The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-10-16 00:00:00

THE LATE COLONEL T. B. HACKETT.

The Queen has sent a telegram of condolence to
Colonel Robert Hackett, on the death of his brother
Colonel Thornas B. Hackett, who died on Tuesday
night in last week from the effects of a wound in the
abdomen, caused by the accidental discharge of his
gun while out shooting at Lisnacarry.

At the inquest, Mr. 'Fayle who accompanied the de-
ceased, together with a boy named Carroll, deposed
that at about four o'clock they were proceeding before
the deceased in a direction which he had pointed out,
when in about five minutes after they had left him
they heard a shot and a voice call out, Willy." He
ran'and found Colonel Hackett lying on his back on
the ground. His gun, a doubled-barrelled breech-
loader, was lying near him. Colonel Hackett said, "The
gun went off and I'm shot in the stomach." He also said
he was stooping for the gun when it went off ; that
his clothes were burning, and that he had riot time to
extinguish them before the witness came up. He
attributed the discharge of the gun to accident. There
was no one near Colonel Hackett at the time. He was
taken into Mr. Dalton Carroll's house, where he died
at Half-past eleven o'clock the same night, On exa-
mining the gun he found the rig,ht barrel loaded and
on full cock; it was the left barrel that was dis-
charged. A verdict of "'Accidental death" was
given.

Colonel Robert Hackett, brother of Colonel Thomas
B. Hackett, has lost his sight from the effects of the
wounds he received while surveying with the 90th
Regiment in Zululand; and since his return to Ire-
land he received the most devoted attention from the
deceased. The remains of Colonel I4,ckett were in-
terred in Lockeen churchyard, county Tipperary. The
funeral was the largest ever seen in the county. The
Rev. Charles Homan, the rector, delivered an im-
pressive address on the occasion.

WHEAT-GROWING EXTRAORDINARY.—The Times has
published the fdllowing letter The late
Rev, Mr. Jeffrey, minister of the parish of Dunbar,
Haddingtonshire, N. 8., used to grow wheat on his
glebe every year without intermission, and he carried
out that practice for at least twenty-five years, his
system of agriculture being only brought to an end
owing to the North British Railway taking both manse
and glebe for their station. He had an unlimited
supply of town manure, which he applied liberally
• every two out or three 'years. —Your obedient servant,
GODFREY SINCLAIP. Udney Castle, Udny, N. 8.,
Oct. 2.

