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New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6341, 15 March 1882, Page 4

It is a lesson worth the attention of those persons in a colony who. impetuous and impatient, are always in favour of heroic legislation, the contentions which have arisen ■with regard to the judicial decisions which have been given under the Irish Land Act, because they represent the difi'erence between theory and practice, and the

danger of placing vested interests at! the mercy of any tribunal, however careful may be the selection of its members. During the discussion of the Irish Land Act in the House of Commons, Mr. Gladstone, having before him the report of the Bessborough Commission, appointed to inquire into the condition of the tenants in Ireland, admitted that the landlords had been vindicated with regard to the charge of exacting excessive rents. Recently a most influential and crowded meeting of landlords -was held in Dublin when this utterance of Mr. Gladstone's was referred to, and a remark :by Mr. Bright, a member of the Cabinet, that he believed the Act would cause no serious and general reduction of rente. It was further pointed oat that it was not contemplated that the provisions of the Act should be applied to a general revision of rents. But it was asserted, and it has not been denied, thit each of these points has besn falsified, and hence the meeting of landlords and the appointj ment liy the House of Lords of a select committee to inquire into the working of the Act. On the one side was the question of private rights, and on the other that of the enactment, and Mr. Gladstone, standing bv the enactment,

his own, has made it a Cabinet question that no inquiry should be held into the proceedings of the Land Courts. If Mr. Gladstone., Mr. Bright, and the report of the Bessborough Commission were right, it is impossible to account for a reduction of rents averaging twenty-three per cent., and yet it is contended that the proceedings of the Courts should not be investigated. "We here see the danger of heroic legislation, of dealing with the interests of individuals at a period of public excitement and under the stress of a public f-rnerireney. The persons who conduct th- investigations under the Land Act are appointed by the Government which passed the Bill, they are irresponsible because there is no appeal from their decision, except to Parliament, and when that appeal is made as rrzards one Chamber, the other, under the guidance of Mr. Gladstone, bloiks the —ay. We have the fact that the Judges of the Land Courts are under the coercion of a national and that those who

| mav safer from their have i no right of appeal to a higher Court, and their app-.al r oe branch of the Legislature is rendered ir.'-deetive. The reductions of rent n.ar have teen excessive, the Courts i;.ay. as asserted, have given a :-:coi-e to the Act never intended, and th>.- .-unbrers iiave no remedv, because a majority of tae House of Commons will concede rnne. e see legislation begotten of a .sense of justice, but al-o of alarm : we se« Judges appointed during a period of feverish excitement, and we also see the refusal to dist-uss an allegation of wro:._'. The landlord is placet! beyond the p.ale of justice, because -ho Mini-try of the cay. supported by a Eiajority. will not permit the results of its legislation to be chall ensed. What is taught appears to be i this. that larje interests should not :-e dealt with tinier the excitement or the wornc-nt. but when ti.at excitement has abated, and that ar.y Act which interfere* with re-ted int-rests should confer th- right of appeal against a suppled wrong. That such a as v.-hich was held in Dublin should assert its wrong-. b-. r--fu=e i a remedy, and have to submit to wrongs, may be favDurable : n a readjustment of the tenant which will placate Ireland, but is a:i injustice which should provi a warning against heroic legi.-datic:i. th» pr::lu:t of excitement, a sen?e of dagger. and the coercion of violence.