The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-04-10 00:00:00

LORD STANLEY ON THE IRISH
LAND QUESTION.

In the course of his at eech at Glasgow, Lord Stanley,
in remalking upon the danger of alienating the Pro-
testants of Ireland from the English government,
made the following remarks upon the Irish land
gut stion

You have got In Ireland what Is called the land question.
Now, as long as that was only a tint ntion, as it began by
being, of compemation to tenants for itsisahmtsteil improve-
ments upon the holdings the claim was reasonable ; the
matter by within a comparatively small compass ; both
parties, with only some differences of detail, were willing to
deal with it, anti it appeired as if it must lie easily settled_
But now the (nide national party, by some process of
reasoning which, I confess, I cannot exactly follow, have
mac the disc very that if tine man occupies and works umm
another mall's land he acquires by the fact of auch occu-
pation, and without any contract or engagement, a moral
right to the possession of the land itself (laughter and cheers;
subject only to some fixed and perpetual payment to the owner.
Now that seems to me very much as if ) nu were to say that a
lodger In a house in Glasgow, or any where else, if he had occu-
pied the ranle lodgings for a certain number of years, thereby
acquired a tight for himself and his children to be irremov-
able, and never to pay m.d.e than his former rent Laughter
and applause.) Or. in other words, lilt as if a working marl
who had been employed in any business for a certain
nutuber of years, acquired by the fact of such vintinued em-
ploy ment, a legal right not to be dismissed without his own
consent. Or, if you want a third analogy, whish is, perhaps,
still closer, it Is as if a capitalist who aliould have lent
out his money in small sums acre to be told use day ity the
Legislation that as long as he received, punctually piid,
the interest upon his loans, he had got what any reasonable
man ought to be content with, and might to give up
ell claim to recover the capital itself, If he wanted
it. (Laughter and cheers.) Now, a claim of that kind is
• one which I apprehend no Brittah Parliament will ever be
found ready to admit. It really Irene for which there is no
shadow of legal or moral justification. 1 Ileac, hear. It is
a claim that must be resisted, and I do the Liberal Govern-
ment and the majority of the Liberal party thin justice, that
I believe they will resist it. But, absurd as it seems to IV, it
Ii a claim which has taken a deep hold upon the Celtic
mind, because it holds out a hope of getting rid of the
foreigner—that is, cc the English proprietor, and of leaving
the soil exclusively in the hands of a native peasantry Now,
I don't want to go Into the subject further ; but I must say
that the sight of all these rocks ahead—nationality, land,
education, and I might name others—forces the conviction
on my mind that the work of conciliation, so far from being
successfully carried outto any effectual purpose, is at present
only beginning.

Remarking upon the recent liberation of the Fenian%
his lordship said :

I confess I have seen with regret, and I think I am not the
only person who entertaita that feeling, the step which they
have lately taken in releasing so many of the Fenian pri-
soners t" hear," and applause and among them some of
those who took a very wAive and prominent part in the
movement It is a fatal and suicidal policy for any State to
treat armed resistance to its authority as a light offence.
li ear, hear.) I an' not thinking of any danger that can arise
from the individual, .Laughter and applause ) Ilalf-a-
dozen rowdies added to the disorderly classes are not a int-
Woad danger, they are hardly in any appreciable degree a
public nuisance. (Laughter and applause.) hut the effect, I
fear, will be this, that when such risings or attempts at
rising occur again—and one cannot say that they will nat.-
the fear inspired by the law is ill not be what it has been.
)Ilear, hear.) Conspirators will encourage me another, and,
aster as late precedent goes, they will do so Justly, by point-
ing out that at the worst, if they are taken, they have only to
fear a few months' imprisonment with unlimited popular ty,
and mob applause at the end. 'Applause Now, I say, again,
I do not ac,use those in authority of popularity hunting, but
I fear there Inis been &little c'.rical pressure, and I only hope
there has not been any foreign intluence. The most satisfac-
tory part of the transaction probably is that those very
released persona have told us so plainly and so frankly how
much gratitude and how much penitence we have to expect
from tnem, that they have furnished a more effectual warn-
ing than any one else could do against a repetition of such
ill-considered proceedings.