The Sun.
London, England, 1870-03-14 00:00:00

THE SECOND READING OF THE IRISH

LAND BILL.

The Times, in discussing the second reading. of the Irish.
Land Bill, says that Mr. Gladstone is the Minister respon-
sible for the bill. Upon him rests the burden of raising
Ireland out of the slough. He has begun well, and we have
gladly and heartily supported him in so doing. He re-
moved last year a scandal of inveterate injustice. His
bill this year is an admirable attempt to protect the
farmers of Ireland from the weakness of their own
position. This, however, does not exhaust the diffi-
culty. The tenants across the Channel are borne down
by their own numbers. The competitors for a farm
are so numerous that they overbid one another and offer
impossible rentals. There is such a supply of them in
reserve that it is said the object of the bill will be defeated
because landlords will be indemnified against the operation
of the scale of penalties on eviction by men eager to take
up the lands occupied by their neighbours. No word
in
escaped Mr. Gladstone,introducing the bill, to prove
that he had considered these facts. And yet,
unless this be recognised and understood, and enforced
on the minds of the people, what affect will legislation
have ? He has been silent, not through any policy of
reticence,—rather, perhaps, because he has been content
to dwell in the region of half-beliefs • but if we are com-
pelled to judge this attitude with' some severity, if we
have weighed the " left wine and found them wanting,
what is to be said of an Opposition which made a mere
feint of discussion from day to day, and systematically
declined to probe in any way the causes of Ireland's
misery or the ultimate eonsequenoes of the legislation
they were bound to study and scrutinize?
The Standard declares that the real importance, the
true significance of the decision in favour of the second
reading of the Irish Land Bill to which the House of
Commons came at an early hour yesterday morning, are well
shewn in the two speeches with which the discussion of
the evening commenced. Mr. Gregory and Lord Elcho
spoke, not only from different sides of the House, but
from totally different standpoints. The difference be-
tween Sir John Gray and the Irish members who were
opposed to the bill, and Mr. Gregory and the Irish mem-
bers who support it—we should say of Irish members
pledged to extreme tenant-right principles—is that the
one set do not think the bill can be altered so as to give
effect to their views, and the other set entertain a hope
that it may be. The bill was, of course, read a second
time, although the usual signs of enthusiasm at a party
triumph were sadly wanting. Mr. Disraeli, and his party,
with Sir Roundell Palmer and hosts of Ministerialists,
accept the bill as a necessity—of the present emergency.
But nobody affects to believe it a prudent or a statesman-
like measure, or as in the least degree likely to satisfy the
demands of the classes in whose favour it is framed.
The Daily News points out that the Land Bill was read
a second time, with practical unanimity on the part of
the House of Commons. There was but a show of oppo-
sition. The absence of any earnestness of opposition,
and, by consequence, of any vigour or warmth of defence,
told unfavourably on the four days' discussion which have
now happily terminated. The second reading of the bill
has been little more than the shaking hands of antago-
nists before they come to blows. The real struggle, if
struggle there is, which will determine its character and
fate will take place in committee.

The Telegraph remarks that though the" discussion
flagged on Monday, and dragged its slow length through
Tuesday, the desire to speak increased with its progress ;
and the debate has only died a hard death after living
with some difficulty through the week which time-
honoured custom has accorded to the second reading of
all great measures. The House of Commons has
most emphatically recorded its approval of the
grand measure for the redress of existing ano-
malies in the land system of the sister country.
With even more than his usual -vigour, force, and point,
Mr. Disraeli entered into a criticism on the details of the
measure—frankly accepting its principle • and he dealt
facetiously and tellingly with the speeches Of Mr. Horsman
and Sir Colman O'Loghlen in its favour. Mr. Gladstone's
reply, marked by all the Premier's wonderful mastery of
fact, principle, and language, brought the debate wor-
thily to its close. The concessions which he indicated,
while involving no sacrifice of principle or spirit, removed
even the shadow of pretext for demur ; the issue could be
open to no doubt ; and from the first, indeed, the House
has known that it had to register only a foregone con-
clusion. •
The Pall Mall Gazette observes that the Irish Landfill
has come out uninjured from the crucible of a four day's
debate, and it is not probable that it will undergo any
material change either iii principle or in important details.
Assertions, indeed, have not been wanting that it must
become a very different measure from what it is before it
can be allowed to pass into law ' • but they are assertions
of a kind which may be safely left to neutralise one
another. We have better hopes of the ulti-
mate effect of this bill on the Irish people than can be
drawn from the words or acts of the minority of Irish
members who claim exclusive to be their representatives. The
tenantry may for a time avow their determination not to
be content with anything less than fixity of tenure : but
when they find that under the operation of the Land Bill
they get all the security they really need, the sense of
substantial benefit will gradually displace the recollection
of evils which have practically ceased to exist.

