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mentioned, and therefore have no personal motive in thus addressing you.-I remain,

A LOVER OF Justice. H.M.S. Royal Adelaide, Devonport, August 14th, 1887.

David Thomas, tollgate-keeper at Francis Wellgate, charged Colonel Paget Lestrange, at the Carmarthen Police-court yesterday, with assaulting him on the night of the 17th ult. Thomas said that at half-past eleven o'clock the Colonel, who was accompanied by two ladies, drove up to the gate and shouted for it to be opened. When complainant asked for the toll or ticket, the defendant failed to produce either, and threatened to break down the gate. Complainant refused to open it, on which the Colonel came down from the conveyance and horsewhipped him. Two witnesses corroborated the statement regarding the horsewhipping. Colonel Lestrange denied the assault; but the magistrate found him guilty, and fined him £1 and costs.

Dr. McGlynn and his Detractors.

AS MANY persons who ought to know better persist in attributing inconsistency to the opinions of this Radical priest, whose name is now so prominently before the public, we take the opportunity of giving his own words as an undeniable contradiction to their opinions:-"The Liberal and so-called Radical views which I am supposed to entertain, and recent utterances of which by me have been charged to a feeling of irritation because of my suspension and excommunication, have in reality been fully entertained by me, I may say, from the beginning of my priestly ministry. In private conversations and in discussions at conferences of the clergy I have not only not made any concealment of these views, but have very fully declared them and vigorously maintained them. I have also made known my views on more than one public occasion. I confess that I have been in great measure restrained from public utterance on these questions by prudential considerations, while my convictions were extremely clear and settled on them. I could not forget that I was a priest, and that my chief duty was to preach the gospel, to administer the sacraments, and to exemplify the charity of Christ. My interest, in questions of education, of politics and political economy, such as it has been, has always been with a clear vision, and because of a clear vision, of this spiritual and moral side of things; and my action outside of the pulpit or sanctuary, so far from being in any sense at variance with or alien to my vocation and work as a clergyman, was always prompted by an eager desire to help those spiritual and moral interests which it is the essential vocation of the priesthood to promote."

"WHAT DO FARMERS WANT," is the title of a lecture now being delivered in America by President Streeter of the Farmers' Alliance. This question may be asked in England, and if the true answer were given, it would be lower rents, and compensation for improvements, no game laws, and a fine on all landowners who keep their land out of cultivation. We recommend the English Farmers' Alliance to wake up and agitate.

REVIEWS.

"MADAME ROLAND," by Matilde Blind (Eminent Women Series, W.H.Allen& Co.).—MadameRoland, whose life is so eloquently described in the latest production of the Eminent Women Series, was a true martyr in the cause of liberty at the time of the French Revolution. She was one of that heroic group-the Girondists-who refused to defile their cause by a resort to that frightful form of revolutionary coercion, known as the Terror, but died protesting against the butcheries of Danton, Marat, and Robespierre, and asserting the power of love over force. But what Matilde Blind brings out so clearly is that the atrocities of the Revolution were a direct outcome of the atrocities of the court and nobles in the pre-revolutionary period. Force begets force, and a state of society in which the land was in the hands of a few luxurious absentees, whose only care was for the rack rents extorted by their agents, and in which the "rapacity of the privileged classes had cast the whole burden of taxation on the people," so that "the sole business of the government seemed to be to wring ever fresh subsidies from the body of the people," could not fail to bring, sooner or later, a terrible vengeance on the heads of those who were responsible for it. And in the end, the nobles had to suffer most from that ignorance and political inexperience which they had so studiously fostered in the people. A nation who in Normandy "lived on the grass of the field," who in Britanny "welcomed hanging as a deliverance from greater evils," who from end to end of France were liable to be pressed by the corvée into the unpaid labour of repairing the roads for the easier locomotion of the Grand Seigneur and the wealthy financier, naturally had but one idea after centuries of oppression and wrong, and that was to have revenge on their oppressors. But whatever cruelties they committed in 1792 and 1793, we cannot wish that a revolution had never been, which rendered to France the inestimable benefit of relieving her from a system of feudal land tenure, under which we English are still groaning.

