The Sun.
London, England, 1836-10-19 00:00:00

millions per annum, from which is to be deducted ten per
cent. for defalcation and collecting the rents. A return
from the masters in Chancery shows the incumbrances on
that rental to be 3,000,000 per annum, leaving the net

. _
rental at 6,000,000 per annum.
" THIRD.—The labourers and their families in Ireland
who look to agriculture, and to it only for support,' are
nearly two-thirds of the whole population—say five millions.
What is the popular outcry to remedy these alarming
evils, which are evident on this simple statement of well-au-
thenticated facts ?—Pass a poor law—tax the land.
" If the net rental of the land in Ireland were taxed by
means of a Poor-law Act at five shillings in the pound, ust

_
by way of commencing the poor-law system, without any
deduction for the expense of collecting that tax, or any de-
falcation in the payment of it, it would produce 1,500,0001.
which being divided among the five millions of the Irish po-
pulation, comprised in the class agricultural labourers and
their families, it would just give each of them six shillings a
year, or not quite three-halfpence a week.
" But I say that if the legislature were even to pass a
Poor-law Act which would have the effect to send all the
proprietors of land and their families into exile, and to give
the whole net rental of the land in Ireland to the agricul-
tural labourers and their families, that whole net rental
would then give only each of these poor persons twenty-
four shillings per annum, or not quite sixpence each per
week.
" It was upon the knowledge of such facts as these, that
I fnunded the argument and the suggestion in the preceding
pages, to relieve and improve the condition of Ireland.
From the common revenue, I am of opinion, she must re-
ceive the first means of relief ; the longer that is delayed
the more will be required, and the less effective will be its
application ; and until the facts I have produced, are over-
turned, I shall continue to agree in opinion with Dr. Adam
Clarke, that ' when Ireland gets the poor-laws with which
she is now threatened, the present rising sun of its prospe-
rity will sink below the horizon to rise no more."—Morn-
ing Advertiser of yesterday.

