§ Order for Second Reading read.
§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Bill be now read a second time."
§ MR. T. W. RUSSELL (Tyrone, S.)This Bill was discussed at some length the other night in the absence of the Chief Secretary. It was resisted then mainly on the ground of the absence of the right hon. Gentleman. May I now ask, in moving the Second Reading, if the Government support the Bill or otherwise?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY FOR IRELAND (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR,) Manchester, E.It is the fact that when the Bill came on unexpectedly on a former occasion I was absent. But though I am now in my place, I am afraid this is not the time to admit of 1678 discussion, and certainly we cannot accept the Bill without discussion. I fully recognize the cruel position in which many of the clients of the hon. Gentleman are placed, but I also recognize the almost insuperable difficulty of finding a solution for the difficulties of the case. It may be there is relief to be found by enabling leaseholders to purchase their holdings through the assistance of State loans, paying thus much less in the form of an annuity than they pay in rent, but when I am asked to go beyond that, and modify what are not rents in the ordinary sense of the word, but permanent leases analagous to feus in Scotland and permanent leases in England, we are introduced to a whole set of new problems in regard to which I find myself unable now to offer a satisfactory solution. Under the circumstances, and not desiring to vote against the Bill without discussion, I now move the adjournment of the debate.
§ Debate adjourned till To-morrow.