§ Bill brought from the Commons and read la.—[No. 14.]
§ THE EARL OF SELBORNE moved that the Bill be read a Second time.
VISCOUNT CLIFDENsaid, that he should like to say a word in reference to this Bill. From the lucid description which the noble Earl had given of the measure, it would appear that it was merely a continuance Bill; or, rather, a replica of a former Bill which had been introduced for the purpose of conferring a benefit upon the evicted tenants of Ireland. The evicted tenants of Ireland, he need scarcely tell their Lordships, were the scum of their class—men who amused themselves by cutting off the hair of women and by shooting into the legs of old men. The reason for this Bill was because they refused or could not pay their rent; but he believed that the majority of them would not pay if they could. The Legislature had thought fit to encourage these men, who ought, he should rather have thought, to have been discouraged to the utmost. If he saw the slightest chance of this Bill being thrown out, he should have troubled their Lordships to have divided on the Motion for its second reading. In his opinion, it was a bad omen of 1676 what this Government was about to do for Ireland that they should foster the rebel, the rogue, and the rapperee, and should take the heart out of the honest and the industrious.
§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (Lord HALSBURY)said, that he regretted that this discussion should have been raised by the noble Lord in the absence of those who were responsible for the measure. The Bill was a very old friend, and it was solely intended to re-enact a provision that had already received the sanction of Parliament. He regretted that the noble Lord thought fit to use the language he had done, which was scarcely decorous unless he had intended to move the rejection of the Bill.
§ Bill read 2a; Committees negatived; Bill read 3a, and passed.