The Sun.
London, England, 1852-05-05 00:00:00

TIIE SUN,

prbvement in Ireland. No one was more averse to ab-
senteeism than himself, but no measure was more
celuleted to increase the evil then the present
one. Tho provisions of the Bill would, if
put into operation, have a direct and permanent '
bad effect upon Irish husbandry, and would soon reduce
the country to a desert. It seemed to him that the
Gentlemen opposite had entirely overlooked that
large, poor, and most miserable class of the people
who had borne the brunt of the famine, and were
as much entitled to consideration as the tenant-
farmers. (Hear hear.) No provision was made
to enable the labouring man, on whose industry both the
tenant and landlord really lived, to have a fair valuation
for his day's work. This, therefore, was an utterly ex-
clusive and selfish measure, designed for the
benefit of one class at the expense of ano-
ther, He believed the Bill would never pass;
but he feared great injury would be inflicted on Ireland
agitation,b y
on.
Maned ldi
mbherosoppositeout to
byfa
continuingtenant- the present
rmers hopes
which they knew could never be fulfilled.—(Hear,
hear.) He appealed to them to pause ere they pro-
ceeded further in raising the expectations of a credulous
and excitable people.—(Cheers.)
Mr. G. H. MOORE observed that the Noble Lord had
shrank, as he would from red hot iron, from adverting
to the general principle of the Bill.—(Hear, bear.)
He thought that no objection to the details
ought to operate as a bar to the further progress of the
Bill, because they might easily be amended in Commit-
tee so as to meet the views of the House. Last year
they went into Committee on the Ecclesiastical Titles
Bill, with the perfect foreknowledge that nearly every
word would be amended in Committee. The only ob-
servation made by the Noble Lord as to the principle
applied likewise to the principle of every otter Bill.
—(Hear, hear.) He said that our former legislation
on theesubject consisted of a heterogeneous and
anomalous code of laws, and that the present Bill did
not repeal, amend, or consolidate any of them; but on
all subjects on which we legislated there was a great
mass of legislation left behind which it was necessary
should some day receive the attention of Parliament.
The principle feature of the debate on the Bill was the
promise of the Attorney-General for Ireland to intro-
duce a comprehensive Bill on tenant right; but he
confessed the antecedents of that Learned Gentle-
man did not encourage him to hops for much.
The landlords of his part of Ireland were aliens in
blood and feeling to the country, while the tenants were
descendants of convicts who were aliens to the land.
The two were opposed to each other, though some por-
tion of each side were inferior to none in honour, gene-
rosity, and worth; but they were the victims of a com-
bined system that had perverted the instincts of their
common nature.—(Hear, hear.) All the improvements
which had been effected of late years on the land were
the unaided work of the tenant, but they had been swal-
lowed up in the vortex called property, and the tenant
remained without remuneration for his labour, let
alone compensation for his fences and drainage.—
(Hear.) The fruitfulness of the land, indeed, depended
in a great measure upon the tenant; he did all the work
of the estate, and at length having created a little estate
upon the earth's surface, he finds at the end of a long
and laborious life the inheritance of his children snatched
from him by his landlord.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. CONOLLY—What! is he turned out?
Mr. MOORE said—Yes; he was either turned out,
or he was forced to pay an increased rent for the
property which his own hands had rendered fertile.—
(Rear, hear.) As the law stood, a man hired a farm
for twenty-one years, but it gave him no compensation
when he went out for his improvements, nor provided
that he should obtain a renewal of his lease upon
just and equitable terms.—(Hear, hear.) In feet,
the law was made by landlords for the
benefit of themselves, and until the Legislature changed
the system there would be no hope of peace and prospe-
rity for Ireland.—(Hear, hear.)
Sir W. SOMERVILLE said the last speaker had
carefully avoided both the principle and the details of
the Bill. Now it was absolutely necessary, for the
sake of Ireland's prosperity, that they should
take a practical view of this question, and
having given it all the consideration he
could he could arrive at no other conclusion than that
it was his duty to resist the second reading.—(Hear,
hear.) He could not agree with its principle, though he
might be disposed to acquisce in some of its details, and
there was certainly no alternative open to him but to
oppose it. He had taken a part before now in the
endeavours that were being made to -settle this question,
and he could assure the House and the country that it
was his anxious desire to see it speedily set at rest. One
.of the pricipal obstacles in the way of its settlement
was this—they were endeavouring to do by Act of Par-
liament what could only be accomplished by mutual agree-
ment between the landlord and tenant. This Bill,
like its precisceesor, was intended to be retrospective
as well as prospective, and if it it were carried the
effect would be that it would forcibly annul existing
contracts which were recognised, and could, if necessary,
be enforced by the law.—(Hear.) He, therefore,
deprecated both the introduction of the Bill and the
agitation that was being kept up about it out of doors;
but it was said the Bill root with the universal approba-
tion of the tenantry of Ireland.—(Hear, hear.) le,_how-
ever, did not seek to introduce the tenant right of Ulster
into other parts of Ireland, but went upon a compulsory
scheme, elaborated in a long series of clauses that con-
tained matter for a lawsuit almost in every line.
Its definition of right on either side was uncertain and
defective, and if the Bill passed its only effect would be
