The Sun.
London, England, 1852-09-30 00:00:00

NDON, THURSDAY

county, Londonderry :—the whole amount invested by
Englishmen and Scotchmen is 1,100,1261.:—the

average cost of each sale (including valuing, survey-
ing, printing, and law expenses) being only from
2001. to 3001.:—the sum remaining to be divided
among creditors, 3,000,0001.:—the money which will
immediately be expended in the improvement of the
purchased estates, 3,000,000 L :—the sales effected
were in 25 out of the 32 counties of Ireland ; the con-
veyances executed were as 2,311 as against 2,355 sales :
—the largest purchases by Scotchmen even in Con.
naught, being three-fourths of the whole, while the
amount invested there were two-thirds of the sum
realised—that is, where capital and improvements
are most required, where distress was the most
notorious, and where the decrease of population, by
death or emigration, had been the largest.
These are curious and valuable statistics. They
show several important and gratifying results, and
some which were wholly unlooked for. First, that,
out of the Seven Millions sterling realised by
the sales of Irish estates, fully Six Millions
were Rid by Irish purchasers, thereby
disproving the assertion that English and Scottish
capital would be chiefly invested in Ireland. An•
other is, that in Connaught, hitherto considered by
far the wildest and most uncivilised part of the island,
English and Scottish capital has been most freely
invested. Thus, says one of our authorities, "63,000
acres of Sir R. O'DONNELL'S Mayo estate have been
purchased by English capitalists, led by Mr. Asa..
WORTS, author of The Saxon in Ireland.' And
now a large portion of even Achill, and the north
shores of Clew Bay, are in the possession of English.
men; again, in Galway, another set of English
purchasers, Messrs. TIERNEY, EASTWOOD, PALMER,
and ORR, are grouped on the shores of Ballinakill
Bay, and in the vale of Kylemore. Large tracts have
been taken on the Marquis of SLIGO'S estate by Eng-
lish and Scoflh gentlemen, and many southern land-
lords in the west have also induced skilful and enterpris-
ing agriculturists to settle on their lands by giving
long and beneficial leases. Many tenant-formers, from
the other side of the Channel, have settled in the
Western Counties within the last three years ; but I
have no means of arriving at even an approximate esti-
mate of their number ; however, the greater propor-
tion of English and Scotch purchasers is in those very
districts of the far West, where the population has
been most diminished, and where capital and im-
provement are chiefly required ; three-fourths of the
total acreage being in Connaught, and two-thirds of
the total amount being invested in the same province.
The immigration, too, is confessedly not of an expul-
sive character; abundance of unoccupied land, pe-
rished from water, or the surface of which has been
scratched in scattered patches for centuries, being
in the market, and inviting the advent of a more lu-
crative system of culture. The number of English
and Scotch purchasers, as well as the amount of their
purchases, are also steadily on the increase. Up to
January 31st of this year, the purchasers were one-
twenty-fifth as to number, and one-tenth as to
the total amount of the purchase-money ; and up to
July 31st, the proportion as to number is one •twen-
tieth, and as to amount about one-sixth of the total
purchase-money."
Emigration, which has so largely taken place, has
had one good effect in Ireland : it has reduced the
great competition for land. In the West, where
English and Scotch were now settling, giving em-
ploy ment to the peasantry, the condition and con-
duct of the people was rapidly improving. At the
British 'Association, Professor HANCOCK recently
stated that an estate in Cavan had been bought under
the Encumbered Estates Act, about two years since,
by an encumbrancer, for 10,0001,, less than the
average of the mortgage; and he had tried the ex-
periment of keeping all the old tenants on the estate,
assisting them to improve their dwellings, and re-
ducing their rents to a reasonable amount, and the
result was that everything had gone on prosperously,
and the estate was now worth upwards of 10,000/.
more than was given for it two years since. Not a
tenant had left the estate, though some of them had pre-
viously determined to emigrate, money having been
sent home, from their relations abroad, for the pur-
pose. Instead, however, of emigrating, they applied
the money to the payment of their rents, and sent
for their relations to come home. The whole
rent was reduced from 1,900/. to 1,700/. a-year, and
the new rent had been very punctually paid.
Another circumstance was mentioned, as showing
the prevalent respect for property, and the reward
of enterprise in the West. A grocer from Hudders
field, named Ennis, in opposition to the advice of a]

his friends, opened a warehouse for groceries, Scc.,
in the wildest part of Connemara, to give fair value
for ready money payments; and, whereas he was
told that he would never take 51. a-week, his average
receipts had been 601. a-week, sometimes upwards of
1001. a-week ; and the only difficulty this tradesman
had was to keep the gentry out of his books.—No
doubt ! they would not be " fine old Irish gentle-
men" without trying to get into debt with the
shopkeepers I The Earl of MAYO, who had seen Mr.
Emas's establishment in the wildest part of Conne-
mara, said it was equal to any shop in Regent-street,
and if he Ind heard, before its establishment, that any
person was about to open such a shop, ht Ro uld have
thought him mad, but the result had proved the
contrary.

