The Express.
London, England, 1846-09-23 00:00:00

TO COUTMSrONDENTS.

We cannot notice, to lay way, any communication that is emit to us
anonymously ; but those who choose to address us in confidence will
find their confidence reepectevL NEITHER CAN WE UNDERTAKE
TO RETURN ANY MANUSCRIPTS WHATEVER.
..• Advertisements intended for The Express must be at the Mace by
Two o'clock on the day of publication.

RIGA WATER AT LONDON-BRIDGE.
TRU D& .—Morning, 14 min. past 3; Afternoon, 30 min. pot 1.
To-monnow.—Mog, 45 ram put 3; Afternoon, 0 rain. past 4.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, SEP. 23.

NOTHING is easier than to heap blame on the Irish
landlords. Their shortcomings furnish a popular
topic. Ireland hangs round the neck of England.
The two countries might be compared to the mon-
strous
birth quoted in AMBROSE PARE, where the
full-formed and healthy infant bears about a half-
devoloped brother between his shoulders. The strain
is painfully felt; and all rebuke is welcome which
shifts the blame of such a state of things from our
own back to any other that offers for its reception.
The Irish landlords are, at the same time, among the
least ill-used of scapegoats. They are fairly chargeable
with so much, that it is no wonder they arc loaded with
all. Judged by their practice, they may be perhaps
pronounced the worst specimens of their class in
Europe. But we have no right to suppose them an
anomalous genus, differing from the rest of the
human species. What they are, circumstances
have made them. Evil influences have borne
more visible fruits than good ; because for four
centuries the former have been acting at all points
and unintennittingly, the latter at long intervals,
within rare and scattered spheres.
But at a time like the present we are more
usefully employed in cheering the good than
in castigating the bad among the Irish land-
lords. With the weight of their own and their
neighbours' responsibility, the former need all the
encouragement that the press in England can
give them. If, while they are doing their utmost,
they read little but attacks on those who are doing
nothing; if the mischiefs of the country are attributed
wholesale to that class, of which they form a part
who are anxiously labouring to remedy those mis-
chiefs; we can hardly wonder that in their sense of
the injustice of the English press, they should be
unfair to an English administration, and even the
English people. Now, if ever, we are bound to let
bygones be bygones. If we cannot anticipate much
from the past of Irish history, let us hope that
the unparalleled severity of the present affliction will
have unparalleled effects ; that it will quicken apathy
into energy, turn recklessness into foresight, set limits
to excess, and inspire selfishness with self-devotion.

The landlords of Ireland never had such a terrible call
upon them, in the worst of the periodical famines re-
corded in Irish history. They were bewildered with
it, at first, as well they might be. A few ridiculously
sincere expressions of mingled ignorance and helpless-
ness, like Lord NIMISTCASIIEL'S, are no proper text
for a Philippic. They are now beginning to see their
way. The evidence of it gathers strength from the
report and resolutions of each meeting. The application
of the unemployed labour to the land itself, in the way of
draining, embankment, and reclamation, by the aid of
government advances secured on the land itself, is
the most important suggestion the famine has origi-
nated. In many eases, this plan has the strongest
claims to be favourably considered by the executive.
Much of the land of Ireland, no doubt, is so burdened'
already as to furnish no adequate security for such
sums as would be required for its improvement. It
is true also that the experience of past advances to
Irish landlords is not encouraging. Under the Tithe
Act, 1 and 2 Vict. c. 109, the landlords' arrears to be
recovered in the name of her Majesty amounted to
120,0001.: 45,000/. only were recovered, at an expense,
in law costs, of upwards of 7,000/. It is highly
doubtful (as we arc assured by Mr. LEAK E, of the
Treasury), whether it will be possible to recover the
rent charges on the estates of proprietors to whom
it is intended to make advances under the General
Drainage Bill (the Million Act, as it is called),
in the manner proposed in that bill. This arises
mainly from the want of some system for the collec-
tion of debts due from individuals to the government.
Except the collectors of excise, already fully occupied
with their regular duties, Government possesses no
establishment for this purpose. But by confiding the
entire management of all advances and repayments to
the Paymaster of Civil Services, many of the difficul-
ties that have embarrassed the Government, in relation
to Irish advances, will be removed. Summary and
stringent means of recovery should be given, by
statute when necessary, and overriding the process
clauses of the drainage bill. No difficulty should be
shrunk from, in the attempt to employ the destitute
peasantry on reproductive works.
Landlords will, no doubt, be benefited by im-
provements of their estates. But the country
will be enriched at the same time, its produc-
tive power increased, and a permanent impulse
given to the demand for labour. Granted that the
landlord has no prima facie claim to be assisted
with a Government loan : but here the object
of the legislature is to assist the labourer. The
benefit to the landlord is accidental. This scheme
would leave Ireland richer and happier for her visita-
tion. It would enable many able and conscientious
men, now hampered by the excesses of their fathers,
and suffering under the weight and embarrassments
to which they have not contributed, to apply capital
to their estates, without which their energies and
good intentions are almost idle. It would give em-
ployment to the starving peasant. It would fit potato
land for the growth of grain and green crops. In a word,
it would enable Irish agriculture to enter upon the new
work for which the destruction of the potato crop has
paved the way, under circumstances most favourable
to success.

In a letter published in our paper of yesterday, Mr.
HAMILTON, a Deputy Lieutenant of Donegal, and
president of the Farming Society of that county,
pointed out the working of the Labour Act, in the
case of a conscientious and able landlord with an im-