The Sun.
London, England, 1855-09-25 00:00:00

LONDON, i' UESDAY EVENING, S4PrEMBEtt, 1855.'

LORD STANLEY IN TIPPERARY.

(From the Times of this day. )

The name of Lord Stanley attracts attention to
a speech recently delivered in Tipperary, while its
occasion and subject may excite surprise. In this
classic province of Irish discontent and violence
there is now an agricultural society, with its con-
tests and prizes, its . meetings and dinners. It is
after a dinner and the usual loyal and patriotic
toasts that the son of a great landlord proposes
" Prosperity to the Tipperary Union Farming
Society," and makes a speech on agriculture and its
kindred subjects. Into the substance of the speech
we shall not enter ; whether large or small holdings
be the more advantageous may be left to be de-
bated by Shuttleworth and Mill. The ability of
Irish agriculturists to introduce machinery is a
question which each man will decide for himself,
and the exhortation to peace and union amotg all
classes recommends a principle too universally ac-
knowledged to call for any remark save the expres7
sion of full assent. It is the existence of a society
with 120 members subscribingli. each, the mingling
of proprietors with at least the higher class of their
tenants, the apprent good feeling of the guests
towards each other, and the institutions of the
country, which call for notice when found in Tip-
perary, and take the meeting in question out of the
common rank of county festivities. The land in
which the tithe 'proctor so often met his doom,
wh in more recent times, kindness and forbear-
ance could not save the landlord whose sentence
the Riband Lodge had pronounced, the cradle of
"Rock" and the school of professional assassina-
Can, ,s now passing into the condition of an Eng-
I;sh county. While the last and most sanguine of
tin race of agitators is leaving the land which has.
rejected his doctrines and his schemes, those who in
rieir various condiiions have an interest in its pros-
perity are brought together in at least outward
unison, and will, no doubt, before long forget all
the animosities engendered by ages of legal oppres-
sion met by lawless resistance. _ _ _

It is suprisino., and not a little calculated to in-
spire hope for other countries, to find how soon a
cessation of real grievances has been followed by
contentment, industry, and wellbeing. It is only a
qu Tier of a century since religious equality was
established in Ireland ; but a few years have elapsed
since the land began to pass from bankrupt owners
fo these who could really enjoy the possession and
fulfil the duties of property. During this period
political agitation and natural calamities have
tended to retard and embitter the population, yet
within a term short even to human life the face of
the country and the impulses of its people seem
completely changed. It is generally supposed that
the Scotch are eminently a laboriouS and frugal
rata, while the Irishman is conspicuous for idle-
ness, want of thrift, and aversion to tranquil pur-
snits. Yet the improvement of Ireland since the
days or her deepest calamity has been much more
rapid than that of Scotland after Jacobite agitation
was at an end. Making every allowance for the
Political apathy which is the result of a reaction
from incessant meetings and their unmeaning
harangues, and admitting that the departure of a
fifth of the people has rendered life easy and land
cheap, yet it cannot be doubted that the quiet and
content of the peasantry are not merely negative,
but arise from a perception that the Government
they live under is at length a just one, and that
they may in their own country, and with their own
institutions, look for prosperity, if they will seek
it by their honest labour. It may well be said that
the Irishman has improved every country but' his
own. The American has constructed his railways,
which carrycivilisation far into the western forests,
mainly by Irish labour, and, though the newcomers
often prove turbulent and troublesome, they have
never been accused of unwillingness to work. How
much of the hardest toil in our great towns falls to the
lot of Irishmen is well known. In every seat ofindus-
try there is a quarter where a colony from the sister
island lives un thrifty and careless,but far from idle.
The distant dependenciesof England are also assum-
ing a new aspect from the toil of Irish emigrants.
Even Australia has her portion of these har ly
exiles, who perform with ease the work that the
Saxon himself will shrink from. It has often been
asked why they are idle and reckless in their own
country ? The question, we are willing to believe,
refers to a past period, and will now be seldom
heard. The answer would involve a recurrence to
many things that • are best forgotten, and the dis-
cussion is now unnecessary. Irishmen are begin-
ning to work in Ireland as elsewhere ; the pro-
prietor and employer seem sensible of their own
duties, the pulpit has begun to preach charity
without special exceptions, and the platform is
used for other purposes than denunciation.
Such meetings as these are the best argument
by which foreign ill-wishers can be convinced that
there is no longer a revolutionary Ireland. That
the distinct national spirit of the people may re-
main, is, indeed, to be wished. Between England
and Scotland there are differences of character,
education, and manners, which, however, do not
prevent the perfect union of the two countries,
while they impart a richness and variety to the
national civilisation. That Ireland may preserve
all that is (rood in the genius of her people, all
that has made them favourites in spite of their
many faults, we firmly hope ; but all ranks must
begin to feel that only by close connection with
England and by learning what England can teach
will they be able to give their country the po-
sition which they are fond of claiming for it.
The nationality of which enthusiasts dreamed
would have been only provincialism. The three
kingdoms must of necessity be one politically
and in all material pursuits. Enough remains
beyond the sphere of these to satisfy the patriotic
pride of any sensible Irishman. The most im-
portant subject to Ireland and that on which she
has most to learn from England is agriculture.
She must for many years, perhaps for ever, be a
farming country ; at least, the development of
manufactures is a remote contingency. It is for
this reason that an agricultural society like that
which has been established in the very camp of
former lawlessness is an example the good effects
of which may be wide and lasting. As there is
now a resident proprietary, and the fear of outrage
exists no longer, it is to be hoped that both the old
landlords and iose who with their new position
have acquired new duties will labour to establish
similar institutions, which are not only practically
useful, but tend to unite classes that otherwise
have no other link than leases and agreements.
If at any time the late display would have been
pleasing, it is the more so at the present, when the
spectacle of war may well serve as an excuse for
diminished attention to domestic duties. A time
of hostilities is, however, by no means unfit for
exertions which enlarge thel wealth of the people
and allow the increase of population demanded by
war. Should the landlords of all four provinces
establish societies like that of which we record the
anniversary, they may receive the thanks of honest
Irishmen in every part of the globe.

