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"He warned the English taxpayers that if they advanced the money to the Irish people under present circumstances, the time might and probably would arrive when, for political as well as for social purposes, the Irish members would call upon their people to repudiate the debt."

Mr T. P. O'Connor followed in the same line:

"Hon. gentlemen thought that this

Bill would limit the area of discontent. On the contrary, it would widen the area of possible repudiation. If those tenants bought under compulsion from the landlords, backed by removable magistrates and by a perpetual Coercion Act, there was no sanctity in the contract. If a tenant who should have entered into a bargain under this Bill with his eyes open could, by a temporary postponement of his payments to this country, aid in turning the present Government out of office, he would be morally justified in adopting such course."

a

Morally justified in being immoral! These are the men to whom we are asked to intrust the government of Ireland!

The evil spirit of Repudiation will be summoned from the vasty deep; but will it come? The spirit of No-Rent, the Plan of Campaign spirit, and the antiLand Court spirit, were all so summoned, but they refused to obey the call. In spite of the protestations, demonstrations, and objurgations of Dillon & Co., the Irish tenants went into the Land Courts, laughed at the Plan of Campaign, and trampled the NoRent manifesto under foot. So it

VOL. CXLVII.-NO. DCCCXCVI.

will be with the purchasing tenants. There is no reason whatever to suppose that they will be dishonest, even at the bidding of the League. Happily we have some experience to guide us on this point. Under the Ashbourne Acts £5,143,000 have been advanced; and the amount that has become payable by purchasers is £310,450, of which only 1 per Under cent has not been paid. all the Land Purchase Acts now in force in Ireland (for the Act of 1881 was a Purchase Act), 20,000 tenants have purchased, and £10,000,000 has been advanced; yet in only four cases have the authorities had to fall back upon the guarantee funds in consequence of the tenants' default. Only a little over 2 per cent of the instalments remains uncollected. Mr Gladstone holds up this deficiency as serious, and as an indication that wholesale repudiation will occur. If repudiation does occur, it will be because he, and such as he, have suggested that it should be made to occur, by propounding the novel doctrine that if an elector enters into a private bargain against the wishes of his political representative, he has a right to repudiate his obligation! But the bulk of the Irish tenantry, whatever their faults, are not rogues and swindlers, and they will bitterly resent the stigma which has been placed upon them by those who have declared them to be capable of a gigantic act of robbery. They may well pray to be

saved from their "friends"-those friends who beguile them with flattery at one time, and load them with calumny at another.

The second reading debate brought out very clearly three things: (1) the utter demoralisation and confusion of the Opposition; (2) the extreme and irre

3 L

concilable nature of Parnellite demands; and (3) the dangers which beset the question of Local Government in Ireland.

Upon the first point it is not necessary to dwell, further than to say that the most contradictory theories and schemes were advocated from the Opposition benches, -schemes and theories which destroyed each other, so that the most effective answers to opponents of the Bill were delivered by their own colleagues. Sir W. Harcourt made a slashing speech against Land Purchase ab initio, -a speech which, as to its main argument, would have been wholly admirable if it had been directed against a proposed scheme of Land Purchase forGreat Britain, but which, considered in its application to Ireland, was utterly absurd. Of course he disguised the fact that he and his colleagues are responsible for the necessity which has arisen for these exceptional measures in Ireland. He even blessed dual ownership, and very naturally, as he helped to create it. As Mr Wyndham demonstrated in his effective reply, Sir W. Harcourt "ignored the real conditions of the problem in Ire land." He expatiated at great length upon the anomalous features of the Bill. It would unsettle the "settlement" of 1881; create a lower rent alongside the judicial rent; make the payers of judicial rents dissatisfied; use the rewards of all for the benefit of the few; was a censure on the landlords-and all the rest of it. But on the most monstrous anomaly of all-viz., the abnormal conditions which exist in Ireland and their authors-Sir W. Harcourt was judiciously silent.

