Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698136821905.pdf (Ireland)
WHIG AND TORY REMEDIES t o r IRISH ETILS.

W H I G A N D T O R Y R E M E D I E S F Oi l I R I S H E V I L S , a n d t h e e f f e c t A K E P E A L OF T H E CORN LAWS W O U L D H A V E ON Œfyt ÍCeaisIatíbc Wnúm, CONSIDERED IN A LETTER T O T H E RIGHT HONORABLE LORD ELIOT, M.P.

B Y P H I L I P R E A D E , E S Q .

A R E S I D E N T L A N D L O R D . "

N ec m eus hic serm o est, sed quæ præ cepit Ofellus, R usticus, abnorm is sapiens, crassaque M inerva.” D U B L IN : GRANT AND BOLTON, 115, GRA FTON STREET.
G. W .

N IC K IS S O N , 2 1 5 , R E G E N T S T R E E T , L O N D O N .

1844.

T hom as î, W h ite, P rin te r, 65, F leet-strect, D ublin.
L E T T E R , &c. &c. M y L o r d , I t seems so strange, that amidst all that has been spoken and written on the important subject of a repeal of the Corn Laws, scarcely an allusion has been made by the contending interests to the effect it would have on Ireland, and on the great question of the Repeal of the Legislative Union, now agitating the country—that I have been in­ duced, very reluctantly, to address, your Lordship, on the subject, as it appears to me to be an inquiry not only deserving deep consideration, but the one in the importance of which all others would soon sink into comparative insig­ nificance.
W hether this omission has arisen from the general indifference—not to use a harsher phrase—usually manifested by Englishmen to Irish interests, when they are supposed to clash with their own ; or to the knowledge that many of the extreme Radical and Repeal party are, avowed and strenuous supporters, of the Corn Law it certainly League ; or from a sense of its difficulty ; does appear surprising, that the consequences of placing upwards of eight millions of the people of Ireland, on the same footing with foreign nations in the British markets, in respect of almost their only produce, should have been altogether overlooked, and not deemed worthy of a passing B 4 I shall not at any length enter into the subject of free notice.
trade in general, or in Corn only ; or how far either is compatible with the payment of the interest of 800 millions of debt, and the countless millions of private engagements, — all of which would have to be discharged from property These are questions which, should vastly deteriorated.
the experiment be unhappily tried, will quickly afford their own solution ; but I shall endeavour to confine myself to the social, moral, and, above all the political effects, which a repeal of the Corn Laws, as it appears to me, would produce on Ireland.
I t cannot well be denied, that the English manufacturers possess at present the exclusive supply of the Irish people, with almost every description of goods ; and the vast im­ portance and extent of the cross channel trade, is shewn by the imports and exports having reached the enormous sum of £32,700,000 sterling in 1 8 3 5 / the last year re­ turns have been made, and at the average progress they had been making for a great number of years, and have continued to make, must now amount to £40,000,000, being equal to half the entire foreign trade of G reat Britain.
This immense importation of British manufac­ tures being paid for principally in agricultural produce, any change in its value must affect exactly in the same proportion the value or amount of the imports, and cause a proportionate diminution of employment in England.
N or can that diminution be supplied by any new m arket created by the consequent fall of prices, because already G reat Britain can undersell any nation in the world, and no farther fall would place her in a better position in that * Triennial average exports, ending January, 1826, £ 8 ,4 5 4 ,9 1 6 1 7 ,3 9 4 ,8 1 3 January, 1836, D o. do.

do.

D o.

D o. do, do.

im ports, ending January, 1826, January, 1836, do.

7 ,4 9 1 ,8 9 0 15,337,897 it respect than she occupies at present.
And supposing that the quantity of agricultural produce consumed, at the reduced prices to be only on the average equal to what is considerably over that of it is at present—and any other European country—then it is evident the de­ crease of manufacturing employment, and the wages of labour would be permanent, and the value and quantity of manufactured goods would be still further decreased, in­ stead of being augmented, by the much wished for intro­ duction of low priced Corn.
This view of the subject, I do not recollect to have ever seen treated with the attention it appears to deserve, namely, that a permanent fall in the price of agricultural produce, must also proportionably diminish the value and quantity of manufactures produced.

The question is always discussed, as if the manufacturer being able to buy pro­ visions with a less quantity of goods, would have a larger surplus with which to buy something else.

Now this, however plausible, will not bear examination.
If the farmers sell in the home market at present 30 million quarters of wheat, which is about the annual consumption of the United Kingdom, at 50 shillings a quarter, the pro­ duct £75,000,000 must be expended by some one, and give employment to productive labour to that amount.
Suppose the 30 million quarters shall be purchased, either at home or abroad, for one third less, i. e. £50,000,000, then that amount only of manufactures could be purchased, and labour would be displaced to the amount of £25,000,000.

Now, how is this enormous deficit of manufacturing employ­ ment to be supplied?
The two principal countries from which we would derive our supplies, America and Prus­ sia, have now, and have had for some time, the balance of trade greatly in their favour, and therefore the mer­ inducement for increased chants have had that great shipments of goods, and yet none have been made, or can be made to either, so as to render it more favourable.
If, then, by importation of their corn, this unfavourable balance becomes still greater, it must be followed by an exportation of gold to those countries ; and from whence is the gold to be derived?

Already are the countries from which we draw it overstocked with our goods, and any further expor­ tation would only ruin the exporters, as no more than the usual quantity of the precious metals can be obtained.
So that, attentively considering the subject, I never have been able to discover or receive an answer to the question, W here is the additional m arket to be found for the 25 millions, or any other quantity of manufacturing labour, which would be displaced by the fall in agricultural produce?

T he countries which would probably supply us, refuse to take our goods ; and I see no nation in­ clined to give up their own national industry to promote ours.
The events of the last few months have manifested, that a very large proportion of the Irish people arc, from what­ ever cause, impressed with an ardent desire, at all hazards and at all risks, to establish a national government indepen­ dent of G reat Britain, and connected only by the golden but feeble link of the crown.
A nd it must be admitted, that deep excitement exists on the subject ; and that this strange and hostile feeling has been displayed, after nearly all those things which were considered and set forth as cry­ ing grievances have been redressed, and the country placed in that state which was loudly and confidently proclaimed a few years since, by its advocates, as sufficient to secure its repose and prosperity, and its lasting attachm ent and fide­ lity to G reat Britain.
I t is worth while to enumerate the principal of these great changes, which have followed each other with such 7 rapidity, that under any other than a free government, they would have amounted to a revolution.
Catholic Emancipa­ tion has been granted—Representation in Parliament has been reformed, and Close Boroughs extinguished— Protes­ tant Corporations abolished, and new ones established in their place—the people relieved from Church Rates altoge­ ther, and the Tithe reduced one-fourth and converted into a rent-charge, payable by the proprietors, nineteen-twentieths of whom are Protestants—a National system of Education adopted, and arranged on the most liberal principles—the Ju ry and the Grand Ju ry laws both reformed—the Police no longer an exclusive force—all Clerical and a great many Lay Magistrates removed, and those who are retained kept under the strictest control, and Stipendaries every where at hand ready and anxious to report or redress the slight­ est error or grievance— Poor Laws introduced, and three- fourths of their expenses placed on the landlords—and in important legislative enactments, the addition patronage of the country, but particularly of the Bar, has been for twelve years, (from 1830 to 1842), confined almost exclusively to the Whig and Roman Catholic Barristers, forming as they did then, a very small proportion of the entire profession, either as regards numbers or professional eminence ; and yet so desirous has every government been to promote this party for the purposes of conciliation, that many men found themselves unexpectedly elevated from a comparatively humble to the highest rank in their profes­ sion.
And this feeling* is evidently still predominant even in the present Conservative government, if it can possibly find persons on whom to exercise it.
these to * It is said of a high legal functionary, that he is so much in the habit of thinking and acting on this principle, that when a bishoprick lately was in the gift of government, he immediately stated, “ We must look for some well-disposed quiet Catholic on whom to bestow it.” Combined with all these conciliatory measures, and the most important of all, the country itself has been undoubt­ edly, for some years at least, slowly improving, whether we judge by its agriculture, its increasing internal trade, the great augmentation in the tonnage of its shipping, and particularly steam-vessels, Dublin being now the second port in this respect in the United Kingdom— London pos­ sessing 44,000 and Dublin 11,148 tons, being equal to that of Liverpool, Bristol, and H ull combined ;* the amount of money in circulation ; and above all, the increasing com­ fortable appearance of the people, admitted by O ’Connell himself, when describing some of his late multitudinous meetings ;f these or any of them afford a just criterion by which to decide, and every one of them testify a considerable and progressive state of improvement.
And it is very remarkable, that this has principally taken place since all the discriminating duties were abolished in 1826, and the trade rendered perfectly free between all parts of the united kingdom.
And yet, notwithstanding all these ju st and liberal enactments, this increasing trade and progressive im­ provement, the desire for independence has almost sprung up during their progress, and has latterly reached an alarm ­ ing ciisis, and frivolous and groundless causes recurred to as an excuse for its indulgence, such as the state of the cor­ porations, although they are now almost exclusively Roman Catholic, is still put forward as a grievance, and th at Catho­ lic proprietors should bo the medium of paying about £ 20,000 a year of the rent-charge to the Protestant clergy is harped on as a cruel wrong and heavy oppression; and under Liverpool, B ristol, Hull, ... 5005 3 1 7 4 316*4 11343 Tons.
9 colour of it, it is proposed to abolish the rent-charge alto­ gether.
And there are politicians to be found of such small calibre, that they speak as if the abolition of the legal right, which the Protestant clergy possess, to derive moderate incomes from the Proprietors, would be a panacea for all the evils of the country, and that that which all the pre­ ceding measures have not effected, would be immediately obtained by the sacrifice of the remaining three-fourths of the property of the church establishment.
But the fact is, that the tenantry have no hostilty to the rent-charge, if they aro not personally liable to it ; and as I know from various personal inquiries, they would rejoice if a great deal more was taken from the landlord and given to the clergyman ; because the one is always resident, almost universally charitable and kind, and a very considerable proportion of his income is sure to be expended in affording employment, or in acts of charity amongst the poorest of his parishioners.
And this feeling is universal amongst all the intelligent tenantry, and unhesitatingly avowed.

