New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-02-01
THE ENGLISH IIBLRAL PROGRAMME.

| THE ENGLISH LIBERAL PROGhAMWb.
! Mr.. Bright's speech before the Forward Lib
eral Club at Birmingham indicates generally
| the lines of the Liberal programme for the APP
| preaching session of Parliament. The extern
sion of the suffrage Is the first measure to be
dealt with, and land reform the second. The
position to be taken by the Irish members on
the first of these questions will no doubt
| exercise much influence upon the issue. by
| this time there are many members even Of the
| Liberal party who would deprecate an alliance
with the representatives of the sister Is land,
and not few who would oppose any policy
| which the Irish members favored on general
principles. But the radical wing of the Liberal
| party demands equal and exact justice for Ire
land, and insists that she shall be included in
the extension Of the suffrage. Mr. Gladstone
has moreover set his hand to the plough as re-
CARDS Irishlegislation, and he cannot draw back,
nor can the obstructionism of the Parnellites be
pleaded in bar of the equitable government of
their country. Nevertheless the Conservatives
will have strong leverage in the Irish question
as regards the extension of the suffrage, be-
cause they can appeal to their prejudices, which
are often, if not always so much stronger than
reason The old fashioned arguments against
extension of the suffrage are not yet altogether
obsolete, moreover, for the fears of the timid
middle class have been excited of late by the
revolutionary proposals made by the advanced
radicals, and by Performers like MIR. Henry
George. There is therefore some plausib1lity
in the representation that an extension OF the
suffrage would put political power in the
hands of class all OF whose leanings are in
the direction of cOmmunistic and subversive
legislation.
Mr.. Bright, in speaking of the land reform
programme of his party, thought it necessary to
disclaim all sympathy with or approval of Mr..
Georges land scheme, and to denOunce it in IN
sparine terms. The English Liberals, according
to Mr.. Bright, seek to introduce such changes in
the system of land tenure as will facilitate the
transfer and acquisition of land, will prevent it
from being locked up selfshly or wastefully,
and will enable those who occupy it for prOduc-
tive purposes to obtain titles to their holdings
easily. To Americans only familiar with their
own land laws these proposed changes will ap-
near simple and conservative. But they in
volve such radical and ar-reaching alterations
in the English system of land tenure as to seem
little less than revolutionary to the Tories and
the landholders. Yet it has long been evident
that the old system must go, and that the laws OF
primogeniture and. entail, together with all the
cumbrous machinery devised TO hedge about
property in land, must be swept away Hitherto
the House of Lords has stood as a barrier be-
tween the people and land reform, but that in
stimtiontself is now threatened with serious
attack, audit is not so firmly intrenched that
it can afford to disregard the signs of the times,
nor is it in the last resort really able to hold out