A GOOD SUggestion.—" OUR CORNER," for August, contains a striking article on "The Economic Position of Land in England," and a suggestion of remedy drawn from the writer's observation of a particular instance of land tenure prevailing on an estate at Lea Bridge. This estate, which consists of 12 acies, is divided into 140 allotments, which pay £6 rent each, and therefore about £60 per acre, and yet form a profitable source of income to 140 working men, who grow flowers and vegetables there, and spend several hours at their gardening every evening when their work in town is over. Each tenant has a cottage attached to his allotment, and not the least part of the benefit they gain is the advantage of having their houses detached from one another, and thus escaping all the evils of over-crowding. Arguing from this instance, the writer shows what an immense benefit it would be if all the uncultivated land which is lying waste, for speculative reasons, round our big cities were distributed in allotments, on which our artisan population should spend their leisure evenings and thus improve their health and their incomes. He urges that this should be brought about by taxing land on its prospective value, instead of upon its income, and

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thus forcing the owners of the land either to sell or to cultivate up to its full value. Non-cultivation would thus cease to be profitable. The immense supply of land brought into the market by the action of the tax would compel the owners to sell cheaply. Such allotments, the writer argues, would inevitably feed the allottees if garden produce were grown upon them, and it is not necessary that they should do more. The great bulk of the people would still be fed from America. The writer points out very lucidly that the effect of this tax would be to give the people a share of the "unearned increment" which is at present carried off by the rich in the shape of immense ground rents. The article shows how the thought of the age is progressing.

WALTER SCOTT'S CHEAP EDITIONS. Mr. Walter Scott is doing a great work in bringing so much good literature within reach of the people. In past days literature has been for the cultured few, and in the eyes of the Quarterly Reviewer and men of that ilk, such is the ideal state of affairs. The people, forsooth, are to wallow in ignorance and darkness lest haply they should offend the muses by their vulgar gaze. Such, indeed, was the drift of an article contributed recently by Mr. Churton Collins to the Quarterly Review. For ourselves, we are no believers in an intellectual oligarchy. Some of our greatest writers have risen from the people. Some of our greatest writings have been written for the people. There is far less of pedantry and euphuism, and far more nobility and liberality of thought in the literature of a nation than in the literature of a clique. The greatest books of the world-for instance, the Bible and Shakespeare-are just those which can be "understanded of the people," and have least real need of a commentary. And it is one of the best signs of the age that so much literature is daily coming within reach of the growing intelligence of the English people. Our Education Act is one among what Caryle would call our "realised ideals," and its beneficial working cannot be better shown than by the enormous circulation given to the books before us. "Sea Music" is a collection of sea poetry from all our greatest singers, and Mrs. Sharp has made her selection very well. Early English Poetry is also a very pleasant

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little "royal road" to a literature which we read too little. Captain Singleton" brings the public into touch with one of the latest productions of our old friend, the author of "Robinson Crusoe." Though not so fully deserving of popularity as his more famous work, this book has many of the same characteristic ideas. It describes a life of peril and adventure with the same realistic minuteness of detail and beautiful narrative style. These little books can be purchased for one shilling.

CHURCH AND STATE." Coming events cast their shadows before" is an old and trite saying, and perhaps this may apply to the probable future relations between the Church and State. The other day, at the City of London Auction Mart, the advowson and right of next presentation to the vicarage of Chilcompton, in the county of Somerset and diocese of Bath and Wells, was submitted for sale, and described as a very desirable investment, the advowson comprising a comfortable residence with a quantity of glebe land and a vicarial tithe

rent charge commuted at about £138. The present incumbent is seventy-eight years of age. After the lapse of some time there was no bid, and it was withdrawn. Several church livings in different dioceses have recently been offered for sale at the London mart and provincial auctions have not only not been sold, but have not elicited a solitary bid. Query. Do speculators see the "writing on the wall?

