e first act after giving up the
lord-lieutenancy was to say to the House of Lords that until the
church and land questions were settled there would be neither peace
nor contentment in the land--he must be successful. As to what we
want there can be no doubt. The five points of the Irish charter
are--fixity of tenure at reasonable rents; recognition of right of
occupancy as distinct from right of ownership; standard valuation
for letting purposes; retrospective compensation for 20 years; and
arbitration courts in cases of dispute between owner and occupier.'

I cannot better express the conclusion of the whole matter than in
the words of a writer in the _Pall Mall Gazette_, who thoroughly
understands the question. Nothing can be more truthful and accurate
than the way in which he puts the tenants' case:--

'"Morally," they say, "we are part-owners. We have a moral right to
live here. If a great landlord considered that he could make more
of his estate by clearing it of its inhabitants, and accordingly
proceeded to do so, he would do a cruel act. What we wish is to see
our moral rights converted into legal rights. If you ask us precisely
what it is that we wish, we reply that we wish to be able to live in
moderate comfort in our native land, and to be able to make our plans
upon the assumption that we shall not be interfered with. It is
not for us ignorant peasants to draw an Act of Parliament upon this
subject, or to say how our views are to be reconciled with your
English law, which, on other accounts, we by no means love. You, the
English Government, must find out for yourselves how to do that. What
we want is to be secure and live in reasonable comfort, and we shall
never be at rest, and we will never leave you at peace, till this is
arranged in some way or other." We do not say whether this feeling is
right or wrong, we do not say how it is to be dealt with, but we do
say that it is as intelligible, not to say as natural, a feeling as
ever entered into human hearts, and we say, moreover, that it would
be very difficult to exaggerate either its generality, its force, its
extent, or the degree to which it has been excited by recent events.
We are deeply convinced that to persist in regarding the relation
between landlord and tenant as one of contract merely, to repeat again
and again in every possible form that all that the Irish peasants
have a right to say is that they have made a hard bargain with their
landlords