PETITIONS PRESENTED. From Dissenters of Roxton, and Roseland, against the Proposed Government Plan of Edu-terests both of landlords and tenants, he cation.-From Ipswich, for the Enactment of Sanitary Regulations. From the Norfolk and Norwich Auxiliary Anti-Slavery Association, against the present Method of Hiring Labourers for the Colonies, as tending to perpetuate a Modified System of Slavery. From Limerick, and Kilkenny, against any Clause being Inserted in the Poor Relief (Ireland) Bill which would throw the Responsibility of Supporting the Poor on the Occupying Tenant.From the Presbytery of Elgin, that the present objec

held by tenants at will, if the necessary | her notice to quit; but through some inobligations were not performed by the formal technicality, he lost his case. In parties who held them, the land should be an evil hour he joined a party of Whitesurrendered to the owner. He would call boys, who went to the old woman's cottage, their Lordships' attention to the evidence and swore her to quit the land. He was of Mr. Leahy before his noble Friend's afterwards identified; and as the crime of (the Earl of Devon's) Commission, with Whiteboyism was at that time very prevareference to proceedings by ejectment in lent in that district, he was executed; so Ireland, from which it appeared that from that in this case-to use Lord Guillamore's the period at which a landlord was entitled expression-the tenant hanged her landto get possession, two years and ten months lord. The noble Marquess said, he was might, in some cases, elapse before he at a loss to understand why, in the case of could, by means of ejectment proceedings, a yearly tenant, there should be any neobtain possession of the land; and he (the cessity for a notice to quit at all, if the Marquess of Westmeath) asked, was that rent was not paid or the other conditions consistent with the usages of a civilized were not fulfilled. Surely the very fact of country? The law of ejectment in Ireland the failure to perform the obligation ought ought to be put upon the same footing as to annul the contract. In the Local Courts in England. If a man in Ireland wished Bill of England, these formalities were to get rid of a yearly tenant by the civil- dispensed with; and he was at a loss to bill process, he must give a description of understand why this Act was not extended every lodger and every inhabitant of a to Ireland-why the Irish should be the cabin, and every part of the premises must only persons that, besides suffering from be set forth. How could any one get this the inflictions of Providence, should also information except by inspiration? Then be called upon to endure the inconveniences the notice must be served upon some one of this state of the law? In the case of a in the house, but most frequently there distraint for rent, the distrainer was obliged was no one there; and if the commence- to employ persons to watch the premises ment of the tenancy was uncertain, it was night and day for a fortnight, otherwise necessary the notice to quit should run he could not be sure of having any property twelve months. The difficulty of proving to distrain. The noble Marquess then rea holding was so great that it was often lated the history of a contest which was necessary to enforce a distress merely for carried on between the Commissioners for the purpose of attempting that proof. The some Crown property in Ireland, and fiftyCivil Bill Ejectment Act was intended to two tenants located upon it, which congive a remedy in cases of small tenancy; tinued for nine years altogether; and at but it was liable to the same chicanery and the end of that time the Crown was obliged delay as the proceedings in the superior to rest satisfied with the terms which the courts. Even a pauper, who had nothing tenants had offered in the first instance, beyond the clothes on his back, might put and to leave them unmolested. For he forward a defence to the landlord's claim, wished to impress upon their Lordships, although he had nothing whatever to do that whoever had to deal with the Irish with the tenancy. Suppose a tenant en-must understand this, that if they treated tered upon a farm in May, and that the landlord diecovered on the 2nd of November that he had been burning his land, or otherwise injuring it, he could not recover possession for at least twenty-one months afterwards, because he had not served notice to the tenant by the 1st of November; and very often the matter was still further prolonged by a vexatious defence being set up, as the law permitted a pauper-a man who had not a sixpence-to be put forward as the defendant. He related an instance which was told to him by the late Lord Guillamore, of a poor man who had sub-let a piece of land to a widow, and afterwards, finding that she did not fulfil the conditions she had undertaken, he gave

