The Express.
London, England, 1846-10-02 00:00:00

recollection of the pane, I feel there is but little occasion for me to
touch on many of the points they have already so ably handled.
An astounding calamity overwhelms Ireland—the abatis of which
will be severely felt for years to came. It /6 no temporary
visitation ; therefers we have to prepare measures to meet an
evil which must entail a great social revolution on the ommtry
we must manfully pet our shoulders to the wheel, and drag the
machine from out the quagmire, before it sinks into almost inevitabie
and irreparable destruction and chaos. To that state helm.
rapidly apprenehing. We are given to understand that the gowns-
ment are bewl—that they did not foresee the magnitude of the
present and eventual famine. While in oppoeitlon, they had attacked
sir Robert Peel for buying up Indian corn, before the late u i
was generally known, through the house of Baring and Go.'rf
,fail
parts of the world, and thus amply and windy providing for the day of
want. The present government, when in Mike, hail not the courage to
fateify at once their opposition doctrines by imitating hie perfect ex-
ample till too tote: et this moment it is understood they are endeavour-
ing to purchase from the Liverpooimerehantethe Indiancornnow on tts
paeaage ofoourse at a frightfully athlitionalexpenee. The governmentare
too late in the moreet ; they are now buying up wheat and oats in
the various porta of England, and they yet moat purchase in those of
Ireland. There are, at a moderate computation, three millions of
souls to be fed for nine months. This is a terrible subject for con-
templation. There is avowedly not a guinea in the Treasury ;
and at the head of the finances of the musty, there is a man
confessedly incompetent to the position in which he Is placed.
It is understood that Lord John Russell was opposed to
taking office, but that the greediness for dike was ao strong
in the minds and hearts of some of his subordinates, that he was
compelled to accept it, and replace the only man, who, in all
probability, was able to avert or contend with the hurricane. Yes,
gentlemen, us sp ',ruag you will have to give no the reins at govern-
meat with discredit,admitting your Lacompetency. The only engine
at the command of the governmeut is the act of the 10th Viet th
bill condemned by all, and found by its framers to be utterly ruinous;,
yet the government have not the moral caurare to assemble parliament,
and lay before the nation the imminent peril in which Ireland stands.
Already is the country convulsed-disorganised from nosh to south;
and this while there dots exist in must districts a proportion of food! l
Ira Connaught, it is known by the Government officers, that, 'inns I
the potato crop, that province does not grow corn of all kinds suffi-
cient to feed the people, were all it previews equally distributed
nmanget them—rent, of course, not considered ; yet, at Castletar,
tio,oeue was laid on one barony by preeentment,while the rental of it
is only 16,000/.: Supper the treasury were insane enough to advance
this sum, my belief it, that they never would be repaid one shilling or
it. Some of the remedies which I beg to suggest, ale
—in the first place, awemble Parliament, and lay before
the nation the whole truth, and nothing but the truth ; tell
them that in the poorest country in liureve, three millions of people
went Lod for nine months. Tax Ireland on the principle of the tat of
tact, viz.—by granting her se a giR one-half the sum requirmi, and
charge Ireland with the other halt. Expend these monks, by im-
proving the country and the land. Let it be dope by the parishes or
townlands which pay the tax receiving the benefit of it, according
very notes to Mr. aloneell's seatcm. Ail railways w bleb can glee
security, and thus relieve the districts through welch they will pass.
Cut down no more paltry hills; demoralise the labourers no further;
improve the Land at present in till ate, before you undertake the drain-
age of that boas and the reclamation of mountains, which will con-
sume years before they give a return ; drain what you have in hand;
liberate estatesfrom entails: pane an a. tto determine titles to estate!,
and no longer allow lawyers and attorneys to fatten, while, by quirks
and chkaue, they prevent the transfer of property, and the advances !
of money on good security. The repeal of the usury laws should be
considered ; that act has created hordes of great and saull Wood.
euckent, who are eonetuning the vita* of the Loa Tax all persons
having charges on the land, on the name principle as the income-tax.
Prevent, by a Ample act, the subdivision of land, which is the foun-
dation of the misery of Ireland. I regret to tay,l am convinced that,
until the priests are paid, )ouninnotetket this object. Their power and
their interest is hourly exercised to subdivide the land for their own
emolument. To what acondition has this system btougbt the country
However unpalatable, thisba truism. Stopperjury, as Lord Westmeath
says, in the courts, by appointing ofliters to take ,own evidence, end
prosecute when neeesary. I should w ish to see agricultural schools '
established, by grand jury taxation, in every barony. Enable land-
ownere, by lions to do more than merely drain—enable them to erect '
sound tin eaings and offices for the tenantry, which the late
act does net comprehend, and thus improve the habits of the peon
e.
Establith at once deaotelof Indian corn all over the country as soon as
possible—no time is to be lost. So much for the present moment; for
the future, I reeketfully recommend emigration. Thus you
relieve the land of its superabundant population, and probably place
toeeatantry who emigrate in a tar superior position than they ever
could expect at home. The expense of feeding them for five years would
be greater than finding them the means of emigrating—a family can
be located in a colony fur 451. ; you could not feed the /same [9,04 for
that aunt, under existine eiretunstanecs. We have a Lord-Lieutenant
who knows Ireland, and has nothing to unlearn—an advantage we
seldom have preseseed. He is underetood to entertain mend views—
I trust the gentry of the country will support him by unanimously
demanding the immediate assembling of parliaineut.-1 am, am, A
MEMULD or rile LE6I6LATUIts."

Mr. Horace Rorhfort, a gentleman of large property in
Westmeath, suggests:
" With a view to mitigate the two great evils of the present set
which I before mentioned, 1 beg to lay the followith suggestion
before the public, and should the principle be approved of, the detains
Can easily be altered to meet each particular one that may arise.
To insert a clause in the act—. n.t any landholder employing
during its continuance in constant labour, and at the usual rate
of wages per day, one labourer fur every lof., 1/11., or 201., of
the amount of bis rateable income under the poor law valuation,
should be exempt from the general taxation of the towns: nd or
barony in which he resklea.' For example, every proprietor
posae-ninit an income rated at I,ooof. per annum would thus
be o'iliged to give permanent employment to one hundred, sixty.
s.:ven, or fifty persons, as the case might be, if desirous of escaping
compulsory and unprofitable taxation. Advance* for this purpose tn
be obtained, if required, from government, the same as under the
9th and 10th Victoria, chapter 101. To carry this auggadion into
practise, it would be necessary to ascertain, at a general meeting of
the toriirate, clergy, and mos-payers of any barony, the probable
numir:r of pour persona likely to require employment for the next ten
mouths. The books of the poor-law valuation would give at once the
moment at which the income of eaeb landlord in the horony was
rated, and a very simple process of arithmetic would enable the meet-
ing to applot to each individual the number of men he was to employ.
Offlars of the board of Worts or the county surveyors, should prethire
plans for the execution of any moths of a large wale, oversee the ne-
cessary arrangements, examine amounts and payments, and exerciee
such a genera: a:mere:diem as would check fraud, if attempted.