The San Francisco call., 1898-07-31
MEASURES BEFORE THE :.." COMMONS Attempted egisIation .'":.. for Ireland. CLANCY TELLS OF THE DEBATE PROGRESS ON THE LOCAL GoV-
 ERNMENT BILL.
 One Point Is Clear, and That Is the . Irish Landlords Will Not Be
 Aided by Their English Friends"
CLANCY TELLS OFTHE DEBATE
PROGRESS ON THE LOCAL GOV ERNMENT BILL.
BY J. J. CLANCY.


 the last Irish week of the session, which will. for all purposes, come to a
 close the first or early in the second
 week of August. The principal busi- ness, of course, has been the consdera- ton of the Irish local government bill
 "on report" The report" stage is really the committee stage over again, with the exception that the Speaker
 Qnstead of the chairman of commit tees) occupies the chair and that each person can speak on each motion only
 once, and not as often as he likes Things got on smoothly enough the first and second days of the week, and 1t was fully expected that the bill
 would be finally disposed of by Thurs
 day night and that ample time would
 be found within the limit for the dis
 cussion of the two or three important questions that remained to be debated But we all counted without our host Late on Tuesday night there was a sud den stop to our gallop, caused by the intervention of an obstructive band of British Liberals.
 One of the principal proposals in the
 bill is to relieve the Irish landlords for
 the future of their liability to the poor
 rate That is the only local rate in Ire land to which they are or have been
 liable, and they are and have been lia-
 ble for only half of that impost. To re- .. lieVe them of the burden will cost about
 900 a year out of the annual grant
 of three-quarters of @ million pounds, which it is proposed to make out of the Imperial treasury in aid of Irish local :. rates. This payment or relief to the landlords, of course, was not liked by
 the Irish popular representatives, but 1t was made an essential condition of : the concession of local self-govern-
 ment, and they had, therefore, no choice but to agree to 1t. One would Imagine that, when those most con- : Cerned accepted the situation and re- solved to make the best of 1t, British home-rulers at least would not have felt bound to demur. Just. however, as there are some Catholics who are more Catholic than the Pope, so some British Liberals are, it appears, more bent on having revenge on the Irish landlords for their past misdeeds than the repre- sentatiYes of the Irish tenants them selves. Nothing would dc the British Liberals but to object on the first read ing of the bill, to debate the matter .Rgaiu on the second reading and to de- . bate it once more on two subsequent occasions in committee. At least all those efforts might be thought enough to satisfy even British Liberal honor; but no. Late on Tuesday night. when the first of the clauses dealing with the agricultural grant to Ireland was reached, a small band of British home rulers commenced a campaign Of ob- struction to further progress with the bill. and did not leave off till late on the the second next night.
 - This band did not contain among it's members any of the Liberal leaders -so-caued. They were either ashamed or afraid to give even the countenance their "irregulars." Whether they se- Sretly encouraged them is not d point so easily determined. The irregulars
 were led for the occasion by MT. Lloyd :.:Aeorge. a Welsh member He is
 small, insignificant looking fellow, /: who, however, is rather clever and .. fairly good speaker. He poses as one
 of the leading opponents of the Non
 conformist Conscience" and there can be no doubt that his great aim is of
 flee for-Mr. Lloyd-George. His idea, apparently, is that one of the best ways
 to get to office is to copy the ways of
 Parnell in the old days of Irish Ob- struction and generally to get himself
 talked about; and this idea of his is
 shared by MT. George Lambert,
 young West of England member of far less brains and much less glib with his g. tongue, but equally ambitious. Those
 were the leaders of the Liberal incur
 sion and they had attached to their
 chariot wheels four or five rather mud . dleheaded middle aged representatives of British Liberal opinion who could not, of course, have waged the battle an hour by their own unaided efforts
 The proceedings of the little band were as simple as possible, and entirely
 lacked the skill that marked the old obstruction campaigns of ParnelI, " whose methods they Strove to follow
 For the most part, they merely kept insisting on a division" on every pos Bible occasion, and as each division in the British House of Commons occu- : pies something between quarter Of an hour and twenty minutes, it is easy to zee how they broke up the greater part of two ordinary sittings.
 :: A bout D. m. on Thursday the Lloyd George-Lamber combination got tired and left off fighting They gained nothing for themselves, of course, but .>notoriety, but they inflicted injury on ;: Ireland and no little hardship on the :: est of the House. It had been agreed that the report stage of the. local gov
 gTnment bill should be finished that night. How could that end be accom- :: pl1shed now that so little time was left .. md that so many matters of more or ~..: -1sS. Importance remained to be dis : .tdssed? There was no way out of this difficulty but to have an "all-night" : sitting. l have been long enough in :.the House of Congress to remember :: many an all-night sitting before the Passing of the rule that the transaction : of all opposed business should cease at ! qffdnight; and the memory has no at : traction for me. Eleven years ago, in : the fight against the passing of the .. ast. Irish coercion act, there were sev- . eral consecutive weeks in which mem
 Oers- of the House of Commons not only :: dined, but took supper in the House.
 and only went home with the milk
 Iii the morning, which was all the . harder when we had all again to make : Uur appearance In the House at 4 ID. m.
 to go through the same weary and : Hopeless fight. With no pleasure there : fore, did many of us look forward to
 another all-night sitting; but there was ao escape from 1t and we accordjngIv sat" till o'clock on Saturday morn. :. Ing, when we finished the bill
 As matter of fact, 1t was a far more Hearisome all-night performance of the kind than any I had previously at /: tended, and the reason is that on this occasion the proceedings were mostly