New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-05-17
ANOTHER CONCESSION TO IRELAND


Mr.. Gladstone has adopted in the Arrears
bill an Irish remedy for discomfort: The meas
IRE which he has proposed embOdies the
main principle of Mr. Redmond's amendment,
and that was inspired by Mr.. Parnell himself
while he was still prisoner in Kilmainham.
Mr.. Redmond's proposal was that, with regard
TO arrears. the tenant should be required to pay
one years rent due August 81, 1881 that he
should apply to the Court, if the rent did not
exceed $3.50 year, and if the Court was salts
fed that he was unable to pay arrears for pre-
vious years. it should grant the landlord one
years rent, or an amount not exceeding ONE
half the arrears and that this grant should
relieve the tenant from all liability for arrears
up to August 81, 1881. That is to say, If a
tenant owed three years rent ut that time he
was to pay one years arrears, the Government
was TO pay another years arrears, and the re-
mainder the landlord would lose altogether.
The Government grant was to be a GIFT, and
not a loan, and was to be made out OF the
Church Surplus Fund Mr.. Gladstone, in a
speech which was most enthusiastically re-
ceved by the Irish party, welcomed these sug-
gestions. He thanked them for the conciliatory
tone which they had adopted, and also for the
practical measure which they had introduced.
He pronounced it "a CLEAN of light on that
horizon which has long been unhappily dark
ened." Speaking in the Commons on April
90. he virtually accepted the arrears clause of
Mr.. Redmond's amendment, and promised to
make it a Government measure. Meanwhile
good many things have happened, as Lord
Beaconsfield once remarked with mock gravity
TO the bore who was haunting him with his
lack of consistency, but the promise has been
kent The asSassinatiOns have created i'll the
Judgment of the English Liberals an urgent
necessity for another and more stringent COer
cion Act, but have not prevented their dealing
with this vexatiOus question of arrears in con-
formity with the practical suggestions of the
Home Rulers themselves.
AS the Arrears bill is outlined in the cable
dispatches, all the original proposals seem to
be reproduced The limit of valuation is the
same-$15O Griffith's scale; the obligation of
the tenant is the same-the payment of one
years arrears and satisfactory evidence of his
incapacity to pay more the obligation of the
Government is the samoa special grant of the
second years rent the relief extended to the
tenant is the same-absolute immunity from
liability for ell arrears of rent which were due
in November, 1851 the landlords loss is the
same, not exceeding years arrears-in most
cases arrears of rack rents which he has not ex-
pected to recover and the basis is the same-it
is not voluntary arrangement, the application
of either landlord or tenant to the Court max
ing il compulsory on the other. In these re-
spects the judgment of the Irish members has
been scrupulously respected. If there be any
variation from the amendment, it is in the adj
ministration of the bill by Land Commission.
but this change was probably essential, and it
does not affect the tenants obligation to prove
his inability to pay arrears before a county
Judge. Evicted tenants find ample redress
under the proposed Act Mr.. Gladstone, in
deed, has not swerved from the principles ac-
cepted in his concilatory speech on Mr.. Red
mond's amendment. a comparison of the new
bill with the text of that speech shows that his
promise has been kept to the letter. although
in the interval which has elapsed since it was
made the messenger whom he sent to Ireland
with tidings of peace and reconciliation has
been butchered in cold blood.
The extent of the concession can only be
roughly estimated. The most trustworthy cal
culatlon which we have seen makes the acgre-
gate of arrears of rent due to the landlords
from tenants who profess to be unable to pay
their debts about $3000O,00O. On this basis
the tenants would pay under the Arrears bill
$IO,OOO,OO0, the Government would exDend