him that the tenant's interest would be, well pass a measure giving their promore accurately ascertained in the way perty to the tenants. He hoped somehe had suggested than in any other, thing would be done soon, and that the because there would be a standard of Government would not leave rent a vague the value of land in addition to the and indefinite thing, but would formulate positive value. At the same time, he it in some practical way, which would must say that, after many years' ex- show that it was not their intention to perience in Ireland, he thought it was transfer land absolutely to the tenants, possible to construct a valuation upon as would be done if some presently acmuch more accurate principles; and the knowledged basis were accepted. nearer they came to the Ulster Custom the more likely would they be to obtain a satisfactory result. The Ulster Custom was an immense advantage in determining the interest of the tenant, and it was wanting in the other three Provinces, in which all interests were massed together. Therefore he insisted strongly on some regulated and wellunderstood scale which should give the characteristic value of the land. It would be the most fatal termination of any Session of late years if the House of Commons returned to their constituents and their Lordships to their duties in the country without passing a Land Bill which should be acceptable to Ireland.

LORD ORANMORE AND BROWNE said, there could be no doubt about the difficulty in getting a proper valuation, and he did not think that difficulty had been overrated by the noble Marquess (the Marquess of Lansdowne). Griffith's valuation took a very long time to make, and was only made after considerable preparation by experienced men; but, notwithstanding the preparation with which it was undertaken and the ability with which it was carried out, it was, on the whole, totally inadequate, and did not make sufficient allowance for contiguity to towns and markets or to the seaboard, where valuable manure for potatoes could be obtained for nothing. That made a considerable difference. He knew men who rented land close to where fairs were held, and they made their rent by letting their land for a few nights' grazing at fair time. He thought, pending a settlement of fair rent under the proposed Land Bill, Griffith's valuation would be good as a basis, for if a new valuation was to be made, the valuation would take a number of years to complete. If the Land League continued, it would choke the new Courts; and if they did that, owners might as well say good-bye to their property at once, and Parliament might as Lord Waveney

LORD CARLINGFORD said, he agreed very much with what had been said by the noble Marquess behind him (the Marquess of Lansdowne), who appeared to have given reasons more than sufficient for the kind of answer which he had to give to the noble Duke (the Duke of St. Albans)-reasons why he was not able and did not think it expedient to pledge Her Majesty's Government to undertake the re-valuation of Ireland. But if the noble Marquess meantthough he (Lord Carlingford) did not suppose he did-that the present valuation was in all respects a satisfactory one, and ought to be permanently maintained in its present position, he (Lord Carlingford) was unable to go with him as far as that. He thought it was evident that the present valuation was a very imperfect one, and that there were reasons which, sooner or later, must induce the Government to see that it was revised and placed on a sounder footing. But that was not a task to be lightly undertaken, and he did not think the noble Duke would expect him to pledge the Government in the present state of Public Business, and of Irish Business in particular, to bring in a Bill for that purpose, especially in view of the fate which had met former Bills on this important subject. Two Bills for the purpose of revising the general valuation of Ireland and provid ing a new one had been brought in by two successive Governments, but had signally failed to make their way through the other House of Parliament; and he was not able to say that such a task should be undertaken now, although he fully admitted the imperfections of the system as it stood, and the grave reasons that existed for improving it. There could be no doubt that in Ireland they ought to pay a little more Income Tax. And it was true that the inhabitants of the Middle and Southern Provinces of Ireland were paying less than their due share of taxation in comparison

the Court proposed to be constituted for the settlement of rent would be guided by Griffith's valuation. No such tribunal would judge by such a standard. Each case would, undoubtedly, be considered on its own merits, whatever they might be; and the noble Duke need not have any alarm that it would be guided by any such valuation as that now in force in Ireland. While, therefore, he fully admitted the imperfections of the Irish valuation, and the reasons that existed for improving it at the proper time, he could not undertake to pledge the Government to make that change now.

with Ulster. It was also true that tenants of arable land in Ireland were paying more than their due in comparison with those who held grass lands in that country. But the noble Duke who introduced this subject did not refer to any one of these grievances, his only grievance and only reason for insisting on a re-valuation being that Griffith's valuation misled public opinion as to the real value of land. No doubt that had been the case; and for that result landlords and Members of Parliament were, to a great degree, themselves responsible. But the danger of misleading the people of Ireland on that point no longer existed. There were not two opinions on the subject, even in Ireland. He (Lord Carlingford) understood that the Land League, and those tenants who were influenced by that body, by no means swore by Griffith's. There seemed, therefore, to be a practical unanimity of opinion that that valuation was out of the question as a guide for rents in THE LORD CHANCELLOR, in Ireland. That opinion had been stated moving that the Bill be now read a in the strongest way in the evidence second time, said, that it had passed before the Royal Commission on Agri- the House of Commons, having been inculture, and also in the clearest way introduced there by a Representative of one the Report of the Irish Land Commission. It was therein stated

"If anything has been clearly established it is this, that Griffith's valuation is not a trustworthy standard for the settlement of rents." It was also said

"If a new valuation is required for rating purposes, it should rather be made at a time when there was no general desire to convert it to rent purposes.”

