It had led also to additional clerks, however, had been em- | properties in Ireland. the system of great middlemen, because led to the disorganised state of society in Ireland, and affected so injuriously the relations of landlord and tenant, which was the most unsound part of that disorganisation. When, however, Lord Devon and his Commission instituted their inquiry, they were enabled to say that all the elements of prosperity in Ireland were rapidly progressing. The Commissioners said in their Report— LAW OF LANDLORD AND TENANT. LORD MONTEAGLE said, he would call the attention of their Lordships to the Motion of which he had given notice; but he would endeavour to compress his ob-prietors. It was these things which had servations within as small a space as possible. He had nothing to say against the constitution of the Devon Commission, or the competency of the individuals appointed under it to inquire into the relations of landlord and tenant in Ireland; but at the same time, looking to the uses to which the report of that Commission had been applied, he must say that never was an inquiry productive of less good or greater evil. The point to which he wished especially to direct their Lordships' attention was, that there were peculiarities affecting the landed property of Ireland which distinguished it not only from the landed property of England, but from the landed property of every other European country. For the historical state of property in Ireland the English Parliament was at least as much responsible as the present holders of land. He would refer their Lordships to the Earl of Clare's speech, which was made in the Irish House of Lords before the Union, for the purpose of showing the difficulties which arose out of the circumstances of the country. He said "7,800,000 acres of land were set out under the authority of the Act of Settlement to a motley crew of English adventurers, civil and military, nearly to the total exclusion of the old inhabitants of the island, many of whom, who were innocent of the rebellion, lost their inheritance, as well for the difficulties imposed on them by the Court of Claims in the proofs required of their innocence, as from a deficiency in the fund for reprisal to English adventurers." Even so late as the reign of William III., 1,800,000 acres were taken in the same way. What had been the consequence? As Lord Devon's Report said, the confiscations led in many instances to the possession of large tracts by individuals whose more extensive estates in England made them regardless and neglectful of their VOL. CXIII. [THIRD SERIES.] "Our tour and an extensive intercourse with the farming classes enable us to say that in almost X Probably it had not been dealt with on ac- | future legislation upon the subject, and to count of the want of that information contain nothing more than a clear statewhich it was the object of his present ment of the law of landlord and tenant as Motion to supply. The result of his Mo- it at present stood. The noble Lord contion would be to show what had been done cluded by movingboth in England and Ireland, and would enable their Lordships to exercise some discrimination in their application of remedial measures to the existing state of things. The conduct of England towards Ireland had been described in a forcible manner by Mr. Greville. Speaking of the civil war in Ireland, he said "The surrender of Limerick terminated the civil war; the Irish people and the Catholic religion were laid in the dust-4,000 Irish subjects were outlawed rebels, and 1,100,000 acres were lution is unparalleled in the history of the world. If the wars of England had been carried on against a foreign enemy, the inhabitants would have retained their possessions, and their country been annexed to England as a province. But the whole power and property of the country has been conferred by successive monarchs on an English colony, composed of three successive sets of adventurers; confiscation is their common confiscated. The situation of Ireland at the revo title." "That a humble Address be presented to Her Majesty for a Commission to inquire and to report upon the state of the law of Landlord and Tenant in Great Britain and in Ireland; showing the differences which exist in the laws as affecting the two parts of the United Kingdom." The LORD CHANCELLOR considered that it would be perfectly impracticable to obtain in useful form any report upon the subject referred to in the Motion of the noble Lord. It would no doubt be perfectly easy to give an abstract of the various statutes which existed on the subject; but even with such an abstract their Lordships would be exceedingly at a loss to understand what were the rights of either landlord or tenant under those Acts. They could only find out the meaning of those statutes by reference to whole shelves of law books, for their meaning would be best found in the recorded decisions of The present state of the law had been that House, and in the various courts of upon more than one occasion referred to in law. If their Lordships were to take up that House, and it would be sufficient for a book of the statutes, and suppose that him to state, that under its operation they could understand from it what the some of the most valuable properties in law of the land was on the subject of landIreland had been destroyed. There were lord and tenant, it would be the greatest houses wanting tenants, and tenants want- mistake imaginable. The law of landlord ing houses; but such was the state of the and tenant was perhaps the most complilaw, and such the difficulties in obtaining cated of all laws; and to arrive at any possession on the part of the landlords, complete knowledge of the subject, it would that many of them preferred pulling down be necessary for their Lordships to undertheir cottages at once, to being put to the stand the whole of the bearings of the law trouble and annoyance of getting rid of a of ejectment, the law of replevin, the law bad tenant. Again, the law which com- of waste, or what a tenant might do withpelled the landlords to pay the poor-rates out forfeiting his term—which was in itself without regard to whether they received a most complicated branch of the question rent from their tenants was a serious injus--the law of forfeiture as connected with tice, as it frequently happened that the tenant paying nothing to the landlord, left him still, by some Irish process, out of that nothing to extract that something wherewith the landlord was expected to pay the rates which ought to have been paid by the tenant. What he wished to obtain by the appointment of this Commission was a short report, not founded