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its tenants, any more than an ordinary landholder now is.

This palpable distinction between a political compact and a commercial contract escaped the astute perception of Mr. Gladstone, or he would never have framed his Irish land purchase scheme. If the State meddles with land it should resume absolutely, except when the land tax has been redeemed; in such case the redemption money should be returned, because the State has descended to a commercial transaction. Or, again, if it is contended that the original grant was in lieu of a pecuniary consideration for State services performed; then, to get rid of the question, it could repay the money value of the land estimated at the time of the grant, and land in early times was worth from 2d. to 4d. an acre rent. Such compensation would not be ruinous to the taxpayer. The increased value of the money is due to the increase of the population and not to any meritorious action of the landowner. Therefore, he can have no claim to it, the unearned increment.

Remarkable cases in point occur in Cornwall, where the Duchy has sold waste land and reserved the mineral rights. Purchasers, or their representatives, after making the land worth £5 a year rent, have been compensated at the rate of 10s. an acre by the miners for the fee simple of land they destroy, and under the plea that the Duchy sold for 10s., and the purchaser improved, or dealt commercially with, the land at his own risk.

Liberals are making to shake the Tory domination.
But how are they going to do it? A great meet-
ing has been held, Mr. John Morley has made a very
witty speech, and that doggerel, which is miscalled
the National Anthem, has been vigorously hissed
and every one is pledged vaguely to do something.
They have often been pledged before in exactly the
same manner. And what has come of it?
Nothing. And why nothing? Because in a great
city like London it takes much to urge men to
political toil. And what great good would they
get if all the ordinary Liberal programme were car-
ried out? None. Therefore they have no motive.
Give them a motive, a great motive, and they will
work-but not till then.-Yours truly,
X. Y. Z.

yours faithfully,

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DO LIKEWISE.

WILLIAM ARTHUR ANDREWS.

P.S. The name of the club is "The Ipswich Democratic Club."

TO THE EDITOR OF THE DEMOCRAT. SIR,-I am instructed by the Chairman of our Society to inform you that a new club has been formed in Ipswich. Its officers are all bona-fide working men, the subscription is one penny per week, and it holds its meetings every Tuesday evening at eight o'clock, at the "George Inn," Woodhouse-street. Every fourth Tuesday is taken up by an entertainment, to which all are invited, as well as on the other three Tuesdays, for political discussion and enlightenment of the workers. In the case of railways, the State, through an Trusting you will be able to insert this in FebAct of Parliament, actually exercises its preroga-ruary's DEMOCRAT, I remain, on behalf of the club, tive of resuming land for public uses, while the promoters justly compensate the landlords commercially, as between men and men. But should the State require land for national defences, works of public utility, recreation grounds for the people, or even for resettling the labourer on the soil under the three acres and a cow" programme, or any other allotment scheme based on purposes of sound political economy, then it can and should resume by cancelling its political compact with landlordism fortiori. The object of Mr. Gladstone's Irish land purchase scheme can be more readily attained by the constitutional method, lying in abeyance, of resumption without compensation. Startling as this announcement is, it is nevertheless true, and the deeper and closer our investigation the clearer is the truth brought home to us. I repeat educate, educate, educate! I want my countrymen fully to know that our country belongs to us, and that we can sweep away at a breath the usurping parasites who have betrayed their trust, filched our country from us, and exercised fictitious rights of ownership over it.

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JOHN WHEELWRIGHT.

LIBERALS AND LONDON.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE DEMOCRAT. SIR-It is wrong to say that the provinces are jealous of London. As a matter of fact they are proud of London. Aud whatever is done in London is of interest even to those dwelling as far away as the capital of the Highlands. Thus all Britain watches with interest the struggle which London

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CAUTION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE DEMOCRAT.