That was a very sensible reason for not introducing a new valuation in the days through which they were now passing. It also came out in the Royal Commission, and he thought it was a fact worthy of the notice of their Lordships, that while there were many rents in Ireland far above Griffith's valuation, which, nevertheless, were fair and reasonable rents, yet, with regard to the poorer tillage lands, it was quite high enough, and in case of revision would not admit of any addition whatever. That was an important statement made by Mr. Ball Greene, the Commissioner of Valuation, that in the case of the poorer tillage lands the rent at Griffith's valuation might be considered a fair rent, quite sufficiently high. He thought the noble Duke (the Duke of St. Albans) need not be under the slightest apprehension that

MARRIED WOMEN'S PROPERTY (SCOT-
LAND) BILL.-(No. 75.)
(The Lord Chancellor.)

SECOND READING.

Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.

of the largest of the Scotch constituencies, and having received the assent of the majority of the other Scotch Representatives. Two Acts had been passed in Scotland on this subject-one in 1861, and the other in 1877. The Act of 1861 provided that, in the case of a wife being deserted by her husband, or in case of a separation by decree of a Court, she could obtain a protection order from the Court or Judge, which would have the effect of giving her control over her own property, and removing it from that of her husband; and there was a further clause in that Act which said that if after marriage the wife should acquire any property, the husband might be compelled to make proper provision out of it for her benefit. The Act of 1877 extended those provisions. By it the husband's right was entirely excluded in all cases of the earnings the wife might make by any separate employment, or literary, scientific, or artistic exertions; and the husband was exempted from liability for his wife's ante-nuptial contracts. That was all that had as yet been done in Scotland with a view to diminishing the powers of the husband over the property of the wife. In England a good deal more had

the personal estate of the wife should be lent or intrusted to the husband who became bankrupt, it should be treated as assets of the husband's estate in bankruptcy, under reservation of the wife's claim to a dividend as a creditor for the value of such money or other estates. He proposed, in Committee, to amend this, by postponing the wife's claim to dividend until all the husband's creditors for money or money's worth had been paid. As to Clause 7, relating to the liability of the husband to the wife's estate for the maintenance of the family, he proposed to move the omission of that clause in Committee, and trust to the good sense and good feeling of the husband and wife. He had now said all that was necessary, and would ask their Lordships to read the Bill a second time.

Moved, "That the Bill be now read 2a."

EARL CAIRNS said, that, although he had some objections to the details of the measure, he had nothing whatever to say against its principle.

been done, for in the year 1870 an Act | wife would take in the husband's. There was passed to enable wives, whether was also a provision in the Bill that if married before or after the passing of the Act, to secure to themselves against the husband all earnings in trade or business, literary, scientific, or artistic exertions, and all stock of more than £25 in the public funds or Joint Stock Companies; and with regard to women married after the passing of the Act, it secured to them all real estate which they might own, after the passing of the Act, up to the value of £200. The present Bill was introduced in order to carry out the same process of enlarging the wives' legal rights, and, of course, diminishing those of the husband. In Scotland the question which arose in the minds of the framers, with reference to the English Act, was, whether those provisions, large in their character and special in their particulars, might not be better dealt with in a wider or simpler form. The present Bill provided that, in regard to those women who might be married after the Act passed, all the(The Lord Chancellor.) personal and real estate which they had at the time of the marriage, or might afterwards acquire, unless there was a contract to the contrary, should remain and be the separate property of the wife. With regard to those who were already married, there were provisions the effect of which he would state. The 3rd clause of the Bill said the Act should not apply to those already married, with this exception-that property coming to them after the Bill passed would also be subject to the provisions of the Bill; a provision which, no doubt, was wider in EARL DE LA WARR, in rising to its scope than the corresponding provi- call attention to the state of affairs in sions of the English Act. The 4th clause the Regency of Tunis; and to ask, what provided that married persons might, if steps Her Majesty's Government prothey thought fit, by mutual consent, and pose to take in reference to the French by a certain procedure, which should be invasion of that country, the breach of registered, place themselves under the International law, and the treaty or conAct. He would not trouble their Lord-vention which the Bey by military force ships with the 5th clause further than to say that, in case of desertion, the Court might dispense with the husband's consent to any deed relating to her estate. The 6th clause was a provision which was introduced in some of our Colonies, especially Canada, and which, as regarded its principle, appeared to be neither unjust nor unreasonable-namely, that in regard to married persons domiciled in Scotland, in the case of the intestacy of the wife, the husband should take a similar interest in the wife's estate which the

The Lord Chancellor

Motion agreed to; Bill read 2a accordingly, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House on the first sitting day after the recess at Whitsuntide.

