§ Mr. James Grattanrose to move for leave to bring in a bill "to render Lessors liable for county and parish assessments in all future lettings of land in Ireland." The hon. member observed, that complaints had been made from all parts of Ireland of the hardship of making the occupiers of land liable for permanent assessments. They were not only called upon to pay for roads and bridges, in which it might be said they were inter- 1234 ested, but also for gaols, hospitals, and other public buildings, for which presentments were granted by grand juries. This was a hardship which the proposed bill would remedy.
Mr. V. Fitzgeraldsaid, he would not oppose the principle of the bill, but he could not consent to so wide an extension of that principle as the hon. member proposed.
§ Mr. W. Lambwould not object to the introduction of the bill, but he would not stand pledged to go the whole way with the hon. member, in a measure which would make so great an alteration in the relations between landlord and tenant in Ireland.
§ Sir J. Newportdefended the necessity of the present measure. More than half the amount of grand-jury assessments in Ireland were not for objects in which the occupying tenant could be said to have a direct interest. It was a hardship on a tenant to be called upon, perhaps in the last year of his lease, to pay a share of a tax for a public building in which he was in no way interested.