It is scarcely possible to include the members who moved
and seconded the amendment rejecting the Irish Land Bill, Mr. Bryan, M.P. for the county of Kilkenny, and Captain White, M.P. for Tipperary, amongst the principal speakers on the Bill, on any principle of classification. Indeed, with the exception of Mr. Fortescue and Dr. Ball, the speaking on the first night of the debate was dreary in the extreme. Mr. Chichester Fortescue, asserting that the Bill was both the simplest and the strongest ever suggested on this subject, made some very important points, especially as to the extraordinary progress of opinion on it within the last few years. He described a Bill never introduced into Parliament, but contained in a blue-book, called The Bill of the Irish Members,' which was drawn only four years ago, and which only went as far as this,—it left all the farmers holding or likely to hold leases for thirty-one years absolutely to shift for themselves, and gave to tenants holding leases for any shorter term of years an absolute right to their improvements, and to their improvements only. It is obvious, therefore, that Mr. Chichester Fortescue's present Bill goes far beyond the Irish Members' Bill of four years ago. Indeed, Mr. Chichester Fortescue claimed for the Bill, in a very thoroughly reasoned speech, that it would more or less succeed in putting all tenants on the same footing as existing tenants of really good landlords, with this additional pro- tection, that they will not be liable to any reverse of fortune through the succession of a bad landlord or the sale of the estate.
Previous page