the people justly, they would be respected; if they were kind to them, they would win their attachment; but if they allowed themselves to be cajoled, they would be sure to be despised. The noble Marquess then adverted to the articles which had been written on several occasions upon Irish landlords in the Times newspaper, stating that that journal was most pertinacious and constant, though able, in its opposition to that class. He also read an extract from Lord John Russell's speech on the 19th of March last, referring to the necessity of steps being taken for the adoption of a higher and more scientific system of agriculture in Ireland, in order to meet the changes that were in progress

in the social condition of the people of that country, and asked how it was possible the land could be improved by the landlords, unless they were allowed greater facilities than they now enjoyed for getting it under their own management? He brought forward his resolution after a great deal of experience as an Irish landlord; and his object in doing so was, if possible, to bring about an improvement in the law, as he thought that the law ought to be made for the benefit of mankind, instead of mankind appearing to exist only for the benefit of the law. He would implore Her Majesty's Government to take the subject into their serious consideration; and for his part he would give them all the assistance in his power in bringing about a better state of things. If they did so, he could assure them that the Irish landlords would be found anxious to carry out the other measures that were now proposed for Ireland; and to meet the wishes of the people of this country, by the manner in which they would discharge the duties which devolved on them as owners of property. The noble Marquess concluded by moving the adoption of his resolution.

instance of the state of the country. A
most unfounded delusion got into the minds
of the tenantry, that the Crown had no
right to the rents; but in that very same
part of the country there were three or
four other Crown properties administered
without the least difficulty, and in which
the rents were most punctually paid. He
believed that in Ireland generally, it was
not much more difficult to collect rents
than in this country; at least, in parts
of Ireland he was sure it was not more
difficult. He would not deny but that
there might be good grounds for entering
into a view of the relations between land-
lord and tenant in Ireland, with a view to
enact better remedies for the protection of
the rights both of landlord and tenant; but
he could not think their Lordships would
act wisely in laying it down as a principle
that the present state of the law was de-
fective, while they were not prepared to
substitute other measures.
He might re-
mind their Lordships that when a Bill on
this subject was before their Lordships'
House three years ago, very great difficulty
was found in dealing with it in the Select
Committee to which it had been referred.
He could only say, that any Bill on the
subject would meet with the greatest at-
tention both from him and from his noble
and learned Friends in that House, and
who were so much better qualified than he
was to consider the question. In conclu-
sion, he expressed a hope that the noble
Marquess would not press his Motion; and
he should, therefore, beg to move that the
other Orders of the Day be read.

The MARQUESS of WESTMEATH said, after the observations which had fallen from the noble Marquess, and the assurance that the question would be taken into consideration by the Government, he should not press his Motion.

The MARQUESS of LANSDOWNE said, he would offer but a very few words in reply to the noble Marquess, as he did not think he was called upon to follow the noble Marquess through the great variety of subjects to which he had alluded in connexion with the state of the law of landlord and tenant; seeing that he had no means of knowing under what circumstances the cases had arisen. The objection which he had to the Motion was, that it was an abstract Motion, pronouncing a sentence of general censure on the law as it now existed between landlord and tenant in Ireland, without distinctly stating what remedies should be substituted. The question would be incidentally raised on many measures which would come before their Lordships from the other House of Parliament; and he had only to observe, that in considering the question of the rights of the landlords, they should not overlook the rights of the tenants. A Bill on the subject of the relations between landlord and tenant in Ireland had been introduced in the other House of Parliament; and should it come before their Lordships, they would PETITIONS PRESENTED. By Mr. Shaw, from a great many have ample opportunity of considering the whole state of the law on the subject. As to the case to which allusion had been made, of land held by the Crown in Ireland, it should not be regarded as a general

Motion withdrawn.
House adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS,

Monday, May 3, 1847.

