The Portland daily press., 1891-06-29
soclaIls m in the Iris Question.

1t must be said to their credit that the Con-
servative statesmen of England are meeting
the Irish situation with great deal of wis
dom. The Home Rule party, if not quite
dead, is In moribund condition. Balfour,
by two or three years of vigorous" rule in
Ireland, has reduced that country to such a
condition of order that the Coercion Act has
been suspended nearly everywhere, and the
Irish people are being governed once
more. by the ordinary laws of the land.
Whether the. rule that has brought this
about has been wise, clement, or brutal it Is
not necessary to inquire. 1t has been sue
cessful. And now. right on the heels of its
successful policy of suppression, the Sails
bury government puts forward measure
that is Individually both wise and humane.
Salisbury says to Ireland."I have shown
you that you cannot browbeat me OF terrify
me; now propose to show you that am
working for the true interests of ireland and
the happiness of her people, as we'll as for
the integrity of the empire" 1t is impossi-
BILE not to admire the position in which the
English premier stands today. While the
world has been absorbed In the contempla-
ton of the private follies of Mr.. Parnell, and
in the public follies of his friends and enc
mics, there has been going quietly through
the House of Commons a measure of the
most far reaching importance to the condi-
tion of Ireland, and perhaps as well to
the entire structure of British society. 1t is
called the Irish land purchase bill" 1t is
really socialistic measure, such as would
agitate the United States from one limit to
the other were it proposed with reference to
any property in this country. 1t is bill to
compel the landlords Of Ireland to sell their
property to those who rent their lands. 1t is
as IL our government should pass a law
which would compel those who own rented
houses in Portland or Boston to sell those
houses to the tenants. OF course in ireland
there are extenuating circumstances that
would not exist in regard to rented houses
10 this country. But the farms of an Irish
Landlord are his just as much as are houses
In Portland the property of their owners
Years ago some of the Irish landlords an
cestors may have obtained those lands by
fraud and oppression; but this will hardly
alter the fact of possession in this generation.
1t is not inconceivable that lot of land ia
OF an owner whose ancestor had defrauded
another Of 1t. But if that fraud was COM
mitted In such way that the courts could
not get at 1T to right it the title today would
be absolute. The Irish landlords must be
regarded as holding their lands by titles as
good as are the titles of other real estate
owners OF the British Empire. An act of
Parliament which compels them to sell is an
act which carries with it a precedent yery
fruitful of future changes. If an agitation
of the tenants of Ireland may produce law
dispossessing landlord of county Cork,
why may not another agitation dispossess
also the rich nobleman who owns so much of
the land on which the houses of London are
builtP Because these considerations exist it
should not be inferred that the land purchase
bill is not therefore a righteous measure
Things have come to such pass In Ireland
that the amelioration of the condition of the
people is undoubtedly of more importance
than the integrity of the great landed es-
tates. or the preservation of the power of the
landlord to hold his land and do as he wills