New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-11-16
THE NEW Reform BILL.

| limitations half authoritative that the Glad
| stone Government will adopt either the prIn-
| ciple of tenant-right or of leasehold, or both,
| as a solution Of the Irish land problem, hardly
| encourage us to hope for any thorough settle
ment of that grievance. Four schemes OF
reform have been proposed to the Government:
first, legal revision, mainly promoting written
| agreements between landlord and tenants
second abolition of tenancies-dt-will, so that
Irish farmers may become leaseholders for
sixty-three years or less, on certain conditions
and at variable rent third, the Ulster tenant
right; fourth, Mr.. Brights plan for helping
tenants to become freeholders. The points of
| reform which tho Government seem to
| have shosen for their purpose are evidently
| the Ulster custom now prevalent by which
an outgoing tenant may sell his good will to an
| incomer. and what The London Times calls legal
| security of tenure, or, in other words tho ex-
| tension of leases or the equivalents of leases
to very large proportion of Irish tenants re-
serving some power in the law by which an
eyicted tenant may invoke its aid to restore
| him, Or to compensate him. So far, the pro-
| gramme of the Government is vague at best
and we are not certain that we do it justice ;
but as neither Sir John Gray's principle of the
| fxity of tenure or Mr.. John Brights noble
| idea of changing tenants into small prOprietors
| figure in the contemplated programme, we can
| not be far wrong in doubling its suftciency
| and wisdom.
What is the nature of the boosted tenant
right system which the landlords intend to fall
back upon as q compromise, and which the
| Government are persuaded to accept, will be
best judged from the complaints of the Ulster
| tenants themselves. This system two CEN
turtles old, is founded on the fact that tenants
| have with their own means reclaimed and i'm
proved their lands. with but very rare help
| from the landlords. These tenants have had
| the continuous occupation of their farms, with
| right to sell their interests therein to tenants
! of whom the landlords should approve, but
practically subject to such rents as the land
| " lords might impose" Violations of tenants
| rights have often occurred under tins
system, especially in the excessive and
| alarming increase Of rents by reason
of the tenants own improvements. This
| arbitrary increase of rents has, moreover
| largely absorbed the interests of the tenants
in their holdings, so that tenant-right is prac-
| tically nulliied. Hence the Ulster men, whose
| complaint we have in substance given, protest
| that their condition is insecure, that legalized
right to continuous occupation is impcratively
needed, that no settlement of the land question
will be just that does not provide cheap and
convenient tribunal for the adjustment of land
| lords rents, which should be determined with
out counting in the tenants improvements
| Thus, the Ulster folks, though better off than
tho rest of their unhappy countrymen, are
| manifestly not race of dancing Arcadians,
rejoicing in long leases, unincumbered tenant
rights, cheap rents, and liberal landlords.
Of course no such plan as this ancient Gus
| tom of Ulster will strike the root of the land
| lord evil, nor can the British statesman mean
| that it should, without any auxiliary measure
| But neither leasehold nor tenant-right can. as
| we have limited, solve the land question. The
| fxty of tenure demanded by Sir John Gray
| appears to be indispensable in any paciiicatioD
| of the minds Of the long defrauded tenantTy
and the plan of Mr.. Bright for buying up
| estates of absentees, and lending money to
| tenants to enable them to become proprietors,
| is likewise necessary to inspire the reform
with an element of certain hope, and
guarantee the tenant what he has never
had and never been allowed, the sub
|
eminent that would rather help him than
wrong him, that would rather take the side of
| the tenant than the landlord, and for once see
the wisdom of making common cause with the
| common people. Ii cannot be argued that
Mr. Bright's plan is impracticable, for it is only
taken at secondhand from the scheme by
which Prussia's regenerators Stein and Hardi-
man. changed dOwn-trOdden peasantry into q
community of thrifty, prosperous, intelligent
small proprietors with hereditary and certain
interests in their lands. After this great ex-
| ample, to treat the Irish question with parsmo-
ny, with timidity, with procrastination, and with
| fractional measures, would be to abandon what
| ever claim to solid craftsmanship Mr.. Glad
| stone possesses. England will be a happy
| Samaritan, spite Of the fact that the roadside
sufferer is her own victim, if upon the wound
of Ireland she can lay the largest poultice of
concession. Her problem is to prove that
Englishmen can so sympathize with Ireland as
to make their poorer brethrens cause especi-
ally their own, and 80 champion the rights of
the tenant as hereafter to claim his gratitude.
| Will the British Government have the courage
to carry out reform in this faith, certain that
| Irish content will repay their country ten-fOld
for all that Tory hostility takes away A
| tinkered measure, with as many concessions to
the landlords as Mr.. Gladstone has allowed 70
the churchmen, will not sufics. What Baron
Won Stein did for tho Prussisn rssssnta whss
America did for her freedmen, England can In
another way do for Irishmen. When we con-
slider with what c0zprcAsarDen1-D It'd vClanp
tary and RaaiaeS sfsssg q 90 Ess13 a1EiEs
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