The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-05 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER' 5, 1860,

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THE FREEHOLD LAND SOCIE"I'Y
MOVE-URA 2.

MR. BRIGHT IN BIRMINGHAM.

A meeting in furtherance of the Freehold Land
Society movement was held in the Town-hall at
Birmingham last night, Mr. Scholefield in the
chair. The business of the evening had been pre-
ceded by a tea party, at which as many as could
be conveniently seated in the hall were present,
but the attendance VMS on that account necessarily
b; limited. In the orchestra, ne• he chairman, there
were some eight or ten mem of the Town Coun-
cil, but otherwise the local iticians of import-
ance, either in that respect orin a social point of
view, were ', conspicuous from their absence."
Mr. Leatham, M.P., was orl the platform.
The Secretary, Mr. JAMES TAYLOR, read letters
from Lord J. Russell and a great number of other
persons, apologising for absence.

The CHAJEMAN:III opening the proceedings of
the meeting, said that, according to Mr. Tidd
Pratt, there were 2,500,000 of the adult population
of this country who were lembers of friendly
societies. If to this was added the large number
of persons who were members of freehold land and
building societies, also adults, he was sure they
would agree with him that the Minister would be
a bold man, who would muck l&nger deny such a
population the right to vote. For his own part,
these societies had in every respect his cordial
approval.

The Rev. R. M'KENZIE (Scotch Church) moved
the first resolution, and in doing so described the
Freehold Land Society movement as the most
Conservative movement that had ever been insti-
tuted in this country. By its instrumentality the
best interests of this country would be conserved
and promoted. He moved :—" That the greater
the number of persons interested in real property,
the greater will be the guarantee of the stability of
good and useful institutions; and therefore it is
the opinion of this meeting that the effect of free-
hold land•and building societies will be to give
the industrious classes that stake in the country
which has generally been awarded as the lot of
the few only, and will thereby induce among
the masses those habi s of providence and self-
reliance for the want of which many persons have
at times been seriously misled."
Mr. WHITE, M.P. for Brighton, moved the fol-
lowing resolution :—" That it is the deliberate
opinion of this meeting that the laws which inter-
fere with the natural and free division of land—the
laws of primogeniture and of entail—and the need-
less impediment to the sale and transfer of land
arising from the difficulty of giving and obtaining
valid titles under the present practice in this coun-
try, are injurious to industry and to the well-being
and independence of the people; and that the abo-
lition of these laws and the removal of these impe-
diments would rapidly improve the social condition
and raise the character of our agricultural popula-
tion."

