speed. (Cheers.)
He should be the last person in the world to impugn the
motives of any man or body of men in that house; but
these things were being discussed out of doors, and it was
remarked by the newspapers that it was a very strange co-
incidence that these changes were promised and these
alterations shadowed forth at a moment when the exigen-
cies of party were particularly severe, when close divisions
were expected, and the government were in need of all the
support that they could obtain. (Hear, hear.)
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL for IRELAND informed
the noble lord that this bill was not the result of pledges
which had been given in view of the critical state of affairs
to which he had alluded. When his right hon. friend the
Chief Secretary came into office this was the first question
which was discussed between himself and his right hon.
friend. He then stated the principles upon which he
thought the landlord and tenant question ought to be
settled, and it was upon those principles that this bill was
founded. (Hear, hear.) He should not then enter into
any general defence of the policy pursued by the govern-
ment towards Ireland. He left that policy to stand upon
its own merits. It had been founded upon sound, upon
just, and upon liberal principles ; and he believed that it
would meet with the approval of that house. (" Hear,
hear ;" and au HON. MEMBIR—" And of Ireland.") He
felt convinced that if this bill passed into law it would
not interfere with any just right of property. It would
only prevent bad landlords from doing what no good land-
lord would ever do, and he could not therefore think that
such legislation was subversive of the rights of property.
The noble lord had said the bill would produce a want of
confidence between landlord and tenant. There was always
a want of confidence between a bad landlord and his te-
nants, while on the other hand there was always a certain
amount of confidence between a good landlord and his
tenants • and the bill now before the house, while
it would do nothing to impair that just confi-
dence, would in the other case afford that legal
protection which was due to the tenants who improved the
land in their occupation, and who were fairly entitled to
ask that they should be compensated for the improvements
they effected. Such a law would, he thought, give a
healthy stimulus to the cultivation of the land, and re-
move a great amount of soreness and disaffection from the
occupiers without interfering in any way with the just
rights of the landlord, and therefore he trusted the house
would be prepared to sanction the second reading of the
bill. (Cheers)
Mr. LOWE pointed out to the Attorney-General that
if this bill rested, as he maintained, on natural justice,
the tenants of England and Scotland, who were not to
have the advantage of it, would be treated with grievous
injustice. Natural justice, however, be defined to be •
fulfilment of contracts, and the introduction of a com-
pulsory term into voluntary contracts was a blunder and a
solecism, for if both parties knew of it provision would be
made against it, and if one were ignorant a fraud would be
committed on him. This was a matter of imperfect obliga-
tion which must be determined by contracts between the
parties, and could not be enforced by laws. If a tenant, he
argued. used the land for anypurpose not contemplated by his
contract, by making improvements or otherwise, he had no
right to compensation for such breach of contract, and he
warned the house against being led to deal with this
question on sentimental grounds, maintaining that in
dealing with Ireland, above all other countries, it was
our duty and our safety nut to deviate from the strict
principles of political economy. After criticising the
language of some of the clauses, be asserted that the
reason for introducing this bill was not so much a craving
for compensation—for no actual grievance had been shown
before the committee—as a desire to perpetuate small hold-
ings, in which the priesthood naturally had a great interest.
These contracts must be regulated by supply and demand.
Emigration and other causes, if left to work alone, by re-
ducing competition, would in time put the tenant in a
position to get better terms, but in the meantime he main-
tained it was cruelty to the weaker party to promote a
measure which would embitter the relations between land-
lord and tenant, and might stimulate evictions and lead to
the aggregation of email holdings. Concession, he warned
the house, could not stop here ; fixity of tenure must
follow, and ultimately a permanent settlement, like that
of Bengal. In conclusion, he laid great stress on the un-
wisdom, in dealing with a people among whom prevailed
wild dreams of reconquering the land, of relaxing in their
favour laws of property which were still held just and right
for other portions of the country.
Mr. MILL welcomed the bill an the most beneficial
measure everconferred on Ireland by the English legislature,
not even excepting catholic emancipation, and described
it as the fulfilment of Mr. Gladstone) promise to treat
Irish question. according to Irish exigencies, and not by
English routine. He pointed to the circumstances of Irish
history and to the social state of the country an a proof
that England and Ireland could not be treated on the
' same principles • but it was England, not Ireland, which
was the exceptional country, for no country had under
the owners of land corresponding classes of intermediate
capitalists—farmers and tillers of the soil living on day
wages. Peasant cultivation, he asserted, had never suc-
ceeded without fixity of tenure ; but he warned those who
wished to change the present peasant system to the Eng-
lish capitalist-farmer system that it must be done by
raising the hest of the peasantry to the position of fatalism
and the only mode, he argued, of doing that was by a bill
of this sort, which would give them a taste of the blessed
effects of ownership, and would secure to them the enjoy-