The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 1874

Evening Star, Issue 3471, 8 April 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 1874

The Home papers, giving details of the proceedings at the late elections, fully bear out the opinion, we expressed on reading the telegrams, that Mr Gladstone’s Ministry has been superseded because the measures he foreshadowed are in advance of public opinion. Mr Gladstone proposed too much ; too many classes supposed themselves attacked. It was useless for Mr Bright to point out that what Mr Disraeli terms “ harassing legislation" was nob only necessary to remove more harassing privileges enjoyed by favored clasea, but that every class already reformed had benefited by the changes introduced. So long as change only affects a neighbor, it is bearable and justifiable; but when it is brought home to a man’s personal privileges, resistance is inevitable. Mr Gladstone made no secret of his intentions: he was prepared to purify every stall of the Augean stable. Much as there is to admire in English administration and

institutions, they only shine by comparison with others more corrupt. If the privileged classes are less burdensome upon the community than elsewhere, they are still a burden, only moie easily borne because the country is more wealthy in proportion to their numbers. But even in that branch which is included in “ finance,” there is much room for amendment, and Mr Gladstone proposed to deal with that. Next on his list was the “transfer of land,” a reform happily effected in New Zealand some years ago, but which has yet to be made in Great Britain, in which the impediments and expenses of long conveyances and searches continue to enrich a powerful, intelligent, and influential class. Extensive as have been electoral reforms at Home, they have not yet gone far enough. The boroughs have had thousands enrolled who a few years ago were excluded from the power of voting, and thus they have been placed beyond the influence of the landed aristocracy. But the counties remained their stronghold. The higher qualification operated detrimentally to the agricultural population, as it continued to prevent the return of numbers who sympathised with them; and virtually retained the representation in the bands of those whose interests were bound with the nobility. So long as this powerful phalanx remains unbroken, any modification of the law of primogeniture is impossible. The eldest son still is the privileged successor to an estate, while the younger children, born of the same parents, educated in the same ideas, with similar tastes to indulge and habits to gratify, but in most cases without pecuniary means, are, for the most part, pensioned upon the country; producing nothing through their own'efforts, but depending upon the contributions of others in the shape of taxes, for the very bread they eat. We need not say that the class to which they belong numbers legion, and includes what is termed the “best blood” in Great Britain. Its ramifications are widely extended, and mingled with the higher grades of the middle classes ; and its influence, through hereditary associations, extends deep down into the hearts of the lower classes. It

enters into the cottage' of the farm laborer, is interwoven with the interests of the village tavernkeeper, and village artizans, and is inseparable from the parish church; in fact, the church establishment may be considered solely dependent upon the permanence of the land laws of the country. Any interference with the one gives a shake to the connection with the State of the other. The question of “ the descent of land” formed one of those with which Mr Gladstone proposed to deal. But he went further : his views extended to “the occupation of land.” What this embraces is plain. Whatever else may be included, the question of the right of a tenant to reimbursement for improvements—that is for the skill, labor, and capital he absolutely invests in the soil—oh the termination of his occupancy formed Mr Gladstone’s leading idea. We know he could not stop there. That question

raised, a wide field is opened tip. It is not merely one of tenant-right, but of landlordism—who shall receive the rents. It is a question as to State duty : as to the right to transfer the sole control of the common heritage of a people of a country to individuals, to say whether it shall be cultivated for the common benefit, or lie waste to feed and nurture birds and animals for the amusement of a class; while the laborer is taxed, and himself and family denied

the luxuries, and scarcely able to obtain the necessaries of life, because bread, that might be grown at Home has to be paid dearly for and brought from abroad. Next on the list of proposed reforms were the game laws, the iniquity of which has been acknowledged for centurhs, but which still remain on the statute book. Then the relations between employer and employed. The enumeration of all these subjects, to which others might be added, which, now form the programme of a liberal basis of union is quite sufficient to account for the combination against Mr Gladstone’s Ministry, and for defections from his party. The first effort to relieve trade from op. pressive import duties was made by Lord Melbourne in 1841, ; and elicited such a|storm of opposition from every class of tradesmen and manufacturers, who thought they would be ruined by alteration of the tariff, that the Ministry were compelled to resign. Just so is it with Mr Gladstone. In all probability he has sealed his valuable Ministerial career; for although the reforms he proposes are inevitable, they are hardly likely to be effected in his lifetime. IJis enemies are too numerous, and his supporters too few. But the questions raised supply the Colonies with warnings lest institutions, fraught with injustice, should grow up amongst us that generations will be unable to abolish.