§ MR. DISRAELIPerhaps the right hon. Gentleman the Prime Minister will inform the House when he proposes to lay on the Table the Amendments on the Irish Land Bill which he intimated the Government would be ready to adopt?
MR. GLADSTONESir, I will take care that any Amendments which we may think of proposing shall be placed on the table at a convenient time; not, however, in all probability, before Thursday next. I do not know that they will be of great magnitude. I may take this opportunity of answering the Question which was put to me by the noble Lord 1875 the Member for North Leicestershire (Lord John Manners) the other night, the reply to which I was obliged to postpone. I shall confine myself on the present occasion to stating, in a very general and incomplete manner, the direction which the proposals indicated in this reply may take, leaving it to the proper occasion to discuss, and justify, and defend those proposals. My right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary for Ireland will to-night give notice that on the first Government night—which will be on Thursday next—he will ask for leave to introduce a Bill for improving the securities for the maintenance of life and property in Ireland. The Bill will consist, in point of form, of enactments amending the Peace Preservation Act of 1856, and reviving some provisions contained in prior Acts, and especially the Act of 1847 and the Act passed by the Government of Lord Grey in 1833. The Bill will not propose to place in the hands of the Executive any general power suspending personal liberty, neither will if revive those provisions of the Act of 1833 which relate to the trial of offences by court-martial. It will provide the means of summary trial and punishment without jury, applicable to offences winch will be created under the Bill. The principal heads to which the provisions I now speak of will be directed will be the possession of arms and gunpowder, the control over persons moving about by night, compensation to individuals who have been the object of outrage and to their relatives in certain cases, and an increase of the powers at present afforded by law for obtaining evidence. The enactments will be proposed to subsist for a limited time, and will take effect in those districts of Ireland which may be proclaimed for the purposes of the Act by the Lord Lieutenant. But, over and above these provisions which shall be confined in their operation to the proclaimed districts in Ireland, there will be provisions relating to offences committed against public order by the Press, and intended to give more effective powers to the Government, on their responsibility, for the repression of these offences. To this very brief sketch I limit myself for the present occasion, because I do not wish to say anything further on proposals which we shall have the fullest opportunity for discussing and explaining in the House.