St. Paul daily globe., 1896-04-16
THE NEW LAND BILL.

THE NEW LAND BILL.
No discussion Of the complex land
bill which has been introduced by the
ministry in the British parliament is
possible until the details of it are
known in this country. In general
way. however, one can see that it fol-
lows rigidly the Tory line of policy laid
down long ago. ait is designed as a
partial pacificator, and particularly as
an antidote to the demand for home
rule. The a land question, says
Mr.. Balfour. is really the home
rule question: and. with the
settlement Of the former, the
latter will cease from troubling. The
English minister, like many Of the
English people, confound. because they
wish to confound, two totally different
demands Of the Irish people. No
doubt they are intimately connected.
No doubt the sufferings Of the Irish
peasantry for centuries under a cruel
and ruinous system Of rack-rent, and
their eviction from their little hold
ings because Of inability to satisfy
the greed Of the landlords, stimulated
them to look to political emancipation
as their final remedy. Believing that
they could never obtain either justice
or mercy from English rule, they
fought for political liberty as a means
Of self-preservation. But in the long
contest that has gone on since then,
through eras in which the position of
tenants has been apeliorated and the
land laws made a little more tolerable,
they have had revived their aspiration
for control of their own political af-
fairs.
This, we believe, is distinct and
permanent element in the ambition Of
the Irish people. It is we'll that any
land bill should be passed which will
correct some Of the frightful abuses
and hardships that Ireland has suffer-
ed from in the past. A government
which believes that this will put O.
quietus upon home rule is, however,
destined to disappointment. The prin-
ciple underlying the land bill is in it
self singular contradiction in terms.
The Tory party has stood always for
the rights Of the landlord as against
the actual occupant of the soil. It
now steps in with the authority of the
state to mitigate the severity of rents,
and to provide for the gradual dispos-
session Of the land holder in favor of
the tenant. The state, having to sane
ton the appropriation of the soil by a
rapacious class interest, and being
pressed to the wall by the greedy ty-
ranny that drove the people of Ireland
to immigration or rebellion, now pro-
poses to tax further the people Of
Great Britain to raise funds that may
be advanced to tenants for the pur-
chase Of their holdings.
In the same breath there is an &C
acknowledgement Of the wrongs Of the
peasantry and the abuses Of landlord
ism, united with desire to compel the
state first to buy off the landlord, and
tnen TO oDlge the tenant, at later
day. to pay back the purchase money.
Doubtless even this extension of a
scheme inaugurated long ago will have
quieting effect upon Ireland, and we
hope that it may make the condition
Of her people more tolerable. It does
not touch the indignity and wrong of
taking from a people the control of
their local institutions, and we believe
that the movement for home rule will
never subside until one party or the
other, possibly the Conservatives
themselves, gives to Ireland some
measure Of self-government; just as
they have been compelled to offer
some form of redress to the people
from the tyranny Of landlordism.