The Irish standard., 1890-05-31
LORD cLANR1CARDE RUSHING

LORD CLANRICARDE RUSHING
to take advantage Of this bill. No; he
expected little more than 23-4 per
cent. for his money. That sort Of man,
who had never done anything for the
country. found it more profitable to hold
on. So that, whatever be the aim Of
the government. this plan of buying out
the best landlords and putting up as
peasant proprletors those who could get
or best without their aid was an insen-
safe plan for the state to adopt, Min
isterial cheers] He admitted that they
had got difficulties III the way CT COM
pulsory purchase in the north Of Ire
land The member for South Tyrone
was an op ponent of compulsory pur-
chase, and having got the government
to make the purchase voluntary, the
honorable member now turned round
and said that though this bill was not
compulsory. it would work out to com
puls1on. The only way he (Mr. Knox
could see that it would work out to
com pulsion was this: Where a tenant
on one side OF the road, lnder this act,
got a reduction Of 30 per cent. the ten
ants on the other side would say that if
they did not get similar reduction
they would pay no rent at all. Hear
That was the only way In which the
bill would work, said the law-abiding
| I11
suggest TO the chief secretary that sum
mary proceedings should be taken under
the second section Of the coercion act
against the honorable member for South
Tyrone for his letter to the Morning
Post. They might cause him in the
customary form Of c0Dspiring, with
certain persons unknown, to induce
other persons unknown and TO compel
them to refrain from doing what they
had legal right to do, yiz.-pay their
legal rent to the landlord. Laughter.
Did It pot open up whole vistaot pos
sibilities for the landlords when they
heard the member for South Tyrone
speaking thus? What was to he the
state of their country if they had to put
in force sort of plan Of campaign right
over the whole country? [Hear. hear
And yet. according TO the member for
South Tyrone, some such course aS that
entailing enormous hardships tol the
country, and teaching
A LESSON OF LAwLEssNEss
that could not be forgotten for many q
long day, would be necessary If the tPn.
ants were to get the advantage of this
bill. Hear, hear The mode of pledg~
ing their securities in Ireland was a
foolish and would be disastrous one.
These securities had been pledged With
out the consent Of the Irish members
and the Irish people, and they were not
worth the paper Oh which the bill was
written. [lrlsh cheers.] Though free
contract was the thing the government
pointed to as preventing reputation Of
the agreements the tenants made, there
was no pretensa even of free contract
when the government pledged these
securities. Hear, heat. There were
two ways in which to get the consent Of
the Irish people to advances being made
under this measure, either by a repre-
sentative local authority, aud giving
them veto on any particular loan, or
by asking the consent Of the Irish mem-
bers to some general scheme applying to
the whole of Ireland. But neither
course had been taken, and there was
not the slightest chance of the Irish
members consenting to pledge their Sc
curities under such a measure as the
psesent. Let them examine the guar
antees. The government had the cash
portion, but they had got it by starving
Irish education instead of giving it the
same benefit from the probate duty as
they gave ia Scotch education. Hear,
hear.] As to the contingent portion Of
the fund, the government could only
get it by involving the whole country in
enmity. He did not think the right
honorable gentleman. with all his ex-
perience of stirring up disorder in Ire
land, if he had deliberately designed the
provision to make government in Ire
land impossible, could have made a
worse provision than this. Most of the
PAYMENTS which were to be stopped
were payments in relief Of the poor rate.
but 1t was not by the poor rate they
were going to raise the money to- meet
the compulsory levy Of the lord lieuten-
ant. N o. because half the poor rate
was paid by che land dIord. Hear. hear.
It was cut OF the county cess they.
wanted to levy this, so that the land
lords may pay nothing, whilst the poor.
est people were made Ia subscribe and
make np for the fault Of richer brethren:
who had the advantage Of purchasing
under the act he chief secretary
must surely know it would be ImpOs-l
slbIe for him 70 levy such rate. It was.
not sec4rIty for peace. put q |pTQyeca-
|tion t0 rebelllo