How groundless and puerile then, is the assertion, that the rent- charge, any more than the corporations, could be the cause of the present excitement, and alienation of the popular mind from England.
It is to a country thus excited, and thus as it were seek­ ing for a grievance, that it is proposed by some of the Whig statesmen of the day, and by a very large and influential party in England, and even in Ireland itself, to furnish a good, valid, and substantial grievance, and of so universal an application, that it is the best calculated possible, from a common sense of wrong and suffering, to unite all classes sooner or later in one great association to carry out the national will.
Nor is this surprising, if we consider for a moment, in the event of the corn-law being repealed, the situation Ire­ land would be reduced to.
A country almost exclusively agricultural, composed chiefly of an old worn out soil, a large proportion of which is of a very inferior quality, re­ quiring expensive manures and costly cultivation, having to defray for her own internal local expenses and govern­ ment ; £1,200,000 county ra te ; £400,000 at least poor rates ; £300,000 rent-charge ; £75,000 quit and crown rents ; the nominally voluntary, but really imperative and prim ary charge of £500,000 for the support of the Roman Catholic clergy, amounting altogether to £2,475,000 (a revenue equal and exceeding that of some of the secondary states of Europe), and burdened besides with the same excise, custom, and stamp duties of England, the wealthiest nation on the earth ; rented also by an immense population, in such small divisions, as can never afford a large surplusproducefor sale, after the necessary and decent support of the tenant’s family ; would be brought into direct competition, with the new unexhausted and unlimited lands of other nations, neither subject to rent, rent-charge, or poor-rates, untaxed or scarcely taxed, and many of them possessing equal, if not superior facilities of intercourse with England ; Limerick, from whence the greatest quantity of corn is shipped, being- less advantageously situated than many ports of Europe, and scarcely exceeding some in America.
Thus then, pos­ sessing no one advantage, and labouring under a multitude oi disadvantages, all competition on equal term s would bo impossible, and the people, I mean emphatically all classes, would be reduced to such a state of poverty and discontent, that it could only be productive of scenes, utterly sub­ versive of the peace prosperity or the empire.
integrity of In this argum ent I have supposed th at the price of agri­ cultural produce would be lowered by free trad e; and though it has been asserted by E a rl Spencer, that prices would not fall in England, but th at they would rise abroad to the English level ; yet as this is mere assertion, without 11 any evidence to support it, and it is a question depending the extravagant on fact and capable of demonstration, praise bestowed on it by the organs of the Corn Law League, not only proves the present state of political abi­ lity, but the manner in which public men and parties dis­ pose of state questions of the first magnitude, by mere assertions without serious investigation and without proof.
The question resolves itself altogether into one of prices.

The law is principally defended on the ground that they would sustain a great and destructive fall by its repeal.
A deep responsibility rests therefore on those who assail it by assertion without evidence ; and clearly in misapprehension, if not ignorance, of the things and laws which govern prices, particularly if they are placed in a position likely to influ­ ence others who receive the stale and flippant theories of such men as mathematical axioms, and adopt them without any further investigation.

All writers of E arl Spencer’s school admit, that prices are governed by supply and demand.
If, therefore, on a repeal of the Corn Laws, foreign nations could only send us as much corn as there was a demand for, then their prices would rise to ours, because the demand and supply were equal ; but if the supply exceeded that proportion, then prices would fall proportionably, until they reached that of the country from whence corn was imported at the lowest price, with the cost of importation and the importer’s profit added ; and simply, because the merchant importing from that country could sell with a profit when the others could not.
This excessive supply would then stop impor­ tation, except from that country where corn was cheap­ est ; and at that price it would remain until a deficiency again occurred—then it would rise to admit that of the other exporting countries, and again fall to the prohibition point, when a superabundance - had been thus admitted.

This has regularly occurred under a Corn Law, and would 12 be exactly the same without one.
W henever a deficiency occurred, an immense importation took place in a few weeks, sufficient for a year’s supply, and then prices fell so as to prohibit further importation.

T he only difference would be, that the standard of prohibition under a corn law, has been the lowest price in England, allowing importation under the duties fixed by law ; whereas under a free trade, it would be the lowest price at which corn could be imported with a profit from any country in the world.

W hat then is that price ?
Foreign wheat being, from the nature of our cli­ mate, of a quality far superior to the bulk of English and Irish, sells in London from five to ten shillings a quarter more than the official value of English wheat ; at present, the best qualities are from seven to ten shillings more, (being just equivalent to the protective duty of eight shillings a quar­ ter proposed by the W higs, which would consequently be no protection whatever), so th at as the official value of E n g ­ lish wheat is 51s.
a quarter, foreign may be very mode­ rately taken at 56s.

; add to the current freights from various ports, 5s.

a quarter for the merchant’s profits, and the shipping price would be (free trade being established, and the price in England the regulator), at H am burg 50s., M editerranean 45s., United States 44s.

a quarter.
a quarter.

If E arl Spencer is right, these prices would then be perma­ nently established in those countries, i. e. in some the-pre­ sent prices would be raised one-third ; in others nearly doubled.

This would give such an impetus to the grow th of wheat in Europe, Asia, and America, th at they would soon send as much as our whole population could con­ sume.
For if Europe alone, without preparation, and within a few weeks, was enabled to supply any deficiency th at has heretofore occurred, it is as clear as light, th at all the world could afford a quantity greatly beyond any defi­ ciency th at could arise from home grown corn ; and thus 13 the supply being greatly superabundant, the prices would fall proportionably low, and from the same causes be in­ evitably subject to the most extreme fluctuations.
If, therefore, this reasoning is correct, free trade in corn would be attended neither by regularity of supply, or steadi­ ness of price.

I t is constantly stated, and is a popular argument, that rents being reduced proportionably with the prices of pro­ duce, the tenantry would still be in the same condition as before, and that the suffering and loss would solely fall on the landlords.

Now, however plausible, there cannot be a more erroneous statement, or one, fortunately, more capable of being refuted.
First, it may be observed, that the com­ petition would be principally with America, in which there are no rents, and therefore where the value of the whole surplus produce, no m atter how low the price, would solely belong to the occupier ; or with the North of Europe, where there is generally only a small personal or corn rent.
Therefore such competition if it could be so termed, would be on totally unequal terms, and would resemble a match between two equally good horses, one of which was weighted to the utmost, and the other with a feather.

The result of such a race, or of such competition, may be easily anticipated.

It is a proposition, however startling, perfectly true, that the price of produce is of infinitely more importance to the tenant farmer than the amount of rent.
For example, that it would be better to pay 20 shillings an acre rent—wheat being 50 shillings a quarter—than to hold the same land in fee—wheat being reduced one third, or to 33 shillings a quarter.

It has always been considered by the most experi­ enced valuators, that to cultivate a tillage farm properly, it should, except on the very finest soils, produce four rents.
Suppose a farm therefore of 30 statute acres, let at a rent 14 of 20 shillings an acre— wheat being 50 shillings a quarter —the yearly produce would be £ 3 0 X by 4 = 120 30 Deduct landlord’s proportion, ...
There would remain to the tenant, ... £ 9 0 to defray the expense of seed, labour, taxes, clerical dues, the support, clothing, and education of his family, and all the various other charges attending upon the occupation of a form—a very small sum, no doubt, from such a farm, being about the value of three acres of potatoes, at 3d.
per stone ; but suppose the value of wheat, and of every other agri­ cultural produce, reduced one third, and the ren t lowered in the same proportion, then the yearly ren t of 30 acres, at 13s.

4d.

per acre, would be £20, which X by 4 = £ 8 0 ... 20 Deduct the landlord’s reduced rent, There would remain for the tenant only £ 6 0 instead of £ 9 0 , which he had before ; so th at while the landlord lost £ 1 0 , he lost £30.
B ut further, supposing he paid no rent whatever, but held in fee, he would still be as 80 to 90, or £ 1 0 worse off than when he paid a rent of 20 shillings an acre ; and this reasoning holds good, whatever number of rents are fixed on as the tenant’s proportion, 3, 4, 5, or 6, as on the worst soils.
But, say the free traders, the tenant will be as well off as before, because every thing he wants to purchase will fall proportionably ; but as almost every article of manufacture is already lower in G reat Britain than elsewhere, any further fall in prices can only arise from a general and vast reduction of wages, — the very thing these same gentlemen so stoutly deny, and so violently disclaim.
Another favourite assertion of the oracles of free trade in corn is, that the immediate command of the home market will be always sufficient protection to the B ritish and Irish 15 farmer ; but this is only another decided proof of the flip­ pancy with which such reasoners support their principles.

There is now no such thing as a home market— steam has annihilated it ; markets thousands of miles distant are for certainty and facility, almost on a par with the nearest.
Poultry—nay, fresh vegetables, and fruits, can be supplied from France and Belgium, and even Portugal and Spain, nearly as readily as from Kent and Essex.

