National Republican., 1881-11-28

plan already pursued Of furnishing a COM
plete daily record Of every class of news,
and paying especial attention to every
thing that will advance the interest and
prosperity of the Capital City. D..
Radical, but righteous, Legislation.
The most radical act of any legislative
body in Europe for many years is the
Irish land law enacted by the British
Parliament at the late protracted and
stormy session. It aimed and delivered
what will eventually prove fatal blow to
the proudest and most overbearing aris-
tocracy on the globe-thc land proprie-
tors of the United Kingdom, In taxi
ing from the owners the right TO fix
the rentals, and lodging that duty
in the hands of government, Parlia-
ment has virtually taken possession
Of the lands of Ireland. For the value of
the title in fee toa landed estate depends
on the rents, as the value of II bond is
gauged by the interest it bears
If this may be done in Ireland, why
not in England and Scotland? If thcop-
pressed farmers of Ireland may find re-
lief at the hands of public commission,
why may not the tenant farmers of Eng
land and Scotland have the same remedy
for their great and growing grievances?
What is sauce for the Irish goose must be
sauce for the English gander.
The House of Peers almost signed its
own deathwarrant when it assented TO
theprinciple embodied in the land law
the right of the state to control all the
lands. And the peers would never have
given assent to such proposition had
they not been compelled to do so by q
pressure which they could not hope to re-
sist successfully pressure that has been
pushing them toward the wall for many
years, and will push them to ruin when
ever they become too obstructive to the
will of the people as declaredby the Com
mons.
Land is as necessary TO human exist
ence as air or water The state has the
same right 10 control one of these as
either or both of the others. The rights
of an individual in all things are subordi-
nate to the public good. The state, by
right of eminent domain, sends q railroad
through your house, or tells II turnpike
company to dig through your family
battle-ground. No place, no thing is so
sacred that it is not liable to seizure and
use for the public good. When u few
men undertake to own and control all
the land in country, and sell the right
10 occupy pieces of it from time to time
on terms so high that they are incompati-
be with the general welfare, it is not only
The inalienable right but the imperative
duty of the state TO fix rentals for that
land, and, if need be, TO take actual pos
session of it, the same as ira few men had
gotten all the water into their hands and
were selling ii at cXorbtant figures.
II is not strange that the land reform
movement has begun in earnest among
the English farmers. High rents and
American competition have brought
many of this class to ruin. They work
like slaves and live like paupers-too
many of thcm-for the enrichment OF
proud, insolent aristocrats. They have
tense enough to see that the underlying
principle of the Irish land act is some
thing like panaCea for the ills under
which they endure existence. The reyo-
luton that has begun will not be stayed
until il has wrought complete change
in the land laws Of Great Britain.
State proprietorShip of tho lands is the
radical change suggested by the West
minister Rcridr Mr.. Gladstone thinks il
advisable as first step to do away with
entail and secure free trade in land"
Mr.. Bright comedies with Gladstone, and
both Of them are satisfied that "a COM
pulsory appropriation of the land by the
state is u thing which, for an adequate
public object. is admissible" Mr.. Glad
stone is SO practical statesman that he
will not propose any reform that he
thinks impracticabc. We have no
doubt that he fully concurs with the
sentiment of the Westminster RccistD, but
he knows that state proprietorship is
goal TO be safely reached by several
steps rather than by one bold leap. IIC
wants to risk no doubtful experiment
that might wreck him and his party and
bring in the opposition.
We do not hold that the land law will
bring peace or prosperity to Ireland. NJ
country can prosper while the fruits o
its industries are expended in othe
countries But we are very certain tha
the central idea of that law--the right O
the state to control the lands-is an i'm
mense triumph of liberal principles.
--HS--
SOME of the Democratic papers appea
TO think the Democratic minority in tn
House this winter will make a gloriou
record and be dreadfully troublesome /
the other side. Does ii not occur to thes
hopeful organs that, inasmuch MS tn
Democratic majority Of the Forty-siXtl
Congress was ruled by Republican mi
nority, the Democratic minority of tn
Forty-seyenth Congress will be easil
handled by the majority?