THE IRISH BISHOPS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 19, 31 August 1888, Page 27

THE IRISH BISHOPS.

RESOLUTIONS ON THE LAND QUESTION.

The following statement on the present position of the Irish Land Question was drawn up and unanimously adopted at the recent general meeting of the archbishops and bishops of Ireland, held in the College of Maynooth on Wednesday and Thursday, the 27th and 28th of June :—: — " Having become aware from the recent comments of many of the leading organs of public opinion throughout Europe that a widespread misconception still prevails as to the existing state of the land laws in Ireland, we deem it our duty to make the following statement on the subject : — " We do not aim at enumerating all the grievances of which the agricultural tenants of Ireland may justly complain. We fully recognise the impossibility of dealing with many of them in the present session of Parliament. But in our opinion there are certain mo9t pressing grievances which, in the interests of public order as well as of justice, imperatively call for immediate legal redresc. t: l. The fundamental demand of the agricultural tenants of Ireland, in the matter of rent, is, as it has always in substance been, for the eßrablishmerit of an impartial public tribunal to adjudicate between landlord and tenant. The tenants do not ciaim that the amount of rent to be paid should be fixed by themselves. What they object to is that it should be determined by the arbitrary will of a landlord. '■ 2. It is unnecessary here to enumerate the special circumstances of the Irish land system which put the justice of the tenants' claim in this matter beyond question. The principle that Irish agricultural tenants should be protected by law against the imposition of exorbitant renta and against eviction in conspquence of the non-payment of such rentF, has Ion? since been recognised by Parliament. It is the fundamental principle of the Land Act cf 1881, and of several subsequent statutes. " 3. The present r-lnim of the tenants, then, is for the full and effective application of this principle. Even as regards those classes of agricultural tenants on whom the right of having their renta fixed by a public tribunal has been conferred by Act 9 cf Parliament, obstacles have been allowed by the Legislature to remain, which in very many cases practically render those acts inoperative. "4. By fir the most serious of these obstacles is that which has arisen from the accumulation of the arrears of exorbitant rents. In the present state of the law, tenants weighed down by this burden — and such tenants are to be numbered by the thousand throughout the country— are hopelessly excluded from the possibility of obtaining effective redress through the Courts. The heavy indebtedness of snch tenants puts it in the power of a harsh landlord to use the threat of eviction rs a means of keeping back the tenant from making any application to the Court ; and even in cases where the intervention of the Court is obtained, the Court, owing to its inability to lessen the debt of the arrears, is powerless to ward off from the tenant the danger of eviction. It has, indeed, jurisdiction to reduce his exorbitant rent. But it has no power to lessen in any w.»y the heavy indebtedness that has come upon him from his inability to pay that exorbitant rent in the past. So long as this indebtedness remains he is at the mercy of the landlord.

" 5. Again, there are thousand! of tenants throughout the country who hare been ousted from the Tight of having recourse to the courts. bSithe service of eviction notices which have in fact altogether derived them of their legal status as tenants. "6. It cannot be alleged in excuse for the continued failure to afford legal protection to the tenants in the cases we have mentioned, and in others unnecessary to enumerate here, that any serious difficulty exists in providing: an adequate remedy. "As regards the question of arrears, for instance, it is a fact of public ■otoriety that at the present moment there is in operation in Scotland an Act of Parliament especially devised to afford protection in this very matter to Scotch tenants. "The actual working of the Scotch Act to which we refer is. sufficiently disclosed by the fact stated in an official report recently published by the Commission by which that Act is administered. The reductions judicially granted by the Commission amount to over 30 per cent, on the rents, and to no less than 61 per cent, on the arrears, in the cases decided by them. 11 A proposal for the extension of this law to Ireland has been rejected by Parliament during the present sesnon. We are utterly unable to comprehend on what principle a difference of treatment so notably to the disadvantage of Irish tenants can be justified. "7. We deem it our duty to add that unless Parliament at once apply some really effective measure for the protec tion of Irish tenants from oppressive exactions and from arbitrary eviction, continences the most disastrous no less to public order than to the ssfeiy of the people, will almost inevitably ensue. "(Signed) Michael, Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of all Ireland ; William, Archbishop of Dublin, Primate of Ireland ; Thomas William, Archbishop of Cashel; John, Archbishop of Tu»m ; Frtncis, Bishop of Deny ; John Pius, Bishop of Dremore ; Laurence. Bishop of Elphin ; Michael, Bishop of Killaloe ; Thomas, Bißhop of Meath ; James, Bishop of Clogher ; John, Bishop of Clovne ; James, Bishop of Eildare and Leighlin ; Francis, Bishop of Gal way and Kilmacduagh ; William, Bishop of Ross ; Patrick, Bishop of Olonfert ; Hngb, Bishop of Killala ; Bartholomew, Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnotee ; Andrew, Bishop of Kerry ; Thomas Alphonsus, Bishop of Cork ; Jamep, Bishop of Ferns ; Abraham, Bishop of Ospory ; Pierce, Bishop of Waterford ; Patrick, Bishop of Down and Connor ; Edward Thomas, Bishop of Limerick; Patrick, Bishop of Raphoe; T'dw^rd, Bishop of Kilraore; John, Bishop of Aohonry : James. CoarHnrorBishnp of Killaloe f Jnhn. Coadjntor-Bishnp of Clonfert ; Thoma«, Coadjutor-Bishop of Dromore ; Nicholas, Bishop of Canea ;