Therefore, for the free traders to hold out the home market, as a suffi­ cient protection to the farmers, is in truth offering the froth of the ocean to catch the credulous gull, and dull as E arl Spencer deems them, they will scarcely be caught by a bait so worthless.
Many of the great monied capitalists of England, headed by Mr. Jones Lloyd, have latterly joined the Corn Law League, notwithstanding the present extensive revival, and admitted prosperity of our manufacturing interests and foreign commerce,—the impossibility of which, while our present corn laws existed, was very lately so positively declared.
It may appear very illiberal and uncharitable to attribute their adhesion to any selfish or unworthy mo­ tive ; but when it is certain that the repeal of those laws would inevitably place the landed interest of the three kingdoms at their mercy, and enable them to invest their capital on such terms as they pleased, it is almost impos­ sible to divest the mind of the opinion, that unable to resist so powerful a temptation, their judgments may be at least biassed by such great advantages.
It should never be forgotten that the Committee of the House of Commons, on the resumption of cash payments, in 1819, consisted principally of some of the greatest capi­ talists in the world, that the question submitted to their consideration was, in point of fact, nothing less than whether their own fortunes were to be vastly augmented or not ; 16 and that with one memorable, honest, and honorable excep­ tion, the late Sir R obert Peel, who denounced the measure to the house and country, they all voted (no doubt most disinterestedly) to receive a sovereign in gold for every 13 shillings they lent in paper, and thus nearly doubled their own fortunes, and the national debt ; but in the same crucible they reduced the landed interest to a state from which it has scarcely yet recovered, and in which they are again endeavouring to replace it.
There is another resource kindly suggested to the farmers, that allowing the corn to be supplied by foreign nations, they should convert their lands into the rearing and feeding of cattle, for which, it must be admitted, they are admirably adapted ; but Ireland was once before in that state, and it is now nearly a century since the Irish Parliament, by large bounties, induced the cultivation of wheat, of which there was not at th at period, sufficient grown even for the home consumption.
Since then a vast agricultural population has been created, and the country parcelled out into small tillage farms ; in some instances by the landlords, but in a far greater proportion by the occu­ piers subdividing amongst their families ; and any attem pt now to consolidate their holdings, and to convert them into grass, would only be productive of endless scenes of misery and destitution, and their certain consequences agrarian outrage and crime.
It was said by a late prime minister, th at “ he could not see how faith would be preserved with the public creditor, if the Corn Laws were repealed.” H e m ight have added, and with perhaps greater certainty, “ or the Union be maintained with Ireland.’’ In considering the existing circumstances which, from motives of self-interest, attach Ireland to a Union with G reat Britain, two immediately present themselves ; one is 17 the safety and protection which the Protestants consider that connection affords their church ; the other is, the pecu­ niary advantages arising from the preference afforded to Irish produce in the British markets.
Now these two links the able and energetic individual who leads the Repeal movement, unceasingly labours to break ; knowing that if he succeeds, he has cut the painter, and that no union can voluntarily continue, where such a truly Irish reciprocity shall be established, and disadvantages only shall accrue to one country from the connection.
For should the church of one party, and the prosperity of all, be sacrificed by any minis­ ter or government, it would require some ingenuity to dis­ cover why any Irishman, of whatever creed or colour of politics, should wish to continue attached to a country which conferred no other benefits, than a gracious permission to - fight her battles, and pay her taxes, and that too with an air of implied and exerted moral superiority, extremely offensive to the national character.
No doubt there ought to be another indissoluble bond of attachment created by the common participation of the honours offices and employments, arising from being an integral and important part of the governing portion of the greatest empire on the earth.

But as its existence would naturally form one of the strongest links of attachment, in the same proportion, its non-existence is one of the princi­ pal, though latent causes, of the present insecurity, discon­ tent, and disunion.
Late parliamentary returns prove that the Irish, as a people, are in advance of the English in respect of educa­ tion ; and that such has been the success of the various socie­ ties promoting it, that the young Irishman who cannot read^ is now almost the exception, whereas of 110,000 marriages which took place in London, in 1843, only 11,300 could sign their returns.
And yet this people so rapidly being 18 enlightened, and so constitutionally sensitive, forming one- third of the population of the United Kingdom, does not enjoy as much as 3 per cent of the offices of tru st and emo­ lument, instead of 33 per cent, to which they would in strictness be entitled.
And even in their own country, all the higher situations commanding patronage and considera­ ble emolument, are bestowed on English and Scotchmen, however unsuited to their previous habits and attainments ; and this comparative exclusion from public employments, is assuredly a great and prim ary cause of the discontent and alienation which exist, and to which also the crimes arising from the possession and tenure of land may be traced ; tho government having, as far as in its power, left to the mass of the people no other means of existence than the soil, which they must either obtain, maintain, or perish.
And this most impolitic and systematic favouritism, cannot be attributed to the superior honesty and ability of our British fellow-subjects, as it is admitted, th at in many of the public departments, corruption walks abroad almost undis­ guised and avowed.
Lord Lowther declared, before a committee of the House of Lords, that the frauds and robberies in the Post Office were “ terrific.,, The Customs and Exchequer have presented lately, one scene of dishonesty breach of trust and collusion, on the part of the subordinate, and neglect or imbecility, on the part of the superior officers ; and the constant, almost daily frauds and forgeries on the B ank of England ; the scenes displayed in the courts of justice, in every rank of life and variety of business, whether in banking, insurances, or private transactions ; exhibit sys­ tems of plunder, organised fraud, and a general laxity of It is sufficient to mention the morals, perfectly astounding.
Bank of Manchester, the N orthern and C entral Bank of England, and some tw enty others which have all failed within a short period ; the Westminster Insurance Office, and a multitude of public and private bankruptcies daily occurring for enormous amounts, without yielding a shilling dividend ; whereas in Ireland, for a great number of years past, none of those wholesale frauds have taken place, and the public departments have been ably and honestly con­ ducted.
Thus the Bank of Ireland filling the same position and discharging similar duties with the Bank of England, and in a proportion nearly as one to five, the average circulation of the former being £3,500,000, and of the latter, £18,000,000, has not, during its existence for 63 years, suffered so much altogether by fraud, forgery, and imposi­ tion, as the latter has in a single year.
It is also a legiti­ mate source of national pride, and should be stated, as it has been, and is too muoh the fashion, to underrate and un­ dervalue our own countrymen, and to exalt others in an undue proportion ; that the very few Irish employed in prominent situations, are amongst the ablest and purest of the servants of her Majesty, from the most upright, straightforward, and greatest man of his age and nation, to the latest who have distinguished themselves in the public service, and that too after others had failed— Sir H enry the only two Pottinger and Sir Hugh Gough—almost Irishmen I can recall to mind, as employed in commanding situations of any kind in the whole British empire.
And if such is the fact, or any thing like it, is it not an answer, and a full one, why the Irish are being alienated from England ?
I well remember a late witty chief justice, remarkable for a strong natural understanding, and an intimate knowledge of the state of Ireland, when the policy first commenced of removing all the public boards to London, and consequently placing all the patronage in the hands of Englishmen, whose first object must naturally be to provide for their own—“ I 20 shall not,” said he, “ live to see it ; but twenty years hence I cannot comprehend how the connection between the two countries can be maintained, if sucli policy is continued.” And just observe to what an extent this policy lias been carried.
O f the twenty-four members of the Queen’s government, including the fourteen cabinet ministers, there is but one Irishman— the Duke, who has long ceased to have any connection with his native country.

There is none in the Board of Excise, none in the Admiralty, Stamp Office, Post Office, Ordnance B o ard; there is one Lord of the T reasury, and two family appointments in the Board of Customs.
E ven in Dublin, English and Scotchmen fill the principal offices in the T reasury, Constabulary, Post Office, Board of W orks, on the formation of which Board, an Irish Engineer, since eminent in another country, was discontinued, to make room for an English architect ; and even an old Scotchman was imported to act as porter.
N ay, th a t noble river, the Shannon, could not be improved with our own money, without importing officers of rank in the service, and a family secretary, to receive high salaries for valuing premises, imposing taxes, and making contracts ; though they had never been employed in similar capacities before, and must naturally have less interest in the careful expenditure of other men’s money than they would have if they were locally interested, and their estates liable for the repaym ent of the expenditure.
And certainly between 20,000L and 30,000/.

have been expended on works at Kil- laloe, the benefit of some of which to the drainage and na­ vigation, is at least equivocal, and as far as I can form an opinion, are not worth so many pence.

B ut to follow up the examples would be endless.

O f the eighty-six foreign consulships, three only are filled by Irishmen, and so on through every department of state.
This very impolitic colonial treatm ent, amounting almost to 21 exclusion from office of the Irish of all classes and opinions, has had a very injurious effect on the feelings of the two countries, by inculcating an implied superiority in the one, and an inferiority and incapacity in the other ; which, when tested by experience, are not found to be warranted, and which, under institutions so similar, could not have exist­ ence.
A more striking instance of the different mode adopted of treating the two countries could scarcely be found than the cases of Lord Plunket and Sir John Campbell afford.
The appointment of the former very eminent man to the second rank in an English Equity Court, was obliged to be cancelled in deference to the nationality and opinion of the English bar ; but the government subsequently compelled him to vacate the Irish Chancellorship, to make room for its hebdomidal occupation, by Sir John Campbell, an English common-law lawyer, whose appointment was in direct oppo­ sition to the sentiments and feelings of the Irish bar.
W hen all the heads of the different public departments arc exclusively British, it naturally follows, th at the minor situations must be similarly filled ; and the consequence of these latter appointments are infinitely more injurious than the former ; because they affect the middle and lower classes—those who are more particularly disposed, from a difference of religion and other causes, to entertain a hos­ tile feeling to the cordial union of the two countries.
But it is not only to individuals, but to institutions, that this system is applied.

Compare the grants made to the British Museum and to the Dublin Society, fulfilling as the latter does, a much wider range of duties than the former, and therefore requiring larger proportionate funds.

To the to the other, with one, 60,000J.

a year are freely given ; great reluctance, and under many restrictions, a paltry 5,000?.

!

Again, another instance.


A single royal naval establish­ ment does not exist in the entire kingdom ; so that should a revenue cruiser (until lately, the only royal vessel known in her harbours) require any repairs or stores, even a rope, she is obliged to go to some of the naval arsenals in E ng­ I t is difficult to account for such land to obtain them.
strange policy, as many of the harbours are amongst the finest in the world ; and in case of war, it would be surely desirable th at the most vulnerable p art of these kingdoms should be adequately protected.

To the W higs is due the demerit of breaking up the last remnant of the naval establishment at Halbowline ; and it is singular, that whenever the same party were in power, from the reign of William III .
to that of Queen Victoria, they have marked their administration by acts insulting or injurious to the nation or to some class or other of the Irish people.
From the first enactment of the penal laws against the Roman Catholics, to the mitigated persecution of the Protestants a century after ; they broke up all the public establishments, and centralized them in England ; they at­ tempted to expatriate the Irish veterans, by removing them from the R oyal Hospital at Kilmainham ; and finally, they now propose to break up the Protestant church establish­ ment, and confiscate its property, and to withdraw all pro­ tection for Irish produce, by the repeal of the Corn Laws.
In an article on the state of Ireland in the last Edinburgh Review, which has been much lauded by its Wrhig parti- zans, and may be considered as the text-book of that party, it would be difficult to find contained in so many pages a greater ignorance of the country, the people, and its insti­ tutions ; or a greater number of errors in m atters of fact, raked together from all the stale reports and publications of the last half century, and now re-produced in this Rifaci- mento, and argued on as grounds for future legislation.
23 As if Ireland was the same country as before the Emanci­ pation Act, or even as last year.

