The Sun.
London, England, 1870-03-29 00:00:00

of Portsmouth on the facility with which those stories re-
lative to the dockyard economy were fabricated. The
real facts were these, that during the inclement weather
a soup kitchen was established by subscription, and dona-
tions were not only given by the people of Portsmouth,
but from Whitehall. In order to assist the move- ,
ment a boiler was lent, and they were al-
lowed to take water as a matter of con-
venience from the dockyard. He understood that during
one day last week a question arose as to a dockyard
labourer who was employed in connection with the water,
and tor a tew hours tnere was not a supply or water. Ail
soon as the matter was brought under the notice of th 4
authorities the difficulty was removed.
THE WATER BOUNDARY.
Viscount MILTON asked the Under Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs whether the Convention for Arbitra-
tion relative to the Water Boundary question, which he
stated to this House, on the 4th of August, 11369, had been
signed be Lord Clarendon on the 14th of January, 1869,
submitted to the Committee of Foreign Affairs of the,
Senate of the United States, and by them recommended
for ratification, had yet yet been ratified by Congress ,
And if not, whether he could state- the cause of the delay.
And whether there was any and what objection to lay
upon the table of the House all the correspondence on the
water boundary question.

Mr. ()TWAY replied that if his hon.. friend would refer
to the parliamentary papers on the subject .presented at
the end of last session, he would find that a convention
was submitted to the notice of the Senate of the United
States in April last, and the consideration of the matter
was deferred until December. The ratification of the
convention depended on the Senate, but he
was not able to —slate Naat motives had iii="
duced the American Senate not to ratify it.
With regard to the correspondence there was no objection
to lay it on the table, except on the score of expense. It
consisted of two hundred and seventy pages of very
closely printed matter, and he did not know whether he
should be justified in incurring such an expense. He had
observed the hon. member had published all that was
interesting and important in the correspondence,
and had done him the favour of presenting
him with a copy of the publication, and if
he would extend that favour to hon. members
generally, they would be in possession of an admirable
restonk of the correspondence. (Laughter.)
SAVINGS' BANKS,
Mr. Cnoss asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if,
looking to the state of public business, he saw any chance
of bringing forward the second reading of the Saving
Banks Bill before Easter. _

Mr. STANSPELD, in the absence of Mr. Lowe, said it
was not intended to bring forward the second reading
of the bill until after the Easter recess.

COMMUNICATION WITH AMERICA.
Sir J. OGILVY asked the Postmaster-General what mea-
sures he intended to take to induce the American Govern-
ment to transmit the homeward mails by more
expeditious lines of steam packets than those at present
employed.
The Marquis of . HAETINGTON replied that, under the
terms of the Convention, the two countries each provided
for the transmission of the outward mails. By an addi-
tional convention. which came into operation on the Ist
January in this year, a considerable reduction of postage
t 941 place, and in consequence of that reduction
two of the companies which had hitherto
been engaged in the transmission of mails de-
clined to carry them. He had received several memo-
rials as to the inconvenience and delay which had been
caused by the charge, and he had forwarded them to the
Postmaster-General of the United States for considera-
tion. Since each country regulated this matter for itself,
he had no power to do anything further in the matter.
CHEAP TRAINS.

Mr. C. REED asked the Secretary to the Board of Trade
whether he was in a position to state the result of his
negotiations with the Metropolitan Railway Companies
as to the cheaper and more convenient conveyance of the
working classes over their several lines within a given area
of the metropoliF.
Mr. SHAW-LEFEVRE replied that he was not in a position
to do so.
IRISH LAND BILL.

On the motion for going into committee on the bill,
Mr. M`MAHON said, as he had been informed that as he
could move his instruction in committee, he should not
raise the question at the present moment.
Mr. KNIGHT said he was one of those who desired to
say a few words on the bill on the occasion of its second
reading, but he had been prevented, and he hoped the
now the House would grant him a few moments whilst he
made a few remarks on what appeared to him to be an
omission. It appeared to him that Ireland was in a position
very similar to England and Scotland with respect
to clearances, and the way in which the question was
settled in Scotland, was by sending the people from the
lands cleared to America, but in England they did
not do that, and yet they required no police
nor troops, but a settlement law was passed in the reign
of Charles the Second, and the result of such an Act was
that there were no more houses pulled down, but
that a state of affairs came about which shewed the benefit
and wisdom of the passing of the law he had referred
to. He thought that airthe present evils in Ireland would
pass away if a good law of settlement was passed for that
country.
Mr. NEWDEGATE believed that the bill would produce
discontent in Ireland, and for the reason stated by the
hon. member, They were legislating to give the tenantry
of Ireland a share of the property of the landlord, but
under conditions which would render it impossible for any
poor man to buy himself in at the cost of the tenant-right
they were creating- The very principle of the bill was
erroneous, because it created a tenant-right which was not
based upon contract.
The motion was withdrawn.
'Rile House then went into committee. -
Mr. PIM moved the postponement of Clause 1 of the
bill. The arrangements which the committee might make
as to the details of the third clause would largely affect the
question as to what ought to be the details of the first and
srond clauses. He intimated that he should not press his
nttion against the feeling of the comnaittee.
Mr. GI;ADSTONE expressed his pleasure at hearing thi4
,‘
ikrbe propesi4on was negatived.
I*. Iir.ADLAm then moVed an amendment to Clause 1,
to leave out lines ten to twenty inclusive, and inserting
the amndment. If the clause was passed in
its present form it would be impossible to con-
ceive anything more vague and uncertain. The
landlord would construe it one way and the
tenant another, and there would arise those disappointed
hopes and expectations which had heretofore
given cause for so much dissatisfaction in Ireland.
He thought that the clause he had had the honour to
move would be a great improvement, and he hoped the
House would agree to it, because he thought it most im•
portant that there- should not be one system with re-
gard to tenant right in one part of the coun-
try, and a different mode in another. He
also thought it absolutely necessary that where an
agreement had been come to between landlord and tenant
the landlord should have the power of having that
agreement clearly recorded, in order to prevent
his being called upon to pay money twice
over, and with respect to the system .if left
as it was it would render the farm liable to be rackrented
to any extent. Such a system he thought highly objec-
tionable, and he thought it would he for the good of the
tenant, the landlord, and the State that the Ulster sys-
tem should at once determine. At all events it was im-
portant that whatever the Government intended to do it
should be done in clear and precise language, and with
that view he moved the amendment to the first clause.
Mr. FORTESCUE submitted that it was not their business
to decide for the landlords and tenants of Ireland whether
the Ulster custom was good or not. Their duty was to
decide whether there was in Ulster a custom existing by
the general and mutual understanding of landlord and
tenant which it was desirable to leave no longer to
the teflder mercies of individual caprice, but
to guard, protect, and enforce by law. The
hon. gentleman had said something about absentees,
but that certainly did not apply to Ulster. (Hear, hear.)
And when he talked of the bad effects of the Ulster
Custom, he could say his (Mr. C. Fortescue's) Irish expe-
rience led him to a contrary opinion, because he knew that