We felt perfectly confident, from the first mornen
we perused Mr. Leslie's pamphlet on Poor Laws and
Ireland, that it would make a deep impression on the
public mind, and lead many to change their opinion
on a subject of such surpassing interest to the welfare
of Great Britain and Ireland. We stated in a former
article on this subject that we hailed with satisfaction
the: different tone assumed by our Contemporary, the
Morning Chronicle, in noticing the pamphlet of Mr.
Hughes, to that exhibited by that journal in the first
notice it gave of Mr. Leslie's pamphlet ; but we had
no idea that the approaching conversion of the Chro-
nicle was so near at hand. How has the miracle been
effected ? We stated yesterday that the Chronicle,
wishing to expose Mr. Leslie's ignorance of the ac-
tual condition of Europe, had instanced a variety of
countries from whence evidence might be drawn of
the advantages of the Poor Law system. Mr. Leslie
at once accepted the challenge, and appended to
his pamphlet a postscript, containing the most au-
thentic and valuable information, proving that in all
those countries which the Chronicle had chosen for
its anticipated triumph—pauperism was increasing I
Our Cotemporary did not like the rough handlingwhich
his opinions received from Mr. Leslie's facts ; and
the following appears from yesterday morning's Chro-
nicle to be the progress of the conversion :—On Sa-
turday the Chronicle gave a lengthened notice of the
additional matter in Mr. Leslie's pamphlet, and set out
by saying, " We shall allow Mr. Leslie to state his
case in his own way," and then follows a long, and to
its extent a most interesting quotation from Mr. Les-
lie's postscript ; and of course leaving the readers to
believe that Mr. Leslie had stated his case in the
Chronicle in his own way. It appears from the cor-
respondence in the Chronicle, that Mr. Leslie consi-
dered the Chronicle had not acted up to its profession,
and charges that journal with having omitted the most
important parts of the section—America and the whole
cf the section Ireland. Our readers would natu-
rally consider this a very Irish way of proceedin,'(, in
discussing a question of vital importance to Ireland, to
omit all that the writer says on Ireland. In yesterday's
Advertiser we gave the quotation from Mr. Leslie's
pamphlet, section " Ireland," and therefore we need
not again insert it ; but it proves to .demonstration,
that Poor Laws are quite out of the question as a re-
medy for the afflictions of the Irish population, and
that quotation must have been purposely omitted by
the Chronicle, because it annihilates a favourite
theory of our Contemporary, that Poor Laws will
lower rents. Mr. Leslie's evidence proves that the
average rent of land iii Ireland is only 12s. 6d. the
Irish acre, equal to 14s. 2(1. the English acre, and,
therefore, it is absurd to suppose that with the advan-
tages which steam communication opens for the sale of
Irish produce in the English markets, that 14s. 2d.
per acre is an exorbitant rental. But Mr. Leslie goes
farther, and spews that if the whole rental of the land
in Ireland were, by a Poor Law system, given to the
agricultural population, it would not give each of them
sixpence a week. What a farce, what an appeal to
public credulity, is the outcry of Poor Laws for Ire-
land, which Mr. Leslie thus exposes them to be. And
are we have the time of the Legislature during the
next Session diverted from objects of real advantage to
both countries, in pursuing the phantom which the
Chronicle wishes to impose upon its consideration ? But
Mr. Leslie's correspondence charges the Chronicle
with having omitted the section of his pamphlet—
America. As we have not had the opportunity to
quote that passage ourselves, we have great pleasure in
doing so now. Mr. Leslie says of
" AlslEßlCA.—There can be no doubt of the fact, that
labour exists to an almost unlimited extent in the United
States, nor can there be any doubt that the remuneration
for it is good. Now, notwithstanding these advantages,
that immense continent has, in some of her States, the
plague-spot of a poor-law system rapidly interfering with
industry, and extending itself over the surface of society.
" In Massachusetts, where a first-rate artisan can re-
ceive for his labour from 9s. to 12s. 6d., and an inferior
workman Gs. 9d. a day ! where the commonest labourer
receives per annum from 561. ss. to 671. 10s. ; and the
subsistence of the working classes is such, that there are
very few who do not eat meat, poultry, or fish, twice or
three times a day,'—there is, or was, a poor-law system.
"So early as 1639, the 43d of Elizabeth was trans-
planted to that State ; and in a very recent State docu-
ment, the Commissioners appointed by the House of Re-
presentatives trace to that Act THE PAUPER SYSTEM un-
der which we are now living.' In this valuable document
the rapid increase of pauperism is declared to be nearly
equal to the increase in England ; and further, that the
radical evil of tin Act of the 43d of Elizabeth, which
provided for a compulsory support of the poor, and of the
order by the Court of the Colony and Province of Mas-
sachusetts Bay in 1639, was on the very principle of
the substitution of such a provision for them, for that
which thid has himself made alike in the very constitution
of human nature, and throughout the records of his re-
vealed will. The provision for the enzployment of the idle
became therefore, as a matter of course, a direct bounty upon
idleness; and idleness and vagrancy, in a large part of the
parent country, have grown in a fearful proportion to the
poor-rates of that country.' And these American legis-
lators declare that the system of poor laws creates an in-
definite amount of artificial property, and through the
increase of this poverty, they lead to an indefinite increase
of abjectness, misery, and crime.'
" The State of New York, and others of the United
States concur in accounting for the moral leprosy with
which the poor-law system is covering the land of America.
Our readers will see that this is an important omis-
sion of Mr. Leslie's case, and what says the Chronicle
in reply ? "As for the United States, it would be
beside our purpose to enter into any discussion with
reference to a country so differently circumstanced as
Europe." No doubt it would beside the Chronicle's
purpose, but our Contemporary professed to " let
Mr. Leslie state his case in his own way," and the
omitted part in the Chronicle of Mr. Leslie's case
proved as our readers will see from the quotation, that
in a country like America, where labour is abundant,
that the poor law
system is working the same evils
to that community from which we in England are just
emerging. Foiled as our Contemporary, the Morning
Mr. Leslie's facts, that Jour-
Chronicle, has been by .
jour-
nal tried as a last resort to take refuge in the eastern
districts of Scotland, Roxburghshire, Berwickshire,
and East Lothian. Mr. Leslie pursues our unfor-
tunate Contemporary even to this other point of his
own selection, and shews that in Berwickshire the
horrors of pauperism are so alarmingly on the in-
crease that 'on the 4th of the present month
of October, the following influential gentlemen were
appointed a Committee to devise a remedy;,Sir
H. P. H. Campbell, 1v1.13.; Sir David Milne ; Mr.
Spottiswoode, of Spottiswoode ; Mr. Dickson, of
Belchester ; Mr. Home, of Gunsereen ; Mr. Milne,
Advocate ; Mr. Greig, of Eccles ; Mr. Roy, of Nen-
thorne ; the Hon. General Maitland ; and Mr. Turn-
bull. Mr. Turnbull, Convener ;—and three to be a