The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-10-31
The English and Irish Land Question Has Not Been satis- factorily Adjusted.


 factorily Adjusted.
 entirely without foundation, and as | has been widely circulated the Roar, hopes that the rural district counci will be good enough to give this let ter the fullest publicity. am. sir your obedient servant.
 The Clerk. Bantry District, Council Lord Dunraven has written lette, in which he attempts to dissipate som: of the deIusions on the Irish land prob. lem. It has been asserted that British credit is to be pledged for an addi. tionai $400.o0o.000 for Irish land pur- chase, and that this will intsrpose . fatal bar in the way of land purchass in England for another twenty years. Lord Dunraven says: T dispute in toto the calculations oi the present Government upon which this estimate is based. I am convinced that not more than half the amour, will be required to accomplish one of the most beneficial revolutions in his- tory by completing the transfer of the soil of Ireland from the landlords co the tenants.
 "The Government have mAgnified the size of the problem and have introduced an entirely new principle in proposing the appropriation occupiers who have purchased their farms. By these de. vices these communistic supporters are plecated and the quaims of others who might object to the tearing up of the Treaty of Peace on which the act of 1903 was founded have been allayed.
 Tt must not be forgotten that 1t is always in the power of a Government by the introduction of matters foreign to the original purpose of an act to swell an estimate to any amount. Thai is exactly what the Government has done.
 To talk about British credit" iq this connection Is 10 use the language of the Sopartist. It is not 'Britinh credit'' which Is pledged, but the credit of the United Kingdom, of which Ireland Is supposed to be an integral part, and of the burdens of which she most cer- tainly bears more than her fair share.
 There Is no similarity in the cases of England and Ireland as regards the land question. It was Parliament that created system of dual ownership In Ireland. which placed premium On bad husbanary. kept the. country piung- cd in a, vortex. of litigation, and en-
  was seen that. the only remedy lay II, land purchase and in 1903 Parliament undertook to apply the remedy effect lively. Mir. Birrelrs bill Is in essence and in fact a violation of the contract which was then entered into. No spe- cial pleading, however skillful, will long serve to conceal this fact.
 Ireland and England.
 To talk of England being the Irish milch COW" Is to fall into an error 50 egregious that I am at loss to &C., count for it. should have thought that if there was anything in the world historically established 1t was that England owed debt to Ireland which if expressed in terms of money, would be hard indeed to liquidate. I need not recall the facts so abundantly set forth by Lecky and every other compe- tent historian that all Irish industries were deliberately one by one destroy d l and 1t cannot be disputed that the eco homie effect of the abolition of the Corn Laws was disastrous to a popu- lation driven to- adopt agriculture as the sole means left to them of sub- | sistence.
 When we hear so much aboat the generosity of the English u,ilch cow 1t would seem to be wholly forgotten 1 that in 1896 a Royal Commission re- ported that while the actual tax rev enue of Ireland Is about one-eleventh l that of Great Britain, the relative tax | able capacity of Ireland Is very much | smaller. and is not estimated by any of us as exceeding one-twentieth." and that MT. Childers. former Chancellor of the Exchequer, stated that in 1Ss3- | 94 Ireland contributed to the Exchequei | revenue a sum amounting to about $13.. | 750,000 a year in excess of what sht would contribute if the revenue derived | from her were in proportion to her ie. lative taxable capacity"
 All manufacturing industries in Ire. | land were purposely destroyed. Int | terms of the act of union as regard, | finance have never been acted up to Since the amalgamation of the ex. chequers in 1916 Ireland has been crip. | pied by excessive taxation. These three undeniable facts should be bornt in mind by those who now endeavor tC make out that Ireland Is a Spoiled child"
 Since the act of 1908 was passed Parliament has entered into many com mitments. some unlimited, such as old. age pensions, and I freely concede tha' 1t is advisable to create as any smal proprietors in England us possible. Ru I maintain that Ireiand's claim standi | uEot III udto, m urgency, ana m gray | ity. The work is more than half done and where 1t has been done 1t hal transformed the face of the country Sullen discontent and class antaEcntsn have given place to peace and harmony | The magic of property has been SC to work in 23O,000 Irish homesteads and the result Is already visible in n dustrial revival, in improved eultiva ton. in the increased industry of tn occupiers. in the appearance of neat ness and the air of comfort which sur round their dwellings. It would be ia tal folly to set back the hands of tn, | clock.
 The honor and good faith of Parlia mept are at stake. It undertook witt it's eyes open. and because 1t recognize, that it was In the highest imperial in terest to do so. to settle the Irish Ian, question; think 1t would be immora --I am sure 1t would be impolitic-zif 1 were now to turn aside from its pur | pose repudiate its obligation, and throy