The Sun.
London, England, 1869-10-08 00:00:00

MIL SIIERIDAN, M.P., AND THE ALBERT.

Several of the electors of Dudley, having expressed
themselves dissatified with their member's explana-
tion of his connection with the Albert Assurance
Company, a meeting was held on Wednesday evening
to consider what steps should be taken in the matter.
It was unanimously resolved that a requisition
be presented to the Mayor requesting him to hold a
public meeting, "to enable the electors generally to
have an opportunity of recording their views upon
the hon. member's transactions with the Albert and
other insurance companies." The requisition was
signed by nearly the whole of the meeting, and
arrangements were 9iade for increased circulation.

THE CANADIAN DOMINION.
An address to the Queen from the two Canadian
Houses of Parliament, praying for the admission of
Newfoundland into the Dominion, has just been
issued. It is proposed that the Dominion should tale
the debts of Newfoundland, and as the latter State will be
taxed for the liabilities of the whole territory—herown
debt being very small—an allowance should be made.
Newfoundland may transfer to the General Govern-
ment her unoccupied lands, mines, and minerals, and
will receive 150,000 dollars a year as com-
pensation. This transfer, however, is op-
tional. The fisheries of the island will be encou-
raged. An efficient mail service between Canada,
Newfoundland, and the United Kingdom is to be esta-
blished. No exceptional tax is to be imposed on any
of the Newfoundland exports. Canada will defray
the salary of a Lieutenant-Governor for Newfound-
land, the expenses of the postal service, and other
charges. Such are the conditions as laid down by
the Canadian Leffisl2,ture ; and it appears that they do
not greatly differ from those approved of by
the Newfoundland Legislature. Sir John Young, in
a despatch to Earl Granville, hopes that the con-
stituencies of the island will approve of the union at
the general election which takes place this autumn.

PROFESSOR ROGERS ON THE LAND QUESTION.

Writing to Sir John Gray, ALP., Professor Tho-
rold Rogers, of Oxford, gives his views on the land
question. He thinks that " Ireland must be a country
of small holdings ; but it must, in order to obviate
disaffection, obtain fixity or security of tenure for the
agriculturist. It is plain that agriculture is depressed
when the only person who invests capital in the
soil is discouraged from such an investment by
the uncertainty as to whether he may not be
made to pay interest on his own capital'
Mr. Bright's plan, the professor thinks, is rational
and businesslike, but unluckily its operation must
needs be partial. Mr. Mill's has the merit of being
universal, but it made the state of the landlord irre-
sponsible, and a terrible army of bailiffs would be
wanted to collect the rents. Professor Rogers believes
'the only remedy is that of turning the non*
occupying landowner into the recipient of a fixed
rent charge, payable in money, but calculated, to save
changes in the value of money, in produce. He would
also put a treble income tax on the absentee owners
of such a rent charge." He knows the scheme will
be pronounced revolutionary, but there are plenty of
precedents in English history for it, ono of
which was the Tithes Commutation Act. In
the North of England and Lancashire the custom
of letting lands in towns at a perpetual chief rent is
well-nigh universal; and had not the custom pre-
vailed, Mr. Rogers is convinced that some of the
industries in the county named would never have
grown to their present extent. By the plan named,
the landlord would, of course, lose the power to drive
his tenants to the poll to vote against their convic-
tions, and the people would not be obliged to employ
violent means to protect their own. It may be said
that a tenant might overcrop and exhaust the land ;
but there could be a cheap and easy process by which
he might be summoned before a jury of farmers, and
if the charge be affirmed, the holding should be put
up by auction.