Lessons to be drawn from American experience
Majorities required in different nations for constitutional changes
Attempt to introduce the two-thirds majority system in New South Wales
Small stress placed in England on legislative machinery
The English belief in government by gentlemen
Declining efficiency of parliamentary government throughout Europe
England has not escaped the evil
Increasing power and pretensions of the House of Commons
The Parish Councils Bill of 1894
Excess of parliamentary speaking—Its causes
Growth of the caucus fatal to the independence of the House of Commons
The relation of the House to Government—Disintegration of parties
And of the appetite for organic change
Both parties have contributed to this
Conservatism in English Radicalism
Rendered easy by our system of taxation
Sir Cornewall Lewis on the best taxation—Indirect taxation
Remissions of direct taxation sometimes the most beneficial
Exaggeration of Free Trade— The corn registration duty—The London coal dues
The abolition of the income tax made an election cry in 1874—History of this election
Appeals to class cupidity by the Irish Land League
Its success has strengthened the tendency to class bribery
Irish Land Question
Peculiar difficulties to be dealt with in Ireland
Tenants' improvements—Sharman Crawford's proposals
Abortive attempts to protect improvements
And of 1870—Its merits and demerits
Paucity of leases and tenants' improvements—How viewed in Ireland
Rents in Ireland before 1870 not generally extortionate
But such rents did exist, and most tenancies were precarious
Absolute ownership of land under the Incumbered Estates Act
Circumstances under which this Act had been car ried—Its nature
It guaranteed complete ownership under a parliamentary title
Confiscation of Landlord Rights by the Act of 1881
Fixity of tenure given to the present tenant
Which could not honestly be done without compensating the owner
Inseparable rights of ownership destroyed
The New Land Court and its proceedings
Rights of the Legislature over landed property—Mill
Dishonest character of Irish land legislation