GRAFTON STREET, DUBLIN.
The long-expected Irish Land Bill was introduced by Mr. Gladstone on the 7th of April. It gave tenants the right to go before a Land Court and have “fair rents” fixed for fifteen years, a fair rent being one that would let the tenant live and thrive. During these fifteen years eviction, save for non-payment of rent, was to be impossible. If a tenant wished to sell his tenant-right or goodwill, the landlord had the pre-emptive right of buying at the price fixed by the Court. The Court was to have power to advance to tenants desirous of buying their farms three-fourths of the purchase-money, or even the whole if need be, and these advances were repayable on easy terms. Advances could also be made to promote emigration. The Bill was well received on the whole by the country, but the landed gentry denounced it as an act of socialism and confiscation, and the Duke of Argyll resigned his office. On the 24th of April long and stormy debates on the Second Reading began, and it was not till the end of July that the Bill was sent up to the House of Lords. The Tory Party made a mistake in basing their opposition to the measure on the ground that it was socialistic, confiscatory, and
LORD BEACONSFIELD’S LAST APPEARANCE IN THE PEERS’ GALLERY OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.
(From a Drawing by Harry Furniss.)
contrary to the laws of political economy. The principle of arranging the business relations of landlord and tenant in Ireland by Act of Parliament having been accepted by the country, the only practical method of attacking the Bill was to have shown that it would not arrange them to the mutual satisfaction of the parties interested. The theory of the measure was, that every Irish farm is owned by two persons—by the farmer, who owns the improvements he has made on the soil, by the landlord who owns everything else. The Bill gave the tenant additional means for protecting his share of the land from being devoured by the landlord. Did it do this effectively, and if effectively, in such a manner as to work no injustice to the landlord? From the Tory point of view, it would have been easy to argue that no system of dual ownership, which forces persons with hostile interests into partnership in husbandry, can work smoothly. If prices rise the landlord’s fixed rent will not rise with them. If prices fall the tenant will refuse to pay the fixed rent, because it is no longer fair; and then the old weary path of agrarian warfare has again to be trod. A great scheme for establishing peasant proprietorship all over Ireland with the help of the State might have saved the Irish landlords at this juncture. But the Tories were led not by a Stein, but a Cecil, and the golden opportunity was lost. From the Irish point of view, the Bill bristled with weak points. It did nothing for leaseholders. It left tenants loaded with arrears, and therefore still exposed to eviction. Although Mr. Healy inserted a clause prohibiting the Courts from taking a tenant’s improvements into the valuation on which a fair rent was fixed, the Judges, by a decision in the case of Adams v. Dunseath, virtually nullified the clause.
It was not till the 29th of July that Mr. Gladstone carried the Third Reading of the Bill after a desperate struggle. The House of Lords mutilated it, so that it became worse than useless, and then there came a deep cry of indignation from the country. Mr. Gladstone sent the Bill back practically unaltered, and as the tempest of anger in the country rose the Peers surrendered and let the measure pass. The Ministry, however, had to drop all their other Bills, except those abolishing flogging in the Army and Navy. The only private Members who carried Bills of public interest were Mr. Hutchinson and Mr. Roberts. Mr. Hutchinson’s Bill protected newspaper reports of lawful meetings from prosecution for libel, and made it necessary to obtain the Attorney-General’s sanction before criminal proceedings for libel could be asked for. Mr. Roberts passed the Act closing public-houses during Sundays in Wales.
Mr. Bradlaugh’s case, however, again vexed the angry sea of political strife at intervals during the Session. The law courts ruled that he could not legally make an affirmation, and so Mr. Bradlaugh resigned his seat, and again got elected for Northampton. This time he presented himself on the 26th of April to be sworn as a new Member. Sir Stafford Northcote objected, and though no precedent exists for preventing a new Member from being sworn, the Speaker referred the matter to the House, which decided against Mr. Bradlaugh. Thereupon ensued a shocking scene, and Mr. Bradlaugh had to be removed by force. Nothing strikes the reader now as more absurd than the protestations of the Tories, that to concede this claim was to sanction sacrilege. The course they objected to was precisely the one which Mr. Bradlaugh adopted when they were in office in 1886, and which they and the Speaker found it expedient to permit. A Bill was now brought in to allow all Members to affirm who could not conscientiously take the oath. This was opposed and so successfully obstructed that it had to be dropped. After that Mr. Bradlaugh, on the 3rd of August, cheered by an immense crowd of sympathisers, attempted to enter the House in defiance of an order which Sir Stafford Northcote had carried excluding him from its precincts. There were some of his Radical sympathisers—Mr. Fawcett was among the number—who did not quite approve of this proceeding. At all events Mr. Bradlaugh gained nothing by it, for he was flung into Palace Yard by the police hatless, dishevelled, and with his coat torn in the fray.
The recall of Sir Bartle Frere did not settle the South African difficulty. Sir G. P. Colley, in trying to avenge the defeat of Bronkhurst Spruit, was early in the year beaten by the Boers at Laing’s Nek and Ingogo. On the 26th of February, reinforced by Sir Evelyn Wood, he let the Boers out-manœuvre him, and spring upon the oddly variegated and composite force with which he had rashly occupied Majuba Hill. Though the enemy’s troops only consisted of raw levies of irregular sharpshooters, they soon dispersed the British host. It was a shameful rout, in which a kind fate doomed the luckless Colley to death. The unfortunate thing was that this fray should have happened at all. Negotiations were actually going on between the British and the Boers for a peaceful settlement.[172] Were they to be broken off? After admitting by opening up these negotiations, that the war was unjust, was a great and powerful Empire to go on with it for the sake of prestige? And was it, after all, British prowess that would be vindicated by victory? Was it not rather the fame of Sir George Pomeroy Colley that had alone been sullied? In other words, was England justified in slaughtering a few hundred Boer farmers, because Sir George Colley had let them beat his heroic but mismanaged troops in battle? It is impossible to say how the nation answered these difficult questions. But Mr. Gladstone’s reply was an emphatic “No,” although he had unfortunately declared, immediately after coming into office, that he would not grant the demands of the Boers, till they laid down their arms. The end of it was, that the Boers were allowed to set up an autonomous Republic under a British Protectorate, British interference being limited to controlling their foreign policy. It is curious to observe that this was the only act ever done by Mr. Gladstone which the European and American Press, with cordial unanimity, declared enhanced the prestige of England, as a State so confident of its giant’s strength, that it deemed it ignoble to use it like a giant.