We finally arrive at the fact, that among the per-
sons for the sale of whose estates p9titions had been
presented to the Commissioners, there were 2 Mar-

guises, 15 Earls, 3 Viscounts, 1 Lord, 5 Barons,
6 Honourables, 1 Right Honourable, 20 Baronets,
5 Knights, 2 Counts, 7 M.P.'s, and 9 Ex-M.P.'s.
Country gentlemen made up the rest of the 2,416
embarrassed land-owners. To these people, it must
have been a relief to get rid of the splendid poverty,
the pretence and the necessity, the nominal rent-roll

and the actual want of means, which weighed them
to the dust. What use was an estate said to be worth
10,0001. (and probably rack-rented to that nominal
amount), when one-half of it was good only upon
paper, as the tenants could not and would not pay the
excessive rents they had promised, and when four-

. _
fifths of what actually was paid went to discharge the
mortgagee's interest or the bill-broker's usurious and

ruinous discounts and renewals. The nominal owner
of 10,0001. a year, receiving probably 1,0001. for his
own use, would be expected, if a resident landlord, to
live as if he really had the full income of his estate, and
Iriah improvidence, vanity, and folly have tempted
hundreds of this class to spend not according to what
they had, but to what they wished the public to think
they had. They could mortgage their estates, but
generally entrils and marriage settlements precluded
the sale of a part to preserve the remainder. So they
went on, reckless and ruined, every year making
them more and more embarrassed. The Encum-

bered Estates Act has put these pretenders (for such
the unfortunate and not quite innocent men are) into
their proper position. Some have turned out paupers,
some have secured a competency out of the wreck of
their fortunes, and may begin life anew as unem-

barrassed men. A new class of proprietors are being
introduced into Ireland, to replace the rollicking,
careless, debt-incurring landowners, who are good for
nothing but to figure as the heroes of improbable
fiction. Stern justice, sure in its track, has heavily
stricken the Irish landlords to the ground. The day
of retribution has arrived, and better hopes may be
entertained for the country they so eagerly helped to
ruin. Great was their offence, heavy is the ex-
piation.

HER MAJESTY'S DEPARTURE FROM SCOTLAND.-
We understand that the date of her Majesty's departure from
Balmoral is definitely fix-1 for Monday, the 11th proximo.
The Queen will, therefore, in 01 probability, arrive in Edin-
burgh on the evening of the same day, and depert from
Holyrood Palace on the following moiaing for the math.
Her Royal Highn-ss the Duch( 9 of Kent is expected to
precede her Majesty by a few days.—Edinburqh Ath,ertiser.
RriLcaAlNdDucal mansion is about to be extended
lionsz.—The court-yard of
itEnog year. The houses on the west side of
court, an irolatcd clamp since 1805, face-
tiously known to expectaws and hrlf-pay officers as the
Northumberland
this old
tnohgOludlt
Scotch Barracks, are to be pulled down to admit of the ex-
tension. We understand his Grace proposes giving ample
remuneration
to the out-going tenants. The " Scotch
n'Bar-
racks" at one pet) . d ^lorded a residence to the immortal
Nelson.

We have been informed this morning that her
Majesty has been graciously pleased to confer a pension of
100/. a year on the widow of the late Mr. Pugin, the archi-
tect. Ihe talent displayed by the deceo,:ed in his decoration
of the New Palace at Westminster, for no man was more at
home in the management of details, no doubt brought him
into contact with Prince Albert, and led to the graceful re-
cognition of his abilities by her Majesty in a way acceptable
to his family and the public.—Guardian.
Her Mujesty has been graciously pleased to appoint
Sir Wm. Yardley, the second judge of the Supreme Court at
Bombay, to be Chief Justice, in the room of sir Erskine
terry, ivlw retires