A NOBLE DEBTOR.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VIII, Issue 414, 18 March 1881, Page 11

A NOBLE DEBTOR.

We are glad to perceive that the Duke of Leiaster bat granted an abatement of twenty per cent, to his tenantry and that they have accepted it. We are sorry that his Grace accompanied his offer by some suggestions of withdrawing employment which have an ugly look coming from so great a personage No more notable instance of the power of public opinion has occurred than the concession of the Duke on the question of tbe notorious Leinster Lease and now on that of rent. The conduct of tha late Duke in first voting for the Land Bill and then evading the provisions when it became an Act was simply mean in the extreme, but his son continued to profit by this discreditable conduct, and would have done so to the end of the chapter but for the agitation. This fact is clear as day, and speaks volumes. Noblesse oblige is all very fine in theory. Here we have an example of what it is in practice. Bat an acknowledgement was made by the Duke in the course of the late correspondency wnich exemplifies in another manner the present Land question. His Grace stated that he owed a quarter of a million sterling, and gave this as a reason why he could not afford reductions. Now his Grace's debts are matters which concern himself, but not his tenants. They Siy him — it is nothing to them directly how he spends their rents, ut the fact shows the rottenness of the whole system. They are to suffer because some former Duke spent more than he could afford, and encumbered the estatee. This is a reason why his Grace ahouli not hold so much land, but none why he should not give reasonable abatements. If our present mischievous system of settlement and entail were abolished, the Duke of Leinster should sell some of his land and pay bis debts. Probably as it is he could not part with one acre to save his life. So it is that great estates to which the " owners " cannot do justice are held, together ; the land is kept »t an artificial price, and the people are debarred from any chance of acquiring it ; and this pernicious system it is which gives us the sorry spectacle of Ireland's premier Duke pleading before his tenantry that as he owes a quarter of a million of money he cannot " afford " to give reductions of rent, and if he does he canuot •" afford "to contimie to employ his laboorerfl, gow long will thja, •outioue I—/freeman.1 — /freeman.