Speeches on Questions of Public Policy, Volume 1Bright, John
History
Speeches on Questions of Public Policy, Volume 1
Bright, John
Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1837-1901
Patchwork legislation will not now succeed; speeches from the Lord
Lieutenant--articles in the newspapers--lending to the landowners at 3
1/2 per cent. money raised by taxation from the traders of England, who
have recently been paying 8 per cent.--all will fail to revive the
industry of Ireland. I will now state what, in my opinion, is the
remedy, and I beg to ask the attention of the Government to it, because,
though they may now think it an extreme one, I am convinced that the
time will come when they will be compelled to adopt it.
In the first place, it is their duty to bring in a Sale of Estates Bill,
and make it easy for landowners who wish to dispose of their estates to
do so. They should bring in a Bill to simplify the titles to land in
Ireland. I understand that it is almost impossible to transfer an estate
now, the difficulties in the way of a clear title being almost
insurmountable. In the next place, they should diminish temporarily, if
not permanently, all stamp duties which hinder the transfer of landed
property, and they should pass a law by which the system of entailing
estates should for the future be prevented. [Laughter.] I can assure
hon. Gentlemen who laugh at this, that at some not distant day this must
be done, and not in Ireland only, but in England also. It is an absurd
and monstrous system, for it binds, as it were, the living under the
power of the dead.
The principle on which the law should proceed is this, that the owner of
property should be permitted to leave it to whomsoever he will, provided
the individual is living when the will is made; but he should not be
suffered, after he is dead, and buried, and forgotten, to speak and
still to direct the channel through which the estate should pass. I
shall be told that the law of entail in Ireland is the same as in
England, and that in Scotland it is even more strict. I admit it; but
the evil is great in England, and in Scotland it has become intolerable,
and must soon be relaxed if not abolished. Perhaps I shall be told that
the laws of entail and primogeniture are necessary for the maintenance
of our aristocratic institutions; but if the evils of Ireland spring
from this source, I say, perish your aristocratic institutions rather
than that a whole nation should be in this terrible condition. If your
aristocratic families would rear up their children in habits of
business, and with some notions of duty and prudence, these mischievous
arrangements would not be required, and they would retain in their
possession estates at least as large as is compatible with the interests
of the rest of the community. If the laws of entail and primogeniture
are sound and just, why not apply them to personal property as well as
to freehold? Imagine them in force in the middle classes of the
community, and it will be seen at once that the unnatural system, if
universal, would produce confusion; and confusion would necessitate its
total abolition.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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