The real nature of the Parnellite demands is brought out clearly enough in the speech of Mr. Dillon,

who ranks next in influence to Mr Parnell, upon the congested districts. Mr Balfour rightly claims that his Bill proposes to treat the people of these districts more generously than any measure ever submitted to Parliament, and that, taken in connection with what he has already done, it forms a remedial and constructive policy far in advance of anything yet attempted by any Government. How are these overtures received by the Nationalists? With ingratitude, contumely and indignation. Mr Dillon, while disdaining to recognise the efforts of the Chief Secretary, has the impudence to propose an alternative scheme of his own, of which the main features are these: that landlords in the congested districts should be compelled to sell their estates for eight years' purchase of Griffith's valuation, even though they may be worth double; that the tenants should be relieved from all rent,"The question of rent, in fact, ought to be abolished all over the west of Ireland"; that "the tenant's interest in the holding should not be seizable for any debt of any kind contracted after the passing of the Act"; that the Congested Districts Board should consist of a majority of Nationalists; and that the Boards of Guardians in these districts should have power to levy double the amount of poor rates now paid.

Rob the landlords ; bleed the Loyalists; bribe the tenants-that is Nationalist policy all over.

With regard to Local Government, it is to be feared that Mr Chamberlain's well-intentioned efforts to conciliate the Parnellites have done much more harm than good. To give county councils in Ireland the powers of landlords— power to veto all transactions under the Bill, and power to dis

will have to buy his own interest

rent is assessed upon the tenant's improvements. In other words, it repudiates the judicial rents fixed under the Act of 1881, and the contracts based upon them. How can such people as these ever be satisfied? All that can be predicated of the BiH is, that it will tell, and tell powerfully, in the right direction; that it will extend the area of content, and decrease the area of disaffection; and that so it will bring nearer the time when Ireland will have peace within her gates and prosperity within both her cottages and her palaces.

pose of a portion of the funds repaid by purchasing tenants-would as well as the landlord's, as the be absolutely disastrous. It is amazing that a man of Mr Chamberlain's perspicacity should have made such a suggestion, except on the supposition that he wished to preserve a semblance of consistency. Mr Balfour and Lord Hartington refused to countenance the insidious proposal, as indeed they were bound to do, both by their own previous declarations and by the inexorable facts of contemporary Irish history. But the danger is not yet over. This point will be fiercely contested in Committee, and it behoves all who realise its momentous importance to see to it that the Loyalists of Ireland are not again betrayed either by the weakness of their friends or the malignity of their enemies.

Finally, will this Bill satisfy the Irish people and settle the Irish question? Emphatically not. There is no magic power in it. The Irish people have been so demoralised that nothing short of a gift of the land, and a salary for the trouble of living on it in idleness, will pacify many of them. And as for settling the Irish question, there are too many persons interested in keeping it unsettled to admit of that being done just yet. The very boons given to the tenants will be made the germ of a new agitation. Already the Freeman's Journal' says that under this Bill the tenant

Sir W. Harcourt unwittingly testified to the beneficent character of this Bill when he uttered these words: "When you have reduced Ireland to this condition, I do not see why the whole process should not begin again, and why these small tenancies should not coalesce like drops of quicksilver which you run upon a plate, and which join together into one mass. I see nothing in your Bill to prevent this land being sold— no limit to the people who may purchase." Exactly. And therein lies the virtue of the Bill. So far as it is operative, it will restore the condition of things which was ruthlessly torn up by Sir W. Harcourt and the other destructive statesmen who were associated with him in the work of ruining Ireland

INDEX TO VOL. CXLVII.

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by Frank E. Beddard, 517.
'Appreciations: with an Essay on Style,'
by Walter Pater, reviewed, 140.
ARGIN TO TOSKI, FROM; OR, THE NILE
CAMPAIGN OF 1889, 747.

'Asolando: Fancies and Facts,' by Robert
Browning, reviewed, 133.

Beauties, some great and social celebri-
ties, 170 et seq.

'Beecher Stowe, the Life of Harriet,' re-
viewed, 409.

Begründung des Deutschen Reiches
durch Wilhelm I., Die,' von Heinrich
von Sybel, reviewed, 615.
Bibliomania, the disease of, 684.
Blantyre, the mission settlement of, 20,
858.

