The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1874-01-06 00:00:00

TIIE MEMBERS FOR OXFORD ON PUBLIC
QUEATIONd.

Mr. Cardwell and Sir William Y. Harootirt attended
the Druids' dinner, at Oxford, on Thursday night.
Mr. CARDWELL said ite to the blinder of land, be
thought it would bo an advantage to have the land of
the country subdivided ILLEOn• • greater number of
proprietors, and that would ho done by cheapening Its
transfer. The question of capital and labour was
rather to be determined by inscrutable economical laws
then by the Legislature, which could do no good and
might do great harm.
he Bottmeroa thEntsgaL followed. As to local taxation
he said some people want to put the rates on thn owner,
remo on the occupies', some on the landholder, amnion
tho Blohequer ; but the only thing which nobody seems
to think about is the only ti lug worth thinking about
--namely, how to reduce the burden itileU—(oheers.)
It is quite true that we grievously need • reform of
local taxation. The state of the rates is the Kendal of
our day and generation— (Wavers.) Our imperial
finanoo hu reached almost its perfection. Our load
fiascos can hardly arrive at a point where it could be
worse. Why is this? The ratepayer is the helpless
victim ef the orotobet-moogers—(" hoar," and • laugh.)
Rate after rate is imposed in the vain attempt to ail
the insatiable maw sal centralised philanthropy and
Doctrinaire extravegteoe—(oheers.) The rate is nothing
else than the quarterly bill sent in by grendmotherly
government—(cheer. and laughter.) The eountry is
Infested by a voraelons caterpillar-1 don't know what
the eotomologiste call it—l would eall it the lespee'Or
Vastator—(eheers and • laugh.) I think boo. said to
you that the day might Dome when the number of the
inspectors would exceed the number of the inspected;
it is fast approaching—(hear, hear.) Till you stay this
plaits of crochets, till you here the courage and
good sense to resist the importunate benevolence
of these reokless spendthrifts, all your attempts
to reform local taxation will be In 11•IA—(abeers.)
Turning to tbe land question be saki I shall net talk
philosophy, It was Once a greet and • venerable name
, —it was • solid and • reasonable thing; but we have
, fallen in with a spurious Artie!s of late. It seems to be
the off.pring of an ill-assorted union between strong-
minded women and weak minded 111012—(a laugh), which
has given birth to a progeny of rickety philosophers
with very unsound ounstitutions—(a lamb). I shell
not, therefore, discuss with you the "unearned incre-
ment of land." I am eoutent to assume that • man's
right to his land depends on the lame principle as your
right to the *oat on your back—namely, that you hare
paid for it; least, I hope you have—(a laugh). Don't
begin by ballyragging the landowners—Omer). To hear
ooze people talk you would suppose they had never
seen • Hee specimen of an linglish squire. They seem
to think he is • sort of ogre in top bsote who route •
Peasant in the morning and stews a baby for supper—
(a leash). his le nothing of the kind. I bane lived
among them all my life, and I know them well. They
WO very good sort of fellows, very much like other hog-
Nitrite°. They are hoepitable to their neighbours and
kind to the poor. They have their weaknesses and
their aingularitias, like the rest of us. Jam afraid they
prefer foxes to Radicals—(s laugh). Thetis an error
of judgment—(laughter). I fear they would rather
preserve rabbits than Non o ant ormiata —(4 laugh). That
is a mistake, too; for Nonconformists do not devour
crops or ruin farriers—(a laugh). lam not quite sure
that toms of them w ,uld not ra•her see • "fast thing"
with Lurd Maceleafiel I than listen to the speeches of
the m;mbers for the city of Oxford—(isegbter). That
I. a ',hoe of bad taste ; but than you cannot expect
orrrybely to be as onliAtened as if they were Druids—
(aught,r). Bat, benighted as they Ale. VO country
gentleurort kuow very well what they are about, and
what we have to do ii to convince them that what we
prop ao is j,lllt, IS Trite, IS expedient, ad•antegeoul to
theoetelves, hem:gulag to the country; for &peed upon
it they are just es much at ached to their couutry as we
are—(uheer,). I Lave always rug-cited that the
leborel p.rty should have come to he regarded irs
some quarters as aotnated by • apirit hostile to the
l.od d interest. I believe the charge to be unfounded.
After quoting the illessulte of minute nub-division of
lend In France, he said can any prospect be more hope-
lose than thst of a small male starring with inauffici,nt
o.pital upon land whirl he has not the means to
cultivate? Depend upon it there is • master much
more °molting and oppressive then the landlord, and
that is the oreditor—;beer, hew). These poor men
become as luau as their Derr cattle—as dilapt rated as
tteir Own betiding; AS cxhauatal at their own toil—
(obeery). Yen want independence in the tiller of the
sot!; e. do I. But this class of man If of all men he
moat dependent. You may call Lim, if you please,
attaelied to the soil ; so he is. Bet It is as the galley
slave is attnehtd to the oar—(tear, bear). The man
who con emery hie labour where be pleases and make
his owe terms for it is ten times more fret. The
laboorer who can OUL, with Lis family £5O • year, as he
do.. in the I.e.thiaes—and as he might equally do in
&listed if the land veve.cqually well •
ti. °exited times bettor off —(obeere). lie will never
mai., that out of a smell farm. You might jest se
wisely proper.* to improve the manufacture of cotton or
the condition of the operative of Lancashire by abolish-
ing the feetories sol restoring the bandloom w
tie wont on to advocate reforming the 14w of Primo-
geniture of Entail. I have ksown more families ruined
by the law of entail than ever were saved by it—(hear).
To me the ordinary ....Bement ef a strict entail seems
the most unnatural domestic arrangement that ever was
conceived. A man has • son whom he has begotten,
whom he has eduested, whom he knows, whom he
loves, whom he trust.; but it is not to him that he con-
fides the real dominion over that agate widish is his
pride. It is the unborn grandchild, of whom be knows
nothing, who may be an idiot or something wore, who
is made the real master both cal the father and the son
—(bear). What ii the consequence of this state of
things? It is the eines of more domestic misery and
dlsaenslou than anything else in the world. It inverts
the relation of father and son, it makes the son the yro-
prietor and the father the tenant of the estate—(ten.;
hear). It destroys parental influence, it subverts filial
rievrot, it makes the son the natural antagonist of the
father, it makes the father too often the enemy of the
son. Why is it that we see flee boys, hardly out of
their teens, who might have been a credit to their mac;
an honour to their name, doomed to early bankrupt, y
and premature ruin? -Why is it that they fell a prey
to the gambler, the black-leg, and the moneylender?
Why, but beanie they have got an indefeasible rester-
-111011 tO sell ; because front their 'radios they have been
made their can masters; because, by • fetal entail of
ruinous indepondenoe,they have been emancipated from
that wholesome control 'blob might have saved their
inexperienced youth from becoming the slave of its own
passions, the viatica of its own views—(bwe hear). Con-
' eluding, he said—by freeing the land from the impedi-
ments which hinder he development you would greatly
Increase the produce of the soil—you would improve
the (*edition of the people by procuring for them
cheaper food—you would false the wages of the &getout.
tarsi labourer; you would enlarge the profit of the
farmer ; you would enhatee the rent of the proprietor;
you would augment the nationsl food from which the
taxation of the State is fed; and the statesman who
shall aemomplish snob • task by a just, an enlightened,
' a conciliatory policy will consult lb. naleersal Interests
of the nation which shall grenade to his prudes.. and
his patriotism so great end beneficent • purpose—(lold
, cheers).