THE Evening Star. PUBLISED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 1881.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3772, 29 January 1881, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 1881.

The result of the scenes now being enacted in Ireland will. probably be much more important to the world than *the belligerent actors in them think now. They are actuated no doubt by sincere patriotic feolings, but have no other idea beyond benefiting their country. The fact is, however, that the struggle for reform by the Irish people and members of Parliament will end in important alterations being made in the land laws of not only Ireland, but of England and other European countries where the Law of Entail is in force. It would be difficult to conceive a more unjust law than this same Law of Entail. It has been built up and sustained on prejudice. For some, peculiar reason or other, parents have considered their firstborn as being more privileged individuals than their subsequent issue. On this prejudice —:for it is but such—this law has been built up, and an unjust leaning towards the eldest of a family has received the sanction of an unjust law. The subsequent children have as much a claim to the rights and privileges of "sonship" as the first, and a law that deprives them of these privileges cannot be other than an iniquitous and unjust one. The eldest son has the advice of his parents, and has afterwards a great advantage in. being brought up under their care and protection, and is better fitted to take his place in the world, and work himself up in the social scale, than the youngest, and, if anything, the youngest son should have greater privileges than the eldest, But even this course—far more equitable as it is-r-is not a just one, and each child, whether male or female, should have an equal apportionment of the parents' estate. By such a course the land would become much better divided, and the earth given us by God's goodness would not be in the possession of a few eldest sons, who have done nothing to entitle.them to their fathers' estates, and who, in many instances, aresconspicuou's only for their extravagance, immorality and avarioiousness. The

knowledge that vast tracts of land will in time come into the possession of the heir is often the cause of a falling off in affection, or a miserable cringing to the parent, and even in some cases dark deeds.have been known to be committed in order that the dutiful son should take possession of the property more expeditiously. To give an example of this unjust law, let us for one moment suppose that 'the Legislature at Home said, "We will change this law, and instead of giving the eldest the right to the estates we will make the youngest the son and heir." What a howl of indignation would be expressed throughout the length and breadth of the - British Empire! And yet this example is no more absurd than the law that entails property wholesale to the eldest son. The result of the present struggles in Ireland will be the means of bringing about a radical reform in the Land Laws and the Law of Entail, and as such reform is much needed, not only in the British Empire, but in other countries, the result of the deliberations of the British Parliament on the subject is anxiously looked for by all countries where this iniquitous law is in force.