The North Wales Express

THE SOUDAN WAR. AGAIN we arc face to face with the serious fact that we have underestimated the strength of C, our foe. The Mahdi and his followers, though -n they have been beaten in every engagement, y 11 are too powerful for us, and another expedition, larger than the last, from these shores and from India, is now under weigh to afford to our gallant "mny in the Soudan that aid which it requires before striking a final blow at the power of the False Prophet. That Khartoum has fallen there seems no doubt, and we are afraid that the most hopeful of us—after hoping so long against hope itself-must now, at last, make up our minds as to the fate of General Gordon, whose betrayal and death are equally certain. General Gordon went to Khartoum as the messenger of peace. No army accom- panied him through the desert, and his only weapon was a cane. Retching Khattoum, he did not find his task so pleasant perhaps as he had anticipated, and what his experiences were there, with open foes without and secret traitors within the city. we have as yet no means of knowing. We must lament, how- ever, that we have been unable to rescue him and further lament, and that very deeply, the fact that so much blood has been poured out in the attempt—that the desert has proved the grave for so many of the best and bravest of our officers and men. Within the last few days the campaign has undergone a serious change, Sir Redvers Buller, due to the massing of the Mahdi's followers at Metemmeh, having fallen back on Abu Klea. This is certainly one of the most depressing items in the latest news; and the additional statement that had he advanced much further he would have found himself opposed to the Mahdi at the head of, an army numbering between 40,000 and 60,000 men, proves that the False Prophet has still an overwhelming following among the savage warriors of the desert. It is expected, unless Lord Wolseley means to advance from Korti, taking with him every available man, that General Buller's column will retire to Gakdul, if not, indeed, all the way to the present base of operations. General Bracken- bury, having regard to the safety of his column, may be induced to adopt similar tactics. That intrepid officer has at length pushed his way through the narrow and dangerous defiles of the Kahook Pass, reconnoitred Salamat, and hopes, unless he has also changed his plans, to reach Abu Hamed in a few days. As yet, he is, it is said, unaware of the retreat of the co- operating force, and his decision, on coming to that knowledge, will be awaited with much interest. It may be that he may still push his column forward, leading it to brilliant victory, or plunging it into the jaws of death." Another regretable item of news comes from the seat of war, namely, the intimation that one of our most heroic commanders had just breathed his last. General Sir Herber Stewart died of his wounds, Friday last, at Gakdul, whither he had been brought from Gubat throughout the scenes of his glorious victories over the Arabs. From the first there were fears that the injury might possibly prove fatal, but the news, though not thus unexpected, will produce a profound feeling ofjsorrow through- out the country. General Stewart was a soldier of the best type, and if it cannot be said that we lack heroes, yet his death will be felt as a distinct loss to our sum of military genius. Meanwhile, Parliament has met, and Govern- ment is threatened with a vote of censure in connection with its policy in the Soudan. There is little expectation that the vote will be carried out, the proposal will not improve matters in the least. Some think that they could have done better, that the expedition to relieve Gordon should have been started sooner, and that it should also have been in much greater force. It is an easy matter to carp and criti- cise the doings of others, but before the country can homologate such a vote of censure it will inqure whether the circumstances warrant it, and especially if better could have been done by the party now seeking to reap political capital from misfortune.

ORIGIN OF LANDED PROPERTY. THE extension of the Franchise is not likely to exhaust the Liberal programme of Reform; it will only give a fresh stimulus to further broadening and deepening of the Constitution under which we have the privilege to live, by reforming abuses which unhappily still mar and deface the true political life of this great nation. Of these abuses none seems more likely to come to the front in the next Parlia- ment than those connected with the land. And in order that this question be ventilated and fairly understood it behoves every Liberal, and, indeed, every well-wisher of his country, to be at no small pains to obtain correct views on this subject, whieh may enable him to arrive at just and impartial conclusions concerning it. It is one of those subjects simple enough in itself, but time and custom have encrusted it with complications not so easy of solution. Hence the necessity for a correct historical knowledge of it, as far as possible, and to fur- ther that end we will try to present to our readers an epitome of the history of the Land Question. A French writer, M. Proudhon, has stated, and others since have reiterated his assertion, that Property is theft," meaning, we presume, landed or real and not personal property. In spite of this assertion we would draw attention to some of the economical advantages of such stealing, and also to a few of the leading changes in the history of property, and to advocate cer- tain reforms connected therewith. How landed property originated we do not presume to say or imagine. Those who are fond of specula- tions of that kind have no end of authorities to refer to for a supply of such intellectual pabulum they will there find it stated with much fluency and flourish how it did. No doubt some of our readers have read of the prevailing notions which were in vogue con- cerning the theory of a Social Contract account- ing for the origin of society and laws in