On the whole, says the Post, Mr. Gladstone has had
just cause for thanking the Opposition and its Chief for
the treatment which his measure had met with at their
hands ; and even stronger reason for thanking those who
declared their intention of opposing it. - The Bill has,
as he justly observed, passed through the ordeal to
which it was submitted in such a manner as to remove any
doubts which its framers might possibly have entertained
respecting the general soundness of its provisions. The
willingness manifested by the Premier to make the Land
Bill the work, not of an Administration, but of a Parlia-
ment, gave even greater weight to the appeal which he
addressed to the opponents of the bill to,desist from an un-
availing, an unreasoning, and an unpatriotic opposition.
The appeal, however, was made in vain, and thirteen
gentlemen insisted on their privilege of solemnly recording
their votes against a measure sanctioned by the voice of
public opinion and the otherwise unanimous verdict of the
House of Commons.

The John Bull says that the second reading of Mr.
Gladstone's second great Irish Bill passed by a very large
majority. Any interest that may attach to the division
lists will only• arise from the natural curiosity to see which
of our politicians conquered the repugnance which every
statesman feels against meddling with the laws of 7TECUITh
and tuum, and which of them preferred to wait far a bet-
ter opportunity and a better measure. If the measure
will but bring about a renewal of mutual ccnfidenco be-
tween the owner and cultivator of the soil, we are quite
justified in working for that end, even if no better instru-
ment is ready to our hand than a cumbrous, inartificial,
and even dangerous Bill. We are so strongly convince
of this that we must confess we do not sympathise with
Mr. Hardy's hesitating support. Unless there is a reason-
able probability that the measure will really work out the
social advantages contemplated, it ought to be opposed
tooth and nail. If such a reasonable probability exists,
we hold with Colonel Wilson Patten that oar legislators
are bound to do all in their power to aid its progress
through Parliament, trusting to the opportunities that
will be afforded in Committee of making it as perfect a
measure as the circumstances will admit.

THE LEFT AND THE " MARSEILLAISE."
M. Guyot Montpayroux, a prominent member of the
Left has addressed a letter to the editor of the Marseillaise
(Eochefort's paper). That journal had announced that
Guoyot Montpayroux and M. Bellemont had been
excluded from the special meetings of the Left. M.
Guyot denies this statement in positive terms, and
remarks that it is not a little strange the editor of
the Marseillaise should be so well acquainted with the
movements of the Left. "You may continue," adds the
writer, "to attack daily Jules Favre, Ernest Picard,
Jules Simon, and others, who for many years have
sought to establish liberty in France. That is your
Your
calumnies and you fulfil it conscientiously. our
calumnies will not prevent us from defending one of your
associates, when we think that we are defending
the cause of justice in his person. But you must go no
further than this. Between you and the Left
there is no soul of connection. This must be
well understood. It is necessary that no one
should be ignorant that between the Democratic party
and the insulters of the Marseillaise there is absolutely
nothing in common. I rejoice, sir, that, by your impru-
dence, you have enabled me to state this publicly."—li
IUTOT MONTPAYROUX.

In the event of a vacancy at Shrewsbury, Colonel
Freme intends to offer himself as a candidate in the Liberal
interest.

A. report of the Royal Commissioners appointed
to inquire into the operation of the Land Transfer Act has
been published.

His Royal Highness the Field Marshal Comman-
ding-in-Chief will hold a levde at one o'clock on Satur-
day, the 19th inst.

It is stated that Le Gaulois is to be prosecuted for
the premature publication of the acte d'accusation of Prince.
Pierre Bonaparte, Le Gaulois having quoted it horn the
Standard.

The horning Advertiser professes to be enabled to
state, on the authority of Mr. Bruce, that it is impos-
sible to fix any day before Easter for bringing in the
licensing measure.

The Bishop of Winchester (according to John Bull)
has summoned the Committee of the Convocation of
Canterbury on the revision -of the authorised version of
the Holy Scriptures for an early day.

