§ MR. M. DUNNEsaid, he wished to ask the Chief Secretary for Ireland, If it is the intention of the Government to introduce any measure during this Session that will have for its object the alteration of the Law of Landlord and Tenant, with a view to secure to the Tenant the value of any permanent improvement he may have made in his land, if he should be dispossessed of it, or the value raised on him?
§ SIR ROBERT PEELsaid, the Irish Government were fully alive to the great importance of the subject as well as to the difficulties which surrounded it. Both private Members and the Ministers of the day had tried their hands at it, and had failed. In 1852, for example, the Earl of Derby's Government brought forward a Bill, which was referred to a Select Committee, and there ended. The Government did not intend to introduce any Bill bearing upon the subject in the present Session. The encouragement of industry was a matter of vital importance to Ireland, but he was disinclined to see any measure introduced which would affect the rights of landlords in relation to their tenants. It was not a question to be settled by political agitation, but by the ordinary course of events.
§ MR. HENNESSYobserved, that he would congratulate the Government on their full consciousness of the extent of their failure in the Bill of last year.
§ House adjourned at half after One o'clock, till Monday next.