The Sun.
London, England, 1852-04-01 00:00:00

put that principle in operation, encumbered it with so
many novel and cumbersome provisions that he was
bound to oppose it passing into a law.—(Hear,
hear.) The tenant right of Ulster was believed, and
he concurred in the belief, to be based
upon equity and justice, but those who enjoyed it were
apprehensive that if it was extended to certain parts of
Ireland that could not sympathise with it the system
would be eventually crippled, if not abolished.—(hear.)
The fact was this right or custom could not bo made
the subject of a law, and in attempting to legislate
upost it he was afraid; if they did not proceed with ex-
trrme caution, they would render the existing state
in Ireland more disagreeably complicated than it had
ever been.—(Hear, hear.) For instance, this Bill at-
tempted to solve in a few words a problem that had oc-
cupied years in its discussion, and upon which volume
upon volume had been written, namely, it defined the
meaning of the term of " a fair rent." It must have
required some courage to induce the Hon. Proposer
of the Bill to ♦enture upon that definition, and
although he admitted the ingenuity of the definition he
was bound to confess that it was so indefinite that it
would of itself render the Bill inoperative, supposing it
was carried.—(Hear, hear.) It would, however, be
impossible to work such a Bill without some such
definition, and he confessed that he was not
prepared to propose a better than the one
contained in this Bill ; but still this defi-
nition was extremely uncertain, being liable to
various constructions, and again ho repeated that as the
success of a Bill of this nature must depend upon the
simplicity of its provisions, it was useless to pass a Bill
the very mainspring of which must inevitably give rise
to endless discussions and disputes.—(Hear, hear.)
Looking, therefore, at these defects, ho did not think
it would be prudent to pass the Bill, because
it would disturb the stability of landed property, if it
did not in feet altogether destroy its value; and if the
House wished to see the land maintain its position in the
estimation of investors, it would unhesitatingly with-
hold its sanction to this Bill.—(Hear, hear.) The Noble
Viscount the Member for the county of Down had
taunted the Government with a want of courage to meet
the question with a direct negative.

Viscount CASTLEREAGH did no such thing—
what he said was this, that in the absenco of the Go-
vernment Bill the House had a perfect right to adopt
its own.—(Hear, hear.)
Sir EMERSON TENNENT repeated that the Noble
Viccount threw out a taunt.

Viscount CASTLEREAGH rose to order. An Hon.
Member had no right to make an accusation against
him when he had disclaimed the imputation which it
conveyed.
Sir EMERSON TENNENT had put a natural con-
struction upon the language of the Noble Viscount, but
as the Noblo Viscount disclaimed the meaning which
they conveyed, why, of course, there was an end of the
matter.—(Hear.) But he was authorised to state that
the Government measures were to be introduced with
as little delay as possible, and, in conclusion, he begged
leave to move that the Bill be read a second time this
day six months.—(gear.)
Mr. KEOGH said that had it not been for the speech
which they had just heard he should not have felt it
necessary to address the House. Ile had beard with
great pleasure the conciliatory speech of the Right Hon.
Gentleman the Attorney-General for Ireland, but the
speech of the Honourable Gentleman had been
marked with so much asperity that he could not
help throwing back the insinuation that on
that side of the House there was any desire
to treat
of
eatthtehesubiceocnt.inany Gentleman butci,l)andcilibaeteonryton directede The
speech
en-
tirely against the details, and not, as it ought to have
been, against the principle, and ho could not help sus-
pecting that the speech was intended really for the mo•
tion of going into Committee. The laws of England
and Ireland were very different; in England landlords
were accustomed to let their farms just as they would
furnished houser, while in Ireland tenants were
thrown on a naked soil, and everytbing which they could
get out of the soil by their own industry was extracted
from them in the shape of rent, and no compensation
whatever provided. He appealed to this country whe-
ther in a time of expected invasion they would not put a
stop to a system which in a space of ten years had
diminished the population of a fertile island by more
than two millions.
Mr. 11. GRATTAN was astonished at what had
taplace. Ho thought it was unknown in the pro-
ceke
edlings of Parliaments that the principal
law officer of Ireland should come forward
manednabaperprogveet oufp athe principle, and another subordinate
short time after and find fault with
that principle. All that the Right Hon. Gentleman the
Attorney-General had said had been ruined by his
friends, and it was a great pity that there had not been
some one on the Treasury bench to keep down the Hon.
Member for Lisburn.

Mr. B. OSBORNE regretted that a debate which had
commenced so auspiciously should, in some way or
other, he knew not why, have turned all at once into a
spirit of bitterness. As a friend to Ireland and her in-
terests he should vote for the second reading of the Bill.
He was not, however, so steeped in party prejudice as to
resume his seat without expressing his admiration of the
wise and sincere statement of the Right Hon. Gen-
tleman the Attorney-General for Ireland, and if the
subject were taken up in the same spirit by the
other members of the Government, he did not
despair of seeing the question of tenant-right
effectually settled. If he could hear from that Right
Hon. Gentleman an assurance that a Government Bill
would be laid on the table of the House at as
early a period as possible he should then consider it
bitter not to press fur a division on the present occasion;
if not, however, he should certainly vote for the second
reading of the Bill now before the House.
Mr. WHITESIDE said that, with all due deference to
the Hon. Gentleman, he was called on now to give his
vote on the merits of the Bill before the House. He
(Mr. Whiteside) quite agreed that some measure on the
subj ect was necessary, a measure which ought to be founded
upon a just appreciation of the rights of property. The
present Bill, however, had no such foundation, but was,
in fact, completely opposed in almost every one of its
clauses to the fixed principle of the rights of
property.—Tear.) The ground of his objection
to the Bill was, not that he was unwilling to do
what was fair and equitable to Ireland, but
because it was an incomprehensible and impracticable
measure, unjust to landlords and unjust to tenants. It
was the earnest object of the Government to introduce
not a flimsy Bill, but to pass as soon as possible a law
on the subject, such as would be beneficial to the country
and creditable to the House.
Mr. BUTLER moved the adjournment of the debate.
Mr. KEOGH hoped the Hon. Member would not per-
sist in his motion, but allow the House to go to a
division.

The motion was then withdrawn.
Mr. CONOLLY (who was received with loud cries of
" Divide," which rendered him for some time
inaudible) was understood to say the question
was not whether a compensation should be
given to tenants for any improvements which
the tenant might effect in the land, on which all were
agreed, but whether or not that compensation should
be fixed by one-sided arbitration. The Hon. Gentleman
was addressing the House when the hour of six o'clock
arrived, and the Speaker declared the House adjourned.