the 17th and 18th centuries. It was then con- cluded (upon what proof we know not) that mankind met somewhere-tune and place not mentioned-and decided--the modus operandi not described—that the land which had hitherto been held in common should henceforth be portioned out. It is not said what arguments were advanced in favour of such a change. Others, again, relate how wandering shepherds, finding pasturage for their flocks scarce, began to till the land and forsake their nomadic life for a more settled one, and how it was tacitly or avowedly admitted by their fellow shepherd? that one who had mixed his labour with the land ought to own it. Rousseau, writing in A.D. 1754, describes to the academy of Digon; with all the minuteness of a special correspon- dent, how a man one day, many thousands ol years ago, having enclosed a piece of land, said, This is mine (c'eci est a moi), and he got people to believe him and swallow the same as historical gospel. Now, all this sort 01 speculation is very amusing and ingenious in its way, but still the origin of property being an historical fact, as yet the evidence being none, the possibilities being endless, all these sur- mises may be safely relegated to the lumber- room where reposes the social contract side I.y side with the other and equally absurd in- tellectual furniture of speculative minds. To the same limbo we may consign the statement* of those who relate which of the two kinds of property, movable or immovable, personal or real, were first created. Kant, for instance argues that land was first appropriated, while Paley and Thiers advance plausible stories for personal. Either may be true for anything we can ascertain to the contrary. But this we would particularly draw attention to, viz., that lost history cannot be recovered by any process of reasoning a pi-iori-and hence the origin of property with all its details—supposing it to have originated in one way rather thananotber -is a portion of history which no historian has hitherto been able to fish up from the denths of the past ages, and we are afraid there is little prospect of it ever being done. The earliest documentary evidence reveals no trace of private property. All property seems to have been vested in villages, communes.clans, families, gentes, septs, each proprietor being simply a life renter; alienation by gift, bequest, or sale is unknown. Such is a summary of the researches extending from Hindostun to North America. In Hindostan, for instance, every villager possesses nothing mere than a life interest in the soil which he tills. He cannot sell it without the consent of his fellow vil- lagers. This description applies also to the communes of Russia; there, uninfluenced by feudalism, this species of joint property has subsisted to our day. This system excites no doubt the wonder of those who fancy that society is only a possibility through privatr, property, and also the hopes of those who would substitute a form of Communism. In Ancient Rome we can mark traces of this joint property, if not in the division of the public lands by the agrarian laws, at all events in the relations of the gentiles and clients. And coming down to more modern times and to countries more familiar, we find that the High land clans of Scotland and the Welsh and Irish septs all held that the land was the property not merely of the chief, but of the entire body of clansmen and septmen. The feudal idea of property was not readily embraced by them It was only after long and severe struggles that these ideas were mingled with the more primitive. It was in Ireland that they fame into most violent collision, and the conquest of that country by the English nobles in the reigns of Henry II. and Elizabeth was embit- tered, and the ashes of a strife of races long kept warm by the fondness of the Irish people for tanistry. No doubt the ignorance and con- tempt of their conquerors for every strange custom relating to the land only added fresb luel to the national hatred of the people to- wards their conquerois. For according to this enstom of tanistry the Irish chiefs had only a life interest in the demesne lands. Unfortu- nately this custom was not to be found in the law-books, and hence the English lawyers de- spised it, and they styled it a "scambling pos- session," and the Court of Queen's Bench ultimately did away with holding property after this mode in 1608. This was a salutary change, if viewed economically. There is no doubt tanistry had a prejudicial effect on public policy. But the improvement of the soil in the shape of reclamation, drainage, and enclosing can only be effected by assuring something more personal than merely what is for the common good of the village or clan, &c In fact, such masters as the commune or sep t are too impalpable and fail to excite and call forth human exertions and afterwards to keep them on the strain. We require some. thing more directly personal, or at least the interests of those who are very near to us, to arouse our energies as tillers of the soil. Men go astray or loiter in the great race of life when the goa.l to be reached is nothing more than the interest of the community. True, there are certain types of animal life, such as the mad- repone," which possess no individual or sepa- rate existence but surely human beings have a higher and more complex destiny to fulfil, and t) do so experience teaches us that such a uni- tormity of interests as some of our socialistic friends now advocate would utterly defeat the objects of their desires. Nature delights in variety a dreary, blank uniformity is not found within hsr borders. -r-

