§ On the question that the Evicted Destitute Poor (Ireland) Bill be read a Third Time,
§ MR. P. SCROPE took occasion to lament that the Government had not extended the operations of this Bill much further. It prevented ejectments on Christmas day, on Sundays, and in the night time; but it did nothing whatever to prevent the spread of that terrible system of depopulation which was now going on in Ireland. He regretted this exceedingly, and hoped the Government would not shut their eyes to the monstrous cruelties which were daily practised in that unhappy country. Evictions were going on in the most wholesale manner. He had abundant evidence in his pocket to prove the truth of what he stated, but did not like to weary the House with the reading of them at that late hour. In Kerry, upwards of 1,000 people had been evicted upon one occasion. They all knew the conduct which had been pursued by some landlords in the west of Ireland, to which the attention of the Government had been forced, but these were far from being isolated cases. The treatment those unfortunate people received from their landlords in Ireland would not be endured in England for a single week. Let any one imagine such an event occurring as 300 or 400 houses pulled down upon one estate in this country, and the inmates driven houseless on the world. What an outcry would be raised—Parliament would at once be obliged to legislate for, and put a stop to, so heartless a system. He would tell the Government plainly that it was such a system as this which was goading the Irish people into rebellion. It was all very well to talk about the rights of property and the power of the landlord; but he could tell them that lawyers were by no means unanimous in opinion that such wholesale evictions were sanctioned by the common law; and even one so early as Lord Coke, in his day, was of quite a different opinion. This terrible evil was increasing every year—every month—in Ire- 804 land; those frightful evictions, with all the calamitous consequences attending them, were of daily occurrence; and was it to be wondered at when they saw such a man as Lord Fitzwilliam, one of the best landlords in Ireland, recommending evictions on a large scale as the only remedy for the present condition of Ireland?
§ MAJOR BLACKALL denied that the system of eviction was extensively practised in Ireland. If the hon. Member, who was so perpetually reviling the Irish landlords, would buy an estate in Ireland and reside upon it for a time, he would not speak so harshly of the Irish landlords.
§ Bill read a third time and passed.
§ House adjourned at a quarter to One o'clock.