WHEN the Agricultural Union, in 1874, first began to show that it was becoming a power, a letter of the bishop's went the round of the papers which drew on him a perfect storm of letters, abusive, sympathetic, and critical. "Are the farmers of England mad?" the peccant sentences ran. "Fair wages will have to be paid to the labourers. If farmers can't afford fair wages at present, rents must come down-an unpleasant thing, no doubt, for those who will spend the rent of a 300 acre farm on a single ball or a pair of high-stepping horses, but nevertheless inevitable."-Life of Bishop Fraser, by Tom Hughes.

THE ABSURDITY OF PROTECTION. - Mulhall gives the following figures on the consumption of wheat in the United Kingdom. The amount consumed annually was in the period :

1831-50 1881

Million Bushels. British. Imported. Total.

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B.-Yes; about 100 acres about forty miles from Adelaide. Two years ago I was offered £10 an acre for it. It is assessed for taxation at £6.

S.-What are you doing with it?

B.-Nothing much; it is all fenced in, and I let it to a neighbouring farmer for grazing purposes for £30 a year, but it will bring in more when things improve.

S.-Now, supposing a threepenny tax upon land values were imposed to-morrow, you would then have to pay £7 10s. a year tax.

B.-Yes; then I should expect the farmer to pay

more rent.

S.-Ah, but you must remember there is lots more land in your neighbourhood, some of which is also held by speculators like yourself.

B. Yes, lots; some of it not used at all. S.-But having to pay the tax the owners would soon have to put it to use, and I am afraid some of them would invite your tenant to make use of their land.

B.-Ye-s, I suppose they might if they did not put it to some use themselves.

S.-To put it to some use demands labour, so you see that even in your neighbourhood there would be a demand between landowners for labour.

B. Well, there would then be more produced. The products from the land would more than pay tax and wages, and so leave a margin for rent.

S.-At the present time the labourers who could produce from it are not allowed to do so at all, and so the competition for employment is created. So you see the same cause which reduces wages checks production and spoils trade.

B. -Yes; I know that when wages are low trade is bad. The poor devil can often not afford the necessaries let alone the comforts of life.

S.-Increased wages is simply a more equitable distribution of the wealth produced.

B.-Now, supposing you nationalised the land ? S.-Nationalising land is simply leasing it at such rates, or taxing it so heavily, that its mere ownership would confer no advantage to individuals.

B. But then it could be only held by those who are using it.

S.-Exactly; and what is more, putting it to its best use. Grazing cattle or running sheep over it can hardly be called utilising it.

B.-Well, no; more cattle and sheep could be raised on smaller holdings, but of course more labour would be required.

S.-But, as you have seen, each labourer would produce his own wages. Now do you see where the unlimited demand for labour would come in, and how wages would then be fixed according to a national law?

B. Yes, partly. Each man would only hold as much land as he could use; the larger undertakings would have to be carried on by co-operative societies of labourers. But I say, do not let us talk any more; you have given me enough to think about.

S. Very well; but do not forget that taxing land values is the only means by which wages can be permanently increased and profitable employment given to every man able and willing to work. -Our Commonwealth (Adelaide).

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WE learn from the Weekly Star that at San Francisco there is a popular pressure in favour of the Henry George Land-Tax Scheme. This conversion has been brought about owing to the opposition offered to some street improvements which were required, and which four-fifths of the property holders on a block favoured.

AT the last Cork Assizes Mr. Justice O'Brien congratulated the citizens upon the practical absence of crime in their midst. In the face of this judicial information from a Tory judge what plea can the coercionists now allege for the carrying out of the Coercion Bill?

THE law's delay is proverbial, and the Attorney. General the other night in the House of Commons, in reply to Mr. Bradlaugh, admitted that judgment had not yet been delivered in a case tried in March, 1886.

WANTED-A COURT OF CRIMINAL

APPEAL.

