A MEETING OF BRISTOL LIBERALS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IX, Issue 430, 8 July 1881, Page 5

A MEETING OF BRISTOL LIBERALS.

The Bristol Herald of the 30th April says : Last evening a meeting of the Liberal Four Hundred was held in the Arch-room, Colston Hall, for the purpose of considering the Land Bill, the Bill dealing with corrupt practices at elections, and other business. There was a numerous attendance. Mr. Christopher J. Thomas presided, and amongst those present were Mr. Charles Townsend, Algernon Warren, Herbert Thomas. Handel Cossham, G. F. Powell, E. J. Crocker, H . Daniel, J. Forste'r, J. Bastow, H. Bennet, J. T. Broad, F. Strange, C. Garlick, J. Creed, J. M. Laney, J. E. Bennett, H. Briggs, and S. Bryant. The Chairman observed that the meeting had been called to support the Government in reference to the Irish Land Bill which Mr. Gladstone bad introduced, and also to pass a resolution upon Sir Henry James' Bill in reference to corrupt practices. He had gone through Mr. Gladstone's Bill, and it would be, perhaps, acceptable if he mentioned some of its salient points. (Hear, hear.) It was desirable that they should bear in mind the mode by which land was held by tenants in Ireland, for as a rule it was very different to the terms upon which it was held in England. In this country the landlord was expected to do all the tenant required when he entered upon his tenure ; he was expected to give him a decent house and farm buildings, and if there were improvements to be made in the land, they were to be made by the landlord. In Ireland, in a great number of cases it was very different. A man who became a tenant of a farm in Ireland had to take it as he found it. (Hear, hear.) He got the land at a lower rent, it was true ; but what would be called in this country permanent improvements the tenant in Ireland was required to do for himself. Hear, hear.) If circumstances took place which 1 required that a tenant should le*ve his farm, he felt it much greater hardship if he had expended upon it his money or labour, or both. (Hear, hear.) The chairman then proceeded to review, at considerable length, the chief provisions of Mr. Gladstone's Irish Land Bill. Mr. Gladstone, he said, sought to legalise all over Ireland the Ulster custom, viz., that the tenant, if he made any improvements during his tenure, might sell them to his successor. (Hear hear.) The Bill also enacted that if an increase of rent be assented to, then the same tenant should continue in tenancy, and his tents not be advanced for 15 years (here here). Then the bill provided for the reclamation of lands not now in cultivation, and the Board of Works in Ireland was to be authorised to advance money for such reclamation and for the improvement and drainage of land. (Hear, hear.) It also established a court to which all matters of dispute should be referred ; and having regard to the condition of things in Ireland, it was a very proper thing that there should be such a court to which tenants and landlords might appeal. (Hear, hear.) The over-popu-lation of large parts of the country, and the dependence of the people upon farming, created great competition for land, and persons promised a larger rent for land than they could pay and get a living out of it. (Hear, hear.) The court to which he had referred would decide what was the proper rent to be paid. (Hear.) Manufactures, he observed, had never had a fair chance in Ireland, and with the exception of the north of Ireland, where linen was manufactured, the people were almost wholly dependent on land. (Applause.) The

chairman went on to remark that the land had been unduly favoured itx the past, and it was necessary in the interests of Ireland to pass a strong measure. (Applause.) The tenant farmers of England had their grievances also. (Applause.) Their grievances were not so great as their neighbours in Ireland, for when Mr. Gladstone came into power he commenced to lessen them. (Hear, hear.) He amended the game laws and removed the tax upon malt, f Hear, hear.) And when they got the Irish grievance out of the way no doubt further amendments would be made in the law in favour of the tenant farmers in England. (Applause.) He referred to the opposition that might be expected to the Bill, and said he thought it ■would be a very great calamity if the Bill was not carried. (Applause.) The Conservatives had met at the Carlton Club, and it was there stated that until the Liberals came into power Ireland was quiet. (Laughter.) The grievances under which Ireland laboured existed when the previous Government was in power, but they diverted attention from it, and carried the country into foreign quarrels, and it was necessary now that Ireland should have some attention paid to it. (Applause.) Mr. Algernon Warren, in moving the first resolution, said he believed the present state of things in Ireland was due to the misery and distress which had fallen upon a great proportion of the small tenantry of that country. (Hear, hear.) If r.othing was done to remedy the state of things what would be the result ? (Hear.) The Tories said " Vindicate the law." That meant that they should pour into Ireland an army to shoot down and murder poor Irishmen, in order to secure what were called the rights of the landlords. (Hear, hear.) The matter required their consideration as taxpayers, to say nothing of the principles of humanity. (Hear, hear.) He trusted they would place more confidence in William Ewart Gladstone than they had in Lord John Manners, and he hoped that they would show by their united voices that the people of England were determined that there should not be civil war in Ireland for the benefit of Tory landlords. (Hear, hear.) He believed that if Mr. Gladstone's Bill was carried they would have in Ireland a condition of prosperity which it had never known before, and that the landlords would receive their rent instead of being paid with a bullet. (Hear.) He believed the Bill in principle was sound and good, and would commend itself to their minds and hearts. (Hear.) He had pleasure in moving the following resolution : " That this meeting approves the Bill , recently laid before Parliament by the Eight Hon. W. E. Gladstone, for the amelioration of the Land Laws of Ireland, renders to it its hearty support, and trusts the principles on which it is based will be carried out in their integrity, thus putting an end to the insecurity which has existed in the tenure of land and has been the cause of great wretchedness and sore irritation in the minds of a large section of the rural population of that portion of the Empire." Mr. Handel Cossham seconded the motion, and in the course of an able address said the conditona under which land was held, both in Ireland and this country, made it impossible for the best to be produced out of the soil. (Hear, hear.) God has given it to the world to make the most of it, and they, by their blundering were making the worst of it. (Hear, hear.) He was ashamed of the condition of Ireland. He looked upon the country as their Poland, and that they should not flaunt Poland in the face of Kussia so long as Ireland was in her present condition. (Hear, hear.) He would not believe, however, that they had not patriotism and moral courage enough to put an end to a state of things which was a discredit to them. (Hear, hear.) It was no use telling people that everything was right when they were starving, for they would not believe them if they did. (Hear, hear.) If they expected five millions of people to starve whilst they made up their minds what they were going to do, they would manifest their feeling in some ugly form. (Hear, hear.) He looked upon the Irish Land Bill of the Government as one of the grandest pieces of statesmanship ever offered for the acceptance of the country. (Applause.) He saw in every line of it the character of the great man at the head of the Government. (Hear, hear.) That character was a desire to do justice to the tenantry of Ireland. (Applause.) He never read a measure framed more in the interests of the nation than of a class, and at the same time doing injustice to no class, than the Bill. (Applause.) They should either do justice to Ireland, or let it go ; they should do what was right, and give the people a. chance to live or let them govern themselves. (Applause.) The speaker observed that after they got the Land Bill carried for Ireland, the question would be asked whether there should be any geographical boundary to principles of right. (Applause.) What they were fighting out in Ireland to-day they would have to fight out in England to-morrow. (Applause.) He concluded by seconding the resolution. Mr. C. P. Rose observed that though there might be some minor details of the Bill upon which they were not all agreed, he trusted they would all unite in supporting the Government upon the I principles of the measure.