When Mr. Parnell sat down, Mr. Trovelyan rose and made
the important announcement that the Government had pre- pared a Bill to facilitate purchase, which was in nearly the last stage of readiness, and which he hoped to produce within a fortnight. He hoped this Bill would be satisfactory to all .concerned, stated that the Government had, as he believed, found an intermediary Body which would work efficiently, and hinted that the suggestion of making the tenant-right an additional security was most valuable. We cannot bring our- selves to hope that everybody will be pleased, or even acquiescent; but it is clear that Mr. Bright's purchase clauses are to be largely extended, and possible that the supplementary Land Law may be as important as the original Act. The grand difficulty of the measure, whatever it is, will be to secure its execution through- out a long period of years. It is always forgotten that Freiherr vom Stein, when he turned the serfs of Prussia into peasants, had below him a population anxious to obey law and inclined to keep contracts, and behind him a Government possessing not only the power to shoot all who openly defied the law, but entirely willing to exercise it. Stein's work in Ireland would not be difficult if Prussian conditions existed in the island. However, we must hope for the best, and rely on the reluctance -of men who have paid for an insurance during some years to forfeit their policies at last.
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