The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-02-03
AFTER HOME RULE-wHATf

HUME w H
Gladstone, the Moses of the Home Rule
party, is at last in full sight of the prom
Used land. The loss of the seat left vacant
by the elevation of Lord harrington to the
House of Lords is accepted by candid
Tories as an indication of the probable re-
suit of the coming general election. The
loss of this seat, the London Standard con-
cedes, shows that the dissident Liberals
are returning to Gladstone, and without
these Liberals the Tories confess they cam
not stay Home Rule. In 1886 Lord Har-
tington, the leader of the Liberal revolt
against Gladstone, carried the seat just
lost to the Gladstonians by 1,450 majority.
The Gladstonian candidate not only wiped
out the large adverse majority of six years
ago, but beat his opponent by LBS votes.
despite the fact that the Tory candidate
was backed by an earnest appeal to
his constituents from the new Duke of
Devonshire. If the dissident Liberals
cannot keep this district they have no
reasonable hope of keeping any of the
seventy-three seats they carried IN 1886,
with the exception of few in Birming-
ham and its vicinity that are still con-
trolled by Mr.. Chamberlain, who will
probably succeed Lord Harrington as the
leader of the Liberal Unionist faction in
the House of Commons.
If Mr.. Gladstone lives to sit in the next
House of Commons, it will be as leader of
victorious party. The suffrage reform leg
islation of 1885 has made the English ar
tisans and agricultural laborers the real
masters of Great Britain, and within the
next quarter of a century their power will
be felt to an extraordinary degree.
1t is this rising wave of the
English workingman's vote that is
sure to carry Gladstone back
into power at the next general election.
This workingman's vote will not only in
sure the enactment of Home Rule, but
will be aggressively hostile to the House
of Lords. They do not seek to extinguish
the crown, which under the parliamentary
form of government is but mere conven-
lent fgurehead, but they regard the he
reditary legislature as an obstructive nui-
sance 10 political reform. These radical
Liberals will not move strongly during
Gladstone's life, but on his death or retire
ment are sure to dominate the party.
They will abolish primogeniture, and when
that is abolished the aristocracy will be
near its fall. If all the children shared
the wealth, the properties would be d.
vided and subdivided until to belong to
the nobility would be no distinction.
1t is to perpetuate the power, grandeur
and consequence, the pride, pomp. dig
nifty and circumstance of the aristocracy
that under English law only one child can
inherit the principal house and possessions
of the family. AS q rule the younger sons
of the aristocraey go into the army or
navy, into the church or the law, while
the sisters must find husbands or become
pensioners on the bounty of brothers or
more distant relatives.
Under the rule of primogeniture the
land can be entailed for three lives only,
but when the eldest son OF a peer or i'm
portant commoner marries, father and
son, in order 10 evade the intention Of the
law, unite in making ain entail for their
own lives and the life OF the unborn son of
the living heir. Thus every ordinary sue
cessor is born tenant for life; he cannot
ALLEVIATE the property, and when he reaches
his majority he is ready in his turn to
unite with his father 10 maintain the
family dignity and landed consequence.
The heir may have quarter of
a million year and his brother but a
thousand pounds. When this law of
primogeniture and entail goes, as it must
go before there can be an efficient land re-
form in England, the consequence of the
aristocracy will go with it, because titles
without wealth will he barren honors,
Without primogeniture and entail the
head of the house might be at the foot of
the ladder, for he would no longer be
buoyed up by bloated pecuniary conse-
euence. The leaders of Eneland's work
ingmen are resolved on prompt revolu-
ton in this present system of land tenure
which now prevents the sale and distri-
button OF land by bequest TO every son
and daughter of the population.
The English radicals intend to abolish
the law of primogeniture and entail. so
that large estates may be disposed of,
which are now hinderanoe to agricult-
ural prosperity in England. The game
laws need to be abolished, as one-third
and in some cases one-half of the farmers
crops are deyoured by game. Under the
game laws p, o00. 900 of acres are taken out
Of productive agriculture and set apart for
preserves for the pleasure of those who
can afford the privilege and the luxury.
The sristocracy Of England own two
thirds of the soil. enjoys the highest social
and political honors of the kingdom; they
are an ohgarchy of landlords; masters of
the time and toll Of millions Of tenants,
just as $4,000 shareholders once chiefly
owned and ruled the South. More than
half the highest offices Of the govern
ment are held by this class. who pos
sess large proportion Of the best
places IN the army and navy and the dip
lOmatic service, Add 10 the grinding
land monopoly the enormously expensive
union Of church and state, under which
the people are taxed 70 support the great
church digniiaries and establishments o.