SIR, When our Prince becomes our King, I would consider him paid with exaggerated liberality if we gave him two pounds a week and his travelling expenses-third-class. And although all Democrats are not prepared to go this length, there is a general feeling abroad that the Prince would be well paid with a fourth or fifth of the monstrous income we give to his mother. Now this is a question that should be agitated. No public meeting should take place without it being brought forward. The public conscience should be aroused. If Her Majesty were to die suddenly, the Prince might, in the present state of public opinion, be able to lay his hands on the whole enormous income of royalty. It should be our duty to so awaken all thinking men that we will make this an impossibility-Yours truly,

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LETTER FROM THE CHILDREN'S

DEMOCRAT.

MY DEAR CHILDREN,-In my last letter I spoke of the increased rents which are paid in London, in consequence of the improvements and advantages which have been brought about in that place. Now this increase of rent ought to go into the pockets of the people whose skill and industry have brought about these advantages. This might be done by paying taxes or rates with it. In some way it should save the people expense, or promote further improvement, and what we want are members of Parliament who will vote for this.

But it is not Lo.don only. All over the country you will find that everybody's skill, and everybody's industry, and everybody's goodness goes to swell the amount of cash which goes into the hands of the owners of ground-rents. Suppose, for example, that your father is a shoemaker, and that (letting rents alone) he could make more profits than most other shoemakers. The reason of this may be that he is in a better place for getting custom, and that may be because someone has built and keeps up a mill or a factory which keeps a great many persons in employment. If this is the case, your father will have to pay higher rent, so will everyone else in the place, and the man who owns the groundrents will get richer through the labour and enterprise of other persons. Or your father's business may be profitable because he is in such a good place for sending off goods, and for getting in those that he needs for his work-the roads and the railroads or seaports are so good and so convenient. The consequence will be just the same, persons always have to pay higher rent in a place where traffic is made more convenient, and the man who claims and receives this increase of rent may have done nothing to promote the conveniences. He may have done something, but whether he has or not makes no difference to his having the power by law to demand it. But there is another way in which your father's business may have become more profitable, and that is by his having learned to make shoes cheaper or better. In this way he is likely to keep more of the profit to himself than in either of the other ways, but even in this case also his cleverness will tend to swell the amount of the ground-rent in his neighbourhood. Men like to live where there are good workmen, good shops, and where the best goods can be had without sending to a distance for them. It is worth while to pay more rent in such places, and whose skill and industry has made it worth while? You cannot even mend your tempers or your manners without improving the prospects of owners of ground-rents, for you can think what a difference there is between having to say, "What delightful neighbours we should have if we went to live there," and, "What disagreeable neighbours we should have." A doctor cannot become more skilful, or a teacher more efficient, or a lady more beautiful, but it tends to make residence in the neighbourhood to be more sought after, and to increase the gains of the owners of the ground.

Now nothing can be more desirable than that the good of one should be also the good of another, but this must be brought about by mutual industry

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"The New Liberal Programme." By representatives of the Liberal Party. Edited by Andrew Reid. Swan Sonnenschein and Co., Paternostersquare.-As it is notorious that Mr. Reid is essentially a party man, and that his writings and compilations are published in the interests of the Liberal party, the remarks he appends to the declarations of a number of prominent Liberals are significant. Mr. Reid says: The Land Question in England has now got beyond the reach of any society such as the Free Land League. We must lay hold of some great objects and principles. What are some of these objects and principles? 1. That the State shall not purchase the land for the benefit of the landowners, or even for the labourers. 2. That the cost of putting the labourer on the soil shall be thrown not upon the rates, but upon the rents and the landowners." Again, "We have stated that the soil of the United Kingdom belongs little more to the British people than the soil of France belongs to the Englishman. The time has come when this intolerable and humiliating condition of the people in relation to the evil of their own country, must be remedied. We are not going, however, to remedy it by the nation handing to the owners of land a price for what is the nation's. We will not act unjustly to any man, but we had better be unjust to one individual than to a whole people. . The landlords have reaped in the past, the State must reap in the future. If the latter, by a far-reaching policy, shall attempt to undo the public and vast mischief which the landowners have inflicted upon the community, and of which they have now become the victims; if the State calls back again the yeomen to the soil and puts the spade into their hands and the seed into their baskets when the fields are deserted, the homesteads in ruins, and the soil choked with weeds; if it changes all this into fruitful plains populated by a happy peasantry, will any landowner who has been the parent of the desolation dare to come in the time of rejoicing and harvest, and say to the State, "I am the owner of all this; give me compensation-purchase my land-pay me my rent? Pay him rent for his desolation! Compensate him for ruining the country!" Mr. Reid is in favour of the abolition of the House of Lords:

