The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-01-11

Councils. Thus at nearly all points the
 landlord has been squeezed out. The sup precision of prerogative and privilege in county administration. this limited but important triumph of democracy over the
 oligarchy of inherited place and wealth,
 is indicative of the greater triumph which the people are to win in the near future
 through the ballot and the constitutional agitation which even in Ireland must inc
 evitably accompany 1t.
 The great Gladstone builded wiser than
 he knew. He laid the foundaticNs of
 land reform on a great scale. and side by side with them the basis of home rule, too. Gladstone did not solve the problem, but he started It on the road | to solution. He set up in law the prin- ciple of dual ownership in the land | landlords 8 fee and tenants right 10 per petual use at judicially fixed rent. Not only that, but he established the prln- | cInic that the tenant had the first right | of purchase, and that 1t was the duty or the state to assist In that pnrcnase' From | Lord Palmerston'5 day to the Glaustonlan
 era was great advance TOT Aeisnu' a,,o Lord Palmerston deciareo conteHlptuVus-
 Tenants right is landlords wrong. And the House of Commons, It's benches filled with landlords and the creatures of landlords, cheered him to the echo. | Gladstone made tenant-right reallty, d 1 fact in the law, and the knen or lano, | IoI dism had sounded. Of course the dual | ownership of property could not ehuuEe. | ii was a fake system. and it was dooned | Io failure. When landlords could no long- CT fix their own rentss when they were | deprived of the mastery or thFlr oMn nroperty, when paternalism intervenea anu dec.ared they could not reSop S .e,tia. ramblinR debts, their marriage eettie- ments. their tribute to the userers, or their wine and sporting bills by rackinB the rents and grinding the SlIers o' ,sae sne soil; when, .in addition 10 tnIs' se oe,,r. 1 ants were given the right to go into couIt
 a.a have their rate of tribute reduced 70 so,nethinR like an equitable hgure, Lne eiu | cf Iandlordism became only questioi ol l time.
 | If is Aoubtful if one could find in all hls- | tory A more dramatic eplsode thau eIis | of inc relations between the ianoloIu ailu | Inc tenant of Ireland. We must not mss l he drama of 1t, because IL IS u pto,s ' '.s | runs through the centuTles' Let tnS a,, e2 | rnn backward d moment Conquesr SS S
 hscaton; the land parceled out a.,tIs la xv | vorites and adventurers; the ahclent ta" ia,. | of tanistry or tribal ownership Icei'aieu, an English garrison set up Tn tne ianu,
 A garrison of land owners WHO Inust s .,,,.,. | pea apetual tribute, and T gaEI's,oI oa nS ht, l supported by troops, by poNce. nne Ss
 ,oi,rts whose duty it was to see that tne l tribute was paid. .,,,, all .bIs
 A tradition among the people tnat tne ianu a,,t | u,as theirs. Nothing could crowo u out thtnr destrov it 1t was handed down | from father to son through the cehl'is s ieS'
 hs Mr MacDermott, the keeper 9t humble inn at Balloghadareeh' s''" " | me: rat.h thesr noor cot l ... bevo aside from their faith III OUT | holy church and the virgin hot'. nun, rr6sv | that the land belongs to tne peopa- pn-. theS, have paid their rents 10 lhe omiiSs io,. 1,,,tS re,er saw sir They struggled aionB M'.h their little patches of ground, "tter i,, na had inc, their rents increased when they naa made the black bog looK HStis Hs I,,. a,, with their toll They have eheu o"' u,,t S
 e,-tstsnce in their dark. damp nuts; But SnH,n in their hearts they have always
 believed and will always neneEe. u,ss ,a,. TightfiIlly. in the eyes ot Goa IT not pS inc laws of men, the land was tneirs I.Asl anu
 that some day they or 'he" e"''N' V"
 would come into their o"h'
 For centuries this surviving talth among
 A connuered people appeared 70 nsVS nsIe.l ~"
 chance whatever of realiSation ssl,lsn ..nad
 srssS paTTfS9nf TSS foreish aea ssrrson was
 Unsuitable. implacable. IL would holo IasI
 tn sii that 1t had gained. The enorts
 of the people to secure feafess v Seemed to bind faster the chains wnlch
 bsIA them in bondage. Attempted rebel lions fierce violence, agrarlan crime. hind hlows at the oppressor, brave put
 mistaken conspiracy, all oeIayeu ths eLlu; es
 Devotion to law and order ana tns sAcIyo ge rirht of property smothered the really
 wholesome English conscience ana re- precision of Irish crime ana sedltlon oe- came a virtue In ministries ana adInlnls-
 trattons. Even the famine Of nait cen"
 tury ago failed to rouse the English con-
 science-the famine which Dy starvation
 and fever carried away million ot hu-
 man lives and drove 00OOoO Into exile.
 But the moral principle or tenant-rlght outliyed everything else. It was the one thing In all the mad maelstrom or nate and war that was founded on an eternal truth. and of course 1t survived all dreams of revolution and all plots for national independence, all crime. and violence, It was the ethical leaven in the whole hor- rid episode and tragedy-waitinS Tor lime to swell 1t into restitution for the ancient
 wrong. .,
 rous9d, Palmerston's tenant right Is l landlords wrong" was really an eplgram- matte confession that the battle was on. l Disestablishment threw church lands into ! the hands of tenants as purchasers, and | thus admitted the edge or the wedge. The | risine spirit of democracy in me empire did fhe rest Suffrage extension made | eonatitutionsl agitation and political pub | lie ouinlon among the Irish people a pos sihiiitv, Gladstone brayely and biunder- ingly drove the wedge fTtner sn. Llna