The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-24 00:00:00

And now for the fourth and last subject

—the land question —in comparison with which
the Archbishop declares all other 3 to be light.
It is the question of the people and of the
poor ; of social peace or agrarian war ; of life
or of death to millions. Englishmen think
it a maze of perplexities, but foreigners see no
exceptional difficulty or complexity about it.
The Archbishop begins his solution by affirm-
ing that there is a natural and divine law,
anterior and superior to all " human and civil
law," by which every people has a right to live
of the fruits of the soil on which they are born,
and in which they are buried. On this prin-
ciple the land in England is charged for the
support of the poor. This law was made in
the time of Elizabeth, when monasteries had
been closed against the poor. For three hun-
dred years the landlords in England had
clearly recognized it as a just law; Irish land-
lords resisted it as a violation of the rights of
property. It is to be doubted if the land laws
of England would have lasted till this date if
the Act of Elizabeth had not made their
exclusiveness tolerable to the mass of the
people.
Having established the right of the people
to be snpported by the land, the question is
" How is that to be effected in Ireland ?" In
England the tenants have land customs which
may be enforced in the courts of law, and
which have, therefore, the power of law. Their
lands are their homes, and their interests are
even generously watched and guarded by pub-
lie opinion.
But in Ireland none of these things are so. In
one-fourth of Ireland there are land laws, or, rather,
land customs, which protect the tenant. In three-
fourths of Ireland there are neither laws nor cus-
toms. The tenants are tenants at will. Over a vast
proportion of Ireland the landlords are absentees.
The mitigating and restraining influences of the
lords of the soil which, in England, and in every
civilized country, do more to correct the excesses
of agents, speculators, and traffickers, and to temper
legal rights with equity and moderation, are hardly
to be found. The substantial improvements upon
farms, and the buildings necessary for agriculture,
are made, not by the landlord, as in England, but
by the tenant in Ireland. Is this to be found in
any other country of Europe ? The tenant has no
security that his outlay is his own, or that he shall
ever reap the benefit of it. Whatever goes into the
soil, whatever is built upon it, " fructificat domino."
The landlord may raise his rent at will, and give
him notice to quit at will. The tenant at will may
be put out for any cause ; not only for non-payment
of rent, or waste of his land, or bad farming, or
breach of covenant, if such can be supposed to
exist, all of which would bear a colour of justice ;
but for the personal advantage of the landlord
arising from the tenant's improvements ; for politi-
cal influence ; for caprice ; for any passing reason
or no reason, assigned or not assignable, which
can arise in minds conscious of absolute and irre-
sponsible power. This is an evil state. Absolute
and irresponsible power is too great for man. Even
supreme civil rulers do not possess it.
After giving some heart-rending descriptions
of the awful and horrible results of this glaring
iniquity, the Archbishop says that if we are to
seek for a remedy—
We may learn of Prussia, France, Switzerland,
and Tuscany, even of Canada and Prince Edward's
Island, all of which are in advance of England in
the solution of what is called the 4, land question"
in Ireland.
How is it to be expected that a people will be
industrious who have no security that they will not
be swept off the land they till? How will they im-
prove it if they have no security that they shall
retain the benefit of that improvement ? How shall
justice be done to the land unless it be improved
by advancing cultivation ? How shall cultivation
advance if improvements be visited by a rise in
the rent, and the increased rent be enforced by
notice to quit? How shall the land so treated fail
to breed famine and fever, and a people so harassed
restrain themselves from a wild discontent and
bitter retaliation? The same would be the state
of England if custom, which is the " mother of
quietness," and therefore of plenty, did not pro-
tect the tenant from arbitrary rents and arbitrary
evictions.
Apply to Ireland that great principle of
equity laid down by Lord Derby in introducing
his Land Bill of 1852—" That the property
created by the industry of the tenant belongs
of right and in justice to himself, and that it is
the duty of the Legislature to protect it by
law."
Make this really the law of the land, add to
this obligation of granting leases, and then
we shall begin to see our way to the realiza-
tion of an Hibernia Pacata--then, but not till
then.—Westminster Gazette.

The Pall Mall Gazette says the Republican Se-
nators whose course on the trial of the President is con-
sidered doubtful are Messrs. Trumbull, Fessenden, Morgan
Ross, Van Winkle, and Frelinghuysen. The New York,
Anti-Slavery Standard believes that there is no reason for
regarding these Senators as likely to decide in favour of the
President; but Mr. 'Wendell Phillips, in a communication
to the same paper, deplores the non-suspension of the
President during his trial, and says he will not be sur-
prised "if Johnson is able to brib3 or bully the President
into an acquittal."
The Nova Scotia Legislature is adjourned to
August 6th.
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