Mr. Balfour made one of those critical speeches in which
he excels, and pointed out how extraordinary were the incon- sistencies of the Government in their treatment of the land question. In Ireland they were trying to get rid of dual ownership, in Scotland they were endeavouring to introduce it, while in England they appeared to object both to dual ownership and peasant proprietorship, and had produced yet another scheme. For a party to express three different opinions at the same time through its organised Government was a "record." Mr. Balfour in the later part, of his speech was strongly in favour of purchase au against hiring. For our- selves, we hold that the small holder will probably do better on a hired farm than on a farm of his own; but that does not alter the fact that it may prove unjust to compel an owner to lease when he would rather sell. The local authority, though it has bought from the landlord, need not sell to the small holder, but can perfectly well let to him. Though we have no great love of compulsion, we do not ask that it should be excluded from the Bill ; but it seems to us that the land- lord should have the right to say "If you use compulsion, take the land out and out." In the end the second reading of the Bill was passed without a division.
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