LORD DERBY ON THE LAND

Marlborough Express, Volume XVI, Issue 292, 15 December 1881, Page 2

LORD DERBY ON THE LAND

Li 111 ii I)::i;i!v contributes to the October number ot the ".Nintcenth. Century." an article on " Ireland and the Land Act." Speculating on how Hie Act will affect landlords, ho maintains that the large absentee owners will stiller very little, if at all, their estates being generally Imvrented, and they themselves being'iudifferent to such loss of power as is involved m inability to .substitute one tenant for another. The change will bo to . thorn nothing. The real sufferers will be the small needy proprietors and landowners, who valued their estates chiefly as a trust ■ml into their hands to improve and develop. The former class would be ruined ; the latter would tiud their money wasted <uid their occupation gone. The Laud Commissioners ale absolute as no other set of men m the Iliitisli lales are. They have no law to guide them, and there is no appeal from their decisions. They are not likely to require tho reduction of any rents that have not been raised lately, and this would be the case over one-half or two-thirds of Ireland. As regards the «Ueul uit the iulerests of the

tenant, all that is certain is that he will have less done for him, and will be more free to do what ho can for himself. The improving landlord will disappear, and capital and skill will be scarce. Lord Derby considers that the best prospect for the Irish peasant lies m the direction of emigration. He is not sanguine enough to suppose that the Land Court will satisfy popular expectation. Though he believes the Act .will fail as a measure of conciliation, it will probably effectually check the spread of anti-English feeling m Ulster and detach many adherents from, the National cause. But the principal gain is outside of Ireland, for the Government will have satisfied erery reasonable man m England and Scotland that the utmost limitß of just and reasonable concession to Irish demands have been reached.