The Express.
London, England, 1864-01-27 00:00:00

[Stamped, id. 4ditiosalg]

.weild be tilua from tie tide of evil and placed
an the idle of geed: The question of seta was
ea math lb, mine footles as that of primogenitors.
"The object of entailing land," raid J3s4ght, " is to
keep peat Watts together and to hoop , e one tinnily.
Under this system land in this country is sonletimee tied up
for fifty, eighty, or one hundred years, and no person had
the power to sell it, however advaniegeous it may be to
the proprietcre themselves and to the public that the land
should be sold. (Hear, hear.) And thee if you come to
the difficulties of the gaieties of treader, if you
will ask gentlemen who are near me who ere eon.
meted with the law, they will tell you that
it always takes months, and sometimes years, to
a title, sod of come that has no ineomiihm
able Jest In increasing the amomat of the purchase-
money. (Cheers.) Now, may leh what are the particular
mesons fen whit& this state of things is maintained It is
for the very sews for which this tram was established
800 yams ego, that there may be in thin co miry • handful
of pa .ma—twin se many perhaps as there are is this room
—who are the owners of nearly all the land of the coned y,
whcse hands are coocentmlied early ell the power, and by
whom the government of the country is mainly conducted,
and amongst whom the reirmage of the government is
mainly distributed. In every country of the world, ei far as I
bum, the pomesson of had are the posesseon of power.
In F7llllOll at this moment, we all know perfectly
well that miwitheteadists there may ba .a. vivo-

lotion now and then in the stream of Faris,
still if you cane to a greater question of voting, of the
opinion of cu►ses, the proprietors of the land of Frau*
en the ve4 majority of the voting population, and es
twelve years ago It was their enffrages that sosferred the
supreme power upon the planet Emperor of the heath.
(A Vale—" Theo a lie." Laughter.) If you erase the
Atlantic and study the politicial system of the United Metes.
where almost all the fusers are the ow nen of their farms,
you will And that they are the holden of political power.
The City of New York, through its mayor it may be u one
time, or the governor of the State at soother, and the
aurepapen of New York may denounce the policy
of the government or the policy at Washington,
hat it is not the tenant, but the land.ownieg
farmers and oultiveron of the great states in the
interior of the ocusetry, who an the depositories of political
power, by when will alone the President of the Mailed
States is able to canyon the gnat =Sten which belong
to hia exalted eistiou—(cheers)—bat it is the same in the

