ESTATES IN ENGLAND.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 198, 16 November 1871, Page 6

ESTATES IN ENGLAND.

Behind the heavy jowl of the 'man Tichborne alias De Castro alias Morgan, who has sat day by day fighting with the b.est trained Jegal intellects of England for estates in Hampshire and elsewhere, there advances a great host of claimants .of estates ' in England. The steady thud of that march grows more and more distinct and impressive. Tichborne of-' the aliases ni3y'~'sviii."or lose, but ll>e mightier host of claimants coming up to .demand -long ' withheld possessions -is sure to win. ' The people of England are beginning to « enter. appearance" and file their claimja of title as against the fictions pf title born of the Norman Conquest and mediaeval prescription! It is only an accident that makes 9, coai'se Australia^ immigrant an example of an agrarian claim illustrative by contrast "pf the, larger claim, now -, beginning methodically to be asserted by the rising democracy of the mother country. A strong enlightened government giving under the auspices of a wisely attempted monarchy as much real freedom as any nation has, is not compensation for the remaining wrongs of past generations. A too -expensive royalty and a pvivelleged aristocracy holding the bulk of the land in Britain, outweigh in their pressure of all real or fancied benefits of things as they are. The royal bannei, and all quality, Pride, pomp, and circumstance of the '.'glorious constitution in Church and State " are now being fast exposed to the dissolving forces of the spirit of universal suffrage and vote by ballot. Events move rapidly in these^days, even in sober England, and no man who has not seen his third decade close may despair of seeing a British republic. It may conic in the capsizing convulsions of a violent revolution, or. peaceably by a timely receding of existing powers, but come it must, or such a radical I change in the whole cast of government and privilege as shall be equivalent tq a republic. 'If Gladstone were tq electrify Europe some day by rising in the Commons and moving an. address praying the' Queen to abdicate upon k handsome pension to herself and family, the House of Lords^ would realise how entirely the privileges of its order were I built upon the monarchy. And though Gladstone will not do any such thing, the monarchy and the peerage are not safe before the rising tide of democracy. A wise abstinance from heavy demands upon the public purse, and a real dignity of virtue in the members jof the Royal family mighf. suffice to i make the monarchy possible for many generations, for, in. truth, the monarchy is more the symbol of wrong itsalf. It is the vast landed privileges j of the Peers, and the terrible resultant i suffering arid deprivation of the masses,- [ which threaten British institutions- as they are. And< this will be felt more and more as the masses, " with increasing velocity, approach the preception. of their manifold rights. Science and education are doing their work. Cheap ancl rapid intercommunication draws the nations together, and the universal newspaper popularises all kinds of inquiries, and lets daylight into all kinds of venerable deceits and wrongs. America and the Colonies blow daily blasts lof political oxygen upon the dull j srmmldering curbon_of English feeling, and the process of combustion is going on.* Whether there is to be a terrible confhigeration or only a quiet burning ! up of long accumulated rubbish, no man can say, buc we .know what has to be consumed in that gathering furnace of political light .and. heat. A sagacious conversation would now begin a ceaseless process of consignment to the flames and thus prevent a violent outburst. Indeed, the force of events- is hurling here one and there one of the old wrongs into the fire of reform, and thus the' rising democracy of England, is fed with hope, and it*t appetite whetted for further concessions. There can be no absolute halting in this process until the gathered privileges of the aristocracy are all surrendered, and political equality established from the Lund's End to John o' Groat's. Eor us at the antipodes it is intei'esting to inquire how far such ti movement is likely to be conductive to that grand project of contemporary publicists, thefederalisation of the Empire. Is the " Grand old Empire " to split up into fragments more or less illustrious, or are all the .parts of the. imperial domain to hold to an old flag and keep up the drum-roll of empire wherever the sun. rises and sets 1 It •is a great question, unanswerable save in' the revelations, slow or .-rapid, of the revolving years. To us one response in aid of a. solution ! of the problem seems possible, and that •is the- if imperial unity /is to be, it must be on the basis o£ tx democratic federaI tion and judgement must begin at our political Jerusalem — Great Britain. It is another question, that of the probability of even such a union. Our > venerable mother may, in the lai'gest ; and most liberal emotion of maternity, say to her children all over the Globe :— " Come to my federal bosom and be all one happy family ['— but -will they be willing to be made Happy, in that way in view of all sorts of other contingencies? This too, is a question, wnqse saluticn is in the womb of the future.— "Bulkrat Star." • "

The Municipality of Paris has two million' francs to repair the monuments and- public buildings.