LATE SIR J. GRAY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VIII, Issue 414, 18 March 1881, Page 7

LATE SIR J. GRAY.

The LoDdon Echo Bays : — At a time when Parliament in about to be asked to consider the working: of the Irish Land. Act of 1870, when all parties unite in admitting that it has failed to satisfy the expectations of its authors, however, widely they may differ in their explanations of the failure, it may not be amiss, to remember the position taken up by the extreme section of the Irish members of the House during the debates which prec ded the passing of the Bill. Whilst men like The O'Donoghue dwelt enthusiastically upon the merits of the measure, and most cautious critics trusted with Mr. Maeuire, that amendments in committee might make it less open to objection. Sir John Gray and those who acted with him, opposed the second reading of the bill, on the ground that it would afford no real protection to those it was intended to benefit, and that it would be better for the people to suffer yet a little longer, rather than by accepting a useless change to delay satisfactory legislation for a decade. Fir John Gray complained that ifc was a bill for providing compensation for the evicted, not for security of occupation : and commenting upon the sections which proposed to legalise the Ulster Custom poi"ted out that the court, according to the bill, would be prevented rrom extending to one estate the better and more enlightened rules that might prevail on the estate adjoining;— that the bill in effect would fasten round the necks of the tenantry " the rules of the estate." In other words, instead of legalising a beneficial " custom," it legalised " customs," many of which were indefensible. The result has more than justified this criticism. The member for Kilkenny, in moving the rejection of the bill, complained that it sought to prevent capricious evictions, not by directly touching the tenure, but by proposing a scale of pains and penalties "which, looking to the frightful competition for land, would prove no barrier to eviction, and Mr. Bryan concluded his speech with these prophetic words — " Yon may pass it into law as it stands, hut if you think that it will quiet the disaffection that prevails and satisfy the country, I warn yon that you grossly deceive yourselves." Captain White, who seconded the amendment, objected to the bill on the ground that it made no provision against raekrenting, and that the occupancy compensation did not place any sufficient obstacle in the way of capricious evictions. "It will be the easiest thiug in the world for the landlord to evict as before and make the incoming tenant pay the compensation to the one evicted." That is precisely what the landlords have done.