The debate on the Bill to increase the fund devoted
to buying out landlords under Lord Ashbourne's Act from five millions to ten, was opened on Monday by the Irish Solicitor-General, who in a speech of studied moderation recounted the history of the Act. He showed that both parties were agreed that the number of proprietors in Ireland ought to be increased, and that this measure in particular was received with a chorus of approbation, varied only by a proposal that the amount assigned should be increased to £20,000,000. Since it passed, there had been 14,338 signed agreements to purchase, requiring for execution £5,986,000, of which no less than 6,833 were for holdings under £30 a year. Half the applications were from Ulster; but as the advantages became recognised, agreements increased even in Connaught, where they now amounted to 1,561. The instalments had been regularly paid, and of the £90,000 liability which had accrued since the passing of the Act, only £1,100 remained unpaid, and this there was every reason to believe would be discharged. Mr. Madden continued by pointing out that the security held by the State was exceedingly good, because, though the Treasury advanced the whole money, the landlords deposited one-fifth as security, and the tenants pledged not only their freeholds, but, what was more valuable, their tenant-rights. Mr. Madden ended by a strong appeal to the House, whatever laws it passed for the relief of tenants in arrear, or for preventing the hardships attending eviction, not to suspend the working of an Act which was quietly solving the problem involved in the transfer of the proprietorship of the soil to its working tenantry.
