The Express.
London, England, 1851-10-17 00:00:00

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TO CORRESPONDENTS.
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LONDON, FRWAY, OCTOBER 17.

CERTAIN Connaught landlords demur to the pay-'
ment of their share of the Famine Bill of
Their Aare they allege was larger than that of their
neighbours in any of the other provinces; the money
they say was less economically expended west of the
Shannon than ant-where else; and inasmuch as two
ears ago they fiucceeded in getting par
liament to oevy a rate in rid on other parts of the
ir
m kingdom,
in exoneration of their proper burden, theodest
et-quest now is that a similar favour should be done
them again'
As for repaying the Treasury what they owe, the
thing is out of the question at present, or indeed at
all, until they have been satisfi, about value had
and received in roads,briagee, m other works valculated
to improve their several properties. They seem to
be under the marvellous delusion that it was for the
purpoe of waving their rent-rolls from the come-
queutes of the potato blight, that the sum of eight
millions was lent out of the joint-stock puree of the
empire at the calamitous periud in question. It never
appears to have entered the heads of these lords and
gentlemen, that the sole aim and object for which
the said moneys were so advanced by parliament.
was to rescue a forlorn peasantry from the open
jaws of famine, and to give them time to re-
cuter their industrial strength or to make their
escape from a hind which, teemingrth with
produce of every kind good for food, neveeless
denied nine-tends( of those who raised that produce
enough thereof to sustain life. " alue, indeed
Why, the only value that ever wan promised or ever
coedit have lean hoped fur, was the myriads of
buneun lives that were tole saved from the inevitable
results of a rack-rent and con-acre system of land-let-
ting, suddenly broken dawn by the lore ofone N'car's crop!
For the honour of the British name, and of British
law, ',nett value was deemed sufficient in prospect;
and if by reniissnesa, corruption, or blundering,
much of the well-ineant aid was misapplied in detail.
the fault es at least suite as much attributable to the
local neglect and misconduct of " relief committics"
and of "presentment sessions," as to the central
ignorance and obstinacy of Whitehall. But the
great fact remains that a vast population who for
generations had been reduced by the most pitiless sys-
tem "(agrarian extortion to the meet helplees and desti-
tute condition ever witnessed in Christian or civilised
realms, and who were deprived by an unforeseen and
unparalleled dearth of their only article of food—that
of this population the vast majority were saved from
a horrible death by the public loan of fe.000,0001.
sterling. This value has been received, and the tax-
payers of the United Kingdom require that the
money should be repaid by the localities where it
was thus mercifully expended.
For let it be borne in mind that up to the year
1817, property in Ireland was held irresponsible for
the lives of theme whose labour rendered it produc-
tive. Each county and parish was left to its expo-
rate fate. In Ulster and Leinster, and portions of
Munster. property was in general more humanely
and justly administered; and consequently, when
famine and pestilence came, there was less conster-
nation, less imminent danger to life, and less
aid required from external sources to provide
for the emergency. The sums asked fur in
these districts were comparatively small, and
the failures in their effectual application to the
saving of bunion life were oimparutively few.
In Connaught, where alrientimism and rack-rent had
et-veiled long unchecked, society seemed absolutely
on the verge of dissolution. The whole population
of many parishes were in terror of death by starva-
tion. W'ethout an improvised system of government
interposition it would not have been possible to at-
tempt their rescue. The system devised was un-
doubtedly clumsy and wasteful in the extreme;
but its chief defects arose from the deplorable
want of an independent middle class to
work its mechanism. Why was no such class found
west of the Shannon in Is ? Why, in four eases
out of five, were the owners of property themselves
not to le found, or found only in a state fitted to add
mew olettewlee and hindrances to all that was neces-
sary to be done? The terrible truth is undeniable.
From father to son the landlords of the west of Ire-
land as a class, with few and signal exceptions,
heed encouraged the growth of a cottier popula-
tiou, whose labour they never seriously endeavoured
to apply to any useful purpose, and whose
necessities they turned to account by sustaining an
extortionate prim fur Lend. The great proprietors
of Mayo and Clam lived in luxury abroad; the
smaller gentry. lived in indolence at home. No
organised provision was made for the poor ; no means
of atom-lung poverty by outdo) ire labour was
attempted. The potato suddenly disappeared, and
the proprietary of the west awoke from their long
dream of injustice and impunity.
Parliament wets called on to provide for the pre-
sent and for the future. For the- latter it enacted an
efficient per law. Fur the former it lent enough to
buy food abroad, and bring it let the doors of a
famishing polite. Half this munificent loan parlia-
ment turned into a free gift. The other half, with
generous consideration, it sread for re-payment
over a term of not less than fo.tv years. And
it is the first instalment of the half of
this Famine hill that the landlords of
Connaught refuse to par. until, forsooth, it
can be shown that they leave got value in local
works for their respective share of the money. Nay
more: they have even begun to hint that other put,
tions of the country which arc honestly repaying
their own loans without hesitation or murmuring,
ought to be taxed in aid over again for their relief
a reasonable delay in the levy of a particular
inetalmeut in peculiar circumstances, we should
not feel disposed to raise any strong objec-
tion. There may be cases where the rates fur
current wants are still so high as to make such a
suspension useful and wise. But we much mistake
the temper of the industrious classes in the cast and
north of Ireland if they will quietly submit to be
mulcted for the benefit of the mown' proprietary;
and we wholly misapprehend the temper of the
House of Commons if it will patiently give car to
any plea, however speciously put forward• in favour
of eventually placing any portion of their legitimate
lirbilitica on the candiaated fund.

T*AGZOY and form We said to hare sprung out of
the rude rejoicinp whoa the %image was done; but
the classic harvest d aneient .t.thens is kit far be-
hind by the still more "histrionic" tendencies of
the four-course shift.
An Essex agricultural meeting in generally either
a tragedy or a farce, and sometnius both; and just
at present, when
--- harvest is ended and summer is done,

the local performers have enough to do both in sock
and in buskin. Thick and threefold come reports of •
agriculture' meetings from all parts of the modern
'uvula, and the local print would be unable to con-
tain them all if he had as many columns as Fingars
care.
First in the list is the meeting of the llinckford :
Agricultural and Conservative Club, held at the little
village of Castle Heelingham. Our rustic coutem-
porery, the Esser Herald, informs us, with a sly
touch of quiet satire, that this is " the only orient- °
feral gathering in the county where free scope is
given to the expression of political opinions; uud
certainly a report which tills about five closely
printed columns, would seem to justify the assertion,
although, as the principal actors at this rural Dimly-
sia were our old friends Major llERLsroati and tile
Reverend JOHN Cox, we may perhaps question the
entire propriety of the adjective m'question.
The meeting began with a portent nut uncommon
in Essex—" Bus Meatus in Etruria," as old LI%
Nuys, when the chronicles are somewhat dull—Mr.
proposes the health of the bishop and
(401.7 of the diocese. adding. to whet the bibulous
clergyof his auditors that they knew that the
wool.keep the Church as.far as possible
teem the errors of Romanism. This, in the diocese