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"a heavy progressive succession duty," and the payment of election expenses out of the rates.

An interesting lecture on "The Reform of Local Self-Government," by Mr. Silvanus Trevail, has been reprinted from the "West Briton." Mr. Trevail points out the complications of the present system, and advocates the formation of local councils" responsible for every description of local administration now performed by Local Boards, School Boards, Burial Boards, Boards of Guardians, Sanitary Boards, Highway Boards, &c." As an intermediate between the local council and central authority, Mc. Trevail advocates the formation of County Boards. He is also in favour of separate National Parliaments for England, Scotland, and

Wales.

The Million (Des Moines, Iowa), is all solid facts and figures. It is meant to track Free Trade to the United States, and therefore to supply the great Union with one of the very few things it Tacks for its proper enfranchisement and develop ment. The Million is just the sort of journal Richard Cobden would have admired.

The Weekly Star of San Francisco is an advanced and brilliant advocate of Land Reform. With its views on Chinese labour we do not, however, quite agree, although it is doubtless one thing to speculate on the Chinese problem in Britain and quite another to deal with it in America. The Chinese are seemingly irreclaimable. They live a heathen life in the midst of a Christian land, and spread vice while they lower the price of labour. But surely after all they put more into the country than they take out of it, and they might with a properly regulated labour system be made very useful, especially in doing such work as white men cannot and will not do.

John Swinton's Paper (New York), is one of the few prints we read through and through. There is nothing in it not worth knowing, and little that is not worth careful study. Any club of British workmen who want to know how affairs are moving across the herring-pond would find a dollar a year spent in buying it, and half-a-dollar in bringing it, a very profitable investment. John Swinton is very anxious to change the word boycott to taboo. We don't particularly see why. A word like boycott provokes curiosity, and makes men think on the great struggle between those who work and those who rule.

The Industrial News (Toledo, Ohio), is a high class labour paper of a kind that it would rejoice us to see in this country. It hits from the shoulder, but never strikes below the belt.

The Board of Trade Journal is one of the results of bad times. Merchants are complaining so loudly and with so much justice that officials are almost as useless as the Archbishop of Canterbury, that they are beginning to consider it advisable they should do something for their money. Thus this journal and the Emigration Statistical Office share an awakening desire on the part of our highly-paid officials to make themselves useful. The feeling is very laudable, and the journal is very good-as far

as it goes.

The Kapunda Herald (Australia), is fighting a very honest battle against those who go on recklessly opening up railways in Australia that will not pay. The public debts of Australia are quite high enough, and we cannot see why they should be made higher to enrich the land-grabbers who would of course drain immense profits from the increased value of their land.

bad man Singer." This desperate person actually The Commonwealth (Adelaide), is edited by "that robbers. This irreligious man positively has the believes that land robbers are as bad as highway audacity to think that Christ's ministers should tionary harbours the mad, bad idea that poor men act up to Christ's example. This bloody revoluhave a right to live. No wonder his journal is hated-and read.

The Workman's Advocate (New Haven, Connecticut), is a broad and manly working man s paper. It talks as sensibly about the Canadian fishing difficulties as if it were edited by King Solomon and sub-edited by Mr. Tupper. It is not our fight." Don't let Canadian and States workmen fight each other, but let both join against the monopolist. What matters the trifle extra that goes to Canadian labourers or to States labourers when after all it's "all in the family."

