§ MR. M'CARTAN (Down, S.)asked Mr. Solicitor General for Ireland, Whether he is aware that it was decided at the last Parliamentary Revision Sessions held in Belfast, and in other places in Ireland, that, where a week's notice to quit has been served on a weekly tenant, and the tenant remains, even for one day, there, after the expiration of the week, and then goes directly to other premises, though in all other respects qualified to be registered as a voter, he is deprived of his right, because the notice to quit determined the tenancy, and he is considered to inhabit neither as "tenant" nor "owner" after the expiration of the notice; whether he is aware that a large number of persons were in this way deprived of the franchise at the last Revisions Sessions in Ireland; whether charges have been 1413 made that rent agents frequently serve these notices to quit, and supply lists of the names of the tenants so served, with the view to disfranchise tenants who are opposed to them politically; and, whether, considering that the right to be registered as a voter has been preserved by "The Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1887," in the case of a tenant served with a notice of eviction, he will advise such an amendment of the law as will similarly preserve this right to a person who has to remain in occupation of a house after the expiration of a notice to quit?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR) (Manchester, E.)My attention has been called to the decisions, which are correctly stated in the first paragraph of the Question. I have no information as to the matters of fact alleged in paragraphs two and three. As to paragraph four, I am advised that it cannot be admitted that the provisions of the sections of the Land Law (Ire-land) Act, 1887, afford any precedent for taking the course suggested by the hon. Member. The section preserves the right of tenants who remain in possession after the service of an eviction in proceedings of non-payment of rent, and has no analogy to the case of a person who merely retains possession for a time after the termination of his tenancy by notice to quit, and ultimately gives up possession.