cumstances, the House would not object | on each of three successive nights becaues sufficient Votes in Committee of Supply were not on the Paper, and Progress was reported very early.

to the further demand which was now made. But he (Sir R. Assheton Cross) hoped it was clear that there would be no further Vote on Account after the present, and that the Government would, in the course of the next six weeks, bring forward the Estimates from time to time. He could not help thinking that it the Government put a little pressure upon their Friends on Friday evenings there would be no difficulty in making a satisfactory arrangement. The late Government had often been obliged to take that course. Again, it was very unsatisfactory that the Estimates should be brought on at so late an hour. It would be remembered that when the Army Estimates were proposed the Vote was granted on the understanding that the money was absolutely necessary for the Public Service, and that there would be an opportunity given for discussing the particular points which hon. Members had to raise, but which they did not then raise, upon the Vote. The late Secretary of State for War (Colonel Stanley) sat up to 5 c'clock in the morning, and, together with other Members of the late Government, assisted to pass the Vote. When the Vote came forward for discussion he trusted it would be brought on at an earlier time than on the last occasion, for it was almost needless to say that 5 o'clock in the morning was not a suitable hour to discuss Votes in Supply.

LORD FREDERICK CAVENDISH said, that on the occasion referred to Progress was not reported till close on 12 o'clock, and then only because some of the Irish Votes had to be postponed, as they were likely to give rise to a lengthy discussion. It was often complained that Supply was taken at too late an hour.

MR. SCLATER-BOOTH pointed out that if time was wasted in putting Questions, time was also wasted by the ridiculous answers to those Questions.

MR. PARNELL asked the Prime Minister if he could not agree to leave the Vote for the Irish Constabulary out of the Votes, and so rescue those Irish Members who thought as he did from an exceedingly disagreeable position? His hon. Friend the Member for Longford (Mr. Justin M'Carthy) had a Motion on the Paper, amounting to a Vote of Want of Confidence in the Administration of the Irish Executive. There were questions of a very vital and grave character in reference to that Motion which he desired to bring before the House, questions connected with the administration of the money which they were asked to vote to-night. He supposed he should be told, if he objected to the granting of this £220,000 with which to buy buckshot for the Irish MR. GLADSTONE admitted that it Constabulary, to be used in shooting was most unsatisfactory that Supply down women, and children, and men in should be taken either at too late an the West of Ireland, who were unable hour of the night or at too late a period to pay the excessive rents required of of the Session; but what were the Go-them-he supposed he should be told he vernment to do? Two hours or more of every Government night were consumed by the Questions put to Ministers. Those Questions were, to a great extent, no doubt, a consequence of the extreme strain put upon private Members of late. But if the condition of private Members was bad, that of the Government was still worse. He could only say they would do the best they could under difficult circumstances; and he hoped that hon. Members opposite would call them to account if they did not make a judicious use of the limited resources at their disposal.

MR. GORST reminded the Prime Minister that in the early part of the Session two hours, at least, were wasted

was obstructing the Land Bill. They could not give this money to the Irish Government without a protest, and he was convinced that public opinion in Ireland would cheerfully give up a day or part of a day from the Land Bill to finish the discussion on the Motion of his hon. Friend. It must be remembered that the Land Bill could not be passed for a considerable time. There were 1,500 Amendments on the Paper, and they had taken two whole days in discussing two of them. It would not require a very difficult calculation to ascertain, if two Amendments took two whole days, how many days 1,500 Amendments would take. Assuming that the Amendments remaining on the Paper

alt miture & fraction of the time GINAL JADE S Amendments already derfest in the Committee would admit that the most sit, in all probability, for Two months before they could pass the Bill In the meantime, the Irish people were to be exposed to all the horrors of what was very little short of martial law. The Prime Minister told them they dare not take a division on the Motion of the ben. Member for Longford; he did not think the right hon. Gentleman thought so now, and he did not think many hon. Members thought so. They had never shown any fear to take the opinion of the House when it was necessary or desirable. He believed every line of the speech the Chief Secretary made the other day could be answered. A friend, who had seen the hon. Member for Tipperary in prison, wired him as follows:

Mr. Dillon wrote by last night's post to the Speaker complaining of being forcibly prevented from representing his constituents, and demanding an opportunity of repudiating the report of speech made by Forster about him. If possible, get Dillon's letter read to the House."

and the next Order of the Day is one on which he could legitimately discuss this matter. I think he is not regular in discussing the question upon a proposal for a reduction of this Vote.

