The Sun.
London, England, 1822-02-04 00:00:00

IRELAND.

MR. EDITOR—I Mt myself highly obliged to .1
you, for having. done me the favour to in-
sert my letter in your Paper of the 25th,of De-
.cember. I am indeed -sanguine enough to hope,
with the. assistance Of ~your able pen, and with
the further aid of the Gentleman, whose admir-
ably written letter under the signature of " 5.,"
appeared iu your Paper of the 26th ult., that
the attention of Government may be directed to
the state of the South of. Ireland, and that per-
manent as well as immediate relief may be afford-
ed to the miserable inhabitants of that part of
the Kingdom. You say, that "S." traces the
crimes and misery -of • the lower Irish to the ne-
glect of their intellectual improvement, and to
the demoralizing- inthience., vicious -example,
criminal connivance, and cnlpable apathy, of„the.
greater port of the Irish Gentry. In that part
of the SOath which I am best acquainted with,
I am happy to say, that
.amongst the Gentry,
drinking to excess is not now practised, and
since this bad habit (as it appears) can be con-
quered, I trust, that a greater reformation has
taken plaCe generally than " S." is aware of ;
but if a further reform is required, I hope what
he has said will be taken as a friendly admoni-
tion, and" produce all the good he aims at. I de-
cidedly agree with you, that " it is not enough
" that plans of extensive improvement for the em-
" ployment of the people should be set on foot ;
44 regard must be paid to their moral culture, and
" to the directing of their energies beneficially for
" themselves and the public." 1 admit also, that
-" a heavy respohsibility devolves upon the gentry
64 in every country, and that they are in a great
‘c measure accountable for- the improvement of.
44 those placed in the scale below them."—Unfor-
tunately, however, for theluterior of the South
of Ireland, thereare scarcely any persons to be,
found, who we'should in England consider to be
of the middle rank ; for the cultivating classes,
whether they pay rent for what are called farms,
or are labourers, are not in any respect to be dis-
tinguished from each other. It is the want of
that link in the chain -of society, which is so
essential to good government, that has mainly
contributed 'to give encouragement to that pro-
fligacy of manners, so much inveighed against by
" SI" Were',there numbers of respectable far.
mers and respectable shopkeepers settled in the
interior, their integrity and moral worth, their
example, would not only regulate the conduct
of those in the scale below them, but would also
be the means, in a great measure, of checking
any.-thing unworthy in those in the scale above
'them. It -is scarcely necessary to obserw, that,
in all poor. countries, there are but two classes in
society, the high and low, the middle ranks are
raised up by the accumulation of wealth. The
Coal of England is certainly the great source of
all the wealth she possesses : it is therefore quite
clear, that, until coals are conveyed at a cheap
I.:At:into the interior of Ireland, the people of
that country will neither become industrious, nor
wealthy ;
,and as no middle class will.he raised
up, I may therefore venture to predict that they
will not acquire more peaceful habits. The-re-
marks made by " S." respecting illicit distilla,
tion appear. to me perfectly just. It is by no
means improbable that the people who .are
cu-
gaged in this pernicious manufacture should be
iamongst the-most active in disturbing the peace
of ale country. I can easily imaginp, that even
a few :of these having obtained arms, might by
that system of terror lately put in practice, force
the most innocent of the peasantry.to join them,
and --to commit - .the most diabolical outrages. I
am beyond measure surprized that Governmcnt
should not lon, since hare thought it expMient to
put a complete stop to the distillation of spirits in
Ireland. WHY COULD NOT THE REVENUE BE

UPHELID BY GIVING ENCOURAGEMENT TO THE
CONSUMPTION ANT) EXPORTATION OF nEER ? " S."
thinks, that " the degree in which ,the penal
" code has been repealed, 'r. as operated in a
" manner worse than radical Reform
" opened the elective franchise to myriads of
" beings in a state of the most brutal ignorance,
" while• it has shut them out from aspiring after
" those distinctions which would operate as a
" spur to their improvement." " They are," he
says; " driven like so many heads of cattle to
" the hustings, and in hundreds of instances in-
duced to qualify themselves for voting by per-
" jury." With regard to myself, I have always
made a point not to interfere with any tenant of
mine'in respect to his vote., I have often been
told that, ground is frequently parcelled out in
small plots to, poor people, and lenses given to
make them freeholders, and that immense num-
be-Fs are driven down from the mountains to vote
at elections.
,In such a desperate case as this,
there tan
.be no .doubt that Government should
interfere. •
The note 'Which you were so kind as to attach
to ;he letterof " A True Englishman," publish-
ed in your Paper of the 97th Dec., rendered an
immediate reply from me unnecessary. The canal
from Cork to Limerick; when finished, would,
as you observe, " prove a source of further pro-
" fitable employment ;" but if this were not cer-
tain, I should be at no loss to point out'many
useful public works, which, if carried into exe-
cution, could not fail of teing an immediate and
lasting benefit to both countries ; but from the
-miFery arising from the scarcity of NO in the
line of country above alluded to. I thought it
more proper merely to chew the advantage to be
derived from Constructing a canal through that
district, than to connect it Ivith any other na-
tional improvement ; for very great objections
have been, and still made to the digging of,