Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 April 1890 — TO CURE IRELAND’S ILLS. [ARTICLE]

TO CURE IRELAND’S ILLS.

THE IRISH LAND PUBCHASE BILL IN THE HOUSE OK COMMONS. Mr. Balfour Introduces His Measure— Gladstone's Ideas on the Subject - What the London Press Says—Mr. Parnell's Opinion of the Scheme. London cable: In the House of Commons Mr. Balfour introduced his Irish land purchase bill. It facilitates the transfer ol land and improves methods of purchase, making them cheaper and more rapid than those provided by the Ashbourne act. Purchase is made voluntary. There is no risk to the British taxpayer, although British credit is utilized. The maximum advances allowed the buyer is fixed at twenty years’ rent less local rates paid the landord. The total of the advances whieh may may be made under the bill is in amount £33.000,000. The provisions of the bill bad been kept secret and the detailed statement and explanation of Mr. Balfour were listened to with the deepest attention. Mr. Gladstone followed Mr. Balfour. While unable to pronounce at once on so elaborate and comprehensive a measure, he said he felt compelled to admit that the government had followed a courageous policy. Mr. Balfour promised on IJie part of the government an unbiased discussion of the merits of the bill. The Post, referring to the land-pur-chase bill, says that the plan for obtaining the needful security is complicated and artificial, while any organized resistance to its operation would in the end involve a recourse to drastic measures. If it can be bettered nobody is more likely t’o welcome the fact than Mr. Balfour. Unless this is done it deserves the treatment due the only feasible scheme under public notice The Daily News says that a more elaborate and complicated measure than the land-purchase has seldom, if ever, been introduced in Parliament. One thing stands out clearly from the tangled labyrinth—that British credit may be pledged to the extent of £33,000,000 for the benefit nominally of . the Irish tenant. but really for the benefit of the landlord.

The Chronicle says the scheme Is comprehensive and ingenious, and if the opposition approach the question in the spirit of Mr. Gladstone’s remarks, with the view of bettering Ireland rather than of damaging the government, we may get a scheme that will go far toward solving the Irish question. The Times,commenting upon the landpurchase bill, says: “We do not like to commit ourselves, without having seen and studied the bill, to a decisive judgment. Doubtless there are some provisions which are open to comment. But upon the whole the bill seems to prompt the creation, in process of time, of a peasant proprietary on a very large scale without practically involving the British exchequer or the tax-payers in any additional risk whatever.” Dublin cable: The Freeman’s Journal prints the report of an interview with Mr. ParmfJN. on the subject of the land-purchase\ill. He said the bill was absurd and objectionable in the highest degree. The liability which the English tax-payer will not incur it is coolly proposed to transfer to the Irish cess-payer. That the object of the government is to inflate the value of the Irish lands to an inordinate extent is clearly disclosed in Balfour's speech. A fatal defeat of the measure is that it proposes to give no local control over its administration. In that respect Mr. Parnell said it is a long way behind Trevelyan’s bill. Mr. Davitt is equally pronounced against the bill as an insidious proposal to give the landlord more than the value of his land. Mr. Sexton says the bill is less favorable to the tenant than the Ashburne act.