The Sun.
London, England, 1852-11-23 00:00:00

. NAPIER, who was most imperfectly heard in his
opening observations, rose in move for leave to bring in a
bill to amend the law of landlord and tenant in Ireland.
Having asked the indulgence of the house, he acknow-
ledged that he owed a debt of gratitude to those who, al-
though unsuccessful, had preceded him in the same field,
and of whose researehes he had gladly availed himself-
The pressure upon agriculture in Ireland—however per-
sons might dispute the cause—was an acknowledged fact,
and the effect had been to induce people in that country to
entertain the most extravagant expectations from the legis-
lature—a circumstance of which designing persons had
takbn advantage to inflame and disturb their minds. He
did not hope to meet such expectations, as he only hoped to
do what wan practical, and must therefore be limited in
pxoportion. Having stated that he had deeply considered
the question since 1848, when Mr. S. Crawford introduced
his measure, the right hon. and learned gentleman quoted
the opinion of Sir Robert Peel as the desirableness of an
amendment in tho law of landlord and tenant, and pro-
ceed to say that, wishing to be as completely informed as
pessible on the subject, he had employed two gentlemen to
make a detail report of the state of things in the north of
Ireland, and their book had received the approbation of
Mr. Holmes, the father of the Irish bar. (Hear.)
The following was Mr. Holmes's opinion :—" I have re-
ceiened the book which you were so kind as to send me—
your work 'On the tenure and. improvement of land in
Ireland, &a., &c.' I deferred acknowledging the gift
until I could in some degree appreciate its value. I have
now read it, and I consider it due both to you and myself to
declare that I have derived from the persual the greatest
satisfaction end most useful information. It is a work
which exhibits industry and research, professional know-
ledge and tallelt, jiulicions observation and benevolent
purpose in an eminent degree, and a rare unity of brevity
with comprehensiveness, on one of the most important and
interesting subjects which can in these times engage and
fix the attention of every class of society, and which de-
mands the prompt and decisive interference of the Legis-
lature. That your valuable work may have the influence
which it ought to have with those who possess the power
of giving effeet to its wise recommendations, is my sincere
wish." Of the ihformat'ion furnished by these gentlemen
he had largely availed himself. Looking at the state of
Ireland, he believed that the present was the most fitting-
ivomant for the revision of the code. Landed property,
was rasing in value, some estaltes fetching 30 years' pur-
chase. Ireland had great resources, but she required se-
curity for life and property, and that could only be given
by just laws. (Hear, heap() Next she required an ar-
rannement of the land question, for being an agricultural
country, she could. not expect commerce and manufactures
until idle had first attained full development in agriculture.
The land question wen attended with two classes of diffi-
cußies, the permanent and the temporary. With regard
to the permanent difficulties, they often heard discussions
as to the causes of the state of Ireland. One said it was
the priests, :anther the parsons ; sometimes it was charged
to British policy, at other times to Irish neglect. His
opinion was that all these elements had contributed their
quota. (A laugh.) It was very remarkable that what
Sir John. Davis wrote as prophecy in the reign of Eliza-
beth had become history in the reign of Victoria. Davis
remarked that the 'ancient customs of Ireland which made
nngeriein the right of property was the true cause of the
barbarism and desolation of the land. Spenser also de-
precated tilie Irish system, and it was remarkable that up
to a very recent period a very large portion of the country
was still occupied by tenants at will. They would find
much also of the causes of Irish depression in English
laws. They punished the people for non-conformity in
what they never taught them to understand, and when it
was urged that the people did not understand English it
was dewed that to accommodate them the church service
should be read in Latin. (A laugh.) They had-pressed on
the union before there was a.ssimulation, and as a general
rule their feed* had been to press too hardly on with such
legislation. The land had been granted to absentees who
in turn handed it to middlemen, and the result had been
to overrun the whole country with middlemen. The re-
sult was, that whenever any calamity afflicted the coun-
try, the people foundered at once. Mr. Pitt had testified
' how Government had shut out Ireland from commerce
with eur colonies and with the world. The consequence
was the vicious state' of society he had described—the
competition for land, the accumulation of incumbrances
on property, the absence of improvements, and a super-
abundance of unemployed labour. A large proportion of
these incumbrances had originated at the beginning of the
present or tho close of the last century, and, being based
on fictitious value, it was impossible in a country where
the possession of land had become a neeensary of life to
the people, and was subject to the severest competition in
consequence, to regulate its value as you could ina,England
or Scotland, and true result was, that when things were
brou'ght to their natural level, and war prices no longer
prevailed, the whole str.te of property in Ireland was found
to be vicious. The multiplication of forty shilling freeholds
for political purposes had also, by increneing the number of
small holdings, increased the difficulty, and it might be
added, that cornaption and coercion had tended to the same
result. After the war the attention of Parliament was di-
rected by numerous select committees to the state of Ire-
land. The right hon. and learned gentleman referred to
the reports of the committees of ISI9, 1823, of the inquiry
instituted in 1827 by Mrs. Fry and her brother, in con-
nexion with the Society of Friends ; the committee of
1830 ; of the Devon Commission—all referring to the land
question as the great difficulty of Ireland; and the latter
suggesting as remedies—extended facilities for the sale and
transfer of Pend, the granting of leases for moderate terms,
giving power to the Bank of Ireland to make advances
on the security of land to enable the landlords to make
improvements, a register of contracts and agreements, and a
provision where no agreement existed for granting compensa-
tion to tenants for improvements made by them. The
Devon Committee reported that at the period of their in-
quiry the number of small holdings was so great that it
would he impracticable for the landlord to carry out the.
