The New York herald., 1867-02-20

Reform in England.
At meeting held in the Free Trade Hall,
Manchester, on the evening of February I, the
reformers of Great Britain and Ireland were
acting as representative on the one hand, and
the ODonoghue, the hope Of The more sensible
portion of young Ireland, acting as representa-
| tive on the other. 1t scarcely required this
| public demonstration to convince the intclli-
| gent observer that the movement known in tho
one portion Of the Queens dominions as
Reform, and in the other portion as Fenianism
was substantially one and the same in its origin
and its objects. We donot say that the views
| of the O'Donoghue will be subscribed by every
Irish malcontent any more than we say that
the views Of the great English tribune will be
subscribed by every lover of reform in England
and in Scotland but we do say that the case
of Ireland, as put by the O'Donoghue, has not
been put so clearly, so sensibly and SO effec-
lively by any other native of the Green Isle in
recent years. The causes of disaffection in
Great Britain and in Ireland are not in every
particular the same. It would be absurd to
say that they were. There are grievances in
Scotland which do NOT exist in England. There
are grievances in Ireland which do not exist in
either England or Scotland. But there is one
grievance which is common to them all and
which lies at the root Of all the evils now COM
planned Of
What Is this common grievance? What is
this radical evil? II is the land tenure system
which prevails, with certain local notifications,
all over the United Kingdom system which
| in England robs the farmer of independence Of
thought and makes him the political slave Of
! his lord, which has converted some OF the finest
portions of the Highlands of Scotland into
sheepwalks and deer pastures, and which in
Irelend has all along fettered the very springs
of industry, and from time to time sent forth
millions of the native born population to seek
home and living in other lands No real
cure will ever be effected in the political body
Of Great Britain and ireland so long as this
radical cause is overlooked. II is, as we have
said, the frui ful source from which all The other
evils have sprung. The condition Of England,
in fact, at the present time is not dissimllar to
The condition of Rome in the days of the
Gracchi. The whole of the public lands were
in the hands Of the MOBILES. The posi-
ton of the free citizen without lands
was more wretched than that Of the
bondsman The Gracchi saw The evil and
sought to remove It, This they proposed to
| accomplish by taking from the rich The excess
of public lands held by them above certain
limit, and distributing the lands thus acquired
| among the landless poor. The mobiles natu-
rally enough were indignant. In the struggle
which ensued the Graccb younger and older.
| perished, but the cause with which their names
became identified triumphed few years later,
| in the person or Casar-iriump1ed however
less to the advantage Of liberty and less in the
interests of the nobility than timely concession
would have secured. Nor would IL be difficult
to discover q resemblance between England OF
the present day and France, which witnessed
the assembling OF the States General under
Louis the Sixteenth. II, as some historians
would have us believe il is the curse Of France
now that che has too many proprietors, it was
undoubtedly the curse Of France then that she
had too few. The lands were all but entirely
in the hands Of the noblesse, nor were they
very evenly divided even among them. II L
was the poverty Of the people whi.aa pre
ciptated he rAy....:.a :: ss the wealth
of the nobility which gave birth &
that poverty. As 1t was in Rome in the times
OF he Gracch az 1t was in France In the times
that Immediately preceded the revolution o.
$50, so is 1t In England now. The whole lands
of the United Kingdom are in the hands Of q
miserable minority, and that minority is year
by year becoming smaller. About the period
of the accession Of William Of Orange the land
owners Of Great Britain and Ireland numbered
somewhere about 100000. AT the present day
they scarcely exceed $4,000 The lesser
gentry or yeomanry which in times gone by
proved such an effective bulwark against the
encroachments Of the crown on the one hand
and Of the mobiles on the other, have entirely
disappeared. On memorable occasion when
John Hsmpden, though threatened with arrest
fearlessly went up to his place in Parliament
four thousand freeholders OF Buckinghamshire
rode up to protect him. "Where" exclaims q
celebrated writer and reformer Of the day, "are
those four thousand freeholders now - The
fine old stock is practically extinct Theft
places are empty. The gulf which theJ
formerly spanned yawns unbridged betweer
the very rich and very poor. In this more thar
in any other cause Ia 10 be found the secret o
the political disturbance Of the time.
lis a fact which il not to be gsinsayed,
trn.a which all hlsiprY establishes. that