On Monday, Lord Randolph Churchill, speaking at a great public
meeting at St. George's Hall, Walsall, elaborated his proposals for social reform. The Opposition, he declared, were demoralised and disorganised, and Ireland was compara- tively quiet. It would be most objectionable, however, if the Government were for this reason " to fall into an. attitude of idleness and do-nothingness or apathy." There are English social questions which are -" of supreme and urgent im- portance," and the present time of comparative political tranquillity is eminently opportune for dealing with them. Of these social questions, Lord Randolph named four,—(1), the reform of the Land Laws ; (2), the rehousing of the working classes; (3), licensing ; (4), restriction of the hours of labour. In regard to the Land Laws, primogeniture should be abolished, and transfer made easy by " imposing upon the local authority by law the duty of registering all lands and houses, and all charges and mortgages upon that land and those houses, within the jurisdiction." After titles to the fee-simple or encumbrances had been registered for a certain number of years, they would become indisputable, while all new mortgages and charges incurred after a fixed date would be inoperative
if not registered. Further, Lord Randolph Churchill would restrict the powers of the present landowners by forbidding "the settlement of land by will or deed on an unborn life."
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