AFFAIRS OF TUNIS.

OBSERVATIONS.

has been compelled to sign; also to move for Papers, said, he did not think their Lordships would dissent from at least one remark which he was about to make-that the time was come when the country ought to know what was to be the future policy of Her Majesty's Government with regard to the affairs of Tunis. Events had marched rapidly onwards, and what was lately foreseen in the future had now become history of the past. But, under the garb of diplomatic secrecy, information had been

withheld, save what had been given by | understating the number, have been sent the public Press, till it was announced to stop the incursions of a few almost that one of the fairest and most fertile unarmed mountain tribes? And, if it countries of Northern Africa was virtually was not premeditated, what change of placed under a French Protectorate. It circumstances caused the change of was but a few weeks ago that rumours operations? Scarcely any hostile tribes reached the country that French troops appeared, save some harmless Bedouins were being massed on the Frontier of or other Natives here and there tending Algeria and Tunis; and it was soon after- their flocks and herds, whose tents, as wards stated, on the authority of M. St. alleged, were burnt and themselves someHilaire, the French Minister of Foreign times shot. The Bey offered no hostility, Affairs, that the sole object of the move- but only protested, carefully avoiding all ment was to punish and repress some collision with the French troops, and lawless mountainous tribes who had been treated them in a friendly manner up to committing ravages on the Algerine the time when his independence was Frontier, and that there was no idea on wrested from him. And that was done the part of France of conquest or an-acting upon the assurance which had nexation. But it soon became apparent that these tribes could nowhere be found. The troops then occupied the most important military positions in the country, with the view of encircling, as alleged, the supposed enemy. But, failing in this, after throwing some hundred shells into a fort which was afterwards discovered to be almost unarmed, the troops advanced to within a few miles of the City of Tunis. Ships of war, in the meantime, were engaged in operations on the coast; the French General, with an armed escort of 100 men or more, and with a large force encamped within two miles of the residence of the Bey, went to the palace and demanded an audience of the Sovereign. Guns were also placed in position commanding the palace. He was now stating what had been told him personally by an eye-witness, who was in the palace at the time. A Treaty was produced, of the contents of which their Lordships were now aware, which was at length signed by the Bey, under the pressure of military force. Thus ended the military drama. They now came to the diplomatic part, and here let him say it was far from his wish in any way to represent what was not strictly correct in what had taken place. He knew that excited feelings might sometimes lead to statements which might afterwards be viewed with regret. But, calmly speaking, and looking at the events which had taken place, he would ask the Government what value they placed on the assurances that had been given them by the French Government. Was it possible that this was not a premeditated plan of operation? Would an army of 20,000 men, and he believed he was

VOL. CCLXI. [THIRD SERIES.]

been repeatedly given that the operations of the French troops would be strictly confined to the punishment of the Kroumirs. But how was it that Her Majesty's Government were left uninformed of that? How was it that they assured their Lordships and the country that this expedition meant nothing beyond repressing some hostile tribes, while the French General must have had his orders to force submission upon the Bey, and carried with him the Treaty which was to be extorted from him? That was a matter upon which their Lordships ought to be informed. Did Her Majesty's Government believe that the avowed object of this expedition was the real one? He would for a moment refer to the Papers which had been laid before the House, in order to show that there was information in the hands of the Government which had not been communicated to their Lordships. It was impossible not to see that this question of French influence in Tunis was one of long standing, and that it had not its beginning in the recent outbreak of Frontier Tribes. As far back as the year 1878 M. Waddington, the then French Minister for Foreign Affairs, related a conversation which took place between himself and the noble Marquess below him (the Marquess of Salisbury), which it was impossible to read without seeing that it had been long a question of taking the first opportunity of spreading French influence. He found that the noble Marquess did not admit the construction put upon his words as given in the despatch of M. Waddington; and the improbability of the use of such words was much confirmed, if confirmation were needed, by what had been

3 A

stated by the noble Earl opposite (Earl | prevent the recurrence of such outrages. The Granville) in his despatch dated June 17, 1880, in which he said