The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-09-09
The Arrears OF Rent Bill.

The Arrears bill is founded on the
assumption that a considerable proper
ton of the Irish tenantry are insolvent,
and their incapacity to meet their obliga-
tons extends to other creditors beside
the landlord. The Land act of last year,
by creating the salable interest or tenant
right, gave all the tenants creditors
security previously unrecognized by law
except in Ulster. This, it was argued
at the time, would give the landlord
substantial guarantee for his rent. With
respect to the arrears or any part of
them, this supposed security has been
taken away, SO far as the landlord is
concerned, by the exclusion of tenant
right from consideration as an asset
where the inclusion of it would lead
to the sale of the tenancy and the
dlspOsseSsion Of the tenant. But other
creditors besides the landlord can sell
the tenant-right as easily as stock or
household goods, and dispossess the
tenant by the simplest and sWiftcst
process. The value of the tenant-right
as a security for the other creditors is
obviously increased by the suspension of
the landlords first charge. If the
tenants are unable to pay their way-as
it is to be presumed they are if they have
any concern with the Arrears bill at all
the creditors will be under strong
temptation to proceed to realize the
security, especially when it has been
cleared from circumference by the opera
ton of the Ministerial measure and the
advance of public money. 1t is extremely
probable that the settlement of arrears
under the bill may be Immediately
followed, at the instance of the petty
shop-lleeper, the ''gombeen-man," and
the banker, by the very results-the sale
and dispossession of the tenant-Which
Mr.. Gladstone has strained more than
one point to prevent the landlord carry
inc out. The tenants who are sold up
will find little consolation in the fact that
the purchasers of their interests, very
possibly the shop-leeperS and gOmbcen-
men themselves, will be able to apply to
the Land Court and get the rent reduced.
Of the probable tender mercies of the
creditors the less said the better. The
gombeen-man has always the cruel cour
! are of rapacity. The bank-which in
Ireland is often little more than glori-
fed gombeen-man, taking charge of the
farmers money at low rate of in
terest and lending it out in small
sums at high rates-is protected against
terrorism and compassion alike by the
proverbia limperturbability of a corpora
ton. 1t would be too much to expect
that Irish men of business should not be
warm in support of policy at once in
volving incidents of this kind and es-
tablishing claim upon the Imperial
Treasury. One of the most remarkable
characteristics of the recent agrarian
agitation is that shopkeepers and gom-
been men, not celebrated, to say the
least, for generosity toward their debtors
among the small farmers, and even
guilty in their own persons of the henoas
offence of ''land grabbing" have been
conspicuous among the organizers of
Land League branches. They knew
what they had to gain, and when they
have won the game they will not throw
up the stakes through any scrupulous
delicacy or tenderness of conscience.
These men will use the power the law
leaves them to its utmost limits, and the
Government must contemplate the posi-
bilty in large number OF cases OF
having to provide for tenants relieved OF
their arrears of rent by the bill, but
"sold up and driven from their hold
ings by the creditors, whose guarantees
have not been impaired, London Times.