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We should like to see such an agitation flourish , and therefore we hope it will not be made the vehicle for the promulgation of views that the bulk of the Liberal party will disapprove . To be successful it must be national , and Messrs . Cobden and Bright will do harm if they try to give to it an exclusively Manchester aspect . Above all * itinus * not be made a substitute for an appeal on behalf of parliamentary reform . Its true position is to help the larger movement by furnishing convincing proof that great social and industrial interests are concerned in obtaining a good measure as the sequel to that of 1832 . -
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LANDLORDS RIGHTS AND OUR DUTIES . Loed'Dekbt has taken a bold and unusual course . Some * time ago one of his tenants on the Doon estate , in Limerick , was murdered , and as the murderer has not been found out , his lordship has evicted every one of his tenants from this estate . He suspects that they have harboured and countenanced the murderer , and he adopts this mode to punish them . His conduct finds at least one stout defender in the , metropolitan press . " The eviction , " says the Times , " is the withdrawal of a benefit to which the tenant had no natural right . " It is not carried into effect to procure more skilful tenants and higher rent , by making the land more productive , it is "to vindicate law and justice "
His lordship ' s conduct is admitted to be " rough work , " " wholesale work , " a " most awkward , clumsy , barbarous imitation of justice . The noble lord is supposed to say , "I grant this , " but it is " the only tool / have for putting down the spirit of murder , and vindicating the rights of human life . " It is supposed that in other countries the people have a knowledge " of refined and accurate justice , " and they " obey the law " and help to carry it into execution . In Limerick , on the noble lord ' s estate , " society will riot give up the criminal ; " it stands in the way of " legal justice , " and on " " public and moral grounds" the eviction of the tenants is defended . The public are bound to scrutinise closely both the deed and the doctrine . It is done in the name of
righteousness ; it is defended in the name of law ; it will find many to praise , and some to imitate it , but it threatens to be the germ of much present disorder . It has frequently happened in many countries , and it continually happens now in the United States , that the multitude , impatient at the slow progress of the law , when some great state or other crime is charged against an individual , take the matter into their own hands and tear him to pieces or roast him alive . Like Lord Derby , they have an instinctive horror of crime '; the law does not get hold of a supposed criminal , and they , forming a " Vigilance Committee , " pounce on him and put him to death . They , at least , as the rule , believe their victim to be guilty ; Lord Derby knows that some of his victims must be innocent .
Violence is their tool , eviction is Lord Derby ' s , for putting down " the spirit of crime and vindicating the rights of human life . " Why should Lord Derby , any more than a mob , interfere with the execution of the law , and take it on himself to punish crime P The law decrees no punishment to the Doon tenantry for not hunting down a murderer . How dare Lord Derby decree it ? . Exactly like Judge Lynch or Judge Mob , he makes the law ordains a punishment , and carries his own decree into execution . It is nominally for righteousness now 5 another time it may be avowedly for whim ,
Those who approve of his conduct would alter their opinion were " sooiety " in Limerick the legislator and judge , and Lord Derby the victim . Then thejlaw woulu be thought all-sufficient ; and all punishment , except what is ordained—especially , a hasty punishment without trial and conviction for an act not punishable by law—would be stigmatised as monstrous cruelty and injustice . Lord Derby Beta a terribly bad example to the mob ; he practically denies , by his conduct , the sufficiency of law , and seeks for justice beyond it . . In Limerick , " sooiety " has the misfortune to
differ from Lord Derbv . Perhaps , too , it differs differ from Lord Derby . Perhaps , too , it differs from -sooiety in England , It has a much more intimate knowledge than he or than flR > oiety m England can have of all the domestic mm * neighbourl y relations of the man murdex * od , o » o it declines to exert iteelf to doteot the muraerw . " Society" there may have a strange taste ana a perverted coneoionoe—we defend neither ;
buibothhave been formed under the landownership of Lord Derby and the dominion of the English law . By now evicting his tenantry he brands the law , and impudently enforces his own opinion against the opinion of " society . " The only jury to decide between right and wrong is society ^ ; and for Lord Derby to punish society because it differs from him , is really to coerce its conscience , which the Times says is a terrible oppression . We must all deeply regret that " society " in Limerick or Tipperary has such a conscience , but the landowner , under whose administration it has been formed , has of all men the least right to punish it .