The Scottish Highlander (Inverness).--A paper of the right sort, and just a very thorn in the sides of the northern landlords. Lately Lord Lovat tried to cheat his tenants out of whatever fair advantages the Crofter Act gives them. And he would have succeeded, too, in getting them to sign leases but for the energy of the Highlander's editor, who not only exposed in print the meanness and deceit of Lovat, but went down and explained, point by point, to the tenants who came miles to hear him through the rain and storm, every point of the Act. Now the tenants would rather cut off their hands than sign a lease, and the landlords regard that editor with truly Christian feelings.

The Vincennes News (Ind., U.S.) bears on its dauntless front a motto which we recommend to our friend, Mr. Labouchere, for his admiration : "Nothing is beautiful but Truth." The News is very good news, and it has a smart way of putting things. Some Anti-Free Trade journal has been putting the old conundrum, "How did Britain get on for ten centuries without Free Trade?" And the News replies, "just as it got on without steam, but couldn't get on without steam now.”

We read through a whole week's Evansville Daily Couri (Evansville, Ind., U.S.), and not only survived it but enjoyed it. The toughest part was a sermon by Dr. Talmage, so highly coloured that one wanted to read it with blue spectacles. The fact is that Talmage's sermons are all seasoning with a little meat thrown in. News from all parts of the world is well boiled down in the Courier, and what is dull is boiled out. We find from its ably-edited columns that land companies in the United Kingdom hold in the States 2,016,883 acres in fee simple, 1,445,796 acres in lease. If we add the enormous acreage held by individuals it will be seen that the landed classes of this country have

cut out for themselves very pretty estates in the new world. The time has decidedly come for the United States to keep its lands for its own people and to warn off foreign grabbers.

The Oban Times is a newspaper that has fought the Crofter battles ably and long. It has a very wide range of correspondence, it is written and conducted with great talent, and it is as popular with landlords as mustard is popular with cats.

The Highland News (Inverness) is another journal of the highest merit, and is devoted to the best interests of the Highland people.

To read The Irish World (New York) is to admire it. There is a dash and swing in its articles with a brilliancy of style and a Celtic fervour that makes it more than interesting. At the same time we greatly doubt if Mr. Patrick Ford, its editor, serves in it the best interests of the Irish people. He does not clearly enough distinguish the British people from the British patricians. He does not make sufficient note of the fact that as soon as the Democracy of Britain was roused to the meaning of the Irish question it made a speedy and generous response.

The Londoner Arbeiter-Zeitung is another German paper that we are pleased to see upon our table. In its own words it exists

"Für des Volkes Richte Gegen alles Shlichte!" and certainly it goes out to do battle for the people with zeal and ability.

The Pioneer (Glasgow) is a new weekly paper upon thoroughly Democratic lines. It represents, ably and eloquently, the growing feeling in the West of Scotland that we must have real political work from the old political leaders or else provide ourselves with new leaders. Democracy in Scotland is a thriving plant, and we believe that the Pioneer will give it adequate expression.

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RECEIVED.

Weekly Star (San Francisco), Highland News, Industrial News (Toledo, Ohio), Oban Times, Weekly Echo, New Zealand Herald, Kent and Susse.c Times, Jus, Scottish Highlander, Northern Ensign, Sheffield Weekly Echo, Londoner Arbeiter-Zeitung, Vincennes News, Commonwealth (Adelaide), Labour Proletariat, Weekly Bulletin, Workman (Grand Rapids, Michigan), Crédit Foncier of Sinaloa, Daily Courier (Evansville), John Swinton's Paper, Temperance Chronicle, Workmen's Advocate (New Haven, Conn.), True Witness (Montreal), Irish World, Carpenter, Pioneer, Shadow of the Sword, Scottish Leader (Edinburgh), Kapunda Herald (Kapunda, South Australia), Malvern Advertiser.

