New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-03-02
THE ULSTER SECESSION.
MR. RUTssELL's CAMPAIGN IN FAVOR
OF COMPULSORY PURCHAsE-NEw
PHASES OF THE IRISH
LAND QUESTION.
London. February IL.

farmers Of Ulster behind him, has impaired
eresh impulse TO Irish land agitation. The bye
election carried by him in East Down is an in
dication that the Nationalist of the West and
,be South have powerful allies in the Protestant
North and that their demands for the abolition
of landlordism cannot be dismissed contemptu-
ouslv as the rawlings of irresponsible enemies
of England. bent upon spOliation and confsca-
lion. These loyal Presbyterian farmers have
no political grievances and are not nursing a
race feud; but they want justice. and are con-
WINGED that they are not getting it under the
r,resent administration of the land purchase
acts The government with its overwhelming
majority is not Inconvenience by the loss of
single seat but IL is embarrassed by this de-
5nonstration of hostility from Ulster When a
constituency entirely out of sympathy with the
Home Rule NOV ement turns against the gov
eminent on the general land question, 1t is
sign that the policy of smothering Irish griev-
ances with kindness has not gone far in the
direction of permanent reconciliation. When
Mr. OBriens powerful league condemns the
amended land purchase laws imperative and
palraby unreal a final basis of settlement II
IS easy for Conservatives to assert that the
Irish are utterly unmanageable, and that the
more that is done for them the more unreasona-
bic they become The secession Of the Ulster
tenant farmers from the Unionist cause cannot
be explained in the same easygoing way. 1t
land purchase has gone so far that it must be
carried to the end by compulsory legislation.
Mr.. George Wyndham's land measure, when 1t
IS introduced. will be artificial makeshift 1t
will Increase the facilities for purchase by ten
ant farmers. but It will not fender it compu-
sorry for landlords TO sell their lands to those
who. by virtue OF improvements and prolonged
occupation. have secured property rights in
them Mr.. T w. Russell stands for the prin-
Of hos nj
the Protestant farmers in the North. His can
didate, Mr.. Wood. ought perhaps to have had
larger majority than he obtained, but, such as
Il IS & serves to indicate that in spite of re-
Mgious differences and Ioyalst feeling the Pres
bvterian farmers of Ulster have interests in
comrnon with the Roman Catholic farmers of
the West and South. The wedge has been
driven in part Of the way, and is more likely TO
he hammered deep than to be knocked out
The land purchase candidate has defeated a
popular Tnionist who is fighting under Lord
Kitchener in South Africa, and this has been
done in a stronghold where Conservative power
has seldom been challenged. This result could
not have been accomplished without large
secession from the loyalist Tory ranks. The
administration OF the law courts has set up the
backs OF many OF the Protestant farmers, and
convinced them that the only practical reform
IS the abolition OF Iandlordsm. The real ex-
ilanation Of this Presbyterian agrerian revolt
lies In the great reduction which the existing
system OF purchase on voluntary lines has
made in the yearly amounts payable by ten
ants This reduction amounts to between 20
and 80 per cent in favor Of tenants whose land
lords are willing 10 sell to them. against the
cid rentals Of estates, where the landlords Will
not sell. Mr.. H. w. Massingham who studied
the subject on the ground not long ago with
painstaking care and keen intelligence, tells me
that he came across scores of cases of this
kind and convinced himself that nothing short
of compulsory purchase would bring about a
permanent settlement.
The Irish land question. whether in the North
or in the West has common factor. The land
lord is a rent taker for land which is ordinarily
improved by the tenant. The injustice OF charg-
ing rent for improvements made at the expense
Of tenants has involved series Of reform meas
ures which have been patched up end pieced to-
gether from decade TO decade on the tasis or
voluntary purchase. The legal machinery has
been set up for buying out in this way all the
landlords but there is compulsory require
nant There is an expensive Land Commission
with sub-conmissions for determining rents and
valuations of improvements. II the landlord
appeals from the first decision. the commission
sends valuers to the district and supple
rnentarv report IS made and the Land Court
either sustains the original finding or modlhes
II in accordance with the revised evidence. Inc
,,rocess of fixing rent without having tenants
improvements affect 1t is an unceasing source
OF controversy and Ill feeling as it must always
be under conditions of dual ownership and
decline of agricultural prosperity. The tenant
farmers. North as well as West. complain that
the fundamental principle OF the Land act OF
1896 that no rent is to be paid for tenant 3
Improvement, is constantly violated ana that
the landlords interests are unduly protected py
the commission. At the same time the Iano-
lords themselves are protesting throughout Ire
land against the judicial rents fixed py the
valuers for a second term, and, while the
mechanism is provided by the Purchase acIs
for the exchange of rentals for annuities, they
are hesitating and holding back on account OF
the fall Of consols. and there is practical
method of compelling them 10 sell the Farms
10 the tenants. The tenants meanwhile. IN
spite of the reductions effected by the commits
sion. are paying rent in many instances either
on the houses and outbuidings, drains ana
fences, constructed by themselves, or on the
new processes Of tiage or culture which they
have introduced. II is against system or THIS
kind, by which thrift and improved methods are
discouraged, that the Presbyterian farmers OF
Ulster are protesting under Mr.. RusseIs leader
ship.
The movement, which has led TO mass meet
ings in Belfast and elsewhere In Ulster in faVor
of COMPULSORY land purchase. is based on the
systematic evasion of the provisions OF the las'
land reform bill and the protection by round
about methods of landlords interests One OF
the cases on which Mr. Russell has laid great
stress is that of McCluggage, in when the
courts values reduced a rent from lO gulheas
10 El0 Is and Justice Meredith raised II 70
y guineas Another is the Rossborough case ~
which a rent was raised because the tenant iiao