Mr. Morley wants this Parliament to act, and entirely agrees
with Mr. Chamberlain in refusing to enter a Cabinet in which his proposals about the land might not be pressed. We do not, however, understand him to endorse the particular pro- posals. On the contrary, the drift of his speech is to declare that loans to labourers to buy land in parcels are identical in principle with loans to landlords to make drains with. That is true enough, and it may be ex- pedient to make such loans ; but purchase is not expropriation. Mr. Morley added that Mr. Gladstone, in words which he quoted, admitted that the expropriation of land "for an adequate public object was an admissible act." No Englishman can doubt that, for he is always expropriating ; but the question is the object. Is the poverty of a single class a just reason for the expro- priation of property belonging to another class ? If it is, why should not all bootmakers be compelled to make boots for the shoeless at a price ?
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