The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-29 00:00:00

distressed agriculturists who had been unable or
unwilling to satisfy the demands of their land-
lords. A comparison of the sums known to be in
arrear-for rent and annually lost in the Sister
Kingdom, with the amounts wiped out by the
operation of the Bankrupt or Insolvent Courts,
will show that the latter does not amount to one
pound for every one thousand pounds of the for-
mer. How ridiculous, then, is it to rely upon
such a provision as an adequate remedy for the
evil.

The relief allowed in case of an absconding
tenant is equally illusory. In Ireland one of the
greatest landlord grievances is, as Lord CAMPBELL
justly remarked, that bad tenants "will not abscond."
When they set- the proprietor of the soil and all
his myrmidons at defiance, and hold possession,
despite of every effort to dislodge them until they
are bought out, getting not only a receipt in full
(a document on which it is but an act of simple
justice to say they place but little value, being
perfectly indifferent as to the measures which the
defrauded landlord may take to enforce payment),
but also a sum in hand, to start them on their
new career. If that payment and an amicable
arraugement (in which case they cannot be con-
sidared as " absconding " tenants) be refused, they
retain possession until ejected by legal process, for
'which case no provision is made by the Bill—
' the repayment cannot be made where tenants are
evicted for non-payment of rent ?
But supposing that the exceptional case should
arise, that the landlord should, under the statute,
be entitled to claim a return of the money which
he had paid for duty in respect of the rent due by
a party who had become a bankrupt or insolvent,
or who had absconded from the premises, let us
for a moment consider what steps should be taken
by the claimant before he could hope to obtain
restitution.

We need scarcely refer to the proverbial dif-
ficulty of getting back money which has once
found its way into the Exchequer. Any person
who has endeavoured to establish his claim
will not require to be reminded of the vexatious
delays, the petty evasions, and paltry quibbles
resorted to ; proceedings that would reflect the
utmost discredit on any private person who re-
sorted thereto. The most stringent proof is re-
quired on every point, until at last the disgusted
applicant finds that it would have been a saving
of time, of trouble, and of expense to have
abandoned the demand (unless of considerable
amount) than to have subjected himself to such
annoyance in its recovery. He must, in the
present instance, prove to the satisfaction of the
Commissioners, that the tax has been paid—that
the rent, in respect of which it was unpaid, and
that he had failed to receive it owing to the
bankruptcy, the insolvincy, or the absconding
of the tenant, and legal evidence must be brought
forward to establish the points relied on (we
say nothing of the difficulty of deciding what will
amount to an absconding within the meaning of
the statute). For all these matters a professional
man must be employed at the expense of the
applicant. Each separate case will require dis-
tinct proof, and consequently a separate bill of
costs. In how many instances will it be worth
the landlord's while to comply with these pre-
liminary demands in order to obtain relief ?
There cannot be much doubt as to the answer.
Are we not justified, then, in denouncing the pre-
tended relief as being neither more nor less than
" a mockery and a delusion ?"

But were it otherwise, and that the money
could be obtained without difficulty, delay, or ex-
pense, can we conceive a more unwise or impolitic
provision than that which would give the landlord
a direct pecuniary interest in driving the default-
ing tenant to extremities, in compelling him either
to abandon the country, or to cast himself upon
the tender mercies of the Insolvent Court, or the
Bankrupt Court, after submitting in the first in-
stance to incarceration for several weeks. If the
provision should not be altogether inoperative, it
will create the most serious disturbances, and
kindle a flame which it will be difficult indeed to
allay. Those who prepared and who sanctioned
the iniquitous measure are placed in this dilemma
—either the provision is a gross deception, or it is
one of the most mischievous and impolitic enact-
ments that can be conceived. We leave the Irish
members who supported the Budget, and thus
carried the bill, to determine on which of these
horns they will be impaled.

Not fewer than seven Members have fallen before
'le Election Committees since our last advertence
,0 their proceedings. Sligo has lost Mr. TOWNELEY ;
Clare County, Messrs. FITZGERALD and O'BRIEN ;
Peterborough, Mr. WHALLEY; Durham, Lord ADOL-
PHUS VANE ; and Liverpool, Mr. FORBES M.ACKEN-
ZIE and Mr. TURNER. On this side the water the de-
linquencies were quite of a normal character; Mr.
WHALLEY was found guilty of treating, though
we certainly think that law was strained to the
uttermost against him ; his offence was paying for
the wine at a dinner after the election, and he
deems it so venial, that he solicits the electors to
vindicate their liberty by re-electing him. Lord
A. VANE had, no doubt, been guilty, by his agents,
of bribing one if not two voters. J. N. ATKINSON,
a wag or a rogue, he did not tell the Committee
which, first bagged 5/. from one agent, whom he
saw in a bed-room ; the agent threw the money on
the bed, telling him he neither lent nor gave him
it." Going out he meets another agent, from
whom he tries to get 151. He is content, however,
with a second Si. ; two agents then escort him to
the poll, whom, however, he gives the slip, votes
for FENWICK, and tees the whole tale to FEN-
WICK'S Committee. Our readers will remember a
similar trick at Clitheroe. Such are the risks of
bribery. The Liverpool bribery was of a peculiar
character, consisting in very numerous payments
to workmen of 4s. or ss. each, ostensibly as com-
pensation for losing their day's work, which, how-
ever, they had no occasion to lose. There was
treat* also. The bane of this large constituency,
amounting in 1852 to 17,433, is, that 2,225 of
the voters are old freemen. We are inclined,
however, to think that the unseated candidates
found the "no Popery" feeling, which is very
strong in Liverpool, a more effectual aid than
bribery and treating. At Taunton, Sir JOHN
RAMSDEN was lucky, since bribery, though proved,
was " not proved to have been committed with his
knowledge or that of his agents." We cordially
wish the young Member succels in his political
course, the more so as he has declined to use his
immense influence in Huddersfield, which is nearly
all his own property, and throws himself on a
borough where his political principles are his only
recommendation.

On the other side the Irish Channel the Com-
mittees have at last got fairly into the midst of
priests, shillelaghs, and stones—of spiritual curses
and material violence. Both in the Clare and
Sligo elections they have reported the corrupt and
unbecoming influences exercised by the priests ;
in the latter case, in general terms, against " the
Roman Catholic priests ;" but in the former, speci-
fying by name Fathers CLIME and BURKE, and
exempting the rest ; pronouncing against these
two, however, the heavy charge---a charge pain-
fully sustained by the evidence—that "they excited
the people to take part in the Six-mile-bridge
riot ;" and that Father BURKE " himself took

____ _........
part in the riot." There has been, of course,
violence enough alleged, and proved too, both at
these and other Irish elections. It was thoroughly
established that Colonel VANDELEUR'S supporters
voted at the peril of their lives—a peril sufficient

in several cases to deter them from voting at all ;
that they were seized, locked up, liberated

and escorted by the military, and even then