Mr. J. F. BONTEMS, of London, seconded the
resolution, which was carried unanimously.
Mr. BRIGHT, on rising and coming forward to
the chairman's table, was vociferously cheered.
Looking back, he said, at the many meetings which
had been held in that hall, he did not think there
had been one of a more remarkable character than
that which was assembled there that night. The
details which had been laid before them by his hon.
colleague touching the society which they were met
to celebrate were only too short. He had had sta-
tistics put in his possession which supported this
statement. He understood that there were not less
than 8,000 or 9,000 members and subscribers, &c.,
connected NN ith the freehold land societies of the
town of Birmingham and its it. mediate suburbs,
and of these (confining himself to those particularly
represented on this occasion) he was told that 95
per cent. were really what might be termed "work-
ing men." Now, iftbis were so—if this meeting were
the real representation of this class, he repeated that
it was a remarkable meeting, and that it was to be
taken as a proof of the character of the people of
Birmingham and its surrounding districts. It
proved also their industry, their skill, their fruga-
lity, their endurance, their self-denial, their noble
aspirations after something good, and something
higher than that to which they had yet attained.
(Applause.) It was not only a proof of this, but it
was a protest—it was a protest against the laws
which excluded this great body of the people from
any power or any right of citizenship in their
country, and a protest against those hurtful and
♦icious laws which mainly excluded them from any
possession of the soil. (Hear.) Now, the original
purpose of these societies was to find a mode--a
chink, a small doorway, a little entrance which our
lawmakers had not remembered to shut up—(ap-
plause and laughter)—by which the people might
purchase a right which, if their constitution was
properly read, would be given freely to almost all
of them. At the same time it was to enable them
to overcome the difficulties which law and practice
in this country had placed in the way of any man
who wished to become possessed of a small portion
of the soil of the country in which he lived. They
were accustomed to speak of England as a " free
country," and it was a country of personal freedom,
and, in some respects, of sore oppression. (Cheers.)
They had personal freedom, or they would not be
in the Free Trade-hall to discuss these questions
that very night—some of them would have been
put under lock and key long ago else ; they had
the right to write or speak ; they had freedom to
meet together as they met then ; they had freedom,
happily, though recently gained, to the free ex-
change of the produce of our industry either among
ourselves or with any other Power on the face of
the earth. (Applause.) Well, had anybody suffered
from this freedom ? Was there a man in that town
unwilling to admit at that moment that everything
before him great and noble on the soil of England
had been reared, and in fact existed, by this free-
dom of ours ? (Cheers.) Nobody was the worse for
it. The Crown was no less safe ; the interests which
they were taught were so valuable and were always
in danger were all intact, and everybody must re-
joice at the freedom they enjoyed. (Applause.)
But there was one point upon which Englishmen
must be considered less free than those in other
countries, and more particularly those in the
United States of America. The land of this
country was not free ; everything which human
law and preference could do had been done to pre.
vent its being free; what, could be more monstrous
than, if they were to bring upon the platform a
stranger, to inform him that we were free in the
exchange of our products of industry, but that in
the land, the principal basis of industry, we were
less free than any other country on the globe ?
Would he believe it to be a fact ? And yet such
was the case. Corn was free now, but it was not
some years ago; if it had not been so now the coun-
try would have been turned upside down. Iron was
free, shares were free, cash was free, everything
but land, which had a clause attached to it which
would prove utterly ruinous to anything else. The
laud, in point of fact, was iu bondage, and the
people in bondage with it. Mr. Bright went on to
say that he felt it his duty to confine himself as
much as possible to the special object of this meet-
ing, in order to show, as far as the time allowed,
that the obstacles which the Birmingham freehold
land societies were intended to surmount were
obstacles they should contend against in a more
general sphere, and which they ought to compel
the Parliament of England before long to remove.
(Cheers.) The first of these obstacles was the law
of primogeniture. If the editors of the newspapers
or the writers of those journals favoured the public
with any of their observations upon what he was
now saying, they would no doubt tell them this,
that there was no such thing in England as the
law of primogeniture, and that a man might leave
his property as he liked by his will ; that it was

