Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 April 1886 — IRELAND FOR THE IRISH. [ARTICLE]

IRELAND FOR THE IRISH.

The Main Features.._of Mr. Gladstone’s hand 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-rulo hill would become operative. It could not go on without the operation of the other, which would provide a legislature in Ireland to appoint statutory authority to deal with tho 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, scrip of equal value would be issued for the same 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 in*, elude 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 total 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 himself. Applications to sell would have to be made by nil the tenants on an estate, and all these applications and sales w-ould be registered. • Applicants wodld 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 tho land to be sold v. as 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 hooka 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 1889.- , - whan the proposals were first plaoed before the speaker's colleagues, he proposed to raise £130,000,000 immediately. Mr. Chamberlain’ and Mr. Trevelyan both objected t > 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 tha£.by appointing a receiver for tho 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'lrish exchequer would be £2,000,000 per annum, to meet which it would be able to "levy for rents amounting to £2,500,000 per annum, and this sum would be the first charge on the rents and taxes raised ’by the Irish Government. Adding to this tho imperial contribution, the sum paid to England by Ireland would be £0,242,000 per annum, secured on a revenue amounting to £10,850,000, no portion of which wduld be applied to any purpose until £6,000,900 was paid into the English excheqnel’. The present contribution of the Irish taxpayers to England was £0,980,000, of which England paid back in the Irish civil service and in the service of collections £4,840,000, The residue, which seemed to represent an imperial contribution for army, navy, national debt, and imperial civil charges- was £2,08.7,000. What did England do with it ? As an instance, she sent an anavof 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.