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there alone they are seen, to these spots alone they confine their hungry vigilance. But in Ireland they are alike busy in every parallel of latitude; in the waste as well as the city, in the tumult of the fair or the solitude of the bog, the unwearied Irish beggar still groans out his unmitigated woes. Is it not a wrong, a gross injustice, to those who have done so much by their purses to stifle the cry of want in Ireland, that their senses should be so constantly assailed by the teasing complaints of poverty and infirmity-poverty which they have actually redressed, and infirmity which they have relieved? If there were a law to raise a maintenance for the poor in Ireland, would not that law, to be consistent with itself, take care that the poor should be satisfied with the provision which it gave them? Would it not abolish vagrancy? Would it not secure to every contributor to the pauper fund, as a return for his payment, the freedom of his own door-way, the liberty of the streets, the right of walking in the open air unmolested? The case of Scotland very forcibly illustrates what we are now contending for. In that country, the poor are supported by voluntary contributions; a sum is generally collected first at the parish kirk, and if that be not sufficient for the wants of the poor, the heritors or proprietors meet together, investigate the extent of the indigence which they propose to relieve, and separate upon the mutual understanding that each will supply a sum proportioned to the interest he has in the parish. Here, then, is something like organization: if a Poor Law were in force, it could not provide more effectually for the equalization of the burden of supporting the poor, and for the distribution of relief to necessitous objects alone. Now, what is the reason that no such practice exists in Ireland, easy, and convenient, and important as it obviously is? The answer, we think, is an overwhelming one. It is because there is a dormant Poor Law in Scotland, which the heritors dare not for their lives to evoke from its slumbers; they know right well that measures could be taken to extort relief from them, and that, too, to no very limited an amount; they are aware that the Courts of Law would not fail, if called on, to establish the right of even able-bodied labourers, "who represent themselves to be in a state of destitution," to relief; and that for the procuring of such relief, not only real, but personal property, in Scotland, is rateable. The Scotch are a farreaching people; and seeing, that to open the Book of Statutes relating to the poor in their country, would be as bad as raising the lid of Pandora's box, they sagaciously anticipate an appeal to the law, and hence, in consulting real prudence, they are reputed to be most generous, and in practising downright economy, they win admiration for their benevolence. How different is the situation of Ireland. There, no man who is indisposed to relieve the poor, can be compelled to contribute for that purpose; the whole burden, therefore, is left to be sustained by the individuals who

are not sufficiently hard-hearted to see themselves surrounded with starving numbers.

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But, supposing we had no arguments of this kind to adduce in favour of the application of a modified system of Poor Laws to Ireland, we should say that whatever influence it was which was capable of producing in the upper classes a solicitude for the fate of the lower, ought to be welcomed in that kingdom. Ireland has been made an exclusively agricultural country, infinitely more by artifice than it has been by nature. From powerful moral and political causes, the population was altogether absorbed in rural pursuits, and land, in consequence, became the staple article of internal traffic. The most wretched hind that ever plunged a spade into the side of a mountain, was susceptible in Ireland of one step farther in degradation beyond what was known in any other part of the world-that was, to be destitute of "a bit of ground." The sacrifices which the poorest peasant constantly makes in order to possess a little spot of his own," would not be credited outside the country which witnesses them. What was the natural consequence? Vast competition, and that produced inordinate rents. The men who laid on these rents were what are called Middle-men; they lived in the same district with their tenants; they never got anything like the promised rent, but they took all that the tenant had to give them; his labour, the labour of his children, his pig, his corn, every thing but about as much potatoes as kept the wretched dependent and his family from starving. This is the real state of Ireland for the most part; and this condition, in spite of all that Sir John Walsh says to the contrary, will continue until there is infused into the immediate landlord, some way or another, a sympathy for the suffering peasantry. The worthy Baronet informs us, that the race of Middle-men is fast decaying in Ireland. We have great doubts that so agreeable a prospect is opened for that country. We are too well aware of the nature of the leases which were habitually granted to this class of persons, to believe that any great progress can be made, for a long time, in their extinction. We are satisfied that any plan of improvement requiring for its execution the absence of the class of Middle-men must signally fail. To legislate for Ireland effectually, the permanency of this class must be recognized; we may modify their influence, but we cannot hope to remove it. Let us, however, permit Sir John Walsh to speak for himself:—