( From the Morning Herald of this day.)
The inaugural meeting of an agricultural society
in Tipperary is an event of so promising and satis- ,
factory a character that it may well form the sub-
ject of sincere congratulation. Tipperary has so
long been associated in the minds of the people of
this country with every form of agrarian atrocity,
and with that peculiar condition of chronic dis-
turbance and between landlord and tenant,
that it is truly gratifying to find, from a variety of
unmistakeable indications, that a change in the
social condition of that county is steadily advanc-
ing ; affording assurance that the "men of Tip-
perary" have hit at last upon the right track,
after a career of error so long, so mistaken, and
so ruinous.

The commencement of this revolution dates im-
mediately from the special commission of 1847.
It was a terrible resort, but it was necessary to
vindicate offended justice, and to strike terror into
the agents of a system of secret assassination by
swift and exemplary punishment. The heads of a
terrible conspiracy were thus removed, either by
the executioner or the convict ship, and the work
left undone by thespecial commission was completed
by the famine. The effect of that visitation was
to break up and scatter knots of criminals who
used to meet under cover of the night in the
glen, on the mountain, or in the lonely ruin, and
there plot against the lives of their fellow-creatures,
and issue their decrees of murder too frequently
and too faithfully executed.
But all this has happily passed away. A murder
in Tipperary is now a novelty. The constabulary
force has been reduced in both ridings ; and but
the other day, at the instance of Lord Donough•
more, the Government consented to a further re-
duction. In short, from having been the most
malignantly-disturbed county in Ireland, Tipperary
has become, perhaps, the most peaceable, orderly,
and industrious.

At this auspicious juncture a young nobleman, of
enlarged views, high attainments, and excellent
promise, and connected with the soil by the ties of
property, attends on a most interesting occasion to
assist iu giving stability to the new order of things.