With the religious views of the Liberator (Mel-Tribune, Evansville Courier (Evansville, Ind.), Le bourne) we have no sympathy whatever. At the same time it is idle to deny that Secularist opinions have sway with many. And it would be well if our clergy, who are much given to fighting men of straw, would study the views set down here with great ability and with no intemperance of language. Much that is said about the practice of Christians and Christian churches, we must sadly confess to be only too true. When such papers as the Liberator are popular and respected, the Church should look to its ways.

All classes of the community should read the interesting consular reports that have lately been A very lively, energetic, and able paper is the coming to hand. It appears from these that the Labour Tribune (High street, West Bromwich). two great objections to British goods are the disIt represents in capital style the coal and iron honesty of some of our merchants, and the aristoworkers of this country. The editorials are thought-cratic methods of some of our commercial travellers. ful and the notes have a brightness not common on this side of the Atlantic.

The light is spreading. From Germany there reaches us the first dozen numbers of Land (Berlin). All these numbers are written in a thoughtful and philosophical manner; indeed, if we were to offer any criticism we might ask the editor to give us a few more figures and a little less philosophy. We are very eager to learn more about German land and the German Land Law. A feature of Land is that now and then it supplies a very clever picture. In the first number this picture is called "Between Scylla and Charybdis.' The ship of the German State is tossed between Revolution and Reaction, while right in front of it is the lighthouse of Freedom, to which Miss Land League points as she stands waiting to take the helm. The declaration of faith (unser Glaube) in the first number amounts, in short, to this: "The beautiful earth was made for man, and there is ample room for all men to live in comfort upon it." We hope to see more of our brilliant and eloquent contemporary, and we congratulate the Land Reformers of Germany in being served by so excellent a newspaper.

So many men are hastening to dishonest riches and the House of Lords, that English shoddy is held in hatred where the foot of Englishmen has never gone. As to our foreign travellers, they affect the style of the Prince of Wales, and try to impress their customers with their condescension in trading at all. We want truer men with better manners to revive our trade.

THE editor of Longman's Magazine has interested himself in a scheme by which warm and wholesome food is given at almost nominal prices to the labourers at the docks. The whole amount of money received by him during the year is something less than £230. We find that during last October alone over 1,300 men were served with soup, or stew, or pudding. How the men who received these rations would have lived but for the

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Donna," as the provision cart is called, we do not know. But this we do know, that £230 would but coldly furnish forth an aristocratic feast. More money is wasted in the West End of London in a day than would feed the East End for a week.

Ir is good news that Gladstone and Churchill are together about to raise the "Flag_of

Economy."

A WORKMAN'S SECRET.

For some months following the death of his grandfather life flowed very smoothly and evenly with Robert Makinnon. Work was very plentiful in Glasgow, and a skilled workman could earn high wages. His sister and he had a house in one of those streets near the West-End Park, where there are better and cheaper houses for the more prosperous of the working classes than in any other part of that great grim city. Miss Kate Makinnon was a very quiet nice little girl, with a good head and a good heart, who worked very hard all day in a neighbour ing school, and enjoyed at night the society of her brother. Of late, too, she had very much of the society of another. We have mentioned a young pro bationer, Mr. Robertson. He. too, had come to Glasgow as "assistant minister" to that light of the evangelical pulpit D. Boanerges McDuff. In the long winter evenings he often came to the brother and sister saying little to them, but feeling supremely contented. A strange group these three hoppy, quiet young people. In an arm chair close to the blazing fire sat Katie busy with one of those miracles of female art which it is not given to the male mind to comprehend, or the male pen to describe. Mr. Robertson would sit beside her in a high, straight chair, and would read aloud some book in which with a woman's good nature she pretended to be interested. Had any sharp person like you or I, dearest reader, been present we might, no doubt, ever and again have seen that Miss Katie looked up to the reader with just the slightest touch of mischief in her eye and just the slightest smiling pout on her sweet red lips. Very still and demure this little girl was, but she could laugh at times with that musical archness that is the sweetest thing in woman. Not a fairy mind you, or if a fairy a working fairy, and a little weary with her hard life tasks. A house fairy at any rate as she tripped about and set supper on the table, and said pleasant things to her brother or to her brother's friend.

