involving vital consequences to the poverty-stricken peasants of the
West. It was a Bill, as the Lord Chancellor declared, to deal with the
tail of an agrarian revolution, and to effect this with the minimum of
suffering, compulsory powers and a simple and expeditious procedure were
demanded, but in spite of the lip service which Unionists paid to the
principles involved, in spite of their admissions that it proposed only
to carry out their part of the agreement, arrived at no less than four
years ago; by their amendments in the House of Lords, introducing
limitations and appeals involving delays and costs, they succeeded in
large measure in destroying the value of the measure. One can understand
the attitude of Lord Clanricarde, who roundly denounced the whole
proposal as "tainted with the callous levity of despotism," but it is
difficult to speak charitably of the members of the Opposition, who,
while repeatedly protesting their anxiety to see the evicted tenants
restored, took care, through the agency of the House of Lords, to place
every possible obstacle in the way of their speedy re-instatement.

Many of the amendments designed by the House of Lords were proposed by
two of the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, who sit in that House primarily
as judges, and who are supposed to keep free from political
entanglements. They aimed at an enhancement of the prices at which
compulsory purchase should take effect, with a view, it was admitted by
their organs in the Press, to afford a precedent for further schemes of
land purchase at large. Of this nature was the compensation which they
demanded--fortunately without success--in accordance with the provisions
of the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, which, if accepted by
Government, would have given to the landlords on sale a douceur of 10
per cent. in addition to the 12 per cent. bonus which they already enjoy
over and above the market value of the land, and the fixation of such a
price would have prevented any reinstatement, for this reason, that the