to give rise to endless disputes between landlord and
tenant, and ultimately to react with tenfold force against
the interest of the tenant.—(Hear, hear.) He therefore
hoped the House would reject the measure, and leave it
for the Government to dispose in future of this difficult
question.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. REYNOLDS regretted that the five years which
he had devoted to the office of Chief Secretary for Ire-
land had not enabled the Right Honourable Baronet
to make a more practical speech on the subject of this
important Bill. For his part he did not represent an agri-
cultural constituency, but he knew that a large meeting of
the electors of Dublin had been held, and they had unani-
mously agreed to petition Parliament in favour of this Bill.
—(Hear, hear.) The Bill bore the indorsements of two
of the most distinguished Irish lawyers, and yet the
Hoe. Member for Donegal could find no other compliment
for it than this—it was a mere piece of waste paper;
but he could assure the House that it was no such thing.
—(Elear, hear.) It was a most valuable measure,
and in spite of the misrepresentation which had
been made about the contents of the Bill he
was convinced the Legislature would think with
him, if they would take the trouble to look carefully into
the matter.—(Hear, hear.) The past history of this
question was written in blood; for no outrage which had
occurred in Ireland during the last hundred years
owed its origin to anything else but disputes about
the tenure of land.—(Hear.) The principle of this Bill
was nothing less than this—it secured compensation to
the outgoing tenant for substantial improvements, and
unless the House was prepared to leave this
question unsettled for ever, they woul I take care
to pass the Bill.—(Hear, hear.) But it was said the
Right Hon. the Attorney-General for Ireland was going
to take the matter up, but, then, what security had he
that the Right Hon. Gentleman would not be raised to
the bench before next session? No man desired to see his
elevation more than he did, but in a question of this
momentous importance there ought to be some guarantee
extorted from the Government that they would be re-
sponsible for the introduction of the Right Honourable
Gentleman's measure before they consented to give up
this Bill.—(Hear, hear.) The state of affairs
in Ireland was so unsettled that the Bank of
Ireland, which had power to issue seven millions' worth
of paper without having it represented by gold could
only afford to issue five millions, so dry were the pro-
ductive resources of the country.—(Hear, hear.) This
he believed resulted from the absence of a tenant-right
prevailing all over Ireland ; for, according to the re-
turn of sales iu the Incumbered Estates Courts, fewer
sales had proceeded from Ulster, where. there was a
tenant-right, than from any other part of Ireland.
In fact, the majority of the sales prcceeded from places
where there was no such thing as tenant right, and ho
thought this was a pretty conclusive proof that that
part of the country was the best off which enjoyed
a tenant-right.—(Hear, hear.) Well, then, ought
not that fact to make them pause before they consented
to throw out this Bill and plunge Ireland into an endless
and painful agitation?—(Bear, hear.)
Lord CLAUDE HAMILTON said the supporters of
this Bill had not a leg to stand on, when argument
and not declamation was brought to bear upon the
question.—(Hear.) The Bill was advocated for no other
but electioneering purposes; and he hoped the House
would not allow itself to be led away by the declamatory
matter which had been inspirited into this discussion.
The most dangerous and revolutionary principles were
involved in the Bill, which would inflict great injustice
Upon the poor labourers and cottiers in the country. He
candidly confessed that he did not think so un-
Cetialn!rtiigtuhttisohl, barbarous, and unjust a measure
uated from the Hem. Member fur Rochdale.
It was a mass of inchoate legislation, which would peril
trheaelßauetvh.or_ot the Bill was not
.the Hon. Member, but
of property and the fruits of industry. The
reallt
iuhtlhee r ftoer d.—
disguise ( Rutherford.—(Cries le s
theof "
fHaeetanthheetart.h"e)
object of the' measure was to rub the landlord and
to spoliate the rights of the cottier and the labourer.
He had watched the unprincipled agitation of the Tenant
League, who promoted the Bill!, and he declared it to he
only a recipe of the old re
agitation, the same dema-
gogues and the same eacticpseal
Procuring money being
adopted in the on, as
observing aansd
land
in the other.—(Divide.)
Mr. Rutherford said he
only recognised the
he ad g h
right of landlords
consivstisined t land
tenantry tion
its
co
enthteart
the
ethi?e,yord_hidcusoEot._he
landlords would soon have to
bwi
ni led earende ss
strike,t state, ,
ns
(Divide.) He invited tha 'louse to reject the Bill,
which be characterised as an insult to Ireland.
Mr. NA PIER said, as an independent Member of the
House be bad devoted his attention for two years to this
important question with
ng the view of producing a good
landlord and tenant c )de, which he believed was essen-
tially connected with the well being of Ireland. He had
now three draft Bills prepared—tile first consolidating
about 70 old statutes, the second containing a classifica-
tion of leasing powers, and the third with regard to com-
pensation. They were at present under the consideration
of the Government, but it was apparent they could not
be calmly and dispaesiozately discussed during the pre-
sent session. In proposing them he had no intention
whatever of using them for election purposes. It was
his ambition, before he retired from the House, to pass
as perfect and as just a law for regulating the relations
of landlord and tenant as it was possible to devise.
Mr. S. CRAWFORD repll'A, and the House di-
vided, when there appoared—
For the second reading 090
Against it ... ••• • • •
Majority •• •
The House then adjourned.

167