• only in those cases where he died without a will
that the law of primogeniture comes into effect,
the fact being that-the whole of the freehold landed
property was given to the one son, although the
rest of the brothers and sisters were turned penni-
less into the world. (Applause.) That was the law
he complained of. That was the practice which it
engendered, and which, the hon. gentleman pro-
ceeded to remark, was as injurious as the law itself.
To give a case in point, when the law of England
in this respect prevailed in the American colony
of Virginia, Mr. Jefferson, who was second to none
since the days of Columbus for a love of liberty,
considered it one of the most beneficient of acts that
he could abolish that system of law in the State.
The result was that when the law was gone and the
sanction of the law was withdrawn, the practice
immediately began to fall into less use, and the
men who beggared their younger sons and daugh-
ters that they might make one rich and powerful,
these men left a character behind them that no
living man would wish to inherit at his death.
(Loud applause.) In this country he believed that
if the law of primogeniture were abolished, and
that when a man died leaving landed property or
other property the same principle or righteous
division should be adopted, the practice which now
prevails would fall into disuse, and so great would
' be the character of the change, that he was entirely
satisfied that the abolition of the law would be fol-
lowed by the abolition of the practice, and he there-
fore charged upon the law of primogeniture far
larger evils than follow in particular cases where a
man dies without a will. It was a grievous thing
that these mischievous laws were scarcely found in
operation without the law of entail being found
added to them. These laws came down to us from
a time of great and brutal conquest, when the whole
population were reduced to a position of slavery by
Norman conquerors, and it was only now that we
were escaping from that system. He trusted the
time would come when there should not be left
upon our statute-books a vestige of the tyranny
which took place at that period. As to the opera-
tion of the law of entail, rich men, and sometimes
poor men who were proud and foolish, and who
wished to perpetuate a family name, did grievous
injustice in this mode ; they give their estates, say,
A to B his son, and after B to C, and after C to any
son of C—call him D—who might be born within
21 years after the making of that will; thus a man
made a will leaving property to his son, grandson,
and son of that grandson who might be born with •
in 21 years after the making of the instrument, thus
giving a direction to a great estate for 60 or 80
years after the executing of the deed, and preventing
it being sold, from the very grave where he had re-
turned to his original element. (Hear.) Now,when he
was answered upon this point he should be told
that the laws of entail were not as they used to be ;
but the laws of Scotland were so bad that only
about 15 years ago, during the period that Mr.
Rutherford was Lord Advocate, a law was proposed
for the purpose of bringing the laws of Scotland
into a less barbarous condition, making them a little
less barbaious than the laws of England. He should
be told that any man having an entailed estate
could, with the consent of his son, cut off the entail.
That was true ; but it often happened that the inte-
rest of the one was opposed to such a process, and,
therefore, the cutting off the entail does not take
place in many instances. The resolution which had
been moved referred to another item, as to the vali-
dity of titles and the intricacies of the law. If there
were a lawyer present and he were to give them all
the legal terms that formed part of a legal convey-
ance of land, most of those present would suppose
that he was saying something that was not English
at all, for no person in that hall would be able to
comprehend him. When they required to sell a
landed estate it required that they should go back
60 years, in order to ascertain that there was no
possible flaw with regard to the title. When they
recollected how long a time 60 years was—for there
were few in that room who could look back for such
a period—and when they considered the probabi-
lity of mortgages, or some other transactions taking
place during that period, they could well imagine
how few cases there were in which they could go
back for 60 years without finding something
which would enable the buyer's attorney to say
that there was something not sound in the title,
and thus enable the lawyers to go on for months
and years without a conveyance being effected; so
that sometimes the buying of an estate was the
greatest plague of a man's life. Not being a lawyer
he was unable to give them a minute description
of those laws affecting the purchase of landed pro
perty, which, although it might be amusieg, would
go far to confound a great number of those present.
But he would ask them, if these laws and customs
were made general what would be the result? Sup-
pose, when a man died without a will in business,
the law handed all the property to the eldest son,
and told the others to get their own living. Sup-
pose the system of entail were followed up in all
other kinds of property. Suppose when they
bought anything that had endured for 60 years that
they should be compelled to go back for that period
to establish a title. Suppose the law which makes
it imperative with regard to land to prove a title
for 60 years applied to the business of the nation
and the produce of the national industry. If such
a law were applied, there would be an end to all
social progress, all commercial industry, and even
to civilisation. There were certain objects sought
to be obtained, and the general result of these laws
was that it required as far as possible the land should
be held by the great proprietors. That was one of
the results. Another was that it destroyed gra-
dually all the independent yeomen of the kingdom.
This was a remarkable fact, which every one would
do well to ponder over, for England was the only
civilised country in the globe—the only Christian
country, in which the possessors of the soil are be-
coming less in number. Whether they looked to
France, where the division of the soil was made com-
pulsory, or to the United States, where there were no
laws either to compel a division or to prevent it,
which he believed to be the proper course to adopt—
in no country was the number of the proprietors of
the soil decreasing but in this United Kingdom,
where there was so much industry, so great a
creation of wealth, and such an anxiety to possess
land. Here the numbers of the owners of the land
had been steadily diminishing. He regarded this
as a most unnatural system. Nothing could be
more cruelly.unjust or unnatural than the course
which was taken for providing extravagantly for
one member of a family at the expense of another ;
but there was an answer to this. And he was sur-
prised on looking in the "Encyclopaedia Britan-
nica" on the subject of primogeniture, and he was
sorry that Mr. Black had not had somebody to
rewrite that article for his new edition, to find that
the writer of that article stated that there was a
great advantage in giving the whole of the property
to one son and none to the next. What was the
advantage ? Why it was this—that the man who
has nothing must try to get something, instead of
folding his arms in idleness and living in luxurious
ease like his brother. He must set to work, and by
great exertion, profitable alike to the public—and
the country, he might make something for himself;
but to this his (Mr. Bright's) answer was, let them
carry out this principle a little further, and let the
State take the property altogether, and thenbut e
they
would not have nine penniless children, ,
and the elder brother 7.vould then have to work.
There were two results that in this countryfoli
from this system, and it was with a view to one of
re taas
sine es
,d„.
says
yr
so Power
isthese
concentrated
resultsthat n t
thhe
es yt
es
rt
remitowriiasal
J. Taylor, who observes that the land is the true
basis of power. He (Mr. Bright) did not want a
law that would shut one man out from the posses-
sion of land in order that the land might be retained
in the possession of a few, that they might usurp
the powers of the State. Unhappy results followed

