§ MR. McKEAN (Monaghan, S.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that the Gresham Insurance Company holds a mortgage on the Hope estate, at Castleblayney, in the county of Monaghan, and that the agent of the company, who is also acting as agent for the estate, has recently introduced a new system of rent collecting, involving, along with other hardship, the payment by the tenants of their rents half yearly instead of yearly as hitherto, and in addition has forced a number of town park tenants to hold for the future on the eleven months system, and where they have refused to do so has evicted them without compensation; and whether, in view of these facts and the discontent prevailing in the locality in consequence of them, and in view of a similar state of things existing on other estates in Ireland, he will, at an early date, introduce 628 a Bill dealing with the matter, or insert a clause in his promised Evicted Tenants Bill to correct abuses such as those above referred to.
§ MR. BIRRELLThe Land Commission inform me that they have no knowledge of the facts alleged in the Question, but even assuming the facts to be as stated, the Government would have no power to interfere. The matter appears to be one which concerns the ordinary legal rights of landlords and tenants. It is not intended to insert a clause on the subject in the Evicted Tenants Bill.