Schoolroom
The letter was as follows …..
Claydon House, ” January 23, 1885. “My Dear Edmund,—l hear that the question of allotments of land to labourers and others has been brought forward meetings in Bucks and elsewhere. I have always been in favour of such allotments, and soon after coming into the possession of my estate, I divided fields in each parish for that purpose, and let them to labourers and others. There is now an Act of Parliament on the subject, which, as a trustee, I am quite willing to carry out. fours very affectionately, ” Harry Verney.” But this question of allotments was only part of the very great question generally called the Land Laws. Now there were many people the country who had no idea of the difficulties connected with this question. It would seem that for centuries the lawyers had been busily tying knots in everything which concerned the land, and they had tied the knots so tightly that he did not believe the knots ever would be untied —they must be cut. And this would have to be done by some very trenchant measure. Curiously it might seem, estate never belonged absolutely to one individual, but to a family. When young man came into the possession of an estate, he always found it strictly tied up, and he found entailed upon his eldest son, and when the young man came to the age of marriage, he followed suit and entailed it further to his unborn son, and so the system of entail was carried on from generation to generation. He contended that the law of primogeniture also needed attention, and urged that,the land of the country should be as easily saleable as other things, and that right of title should be procured to enable the sale to be effected as cheaply and easily as in the colony of Australia. He alluded to the present difficulty experienced by both purchaser and seller before the agreement was signed, and the care the lawyers took in looking over the deeds, which, as Lord Westbury had said, were difficult to read, impossible to understand, and filthy to handle. He considered the present law perfectly childish and contemptible, whilst the remedy he suggested was perfectly simple and cheap. He thought he should like that night to say a word upon the question of the Game Laws. He felt very strongly upon the question himself; but he had nothing new to say npon it; still it was not always necessary that must be new to be acceptable. Now he had always felt that in the name Game Laws was something anomalous and contradictory. What idea did the word game” suggest to their minds ? To his mind brought the idea of few friends in a room sitting down to a table and having game of dominoes or other amusement. To his mind the word “game” certainly was not connected with hares or pheasants. But where came in the relaxation ? There was nothing they got less fun out of than lawyer. (Laughter.) And it always seemed to him curious that those laws should be allowed to exist. They were, however, passed through the Houses of Parliament and received the sanction of the Queen, and their sole object was for the protection and amusement of the rich. (Applause.) There was something preposterous in having laws specially passed and maintained for the protection and amusement of one class. If such protective laws were required, let them be passed in favour of the poor, for the rich surely had plenty of protection and amusement. (Cheers.) But, further, it was a curious coincidence that these very Game Laws were carried out and administered by tbe very class for whose benefit they existed. These Game Laws were passed for the particular benefit of those who administered them. Let them look at the gentlemen sitting on the Bench of Magistrates in any Court, and practically came to this, that the Game Laws existed for the benefit the gentlemen on the Bench, and not for the benefit of any one else in the Court. Such a state of things seemed to him radically wrong, and it called for very speedy remedy and reform. It seemed to him grossly wrong that the rich man should stand up before his fellowmen and administer law that existed solely for his own benefit and amusement. (Cheers.) And he could assure them that he spoke thus strongly with no desire to set class against class. His one desire was unity and sympathy with all classes, and in this matter of the Game Laws he desired to see the rich and poor stand impartially. (Applause.) Mr. W. H. French, of Winslow, proposed— “That this meeting, having heard Captain Verney’s views, considers him suitable candidate to represent the Liberals of Bucks.” Mr. T. Holton, Buckingham, seconded the resolution, which was put to the meeting, and declared carried. A vote of thanks was accorded to the Chairman, and the meeting teiminated. A band headed the throng down the main street.
Bucks Herald – Saturday 31 January 1885