Nineteen assistant masters of Rugby School have
petitioned the House of Commons that the Queen may
withhold her assent from that portion of the scheme for
the government of Rugby School which assigns the rela-
tive numbers of old and new trustees.

Archdeacon Detiiion writes against an education
rate. Ho says ho now rytys £t2 16s. a year towards the
schools in his parish. "If (he says) I was rated at ad. in the
pound, I should pay about £lO a year, and should subscribe
nothing."

The petition to the House of Lords by Earl
Cowper, to be alllowed to lodge his case on his claim to
the dignity. of Lord Din-,wall, in the peerage of Scotland,
also upon his claim to the dignity of Lord Butler, of Moore
Park, was acceded to last night by their lordship 3.
The Liverpool Mercury understands that the project
is about to be revived fur making Liverpool the man) of a
new diocese, and converting it, as a nial ter of course, into a
e.:thedrul town. The freq :ency N 1 itk which this proposi-
has been mooted may be taken as an indication of the pre-
valence of a 4-Imgirdl.

In consequence of delicate I,ealth, it is reported
that Mr. Clement, the Liberal m 3mber for Slmewsbury,
will shortly retire. Mr. Commissioner Kerr and Mr.
C. C. Cotes, a county gentlemati, are spoken of as
Liberal candidates, and Mr. Douglas Straight is men-
tioned as a possible ConeyyAtive

A- WORD TO INVESTORS.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)

Strangers in Bengal arc surprised to see in a dry,
hard, cracked, mud basin, big fish swimming about
an hour after water has there collected from a
shower —the question is, Where could the fish have
come from ? Just so is it when a mania arias in
London with promoters of bubble schemes. The
moment sufficient water has fallen to enable them
to swim, out they come from their cracks, and up
float the bubbles to the surface in all their pretty
rainbow hues; and quite alluring, indeed enchanting
becomes the prospect. Those who bad never seen
the bak ed, cracked, mud bottom cannot imagine that
the sparkling pond, with its green border, is liable
to such an unpleasant change, bat they who there
pitch their tents may make the discovery to their
cost. The latest mania is the telegraph ; and it is
almost amusing to see the avidity with which the
public rise at the stupid, old, ill-made artificial fly
by which they are periodically hooked. The recent
sharp fall in some of these- concerns, whether due
to the operation of " bears" or not, comes as a
timely warning; but once the mania arises, scheme
after scheme is floated, as if nothing but absolute
failure can administer the necessary check. If cable
on cable be laid between the samepoints, not to meet
a demand, but to compete with existing lines which
now barely pay, and only find half the employ-
ment up to which they could work, the public may
be sure that schern'ers are operating to secure profits
comparatively small when compared with the vast
injury likely to result to the shareholders in the new
concerns as well as to those of the old. The construc-
tion companies, the promoters, the directors, the elec-
tricians to be employed, are all working for the one
end of their own individual gain, and they would be
happy if that end comported with the public g lin, but.
they are in no degree stopped, though they feel
confident their work will result in ruin. The ex
perience of 1866 ought to have impressed this truth,
on investors, that no voracity exceeds that of pro-
moters of public companies, that no class are more
unacruplous or more cruel. if we could estimate
the ruin wrought by the working of such compa-
nies as the Credit Foncier and the London Finan-
cial Association, we would have an appalling pic-
ture of misery—all according to law ; indeed pro-
ducing a handsome reward to the perpetrators.
The directors of both received enormous sums for
services which we do not suppose either pretends
to be other than disastrous. They call them the
mistakes of inexperience, but whatever they may be,
it is no light thing to contemplate the misfor-
tunes attending their operations, to the people with
whose money they were dealing. However delu-
sive the prospectus, however untruthful the chair-
man's stat.?meats at the general meetings, how-
ever quick the collapse of a concern floated, on this
the investor may rely, that, when the time of trou-
ble comes, on him will fall the burden, and that he
will then be dealt with mercilessly by those very
persons who had drawn up or delivered the state-
ments by which so smiling a picture of the position
had been filled in. This fact he should never forget,
that the law is on the side of the schemers, and
when feeling the full force of the swindle of which
he has been the victim, he accuses the men of fraud
'who have thus lied; after abusing him for insol-
ence, they will then refer him tq, their solicitor. He
is then let into a few secrets, which did not tran-
spire in the preliminary talks, and when he begins
to comprehend the meaning of the Articles of Asso-
ciation, he gets a glimmering of the sort of tool he
has been made. The grand smash of 1866 sup-
pressed the bubble-floating companies and left the
work to individual promoters ; but it only requires
the atmosphere to grow genial for such fungi to
agaiu spring up in luxuriant proportions. If ever
we come out in the character of ROEBUCK and leave
a legacy, it will be—Beware of promoters, beware
of guinea pigs, beware of liability. It is the last to
which we would more particularly direct attention,
for it is the most insidious and the most dangerous.
When a man invests the savings Le has at his dis-
posal, the loss, if he loses all, may be felt disagree-
ably ; but when a liability is attached to the invest-
ment, the loss may be four or .eight times the origi-
nal sum, and may sink him in ruin. Now it is this
that an investor should always remember—that
whatever may be the liability incurred, he ought to
be prepared to meet all; and a man who cared one
farthing for the word of the directors, the promo-
ters, the 'prospectus, that nothing beyond a cer-
tain figure will be iequired or ever called, must be
"very green" indeed, a delightfully verdant landscape
in the eyes of a " Guinea pig." If the investor
rigidly adheres to the rule to buy nothing except
what he can pay for over the counter to the utmost
penny of liability, he will be comparatively safe. Nor
should he ever forget that prima facie a business is
worthless when it is turned into a Joint-Stock con-
cern ; that the railroads, docks, telegraphs, &c., of
contractors, are intended to be, and will be (if
floated), very profitable to the contractors, the pro-
moters, and the others directly concerned, but for
the shareholders that iesult is by no means so cer-
tain as it may appear on paper ; indeed the reverse
may be assumed, as not one in five of such compa-
nies does succeed. One more piece of advice and we
have done with what some may term platitudes,
though we know their value from a sad experience.
Never attach force to anything written in a news-
paper in praise of a company. Facts and figures
are very well, so long as they are truthfully put and
the reader can comprehend their meaning ; but
the little puffs of the City Editor, or the bigger
puffs in the editorial columns, ought to be re-
garded with the gravest suspicion, and every state-
ment very closely scrutinised. It is impossible for
a newspaper which carries weight to escape the
snares spread around it, however honestly it may
be conducted ; and of this the Times furnishes a
notable instance. A paragraph appearing in its
City Article may make or mar a company, and
therefore it ought not to be difficult to form a con-
ception of the pressure brought to bear on the
writer, and the attempts made on all sides to cir-
cumvent him. We are not surprised, under such
circumstances, that he has proved so fallible—our
surprise, on the whole, being, that, thus tried and
tempted, he should have done so well.

