The Sun.
London, England, 1838-02-05 00:00:00

There are in Ireland five millions of acres of waste
land capable of cultivation at a large profit, and two
millions and a half of idle beggars. Were not Ireland
thel and of anomalies, the co-existence of these two facts
-would appear an absolute impossibility. It seems so
like a contradiction in the laws of nature, that nothing
short of the evidence of the senses can render it cre-
dible. If the political economist is asked to solve the
problem, how there can be such an immense quantity
of surplus labour on the very spot where so ample a
field for its employment presents itself, he will answer
at once there er,,h. be only one reason for this namel,
the want of capital. Judgin g from the ,
p y
rinciples
which actuate men in all other circumstances, he would
conclude, that did the proprietors of these waste lands
possess the means of setting this surplus labour in mo-
tion, they could not be so blind to their own interests
---to say nothing of the interests of the poor—as not
to avail themselves of so ready and obvious a method
of increasing their wealth. be more Yet no conclusion could
are not gelrroneous. in The Irish landlords, we believe,
reatest neon:
The
of capital, but generally in the
g pecun',ary distress ; and it is this very circum-
stance that -renders their conduct so utterly mexcuse-
a. ble andfoarbarous. Unable themselves to improve the
lands, which now produce nothing , and the cultivation
of which- would give employment and bread to their
starving countrymen, they have set their faces against
All improvement of these lands by
others. The bEng-
lish capitalist has offered to take
the unproductive
waste, lay out his money upon it, and restore it, in
due time, to the proprietor, a fertile corn field ; but his
offer has been rejected, as if it were little better than an
insult. Our readers may recollect that, in 1836, a
Company was formed, under the auspices of the Earl
of DEVON, and other persons of rank and wealth, with
a capital of half a million, for the purpose of cultivat-
ing waste lands in Ireland, and an Act of Parliament
obtained granting the necessary powers. We hailed
the formation of this Company as an earnest of good
things to come for the Irish poor—as the commence-
ment of a system which would greatly contribute to
the physical and moral amelioration of the sister island.
But ‘:chat has been the result of a plan so beneficial
in *its object to all classes of society there ? Will it; be
lJelieved that owing to the perverseness and folly of the
Irish proprietors, this Company have not been
able to procure from them a single acre of waste land?
And so little chance is there of the landholders
Coming to a better mind, that notice has been given of
a motion to be made at the next meeting of the Share-
holders for the dissolution of the Company
Now if the Irish landholders flatter themselves that
by preventing the extension of cultivation, they are
likely to enhance the value of the land already culti-
-vatea—if their motive be to increase the already ex-
cessive and most pernicious competition for land
among a starving, yet rapidly augmenting, population--
we must tell them that this policy is no less dangerous
than it is short-sighted, selfish, and cruel. We must
warn them that the maxim, " I may do as I like with
my own," has its limitations, and that, as the right of
property is founded not on private but on public bene-
fit, when that right is exercised in such a manner as
to militate against the interests of the community, it
must be subjected to such modification as shall render
it subservient to those interests.
Our attention has been drawn to this subject by an
interesting little pamphlet, just published by HOOPER,
of under the title of " Aids to the Irish
Poor Law in the reclamation of Waste Lands." The
au ;nor, GEORGE LEWIS SNIYTII, Esq., addresses
•
otmself to Lord JOAN RUSSELL, and recommends
a Commission from the Crown as the only instrument
by which a measure of so much importance, and so
strongly opposed by the Irish landlords, can be carried
into effect. The outlines of Mr. SmYTH's plan are
sketched in the following propositions, which we ex-
tract frotn the pamphlet, that our Irish readers, who
are, of course, chiefly interested, may have an oppor-
tunity
of discussing them :-
1. That the Commission should consist of three princi-
pals, together with a secretary, engineer, and clerks ; the
fiat.liount of whose united salaries should be paid out of the pro-
2. of the Commission.
, That the Commissioners should be Commissioners of 1!i-
-itosure, Drains and Sewers for all Bog and Marshy Lands in
el4rid' With such powers for those purposes as are held by
stlntii,l,ar Commissioners in England ; and, particularly, power
-(.) in repair all drains and sewers in and for such landsof
li_c?Ughout the country ; and to levy a rate for the purpose
ethe
h repairs, such rate not to exceed sixpence
fortld of the fair annual rent of the lands upon, through, and
be the improvement of which, the drains and sewers may have
en Constructed.
a, That the Lords of the Treasury should be empowered
tiZt
cdireeted to issue to the Commissioners, for the purposes of
...ommission, a sum of 100,000/. per annum, ; such eapi-
hs;.lll to bear an interest of 31. per cent. per annum, and to
LeNtid at the rate of 1/ er cent. per annum, commencing
tlae third • afte .acph issue.
ap.4,.; That the Year rc
Commissioners should undertake the drain-
vt''' an at
r• I -lands of Ireland, in such
eortion lc aMation the waste
kit thus and at such places as to them should seem fit ;
R'orno instance should they be authorized to lay out
°flly- b`nean 41., on any one acre, and that such sum of 4/. should
I, to draining, trenching, turning. up the sub-
to planting, and manuring, and in no case whatever
to 4a;:riihtantgi.t should be an instruction to the Commissioners,
the hernselves of the earliest opportunity to let leases of
lees tah'lld drained, trenched, and turned up, in portions of not
fair , en ten acres, and at such growing rentals as might seem
trtl,ttntirt3e provision being made in every lease for the. proper
he reps and elayingof the land, and more especially for
,pa
1r f the drains and sewers, at such periods and in