The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1866-11-03 00:00:00

MR. BRIGHT IN IRELLND.

Mr. Bright, having accepted the invitation of a num-
ber of his political friends and admirers to visit the
sister kingdom, was entertained on Tuesday evening
at a grand banquet in the Rottindo. The Olbonoghue
presided, supported by Sir John Gray, M.P., Mr.
narks, M.P., Mr. Bairwell, MP., Captain White,
M.l'., Mr. Lawson, M.P., late Attorney-General for
Ireland; Mr. Sullivan. M.l'., late Solicitor-General for
Ireland; Sir Colman O'Loghlen, Serjvant Arm-
strong, M.P., Mr. Barry, Ml'., Mr. Tristram Ken.
nedy, M.P., Dr. O'Brien, Dean of Limerick; Sir 0.
O'Brien, MY., and Mr. Blake, M.P. There were
also present several dignitaries and a considerable
number of the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church.
Covers were laid for roo persons. Letters were read
from Cardinal Cullen, Archbishop of Dublin, the
Archbishop of Cashel, the Bishop of Meath, the Bishop
of Kerry, the Bishop of Limerick, the Archbishop of
Tnam, &c.
Mr. Bright made one of his usual eloquent speeches,
in the course of which be said :

The history ol Europe and of America for the last hun-
dred years offers scarcely any picture more painful than
that which is presented of the landowners of Ms kingdom.
Toe Irish landowner has been different from every other
landowner : as for the hulk of them their land has been
but half cultivated , they have had to coll• ct their rents by
o process approaching the evils of civil war their prosperity
has been very insecure; the tale of laud has sometimes
been rendered imposidhle, nod the landowner has often been
hated by those who ought to have loved him. Ile has been
banished from his ancestral home by terror, and not a few
of the landlords have lost their lives without the sympathy
of those who ought to have been their protectors and their
friends ;Loud cheers. I would like to ask what could he much
worse than this? If in thls country tiny years ago, as ln
Prussia. there had Arleen statesmen woo would have taken
a third or half of the land and given it to the tenants, the
Irish landowner, great air the injustice might have been,
would have been richer and happier than he is now. What
is the first remedy which you would propose? lint, and
this is the most practicable, and would moat speedily touch
the condition of the country, that the property which the
tenant should invest in his farm should be secured to the
tenant by law. :Loud cheers.) I believe that if parliament
were fairly to euact this, it would make a change in the
whole temper of the country. I recollect in the year 1g41)
being down in the county of Wexford. I celled at the house
clan old farmer of the name of Staff md he lived in &good
house, the best farmhouse I thing that I had seen since leaving
he heed on his own farm, which he had bought lb
years before, and the house was a house which he had had
built. Ile was • venerab.e old man, ad I had some rattier
intereating converaation with him. I asked him how It was
that he had so good • house, and he said the farm was hi,
own, and the house was his own, ana as no man could dis-
turb him, he had built a mach 'setter house than was com-
mon for the latmtionses in Ireland. .:Cneers I said to
. . . .

him, "if all the farmer. In Ireland had some Necortly
for the capital tney Jett' out on their farms, what would be
the remit, ?" lhe old man almuet sprang out of his chair
He said, "Sir, if you will give no that encouragement
we'll bate the hunger nut of Ireland " , Loud ch. cry It
le said that all Chu muet be left to contract between the
landlord and the tenant, but the public, who may be
neither landlord nor tenant, have a great Interest in
this question, and I maintain that the interesta of
the public require that parliament ehonld aecure to
the tenant the property which he has Invested In his farm.
Carer. But I would not stop here. There le another
and what 1 should call a more permanent and far-reaching
remeey for the evil. of Ireland, and 1 hope those persons
who stickle so much for political economy will follow me in
this Tne grand evil in Ireland I. thin : that the Irish people
—the nation—are dlspmeess,l of the soil. What we ought
to do is to provide all for their restoration to It by all
measures of justice. Who should you tolerate in Irelano the
law of primogetthure ? Why should you tolerate the system
of aitails MU long settlements? Why should the object of
the law be ti accumulate land in great masses in few hands,
end to make It almost Impossible for persons of small mean
and tenant farmers to become puesemore of land ": lf you go to
other countries—fur example, to Norway, to Denmark,
to Holland, to Belgium, to France, to Ciermany, to Itasy, or
to the United States, you will find Instill all those countries
those laws of which I complain have beim aboliehed—lcheere
—and the land lei jut as free to buy and sell, and hold, end
cultivate se any other deecription of property In the king-
dom No doubt your Landed Estates Cutlet and your Cohn
of Titles Act were good measures, but they were good bo-
Malty they Were In the ouection knot I want to travel further
In. I would go further than that, I would deal with the
question of abeenteeism. Cheers IAM not going to pro-
pose to tax an absentee but If my advice were taken we
should ham a portummoury cOe.inlouh empowered ID
buy up the Ihre magi Tram bcs So Obi