It is impossible to condemn too strongly, the flippancy with which the present state of Irish national feeling is treated, or most of the remedial measures proposed for its amend­ ment, almost every one of which would aggravate the exist­ ing evils, and leave England without a friend or well-wisher in the kingdom.
One of the principal expedients suggested by the reviewer, is to break up the present church esta-) blishment, and to invest the present rent-charge in m o r t// gages.

As if the rent-charge is not, in point of fact, á mortgage, and a very light one ; and as if the tenants of the proposed mortgagees would not also be principally Ro4 man Catholics, and exactly placed in the same position as] the tenants of the present proprietors, liable to the rent4 charge.
There can be no doubt, that it is most desirable!

to abolish all payment by Roman Catholic proprietors toi the Protestant clergy ; and there is a simple and equitablol means of effecting it—by allowing every such proprietor to redeem liis rent-charge at a moderate rate of purchase, ini the same manner as the quit-rents, and thus to relieve him- ' self from any pecuniary payment to the clergy of a differ­ ent church.
And this should be combined with a heavy penalty on those landlords—and they are numerous, and of all colour of politics— who still make the rent-charge a separate imposition on their tenantry, and have utterly dis­ regarded the enactments which relieved the occupier at will from any such payments.

I t is impossible to overrate the injury the illegal conduct of such persons has caused to the church establishment, and the serious effect it has had in exciting discontent amongst the people.
There is no remedy at present for persons so defrauded, except by go­ ing to law with the landlord, which would be attended with If this crying consequences still more ruinous to them.

24 injustice was remedied, the moderate income of the Protes­ tant church would be as utterly unconnected with the Ro­ man Catholic proprietors and occupiers as it is possible to effect ; and the payment of their pastors would be placed where it ought to be— exclusively on the Protestant propri­ etors of Ireland.
The necessity for some further legislative enactment on this subject is demonstrated by the almost incredible fact, that the bishops and Ecclesiastical Commissioners themselves, whose policy it surely was to protect the establishment, and to ren­ der the paym ent of the clergy as little felt as possible, have omitted to add the rent-charge to the rents reserved in their leases to their Roman Catholic tenantry ; and thus as far as in their power, have added to the feeling of hostility which seeks to overthrow the establishment.
H ad these guardians of the church made an addition of a few pounds, and frequently only some shillings, to the rent reserved in their leases and renewals, they would thus have become the immediate paymasters of the clergy, and prevented the annoyance and heart-burning which the half-yearly demand of the clergyman on the Catholic tenant is sure to create.
A nd this indifference and neglect on a subject so important, forms a melancholy and unseemly contrast with the accurate accumulation of every item, and insertion of every clause, th at could possibly augment and secure their own personal incomes.
A nother most im portant measure suggested in the review, but which has long occupied the public mind, is the pay­ ment of the Roman Catholic clergy by the state ; which there can be no doubt would be attended with the utmost advantage both to the government, to the people, and to the clergy themselves, if it could be effected in a popular manner, and with the good will, and a t least tacit assent of the majority of the people and clergy ; but to attempt it 25 as it is now proposed, for the avowed object of weakening or destroying their influence over their flocks, and as a bribe to induce them to exert that influence to strengthen the connection between the two countries ; and as some propose to effect it by leaving large incomes at the treasury, to be drawn or not, as the inclination or policy of each cler­ gyman may prompt him ; I can scarcely conceive any thing more unstatesmanlike, or more certain to fail, and to be attended by consequences the very reverse of those ex­ pected from its adoption.
The influence of the Irish Roman Catholic priesthood is all-powerful if it acts in accordance with the popular will ; but if (as has frequently happened during the T erry Alt insurrection, and in some contested elections) it attempts to go in direct opposition to it, then it not only loses much of its usual influence, but is actually looked on with greater suspicion than any other class of persons of any rank or description whatsoever.
I t is quite erroneous to suppose that the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland, are less tolerant or liberal than their congregations.

I t is quite the reverse.


They frequently find it a difficult and delicate task to reconcile the preju­ dices of their flocks to their own personal intimacies and friendships with their Protestant parishioners, and therefore, a great and decided change must be effected in the minds of the mass of the people before any good would be attained by a state "provision for their clergy.
I have not the slightest doubt, that in the present state of the public mind, I the priest who accepted a regium donum, would in many; places be denounced, and probably expelled from his parish.
B ut I trust the time is fast approaching, when the govern­ ment, by a wise, and strictly just and generous policy towards Ireland, shall have so softened the present hostility, that such an arrangement may be effected, tending, as it undoubtedly would, to the independence and respectability V * of thé clergy, and operating as a very great pecuniary relief to their parishioners.
But several preliminary measures must first be adopted ; and to force it prematurely, would not only render the gift abortive, but greatly augment the existing evils, and the hostility of those it was intended to conciliate.

One of those preliminary measures should be a change in the system and constitution of the College of Maynooth.
I t would be natural to suf)pose, th at any government to whom the education of a body of young men are committed, or who had undertaken the important task of bringing them up in an institution designed expressly to attach them more firmly to British connection than they would have been, if educated in foreign colleges, would have taken care that the instruction afforded should have been of the best and most enlightened description, and calculated to attach them to the institutions of a country in which they were subse­ quently to exercise so powerful an influence.
B ut what has been the fact ?
N ot only have the official visitors long ceased to take any active interest in its management or prosperity ; but such a confined and necessarily parsimonious system has been pursued, not merely as regards the course of instruction, but even the comforts and conveniences of life, which unfortunately their own resources frequently do not enable them to supply, that these young students leave the college with a very imperfect education, except on those subjects necessary to obtain the priesthood, and the labo­ rious duties of a curate utterly prevent them, unless under very peculiar circumstances, subsequently from acquiring the many other essential branches of a good general educa­ tion.
Means should therefore be adopted, and funds provided, to remedy these evils, by the establishment of various profes­ sorships, and suitable premiums should be given to those who distinguished themselves in the several branches of science and belles lettres, which are requisite and necessary to form the character of an enlightened clergyman and gentleman, as well as theological and polemical studies.
And to the most distinguished, funds might be given, to enable them by foreign travel to compare the free institutions, and the noble constitution of their native land, with the most boasted of other countries ; and a residence in Rome itself would prove to them, that more true liberty exists in the most restricted form of their own government, than under the most favour­ able aspect which the papal rule itself can be regarded.
The advantages of this improved education, and generous, or at least liberal treatment, of the students, would form one of the best groundworks for a future state establishment for the clergy, and render the recipients more ready to receive their incomes from a government, from which they had in their youth derived so many advantages.
While on this topic, I cannot omit to notice two strango mistakes made by the reviewer, in supposing that Ro­ man Catholics are prohibited from obtaining degrees in the Dublin University, though they enjoy that privilege for more than half a century, And again, in drawing conclu­ sions, and arguing from the vast number of civil bills and ejectments in the quarter sessions courts, as to the relations existing between the upper and lower orders of society in Ireland.
The reviewer assumes, that all this amount of litigation, arises between the proprietors and the people ; whereas, in point of fact, a very small proportion, probably not five per cent, has any connection whatever with the gen­ try , but is confined exclusively to the people themselves ; and may be attributed to the facilities afforded by the numerous courts of quarter sessions, and the very strange exemption of the unsuccessful party from costs, no m atter how un­ righteous his suit, or his mode of conducting it.
28 B ut however injurious to the character o f all classes of Irishmen the reviewer’s mistakes and assumptions may be, the tone and arguments of the article itself is just of that depreciating and insulting description to the feelings of the people, that I have no hesitation in asserting, that writers of th a t class have dong, and are hourly doing more to alienate the two countries, than any existing grievance whatsoever.
In every line he most untruly describes the Irish nation as perfectly ignorant and uncivilised ; and places them in phy­ sical, moral, and intellectual qualities, not merely below their fellow-citizens of G reat Britain, but of mankind in general.

Now this inferiority I utterly deny.
I t is contradicted by daily events, and in every quarter of the globe, where an opportunity of comparison is afforded ; and while I strongly condemn such a mode of reasoning, and consider such comparisons as odious and in the worst taste, and most injurious to the good feeling which should exist between two countries, p art of the same kingdom, and ruled by the same sovereign ; yet, as he founds his statements principally on the reports of commissions, he ought to have considered how easy it was to refer to similar reports, only made last year, as to the state of morals and education in England itself, and with sincere sorrow I assert, th at the scenes of ignorance, immorality, misery, and vice, laid open in these reports, and brought forward last session by Lord Ashley in the House of Commons, immeasurably exceed any thing that could be found existing in Ireland, even in its wildest districts.
In what portion of that country could there be seen thousands who had never been baptised ?

had no Chris­ tian or surnames, but were merely distinguished by nick­ names !

were altogether ignorant of the Christian religion !

had never heard of Wellington, Napoleon, or even Lon­ don !

W here men and women worked together almost in 29 a state of nudity ; where the restraints of modesty, mora­ lity, and religion, were utterly unknown or disregarded.
And yet the collieries and iron works of G reat Britain dis­ played such lamentable scenes, not in single and rare in­ stances, but as the character of the mass, and the general prevailing system of the manufacturing districts.

These facts and details are all set forth in the report ; and I earnestly hope, means may be soon found to remove or alleviate evils fraught with imminent danger to the com­ munity at large, and well calculated to make a deep and painful impression on every reflecting mind.
B ut in deal­ ing forth such wholesale defamation of the Irish people, the reviewer should have looked at home, and hesitated before he aggravated the ill feeling which unfortunately exists, and which he and others of his class, so effectually labour to augment.

But misconceptions and errors on the state of Ireland are not confined to the reviewer, but extend almost to all classes of Englishmen.
And it is, I fear, truly said, that in general they know less of Ireland than of any country in the civilised world.