As to her brother he sat a little apart with a box of compasses and drawing paper befo.e him. In these mathematical instruments Katie had the deepest pride, and she kept them in a state of brightness such as made them the very aristocrats of mathematical instruments. They had been won as a prize in the evening classes, and had first brought Robert Makinnon to the notice of those who love to see talent unfold its sweet blossoms among the people. And well had they been used. Robert Makinnon had three pleasures in life. He loved the quiet home he had made for himself in the mighty city, he loved the keen political discussions of the debating club, and he loved the peculiar scientific studies connected with his profession. It is the noblest and most hopeful sign of cur day and generation that thousands of young men like Robert Makinnon are growing up, and are changing the whole current of modern thought. Antique prejudice has no chance against these young Davids who are bothering the poor maimed old giant with whole volleys of smooth pebble-stones.

For years Makinnon had thought and worked. He had been to sea in one of those great vessels that are like travelling hotels. Even there, pencil book or Japer had been ever in his hands. His comrades laughed at him, but respected him. They felt that he was altogether one of themselves. We hear much of workmen's jealousy. We are told that the man who raises himself a little above his fellows becomes distrusted and hated. We are often told that always the

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best workmen cease to be workmen. No wonder is it when such things are believed that there is antipathy between class and class! Workmen only hate those fellow-workmen who succeed by lying, sneaking, and fawning. But the power to lie, fawn, and sneak is a great mercantile talent. If the human race were suddenly deprived of these high powers one half of our greatest and most honoured reputations would collapse like the pin-pricked bubble. Honest working men, that is to say three-fourths of the working class, regard with pride the success of a brother workman. It is a compliment to themselves; an honour to their whole body.

say.

Thus Robert Makinnon was liked by all his brother engineers. He was thoroughly one of them. When he rose quietly and modestly to speak at any of their They knew that when he spoke he had something to meetings he was heard with silence and respect. had made a great mechanical discovery. Whence the By-and-by it began to be whispered that he When Makinnon himself was questioned as to his rumour came and how it spread none could be certain. discovery he only laughed in a half awkward manner. But those who knew him best were certain that he had discovered some great application of science. At last the rumours came to a head.

Katie had once or twice looked up from her sewing, and had noticed something that surprised her. Robert was sitting, as was his custom, a little apart at a table, upon which were his drawings. But he did not seem to mind them. Leaning his head upon his hands, he was staring intently into the fire. The attitude was so unusual, the look upon his face of weariness and vexation so extraordinary, that she took advantage of the first pause in Mr. Robertson's reading to ask if he were ill.

"No, not ill, Katie, but put out a little." Ka'ie looked very anxiously into his face.

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Oh, it is not much," he said, replying to her look. "Get supper on the table, and then I want your advice-yours and Mr. Robertson's."

Katie bustled away, and Makinnon came to the fire, and leaning against the mantelpiece, said, as if to himself, "Yes, I would rather have the advice of little Katie than that of a D.D."

"Far be it from me," said Mr. Robertson, "to undervalue the counsels of the Church, which are for a comfort to all ages, but I agree with you that many a D.D. is less wise than Miss Makinnon." Having made which alarmingly gallant speech Mr. Robertson felt faint and cold, and seemed almost to expect that Robert would snub him. But Makinnon was too much engrossed to notice even this tremendous compliment, and Mr. Robertson began to recover.

"Katie," said Makinnon, as they seated themselves at the supper table, "how would you like to be a fine lady?

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I don't know, Robin; do you intend to make me

one?"

"Mr. Robertson, how do you think Katie woull look in a grand carriage, with a pair of horses and a pair of footmen?"

Unhappy Mr. Robertson. He knew that he must pay a compliment, and still he had not quite got over the perturbation caused by the last. At length he cleared his throat, and blushing and stammering. muttered, "Miss Makinnon would look well under any circumstances."

And thereupon he hid his blushes in his coffee cup.

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