Because he is the landowner , Lord Derby , with the approbation of-the Times , assumes now all the power which in the middle ages belonged to the chieftains in Tipperary and in the Highlands . He does not indeed hang men after their fashion , he only starves them into submission without subjecting them to trial . "The land , " however , is the landlord ' s own ; the possession of it is a " means of power . " He uses it "to vindicate law and justice . " The " tenant has no natural right to its benefits ; " he enjoys it by the bounty _ the landlord , who may evict and starve him when he fancies that " law and order arid justice "
require , the eviction . Doctrines more perilous to the landlord ' s possession , put forth to defend a species of Lynch law , were never propounded . What natura right has the landowner to the land ? None whatever . The right to own land is a conventional right—a right supposed to be for the general benefit , and , therefore , ordained by the law , and guaranteed by the people , whose power guarantees and enforces all law . When this conventional right is used to starve men into submission to the will of the landowner , and effect what the landlord supposes the law ought to effect , the people may and must ask themselves whether
they will continue to guarantee arid enforce such a mere conventional right ? The land naturally belongs to the whole people—to one as well as to another—who permit it to be made private property , because this is supposed to be for the general welfare . If all its advantages , however , are to be usurped by such men as Lord Derby , and the possession guaranteed by the people be used only to debase , degrade and injure them , they may justly conclude that the sooner they act on their natural right , and resume possession of the soil , the better for their own safety and for the general welfare . We , at least , will not lend our voice to
enforce that law which gives Lord Derby the power 1 , though it be used to detect a murderer , arbitrarily to evict and starve all who live by cultivating the land guaranteed to him . We observe that Lord Derby ' s advocate continually confounds and contrasts law and justice . He speaks of legal justice , and implies the existence of illegal justice . Sometimes law and justice are the same , ai * d sometimes they are antagonistic . Such a confusion on very important matters in the minds of our public instructors must be obliterated . Justice , according to Home Topke , is that which is ordered ; and law , we all know , is ,
also , that which is ordered—ordered by Parliament , and ordered by the judges . No reasonable being now , however , doubts but that society , as a part of the universe , has a Moral Governor , one and the same for all , and what He orders is justice : what the Parliament and the judges order is &AW , and not jjustioe . We are continually finding oul what He orders , or what is justice ; to find it out , indeed , is the end and aim of all research . For this we treasure up experience ; for this we make observations ; for this we use all our senses , and day after day wo learn that the law of Parliament is not what the Moral Governor of the universe
orders , and is oontrary to justice . Whether the law wbioh guarantees the Doon estate to Lord Derby , which the people are denounced if they do not enforce , be ov be not consistent with justice , is the important point which has been brought into question by Lord Derby and his defender ; but which sooiety " cannot and will not allow them , or any clique , or any class , exclusively to settle . The bold aot of Lord Derby has startled the people into an investigation or landowners' rights , and the people ' s duties towards them and the law . It is a ray of light suddenly shot into a dark corner , where lies the buried evidence of crime long ago committed . What will be the effect on the national mind and fortxine , time only can show .
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THE KINGDOM OF UPPER ITALY . Week af ter week rolls on , and still the same uncertainty prevails with regard to the settlement of the Italian question . If Napoleon III . does not take care he may possibly find that he lias outwitted himself in inflicting this suspense upon the people and friends of Italy . Having , from experience , learned their aptitude for self-n-overnment , the Italians may perhaps not be inclined to submit to be governed by others when the moment arrives destined by the Emperor of France to see them again placed in leading strings . In vain do
the political adherents of Austria endeavour to prove that the proposed annexation of-the Duchies and the Legations to Piedmont is nothing less than spontaneous , the result of coercion , or at least deception , practised upon the middle and lower classes of those districts . Facts and results belie their assertions . The dictatorship has already lasted long enough to have lost the charm of novelty , and yet the greatest respect and affection continue to be manifested towards those -who act
in the name of Victor Emmanuel , or borrow the prestige of his title as a national ruler , to support their temporary authority . The Legations have just made the same formal offer of union as Tuscany , Modena , and Parma , and the Kinjr of Sardinia accepts the annexation conditionally , just as in the previous cases . It is said , though " with what amount of veracity is difficult to determine , that according to a clause in the treaty of oifonsive and defensive alliance between France and
Piedmont , the latter , in the event of a successful termination of the war , was to be enlarged to a kingdom of eleven or twelve million subjects . This would be almost the exact number of the population to which the Sardiniari States would amount if . the proposed annexation took place . ¦ Will it be permitted , or will it not ? That Ls the great and interesting question which every pne is asking of his neighbour at the present moment . It seems clear enough that this was not the " idea" for which Napoleon III . undertook the war in Italy . Will a State of
Central Italy be formed with a Napoleonic prince at its head ? Doubtless the question will now be definitively settled within the course of a few days , and we may , therefore , waive the further discussion of the matter ; but we would earnestly urge upon the Italians themselves and their noble leaders to act as if they were certain of success in their praiseworthy efforts to become a united people , and to be prepared to maiiifest a steady and resolute opposition to all attempts to coerce them . We are told that if the Central States
would take back their rulers , Austria would be willing to give up Venetia . Nothing could more clearly prove how intimate is the connexion between the rule of the banished Sovereigns and Austrian tyranny . The renewed control and influence which Francis Joseph would enjoy throughout the Peninsula by means of the restoration of the petty princes , would , bo such ns amply to compensate him for the material loss oi the Venetian territory , which he holds under the positive right conferred by the treaty oi itii <> . ot
Let the presently emancipated peoples conum Italy beware of voluntarily placing themselves once more beneath the yoke of Austria , whether tlirectly or indirectly . They may be very sure that after the events of the past six months retribution in no measured form or amount would oe their portion . They are at present governed 7 good , wise , and moderate men , forming the happiest contrast from the hot-hoadod , » iobrained republicans and demagogues , who have during former seasons of politioal transition lnjiao the Peninsula a very pandemonium , lf . , " ! lmivl in finrl t . Tio hnnnv medium between V 10 ICHCU
and apathy , A little more promptitude wo cnnno « but think would be justifiable and advniitngoou » under existing oiroumstanccs . We know that tue provisional rulers and statesmen have a «»» c ™ jrnrt to play . Most of them , as men of tnienc , reputation , and standing , are very naturally » Y- = , from committing themselves to any course wmen may compromise themselves or the country in cn »« affairs take a direction contrary to the ono wuic » they wish . Some of them , we know , have "oo cPJJJ missions , and are labouring energetically , to ""» saorifioo of personal comfort and p 1 > y « coMTOi being , in undertakings which they have the tuHess oonviotion will never result in suoooss . I ' ° , themselves deeply indebted to the hwporor m Franco for his assistance against Austria , ana con
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1106 THE LEADED [ No . 497 . Oct . 1 , 1859 :.
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 1, 1859, page 1106, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2314/page/14/
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