NOTHING could have shown more clearly

the urgent need of a Court of Criminal Appeal in England than the case of Lipski, who was convicted, on what afterwards seemed to the judge insufficient evidence, for the murder of Miriam Angel, in Whitechapel, and only respited on the day before that appointed for his execution. The man afterwards confessed and was hanged. But it is none the less obvious that the legal means at hand for revising a doubtful verdict (and such. verdicts must occasionally be pronounced) are miserably inadequate. The whole responsibility of deciding the merits of the case is thrown upon the shoulders of a man who may be absolutely wanting in judicial qualifications and is at any rate without any power of ordering a new trial in cases of doubt. Now, while it is extremely important for the executive to keep a firm hand on the criminal population, it is entirely impossible for them to do so if any suspicion of injustice is aroused, and the sympathies of the orderly classes alienated. In order to prevent this it is, above all, necessary that a man under the shadow of a capital charge should have every means of vindicating his innocence in face of the prejudice which the very fact of such a charge arouses. It is almost better that a guilty man should go unhanged than that an innocent man should be hanged. Nothing set the Irish people against the law so much as the doubt which still remains as to the guilt of Myles Joyce, one of the Maamtrasna "murderers." In this as in other matters we should do well to imitate the Americans, and strain a point in favour of the prisoner rather than against him. Life is so sacred that if hanging be necessary at all-which we very much doubt-there should never remain " a ghost of a shadow" of doubt as to the guilt of the man hanged. We should remember that any one of us may be falsely accused of murder some day, and then we shall experience how slow society is to believe in the innocence of a man once accused of such a crime-much more of a man who has been convicted and sentenced.

66

VEGETARIANISM.

A VEGETARIAN dinner was given to the representatives of the press, at the Orangegrove, St. Martin's-lane, on Wednesday, August 17th. The dinner was very pleasant, but, we fear we must admit, seemed to us rather wanting in backbone. The speakers talked a great deal about the laws of nature," and prophesied a general relief from all ills, physical, social, and political, if vegetarianism were only universally adopted. It is a pity that vegetarians so much exaggerate the importance of their cause to humanity, because such overstatement serves to obscure the really cogent arguments on their side. There is no doubt that most men eat too much meat and too little fruit, and it would be a great advantage to our country population if there were a greater demand for fruit. But, on the other hand, the people know full well that a cheaper diet would mean a smaller wage. Unfortunately, the money saved would not go on pleasant comforts, as vegetarians prophecy, for there would be no money saved at all. Employers would instantly say, "You can live on less, and therefore you shall have less." This is precisely what happens with the Coolie and the Hindoo, and to a certain extent with the German. We want to raise, and not to lower, the level of subsistence.

BEWARE OF BUREAUCRACY.

THE P. M. G. was quite right to protest against the aim and object of the Inland Revenue Bill brought in by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. There is no more fearful danger to the liberty of the subject-except despotism itself-than the spread of bureaucracy. The grinding mechanism of a completely centralised system of taxation treats all citizens as mere taxable units, and has no regard for the lights and shades of individual prosperity or adversity. The local tax collector on the other hand is chosen from among the people to be taxed, and from a more instinctive knowledge of their condition can adjust the burden more accurately and mercifully. The claims of Somerset House must be carefully watched, or

liberty in England will fall from the frying pan of monarchy and aristocracy into the fire of bureaucracy. We should not be faced with these difficulties in regard to our taxation, if for all our different systems-income-tax, excise, and house-rate-there were substituted one simple system of taxing land values. It is difficult to find out a man's income, but very easy to discover how much land he possesses.

EMIGRATION.

FROM recent statistics on the emigration of the world we find that there are in England 203,000 foreigners, and about 4,200,000 of the sons of England are scattered over the world. England takes the lead in emigration. Germany comes

next, with a total of 2,601,000. Strangely enough, 82,000 of these are residing in France alone, while 2,000,000 are in the United States. The other nations rate in the following order :-Italy, 1,000,000; Scandinavia, 795,070; Belgium, 497,000; France, 382,662; Spain, 453,400; Austria, 337,000, of whom 118,000 reside in Germany.

RECEIVED.