Southern Mateo—for the great plaiting population—the
great owners of *Motions, ore the life sad soul of the dir
orders which are now unhappily "signing hither" States ; sad
if you now to your owe °pantry, it you eons to your own
ocustyof Warwick, yousrill findthat two°, thmelaidowntes
can sit down and determine who shall or who shall not goto
parliament in the pretended zepromatation of the population
of this country. (Cries of "Shama") I believe that these
vest properties are of no real advantage to those who
hold them, for 100,0001. or 200,0001. can giro no more real
hippie= than 10,000/. or 5,0004 a year. I believe
that these great properties give great political power, and
that this, which war call our great territorial unions. prevails
to an extent in this country which is probably unksows in
any other, and leaves the cultivators of the soil igaorant,
and hopeless, and degraded. (Chem.) There is • great ten-
' dewy to larger farms throughout the country, which makes
it still more diffmdt for a labourer ever to become • tenant,
or hoe to rise above his =hat condition. An Mahwah=
occurs to me which I once before need in this room : I see •
ladder, a nodal ladder, up which I want to sea the poor, and
depremed, and unfortunate nine shillings or ten shillings •
week labourer ascend gradually. I should rejoice to see
him getting up a few stops and bemuse a farmer, even is •
small way, or becoming the owner of • piles of kid ; but I
dad that at Mx, or eight, or tea feel every stave of the
ladder is broken out, sad hem hie low pea= he has
se shame of wording. Let there be slips et =ill
linos sad small estates, and IN land generally be hewed
and sold, sad thee the labourer will have something to hope
for, soimethiag to save even his small shins for, end by
chance some of thmn may fled their way from their humble
and melancholy position to one which I wish from my soul
every labourer in the country could occupy. (Loud cheers.)
Now, for fear that the man in the mask—he has gut his mask
on again for a time—(laughter)—for fear the man it the
mask should misrepresent my views, let me tell you that
lam not waist great estates, or great farmers, or great
properties, or great factories, but I have • great desire to
he small estates, and small farmers, and smell factories. In
this country, when there is such • great creation of wealth,
Qum is always a groat desire for the accumulation of land.
I kaow the rasa of • nobleman—it is is • southern meaty
—I am speaking from public report—who !is said to lam
120,0001. • year, but who, being a wise man as re-
prds his expenditure, only spends 40,0001. • year, but it
is • mystery to ens bow ha does it. (Laughter.) Be has
Wee 80,0001. • year left; and what does he do with it? Why
be bays every farm, every estate, that offers, and thus his
ed•te is gredusity growing bigger. I doe& blame him for
that ; I applaud him in this respect, that he is a man who
doss sot =ate kis property, and I have always heard that
the nobleman to whom I refer been an excellent chancier
in the neighbourhood where he lives. There are persons
w►o minas from Manchester and from Leeds, and, I hope,
frees Birmingham., who can hurls= ommidessble esteem.
There is always a =dewy in this matey especially, where
we have se much manufactmiag sad commercial Washy,
and wear, to buy estates ; their poems= gives great
social position sad peat political influence. lam not nom•
plaimag of this; it is a natural, and a just, and a healthy
thing ; it is desirable that the farmer should have the sti-
nudes of ambition to sequin larger farms, and that e►en
pews= of estates should wish to acquire larger estates.
This is the stimulus that leads men to =ire for something
honourable in this country. But to leave all these infl•-
teos working in that direction. and to add to this Men-
ace the to= of a most intricate and complicated
Mb= of law, to give all these forces greater
forces, is, in my opinion, contrary to all the
hos interests at Engleed, sad I believe that if it goes an in
this way for soother half.century as it has for the lest
Wt.:notary, it may came discontent and great ensbarrear
meat within this sow psoceful kingdom. (Cheers.) What
I prep= is this. It is the scat moderate that ass he pro.
posh. If yea waat to see an admirable dew:riga= ci what
I think it would be wise to do, you will see it Is • paper
which certainly is not very radical—l mean the Spectator—
• weekly Loudon newspaper. There was as article as
harms= in the State al New York. The writer sap.
" With regard to certain ebsages, oo doubt lir.Bright did cot
consider than sufficient for his purpose's:ad wishes." Now
he is quite mistaken. The changes which he proposes are
mire extensive than any chooses which I ever prepoad,
either is public or private. What are these °Magee ?
Fins of all, that the law shall declare that whine say
perms mrnieg landed property dam without making a die.
petition of it by will, the law shall distribute it oar the erne
principle that it sow adopts when it distributes say other
kind of property. For example, soppree a sass has got
motley is the bask, sod I wish everybody had—(eren sad
langhter)--suppose he loss machinery in • mill, or insrehan.
dim is a warehouse, or shares and parehmeets in his Oita,
when he dies the law sakes • dietnbution of all that pro.
pore is sessedasee, as I behave, with the prior* of
braid psrest•l •ffeoties and justice. I say let that pile-
eiple be extended to all proporty of which • rum may die
ponied; is that respect I want to go no further. (Cheers.)
With regard to Ihe question of "Mails, I would say
thin: the Spectator proposes that • man may earn
his property se as to mover his heir sad
the nut heir from disposing at it that is,
that there shall oily be two pen= in the mita
I only propme this, that • sass may leave his property to
any piracies who slay be living at the elms be makes his will
but at prees•t be can have it to a maser of people sad to
the chili unbars, and that may net be born until twesty
yams after the making of the will. I would sister that sys-
tem, I should be meteor to have the property left to par-
ems is exisiense, eadmhome saw 'should appear lathe will,
sad pm would net bed as A. S, or C died el that the pro.
perty weld seas hide Ihe binds e/ a man who woad have
the absolute &petal at it. (Chasm) That is what I west
to am doss, end I believe It woad be borer for the pane
if the IMO beldam wee give& to the *ware of had that is
given to the proem= of other property. (Load firsts.)
Thereto ems elbow pert on whisk I wish to make ► senemb.
The mem who ►cps sod the 111011 who preperty Gads
the law regaisting the Mader se complimoted fist if her.
men Wasson were ham lie amid ma maser say tirr their=
Maim 16, imp{ dri wry seism she white be Is eepsned