'We refer to the first annual meetingof the eentry
Agricultural Society, at which Lord Stanley' pre:.
sided, on Thursday last. Such a s9ciety is nne, and
not the least significant, indication of the happy
change on which we have dwelt and it, *ma fitly
inaugurated by a young nobleman, heir to a large
estate in the county, and although on this occa-
sion Lord Stanley represented his father, who is
president of the society, ,the appropriateness of
his presence was evidently felt and sincerely ac-
knowledged. In his practical and most useful,
address, which we published yesterday, he pointed
out how a kindred association had, failed some
years previously; and dwelt with much force
upon the impetus given to agricultural science
by small societies to which small farmers may
contribute, and from which they may derive the
greatest assistance and improvement in agricultu-
ral knowledge The illustrations, all in point, ex-
hibit the care with which Lord Stanley has made
himself acquainted with the details of.a subject so
little understood by landed proprietors themselves,
and some passages abundantly prove that he has '
penetrated the chief secret ofthe poverty and im-
progression of the humbler Class of the Irish pea-
santry: "He had seen whole families living in
rags and in want on a miserable patch of land,
which was not sufficient to afford them sustenance"
for three months in the year, and they lived on
that wretched patch in that misery and destitution
because they preferred the 'dignity' of occupying
land to the labour of earning 'a livelihood from
others who could afford them employment." Every
one at all acquainted with Ireland can testify to
the truth of •these remarks.' Ttiis "dignity of oc-
cupying land," instead of relying upon the *able
of his labour to others whd'areMble to pay for it,
has been the curse of the infatuated Irish peasant
—an infatuation which nothing would have dis-
pelled but the convnlsion through which his country
has passed, which has taught him to seek the
means of life at home, in that resource which as
an emigrant he was and is compelled to rely upon.
The speech of Lord Stanley is well timed and
full of encouragement, but Tipperary has never
sunk to the level of pauperism and misery to
which other parts of Ireland have fallen—its soil is
proverbially wealthy—its peasantry have never
swarmed hopelessly upon the means of subsistence
—the dark crime which has stained the history
of the finest county in the island did not originate
in want. The splendid fertility of Tipperary,
that moved Cromwell to involuntary admiration
as he stood on the summit of Slievnamon, and
saw the plains rich in flocks and herds, in corn
lands and pasture, spread beneath him, has
known neither blight nor change. It is a region
singularly blessed by the Giver of all Good, but
inhabited by a race heretofore singularly unmind-
ful of such beneficence. Let us believe that a
better mind is amongst its gifted but wayward
people, and a future more worthy of their natural
privileges.
Like other parts of Ireland, however, recent
regislation has done its evil work in Tipperary.
The operation of free trade prepared the way for
the encumbered estates commission, and valuable
estates during that period, which we may describe
as the reign of terror, passed out of the hands of
their ancient proprietors, under the auctioneer's
hammer, at a price which must have delighted the
authors of that scheme of confiscation. Multitudes
of the peasantry have emigrated, and when Eng-
land wants stalwart Irishmen to carry destruction
into the ranks of the enemy,•and to stand in the
" imminent deadly breach,!' she looks in vain to
the country that has ever prodiaced wry many
amongst her best soldieirs. They have gone to
swell the population of young and rising empires.
They have given their toil to clear the primeval
forest, to sink the canal, to build the cities, to
make the railways of England's most dangerous
rival. Such has been the result of the policy men
pretending to be statesmen, who have deluded
England, betrayed her solid interests, and con-
tributed to humiliate her in the eyes of Europe.
Enough men are left in Tipperary, enough in
Ireland to make her, in the language of Lord
Stanley, the " Garden of Europe, and of the
world," but not enough to recruit the armies of
England ; and England finds now that Manchester
and Birmingham furnish from their faded popula-
tion hut poor substitutes for her decimated heroes.
She listened to Peel, to Cobden, and to Bright--
verily, she has her reward.

LORD PALMERSTON AMONG BIS

TENANTRY.

