TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE CONTEST IN MID-CHESHIRE.
THE Election for Mid-Cheshire, which comes off on Wednesday, the 14th, is one of unusual interest, because the result will turn almost exclusively on the opinion of tenant- farmers as to the reforms they need. The electors number 9,433, the parties, though not equal, are so nearly balanced that a change of opinion in 200 voters would turn the scale in the Liberals' favour, and the candidates may be considered fairly on a level. The Hon. Alan de Tatton Egerton, the Conservative nominee, is, no doubt, a rather weak young man, who makes foolish speeches' and has a difficulty, even when sound points are suggested to him by his friends, in finding arguments in defence of their views. His opponent, for example, is in favour of a wider diffusion of landed property, thinking its "aggregation in huge blocks" injurious to agricul- ture; and Mr. Egerton wished therefore to explain that very rich men performed, by means of their riches, a useful function in the State. That is, at all events, an arguable proposition ; but all the poor young man could find to say was that, but for the superfluous wealth of the rich, there could be no charities, and, above all, no hospitals ! He was sure of that, for he "sat on the management of two of them," without apparently ever having heard of hospitals not supported by annual subscriptions. His remark, too, that he objected to compulsory compensation, but if landlord and tenant could not agree, then the State might intervene, was wonderful in its ineptitude. Nevertheless, Mr. Egerton is a formidable candidate. He is a thorough-going Tory, who be- lieves Mr. Chamberlain to be at furthest a grandchild of the Devil, and accuses him and his colleagues of having caused all the murders as well as all the disorders in Ireland. His party wants votes, not thoughts, and he stands in the very centre of
the group of great landlords who divide Cheshire, the richest of grazing counties, where, as Sydney Smith once said, every- body who is anybody has £30,000 a year. The landlords know they can trust the Hon. Alan all the better because
he is not the man to be original, but will vote under guidance ; the screw has been put on through some bare- faced letters from agents, which, if Mid-Cheshire were a big borough, would vitiate the election ; and as there are endless means with which to provide conveyances, the whole Tory vote is sure to be polled. On the other hand, Mr. G. W. Latham is a landlord known throughout the Division as a sincere and determined Liberal, who will support all measures introduced by his Party, and is earnestly in favour not only of the rural franchise, but of a wide redistribution of seats. He is an unusually good speaker, clear, quick, and intelligent, with a fund of spontaneous humour in him such as, in these dreary days of Parnells, Churchills, and Chaplins, has become far too rare. Above all, he has been known for years as the farmers' friend in Cheshire, holds firmly by the extremest propositions of the farmers' programme, and, as he affirms, acts on them in drawing his own leases. He utterly ridicules permissive compensation for improve- ments, and demands not only that compensation be compul- sory, but that the farmer shall receive the whole increment of value which his good culture has added to the land, and shall be entitled to levy it by the free sale of his holding to the next tenant without the landlord's consent. Indeed, after carefully reading all his speeches as reported at full length in the Liverpool Poet, we cannot but believe that Mr. Latham at heart is for some kind of fixity of tenure' and that he thinks the landlords' power of raising rent should be regulated by law. At all events, he denounced such raising& as usually unjust, in speeches which lead directly either to fixity of tenure, or to a State tribunal for the decision of fair rents, proposals as yet not seriously discussed in England.
Be that as it may, it cannot be doubted that a majority of Farmers in Mid-Cheshire approve these views. They applaud Mr. Latham energetically, they "heckle" Mr. Egerton on these points till the unfortunate young man is driven into utterances that are positively unintelligible and his friends on the platform pray for forbearance, and their leading representative, the Secretary to the Chamber of Agriculture, joins Mr. Latham's Committee. They are, as we believe, as a body inclined towards these views, extreme as we must deem some of them ; and the point of interest is how deep this inclination goes. If they only just approve them, they will vote for Mr. Egerton. The Division is full of grazing farms which have not suffered from recent seasons and falls in price like the arable farms, and the influence of the landlords, who are, almost without exception, liberal and kindly, will therefore suffice to turn the scale in favour of the Tory. But if the farmers are in earnest, if they really think that a new tenure—for it is that, and nothing less—is essential to the future of Agriculture, they will avail themselves of the Ballot, will throw the landlords overboard, and will vote in such numbers for Mr. Latham) that, rich as the proprietors are, penal evictions will be impos- sible. Nobody, even if he lives by hiring out land, caw affront all his customers at once. If the farmers do this, they will make a grave and deep mark in English politics, for they will warn all politicians that the question of tenure is coming= to the front, and that they must be prepared for demands. much larger than any as yet put forward. The position of Mr. Latham himself will accentuate the meaning of their vote. He is evidently no agitator, no man making. speeches which go beyond anything he would embody in Acts of Parliament. He is obviously a man con- vinced down to his toes, who restrains rather than urges. his own tongue, and who, if he once reaches Parliament,, will take up a position on tenure as clear as that of Mr. Charles Villiers once was upon the Corn Law. He is for the- total abolition of the land laws and primogeniture, for- such a restriction of settlement as shall leave land always saleable, and for one thing more. He means to change the tenure, and change it effectually, in the tenant's interest ; and in electing him, the farmers will show that their minds also are made up, and that a peaceful agricultural revolution is at hand. It will be impossible for any Government to be blind to such a vote, or to doubt that Tenure Reform, whatever its character, must be added to the list of the first-class mea-- sures supported by the Liberal Party. There will be little further doubt whether the landowners or the tenants should have precedence, and none as to the expediency of encounter- ing a hostile vote of the Lords upon the Compensation Bill by a dissolution. With a county like Mid-Cheshire lost, a county. which has belonged to "the families" since the Revolution, the Peers will no more go to the country upon tenure than upon. their own exemption from the jurisdiction of the Courts. Mr. Alan Egerton may well make as much as he does of Mr. Brad- laugh, and of his own queer thesis that it is wrong to abolish. the Christian oath, because God ought to be acknowledged,. but right, if you do not make the abolition retrospective—as. if God need not be acknowledged in the future—for these are,. at all events, less burning questions than those which Mr.. Latham forces on his attention.
We have, of course, no means of telling which way the- election will go, though we should think Mr. Latham's chance, in spite of the Bradlaugh red-herring, considerably the best ;. but we note with strong approval that in Mid-Cheshire, as. recently in Liverpool, there is no shirking, no attempt to catch votes by facing both ways, no pretence that the difference between the parties is an affair of words. Mr. Latham is only too outspoken, too ready to say unpopular things, too incisively clear in defining his own position. He does not even con- descend either to praise or abuse his opponent, but laughs at him, with a hearty, enjoying tolerance, which in the "Halls" and "Manors" of Cheshire must have something of the effeet of blasphemy. That is the open course, and it is by the open profession of the Liberal faith, with all its consequences, and not by the petty trickeries agents love so much, that great seats are to be won. We do not agree with every opinion Mr. Latham has uttered, but at least he has opinions, and the courage of them ; and we heartily hope he will be able to make them heard in Parliament, where at present the tendency is to present agricultural grievances as if the speaker felt that he must first of all apologise for his audacity. Mr. Chaplin actually snubbed Mr. Goschen the other day, upon his owi. subject, because he applied his economic knowledge to agri- culture without being a great landlord. He will not, we venture to say, snub Mr. Latham.
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