BRITISH LAND LEGISLATION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 36, 12 February 1908, Page 6

BRITISH LAND LEGISLATION.

— *■ — In tho matter of the two Scottish Land Bills which failed to pass the House of Lords last session, thp. British Prime rtlinister is showing himself as good as his word, and better. In the speech at Edinburgh on sth October, which was described as the opening of his oampaign against the House of Lords, he stated that both these measures would be reintroduced this session in order to give the Lords an oppoitunity of arriving at a decision in accordance with the wishes of the popular Chamber and of the people of Scotland. Not only is this opportunity being provided, but special prepaiation is to bc'made for the speedy passago of the Bills through the House of Commons. It was no doubt advisable that they should -be introduced early in the session, and promptly sent on to the House ot Lords, especially on account of tho complaint of Lord Lansdowne and others that these Bills, along with others of the first importance, were kept .back lust session till it was too lat3 for the Lords to give them full consideration. Sir Henry Canipbeli-Bannerman is therefore wise to lose no time in getting tho two specially contentious measures undtfr way quickly, but why the "special proceduro resolution of the guillotine type" which has been introduced to cicceleratetheir passage through the House of Commons in a quite exceptional manner? There was no particular trouble in the Commons last year, the Bill which tho Upper House rejected— the Land Values (Scotland) Bill— having been previously carried on its second reading in the Lower House by 294 votes to 76. Tho reason for the drastic step now proposed, which, as The Times says, "involves constitutional issues ol the first importance," must either bo that the, Government have reason to believe that tn6 Opposition wjU fight more vigorously in the representative^ Chamber in order to give tho Lords a better pretext for another slaughter, or merely (hafc it is desired to impress the Lords with a plain intimation that tie Government means business. ' It is certain that the wrecking or Jie maiming of either the Small Landholders (Scotland) Bill or the Land Values (Scotland) Bill by the House of Lords will supply the Liberals with excellent material for their general attack upon the irresponsible veto of tho hereditary Chamber. The vital distinction between the Small Holdings Bill, wh'ch applied to England only and was passed, and the Bill which sought to do as much for Scotland, but was wrecked, is thati the latter proposed ,to entrust a vital part of the administration to a Land Court— an institution as yet unknown on the east of St. George's Channel. A Commissioner of Small Holdings was to investigate the demand for small holdings, to endeavour to satisfy it by negotiations with the landlords, and if tho negotiations proved abortive, to apply to the Land Court, which after hearing both parties was to divide tho land under consideration into small holdings and fix a fair 'rent to be paid by the applicants. This is, of course, just the principle of the system .ihich has for many years been in operation in Ireland, and it was made the main ground of attack in the House of Lords. Lord Balfour's amendment asked that House to say that it "sees no justification for establishing in Scotland a L?nd Court on the Irish model, and declines to proceed with a Bill which introduces into the agricultural districts of Scotland the evils which are inseparable from any system of divided ownership in land." This amendment was not pressed, as a more plausible and equally fatal objection was afterwards found in tho proposal to postpone tho Bill until th& corresponding English measure came along. The Government naturally dedined to accopt this course, and so the Bill was dropped. As the English Small Holdings Bill ia now law, the old pretext will avail no longer, and there will be a plain and interesting issue on the merits. "The Government," said the Premier in the speech already quoted, "will not be deterred by the bogey of dual ownership from grappling with the evils of single ownership." After citing Lord Lansdowne's statement of the value attached by the landowners to "the power of guiding the destinies of tha estate, superintending its development and improvement, and above all things tho right of selecting the persons to be associated with the proprietors in the cultivation of the soil," "C.B" proceeded to declare the plain English of this to be "that notwithstanding all the changes in the political and social habits of the people of the United Kingdom Lord Lansdowne and bis great party in the House of Lords and Mr. Half our and bis smaller party, in, the House of i

Commons wore still on the sine of the patriarchal relationship of landlord and tenant." The struggle for which the Government is preparing by its special procedure resolution will thus afford an excellent opportunity for the rallying of tho democratic forces, and if the fight waxes warm enough, tho Liberals may thus recover some of tho ground whioli recent by-elections prove them to have lost. If the fear of Socialism is injuring the party, a genuinely progressive land policy that will stay the depopulation of the rural districts should be just tho thing to reconcile the jarring elements in their own ranks, and at the same time to attract the doubtful voter. It is possible that the Lanu Values Bill, which, though restricted in terms to Scotland, contains a principle not to be limited by the line of the Tweed, may make an even wider appeal. There are here no special circumstances at all to demand differential treatment, and tho measure is just on the lines which the Labour Party and many other Radical reformers have been demanding for England also. But the question is too large for discussion in this article.