The Times, which has always hitherto proclaimed that land- lords
are essential to a well-ordered society, has apparently flung over Irish landlords altogether. In a most curious leader, pub- lished on Wednesday, it suggests that the landlords were for- merly kept as buffers "between the Executive and the masses ;" but that their power has been shattered, and it is now " ques- tionable whether their intervention is any longer an advantage." "Are not the intermediaries the fifth wheel of the coach ?" It hints that the State could levy rent more easily than the class, and that a large, far-reaching, and rapid scheme for their expropriation would be advisable. This is in- tended as a Conservative utterance, to facilitate Mr. Smith's• motion; but it is, of course, thoroughly revolutionary. Ten years ago, the Times would have condemned any politician who described the Irish landlords as officials retained for a purpose, and liable to be dismissed with compensation at the will of the State, as an incendiary. Opinion marches fast about Ireland, and we are not without fear of hearing the Conservative chiefs declare, that as the object of the Eighth Commandment is the protection of property, and as property in Ireland has not been made safe under its operation, that this, "in other days, useful piece of Jewish legislation" had better, for the present, be sus- pended. That resolve would make revolution rapid and far- reaching enough, even for the Times.
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