[TWOPENCE

Sollars dime upon another point. (Cheers and InnatteL)
New eseryWing which I am proposing is carried out to •
somewhat greater extent in the United States is most of
the Slates, and to a greater extent on the continent of
Europe. and it is being carried oat in all the Australian
(*lrwin. It is the most curious thing in the world that

whenever as Eaglishmaa haves then sbores, whether
it be the aid of the salt, air, or of sea-lanies,
or of that prolonged meditation which a long voyage in-
vites, be seems to peel off ace the rags of his body, but the
verminous rags off his intellect and souL He leads is
Australia with his eyes perfectly clear, and he ma we
tbiap is a commonsense maseer. (Laughter and cheers.)
Now I want to sale you, as reasonable men cud men of
business, if than is a man here who cannot understand the

question moderately well in the way iu which I have en.
deavoered to put it. Is this 'Foliation I' is this agrarian
entzsge Is this atimalating working men and the agricul-
tural labourers—to what shall I say ! Inceodiarism, or any-
thing else he may have mouse to. It is nothing of the
kind. It is laying before them just principle* of law,
admitted to be just in every other country in the world
except tile, and which we admit to be just in regard te
everything else." Mr. Bright then creased some ammo-
meat, at the expense of lauded gentlemen, who. be said,
wens not generally a Tay wise clius. Be observed that all
the secuaations which were made now against him and Mr.
Cobden were made twisty years ago, during the anti-aorn-
-inre Be was ads mesh the (need of the Mad-
emus sow as he was then, and their interests were bound
up with the Miasma of the people in the right solution of
this qnselion. Under the present system they
were imeoesing smaller and smaller in numbers ;
the large ones were rapidly *sties up the email
coos, and this increased the danger of that
. . . .

