Lord Lansdowne, while fully endorsing Lord Dunraven's criticisms, declined to
support his Motion on the ground that there would be ample opportunity of discussing and amending the Bill in Committee. As it stood, it was no mere expansion of the Act of 1903. It differed in many respects,—notably in this, that while that Act offered terms which were satisfactory to both parties, this Bill offered terms which would be satis- factory to neither. After noting how far its- proposals went beyond the recommendations of the Dudley Commission, Lord Lansdowne commented on the Government's surrender to the claims of the landless men, and the drawbacks involved in the resort to compulaion. Under the Bill they proposed to hand over one-third of Ireland to be dealt with under conditions unheard of in the history of any civilised country, and they were doing it at the cost of the taxpayers of England. He frankly declared that the Government could not expect the House to pass the Bill in anything like its present form. But he was ready to join with them in carefully scrutinising its provisions and making it a reasonable measure, a description which it did not at present deserve.
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