§ MR. MARK STEWART (Kirkcudbright)asked the Secretary for Scotland, If he will procure without delay, and lay upon the Table of the House, a Return for the last thirty years, or a less time, of all evictions in cases of agricultural occupiers under £30 of annual rent, not being leaseholders, in those counties named in the Crofters Bill (No. 2) now before the House, distinguishing between evictions for arrears of rent, and other causes, and giving the numbers in each parish, and names of lands on which such evictions have taken place?
THE SECRETARY FOR SCOTLAND (Mr. TREVELYAN) (, &c.) HawickTo obtain the information for this Return would be a work of very great labour and cost indeed, and would, I should suppose, occupy months. Further, I may point out to the hon. Member that in the case of yearly tenancies, to which alone this Return he asks for applies, it would not be necessary to specify whether the rent was or was not in arrear—it would be enough to allege that the tenancy was yearly, and that the landlord desired to terminate it. It would, therefore, probably be impossible to obtain with any accuracy a statement of the cases in which the eviction was in respect of arrears, as distinguished from the cases in which it was not. Besides, many yearly tenants would remove upon warnings, of which there would be no official record.