MR. PARNELL, said he was endeavouring to urge upon the Committee and the Government the propriety of postponing this Vote until they had had an opportunity of finishing the debate and taking the judgment of the House upon the Motion of the hon. Member for Longford. No one would really begrudge the short time necessary for the purpose of finishing the debate; it could not have any appreciable effect upon the Land Bill, for it could not delay the passing of the Bill for more than a few hours. He feared, unless something was done in the way of relief much more quickly than was proposed by the right hon. Gentleman, trouble might come which might shake the whole of Christianity; they might fear a serious collision between police and people. At the present time counsels were being given which he had never given, and which he had from the commencement refused Now, consider what their position was. to sanction, and those counsels were that They maintained that the charges which the people should refuse the payment had been made by the Irish Government of all rent. But if aggravation was to against the 110 men who were now con- be piled upon aggravation, if the Gofined in gaol were libellous and calum-vernment insisted upon turning a deaf nious, and this they could prove to the ear to the complaints of an unfortunate satisfaction of the House. They could people, if the Government compelled prove that the class of men that the them to wait for several long and dreary Chief Secretary said his Act was in- months before the Land Bill could postended to arrest had not been arrested, sibly become law, could they be surand that all the persons who had been prised if the people listened to men who arrested were men of stainless charac- were more advanced, and if they sought ter; they could prove that the class of protection in the only possible way open men who had been arrested by the Go-to them, and that was by starving out vernment, so far from being village scoundrels and ruffians, were men of the highest respectability. What had been done in reference to his friend, Father Sheehy? The Chief Secretary did not scruple to suggest that Father Sheehy, an esteemed clergyman, against whom nothing had ever been brought, had been guilty of an act for which, had he really been guilty, he would have been unfrocked by the discipline of his Church. The Chief Secretary suggested that Father Sheehy had taken part in a violent and secret agitation, that he had induced an unlawful assembly, and had, therefore, become amenable to the law.

THE CHAIRMAN: The hon. Gentleman is referring to a previous debate,

Mr. Parnell

the landlands by refusing payment of all rents? He entreated the Prime Minister to relieve the Irish Members of the difficulty, and not to insist upon the Vote for the Irish Constabulary until an opportunity was afforded them of putting their case properly before the country, and this they would have on the Motion of his hon. Friend (Mr. Justin M'Carthy).

Question put, "That the Vote be agreed to."

MR. T. COLLINS rose to Order. A Motion had been made to report Progress, and had not yet been withdrawn.

SIR H. DRUMMOND WOLFF said, he would be willing to withdraw the

Motion if he obtained a satisfactory | knowing what Business would come

could possibly avoid it; but he must ask | vernment had not been able to get any the Prime Minister to answer a question he had put earlier in the evening. The Vote of £220,000 raised the question of the policy of the Government in continuing to lend the Constabulary and the Military to assist in evictions; and he wished to know whether the right hon. Gentleman would, before the Whitsuntide Holidays, give the Irish Members an opportunity of discussing this question. If not, he was afraid they must continue the discussion.

evidence against this man, who was charged with attempting to murder his employer, Mr. Wheeler; and he was not arrested under the Coercion Acts. It was a good job for the Government that the Chief Secretary was absent. In dealing with the Attorney General for Ireland, Irish Members knew that they were dealing with a Gentleman in whom they had some confidence. If the Chief Secretary had been in his place they would have offered much more resistance to the Government. Before the Easter Recess, he had brought before the House the case of a man named Downey, who was arrested under the Coercion Acts, but who proved his innocence, and had to be released, after being kept in prison for three months. Why was that man arrested; and why did the Government, instead of making some inquiries, trust to the local police, and only set the man free when his case was brought before the House? If it was right to release him, it was wrong to arrest him; if it was right to arrest him, then it was wrong to let him out.

MR. A. M. SULLIVAN regretted that this Vote had been taken in the absence of the Chief Secretary, for it could not fairly be discussed in his absence. He would, however, ask the Attorney General for Ireland what the Government intended to do with those policemen who had scandalously abused the confidence and secrecy of the Census papers? Was the Committee to reward those policemen by giving this Vote? A police officer had admitted, in open Court, that, having got a correct Census paper, he took another paper to the man's house, under the pretence that the other was erroneously filled up; and so, MR. T. P. O'CONNOR asked when on that lying pretence, obtained the the House would have an opportunity man's signature to the second paper, in of continuing the discussion on the Moorder to give evidence against the man tion of the hon. Member for the county in one of those miserable prosecutions of Longford? There was no time to now current in Ireland. He had told discuss the matter on this Vote, and, in the Prime Minister that this was one of order to give the Government time to the things that would be done by Irish consider when they could give an opporpolicemen more zealous than conscien-tunity of resuming the debate, he would tious; and he wished to see whether move to report Progress. there was an Englishman in the House who would defend such trickery, chi-That the Chairman do report Progress, Motion made, and Question proposed, canery, and falsehood. What was to be and ask leave to sit again."—(Mr. T. P. done with the policemen who had acted O'Connor.) in that way? What censure had been passed upon them?

