The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1880-02-26

things" he says with significance, "that
are done elsewhere; they can be done
here G lust as easily Next, and much
more important, comes his plan for Gre.
ating peasant proprietors In Ireland.
Twice on q great scale has the English
Parliament attempted 10 do this. The
"Bright clauses" in MIR. Gladstone'Sland act
OF 1870 proposed that when the tenants on
an encumbered estate put up for sale, stood
ready to offer as much as any one else for
the land, It should go 10 them; the Gov
ernment advancing q large share OF the
purchase money, the tenants providing
the rest and paying of tho Government
loan during long term OF years. Un.
fortunately, while the tenants are often
enough able 10 make an offer for fraction
Of an estate, they are not always able to
\ take up the whole at the highest market
price. An offer at price per acre for
The whole no higher than their offer per
acre for part sends the estate 10 single
purchaser, and Ireland continues 10 be
occupied by population Of tenants and
their families as large as that OF all New
England, and population OF owner and
their families as large as that OF single
county.
In the other great land act Of Mr.. Glad
stones administration, however, the act
disestablishing the Irish church, the
church lands were turned over to com.
nilsson with power to sell piecemeal to
tenants, the government supplying part
Of the purchase money. Under this act
several thousands OF small tenants have
been created, while under the other but
s., 100000 has been advanced to peasant
proprietors out OF q much larger sum set
apart for their aid. Adopting the princi.
Die OF the Irish church act Mr.. Bright
proposes that the government shall,
through @ commission, buy outright en-
numbered estates, estates offered them for
sale and the vast holdings Of the London
guilds. Having taken up this landed prop |
erty In the first case because circumstances |
made tho owners willing 10 sell, In the |
second because, in Mr.. Brights opinion,
many landowners would prefer sum
down to land on which rent is difficult to |
collect, and in the third because the COM
panies would be required TO sell Ia law
forcing the city corporations 70 sell out
their land in Ireland being part Of Mr..
Bright's scheme); the commission pro-
posed would market out the lands in small
holdings at fair price, the tenant paying |
o fourth or a fifth down and the govern
ment loaning him the rest OF the purchase
money on terms which would make the
land his own in IS years. In addition TO
buying outright the great tracts mentioned
Mr.. Bright would have the commission aid
a tenant who found his landlord willing to
sell small holding on the same. terms as
IL the entire estate had been made over TO
the government commission by sale. In
this way by the division OF large tracts
after voluntary or compulsory sale TO
the commission, and the acquisition Of
small tracts sold of from large ones, Mr..
Bright predicts that in generation the
Irish land question would be settled by
the settlement of thousands Of small
tenants on the land they till; while the
rent they now pay would in his opinion
in term Of years be more than sufficient
TO return the government both principal
and interest on its advances.