I have a sincere conviction, founded upon many opportunities of personal experience in Ireland, that the majority of its landed proprietors are actively engaged in forwarding, by the best and most judicious means, the improvement of the people. Absenteeism is certainly upon the decline. Very few of those in the possession of health and exertion neglect the increased facilities which enable them so readily to visit their estates. Even the great body of English proprietors atone in a great measure for the disadvantages of their continual subtraction of their rents by their liberal

promotion of improvements, and by their exemption from local prejudices and party spirit. The immense estates of the Duke of Devonshire, of the Marquises of Lansdowne and Hertford, and of others of the high aristocracy, are more distinguished by judicious ameliorations, and the tenantry more thriving and prosperous, than upon those of the generality of Irish resident country gentlemen.'-pp. 95, 96.

Again the worthy Baronet writes :—

I feel the strongest conviction, that Ireland has improved, and is at this moment in a state of the most rapid advance.

The great augmentation of her population is a proof, as I have elsewhere remarked, that however rude and wretched is their manner of life, they have not felt the pressure of any great degree of want and suffering. In confirmation of this, we may remark the general robustness, and muscular strength of the people. The testimony of impartial observers establishes, that even in the memory of the present generation, their modes of life have changed for the better, and their tastes for its comforts extended. In their cabins and clothing there is a sensible amelioration.

'If seven millions are supported now in better circumstances than less than three millions were, fifty years ago, this fact alone, argues a great augmentation of the wealth and resources of the country. In a population of seven millions there will be a greater positive number of distressed persons than in three millions. The actual sum of misery and wretchedness in Ireland has probably increased, but I am well convinced that it has decreased as compared with the total of the population.

I have already dwelt upon the change of system in the letting of lands, which is calling into existence a race of small farmers, and I recur to it as a most important improvement in the history of the country. It lays the foundation of a gradual amelioration of the habits and condition of the lower orders. We cannot introduce the altered tastes of a more advanced state of society to a whole people at once, but we may act successfully upon the better portions of them. The farmers are in that intermediate position, which allows of their being the most easily influenced by us, and reflecting that influence with the greatest force upon the peasantry. I may appeal to the considerable increase in the value of lands, to the improvements in husbandry, to the quantity of acres brought into cultivation, to the amount of her exports and imports, all proofs of growing prosperity. If she has advanced, there are many additional reasons why she should continue to advance with a still more rapid step. Within the last few years, the use of steam, the abolition of the vexatious restrictions upon the trade with the other parts of the empire, the steadier and more impartial system of government, and, finally, the settlement of that perpetual source of irritation and party spirit, the Catholic question, have removed great obstacles from her path, and communicated a fresh momentum to her course.'-pp. 118, 119.

Why it is that the estates of the Duke of Devonshire, of the Marquises of Lansdowne and Hertford, are distinguished by ameliorations? Not certainly because these personages are absent from the country, but it is because they extend to the tenants on their estates that consideration which a good landlord ought to give; they allow these tenants fair encouragement, by leaving to

them such a portion of the proceeds of their labour, as will secure them the comforts of life. If a Poor Law were introduced into Ireland, the probability is, that the estates of these Noblemen would not be subjected to one shilling of rate in the year. But let any man pass beyond the boundary of any of those estates, and what are the scenes which are exhibited to him? The contrast is admirably described in a work entitled "Sketches in Ireland," published in Dublin not long ago. The writer states, that during a tour in Ireland, he wandered to the confines of Kerry. After descending one of the mountains which divide Cork from Kerry, he came to the banks of a river, which forms the boundary between the estates of the Marquis of Lansdowne and those of the University of Dublin :