An officer of the British army, who had just re-
turned from the frontier, says that the Indians were dying
of starvation, that game was never so scarce, and no fish
were procurable in the shallow waters. A letter from Fort
Sully reports a desperate fight between 300 Sioux and
Crow Indians, early last month, on the Upper Missouri
river. All the Crows and 17 of the Sioux wore killed.
Great indignation had been expressed on the details of the
Piegan affair in Montana becoming known. The tribe
had committed depredations, when Gent ral Sheridan, de-
termining to stop them by striking a hard blow, ordered a
party on the 15th Jan. to inflict severe punishrnent,wl:en the
intense cold and heavy snowfall had placed the Indians at
his mercy. Colonel Baker was despatched to execute the
order, and he killed, as we last Week stated, 173 Piegans. It
Low transpires that 140 of them were women and children,
18 wore old men, and that the balance only were war-
riors. Iu Arizona, on January 28th, a series of fights oc-
curred between detachments of United States Cavalry,
under Colonel Barnard, and the Indians. Thirteen of the
latter were killed and two captured. A citizen of Omaha
with a party was killed on the 25th of February s' hen
pursuing ten Indian:4, Nvli, were driving off a herd of
cattle. The Special Coma tissiou on Indian Affairs has
published its report. It ad- -ocates the collection of tribes
upon contiguous reservatic as eventually to hecome a
State ; treaty-system to be Abandoned ; existing treaties
abrogated ; log,l status of the; Indian to be that of a Go-
vernmont ward until he can. elevated and educated to
support himself ; money an: to cease ; schools to
established ; and existing o )ligations to be rigidly ob-
servt (1. •

iticli gold diggings lia,ve, been discovered near
Place liver. Thu news horn Vaicouver's Island is that
the miners find nuggets of gold .and lumps of silver in
about equal proportions in their elu ices.