• improvements, and the tenants, who were not living, but
merely vegetating *pm it, living on the potato with water
only fortheir beverage, could of course do nothing. And
besides triise. almost two millions of the rental of the coun-
try was in the hands of receivers under the Court of Chan-
cery. In such a state of society there could be no improve-
ments, and the remelt was that at the time of the commis-
sion, 11 ens of acres were uncultivated, millions of the
people were unemployed, and millions of money lying
idle, The report of the Central Relief Committee of the
&4WD/ of Friends, recently published, and which was also
a most valuable doetiment, stated that at the period of the'
laminae, when all the world sympathised with Ireland,
there were several districts where there were ample means
for reliving the destitution which existed, but where in
eceneequence of the vicious state of society, no agency could'
be found for carrying out, the charitable intentions of
those by whom such means of relief had been provided.
All tints Showed the neeessity for some legislation, and he
had aceorclitigly endeavoured to apply his mind to devise a
way by whielein some degree the evil might be met. It
had struck him, in the first place, that it was desirable to
provide means for enabling the owners themselves to make
improvements—improvements by which the produce of
the soil might be increased, and employment given to the
people. There were several models which might be fol-
lowed in carrying out this object. First, there was the
Montgomery Act, which referred to Scotland ; there was
also another act, passed in 1845 ; and, subsequently, there
was the Landed Estates Improvement Act, passed by the
government of the late Sir Robert Peel—the act passed
for Greek Britain in 184.6, which authorised the lending
two millions of money for the purposes of drainage
and then there was the Landed Improvement Act for
Ireland, passed in the first year of the government of
the noble lord (J. Russell), and which had grown out of
the act of 1846. What occurred to him as the result of such
a measure was that in the first place farming was placed
under a totally new condition. It was admitted on all
hands that the farmers must be a better educated class
than they had been—that they could not go on under the
ignorant system of cultivation which formerly prevailed.
Already he sound that a better course of cultivation was
beginning to obtain, and which must extend, notwith-
standing the prejudice with which in many quarters it
was met. (Hear hear.) But the first step towards the
improvement of the soil was drainage, and to that his first
measure;,yrould refer. After quoting an article from the.
Times of Sept., 1850, as to the necessity of greater know-!
ledge and capital being brought to bear on the busi-
ness of Parming, he observed that Sir R. Peel, when intro-
ducing his measures for changing the commercial policy of
the country, had intimated his opinion that one result of
those measures would be the reduction of the prices- of ag-
ricultural produce by one-third ; and that if any one part
of the United Kingdom suffered more from the policy he.
was then inaugurating than another, it would be Ireland—
that beineno&nrely agricultural country. (Hear.) Sir R.
Peel was qiiife correct in that opinion, and not only had
Ireland suffered more in comparison with England or Scot-
land, but there was a marked distinction even between the
result of those measures on some parts of Ireland as com-
pared with others. In the neighbourhood of Belfast, where
thereenvese ready means of communication, where capital
was abundant, where markets were plentiful, and com-
mercial enterprise was extensively carried on, there
tenants were prosperous and landlords were in a con-
dition
to make the necessary improvements on their
land ; but it was not so in the purely agricultural
districts.. Under Sir R. Peel's acts, 2,000,0001. were ap-
rrtloned to England and Scotland, and 1,000,0001. to
aaelan.d, an the
amount to be advanced on loan for the
tairraskupofi3drainage. In Scotland the money was rapidly
vantage the
in Ireland the landlords could not take ad-
in it that tleeelesei
had
been should only
, in conseouence of a condition imposed
be granted when the money
n
howeve eg`-`reuZlnnd the improvements made. This,
amount anthorise
wired in the following session, when the
2,000,0001., and the .to bo advanced was increased to
landlord. being first required to
for the works neabarliben was then allowed to be advanced
pay ithimself out of h•-. 3
edlY been a great belle& Zn
a noeket, which had undoubt-
wag
4,08 5914 eine, as
applied for (under that eeeirela'iiii• The amount of loans
some ex*ent for other nee a' mainly for drainage, but to
&c.,) sub-soiling, farm
rnetimes supposed
been mantlioned, and 1,287,8,84/. 1,839,g431. had
never came back
Ho might observe further—for it ; actually issued.
April,
that ivhen money was lent to IrelandB it
itgain—that of 190,151/. ts. due
to
1#3,150X. had been repaid up to thleeinen
Dement in •
1852,
.(Hear, hear.) And even this slight defalcation November.
of the officers was owing
entirely to the neglect • The drainage g
that act had been the means of enabling he counted
=Ler e ry
to Weep up Itt.produce of peen and root,crops—f,„ it
`ceased in a great degree to produce cereal crops evnechTai.
(mired thorough drairibge. There had been some of this act, remark-
able instances of the beneficial operation One
gentleman, whose estate • • encumbered, induced his
wee
creditors to assent to his applyingloan. He did
fora so,
and it was expended on drainage, and the result had been
i hat Since then the tenants had paid their rents, his incum-
brances were paid off, and he had even a surplus. Again.
a gentleman in the south of Ireland obtained a loan for
drain age, who t
se clients were unwilling to have their
lands gained, threatened
ned, and one of them even
him with an action if it attempted, and yet that very
tenant hasince
d were
often
paid his rent punctua 7 ,
thanked his landlord for h • drained his land, for by
means of that only had
the eying_
land enabledto his himpax.
rent, and even to have a serplue, and be altogether in a
prosperoul condition. Ther - • which
drainage had doubled the e were inetances in
produce of the land, for drainage
was particularly adapted. to Ireland, being
the climate

u.& LXli.:':.