upon evidence, but upon such consideration as a few lawyers of eminence might give upon a careful consideration of the existing state of the law. He did not wish a single amendment to be suggested in the report, or any remarks to be made as to what the state of the law ought to be. He wished the report to be simply as a foundation for waste and other circumstances, and a variety of other heads, a knowledge of which could only be obtained by a study of the decisions of the courts of law upon them. It might no doubt be possible to obtain a report upon the state of the law with respect to any one particular head; but to attempt any report upon the whole question would only be attended with the most unsatisfactory result; but when to that was to be added, as was proposed in this Motion, a contrast and comparison of the state of the law of landlord and tenant in both countries, it would be perfectly impracticable. LORD MONTEAGLE thought that the noble and learned Lord had misapprehend ed the object of his Motion, as he intended the report of the Commission to be confined exclusively to the actual state of the law, without reference to the decisions of the courts of law upon the subject. The MARQUESS of LANSDOWNE objected to the Commission, for he thought any report upon the state of the law of landlord and tenant would be useless unless it were accompanied with the decisions of the courts upon the law itself; but, independently of that objection, he thought also that if the Motion were granted there would be great danger of misapprehension on the subject in Ireland, and that the mere circumstance of a new Commission being issued to inquire into the law of landlord and tenant in Ireland, would inevitably be attended with the mischievous effect of creating an opinion there, amongst people whom the arguments of his noble Friend would never reach, that Parliament was about to review the old law on this subject, with a view to amend or alter the system that now existed. He was not prepared to say that some amelioration in the law might not take place; but, whenever it did take place, it must be based on the principle of property itself, which principle he held to be common both to England and Ireland; and whatever peculiar circumstances existed in those countries, or in different parts of them, it would be most dangerous to depart from that principle. The EARL of GLENGALL fully concurred in the opinion just expressed by the noble Marquess, that it would be unadvisable to allow it to go forth that any change was contemplated in the law of landlord and tenant by the Motion of the noble Lord. At the present moment there existed in Ireland a considerable amount of ill-feeling on the subject of the relation of landlord and tenant. The feeling was not a new one; it had existed for many ages, and had its origin, he believed, in the unjust mode by which the landlords of Ireland had become originally possessed of their property. A great portion of the land of that country had been confiscated and handed over to persons representing English interests, and the tenants of Ireland could not bring themselves to believe that those parties had become honestly possessed of the property. At the present moment a similar process was going on in Ireland. A number of speculators from Threadneedle-street, had gone over to Ircland, and purchased property there at less than one-half, or one-third, of its value; and it would not be believed there that this was anything but another confiscation of the land; and those who thus possessed themselves of the property of the country need not be surprised if the treatment they receive was in accordance with that opinion. He regretted also to see that although facilities were given to the public press to report the proceedings of that House, still whenever any Irish question came on, no matter how important-with the single exception of the Dolly Brae's debate-the debates scarcely ever met the public eye, or at best but a few words were given, and then most serious comments appeared the next morning in the public journals, on what was so imperfectly given, or not given at all. So it was when the correspondents of the newspapers went over to Ireland; did they go to the fertile counties in Munster, or to Wicklow, Wexford, Queen's County, Kildare, or Carlow; or did they go to Antrim, Down, or Fermanagh? No. They went to none of those places, where there was as good farming as in any other country. Why did they not go there? Because there was nothing to abuse-it would not sell—it would not pay. They went to four counties in the west, where, from the extreme badness of the land which is farmed, it never would have been cultivated, but that the high prices of corn during the French war had made it profitable. One half the places they went to were only stony mountains or black turf bogs; and were they to expect to see in such places comfortable houses? Did the persons who went from this country to Ireland to make purchases of land go to the western part of it? A person who went to Ireland for that purpose the other day went to the county of Wicklow, where he purchased a beautiful property covered with wood. That was the first adventurer who had gone to Ireland to purchase land. There was another class of persons who went to Ireland, besides the correspondents of newspapers; they were a set of bilious philanthropists, who amused themselves all day in reading blue books and making extracts from them. The bilious gentleman went over with his blue book and his portmanteau, and travelled instantly off to the far west. He went to those four particular counties, where he was sure to find matter for a pithy, spicy pamphlet. He got his information from the person who drove the car, or from an individual between a gamekeeper and a colonies. Considering the narrow majoritles by which it had passed in another place, and the great changes made in it, the expression of the noble Lord the Secretary for the Colonies could hardly be said to have been borne out, that there never was a Bill of so much magnitude passed with such slight alteration. The colonists had reason for strong complaining of the swell-mobsman, who lounged about inndoors, and lay in wait for Saxon travellers. He gave him information, and referred him to Mister This and Mister That; and besides that, the correspondent had letters of introduction, and each man made him a greater fool than the one he had left. He (the Earl of Glengall) considered that much mischief had been caused by the operation of Pigot's Act, but admitted that the pre-course pursued towards them by Governsent Attorney General had done something ment in this matter. They