Viscount and Viscountess Palmerston passed through
Northampton on Saturday last, on their way to Duston,
where her ladyship possesses a valuable estate. The
noble lord's visit was so unexpected at Northampton that
there was not sufficient time to give him a public recep-
tion. As soon, however, as his arrival at the station was
known, the bells of All Saints' Church chimed a merry
peal, and the rehoisting of the British standard, which
had only been recently taken down from commemorating
the fall of Sebastopol, announced to the inquiring crowds
the arrival of the illustrious premier. The noble lord
and lady, on leaving the station, proceeded—much to
the disappointmert of a considerable number of persons
who had assembled round the George Hotel—direct to
Duston Vicarage, the residence of the Rev. R. H. Cox,
where they remained some time ; and afterwards, ac-
companied by the Vicar and Mrs. Cox, inspected the
church, whose bells were ringing a merry peal of wel-
come, whilst the Union Jack floated conspicuously over
its picturesque tower. The distinguished visitors were
received by Mr. Hogan, the churchvrarden, to whom
they expressed themselves much pleased with the cleanly
and neat appearance of the church. They subsequently
visited the works of the Duston Iron Ore Company,
where they were met by the managing director, who
conducted them over the ground. His lordship minutely
examined everything, and appeared to take much inte-
rest in the works. The noble lord. and lady, who, we
are rejoided to say, appeared.in good health and spirits,
afterwards took their departure for town, by the six
o'clock train, amid loud and repeated cheers from the
crowds assembled on the platform. Among them was
a large number of farmers, with whom his lordship fell
into a conversation on the price of wheat, which
branched off into remarks on the war. The noble lord
intimated that he knew from the best sources that the
hospitals in the East were now in a state which would
do credit to such institutions in London. He said also
that the army was in a most efficient ,state ; that a vast
amount of materiel of war had been left among the
ruins of Sebastopol, and that the place was not so com-
pletely demolished that it would not afford excellent
shelter to the allies during the winter. The noble lord
said emphatically that they might rest assured that the
power and pretensions of Russia would be effectually
•humbled before the allied powers would consent to a
peace. His lordship appeared to be in excellent spirits,
and talked with great animation and apparent enjoyment.
A correspondent who was present adds :—One of the
agricultural gentlemen, a farmer and miller, mere adven-
turous than the rest, ventured to essay his argumenta-
tive powers with the Prime Minister —wishing, it may
be, to leave this great event as a memorable record to
his chil 'ran. Some persons will perhaps be apt to call
to mind the epigram made on a certain worthy, who
was ambitious of having a word with the Prince Regent
in former days :
The Prince spoke to John Smith. Ah ! what did be say !
He said. " You rascal, get out of the way !"
The Premier was, however, more urbane. Upon Mr.
A— saying, " My lord, we want a peace," Lord Pal-
merston replied, with a smile, "Oh, I see you are one of
the Manchester school. So there are some of those gen-
tlemen here, are there ?" Upon which the farmers set
up a tremendous shout of laughter. His lordship then
proceeded to converse most. afftbly with those who sur-
rounded him. He told them, amongst other things,
that he " had the best authority for stating that the
army was in excellent health and condition." He also
naively observed. "Some of you thought we should
never have high prices again. Nevertheless, somehow or
et raetwi vaey n ow
with. " Ina
impression,
sai all who
hotehaerdr prices
hi his
lordship ardsebi emw uenn
p
indeed more than one was heard to say, that "his lord-
ship is a very nice man, quite agreeable and familiar."-....
Northampton Mercury.
r

THE CRUMLIN VIADUCT.—The last girder of this ma-
jestic viaduct upon the loop line or Taff Vale Extension
of the Hereford, Ahergavenny, and Newport Railway
was successfully raised on Saturday amid the rejoicings
of the public and the workpeople, the event being accom-
panied with the discharge of successive volleys of cannon,
the waving of flags, and the shouts of the assembled
multitude. Shortly after the girder was fixed a proces-
sion was formed, which marched through the village,
ascended the Kendon Mountain, there moved on to the
viaduct, and on the centre gave three resounding cheers
for Mr. Kennard, the contractor, who, with his wife and
brothers, was present, three cheers for Mrs. Kinnaird,
and three for their young family. The march was =-
tinned amid reverberating volleys of cannon across the
viaduct to the mountain on the opposite side, down
which the host of workmen wended their way amid re-
peated charges of cannon and singing national songs.
A Welsh bard celebrated the event by the delivery of an
extemporaneous poem on the top of the bridge, in cele-
bration of the wondrous work and in praise of its de-
signer and builder. The evening was spent in unli-
mited rejoicings. Mr Kennard has yet to erect a second
bridge, but of less magnitude, in connexion with the
viaduct just completed, and across the Kendon-valley.
The great work just finished is unquestionably the
most tasteful, novel, and extensive viaduct in the
kingdom.

Titt 'irEdistriA;r.relvs.

.F ST SIMIRRY.
Sir Walter Buchanan Riddell Bart., yesterday pro.
needed with the reVision of the lists of voters for East
Surrey, with those for the parishes of Barnes, Battersea.-
-Merton, Mortlake, Putney, Tooting, Wandsworth, and
bledo n.

- Mr. G. R. Corner, !solicitor, and Mr. T. Jeans, secre-
tary to the East'Surrey Iteiorm Registration SometY,
attended, the court on behalf of the reformers, but the
tory' party were unrepresented.