MOTION FOR A SELECT COMMITTEE. (Hansard, 6 March 1883)

THE EARL OF DONOUGHMORE
, in rising to move— That a Select Committee be appointed to continue the inquiry, commenced by the Select Committee of last Session, into the working of recent legislation in reference to land in Ireland and its effect upon the condition of the country, 1584 said, he did not think it would be necessary for him to trouble their Lordships with many remarks in reference to the Motion, as it was simply to revive the Committee of last Session. The Committee had already published two Reports of a considerable quantity of evidence; but the subject was a very wide one, and the Reports could hardly at the present moment be called complete, as there were statements made about property during the last Sitting of the Committee, which could, perhaps, be refuted by other statements. He was bound to confess that it was a matter of surprise to him that there should be any opposition to the re-constitution of this Committee on the part of the Government, because last year, when Her Majesty's Government opposed the Committee, they said it was not opposed on the grounds of its constitution, but because it was inopportune. The work of the Committee, so far as he knew, was very satisfactory, and encomiums had been passed upon it, he believed, by certain Members of the Government. The Report had also been of great service to them in that House, since it had enabled noble Lords opposite to meet the arguments of their opponents. He would, therefore, move that it be reappointed.

§ LORD CARLINGFORD (LORD PRIVY SEAL)
said, the noble Lord was quite right as to the position which the Government took in this matter. If his noble Friend had used formidable arguments in favour of his Motion he did not know that he should have felt himself bound to answer them, because the Government treated the Motion as little more than a matter of form. His only object in rising was to say that the Government maintained the same position on the matter as they took last year—that they were not convinced of the necessity, or the utility, or the public advantage of this Committee. But the matter had already been decided against the Government, and they offered no opposition to the renewal of those inquiries now, just as they were renewed last year after an adjournment of the House. Therefore, 1585 on behalf of the Government, he wished to say that they were no parties to the Committee, though they did not wish to divide the House upon it.

LORD DENMAN
said, he could not see any use in again appointing this Committee, because their Lordships' House had already before them all the evidence that was necessary in order to come to a proper decision on the working of the Land Act. It was quite evident, from the evidence of Colonel King-Harman before the Select Committee, which he had been privileged to hear, that the poor Irish people supposed that they should be the owners of the land, and should pay no rent; therefore, he did not see the use of going into the matter further. It was said that the poor people knew no better; but it was the duty of their Lordships' House to set them right on the point, because they knew that if peasants became proprietors of land, they would expect all the privileges as to rent, in case of non-occupation, which landlords were legally invested with. He, for one, could not see the use of allowing people to believe that they could borrow money from Parliament to buy the land when they had no capital to work the land. He considered the opposition in "another place" to the appointment of the Select Committee of 1882 an entire waste of time; because, in 1839, the Resolutions passed by this House by the attack of Lord Brougham, although carried by a large majority, made no impression whatever on Viscount Melbourne, the Prime Minister, nor on the House of Commons.