The Express.
London, England, 1846-10-22 00:00:00

LITERATURE.
Faris from Giceedore. Compiled from Notes by Lord
°noun R AIILL,M.R.I. A. (Second edition.) Hardy and

Boas, Dublin. 1846.
At a period when there is an imperative call, both
from nature and society, that the duties of property
should he exercised ne less than its rights ; and when
the last men in the world who should seek to evade such
duties are doing their utmost, in so many instances,
to shift the local burthens from their own shoulders
upon the government, and upon the humane feelings
of the English people ; it most always be a most
gratifying teak to point out any striking excep-
tions to the class. It is tree that such exceptions are
comparatively few ; but the more prominently, there-
fore, do they stand forth from the unreasonable-
ness and short-sightedness of those who surround
them, and the more marked and praiseworthy,
does their example become. Among the foremost of
these we must undoubtedly plate Lord George Hill.
Very considerable and important evidence to justify
this, will be found in the Facts from Oweedore.
This little compilation is full of peculiar amuse-
ment, even apart from the interest, both narrative
and practical, which pervades every page of it. From
the wildness of the region and the primitive nature
and habits of the people, we are really often reminded
of scenes in the voyages of Captain Cook, or of the ad-
ventures, destitution, and ingenious practical shifts of
Robinson Crnsoe. But before introducing the English
reader to the wilds of Gwecdore, with its mountains
and bogs, and little rocky speeks of islands, and
morsels of arable land in the parish of Tullaghobegly,
it will be well to offer a word or two in explanation.
The Facts are divided into two parts. The first
division displays the condition of Gweedore previous
to the purchase of the " property" by Lord George
Hill, and exemplifies the ruinous system entitled
Rundale, which was in full practice among its
wretched and lawless population. We will begin
with this first part.
The Itandate system may be thus briefly described.
It consists in the division and subdivision of farms,
fields, and patches of land or potato-garden, to an
indefinite degree: earl; of' the children in a family
frequently having, on the death of the parent or pre-
"loam possessor, a separate allotment ; which separate
allotment is again divided among children or others;
and thus 'n, till the allotment in question arrives at
the narrowe.at strip of land, or the smallest patches
and corners (t•evend, perhaps ninny, and all in dis-
tant places from each other) ; and eventually, after
the squabbles and varrels of a few seasons with the
owners of the adjoirtiw,; lands, the little morsel or
narrow strip of inheritance cannot de found even by its
claimant.
This extraordinary but characteristic system,
added to periodical famine and fever, eventually re-
duced the population of Gweedore to the last stage of
destitution and misery. In this final condition of ex-
istence, when it had become quite plain that the
people must die or find help somewhere, the poor
schoolmaster of the parish of West Tullaghobegly, in
the barony of Kilmacrennan, one Patrick M'Kye,
manfully took up his pen for a reat undertaking, end
wrote a memorial to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.
Patrick M'Kye, the head and sole teacher of the Na-
tional School, with a family of nine children, and
depending upon a salary of Bf. a-year, commenced his
memorial by stating that he was not a man of merely
local experience, having travelled in nine counties of
Ireland, in parts of England and Scotland, and British
America. and that he had " likewise perambulated
2253 miles through seven of the United States. and
never witnessed the tenth part of such hunger, hard-
ships, and nakedness."
Patrick M•Kye immediately goes to work with his
Memorial in a very original and striking way. lie
says there arc 4,000 persons in the parish, and he
then gives tt list of things which they have got among
them, and hive 7.0 t got. "One cart; no wheel car;
no cone], or any other vehicle ; one plough ; thirty-
two rakes; seven table forks; no pigs; three turkeys ;
one priest; no other resident gentleman ; no bonnet; ,
no boots; no turnips; no carrots; no parsnips, 8:c."
All these facts Patrick M'Kye had the means of '
ascertaining; but a note in the margin of the book
before us says, that the schoolmaster was not aware
of the real number of the population, which in 1811
was upwards of 9,000. 1-1 is Memorial was written
only some three years before that time. It produced
a good effect of a temporary kind, in the shape of' im-
mediate relief; but no more, so far as official authority
was concerned.' The same system continued ; the same
disorder and the same destitution speedily returned.
This wild mountain district, prior to 11438, was divided into small
properties there were no reakient proprietors. The estates were of
such little value that no gentleman, or scarcely a respectable person
would, or could, act us agent fur them. Bents were very email—
almtet nominal, and there WAS no regularity as to collecting them:
trifling sums were taken at fairs, or whenever or wherever they
could be got ; often no receipt was ;riven- no accurate accounts kept ;
consequently the greatest confusion prevailed, as to what was due
upon the properties. There were arrears of eight, ten, and Even
twenty years' standing : some of the tenants not having paid rent for
that period, and many lived on the estates quite unknown. A part of
one estate, of the value of C2O per annum, appeared not to be known
at all to the prison who sold the property to which it belonged, as it
was not even mentoncil in the reutsroll returned to Lord 0. Hill,
when he purchased.
The reader in England will have experienced some
surprise at the use of the terms " property " and
" rent roll " and " purchased." lfe will be yet more
surprised when he hears how the amount of these
rents were settled, and how they were collected. In
the first place, there were abundant instances in
which the tenant fixed the rent himself; that is to
say, he payed what he chose to consider was quite
enough for his holding. As for the collection of it,
the agent had to go " front house to house through
the mountains in order to pick up the rent, having
thus to take whatever the tenants were pleased to
offer." In mane cases it would naturally follow that
tenants chose to keep out of the way, or flatly refuse
to pay ar.y rent.
The ,ia't extraordinary devices were had recourse to, in those
parts of Donc,ml, in order to beguile the people into paying their
rent; the following plan, which is trite in every particular, has, ut all
events, the merit of being pretty original. A liaLiff had repeatedly
gone to a mist's house, that he might seize his cattle and put them
into V.; pound for rent long due ; but he could never find them, as
they had, previously, on each occasion, been removed out of the way.
The Last time be was thus diaapiwinted and mocked, he became so
very angry and excited, that lie took hold of the man by the collar of
his coat, and drugged him over the mountains to the road, swearing
that he would now "put himself into the pound, and where he must
rcinonLintil the rent was paid, just to teach him not to hide his cattle