catastrophe which inevitably follows upon prolonged unjust
legislation. He durst prophesy that if there were an obsti-
nate retantionof our present system, than would be a move-
meet in this country to establish not what he believed to be
the just, modiste, and sufficient plan which he re-
commended, but one like that which was established by
the Code Napoleon in Pl2l/00, and which was rapidly speed-
ing over the whole osetinint of Europe. He °mined—
Now, let me tell you a fact, and if you
don't tremor* it up in your minds, I hope the friend of
those gleffemen the landowners, who think I am very
hoot& to them, will just think it over if he has time, as he
eats his breakfast to-morrow, or next day. (Laughter.) In
America there are at this moment 140 millions of amen al
land, surveyed, snipped, set apart for those who are ready
to mettle upon them. la the year 1861, thee
was the fast year after the war attained its
prima propeetioos, there were not lees than 40
thousand new farms, over 80 acres each. occupied in
the Wears States, but the government of the United
States, sot content with that me sure of progress, peened an
act, which mete Into operation on the bit of January, 1863,
which wm called "The Homeeteeds Am." I bans a espy
of the sot here, sad 1 have a *only also of the circular whisk
was issued at the same time. What is that Homestead
Act? It is this. It mays that say man or woman of 21
nen of age or younger, if the man happened
to have been for a fortnight or a month
in the genies ef the United States, whether
in the assay or navy, may go into these territories
may dbo6llo what is called " • serition," which is 160 acres
of had, being me-foorsh of a square mile ; and en payment
of • fee of 10 dollars, which is equal to 21. English, he may
apply and have this land conveyed to him for no other pay-
meet for Ave years. It cannot be alienated. He is not
allowed to sell it. It remains in his possession ; and at the
end of the in years, he having doss to it what the govern-
mot requires—that is, settled upon it, and began cativo.
tioa, end so forth—thee the law gives him what is
celled a patent, bat which is, is fact, what we call a
parliamentary title, sad Shand ia obsolete freehold forever.
(Chests.) Now, it would sot take more than 15/. for alma
to go from Birmingham to the territory where this land is
to be dimmed of. If b• had not got any mousy by which
he could take up the 160 accessed begin to cultivate it—if
he woad mew himself to a neighbour* farmer, he would
get, I believe, now about 20e. per week wages, besides his
board aid lodging, and if he worked as a la-
bourer for two or three yearn he would be able
to save a mall sum, enfficient for him to
oomeisece the cultivation of a portion of his farm, and be
would be settled dowa there as a farmer with a freehold
of his own. (Load Mews.) Now &MI let me lame you
with the idea that there is no rough and rugged mew in
this. There is much that ix rough sod much that is rigged,
but there is a good des' of that sort of thing in this country
new. (Cheers.) When a man looks upon them ebikbes that
make even in the poorest house sometimes a gleam of joy—
when be thinks what these boys and girls mast
be is this onottry, never to rise use step higher than that
whirls be occupies now as an agricultural labourer, sod
then he looks abroad and he sees them, sot labourers in the
sense that we use the word here, not tenants even, bat
fresholden, and landowners, and farmers of their own pro-
perty—then, I my that the temptation held out to men
here to emigrate, if we knew ell the facts, would
be 'resistible to hundreds and thousands who have
new no thought it movie( to another coantry, Wel the
agricultural labourer, as be once was in some respects.
There are some feeble efforts made to give him a little
instruction. There are newspapers published at a prim
which was at one time deemed impossible. They find their
way into the agricultural villages, and the kimonos wffl
gredually bets to open oar eyes, and to see that •
clump of their position is sot se impossible se they
ones thought it wee. Now what as it that the United Slates
offer mere' They offer model equality. They offer palliest
equality. They offer to every child of every man is whom
face I am now looking, education, from the very leaning
of his alphabet up to, if he had the capacity to
towel so far, the highest knowledge of classics and
mathematics which is offered to the beet sadists
in the colleges el this country, sod all that without the
payment et one mingle Laraine, assept that general payment
in whisk all timpani* variant*, in the school rate it the
venous States of the Mika. Well, sow, I ask you if lam
wing In saying to the rich and to the gnat that I believe,
if they knew their own lama it would be worth their
while to try to make this Dinky a more desirable is. fee
the peer le live in' (Chan.) It they disregard ale
great question we, whit me st the middle ekes,
or not absolutely powerless ekes, shall have to
decide between the ohms of territorial magnates aid
the just rights el milliner of our countrymen. (Chan.)
There are some men—l meet them now and thee, and I
wooder when they were bon, sod why they came into the
world to regard these territorial magnates as idols before
whom we are aft te how dews in humble submierion. I
think travellers tell es that lbws is a tribe in Africa so
entirely given up to impostleion that they 811 their lists
and hovels s;th so many idols that they do not
leave room for their familiss. It may be so in
this country that we build up a system which is &kJ-
mental to our political freedom, and is destructive it the
beet intenete el the gnat mesa el oar producing end west-
ing imam (Chess.) Now, me 1 the enemy of any elm
ilI some forward Made feses like them, sad to mph&
principles sock es those? Shall we go groping melimmff,
in the dark, and making no effort to eareegtheu
our position' Don't suppose because I stand her.
that I love more to Ind fault with the laws of my
musky than to miss them, or that I am lees Euglidt and
Ism patristic, oe that I ban hoes sympathy with my ems-
try sad emelaymen thee other men have. (Meets.) I
emit ow mean to be pepsins, to be powerful, sail Mite
happy, but this oedema only be attained—as an era bashes.
Wised ia any country—by just laws justly administered.
I plead ally for what I believe to be just. I wish
to do wrong to no man. For twenty-6re years
I have stood before andienoes, great meabge
a my eseeleyeese pleading only for justice. (Loud chases.)
Nan that time, es you knew, I have iodized ineseene-
lom iambi I have pined threegh harridan.* of abase. I
and not tell you that my offsets have not generally been
the rich and the great, but rather the poor and thelowly.
(Bow. hew.) They seemoot Om me plate and amain sad
wealth. but their koeurable service yields me that
which is cl far higher and more lasting value—
the essedissomme this Ikon Mee expounding and uphold-
lag laws whim though they were not given amid the
Union of Naas are not less the commandowate of Cod.
and ea lees blooded to promote and secure the baptism
of mem
TIN ken. gentlemee reamed his seat amid great ebosdag.
A vote of Shoats te Kr. SeheieUeid and Mr. Bright was
esimmeently rented, awl the proosedlop wen brought to •
terminates et hilimetts• skink.