-Perhaps the most remarkable paper read before the Social Science
Association this week was Lord Reay's, on " The Tenure of Land." Lord Reay (Baron Mackay, in Holland) has experi-
ence in many countries and a diplomatic training, and, unless we arc very greatly mistaken, veils very Radical proposals under very Conservative forms of expression. His way of putting the matter is, first of all to decry the French system as imperfect ; then to point out that the Prussian system allows of settlement, though the right is little used ; and then to say that "our system, with judicious reforms, is quite capable of an- swering all the needs of the present hour." That is very nice and comfortable for Cbriservatives like Colonel Morgan, who, in a speech on Wednesday, said the one change wanted was more good-feeling between laudlords and tenants ; but Lord Reay then proceeded to mention his " judicious reforms." Land should always be held in such a way that it can be disposed of by sale. " Powers curtailing the right to sell by the person holding for the time in any capa- city should be disallowed by law." " Nothing should stand in the way of sale," though restrictions by way of settle- ment may be imposed on the investment of the purchase- money. • The transfer and mortgage of land should be reduced to a simple system, as in the Colonies and in Belgium," the offi- cials having power to refuse deeds not simple enough." No transfer or charge ou land should be valid without registration. The tenant should have compensation by law for unexhausted improvements. Lord Reay drops those little proposals into the camp of the landed interest, in total unconsciousness that they aro bomb-shells. Or is le quite conscious, and puts things that way from a conviction that reformers may go very far, if only they will say they detest revolutionary changes, and want only the removal of undeniable abuses P Lord Reay was distinctly opposed to peasant proprietorship, as impracticable, but would, as we have shown, make land as easily saleable as Consols. Would he add the Dutch proviso that no man can hold more than a certain number of manors P
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