Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-09-13
Mr.. Walter on British Affairs.

Mr.. John Walter, the proprietor of the
London Times, arrived in New York on his
third visit to this country on Tuesday last,
and had scarcely reached his quarters at the
Windsor Hotel when he was asked, and
geniallY consented to give, his views on the
present state of political affairs in Great
Britain. He was willing to reply to such
questions, he said, with smile, ''because
he knew the customs of the country.n He
does not think that the Irish land bill will
accomplish much, or that Irish agitators
intend to be satisfied with 1t.
"The trouble simply is" he says, that
there are more people in Ireland who re-
quire farms than there are farms for the
people, and, OF course, when man is turned
out of one it is difficult for him to get an
other. This state of things produces what
Mr.. Gladstone calls the land hunger, and
for this disease-for 1t is disease-the only
true remedy which see is emigration. Mr..
ParnelPs nOstrum is that every Irishman
should have thirty acres of land, but
how is that subdivision to be kept up ?
The Irishman cannot always remain a
single man, and what viii ensue IL
he has half dozen sons?" The defect of
the bill, in his opinion, is "that it strives to
satisfy hankering for what 1t is impossible
to crafty, and must therefore end in dis
content and failure" He considers the
principles of the bill "mischievous
and dangerous" the only real justi-
fication for it being based on that
peculiar tenure of land in Ireland which
is already legSlized in Ulster, allowing ten
ant to sell his holding, concession which
heretofore has brought him in conflict with
his landlord. Upon this point Mr.. Walter
remarked that, Gas the tenant makes all the
improvements, the landlord whenever he
raises the rent reduces the value of the in.
terest in the holding which the tenant has
to sell, and nothing could be more unde-
sirable than such relation"
On being questioned as to the progress
the Radicals are making in England he
rather evaded direct reply. His expert
ence has been, he said, that the Radicals
are mostly Dissenters, and that their great
object is to disestablish the Church Of Eng
land. There are other Radicals whom he had
met with whose purposes are more revolu-
tionary, and who not only do not see any
good in an established church, but 90 fur
tier and would get rid of the House OF
Lords and finally of the Crown itself,
(which is certainly" he remarked, "a very
radical programme In country like Eng
land" He held that the British Govern
ment is almost republican now; that the
system In England does not, after all, differ
greatly from ours, and that in both there
are advantages; those of England being the
check that the Crown exercises on the de-
signs of ambitious and designing men, and
her permanent civil service Of trained
officials, free from all party affilia-
tions, in whose hands the practical work
ing of the State machine rests. One
Of the worst features, in his opinion, of the
American system is the frequency of our
elections, which he regarded as 'fraught
with great evils" and we should Judge
from his pointed reference to the perma-
nency and non political complexion of the
British civil service that he regarded the
constant shifts and changes Of our civil SER
vice as another evil. He doubts the success
of the fair trade movement in England;
does not think that Mr.. Bradlaugh was
treated harshly, and was strongly opposed
TO his taking the oath after having at
first refused It; "for of what use can the
oath be-" he asked, "if 1t is not binding on
the person taking it :" The Liberal party, he
thought, would continue In power as long
as Mr.. Gladstone lived. "He is a man of
seventY-two, and when he goes the crisis
will come" There may be many good
years in store for him yet, however. He
believed that the hereditary feature of the
House of Lords is it's weakness; that its
abolition would strengthen 1t, and that II
the House of Lords were an elective body,
as the Scottish Lords sitting in the House
OF Lords now are, they would exercise
more power. He thought that primo
geniture and the power of entail would be
abolished in time, and tnat that would
affect the hereditary position of the
House of Lords. Mr.. Walter is evidently q
plain spoken man. He showed by some of
his comments on the Irish people that he
does not like them, while in respect to the
personal character of Mr.. Bradlaugh, he
spoke of him as ga perfect ruffiian." His
views on men and things must therefore be
taken with some grains of allowance, but
as he is the controlling power of the Lon
don Times, they acquire more importance
than might otherwise be conceded to them.