Mr. BAXTER, M.P., on the LAND LAWS,
Mr. W. E. Baxter, M.P. for the Montrose Burghs,
delivered an address "On the Land Laws" on Tues.
day evening to a crowded meeting of his constituents
in the Public Hall, Arbroath. He said the question
interest
to not only national, but was of paramount
to all classes of the community. The people had a
right to insist that the soil of these islands should p,ro-
duce as much food as capital and skill in combination
could bring forth, and any legal obstacles which tend to
prevent so desirable a result should be held as contrary
to good manners, and therefore unsparingly swept away.
The public were gradually and slowly, but very surely,
coming to the condlusion that our presentlaws of landed
settlement could no longer be upheld in connection
with the requirements of modern agriculture; that the
conferring of a right to settle land was scarcely in ac-
cordance with sound principles of political economy;
that thepossession of the greater part of the United
Kingdom by so few families was detrimental to the
true interests of the nation; and that all regulations
standing in the way of the humbler classes obtaining
land had the effect of discouraging habits of economy
and prudence, of increasing pauperism, of reducing
the productiveness of the soil, and of strengthening
feelings of discontent with the best institutions of
the country (applause). It was not for a private
member of Parliament dogmatically to lay down the
precise nature of the changes that ought to be
effected in our law. That must be the work of an
earnest and strong Government, under the advice of
the Law Officers of the Crown. But he ventured
to think that the task, though difficult, was not
impossible, and that, when once undertaken by
men of ability and fixity of purpose, it would be suc-
cessfully accomplished, and prove the solution of the
principal of those intricate points which constitute
the English land question. We must follow the ex-
ample of other nations in delivering the land from the
shackles that encumber it if we wish to enable our
agriculturists effectively to meet that world-wide com-
petition which is now producing so universal a scare.
The great majority of the people of this country must
be of opinion that it would be most beneficial to in-
crease the number of individuals having direct pro-
prietary rights in the soil. At present 2,184 persons
hold 38,875,522 acres, or nearly three million acres
more than half the area of the United Kingdom; and
10,888 persons hold nearly fifty-two million acres' or
within twenty millions of the total area of the United
Kingdom. Half the whole county of Northumber-
land is held by 26 persons—one person holds upwards
of 1,300,000 acres; twelve persons hold 4 millions of
acres; one-fourth of the land of England and Wales is
in the hands of 710 owners; and nine-tenths of the
whole of Scotland being no fewer than 1,700 people.
Now contrast this with the state of things in France,
where there are 14 million entries of names for land-
tax' and, deducting those entered in duplicate, the
soil is estimated to belong to about eight or nine mil-
lions of persons. Whilst our cultivators are in a con-
dition of distress and panic, these millions are said to
be making and saving money, investing in Govern-
ment Securities, constantly adding to their wealth,
and strengthening the Conservatism of their country.
Since the French Revolution the feudal laws in France,
Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, Norway, Germany,
North Italy, and Austria had been abolished. The
result had been in many instances, the breaking up
of the large, unwieldly, unmanageable estates,
and the formation of a numerous and powerful
Conservative class of small proprietors. At the
present moment, in most of these parts of Europe,
as well as in the United States of America, and
in many of the great Colonies of our own Empire,
the law does not permit the owner of land to
make any such settlement as will prevent his property
being sold after his death. The change has been
highly beneficial wherever it has been brought about
peasants formerly in as miserable condition as the
Irish being now contented and prosperous owners of
the soil. It is notorious that the entire appearance
of the country ia the Rhine Provinces has been so
altered for the better since the abrogation of the
feudal laws that travellers could scarcely recognize it,
fields, gardens, houses and villages, all bearing evi-
dences of vast improvements and progress. Whilst
admitting, of course, that the land may be, and often
is, too much sub-divided, we must keep in mind that
in all the countries which had abolished the feudal
laws there was a process of aggregation as well con-
stantly at work, which went a long way to counter-
balance the tendency to minute division. The state of
things regarding the registration, conveyance, and
transfer of land every one admitted to be very unsatis-
factory if not discreditable. A feeling of humilia;
tion must be felt by every Englishman knowing
anything of the complexity and costliness of our
system when he studied the laws and practice in this
respect of neighbouring nations. Persons who had
carefully studied this subject were unanimous in their
belief that the assimilation of our law practice to that,
for instance, of Belgium or of our own colonies would
increase the value of the land of this country by from
two to five years' purchase. It was another humi-
liating reflection that we had positively retrograded in
this respect, that a register of deeds, including mort-
gages, was kept at a very early period of our his-
tory, and that grants of land were carefully enrolled
in the shire book before the Norman Conquest. No
one would deny that all deeds with reference to the
conveyance and transfer of land were far too long ;
their prolixity, in fact, bordered on the ridiculous,
and their costliness amounted to a scandal. (Hear,
hear.) The Committee on Land Transfer reported last
year that "the vicious system of paying solicitors and
conveyancers according to the length of the instrument
still leaves the client at the mercy of his lawyer both
in England and Ireland," and the investigation of
titlel, the search for encumbrances, and other charges,
rendered it very difficult, in some cases practically
impossible, to dispose of land in small quantities.
Then conveyancing was at ptesent so dilatory a busi-
ness as to deter the public from turning attention to
small transactions in land. "In the United States,"
says Mr. Fold in his Consular report, "the sale and
transfer of land are conducted with about the same
ease as would be the sale of a watch." (Hear, hear.)
After some further observations' Mr. Baxter, in con-
clusion, said it was impossible to over-estimate the
enormous influence on the side of order exercised of
recent years in France by the millions who owned
the land, and no measures could possibly be of
a more Conservative tendency than those which
facilitated the acquirement by the people of an inte-
'rest in the soil. (Hear, hear.) The disproportion
between the landed and the unlanded class, especially
now that public attention had been called to the ad-
vantages offered by land as a field for investment, and
to the enormous sums that might profitably be em-
ployed in its better cultivation, appeared to him
one of the most serious rocks ahead in this country.
"The concentration of land in large estates among
a small number of families," wrote an eminent
foreigner," "is a sort of provocation of levelling
legislative measures. The position of England, so
enviable in many respects, seems to me to be in
this respect full of danger for the future." These
warning words were pregnant with wisdom, but he
rejoiced to see on all hands around him., among the
aristocracy as well as the middle class, signs that the
nation, forewarned, was forearmed, too, and ready to
do again what it had done before—insist upon
a vigorous and complete reform. (Contiuued ap-
plause.)
At the close of his address, Mr. Baxter received a
cordial vote of thanks.