New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-07-17
JRrSH Land REFORM.

Win the single exception OF inulhl Hha"oO'
Irish land tenure is the most complex question
with which the House of Commons has 10
deal. Mr.. Gladstone and Mr.. Bright nave
mastered the subject and Mr.. Forster is able 10
discuss it with singular lucidity, but the
number of Commoners who can join in the
debates without hesitancy is very small DO
imperfectly was the Act of 1870 under
stood that measure introduced ten
years after is denounced by nearly balf
the Commons as revolutionary and anar-
chcal, tending directly toward conllsca-
ton and destruction OF landed property, when
in reality it involves no new principles, but Is
IN harmony with the existing land law. Lord
Beaconsfield would not have faced so intricate
question and exposed the Government
to misconceptiOn midway in a short session.
He would have shirked the responsibility I'M
der any circumstances, and certainly, with
only ten weeks before him, would have pleaded
lack of time for legislation of this nature Mr..
Gladstone is not the Premier 20 be Influenced
by personal convenience or partisan cOnsld-
eratiOns, when he knows that positive and
remedial legislation is necessary. he Is not
content with vague promises, to be fulfilled at
the next session, but sets himself and his as
seciates to work and makes a beginning
even if he cannot see his way clear to the end.
The Irish question-for land tenure is vr
tually the only Irish questiOn--is envelopcd
in so much obscurity that we are glad to re-
fer our readers to a letter reprinted in another
column, wherein Mr.. Charles Russell, who
supported the Government measure on its
second reading, explains its relations to the
and .fr r. = tril1 ho ,hs x-..I hot
two classes Of compensation to tenants were
recognized in that reform measure, and that
one of these was for " diSturbance''-that Is
to say, deprivation of tenant right. The act,
moreover, expressly provided that where the
rent was cxorbitant and eectment was at
tempted for nOn-payment, the case might
be treated by the court as one of " disturb
ance." What Mr.. Forster's new bill does is
to extend this principle for limited period
to tenancics in the distressed districts even
where the rent is not exOrbitant, but fair and
reasonable. As Nj. Russell takes pains to show,
every other legal measure for the recovery Of
rent is reserved for the landlord, and the
tenant is entitled to redress under the strin-
gent conditions, on his own part, of actual
inability to pay the reut owing to the prevail
ing distress, and Of willingness TO re-
main on reasonable terms as to rent
and arrears, and, on the part Of the landlord
Of unreasonable refusal to make satisfactory
terms. These conditions are explicitly fol- !
lowed in the amendment which Mr.. Gladstone |
has engaftcd upon the bill since Mr. Russell's |
letter was written, the last clause being modified
so as to read: "And the tenant shall be entitled |
d" to compensation IN the discretion of the |
- County Court Judge, if non-payment of |
- rent is caused by the prevailing distress,
" and the tenant is willing 10 continue in Oc-
- cupahon upon reason bic terms rs to rent,
90 arrears of rent and otherwise, and if such
- terms are refused by the landlord without
" reasonable alternative"
Those of our readers who made a careful
study Of Mr. Redpatl's letters from Ireland
will recognize the necessity OF sweeping re-
'Orms in the whole system of land holding
Neither Mr.. Gladstone nor Mr.. Forster regards
he proposed measure as anything more
han tentative, but, in common with their
associates, they promise n thorough revision
II the land laws as soon as it may be practi-
able. Meanwhile, this measure, if passed,
will tend to diminish the number of evictions.
yhch has increased so alarmingy since
SIS. Ii is a relief measure rather than
supplementary land reform act. 1t suspends
empoiarily and under specific conditions the
peration of the law of eviction for non-pay-
nent of rent-a barbarous law which is never
nforced in England IL leaves the landlord
rec to sue the tenant for rent, aud 10 obtain
Judgment against him, but deprives him of
lie right of expelling an impoverished family
TithOut rendering compensation for that Pc
uliar species of property created by the Land
.ci OF 1870. 1t gives the wretchod peasantry
tho have been kept alive by the charity of
ireat Britain aud America, breathing space 10
ct their heads above the dark waters which
ave engulfed them.
4 SAL-A ELA1NCL1L RECNRA