from the present system, injurious to the cultiva-
tion of the soil and to the walfare of the farmer
and labourer. He recollected reading in a history
which he recommended everybody to read—the
" History of the Colonisation of the United States,"
written by Mr. Bancroft, once a Minister to the Court
of this country, and who he should say was perhaps
the first living historian, whether they regarded
the subject upon which he treated, or the manner in
which he handled his theme—and there was no men
who had written upon historical questions who was
more worthy of their study—Mr. Bancroft de-
scribed what was done with regard to the State
of Carolina some 200 years ago. The statesmen of
this country at that period concocted a constitution
for that colony something on the basis of that of
this country. They wanted to build up a great
territorial power in that province; for, as Mr. It'

croft said, " the ancient aristocracy dread the m

power of the proprietary yeomen, and seek
'degradation of the cultivators of the soil, anu. to
render the power of man inactive." Well, what
was the result ? Why, it was found that the Con-
stitution which they had prepared for this State
would not work at all. The Constitution of the
plain men of Pennsylvania and other States all
worked well. . Coming from the State of Virginia,
he would take a view of their own country. He
would take a view of their own farmers. He would
not speak disrespectfully of the farmers, but he
would look at their condition in a political point of
view, as a great question of politics, which was the
greatest question, except religion, to which a man
could turn his attention. In their own part of the
country they knew the farmers did not return the
county members from any judgment of their own.
If they went into Wales they would find that nine-
tenths of all the farmers were Liberals, and most of
them Dissenters ; but they would find that scarcely
even a single man ever entered the House of Com-
mons from Wales unless he was greatly enamoured
of the Church of England, and was consequently a
Churchman. Again, if they went to Ireland they
would find that the majority of the inhabitants in
the north of Ireland were Presbyterians, but the
Presbyterian farmers returned no members to the
House of Commons ; not even one from the whole
of that body. What a system of humiliation they
were in ! That system of humiliation proceeded
from this circumstance—they till the land, but
own not the land ; they are cultivators under a
body of great proprietors, and their tenures are
often insecure. The Dissenters in Wales were
in much the same state, • and so were the
members of the Free Church in Scotland.
There was nobody in the House of Commons
who represented their sentiments. But, leaving
the farmers, he would say a few words about the
labourers. He had no sympathy with the farmers,
for if a farmer occupied 500 acres of land he could
not help him. As to the labourers, he was of opi-
nion that there was no body of men who appealed
so much to the consideration and political sympathy
of the people in the towns in England as the agri-
cultural labourers. He was reading the other day
a work of unimpeachable testimony called the
" Recreations of a Country Parson," an amusing
work in some respects, but still an interesting book,
composed of articles which appeared originally in
Fraser's Magazine, a work which had not the least
been tainted with the principles entertained there
at present. Of this parson he had no knowledge,
except that his book came under his (Mr. Bright's)
notice, and he read it. He describes what happens
in country life, and in a country house. He described
a ploughman, and he (Mr. Bright) wished he knew
the country in which he lived, but the author would
be able to read in one of the papers that he (Mr.
Bright) had quoted from his book, which would at
least serve as an advertisement. At any rate, speak-
ing of the ploughman, the writer said it was hard
work for that poor fellow ill paid. No horse, mule,
donkey, camel, or any other beast of labour in the
world went through so much exertion in proportion
to his strength between sunrise and sunset as he