BOSTON, OLD, by John C. Locking, 242
-an early trading emporium, 243-
the ancient parish church of St Botolph
244-the town during the civil war,
246-the records of the incorporation,
247-long list of worthies, 248.
BROWNING, ROBERT, a Sonnet, by Sir
Theodore Martin, K.C.B., 112.
'Bull i' th' Thorn, the,' by Paul Cushing,
reviewed, 427.

BURN, THE, by Peter Bayne, LL.D.,
128.

CAMPING IN THE CAÑADAS, TENERIFE,

by A. Silva White, 520-the old crater
bed, ib.-weather reports, 521-semi-
tropical vegetation, 522-preparing for
excursion, 523-valley of Orotava, 524
-humours of camping out, 525-
sketching, 527-routine of daily life,
528-ascent of the Peak, 530-the
final climb, 532-peeping into the
crater, 533.
CANNIBAL CHIEFS, THE LAST OF THE,
648-the practice of cannibalism, ib.
-cannibalism not incompatible with
warmth of domestic affection, 649-
sketch of the Buli of Nandrau, ib.-
murder of a Wesleyan missionary and
the wars it led to, 650-death cere-
monies, 653.

Chamberlain's Mr, efforts to conciliate
the Parnellites, 868.

Chartist agitation, collapse of the, 328.
CHESTERFIELD, LORD, 206-publication

of a new set of letters of, ib.—a “tea-
table scoundrel," 207-the moral teach-
ing of the letters, 209-Dr. Johnson's
charges against, 210-Chesterfield's
abuse of country life and sports, 213
-gambling in the eighteenth century,
214-Chesterfield's claim to distinction,
215-his political capacities, 216—his
vers de société, 220.

'Claire Brandon,' by Frederick Marshall,
reviewed, 425.

COLLECTOR ON THE PROWL, THE, 677-
bric-a-brac shops, ib.-grounds for col-
lecting,678-dangers of the sale-room,
679-marvelous changes in value, 681
-the art of planting,"682-hints to
collectors, 683-the disease of biblio-
mania, 684-old china, ivories, and
enamels, 685-old silver plate, ib.-
spoiling country churches, 686.
CRICKET v. GOLF: A COMPARISON, by
Horace Hutchinson, 510.

Crockford's Club and the Gambling Com-
mittee, 5.

DANDIES, IN THE DAYS OF THE, by Lord
Lamington.

I. CHANGES IN LITERARY AND SOCIAL
TASTE, 1-extravagances of dandy life,
ib.-Count d'Orsay and Gore House,
3-Lady Blessington, 4-Crockford's
Club and the Gambling Committee, 5
-Lord Willoughby de Eresby, 6—
Louis Napoleon and the Duchess of
Hamilton, 7-Lady Jersey, 8-Lady
Palmerston's dinners and receptions,
10-Lord Palmerston's epigrammatic
power, 11-David Urquhart and his
Foreign Affairs Committees, 12-put-
ting a deputation in a Turkish bath,
15-the faith according to Urquhart,
16.

II. SOME GREAT BEAUTIES AND
SOCIAL CELEBRITIES, 170-homage to
beautiful women, ib. - the sisters

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Sheridan, ib.-the Eglinton Tourna-
ment and its cost, 172-Lord Eglinton
and billiard playing, 173-the Prince
of Parma and Baron Ward, the York-
shire stable-boy, 174-Duke of Hamil-
ton's grandeeship of manner, 177-visit
of the Empress Eugenie to Hamilton
Palace, ib. distinguished diplomat-
ists, 180-Lord Ponsonby's career, 181
-thoughts before death, ib.-famous
dancers, 184.

III. THE YOUNG ENGLAND PARTY,
313-the apostles at Cambridge,314-
list of the Young England Party, ib.-
Factory Legislation due to the Young
England Party,315-Lord Lyndhurst's
Annual Review of the Session, 317-
Lord Brougham's sense of the ridicu-
lous, 318-the young England poets,
319- an undergraduate fruit- stall
keeper, 321-Sir Robert Peel and the
party, 323-dining in the House of
Commons in the olden time, 325--
collapse of the Chartist agitation, 326
-Disraeli's success, 328.