The county erns collector, meeting one of the bailiffs, asked him
how he was netting in the rents of his diri4on ; the bailiff replied
that he was dying very well, and expected they would be all peal in a
kw days. The collector remarked, "if he got the rent from the
tailor, he would be a cleect fellow, as he hod never been known to
ray rent, ez.s4, or any other tax." The bailiff said he would do his
best, and having heard, a few days after, that the tailor had engaged
a horse to go to Intufanaghy to purchase potatoes, he took the oppor-
tunity of his being from home. and boldly went to his wife for the
rent. She assured him that there was not one shilling in the house!
But the hailif an: intending to la so easily pat off, told her "that
was not true :"that her hudiand hid sent him for it: and if two years'
rent was not instantly paid, they would get none of the land
that was dividing • and, contiaued he, "by the same
token, the money Is in the cheat, in his breeches pocket!"
The hit was a fortunate one, and succeeded; the tailor's wife
hesitating no longer, immediately ran to the cheat, turned out the
garment speeifled, and handed the bailiff the two rears' rent! With
it he pretty courtly and triumphantly decamped to the office, and
bad scarcely paid it In, when the breathless and terrified tailor arrived
Jien at b out of al,Lmderanded a ure
warrant as he vg
bailiff for rolawry and at the same time commenced furiously to
abuse him ; but the bailiff had his reward, and, in the Mame at his
triumph, took not the slightest notice of the tailor's wrath, but coolly
o',,erved, addressing the agent —" (ieh, yer honour, was not I the
lucky man that happened to say, it was in the breeches-pocket 1
It may be readily conjectured thase 99
wild
people were totally ignorant of agriculture, and con-
tinually committed the ereatest absurdities, of course
to their own injury. their farming implements and
methods were all in accordance. A harrow has often
been seen made fast to a pony's tail, and in this way
the land was harrowed. Lord George Hill found it
impossible to put an end to this cruel and ridiculous
proceeding, until he induced one of the peasants, by
way of an experimental arguateitt, to draw a weight
after him by the skirts of his coat. This reasoning
proved convincing.
The system of Bun dale may be said to have reached
its utmost limit in this district. In some instances a
tenant who claimed and possessed a proportion of a
town land, had this proportion (no matter how small)
" in thirty or forty different places, and without fences
between them." But this preposterous system was
originally founded in a certain degree of reason, the
qualities of the land being very various. To meet
this, it was originally thought the fairest plan
to divide every portion into three, and place
them perhaps at the greatest distance: a
bit of good land here ; a bit of bad land
over there; and a bit of middling between. Then,
each of these three patches being subject to any
number of after divisions, the condition of the tenants
was at length brought to its last degree of absurdity,
confusion, trespassing, fighting, helplessness, and
destitution. Lord George Hill tells us that, besides
instances of no less than twenty-six people holding
one small field of about half an acre, the bargains
made in cases of sale, mortgage, and transfer of any
subdivision " were of the most complicated nature."
To such small portions had the subdivisions been
reduced, that the people had ceased to let, sell, or de-
signate land by the acre or half' acre, but by " a cow's