They judge of her by hearsay and reports ; and every thing is distorted and coloured through the medium of the violent party feeling of the individual who discusses it.

Few, even of the patriots, “ par excellence,” ever labour to improve or benefit poor Ireland for her own sake, but for the benefit of their party, or their own selfish and unworthy purposes.
Can any thing exhibit this more strongly than the state of the Irish press ?

devoted as it is with great talent and persevering energy, wholly to excite and array one class of Irishmen against another, and to dis­ colour and misrepresent almost every occurrence which takes place.
W hen a crime is unfortunately committed, the one party placards it with the utmost exaggeration, and the other as anxiouly endeavours to soften it down into some venial offence, and to palliate its commission, by some cause, frequently without foundation.

Thus society is dis­ tracted, and its morality sapped, by th at which ought to be of both, the surest and best guardian.
and notwithstanding The English press and public being always desirous to attribute the discontent and alienation which exist, to any other cause, than their own misgovernment, periodically look for some Irish stalking horse on which to lay the bur­ then ; and the fashion at present is to attribute them to the relation between landlord and tenant) though th at relation is, in many respects, much more favourable to the occupier than in England, and the Irish landlord is already infinitely worse circumstanced.
For instance ; he pays all the tithe rent-charge—the English none ; three-fourths of the poor- rate—the English none ; these charges, the rents he receives will, I am satisfied, prove to be 30 per cent less, and 60 per cent less than those of Scot­ land ; and so far from being able to do what he likes with his own, the tenants only claim th at privilege, and fully exercise it : so that instead of enacting further exceptional laws, which are assuredly one great cause why the course of government never can run smoothly, as it is diverging every day farther and farther from th at of England, the legislature should rath er endeavour to assimilate them, and place the institutions of both countries on the same basis.
There is no reason why an English tenant should not be allowed for his necessary improvements, as well as an Irish ; and I am quite aware of numerous instances of the hard­ ships arising from the want of such a right in both countries.

And if any such law is deemed necessary, it should not be a law of exception, but a general one, extending to the three kingdoms.

However I shall not pursue this subject farther, as a commission is now engaged in very extensive inquiries on 31 this most important subject.
And though there are cer­ tainly some evils which may be within reach of the legisla­ ture, and others which the mere publication of the report may be sufficient to remedy ; yet, as it is notorious that there never was a period when landlords were making greater efforts to’repair former negligence, and to redeem previous errors than the present, it is impossible that any thing in that relation should account for the state of excite­ ment and of public feeling now prevailing in Ireland.
The nature and extent of the evils have been considerably mis­ understood, and greatly exaggerated.
And I am con­ vinced, that so far from the superior landlords exercising their rights with severity or hardship, that on the contrary, if the strict system maintained in England and Scotland in the payment of rents, the restriction to a particular course of cultivation, the maintenance of improvements, the total prohibition of sub-letting, sub-dividing, and con-acre, was to be similarly enforced in Ireland, it would lead to an univer­ sal agrarian insurrection.
The greatest evil, and the most difficult to deal with, is the infinite subdivision of the soil.

The portion occupied by each tenant, if held in fee, would not be sufficient to place him in the state of decent comfort a respectable far­ mer ought to enjoy.
B ut when the numberless family and domestic engagements entered into by this class of persons are taken into account, in the raising of capital, portioning of daughters, going security by recognizance and other­ wise, it is quite surprising, and indeed must be utterly incomprehensible, except to those intimately acquainted with the people, how such heavy and multifarious demands can ever bejiquidated by the profits of such small farms.
* * That the evils arising from the infinite subdivision of the soil are not confined to Ireland, but are inseparable from such a system , even when the land is universally held in fee, is fully proved by the following extract from 32 I have repeatedly known from 401, to 100/.

undertaken to be paid as a daughter’s portion on her marriage, and faith­ For fully discharged, by a farmer holding only 10 acres.
it is a proud and almost a distinctive trait in the Irish pea­ sant’s character, th at he never considers or complains of his own privation ; and it is almost incredible how great they are— if he can adequately advance or provide for his family.

And thus it is th at strangers utterly misunderstand the character of the people.
They deem them wasteful, im­ provident, and idle ; whereas, though negligent in their persons and dwellings, there is not, probably, a people in Europe whose character has undergone a greater change, and in whom the anxiety to acquire, or the resolution to secure an independence, is more deeply rooted, or more per- severingly pursued.
Is it not most unjust and galling to their feelings, to accuse a people of idleness, thousands of whom walk hundreds of miles, endure the severest priva­ tions, frequently insults and sufferings, for the mere liberty to undertake the severest task works in the fens of E ng­ land, and then to bring back to their families the fruit of the discourse o f P rofessor M. M ichel Chevalier, in opening1 his course of P olitical Econom y in the U niversity of France, before a numerous auditory on the 6th o f January last, and since published:— “ Cheq nous pourtant le credit agricole n ’existe pas ; el n’ya que l ’usure agricole.
Combien cepen­ dant le mouvement d’am élioration ne s ’accélèrerait-il pas si le crédit agri­ cole était constitué, et que le cultivateur pût emprunter des fonds à un taux pareil au revenu net des terres, c’est à-dire à 3 pour 100 ou à 2 et demi, au lieu de 5, de 7, que dis-je?

de 10 et 15 pour 100 ; car l’agriculture, en France, en est encore à subir ces conditions léonines, et par l’effet des m ê­ m es causes elle s ’endette sans cesse.
E lle est grevée m aintenant d’une dette notoire de treize milliards, sans parler de celle qui ne ligure pas sur le livre des hypothèques.” A debt due by these small proprietors on m ort­ gages alone, o f 13 milliards, equal to 5 2 0 ,0 0 0 ,0 0 0 sterlin g!

!

!

on an aver­ age o f 8 per cent interest, a charge of 4 1 ,0 0 0 ,0 0 0 a-year, and continually augm enting ; and all incurred w ithin fifty years, far exceeding any pres­ sure on the Irish occupiers.
Thus it is evident, that the evils arise, not from landlords, not from high rents, but from the very nature of the sy s­ tem ; as the very same state of debt and consequent distress is found e x ­ istin g am ongst the small proprietors of that class in Ireland, many of w hose tenantry paying high rents, are as creditors— in point of fact, the real ow ners of the properties.

33 their hard labour, without expending a shilling beyond that absolutely necessary to support existence ?
And there is no doubt that a great and marked change has taken place in the habits of every class of society in Ireland.

The gentleman now exceeding his income is almost as rare as one who lived within it a few years since.
And one fact alone will fully confirm this statement,—that high sheriffs are obliged to pay considerable salaries to get pro­ per persons to undertake the office of sub-sheriff ; for which, in the era of Irish extravagance, large sums were generally paid, and by which very considerable fortunes were accu­ mulated.

This prudence and industry on the part of the higher, has had a beneficial effect on the habits of those below them.
And the accumulations made whenever there is any capital commencing, and any opportunities afforded, are quite sur­ prising, and utterly beyond the conception of those who judge Ireland from the surface.

I know several instances of farmers living in apparent poverty, in wretched houses, holding under 30 acres of land, who have nevertheless GOO?, in the funds, and who have given each of a family of seve- children, 100?.
on their marriage ; and from their appear­ ance, language, and habits of life, they would excite pity in a stranger, and induce him to exclaim against the pro­ prietor who had reduced his tenants to such a state.

So universal is the custom, in the south at least, of the peasant girl, and small farmer’s daughters having more or less for­ tune, seldom descending below 10?., and varying from that to 100?.

and upwards, that any girl married without such a fortune would form the exception to the general rule.
How few English or Scotch girls in the same rank of life ever have any.

A labourer of the writer’s, holding only three acres and a half of ground, gave his sister 25?.

fortune, the whole of which was accumulated from the profits of his small farm, and he was under no legal obligation whatever to provide for her.

And let it not be thought th at this is an uncom­ mon trait.
On the contrary, it is universal amongst the peasantry and small farmers of M unster and Connaught, and prevails extensively in Leinster : how far it exists in U lster I cannot state ; but I should suppose it was not so general, as the land there is more sub-divided, let consi­ derably higher, and the occupiers seem to expend more on their personal comforts.
I know this is venturing on very unpopular ground ; and that such statements are in direct contradiction to general assertions, and to the reports of learned and unlearned com­ missioners.
B ut while I fully admit and lament a great extent of poverty and suffering, and a want of general em­ ployment, particularly at certain seasons, which is insepar­ able, I fear, from an agricultural country, where a scientific rotation of crops is only being introduced f yet I believe the absolute destitution and misery of the people to be consi­ derably exaggerated ; nay, th at there is not more of either than in vaunted England herself ;* and th a t if an improved system of cultivation becomes extensively practised, they will rapidly diminish.
T he commissioners of inquiry reported, th at there were 2,300,000 persons in a state of absolute destitution in Ire ­ * It appears by the statistical personal resources o f M onsieur Lofour, lately published, that there are 70,0 0 0 persons in Liverpool alone, dw elling or rather feet w ide, and rarely 6 feet high; obliged to be turned out to wander in the str e e ts in the day tim e. sleeping in underground cellars, few o f which and so crowded, that are more than 10 the children are This supposition is strongly supported, and indeed m ight be stated more favourably, by a comparison o f the m ortality in the tw o countries : — 5 D eath s in England, 1 in 44 1 in 57 £ D eaths in Ireland, That is 25 per cent in favour o f Ireland ; and yet that year, ow ing to the failure of the potato, w as one o f greater destitution and distress.
— Census R e p o r t, p age 46.

35 land.

How comes it there are not 40,000 in its 130 work­ houses ?

W hat has become of the remaining 2,270,000, that they do not avail themselves of the food, clothing, and lodging, combined above all with almost total idleness, in the splendid houses prepared at such vast cost for their reception ?