The Standard (Buenos Ayres), Greenock Herald, Irish World (New York), John Swinton's Paper. Le Prolétariat, Credit Foncier of Sinaloa (Hammonton, New Jersey), National Reformer, Women's Suffrage Journal, Jus, Temperance Record, Brotherhood, Evansville Courier (Evansville, Indiana), Workmen's Advocate (New Haven, Connecticut), Kapunda Herald, Standard (New York), Scottish Highlander, The Workman (Michigan), Highland News, Weekly Star (San Francisco), Labour Tribune, True Witness (Montreal), Carpenter (Philadelphia), Weekly Bulletin, Vincennes News (Indiana), North British Daily Mail, Social Problems (Des Monies, Iowa), Honesty (Melbourne), Age (Melbourne), Missouri Republican (St. Louis).

IDLE LAND. From a list prepared by Mr. Arthur Pryor, it appears that in the county of Essex, out of the 21,472 acres, which is the extent of the land of the county, no less than 8,187 are uncultivated. If this is the state of affairs in one county what must be the number of acres of land idle throughout the Kingdom which, if it were under cultivation, would find an immense amount of work and thereby prevent the grim march of starvation caused by enforced idleness?¡

THE DEMOCRAT.

"THEY HAVE RIGHTS WHO DARE MAINTAIN THEM."

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SOME persons imagined that the existing Government, composed as it is of Tory Democrats, Liberal Unionists, and Old Tories, would have considered the interests of the people for the purpose of prolonging their lease of power. If such had been the case, the DEMOCRAT would gladly have become one of their supporters, for names or prejudices shall never stand in the way whenever we have an opportunity of supporting sound practical legislation. The present Government have taken good care that we shall have no such opportunity. The power of privilege is being exerted to the utmost to crush the aspirations of the people, upon whom our rulers are forcing a life and death struggle for the preservation of the most elementary principles of freedom. "Awake! arise! or be for ever fallen !" are words which were never more pertinent to any period of our history than they are to the present. At Mitchelstown has been commenced a conflict of which the termination may not be seen for many a day. The right to speak and the right to live are denied by the authorities. The power which it is falsely said that they obtain from the people is used to exact from the suffering masses the means by which a pampered aristocracy fatten upon the industry of the starving poor. How can the people win, as win they must? The victory is to be had only on one condition. The people cannot be conquerors in the opposition of force to force, violence to violence, but they can successfully resist all the powers which may be marshalled against them by steadily refusing to submit to injustice. Let not another farthing of rent be paid for land in Ireland until liberty is restored to the Irish people. The folly of handing over to landlords their hard earnings will soon become apparent to the masses. When they have learnt this lesson, and that upon every man devolves the right and the duty of defending his own homestead, we shall be

PRICE TWOpence.

on the road to victory. In this way the battle in Ireland may be won in three months, otherwise it will rage for generations.

Law and Order among Employers. IT is a curious comment on the everlasting cant about "law and order" to find how difficult it is to get the law properly observed by large employers of labour. The Factory Acts, for instance, are defied on every hand, mainly owing to the lack of inspectors to force the employers into an obedience which ought to be readily and voluntarily given. There are not more than six inspectors in the whole of Scotland, one of whom has to inspect all the factories in Glasgow, and another all the factoriesnumbering 4,000-in an area of 15 miles by 10, and a third all those in a less populous area, 150 miles in length. In Ireland, again, there are but three inspectors in the whole country. The Government ought to remember, and doubtless do remember but prefer to ignore it, that an Act of Parliament is useless unless there are provisions for its enforcement.

A Labour Party Wanted. THE Daily News had a very unwise article on the decision of the Trades Union Congress to favour the formation of a new Labour Party in Parliament, independent of the two great English parties. "History is eloquent "against it, says this latest interpreter of the past, quite ignoring the patent facts in the history of the last seven years alone. For what gave the Parnellites their strength, except precisely this independence of English parties? And, then the Daily News bids us "look across the Channel," and see the terrible Nemesis that overtakes such proposals. We look, and we see nothing of the kind. We see, on the contrary, a remarkable absence of the evils we mostly suffer under. Among other things, we see a smaller army of unemployed and a larger

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