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'I observed,' he continues, as I drove slowly along, that his lordship's lands were much better cultivated, the farms better stocked, the cabins fewer, more grass land, what houses appeared were of a better description than on the Collegiate lands, and on alighting to walk up a hill, I entered into chat with a poor sickly-looking fellow, who was going towards Nedeen. There is no countryman in Ireland so easy, or I would say, so polished in his address and manners, as a Kerryman-I was really surprised as I passed through the county, to receive answers and procure directions fraught with civility and intelligence, superior much to what I have met elsewhere. With the man in question I had a good deal of conversation, as he was going my road. "Are you, my good friend, a tenant of Lord Lansdowne ?" "Ah, no, Sir, and more is my loss! No, Sir, if it were my luck to be under the great marquis, I would not be the poor naked sinking crathur that I am-his lordship allows his tenants to live and thrive he permits no middlemen to set and re-set over and over again, his estate-he allows no Jack of a Squireen to be riding in topboots over the country, drinking and carousing on the profits of the ground, while the poor racked tenant is forced, with all his labour, often to go barefooted, and often to live and work on a meal of dry potatoes. No, Sir, look across the river there--look yonder at that snug farmer's house-there the man's forefathers lived, and there he himself and his seed after will live and do well, paying a moderate rent, and there's no fear at all of their being disturbed." "Well, but my friend, on your side of the river is it not the same? To be sure, I see not so much comfort, I see many, very many poor cabins." "Oh! Sir, how could it be otherwise? There are twenty landlords between the College and the man who tills the ground-the land is let, re-let, and sub-let-it is halved and quartered, divided, and sub-divided, until the whole place will become a place of poverty, and potato gardens. I have four acres of land, how can I live, and rear my children, and pay thirty shillings an acre off that? and I am subject to have my pig, or the bed from under me, canted by one, two, three, four-och, I do not know how many landlords-and now I am going to Nedeen, to get some physic from the poticary, for the dry potatoes, master, agree but poorly with my stomach in the spring of the year. Och, then its I that wishes that the great College that does be making men so larned and wise, would send down some of these larned people here, just to be after making their own poor tenants a little happier and a little asier."'-pp. 405–408.

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With respect to the second extract, which we have cited from Sir John Walsh's pamphlet, we have a few words to offer. The Baronet takes for granted that, as the Irish population has increased, they could not have felt the pressure of any great want. If the writer means that feeding upon the mere potato, a peasant cannot be said to want, he is perfectly right. The man who has been accustomed to nothing but potatoes, will not be restrained from bringing up a numerous offspring because he has nothing but potatoes to give them. We may at last till every acre in Ireland with potatoes, and thus maintain not seven, but twenty millions on that food alone; yet these twenty millions, according to Sir John Walsh, could not be said to feel any great degree of want and suffering. Then, as to the robustness of the people,' and 'their muscular strength,' we should be delighted to find that Sir John spoke from his own experience. Let him only read the evidence appended to the Third Report of the Emigration Committee. will there find Mr. Marshall stating, that having a great work to carry on in banking from the sea, hundreds of labourers flocked to the works for employment, and that the generality of them were so weak, that he was obliged to feed them for six weeks before they could execute men's work! A healthier or more powerful workman is not to be found than an Irish labourer in a month or two after he settles in England. The reason of the change is easily accounted for. Let us not deceive ourselves respecting the condition of Ireland. The grievances of the lower part of the population are referable to no religious feuds-to no party distinctions; Catholic as well as Protestant landlords are alike involved in the iniquity of having sunk the peasantry into their present debased condition; the remedy must come from the upper classes; the labouring poor have not the means of self-regeneration; they must be indebted to those on whom they are dependent, for improvement, first in their worldly circumstances, and that will be a certain step towards their moral advancement.

If the social frame in Ireland could be so re-adjusted as that the self-interest of the landlord would be enlisted in the cause of the tenant; if a system could be established which would make a state of easy and comfortable competency of the latter, the very best security which the middle man could have for his own prosperity,would not that be gaining a vast advantage? Is not such a benefit likely to be the result of a limited Poor Law? The middleman at present grinds his tenant to the earth during the healthiest portion of his life, and then leaves him unassisted and unpitied to the miseries of a helpless old age. Let us only imagine that a provision is established by law, from which the destitute sexagenarian is to be relieved; that the middleman bears the burden of that provision; what is more natural to be expected than that the latter will so deal with his tenant, during the course of their relation, as to supersede the necessity of that tenant seeking foreign aid when helpless

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