The question answers itself—they never had existence, except in the imaginations of the commission­ ers.
But wild as that statement was, it is mere prose, com­ pared to the Report of the Census Commissioners for 1841, which states “ that 68 per cent, i. e. (upwards of five mil­ lions) o f the rural population, consists o f heads o f families, without money, capital, or acquired knowledge—i.

e. labourers or persons who obtain the means o f existence by employments requiring little or no instruction.
This may include small farmers up to 5 acres” In the state trials, M r. O ’Connell referred to this state­ ment, as representing nearly 70 per cent of the people in a state o f destitution.

And undoubtedly the language used by the commissioners would nearly warrant such a deduc­ tion.
But on what grounds these gentlemen came to the conclusion, that even the majority, much less all persons holding under five acres of land, were “ without money, capital, or acquired knowledge,” I cannot conceive ; as in the very same census returns, they state, that in the county of Down, containing 630,000 acres, occupied by 171,000 heads of families— consequently, on an average, holding less than five acres each—there is but 27*46 per cent of the population who cannot read and write ; and they are also represented in the same report (page 434) as enjoying nearly the largest proportion of the best house accommodation in Ireland.
I t is difficult to reconcile this, with the previous proposition.
Now my practical experience has led me to a clear conviction, that this picture of destitution, which i f true, D ^ y O0 O0 ^ \ 36 industry and privations, is greatly over­ would render all remedies hopeless, drawn ; and that there is a very large amount of capital, accumulated by great lying comparatively unproductive in the hands of very humble persons, quite sufficient, i f there was confidence in its dispo­ sal and management, for the execution of any public works now contemplated.
L et a small portion of land be for sale __how many bidders ready to pay infinitely more than the I have known 40/.

given value for its mere occupation ; for two acres of common farm land, subject to 30s.

an acre rent, and that too in the south, where there were no leases, but the tenure existing solely on the fa ith o f the landlord : and five and six years purchase of the rack rent is quite a usual consideration for such holdings.

2,243,000/.
2,243,000/.

in 1842), and local institutions, have increased I t is also remarkable, th at the- small deposits in the government funds, savings’ banks, (in which there were T v in an extraordinary manner, and were only checked tem- porarily by the great distress which prevailed in the years ’40 and ’41, from the universal failure of the potato crops, introduction of temperance will and which the happy In one instance, in a mountainous quickly compensate.
and poor district, but where the people had confidence in the management of a loan society, conducted very much by themselves, they actually subscribed upwards of 4000/., and as much more was declined by the committee.

Y et when this society was first established in 1836, on the prin­ ciple of the capital being so provided, it was universally said, there never would be 50/.
obtained from such re­ sources ; and it did actually exist two years before any extensive in private, and under solemn injunctions of secrecy.
There­ fore, if this has been effected in a rem arkably unfa­ I contend that similar results would vourable district, lodgments were made, and then only 37 follow, to a much greater extent elsewhere, if confidence was only once established, and the object proposed popu­ lar ; and if the government would, through local boards, receive and guarantee the funds with moderate interest, and invest them in public works, calculated to improve the country, by drainage roads and reclamation of waste lands, in the districts where the money was advanced.
And surely such investments, promoting civilization, commerce, improved agriculture, and their consequent industry, and affording means of more constant employment, would bo the best and cheapest recognizance the people could enter into, or the government devise, to bind the nation to keep the peace ; but all efforts of such nature are never at­ tempted ; the people (its gentry included) are spoken of, and what is worse, treated as thoughtless, incompetent in­ dividuals or hopeless paupers ; and in one thing only all par­ ties seem to combine, but from very different motives and views, in representing this noble country, and its intelligent population, as one mass of poverty and destitution, and too many describe them as disciples of idleness, ignorance, and crime, almost beyond the reach of improvement, and to be governed only by laws of exception, different from the rest of the United Kingdom, and at variance with the principles of the constitution.
Thus capital, which is assuredly one of the greatest wants of the country, and on which its amelioration principally in the is either comparatively unproductive depends, government funds, or absolutely so in the hands of a mul­ titude of humble and ignorant persons, who dread to risk it out of their own possession.

Agricultural credit has no more existence in Ireland, than in France—it is only agri­ cultural usury.
The country is generally so divided and subdivided, that a large proportion of the occupiers are of a class below that with whom the present great banking 38 establishments usually have transactions ; and the charge» made by these banks (except the Bank of Ireland, which generally declines such business) on small bills, are quite exorbitant, varying from 7 to 20 per cent, and even higher, which, combined with the present very excessive stamp duties, render such accommodation ruinous to the borrower.
T he only other sources from which the small occupiers can obtain tem porary capital, are the loan fund socie­ ties ; and the vast extent of their business, amounting to several millions sterling, during the short period they have been in existence, proves beyond question the for such accommodation ; while necessity the extraordinary punctuality with which the loans have almost uniformly been repaid, reflects the highest credit, on the industry foresight and honesty of the people.
The government, therefore, th at would afford to the small agri­ culturist, banking accommodation on terms less onerous, would confer one of the greatest benefits the country is capable of receiving.

that exists These loan societies are generally conducted on a system of weekly repayments, and consequently are totally un­ suited to the slow returns of a farm er’s capital, which is rarely turned more than once a year, and frequently re ­ quires nearly two, to be so, with advantage.
The lowest interest also on these loans amounts to 13 per cent, which, when the trouble and loss of time, which weekly repay­ ments impose, are considered, must be deemed quite exor­ bitant.

The w riter endeavoured to have this amended, in a society with which he is connected, by having the loans repaid by three instalments, at intervals of two months.
The money thus lent, produced 8 per cent ; and as 5 and 6 per cent was given to those who advanced the capital, 2 per cent remained to cover the losses and expenditure ; and yet there was a considerable overplus every year for charitable purposes.

This principle, therefore, extended under proper super­ intendence, and on more favourable terms, generally throughout the country, by connecting it with rural savings banks, at present unknown, would have a most beneficial effect.
It would present at their doors a secure place of lodgment, to those who had by industry and economy, made any previous savings ; it would give such persons a direct interest in the peace of the country, and the stability of its institutions ; it would afford capital at a much lower rate of interest than at present, and consequent employment, to those who required it, and be the means of improvement and amelioration in the district ; in short, it would be the application of the banking system, and all its train of ad­ the peculiar state and condition of three- vantages, fourths of Ireland ; and which may, perhaps, recommend it more strongly— without any charge whatever to the govern­ ment beyond that of superintendence.
to The question, W hat is justice to Ireland?

which is frequently and sneeringly asked, may be best answered by reversing the picture, and placing England in the place of Ireland, and then asking Englishmen to answer it them­ selves.
Suppose that the utmost possible portion of the English revenue was expended in Ireland ; that Dublin, Kingstown, Drogheda, Cork, and Belfast, were formed exclusively into naval arsenals, and every one of the spa­ cious harbours of England utterly deserted and neglected, unless occasionally visited by an armed steamer for curi­ osity or intimidation ; suppose a large proportion—pro­ bably one-half—of the rental of England also spent in Ireland, that Irishmen were appointed to every situation of honour and emolument in England, and the English partially and systematically excluded, and that the whole government was carried on by Irishmen, the English being very inadequately represented in the legislature: there can be no doubt such a state of things would immediately produce poverty, hostility to Ireland, and universal discon­ tent amongst the people of E ngland; then suppose the Irish statesmen, instead of remedying, or even alluding to any of these manifest evils, should refer the state of E ng­ land to the English dissenters— to the Church o f E ngland — to the landlords; that such a maw was appointed attorney- general, and such another ma7i, a bishop ; th at unpaid gentle­ men were magistrates instead of stipendiary policemen ; that every man had not the franchise, and so on ad nauseam; and proposed as remedies— that the church should be divided with the English dissenters, and the lands with the occu­ piers : does any man suppose, or will any man argue, that such remedies would remove the discontent or remedy the evils of England ?
N either will they of Ireland.

No modification or division of the little property left, adds to its quantity ; and no extension of the franchise would increase the number of representatives, or their influence with the government.

Well, then, the Irish are precisely similarly situated.
T hey ask for bread, and they are given a stone ; and to satisfy their hunger and demand of employment, they are promised the plunder o f one another as a peace- so that, as the Catholics were injured and offering ; wronged the last century, the Protestants, by the lex tali- onis, may be similarly treated in this one ; and thus the “ divide et impera” system, still be maintained and followed out ; and yet this is the W hig policy now proposed for adop­ tion.
B ut unless I am greatly in error, the country has outgrown, or at least is rapidly outgrowing such a policy, by either W higs or Tories ; and the result of it would be, to lose all and gain none, to unite instead of disuniting, and greatly to augment the danger instead of lessening it.
The i l constant drain of the revenue and absentee property should be stopped, and employed to fertilize the country from which it springs ; and Protestant, Catholic, and Presbyte­ rian Ireland, should be treated as a part, instead of a slighted In short, the evils are in Ireland, province of the empire.

but the real and true remedies are in England.


The article in the Edinburgh Review before alluded to, is remarkable for having totally omitted to notice the evils here referred to, namely, the revenue drain, the absentee drain; and that from which they both derive their origin,— a want o f a due proportion o f Irish influence in the legisla­ ture and councils o f the empire.
These are the real endur­ ing evils of the country, all greatly augmented since the union, now also, from various causes rapidly progress­ ing, and in which all other minor ones originate.
To these, no English statesman ever alludes ; for the obvious reasons—that the first could only be remedied by the expen­ diture, in Ireland, of at least two or three millions of revenue, which is now expended in England ; and the second, by incurring and provoking the hostility of the great aristocracy, both W hig and Tory, which no minister could well withstand.
That Sir Robert Peel, however, begins to see the true cause of the diseased state of society, and wishes to apply a remedy, may be inferred, from his having made the Irish absentees liable to the income tax,* being the first step ever made by any minister of England in modern times, towards remedying this abuse.
I t is impossible to estimate too highly the value of that step ; and there is no Irishman who should not feel the utmost gratitude to the statesman who had the wisdom and courage to take it ; yet, such is the vio­ lence and injustice of party, that it has been scarcely noticed, much less received with thanks.

