The Press.
London, England, 1858-10-23 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1858.
STAMPED .. SIXPENC E.
UNSTAMPED ... . FIVEP ENCE.

with them ; for should we succeed in proving
their opinion as to the result of an indefinite
extension of the franchise to be erroneous, we
should only be met, when we had established
our case, with the remark, " However right you
may be does not signify; it is our intention to
persevere."
Once again, then, we call upon Mr. BRIGHT, if
he be an honest man, to give us a direct and
unequivocal answer to this one question,—ls the
object of your Reform to improve the character
of the Legislature, or is it your object simply
to give increased power to the people, not as a
means to an end, but as the end itself?
And now that we are putting this question to
the Hon. Member, we may as well put to him
another. The chance of a speedy answer at the
approaching display at Birmingham tempts us
to interrogation. We therefore ask him this,—
Do you or do you not mean to hand over to the
populace the representation in Parliament, so as
to exclude all other classes in the community
from being represelited ? because, if you do not,
will you explain how you mean to avoid so doing,
when you propose that in each and every con-
stituency the populace shall form a prepon-
derating majority ? If you base the formation of
all your constituencies on the principle of numbers,
it is idle to talk of property or education having
left to them any share in the representation.
For it is evident that the owners of property,
and the highly-educated classes, will be swamped
and lost in constituencies composed of all the
members of the community, on the principle of
manhood suffrage. We therefore repeat this
question to Mr. Bivairr,—Do you or do you not
mean to give a share—we will not say a " fair
share," but any share—to the different interests
and classes who compose this empire, or do you
mean that numbers should be alone considered ?
We confess, we hardly expect to receive from
Mr. BRIGHT any distinct, straightforward replies
to these two questions. If we do, we shall be
agreeably surprised ; and the country will then
know the real nature of the question with which
it has to deal. If we do not, we shall neverthe-
less have gained a great deal ; because it will
then be evident that we have asked all-important
but inconvenient questions, which men, who ad-
vocate-Mr. BRIGHT'S views, had rather not com-
mit themselves by answering.

However, thanks to the " chapter of acci-
dents," so it has fallen out. The Lord Chan-
cellor of Ireland, as President of the Section of
" Jurisprudence and Amendment of the Law,"
was to have opened the deliberations of that sub-
division of the Congress, and for this purpose had
prepared an oration which, naturally enough,
turned on the same subjects to which Lord Joktm
RUSSELL adverted in his more general charge to
the assembled savants. But when the time for
the delivery of this oration arrived, it was found
that his absence from the sister isle was incom-
patible with the official responsibilities of the
Head of the Irish Law, so that the oration had
to be sent over for the edification of the Congress
in the absence of its author; and, conformably
to what, we suppose, is the etiquette in scientific
associations between General Presidents and Sec-
tional Presidents, it devolved upon Lord JOHN
RUSSELL to read to the Section of Jurisprudence
the address of Lord Chancellor NAI'IER.

Of this address, with its comprehensive and
far-sighted views, and its many seasonable cau-
tions and valuable suggestions, our limits will
not permit us to say more than that we like it
none the worse for the spirit of Irish warm-
heartedness which it breathes, and the touches
of Napier-like fancy by. which it is enriched.
Our immediate business is with those portions of
it which bear upon the question in hand, the law
of real property. In handling this subject, it
should be borne in mind that the Lord Chan-
cellor of Ireland has, in some respects, greatly
the advantage of even the highest legal autho-
rities in this country. He has had the oppor-
tunity of watching the effects of a mighty change
—amounting to something nearly approaching
a revolution—in the Irish law of real property ;
a change which, however great in itself and ex-
tensive in its operation, is nevertheless not ob-
noxious to the reproach which the term "revo-
lution" implies, inasmuch as it was brought
about neither in pursuance of abstract theories
nor as the result of a forcible subversion of the
established order of things, but was called for by
an imperative necessity, as a remedy for acknow-
ledged evils of the most serious character, and
carried into effect with a due regard for existing
rights. It is highly satisfactory to hear, from so
competent and trustworthy a witness as Lord
Chancellor NAPIER, so unequivocal a testimony
borne to the benefits derived by Ireland from the
operation of the Encumbered Estates Court.
"It became," he observes, "in Ireland a matter
"of great public policy to have encumbered
" estates purchased by solvent proprietors. who
" might be expected to discharge the duties cor-
" relative with the rights of property ; and,
" therefore, it was of great consequence, in each
" CM of a sale, to clear the title and free the
" property from its charges. This led to the
"gradual formation of a suitable procedure, by
" means of which titles were subjected to a suffi-
" cient scrutiny to enable the final
" to be made into an indefeasible
" has been fbund to be

THE TWO SCHOOLS OF PROGRESS.
DAME FORTUNE, as everybody knows, enjoys
the reputation of being a slippery jade, given to
play strange antics at times. Of this propensity
of hers, no less distinguished an individual than
the Noble Lord the President of the Social
Science Congress has been made the victim.
Little did we suspect when, last week, we pre-
sented our readers with an epitome of his Lord-
ship's " Handy Book" of the law of real pro-
perty—little, probably, did the Noble Lord
himself suspect, when he delivered the oration on
which our abstract of his doctrines was founded—
that, before the week was out, it would fall to his
lot to pronounce from the self-same chair which
lie had adorned on the Monday, and that in terms
infinitely more clear and convincing than his
own, an emphatic refutation of the views he had
been at such pains to promulgate at the beginning
of the week.

" was desirable in theory
" simple in its form, and e-
So great and so obvious
this new mode of establishing
property, that it soon increased
estates so secured, as com-
under the old system -
Lord Chancellor NAPIER

purchase added to the
a difference between

ble the final conveyance
idefeasible title ; and this
e as safe in practieeAs it
ory. The co_nvpyaoc.e\--*;
conclusive iiritfi • ,• •.• r ',, ' ...,-
nis was the lra •:.•s tnri x. ....•
Lablishing ti t "Illit - 11
ii
.4.-
ncreased the • 2.1 )
~.,,1111,, 4
:ompared wit .00/1:i ;. 41, ~,,, ›,
of titles, at -- '; -••-,,, ..
to ov
m estimates alb • • - .i.O tri
0
marketable .•:.•• 4 '4.-
‘
encumbered and '1"f: