§ MAJOR TRENCHI wish, Sir, to ask the right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer a Question of which I have given him private Notice. On the 27th ultimo he acknowledged, in reply to my Question, that the proprietors and occupiers of a very extensive but much inundated district in the West of Ireland, had applied to be permitted to drain their lands under the provisions of the Drainage Act of 1863. He stated that permission had been refused, and that "the proprietors on the Suck must wait until a general measure had been determined upon for the Shannon." They have been waiting for such a measure for the last 25 years, and I now desire to ask the right hon. Gentleman, Whether he can hold out any hope that such a general measure as that he spoke of, will be determined upon and introduced next Session?
§ MAJOR TRENCHThen, Sir, I beg leave to give Notice that on going into Committee of Supply—I hope on Friday, the 18th inst.—I will call the attention of the House to the circumstances under which Her Majesty's Government have prevented the owners and occupiers of the 72,000 acres of land injured or inundated by the waters of the Suck from undertaking the drainage of their lands under the Drainage Act of 1863, and to move—
That the course of action pursued by Her Majesty's Government in preventing the owners and occupiers of land injured or inundated by the waters of the Suck from undertaking the drainage of their lands, at their own expense, under the Drainage Act of 1863, is most prejudicial to the interests of a large agricultural population in the west of Ireland, and calculated to discourage a spirit of enterprise and self-reliance so necessary for the development of the resources of that country.