Already it has * Unfortunately it does not extend to the continental absentees, who arc the most numerous and the least excusable.
conferred considerable benefit ; even in my own neigh­ bourhood, it has led to the temporary residence of one great proprietor, whose extensive estates were neglected to a degree almost incredible ; and symptoms are apparent, and expectations are already being formed, th at some plans, and consequent expenditure, for their improvement and amelio­ ration, are about being adopted.
N either is such an un­ dertaking without its advantages and reward, both moral and pecuniary, to the individual, his tenantry, and the public.

For the last ten years, the writer has constantly resided in, and devoted himself to the improvement of a p art of the country, previously in a similar state of utter waste and neglect, and to which there were circumstances attaclicd, well calculated to deter him from such a determination.
It is then truly gratifying to be able, from a knowledge that can scarcely be disputed, to bear his^humble testimony to the extreme and undeviating good and kind conduct of those amongst whom he has lived so long and so happily ; to their readiness and aptitude to adopt improvements, which were limited only by the scantiness of their means ; that all classes afforded their unremitting aid and assistance ; and th at no difference of opinion in religion or politics ever for a moment interfered in their zealous promotion of those ob­ jects, which were intended for the benefit and improvement of the neighbourhood ; and finally, th at our labours have been attended with very beneficial results.
How great then would be the effect, and how vast the ‘change, which the expenditure of some proportion of the overgrown incomes of the great proprietors would cause.

In the county of Clare, it is calculated, th at the income annu­ ally withdrawn from it, by the absentees, is represented by the number of the population, and is equal to a poll tax of one pound sterling per head, on every man, woman, and child in the county.
Let any man of common sense consi­ 43 der what the state of that population must be, after paying such an annual tribute out of the soil of a poor and back­ ward county, without any species of manufacture whatever to assist it.

I t is, therefore to be hoped, and earnestly desired, that should the legislature repeal the income tax, at the period fixed for its cessation, the absentee portion o f it will at least be retained, and devoted to the improvement of the estates of the proprietors.
As the nominal causes which it suits the two great par­ ties in parliament, and the contending factions in Ireland, to attribute its sad condition to, daily diminish ; as the grounds of internal contention become narrowed ; it will be impossible that the mind of the public and of parliament will not gradually be directed to those great and growing evils.
Can any nation however fertile, however industrious, how­ ever parsimonious in personal comforts and expenditure, however temperate, however enduring, continue to with­ stand and support, in all seasons, favourable or unfavoura­ ble, whether trade is flourishing or depressed, whether the crops have been abundant or deficient, whether the govern­ ment or the absentees expend a shilling within the country, or not, the constant, unceasing, and inexorable demands of the revenue officers and absentee agents, altogether amount­ ing to £6,000,000 sterling at the least ?
* It is impossible !

Now if this sum, or a great deal more was levied, as in England, and again expended within the country, it would not be a hardship much felt or complained of.

B ut in Ire­ land it operates as a tribute— no portion o f it ever returns.

1 he nation is called on to provide tho bricks ; bat no straw is furnished lier, wherewith to make them.

I have said that the evil is a growing one ; and it is so undoubtedly.
The very fashion of the day, though it may * It has been frequently represented as much higher.

44 be attended with beneficial consequences, of educating al­ most all the rising generation of the gentry in England, and which is universal amongst the Roman Catholic aristo­ cracy, is accompanied with this great disadvantage, th at it occasions an additional annual demand of nearly half a mil­ Surely, then, the English lion sterling, from Ireland.
government might be liberal in its expenditure, when it may be certain, th at fashion alone will fully counterbalance its efforts, and restore the advantage to England.
But, however, this exhaustion has been borne up to this period, it is evident th at some restraint must ere long be applied to it, and that the system formerly adopted in the foundling hospitals, of quieting the children when crying for their natural sustenance, by giving them opiates, cannot in politics be followed much longer, and that more of the Irish revenue and rental will have to be expended within the kingdom.
And it is for the statesman who had the boldness to commence the good work, with the absentees, to follow it up, w ith the revenue, and thus effectually to silence the national cry, and lay the question of repeal at rest fo r ever.
T h at this is the true state of things in Ireland, is strongly corroborated by this fact, th at notwithstanding the present disunion and excitement, all classes of Irishmen agree, that at least one great good has arisen, and one great advantage been obtained, namely, that the government has been obliged to pay more attention to the wants of the country, and th at it has led to a considerable expenditure of public money.
So far from deeming even the increase of the military, and the presence of a naval force, as evils, both Conservatives and Repealers unite in endeavouring to get the greatest possible number to their own localities ; and the government could not more effectually punish any town, than by leaving it without either.

B ut it is to be hoped, 45 that there will be found ere long, some more profitable means of expending the public revenue, with greater per­ manent advantage to the country.
W hat would be thought of the guardian, to whose pro­ tection both the property and person of a sick friend, much less sister, were entrusted, and who knew, that both re­ quired the utmost care and the most generous treatment ; yet not only appropriated to his own use nearly all the income, but deliberately allowed his servants and fol­ lowers, to carry off to his own establishment almost every thing which ought to be applied for the comfort and benefit of his ward.
And yet this is precisely the case of England.

She is the guardian ; to her sacred charge is entrusted the safeguardiansliip of the revenue and people of Ireland ; yet she appropriates to herself, and allows the absentees to do the same, every guinea that unhappy land can possibly spare or economise, which are so greatly needed for its own use, and without which it can never become prosperous or contented.
How absurd it appears, to call the whole faculty into con­ sultation, day after day, and night after night, some blaming the nurse-tenders, and strongly recommending others ; some, the dangerous prescriptions of apopular doctor in great vogue, but whose large fees encroach on their own privileges, and urging that his practice should be stopped, and himself punished ; some again, laying the fault on the natural con­ stitution of the patient; some recommending bleeding, others a strait waistcoat ; some proposing to entrust the cure to the Protestant clergy, some to the Roman Catholic, others to the Presbyterian, and some very wise doctors to all three together ; again, some particularly scientific per­ sons, suggesting that the small remnant of revenue and property remaining to the patient, should bo differently divided and expended for her benefit, on a new and popular principle ; but not one of the faculty ever proposing the very obvious recipe, that the guardian himself and his fo l­ lowers should leave a little more o f the income, and devote a larger proportion o f the property to the use o f the patient, fo r whose nourishment and recovery they were so absolutely essential.
How little does this faint picture differ from that of Ire­ land ; and like the guardian, the remedy is within the power, and in the hands of the minister himself.
The religious animosities peculiar to Ireland, which are the bane and disgrace of the kingdom, and the consequent dis­ union which has so long existed, and which was the great force and ancient policy of England, must from the existing equality of rights, the increasing intercourse, the spread of national education, and the march of civilization over Europe, rapidly diminish.
A very short period, and a few acts interfering with private rights, or old establishments dear to a large and influential class of the people, and above all, with the national property and prosperity, by the repeal o f the Corn L a w s, might render those who are the staunch friends of England, her most dangerous opponents ; and strong symptoms of such a feeling might have already been apparent, but for the denunciation of the Saxon or P ro ­ testant church and people, which the organs of the Repeal Association have so uniformly and so unwisely displayed, and the avowed resolution of the Repealers to deprive the P ro­ testant church establishment of the very moderate property still belonging to it,— “ pour encourager les autres”— a strange mode of conciliating the Protestant laity ; telling them in tolerably plain language, that the spoliation which began with the church, was sure, as has ever been the case, to end by despoiling the laity ; and it matters little to the Irish proprietors, whether the blow is inflicted by the Repealers in Ireland, or by a W hig-Radical government in England.
$ - 7 * ^ / í f Í , ^ There is no doubt that the state of Ireland is not only fraught with danger, but extremely anomalous ; and the statesman who undertakes to amend it, has a most difficult, and in many respects a disheartening and ungrateful task If he adopts the maxims of the Whigs, he before him.
benefits and gains no one party or individual in Ireland, and he irrevocably loses the confidence and shakes the fidelity of the Irish Protestants ; and by the Repeal of the Corn Laws he would almost assuredly unite all classes in a com­ mon bond of hostility to G reat Britain, and direct their attention to other nations and other markets.
Already are the French manufacturers becoming extensive purchasers of Irish wool ; and as it was a mere drug at the time, the relief these purchases afforded, excited a considerable sensation amongst a large class of farmers in the west of the politics of the Ireland.

Again, he must eschew U ltra Tories, a class of persons rapidly being diminished, and who shortly could be contained in a room not much larger than that, in which'the Irish Whigs were lately clo- setted in Charlemont House.
c/ Combined with a firm, strong, and perfectly impartial government, I can see no means so likely to divert the pub­ lic attention, and direct it in a more healthy channel than the immediate commencement* of works in the drainage, canals, railroads, and reclamation of the waste lands of the kingdom, on an extensive and striking scale ; not on the miserable Jewish principle of the treasury, and of the Board of Works, lending money at 5 per cent, which was borrowed on exchequer bills at little more than 2, thus realising a profit of 3 per cent on their paltry grants.
Let the example and policy of Louis Philippe, the Napoleon of peace, under cir­ cumstances somewhat similar but infinitely more difficult, be tottering throne, adopted and followed.

Placed on a * There is every reason to apprehend a scarcity of the people’s food this summer,— already it is rising rapidly in price in every part of the kingdom.

\ 48 scarcely acknowledged, lie had to contend with violent fac­ tions, and a discontented and revolutionary people.
The machiavelian policy of former statesmen would have been, to allow them to waste their energies in war, he directed them with incalculably greater benefit, and at infinitely less expense in the track of peaceful employment, and he has successively broken down and overcome all factions, by the immense development of private and national wealth, accru­ ing from the extensive public works he has set on foot in every p art of the kingdom, and which the increasing revenue has amply repaid.
W hat a change of feeling and impulse to improvement would the expenditure of even one million of the Irish revenue afford, if properly disseminated, causing as it undoubtedly would, a private expenditure of probably double th at amount.

How much more wise and more noble, would be such a plan of pacification and conci­ liation, than the unprofitable augmentation of the arm y, navy, police and ordnance estimates.
Can any one doubt th at the annual expenditure of even the quit and crown rents of Ireland, amounting to 74,000/.

a year, in works essential to the improvement and ornament of its metropolis and principal towns, would have a most beneficial and healing influence ; and it cannot be contended, that it would not be a more legitimate and politic employ­ m e n t of them, than the embellishment of the parks and squares of London.
A great quantity of valuable employment might be af­ forded by a modification o f the present poor-law in th e rural districts, where it is most unpopular, because it has worked oppressively, and been of little or no advantage.