'Demeter and other Poems,' by Alfred

Lord Tennyson, reviewed, 137.
D'Orsay, Count, and the habitués of Gore
House, 3.

DOWIE DENS, THE ORIGINAL BALLAD OF

THE, by Professor Veitch, 739.
EAST AFRICA, GERMAN AIMS IN, 689.
Eglinton, Lord, and billiard playing,
173.

Eglinton Tournament and its cost, 172.
EFFEL TOWER, THE, by H. D. Rawns-
ley, 429.

EST MODUS IN REBUS, 367.

Eugenie's, Empress, visit to Hamilton
Palace, 177.

EVENTFUL VOYAGES, SOME, by C. F.
Gordon Cumming, 372.
EXCHANGE WITH INDIA, by J. S. Wood.

I. The fall in the price of silver, 384
-metallic and exchange value of coin
in circulation, 386-a gold standard,
389-foreign exchange and the transfer
of values, 393-home charges of the
Indian Government, 398 complete
solution of the Indian problem, 403.

II. Indian imports and exports, 557
-determination of the rate of ex-
change, 560-comparison of the ortho-
dox and spurious systems of exchange,
564-loss and gain by spurious ex-
change, 573-the bimetallists and the
application of their principles to India,
574-the, position and duty of the
Government of India, 580.

EXPERIENCES OF A MULTAZIM, THE, by
a member of Laurence Oliphant's col-
ony, 222.

Falling in Love, and other Essays,' by
Grant Allen, reviewed, 145.

Fenian Conspiracy, the, and its organisa-
tion, 432.

FOREIGN POLITICS, CURRENT INFLU-
ENCES ON, II., by Kiptoç, 291-the
Eastern Question, ib.-the attitude of
the Russian peasant, 293-the Pan-
salvist programme and its issues, 296-
General Kauffmann's averted disgrace,
297-currents of Russian policy,299-
the last Russian war with Turkey, 300
-Russian designs on Constantinople,
302-opposition to Russian ambition,
303 Russian movements towards
India, ib.-Austria and Russian ag-
gressive projects, 305-the position of
Roumania and Denmark, 306-the
strength and resources of China, 308
-the attitude of the Afghans, 309—
the position of Persia, 310--import-
ance of the Alsace-Lorraine difficulty,
311.

FORTH BRIDGE, THE, by H. D. Rawns-
ley, 429.

Friendly Societies, 331.

Gambling in the eighteenth century,
214.

GERMAN AIMS IN EAST AFRICA, 689-
limits of British and German occupa-
tion in East Africa defined, ib.-the
Stanley expedition of 1887 and its
object, 690-the concession to the Ger
man Company, 692-result, of the
occupation of Witu by the Germans,
693 difficulties of the Sultan of
Zanzibar with Germany, 695-British
treaties with the chiefs of the district,
697-the trading caravan difficulty,
698-Major Wissman's proclamation
a violation of treaty engagements, 699
-the designs of the Germans, 700—
fictions of Dr Peters, 701-he lives by
plunder, 703—Tippoo Tib, ib.-Emin
Pasha's expedition, 704- necessity for
England protecting her rights, 706.
GHOST BABY, THE, 64.

Gladstone's, Mr, charges against the

Land League, 431-his criticism of the
Land Purchase Bill self-answered,864.
GLIMPSE OF LAKE NYASSA A, by Cap-
tain F. D. Lugard, 18-boat journey
up the Kwakwa river, ib.-Mandala
and Blantyre, 20-the Portuguese and
their movements, 21-beauty of the
wooded shores of the Lake,22-charac-
teristics of the native tribes, 23-their
art, 24-field labour, 25-bars to the
social progress of the region, 26-the
Arab slave-trader, 27-advantage of
opening Nyassaland for Indian emigra-
tion, 28.

GOLD-FIELDS, THE TRANSVAAL AND ITS:
Impressions of a Recent Visit, 535.
Hamilton's, Duke of, grandeeship of
manner, 177.

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