MR. HEALY wished to put a question to the Attorney General for Ireland upon the arrest of the man named Murray. He was told that that man was a thorough scoundrel, and he believed that everyone would approve of the arrest. He was a bailiff, and he was popularly supposed to have shot his employer, with whom he had had a dispute. The man was clearing out of the country in September or October, but he was arrested at Queenstown. What good did his arrest do? He was leaving his country for his country's good, and he could not see the advantage of keeping the man in prison for 18 months. The GoMr. T. P. O'Connor

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. Law) said, that even assuming, for the purpose of argument, that one or two policemen in Ireland had done wrong, surely that was no reason for refusing the money for the maintenance of the whole force

MR. ARTHUR O'CONNOR was sorry to see the difference there was between the County Constabulary of Ireland and the Borough and County Police of England. It was said that this Vote on Account was for six weeks, and if they went into a calculation of the totals for the year they would find that the sum required was £150,000; but in this Vote on Account they were asked to give £220,000.

This was considerably more than they | tunity had been afforded to hon. Mem-
ought to vote, and he desired some ex-bers to make their charge against the
planation from the Government with Government, and the Government reply
regard to it.
Government were prepared to stand, and
had been given. By that reply the
if hon. Gentlemen had desired to take
the sense of the House upon it, they
could have done so by complying with
the request his right hon. Friend had
made on Tuesday. Hon. Members, if
they wished, might resume the discus-
sion to-night, and, if they desired, they
might take the sense of the House on
the power of the Government to name
the Motion. It was not at present in
any convenient time for the resumption
of the debate, and he really failed to
see what useful end could be gained by
involving the House in a conflict on the
question of this Vote on Account.

LORD FREDERICK CAVENDISH said, that although the Vote was only for six weeks, it included two monthly payments; therefore, it was one-sixth of the total amount that was now asked for. MR. JUSTIN M'CARTHY said, the Government had made no answer as to the resumption of the debate on his Motion. It was difficult to discuss the whole question of the Irish Police on these Estimates, and, as they had a distinct Motion on the matter before the House, they asked whether the Government would enable them to resume its discussion? If the Government did not afford them the opportunity they desired, they would be compelled to avail themselves of any irregular chance that might present itself for discussing the subject, or leave it undiscussed altogether. They could not possibly allow the Government Vote with regard to the Irish Police to go unchallenged, and they did not intend to.

MR. T. COLLINS would suggest that if the hon. Member wished to raise a discussion on this matter, the best thing he could do would be to put down his Motion for to-morrow, and then move that the other Orders of the Day be postponed until that Motion was disposed of.

THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTON complained that the course the hon. Member who had just sat down had recommended would be most irregular. As to the appeal of the hon. Member for Longford (Mr. Justin M'Carthy), what had fallen from his right hon. Friend (Mr. Gladstone) had shown that he was anxious that the debate should be con. tinued, and that the sense of the House should be taken upon it; but, believing as they did in the paramount importance, especially to Ireland, of the discussion on the Land Law (Ireland) Bill, they could not hold out any hope that time would be afforded for the resumption of the debate at an early hour in the evening. It had been hoped that the debate might have been resumed to-day. The discussion on the Land Bill was adjourned at 12 o'clock, and if the present conversation had not been so prolonged some further progress might now have been made. An oppor

that the enormous number of AmendMR. O'DONNELL said, it would seem ments to the Land Bill standing in the name of Liberal Members was a perfect godsend to Her Majesty's Government, because, at every point at which their policy was challenged, whether at home alleged necessity for giving time for the or abroad, they took their stand on the discussion of these Amendments. He could not help thinking that there was some connection between the multitude of Liberal Amendments and the policy of Her Majesty's Government, and, instead of addressing so many appeals to discussing the affairs of their own counthat side of the House to abstain from try, the noble Marquess the Secretary of the Government should address themState for India and other Members of selves to their own followers, and request them to be more saving of their breath and of the time of the House in the discussion of their own Amendments. Members ought to be satisfied with the As for the suggestion that the Irish opportunity already given to them of discussing the Motion of the hon. Member for Longford, he thought it required all the proverbial impassiveness of the Secretary of State for India to enable the Government to place such an astounding proposition before the House. the Government facilitated hon. MemThe way bers from Ireland in this matter was by forcing the Mover of the Motion to open the charge against the Chief Secretary and his subordinates at 4 o'clock in the morning. Then, indeed, he must frankly admit the Government did give him