I f the relief in poor-houses was exclusively confined to the I sick and disabled, and a labour-rate limited to 6d.

in the / pound raised on the entire kingdom, with an additional 6d.
/ to be paid by such landlords as are absentees, and conse- j quently do not contribute to the employment of the people ; the whole to be expended by the boards of guardians in their respective districts and parishes, under proper regula­ tions, (such as may induce proprietors to contribute, and the government to advance funds in aid), in affording employ­ ment to the able-bodied, during the periods when the labourers are generally unemployed.
This expenditure would soon change the appearance of the country, add to its health, convenience, and beauty, render it infinitely more desirable to live in, and above all, would give an in­ dependent means of support to those who have now no the summer and winter resource, particularly during months, than idleness or the workhouse.
* In the preceding pages I have endeavoured to establish, that the repeal of the Corn Laws, however injurious to G reat Britain, could only be productive of unmixed evil to Ireland, and would furnish a real and substantial grievance, now eagerly sought after by the enemies of British connex­ ion ; that it would tend to alienate those who are and have ever been, the fast friends of that connexion, and unite them with those who are actuated by very different feelings ; that no reduction of rents would place the small occupiers on an equal footing, with those they would have to contend with ; that the rent-charge of the Irish church, can be easily de­ prived of even the semblance of a grievance, by a slight amendment of the law, by which it would be totally re­ moved from the Roman Catholic population, and placed exclusively on the Protestant ; that if the Established Church is further injured or deprived of its property, it will greatly outrage the feelings of Irish Protestants ; that the relation between landlord and tenant is not the cause of * The Union in which the writer resides, affords singularly strong in­ stances of the hardship of the present poor-law and the injustice it w orks.
There is one large electoral division which never had a single pauper in the workhouse, and yet a rate of 12^d.

in the pound is now being levied on it ; and many others which never had more than tw o or three, and on which there are rates of 13^d.

and 14d.

imposed.
the present discontent, and is in a rapid state of voluntary improvement ; that a principal cause of the dissatisfaction that exists, and has for centuries existed, is the unjust, par­ tial, and colonial treatm ent which the Irish receive at the hands of the British government, by being tacitly but actually debarred from all the advantages of belonging to the greatest empire in the earth, and burthened with all its disadvantages ; and that until this great and growing evil is fully redressed, and a fair proportion of honours, offices, and emoluments bestowed on the Irish people, without dis­ tinction of religion or caste, the legistature may be busy until doomsday taking from one Irishman to give to another, and robbing an old institution for the benefit of a new one ; but a feeling of alienation, attended with all its serious con­ sequences, will increase as it has increased, and cannot pos­ sibly diminish ; and finally, that the amount of capital with­ drawn, is the great monster evil which afflicts the country, and which is principally caused by a want of due influence in the legislature and the government.
L et Ireland be treated in every respect as an integral p art of the United Kingdom,* and not as a petty pro­ vince, an outcast, resembling its geographical position in 3 1 st March, 1842 * Total voted for the B ritish M useum for the year ending ............................................................. ... £ 1 ,5 9 0 ... 10,000 ----------- ... For Schools of D esig n s at Som erset H ouse, For ditto, in provincial tow n s, ... For pictures for the National Gallery For M useum of Econom ic G eology ... ... ................................ ... M aking altogether a sum of ... ••• voted for the promotion o f the sciences and arts in England.
... ... F or sim ilar purposes in Irelan d. Royal Dublin Society (om itted altogther) Royal Irish Academ y Royal Hibernian do.

••• Total voted in 1841 for the promotion of the Sciences ••• ............................................................. ••• ... and A rts in Ireland ••• ••• ••• ••• ... .. 8 1 ,1 7 0 0 0 11,590 2 ,5 0 0 0 1,688 10 9 6 ,948 10 300 ^00 ---------- ®00 0 0 0 £ 9 7 ,0 0 0 to £ 6 0 0 in the last year of W hig scientific justice to Ireland.
It is to be hoped 1844 w ill afford a contrast.

the ocean ; and let not grounds be afforded for stating, that in place of confiscating the soil as formerly, England now confines her efforts to that which is of infinitely more importance, and immeasurably more degrading to a nation, —the talents, the industry, and the enterprise of its inhabi­ tants.
Let the English statesman then reflect in the anxious pursuit of place and power, or even under the honest im­ pression of the benefits to be derived from free trade in corn, that the advantages he expects, if even realised, may not be equivalent to the evils he augments, and to the dan­ gers he incurs ; that the increased borough influence from the Corn Law League, and the extended trade he contem­ plates, may be bought too dear, and may be, as I believe they would prove to be, nothing better than the pictures of a political kaleidescope, displaying beautiful perspective in brilliant colours, but utterly unreal, and on examination, produced by useless and valueless materials.
Let the Corn Law Leaguer recollect, that there is some­ thing more important to a great nation than the increased sale of calico ; though I believe even that would not be effected, but the direct contrary ; and that even his success might be attended by fatal consequences, he does not now anticipate, and which his factory population would be ill calculated to deal with.
Let the Irishman o f every p a rty, uniting at length on this one common interest, endeavour to maintain their just and primary right to a preference in the British m arkets ; and tell the British minister, You have at various periods, by many direct laws and resolutions, before you had pre­ occupied the pursuit, prevented us becoming a manufac­ turing nation, and encouraged us to embark our capital in agriculture ; and now, when we are just beginning to profit by that which you had marked out for us by your laws, and which we have only enjoyed in its integrity since 1826, you threaten to repeal those laws, and to place us on the j footing of a foreign nation ; we tell you that in acting I thus unjustly, you endanger the integrity of the empire, which, notwithstanding all the clamour and noise that has been made, and all the monster meetings which have taken place, the common sense of the people will ever maintain, i f they feel its advantages, and which can never in reality be disturbed, except by the impolitic acts of the British government itself.
in full operation I t may be expedient for the British parliament and government to endeavour to throw the responsibility of the present discontents on the Irish proprietors, the P ro­ testant Church, the state of the corporations, or even on the franchise ; but any one who studies the country, knows they are more deeply seated—that a sense of^ national in- !

justice and wrong, an absence not merely of substantial !
benefits, but of conciliatory treatm ent, and the use of de- /' predating language by the organs of the great W hig and T ory parties in England, well seconded by a still more violent press in Ireland, circulating into its most remote recesses — are all the two countries.
B ut they never could have produced the effects we all witness and deplore, had there been no foundation for their complaints, and particularly had a due proportion of the revenue been expended in the kingdom from which it was derived, and the people themselves deemed equally worthy of trust and confidence with their more favoured fellow subjects of G reat Britain.

Some­ thing, all parties declare, must be done, and th at speedily.
In my judgm ent the people are sick of theories, and laiu m aking—they call for material improvements, something to be seen, and felt, and affording employment.

The pro­ posed extension of the franchise may be desirable, yet at present multitudes of respectable competent persons, for reasons easily.divined, avoid and decline being registered, in alienating 53 and any increase in the number of voters may add to their power, but never to their contentment.
The nation com­ plains that it has no influence in tlio councils of the United Kingdom, th is complaint might be remedied by an in­ creased number of representatives, but never by an in- ] f £)} creased number of electors.

It is like Emancipation, be- / - Z - ginning at the wrong end.

The Roman Catholics wore capable of electing, almost half a century before the Roman Catholic gentry could be elected ; and we all know the results.

The same must inevitably follow the adoption of the proposed extension.
It is a short-sighted policy of temporary expediency, and in no respect differing from that which, on the former occasion, so signally failed.

^ This is not the period to apply the maxims and dogmas of political economy, which indeed, are scouted by all nations, as applicable beyond their own shores, and are peculiarly unsuited to Ireland.
Neither is it a time well calculated for any legislative or political quackery what­ ever ; but it is eminently suited for the expenditure of some portion of the people’s money, for the developement and improvement of their country and their own employment, which might also be advantageously directed to facilitate the intercourse, and consequently to unite more closely the If something of this description two kingdoms together.
is not done, as no country could bear the drain of having it three-fourths of its revenues annually abstracted from it will be impossible to stem the torrent which now runs so fist restraint will never effectually do it, and every day will exhibit men, either led by principle, impelled by fear or excited by ambition, drawn into the current, and carried along by the stream, which can only terminate in a gulph I in which whatever may be the fate of Ireland, the great­ ness and power of Great Britain are suro to be wrecked.
It is really melancholy to reflect on the mode questions afiecting Ireland, are now more than ever discussed in par- Lament", as mere subjects for the display of personal and party warfare ; and its people and institutions misrepre­ sented, and rules dogmatically laid down for their improve­ ment, by men, who though within six hours sáil of her shores, had never once visited the country they profess to reform, and who are the mere partizans and echos for their own selfish aggrandisement, of the extreme factions tl*at unfortunately divide it.
To you, my Lord, whom all parties admit to be actuated by an honest and earnest endeavour to allay animosities, and benefit the country, and above all, to become acquainted with its real wants arrd wishes, I need not, I feel, apologise for addressing this letter, however inadequate and un­ worthy of the important subjects it ventures to touch upon.
I can hardly expect it conveys any thing new to one who has taken such pains to acquire information, and who is so capable of analysing it ; but as the question of the Corn Laws has been little mooted in Ireland, the minds of the community being altogether engrossed by other objects, I have felt it my duty, as an humble individual, far removed, I hope, from all narrow party feelings, and residing con­ stantly among the people, to bring before you a view of the consequences of th at repeal,— fraught, as I am con- vinced it would be, >¥1111 tlie most important conséquences, ■ in hopes th at the members of the government, who are supposed to be inclined to waver on the subjcct, may not be in ignorance of the feelings of a large body of the far­ mers and proprietors of Ireland, which might result in conse­ quences very fatal to the safety and prosperity of the empire, T H E E N D .
T hom as Ij W h ite, P rin te r, G5, Fleet-stree*.