Letters and Papers Concerning the Trans-Persian Railway and Other Railways in Persia [‎217v] (434/442)

707 The Government's Land Polio/, f LORDb J The Government's Land Polio/. 708
learned Viscount on the Woolsack is
stretching the English language to extreme
limits when he tells the House that very
much was explained to us. I did not
grasp the true inwardness of Lord Crewe’s
observation the other night as to the
hallucination under which we were supposed
to be suffering in describing this as a new
policy. I subscribe entirely to what Lord
Camperdown said about the new policy.
This is not an expression which we have
coined. Day after day in the Daily News
we see the headline, “The New Liberal
Policy.” That must mean something.
At all events I have not heard anything
from the Government which convinces
me that it means nothing. Mr. Outhwaite
is only one of many people who, following
the lead of a powerful Minister, have taken
this line and announced the crusade on
the new policy. The mystery amuses
me. These are days of tourneys, and if
they like to masquerade throughout the
country as un-named Ivanhoes we have
no objection ; but we know under whom
they act. I should be the first to agree
that we can go too far afield into conjecture
as to what land reformers may have in
their minds, or what they may be in a
position, which is much more important,
to force the Government to do. But
I am bound to say that this extraordinary
blend of Delphic utterances and cate
gorical statements does drive us into
conjectures of this kind. They may be
conjectures ; but these two things acting
together naturally give rise to alarm and
suspicion, which I do not think either the
speech of the noble Marquess on Monday
night or the few words from the noble and
learned Viscount to-night are likely to
allay, in the minds of people who have
some little apprehension as to what this
new policy may land us all into. *
*The Marquess op LANSDOWNE : My
Lords, the noble and learned Viscount on
the Woolsack has, if he will forgive me for
saying so, shown himself a very ingenious
but not a very convincing commentator
upon a somewhat doubtful text. He
fastened upon the use by Mr. Outhwaite
of the words “ land monopoly,” and I
think he suggested that I, too, desired the
land monopoly to be broken down. I
object very much to the use of the term
“ land monopoly,” because I do not
believe there is any such thing at the
presept time. The facts of which we are
every day made aware by the public Press
Lord Ribblesdale.
show that land is not at this moment by
any means held as a monopoly. I quite
agree with the noble and learned Viscount
in thinking that it is a great misfortune
that the land of this country should be in
the hands of a comparatively small number of
people, and I am quite willing to co-operate
with him in any movement directed to
bring about a dispersal of the land among
a larger number of owners. But that was
not by any means what was suggested by
Mr. Outhwaite in his speech at Crewe.
What Mr. Outhwaite stated, and stated,
I venture to think, quite definitely, was
that a great campaign—which he described
as the greatest contest between privilege
and the people that had been known since
the days of the Corn Laws—was to be
undertaken by the Chancellor of the
Exchequer with the approval of the Prime
Minister. That was a perfectly definite,
and I must say a somewhat alarming,
statement. I dislike it because it seems
to me to be full of that class prejudice
which is always imported, so it seems to
me, when these questions are discussed in
Radical circles. What my noble friend
has asked is, I think, a perfectly legitimate
question—or I should say three perfectly
legitimate questions. He asks whether
this story of the great campaign is true or
not. The noble and learned Viscount,
apparently, is not aware wdiether it is true
or whether it is not true. Then my noble
friend asks whether this unofficial and
informal Inquiry, which, remember, has
been undertaken at the request of the
Government and the results of which are
to be made available for the information
of the Government, for that has been
distinctly stated—whether this Inquiry
has nothing to do with the great campaign
which is to take place in the autumn. We
can, I think, draw our own conclusion as
to that. And, thirdly, my noble friend asks
whether it is the case, as it evidently is the
case, that the Inquiry and the campaign
are very closely indeed connected. If they
are, what becomes of the statement made
by the noble Marquess who leads the House
when he told us that there was no question
of this Inquiry leading to a new policy
and that those who had any such anticipa
tion were labouring under an hallucination ?
Those are three simple and straightforward
questions, and I venture to say they have
not been answered this evening.
House adjourned at five minutes past
Seven o’clock, till To-morrow, a
quarter past Four o’clock.