Harcourt's first legislative measure was the Ground Game Act, or the hares and rabbits bill, which he introduced on 27 May. The object of the bill was the better protection of the occupier of land against the ravages of hares and rabbits, and it provided that the occupier should have equal rights with the landlord to kill and take ground game. The bill aroused the bitterest opposition of a section of the tory party, and though the second reading was moved on 10 June, it was not finally passed until 27 August. The keen opposition brought out all Harcourt's adroitness in debate and retort. The effect of the bill was the extermination of the hare in many parts of England, but it went a long way towards conciUating the farmers and practically killed the agitation against the Game Laws.
Select committees to inquire into the state of British merchant shipping and the London water supply next occupied Harcourt's attention. As chairman of the last committee he drew up a report (3 Aug.) which recommended that a single body directly responsible to the people of London should take control of all the London water supply (cf. Hansard, 15 Feb. 1882). In the autumn he carefully considered the position of juvenile offenders, advocating the use of the birch instead of detention in prison. His recommendation led to a marked reduction in the number of juvenile criminal convictions (cf. speech at Cockermouth, 29 Oct. 1881). The revelations in Oct. 1881 of cruelty and abuses at St. Paul's Industrial School led him to propose a royal commission to inquire into the whole system of industrial and reformatory schools [see Taylor, Helen, Suppl. II]. Harcourt firmly believed in capital punishment (cf. Hansard, 22 June 1881) and he administered the criminal law with merciful firmness.
But political disturbances in Ireland soon absorbed the attention of the government, and on Harcourt devolved the duty of carrying through the House of Commons, in the teeth of strenuous obstruction from the Irish members, the coercive measures which the government deemed necessary in the interests of order. After long and stormy debates (1-21 March 1881 ) he carried through the peace preservation (Ireland) bill, or the arms bill, which prohibited for five years, in certain districts proclaimed by the lord-lieutenant, the bearing of arms, and empowered the police to search for them. Next year, after the murder of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Mr. Burke in the Phoenix Park (6 May 1882), Harcourt introduced (11 May) the prevention of crimes (Ireland) bill, which empowered the lord-lieutenant, at discretion, to suspend trial by jury, and to substitute a commission of three judges of the Supreme Court, and granted an appeal to a court consisting of the whole of the judges. The bill, stringent though it was, met with the general approval of all parties in the house except the Irish members. The first reading was passed, after a short debate, by a majority of 305, although Mr. Dillon described Harcourt's speech as 'blood-thirsty.' The debate on the later stages of the bill proved a long struggle of endurance. The bill went into committee on 25 May, but it was not passed till 3 July, after a thirty-hours' continuous sitting of the house (30 June-1 July), in the course of which twenty-five Irish members were suspended for wilful obstruction. Throughout the proceedings Harcourt showed firmness, excellent temper and indifference to personal attack. The bill received the royal assent on 12 July. An autumn session, 24 Oct. to 2 Dec, was occupied in reforming the procedure of the House of Commons. Gladstone was absent owing to ill-health, and to Harcourt fell the task of defending the government's Irish policy against a spirited attack. The London campaign of the Irish dynamite conspirators in the spring of 1883 greatly increased Harcourt's responsibihties. In a circular to the police and local authorities, he urged the strictest supervision over the acquisition of explosives by the public. On 9 April he introduced into the house his explosive substance bill, which inflicted the severest penalties for the unlawful possession and illegal use of explosives. In the passing of the bill he achieved a record in parliamentary legislation. His introductory speech was concise and masterly, and so well suited to the temper of the house that, within two hours of his first rising, the bill was carried through all its stages. It was at once sent to the House of Lords, and its progress was marked by the same celerity there. Throughout the troublesome months that followed, Harcourt, who was never without police protection, succeeded in stamping out the dynamite conspiracy.
Meanwhile Harcourt continued in the recess to address great political gatherings throughout the country, defending with vigour the policy of the government and attacking the opposition. His reception was invariably enthusiastic. On 25 Aug. 1881 he was accorded the freedom of the city of Glasgow. At Burton-on-Trent
