Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 April 1886 — IRELAND FOR THE IRISH. [ARTICLE]

IRELAND FOR THE IRISH.

The Main Features of Mr. Gladstone’s Land Bill. Following is a summary of Mr. Gladstone’s speech in the House of Commons, explanatory of his land bill: The land act was intended to go into effect on the same day on which the home-rule bill would become operative. It could not go on without the operation of the other, which would provide a legislature in Ireland toiappoint statutory authority to deal with the landed estate, and, act between vender and purchaser. The purchases would be made through the issue of £180,000,000 of three per cent, stock issued at par. These new Irish consols might, with the consent of the Treasury, be commuted for stock of a lower denomination. If the stock could be issued forthwith, strip of equal value would be issued for the sanfe purpose. The act was to give the landlords the option to sell out under its terms. Its actions were confined to agricultural holdings, and did not include mansions having demesne and woods. The state authorities, acting between the peasant and land-owner, would purchase the land from the latter and put the peasant in possession as absolute proprietor, subject to an annual rent charge, until the totfil payments equaled the purchase money. The state would not force the small occupiers to become proprietors. In districts where the population was congested the state would have the power to decide whether expropriation of the too crowded land should be compulsory. Nobody except the immediate landlords would have the option to sell to the incumbrancer, and then he must sell by foreclosure, and not at an option for himtfelf. Applications to sell would have to be made by all the tenants on an estate, and all these applications and sales would be registered. Applicants would be required to give security for costs in certain cases. The land commission would be empowered to refuse applications. The basis of prices would depend upon the rental for a fixed period. The judicial rental of 1845 would be the standard in all cases wherein the rent of the land to be sold was then fixed. In all other cases the land commission would have the power to arrive at a price by comparing the other judicial rentals with Griffith’s valuation. The land commission would also be allowed to examine the state of books concerning estates for ten years back. Twenty years’ rental would be a nominal purchase ; in exceptional cases twenty-one years rental would make a purchase. Applications for sale would not be received after March 1, 1890. Ten millions of pounds of the stock would be issued during 1887, £20,000,000 in 1888, and £20,000,000 in 18tj0. When the proposals were first placed before the speaker's colleagues, he proposed to raise £130,000,000 immediately. Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Trevelyan both objected to this as a wholesale issue which would depreciate values. The speaker therefore thanked both gentlemen for having given him occasion to reconsider that original proposition. He now thought it was an error to ask forthwith for anything like the outside estimate, and believed that by appointing a receiver for the general rents, armed with sufficient authority to collect them, but without coming into contact with the new proprietary, the repayment of the purchase money would be amply secured. The charge upon the Irish exchequer would be £2,010,000 per annum, to meet which it would be able to levy for rents amounting to £2,510,000 per annum, and this sum would be the first charge on the rents and taxes raised by the Irish Government. Adding to this the imperial contrioution, the sum paid to England by Ireland would be £6,242,000 per annum, seciirrd on a revenue amounting to £10,850,090, no portion of which would be applied to any purpose until £6,000,000 was paid into the English exchequer. The present contribution of the Irish taxpayers to England was £6,980.000, of which England paid buck in the Irish civil service and in the service of collections £4,840,000. The residue, which seemed to represent an imp. rial contribution for army, navy, national debt, and imperial civil charges- was £2,085,000. What did England do with it? As an instance, she sent an army of 26,000 men to Ireland and kept them there at an annual cost of >3,000,000, £915,000 more than the balance mentioned. That was a specimen of the economy of the system the speaker wanted to root up.