SECURE THE LAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 48, 29 November 1900, Page 10

SECURE THE LAND.

As a class the Irish landlords once controlled the representation of Ireland in the Imperial Parliament. It gave them great opportunities which they sadly raided. But be this as it may, the representation of Ireland has passed into other hands. They cannot return by the votes of the people a single member to that great assembly, whuh must ultimately decide their fate. I have often heard it said by their friends that as a class the Irish landlords never knew their own interest, that they were a doomed race. I trust this has been said for the last time, and that all parties in Ireland will unite to close this Had, sad chapter in Irish hiftory. My next appeal is to the tenants, and to them, at all events, I have some claim to Bpeak. In asking for the compulsory sale of Irish land, in asking that the fee simple of the Irish soil should be compulsorily taken from one class and given to another, you are asking for a thing so great bo tremendous, that hi tory ein provide but few precedents. It was done, of course, in France by a revolution. It was done again in parts of the German Empire by a wise statesmanship. And it will be done here by the same means if the tenants are moderate and the landlords are wise. I appeal to the Ulster farmers to frankly express not alone their desire to secure the land, but to secure it, under all the circumbtances, at a fair price.