had been led towards remedying the evils of that and to suppose, upon the authority of the First some other objectionable enaactments. Minister of the Crown, that the whole conEvery man in Ireland, who knew what trol of their lands would be left to their the Attorney General had done during own decision and judgment. But the Bill that Session for Ireland, ought to feel the deprived them of that privilege. deepest obligation to that officer for the Bill, in passing through the other House, great attention he had paid to Irish legis- had been changed in another most essential lation, the ability with which he had con- feature. As sent up from the House of ducted it, and the sound principles he en- Commons, the Bill contained provisions for tertained; and he only hoped that he would a Federative Assembly, which Her Malong remain Attorney General, and con-jesty's Government had admitted to be of tinue to devote his attention to the sub-the greatest importance as a means of ject. In conclusion he would say that no uniting the strength of the colonies; country had ever made such strides as Ireland between 1835 and 1845 with respect to agriculture and the improvement of the habitations of the people. Motion withdrawn. House adjourned till To-morrow. HOUSE OF COMMONS, Thursday, August 1, 1850. MINUTES.] PUBLIC BILLS. 1a Marlborough House; Customs; Police Superannuation Fund. 2a Assessed Taxes Composition; Sheep and Cattle Contagious Disorders Prevention Continuance; Copyright of Designs Acts Amendment; Landlord and Tenant (Ireland) (No 2). Reported.-Municipal Corporations (Ireland) (No. 2). 3 Excise Sugar and Licences; Commons Inclosure (No. 2). AUSTRALIAN COLONIES GOVERNMENT Lords' Amendments considered. The but these provisions having been struck port of the Privy Council said, the best form of government for the colonies would be that which gave them a double chamber; and the colonists themselves, in all their petitions and memorials, had asked for the same. Why, then, had it been altered? By whom, and when, had any declarations been made on the part of the colonies that they preferred a single to a double chamber? On what authority was it alleged that they desired a form of government different from that of the mother country? It would be urged, perhaps, that the alterations had been made in order to meet the wishes of the colonies. He could not admit that argument, because all the colonies desired a form of government similar to our own. The Government, however, proposed to make alterations which they did not ask for, but refused to make alterations that they requested. He was at a loss, under these circumstances, to discover the sincerity of their intentions; and he protested against any such measure being considered likely to cement the affections and feelings of the colonies to the mother country, or as being supposed to contain that form of government which the colonies most desired to possess. He asked the Government again whether they had not seen in the newspaper which was affirmed to be of authority, and which they quoted when it suited their purpose, memorials in favour of a double chamber, and reasons why the colonies ought to have local self-government, as far as regarded the control of the land fund? But he would come to the immediate questions involved in the Amendments they were called upon to consider. One of the purposes of the Bill was to separate the colony of Port Philip from New South Wales; and there was also a power to separate the northern from the middle portion of that colony. The effect of this power would probably be that Moreton Bay would be erected into a separate colony. Besides this, another Amendment was to diminish the franchise one-half; so that whilst the boundaries of the colonies were curtailed, the franchise was extended. The consequence would be that the neighbourhood of Sydney, where the largest portion of what was called the convict population resided, would have a preponderating influence-an influence so great that, instead of a constitution similar to that of our own being provided, it was probable that it would assume a decidedly democratic character. He did not object to the extension of the franchise; but its It effect ought to have been counteracted by another deliberative assembly in the colony of New South Wales; and he bade the Government be aware lest by thus splitting up the colony into sections, lowering the franchise, and confining the legislative body to a single chamber, they should give an undue and dangerous influence to the convict population, weakening the bond with this country, and injuring the pastoral interest in the colonies. Another great alteration which they had to consider was that which he had already alluded to-the absence of the provisions for confederation. The Federative Assembly, which was professedly created to have the power of controlling the land funds, had been struck out; and the Government had determined to retain that control to themselves, in spite of the wishes of the colonists. The effect of their retention of this power would be to perpetuate the high price of land-a result which would materially affect the progress of the colonies. had already operated to divert the tide of emigration towards the United States, and to deprive the mother country of the benefit of its colonies as a vent for its surplus population. Between 1831 and 1847, no fewer than 70 different regulations respecting the sale of land had been made in New South Wales, each successive change being for the worse. The fallingoff in the land sales from 316,6067. in 1840, to 7,4027. in 1844, showed the impossibility of maintaining the high upset price of 17. per acre. The number of emigrants to the United States, where the upset price of land was 5s. 6d. per acre, had risen from 40,000 in 1840, to 140,000 in 1847, and to 219,000 in 1849-a number equal to the whole Australian population; while the emigrants to New South Wales, where the upset price was 17. per acre, had fallen from 15,000 to an average of 1,100 a year. Earl Grey boasted that a high price of land had promoted emigration; whereas the fact was, that from the proceeds of the sales of country lands in New South Wales, only 8,000 persons had been conveyed there since the price of land had been raised from 12s. to 20s. an acre; but immense numbers had resorted to the United States. In fact, emigration to America had increased in exactly the same ratio as emigration to Australia had decreased; whilst the population, instead of being concentrated, was so dispersed that they were beyond control and authority. The foundation of immoral habits was thus laid. Another objection which he enter |