TWO CAN PLAY AT FREEHOLD LAND VOTES.
AT last the Conservatives have entered the field as founders of Freehold .Land Societies. It is only surprising that they have suffered the Liberals to be so long in exclusive possession of the field, and to have established so many as a hundred such bodies without political competition. The largest has in three years pur- chased seventy-six estates, comprising 2500 acres, costing 400,0001., and conferring 11,000 votes on the shareholders of the society.
The plan of Freehold Land Societies is recommended principally for three things,—as furnishing an excellent investment for small savings ; as securing to the humble capitalist that dignified species of property called "real" • and as securing the franchise to the in- dividual, with an additional vote to his party. The plan originated amongst working men, and was designed for their benefit ; but, as often happens with projects for the working classes, the benefits have in great part fallen to the middle class. The movement, we suspect, has not added so much to the working-class franchise as to the middle-class franchise ; and from its slowness of operation, it is likely to disappoint the expectations of those who hope from it any striking alteration in the character of the constituencies.
Not many years after the Reform Bill, we remember hearing of a Conservative in a Northern county who was detected in build- ing four cottages with a view to the creation of as many votes. The party adverse to him surreptitiously built four votes in the same manner ; they were in turn detected, and ultimately both sides found that a race in vote-building was one in which neither aide could win.
This Freehold Land movement is a project of the same kind, on a larger scale ; though it has taken the Conservatives a longer time to detect it. Not so long, indeed, as it took Captain Jewett to discover the Lobos Islands, after his countrymen had been in the habit of resorting •to that nutritious group. Of conrse the Conservatives will not consent to be beaten in the race. If they have not the numbers of the working-classes, they have more money; and if they have not the money of the middle-class Libe- rals, they have perhaps more extended preemption of landed pro- perty. They will make votes as the Liberals have made votes; cottages of antagonistic opinions will deck the scene; and no sooner will a tenement on Liberal foundation rise from the ground, than its brother, founded on Conservative principles, will rise to coun- teract it. The prospectus of the Conservative Land Society' shows that the Conservatives. are at last moving, and intend to recover their lee-way. There will therefore be an increase of the gross number of votes • but perhaps neither party will accomplish a rela- tive gain when ell is done. Political principles are not likely to be materially affected by the gradual accretion of votes on both sides. Those who most manifestly and certainly profit by these undertakings are the members of the working staff—the secretaries and officers that get up the affair and receive the salaries, the surveyors that survey the land, the builders that build the cot- tages. For them the enterprise on either side is the field of a great trad.
* " The Conservative Land Society, enrolled tinder 4th and 7th William IV. cap. 32, as the Conservative Benefit Building Society, established for the purpose of aiding members of all classes in obtaining the county franchise. Shares 501. each. Unlimited in number. No restriction on the number of shares held by one member. Entrance-fee, 2s. sa. per share. Monthly pay- ments, 8s. per share. Interest on completed shares for payments in advance, Si. per cent. Honorary members-11. Is. annual subscription ; 101. 108. life subscription. Temporary offices, 14 New Boswell Court, Lincoln's Inn."
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