did. Mr. Bright read—" The theory of political
economy. I have not understanding for it, and I
feel glad when I think the social evils and the re-
sponsibilities of treating them rest upon abler heads
than mine." But he (Mr. Bright) asked why a cler-
gyman knew nothing of political economy. If a
clergyman could take the Scriptures from Genesis
to Revelations, and could, week after week, dis-
course powerfnlly to large audiences upon things
far higher than political economy—of things be-
longing not to this world, but to another and
higher state—surely if he had intellect to do that,
he might take up Adam Smith on the " Wealth
of Nations," and other books bearing upon the
subjects, and bring his polished intellect—polished
at Oxford or Cambridge —to bear upon this
great question, and solve those fearful problems
In every neighbourhood there walked a plough-
man working harder for his bare livelihood than
any brute beast which God had made. He did not
for a moment believe that it was an order of God.
He did not believe that it was a law of Nature that
there should be this wide difference in the direction
and diffusion of property. If he thought it neces-
sary that these people should go on thus toiling for
the future, then he would be greatly changed, for
he could not believe in either the justice or bene-
ficence of that Being whom he had been taught to
worship. The people of the town had delivered the
country from whatever of evil and of grievous legis-
lation they had escaped during their lifetime : they
knew that the whole political life of England was
to be found in England's towns and cities. They
had freed the produce of the soil. The very fact of
that freedom relieved the terrible calamity of the
season through which they had passed, and though
showers had fallen almost incessantly for months,
and our own soil had refused to give us quantity
and quality of the staff of life, yet, through that
fact of freedom, there was not a sea over which
there were not floating ships freighted from every
clime with the harvest where the sun and soil had
been more propitious to furnish to us the abundance
which, but for that change in the law, it would have
been impossible we this year could have procured.
Let us then see if we cannot free the land. It was
not more true that you had the right to buy your
corn freely in the world's market than it was that
you had the right to buy or sell land in your own
country as freely as you buy or sell any other
article of exchange or of possession. Why was it,
then, that they had suffered these evils until now ?
He was told that it was necessary for the support
of a privileged class. Well, but he heard exactly
the same then about tho Corn Laws. He recol-
lected travelling with a gentleman many years
ago, during the time of the Anti-Corn Law agita-
tion, who got into the coach at Harrogate, and
went along as ho did to Newcastle. He was a
gentleman very well known in what are called
monetary circles,' and also in evangelical circles,
and he (Mr. Bright) thought, therefore, that
he had a man intelligent enough about business,
and with conscience enough (as he professed to
be religious) that he might discuss this question
-ith some hope of a reasonable result. Ile did not
deny that the Corn-law made bread scarce ;he did
not deny that to the poorest of the people it was the
infliction of a famine; but he said it was necessary
to support the aristocracy of England, and he said
the glory, strength, and reputation of this country
in every foreign nation depended upon our greatness
and magnificonci.— the munificence rather than the
greatness of the aristocracy. Well, he (Mr. Bright)
undertook to dispute all that. The law had been
abolished, the aristocracy were not lessened in the
least, and they bore an incalculably less amount of
odium than they did while the law was in existence.
Society was not so estranged as it was. The people
had done the aristocracy a prodigious amount of
good, which few had thanked them for. They told
the people that it was necessary they should have
chiefs to govern them, and the leading man is a
family who got an estate became a ruler ; they ought