, 1881-04-30

At last the long promised land bill has
been laid before Parliament. Ii appears
from the dispat ,hes that it meets all the
demands that have been seriously put
forward. 1t meet, the demand for free
sales as we'll as it can without dispossess-
ing the landlords The advocates OF the
interests of the tenants will object that
the bill gives the landlord right to re-
fuse I" accept . particular person as
tenant, but to deny him this veto poser
would have fallen little short Of taking
his estates from him by something like .
condemnation process, step the govern
ment could not be expected to take. Ii
meets the demand for fair rents by Great
ing court with power to fix rents at its
discretion. Ii meets the demand for
6Xity Of tenure by giving the tenant I'M
munity from any increase in the rent and
from eviction, except for non-psymens of
rent OF Otuet btcAcu VI SoutIoCt, ioA III
teen years from the date Of the fixing Of
the rem, with the further protection af-
forded by guarantees of compensation for
disturbance and for improvements. In
addition to thus granting the tenant the
three Fs," the bill promises aid from
the public treasury to tenants who wsh
to buy the fee of their holdings aud to
those who wish 10 buy the right OF per-
msnent occupancy, subject to the pay
ment of a quit-rent; to persons who
wish to emigrate, and to owners, tenants
and solvent companies that wish to re-
claim waste lands. 1t is also to be
noticed that, while any tenant whose as-
gregate rents we're $50 could contract
himself out of the act Of 1870, no one can
contract himself out of the operation of
this new bill unless his rent amounts to
600; if this means Zoo in the aggre-
gate it leaves comparatively few tenants
at liberty, under the ccercive persuasion
of landlord, to deprive themselves OF
the protective features of the act but 1t
means GOO in the case of the specific
holdin. that might be effected by the
contract, it is plain that only small
n lmber of the most independent tenants
could be forced into an abdication Of their
rights under the bill.
1t has become apparent to Mr. Glad
stone that the failure Of his last attempt
to remedy the condition of affairs in Ire
land was due to the fact that the act Of
eleven years ago afforded the tenant no
redress Ill he had been turned out of his
holding, whereas, the turning out was the
thing above all others he wanted to be
protected from, and the receipt of com
pensation in money was small consola-
tion to him after ne had been driven from
his farm. The new bill will protect him
from capricious advances in the rent, and
will guarantee him the possession OF his
holding so long as he pays a rent that is,
or may be, fixed by court Of law that
has no interest in the case. If the gov
ernment can get this bill through the
House Of Lords it will deserve much ere
dit, for it Will not escape the attention of
the large owners Of English estates that,
after Parliament has three times changed
the land laws Of Ireland in the interest of
the tenant, English tenants will demand
that it should begin to think of doing
something for them, forgotten as they
have been while the tenants across the
channel have secured the land acts Of
1860 and 1870, followed now by a bill
that lacks but little of reducing the land
lords to permanent annuitants, for
amounts to be fixed by the courts, on the
estates they used to own.