§ MR. PARNELLasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Whether he is prepared to lay upon the Table of the House the documents referred to by him on Wednesday last, in which the Irish Church Commissioners suggest the inconvenience of the present mode of dealing with the tenants of Church lands as to the purchase of their holdings; and, whether, having regard to the admitted inconvenience of the present mode of dealing with these tenants, and the admitted advisability of some modification with regard to such transactions in future, the Government is prepared to introduce a Bill on the subject during this Session, and to recommend to the Commissioners the suspension of sales of Church lands in possession of tenants until some legislation takes place in reference thereto?
§ SIR MICHAEL HICKS - BEACHThe hon. Member, I think, must have misunderstood my remarks on Wednes- 466 day. The document referred to by no means suggested any inconvenience in the present mode of dealing with tenants of Church lands as to the purchase of their holdings, but objected to the Bill of the hon. Member. I do not think it was intended for publication, and therefore I carefully avoided quoting from it during the debate on Wednesday. It was written 11 months ago, and I do not think that, in present circumstances, any useful purpose would be served by laying it on the Table of the House. The Report of the Commissioners for 1876, which was only published yesterday, states that of 8,432 persons who were on their books as tenants when the Church property vested in them, 4,536 had up to the end of 1876 become absolute proprietors of their holdings under the provisions of the existing law, and that this number will be increased during the present year, as the issue of offers to tenants is still going on, and the sales of the property that was brought into the Landed Estates Court will be proceeded with. The Commissioners in their Report, referring to the above facts, allude, and I think with much reason, to the general success of the plan of creating a class of small proprietors out of a body of poor tenant-farmers. I was unable, from want of time, to obtain this information before the debate on Wednesday. But I think the House will be of opinion that it by no means bears out the assumption of the hon. Member as to the admitted inconvenience of the present mode of dealing with these tenants, or the expediency of some modification with regard to such transactions in future. I cannot undertake to introduce a Bill on the subject, nor do I feel that I have any right to make such a recommendation to the Commissioners as the hon. Member desires. But I will communicate with the Commissioners, as I promised to do; though, as the hon. Member chose to press his Bill to a Division, I might fairly consider myself absolved from that promise, if I did not desire that every facility should be given to these tenants to become owners, so far as is consistent with a fair price being paid for the land, and proper security for the payment of the purchase-money.
§ MR. PARNELLIn consequence of the unsatisfactory nature of the reply of the right hon. Baronet, I will on an early day 467 move, that it is unjust and inconsistent with the spirit of the Irish Church Act and the declaration of the Commissioners, to proceed with the sale of the thousand farms which still remain undisposed of, until a measure to remedy the said inconvenience and thereby facilitate the purchase by occupying tenants is enacted.