MINUTES.] PUBLIC BILLS. 1a Seamen's Enlistment;
Poor Laws Administration; Railways (Ireland, No. 2);
Fishery Piers and Harbours (Ireland).
Reported.-Towns Improvement Clauses.
3o and passed:-Factories.

places, for Alteration of the Church Temporalities (Ireland) Act. From Grocers' Assistants of Dublin, for the Better Observance of the Lord's Day.-By Lord George Bentinck, from Lynn, and Mr. J. Vivian, from Swansea, for Alteration of the Law of Marriage.-By Mr. Bouverie, from Port Glasgow, against the Marriage (Scotland) Bill. -By Sir H. Fleetwood, from Claughton, in favour of

bourers in those factories had not, on an average, worked ten hours a day. The effect of the factory labour, as at present carried out, was to deteriorate the race of persons so employed, and render them weak and diminutive. He would vote for the third reading of the Bill.

limit the operation of the Bill for three | hon. Member who had last spoken, which years. He would not now enter into the was sufficient to induce him to oppose the general discussion, so much as confine his measure, looking at it, as he did, as a meaobservations to the benefits of that clause. sure calculated to be productive of very great The present Bill was an experiment. Every advantage. It appeared to him, that the word used, every argument advanced, hon. Member who had just sat down knew showed that it was only an experiment. little of the working of the factory system Its advocates showed their own want of in the north of England; but he had reconfidence in it. They had no consistent sided in those districts, and he had witnessdefinite set of principles upon which they ed the evils to which this Bill would be could support what was really a penal Act applied. If they considered the immense against the industry of the country. He steam power which was capable of being proposed to relieve them from their dif- applied to manufactures; and the great ficulties by limiting the operation of the competition which existed amongst proAct to three years. He had named ducers, they would see that over-producthree years, because a shorter period tion was often the result of that steam might be affected by peculiar and tempo- power and great competition; and the conrary seasons of unusual prosperity or de- sequence of over-production was to depression. Three years, too, was a good prive, to a certain extent, the labourers of period, because in that time the steed employment. Such was the effect of overwould know its rider-the people would production on the amount of labour, that get acquainted with the tax which they the hon. Members would find, by a calcuwere about to impose upon them. The lation of the work performed in the factopeople themselves would be glad of the li-ries from 1837 to 1847, that the adult lamitation to three years, for they were not at all confident of the success of the measure, and wanted a given period to ascertain its effects. The House had showed the greatest vacillation upon the measure, and having thrown the Bill out two years ago, was it decent that the present Parliament, as one of its last Acts, should now enact for a permanency? If the measure were successful-and he was not so bigoted as to suppose that it could not be successful-who would not be willing to continue it at the expiration of the allotted time? If the measure were passed as a permanent one, he-if a Member of the new Parliament-would open the question every year; and if he were not a Member of the ensuing Parliament, no doubt other Members would be found to maintain a perpetual agitation in that House on the subject. Would it not be desirable to prevent such an agitation, as no doubt they would prevent it if the Bill were only enacted for three years? Besides, so important a measure ought not to pass without the support of a united Cabinet. The present Government was divided with regard it; and this fact was quite sufficient of itself to justify the House in refusing to enact a permanent Act so deeply affecting the welfare of the manufacturing interests of the country. The hon. Gentleman concluded by moving that the Bill be read a third time that day six months.

MR. GRIMSDITCH supported the Bill. He had heard no new argument from the

MR. LABOUCHERE would trespass for a short period on the impatience which the House felt for a decision on a question which had been so fully discussed already. He was anxious not to give a silent vote on this question, when it came as it did before them for a final decision; and he would assure the House that it was no agreeable task to him to express an opinion at variance with the opinions conscientiously entertained by many of those with whom he had been in the habit of co-operating, and for whom he had an unfeigned respect, he might mention especially the noble Lord at the head of the Government, and his right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department. He had carefully considered the subject, which was one of very great importance; and the most careful consideration had not caused him to change the opinion which he had before expressed. He looked upon this measure as a perilous experiment, which was not calculated to produce the results which those who supported it anticipated; and he feared that it would also prove a disappointment to the working classes, for whose benefit the measure had been introduced. He was afraid, that so far from introducing harmony and