The Sun.
London, England, 1855-07-25 00:00:00

[and.

Mr. Napier seems to have Shown very conclU-
sively that, from the first, Lord Palmerston-never
contemplated the completion of this bill. The noble
lord bad declined to answer the question put to him
at an early part of the session, in reference to the
support to be given by the Government in the
House of Lords to the first 17 sections. His whole
course, therefore, has been a wilful waste of the
time of the house, with no other object than to
secure the votes of the gentlemen of the deputation
who struck their bargain at the happy moment of
a crisis. On every debateable clause and proviso di-
visions had been taken in 1853, and certainly it is
not on the Conservative side that we can find in-
consistent votes. With the record of former divi-
sioes, and the decision of the House of-Lords, the
noble lord spends. moredays and nights on this
dishonoured and rejected bill than would have
sufficed to have -completed satisfactorily the new
partnership code, which must now, it is to be
feared, be postponed for another session.
The several parties have now tried their hands
at this impracticable project of substituting legis-
lative interference for voluntary contract. It is
well that in succession theY have made the experi-
ment, and it is still better that they have failed.
Differences there may be, and important differences
there are, between the successive plans ; and of
them all, this last is undoubtedly the worst. It
satisfies no party ; and it settles notking. It is
meagre, and yet unscrupulowh
But it is not worth while entering into the com-
parison of details, when the whole scheme is un-
sound. On express contract, and contract only,
can the relation of landlord and tenant be safely
placed ; and there seems no sufficient reason why
there should be a different law for land in England
and land in Ireland. Every day the peculiar dif-
ferences are melting away ; every hour the process
of assimilation is going forward. We trust that the
next bill or bills on this subject proposed to Parlia-
ment may be Imperial, and then we need not fear
the promised or threatened patronage of the 14th
clause.— Regitiescat in pace.
The house is evidently tired of active duty.
Abortive measures, profitless debates, abandoned
bills, have exhausted the patience and the energies
of the members. Not a solitary measure of really
useful or remedial legislation testifies of the desire
and capacity of the Government for promoting sound
progress. Private members have been obstructed
in proposing and promoting measures of reform ;
flourishes have been made by a Government, oppo-
sing and proposing, but neither encouraging nor
completing any salutary legislation. Ireland has
been deluded ; Scotland has been defrauded ; Eng-
land has been neglected ; the House of Commons
has 'been degraded ; and on these conditions Lord
Palmerston and his Cabinet have been rescued
from present defeat.

(From the Times of this day.
The last act of that popular Irish farce, " the
Tenants' Improvements Compensation Bill," was
admirably performed yesterday in the Theatre
Royal, Westminister. All the parts were well sus-
tained, for the management had been excellent

and the representation had answered its purpose.
Lord Palmerston explained how that he had hoped
against hope, and done his utmost for the measure ;
how that somehow or other be could not persuade
people to be as accommodating as he was ; how
that the house had only got to the 14th clause in
a list of 53, and that same 14th clause, having al-
ready been the o,Tasion of one pitched battle,,would
have to be fought over again more than once; how
that the Lords were likely to have a still stronger
feeling againSt the bi1.t.44-3.,-1••=4,"
clause, than the Commons ; and how under these
circumstances it was impossible the bill could pass
this session. So far, indeed, Lord Palmeriton is
perfectly right, for it would have been difficult to
name an occurrence more unlikely than the passing
of the bill with the 14th clause at the present
period of the session. But, after reciting the
labours of his Sisyphean task, and showing
such
an accumulation of moral difficulties in the faY of
the bill as it breaks one's back to think of; Lord
Palmerston calmly concluded, "It is well known
that this
forthis
gisivtinhge
afisneanlondda
house ; but, leaving that out of consideration, it is
unnecessary to say how utterly hopeless it would
he to attempt now to press forward this eaessure.”
Here is impossibility enough and to spare. It is
quite a pity so much should he wasted on one had
bill, when there is enough with economy to founder
all the bad bills of a session. But, having in
ambush the utter impossibility created by the ar-
ranzements of the Lords, in what delightful security.
could Lord Palmerston do justice to his own la-
bours in behalf of the bill! What could be done
when the Lords had shut their door in his face ?
You are posting to catch a railway train, and your
driver, after assuring you that his horses are tired,
the carriage is heavy, the roads bad, and night has
rye afidxi
ne d g
tuophoinns i
n another
from
thsi
set in, finishes by observing that the train you want
has already started. What more can he done ?
Nothing, except go through the same farce next
year. •
But the gist of the question was the 14th clause,
which had been already thrown out, and which
Lord Palmerston had undertaken to use all his in-
fluence to restore to the bill.. Compensation for past
improvements, or, in other words, the transfer of
a considerable value out of every estate from the
landowner to the tenant, is the real wbisp of hay
held for ever before the hungry eyes of the Irish
constituency. For the next 20 years, or the next
century, perhaps, they will see always before them,
within sniffing distance, the agreeable prospect of
sending in a compensation account to their land-
lords equal to several years' rent. That there
should be found people in Ireland to believe in such
a miracle of legislation is natural enough, and this
credulity is the basis of the Tenants' Compensation
Bill. We know what fish will rise at, and we bait
fact that Irish tenants will always rise at the pro-
our hook accordingly, and it is now an established
mise of compensation. The promise, of course, must
be made if a candidate wishes to be returned ; but, the
promise made, then comes the fulfilMent. This is an
affair of State done in the following manner :—The
Irish members who have promised compensation
come to Lord Palmerston and insist on his giving it.
He must pass the retrospective clause. They
will take no denial. They won't be put off.
They remind him of his solemn undertaking to
make all his Government vote for the clause.
They warn him not to, play them false. They
assure him the people of Ireland are not to be
trifled with. He is not to calculate on their sup-
port
satisfyon theany j
nst emergency,
expectationsunless
of lan this
suffering
n
point
ahe will
in-
dignant people. To give greater solemnity to their
demands, they publish to the world the resolution
passed at a meeting of. Irish members, and the con-
sequent letter written to Lord Palmerston. What
more can they do in these days, when we don't as-
istassiisn apteer,
perfectly known,
and well understood bysel yes to words ? Meanwhile
everybody in Parliament, that the clause will not
pass, and that, even if it passed the Commons, it
would be snuffed out the instant it reached
Lords. The Irish members all know this, and
Lord Palmerston knows it, and they each know
that the other knows it, and the members have
promised what they know they cannot obtain, and
Lord Palmerston promises to the members what
lie knows they will never get, and what he knows,
too, that they do not want ; for at the very time
that all this energetic agitation and conjuration is
going on to obtain the bill with the 14th clause it
is known that nobody really cares much about the
bill, or would have the bill, if it really rested with
I'im.O
about
nlyitsu
the billitsPe°P lespurpose to make all
this racket and the 14th clause, for
it happens to be the only hold which the Govern-
ment has at this moment on the Irish people.
It must have been an immense relief to the
Irish members to find that the much-desired, long-
promised only impassible, impassible, butfairly
present year,
sge don
gone by, clause,
donew was not t
quite gone to the bottom. How they must have
rejoiced there was a House of Lords ! There is
not much left for that house to do in these days,
hut it does its duty as the God Terminus of the
British Constitution remarkably well. We may
not always know what it will do, but we know
what it will 'not do, and under the ahelter of pp