Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1880-11-20

of the speakers have been guilty Of great
excuses; but the two vital principles Of
the Land League, as defined by Mr.. Par
nell, are advice to tenants to pay no more
than fair rent, and the pledge not to take
a farm from which anyone has been
evicted. Here and there a demagogue
excites an ignorant audience by declaring
that rent under any conditions of tenure
is an unjust tax. and that the land belongs
to those who till it: but the leaders them
selves do not discuss any method of estab-
fishing class of proprietary peasants,
and thereby of settling the land question.
Their plans of reform are vague. They
council systematic organization and con-
slant agitation for indefinite ends. Their
Interior purposes seem to be political
rather than agrarian, the question OF rack
rents and evictions merging finally in that
of Home Rule.
2. The Land Act of 1870, which was
passed during Mr.. Gladstone's first Ad-
ministration, was designed to discourage
unjustifable evictions in Ireland by au-
thorizing fall compensation for improve
ments whenever a tenant should be elected.
1t virtually created new class of property.
Mr.. Bright's amendments, which were en-
grated on the original measure, provided
that whenever landlords were willing to
sell, tenants should be assisted by the
State, the Board Of Works being empow-
cred to make advances for two-thirds of
the purchase money, which should be re-
paid in small yearly instruments. The
operation of the Bright clauses has not
been very successful, not more than a
thousand tenants having taken advantage
lof the law. After his return to Office, Mr..
Gladstone moved for a Commission to
investigate the effects of the Land Act of
1870, and forced through the House of
Commons bill making temporary COM
ment for n-payment of rent when the
tenant might be willing but unable to psy
| it. This measure, which was the natural
sequel to the Land Act OF 1870, was thrown
out of the House of Lords. The Liberals
have made an earnest effort to reform the
abuses of Irish landholding, but have not
succeeded in forming prosperous class
of peasant proprietOrs.
All the great landmarks of progress
which have been set up during the halt
century in Great Britain are the work Of
the English Liberals, and it is only just to
presume that they will eventually go on
as they have begun. The agrarian outra-
ges and seditious outbreaks in Ireland
will only serve as prctexts for deferring
remedial legislation. Already there is
prospect of the introduction OF bill to en-
able the courts to interfere in cases of ex-
cessive rent, to award compensation to
evicted tenants and to simplify the trans
fer of lands. Such policy will COM
mand the sympathies OF warm-hearted
John Bright, and. sooner or later. the
earnest cooperation of the Premier. al
though the latter's practical sense. viii III
comes with his Scotch blood, NAV require
the immediate suppression of all forms of
lawlessness.
3. When there is so much that is right
and so much that is wrong on both sides,
the ethical merits ofthe question cannot be
hastily determined. 1t is enough to know
that both the Irish tenants and the English
Liberals are entitled to the sympathies of
all fair-minded Americans If English
rule has been blight upon Ireland in the
past. the Liberals, under the leadership
of Mr.. Gladstone and Mr.. Bright, have
spared no pains to redress her grievances
and repair her fortunes. If the leaders of
the Irish movement are pygmies, if the
projects of the Land League are vague
and illusory, il ignorant mobs listen to
idle rant and are melted to brutal crimes.
the degraded and impoverished tenants
have been crushed by the laws of nature
and the greed of man until they excite the
compassion of the world.-Neu York
Tribune