THE WELSH INTERMEDIATE KDUCATION BILL. PARLIAMENT has resumed its labours actively this year, for it is not often that we find a really important discussion opened within the first week of the year's sitting. Within a few hours the result of the great contest of parties will probably be known in London, and there- upon will follow the less exciting, though hardly less practical, discussion on the Bill for the Redistribution of Seats. Here, too, there is no reason to anticipate prolonged or angry debates. When this Bill is passed, we are told, the Houses cof Parliament will be, for the first time, presented with a programme of the session. There are many reasons why we should hardly expect any large measures, likely to meet with vigorous opposition, to be brought in. To deal with such the fresh activity of a ■iew Parliament is needed in this the era of compromise has already begun. There is, therefore, more reason than usual to hope that those measures of a quieter character, dealing vith the new developements and growing needs .,)f the country, in which .-11 parties are in principle agreed, may receive a fair share of ittention. In one of these the Welsh people is specially interested. A measure for promot- ing Intermediate Education in Wales is known .0 have been prepared by the Government, and :ias before now been announced in the Queen's Speech. Whether the details of this Bill, when made known, will command universal approval, it would be premature to say. But the general needs of Wales, with reference to secondary education, are unfortunately too patent, and too generally conceded, for this uncertainty with .-cgard to details to suggest any relaxation of die anxiety of the Welsh people to see some such Bill become law. No person who has a precise theory how Intermediate Education should be encouraged in Wales will probably oe satisfied with all the provisions of any Act, jut no person who has really felt present wants -vill hesitate to prefer the Act to the present condition of uncertainty and weakness. On one matter the precedents of recent legislation, especially in Ireland, allow no doubt. Those iustitutiuns and private ventures which at present partially supply the want, will be encouraged t,) offer a still more complete education, and to adapt their character to the needs of the people. It may be said generally that the schools needed are those which will supply teaching interme- diate in character between that given in the elementary schools, and that of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge on the one hand, and Lhe University Colleges of Wales on the other. File former class of schools comes at present less into consideration, because there is already a fair supply of schools preparing pupils for the English Universities, and those who desire such education are, as a rule, better able to act independently of the support of Government. We may say, then, that the schools needed are those that will stand between the elementary schools and the University Colleges. Some pupils, we may hope, will pass in succession from the elementary schools to the intermediate, and so on to the Colleges. Others with a fairer start, and destined, perhaps, for commercial life, may receive the greater part of their edu- cation, ending about the age of sixteen, at the intermediate schools only. We are not amongst those who hold that a mistake has been made in securing the position of the highest teaching before.that of the inter- mediate. It is easier to fill up the gaps in an imperlect system than to keep up the impetus which will demand continual progress upon an inadequate one. The University Colleges now established, we may hope that individuals will find, one way or another, the means to acquire the education needed as a preliminary. But, certainly, the establishment of these colleges has emphasized the need of the higher schools, and their ultimate success depends upon the students who frequent them coming with a. fair start to their studies there, without being Z:) hampered by the necessity of making up for lost time in the past. The intermediate schools call specially for the interest of those who are concerned for the vitality of Welsh nationality. A university education is after all for the few its centres can at most be at three or four points within the Principality and its basis is ssentially the same not only in England and Wales, but in all civilized countries. But we can never rest till a good intermediate school, under public control and with moderate fees, is established in every fair-sized town in Wales' in every town, that is, that has its banks, its market, and its concert room, its lawver, its medical man, and its newspaper, or most of these. Such schools will educate the great mass of those who willlatcr occupy positions of uiliueuce throughout the Principality, and on whom the future history of Wales will depend, and in such schools it is not too much to hope, Welsh history, literature and traditions will be specially honoured, and their intelligent study fostered. There is now no time to be lost before acting in this matter. Parliament, and especially the Government, will be guided by the expression of opinion on the part of the Welsh people. That expression should be prompt, united, and vigorous. It should indi- cate clearly that various parties are each in- clined to sacrifice something of their special iims to secure a great common good. It ,bould distinctly protest against the assumption ¡hat delay is permissible with such vital interests. I .t. 1- in mis movement Carnarvonshire should be to the fore. It has a distinct claim to the ini- tiative in educational matters concerning North Wales by the establishment in it of the University College. Its own educational wants are very partially supplied. Intermediate edu- cation is equally needed for boys and for girls; but where is as yet the Carnarvonshire High School. Besides this, in Carnaruonshire lie those towns where the want is most pressing; Carnarvon, Bethesda,and Llanberis in particular are totally unprovided with public in- stitutions of this kind. Let the people of Wales ask, and Parliament grant; there will be room enough for private effort and the active co- operation of parents and guardians after the Act is passed.

BRUSHES, SPONGER, LEATHERS, &c.-Call and see Birketts choice assortment. A few soiled ones at less than ball cost (to clear). Birkett's City and County Supply StQres, Bangor.