On Thursday night, Mr. Chaplin delivered a long and fierce
harangue against the Bill, including one against Free-trade, which he declared to be fatal to peasant-proprietors in England, and he ended by describing the Irish Land Bill as the "grossest and most unhallowed act of public confiscation that had ever yet been attempted by any Minister or statesman in any civilised society or country in the world." Mr. Stans- feld then defended the Bill, as securing virtually the " three F's;" Mr. Parnell explained how the Land League did not wish to expropriate all landlords, but only the bad landlords, and to keep the others, so long as they were on their good behaviour ; Sir Stafford Northcote delivered a vacillating speech of half- apology, half-accusation, in which he expressed his willingness to refer the question of rent to a tribunal, but not to a tribunal with such powers as were to be given to this,—i.e., as we understand him, not to a really effective tribunal ; and Lord. Hartingtou concluded the debate by rallying the Opposition on the uncertainty of their own attitude, and poiuting out that nothing short of what is proposed would establish the customary and equitable rights of the tenants in Ireland, so as to destroy the roots of the agitation which insecurity had caused.
