The Sun.
London, England, 1847-10-21 00:00:00

TO THE LANDED PROPRIETORS
OF THE SOUTH OF IRELAND.
MY LORDS AND GEN TLEMEN,—It is vain to hope
that any attempt to regenerate the country can be
made, with the least hope of success, until you detach
the labourers from all identification with the " Rock
system," which, devised by the farmers for their own
exclusive benefit, owes its efficacy entirely .to the ad-
hesion of the labourers, for that adhesion bands the
whole people together to countenance and screen the
assassin, and thus give that impunity to crime which
is its most terrible characteristic. Affection forms ne
part of the tie which binds the labourer to the farmer;
on the contrary, the ruthless oppression exercised by
the former is repaid by the bitterest hatred, but
every labourer was, as a con-acre, and is, as a cabin
tenant, dependent entirely for his wretched possession
upon some frieze-coated fanner. The labourer's hut
is identified with the farmer's holding, you cannot
displace one defaulting tenant but you must render
houseless all his dependents, it may be scores in
number ; hence it is that man, woman, and child are
leagued together to oppose any and every exercise of
the landlords' righ.s. There is not located upon
vast s
your
estates a ingle individual of the labouring
class who holds directly from yourselves, except the
few who may be in your own employment, of the
millions who are located upon your properties--there
is not one who does not hold from your immediate
tenants. Is the adhesion of the labourer to the farmer,
then, to be wondered at ? You have sacrificed
thousands of pounds to propitiate the farmers—have you
even in part succeeded ? Let Delycross give the
answer. So long as a single cottier upon your
estates holds his miserable cabin from any band but
your own, so long you have a soldier ui " the
ttockite" force subsidized by your own property to
fight against yourself. A tenth of the sacrifices you
have made, and made in vain, for the farmers, would
have released the labourers, emphatically the people,
from the bondage of an unholy alliance with their
oppressors. You now know that upon you alone is
thrown the burden of feeding the people. The
occupiers will give you no aid. From this moment
until next spring there is not a frieze-coated farmer
in the south of Ireland who -will expend one shilling
upon employment for the people ; the " do-nothing'
system of the farmer shuts up the land in his hands
from contributing in the least to the general labour
fund, and a burden which might be easily borne, if
borne equally by all, is rendered intolerable when
thrown entirely upon you; you have not means of
giving full employment, for the land in your own
hand is quite inadequate to the purpose, but you must
find food for the people, and the question most
urgently requiring your instant consideration is, how
to provide that food in the cheapest manner—shall you
employ the inhabitants of other lands to raise food
fur your people when you may with great advantage
employ them to raise food for themselves ? Tbe
con-acre system was fruitful in mischief, for it
inevitably enlisted the labourerer under the banners
of Jack Rock, but it employed the otherwise waste
labour of the people to raise food for themselves,
thus affording at the cheapest rate the two things
most needful—food and employment, and the best til-
lage on the smaller farms in the south of Ireland
was owing to the con-acre spade. A substitute for
the con-acre system, possessing its advantages and
avoiding its evils, might easily be devised if your at-
tention could be earnestly drawn to the subject, but
before you are competent to form a sound judgment
you must get rid of that infatuation which leads you
to shudder at recognising the right of the people to
any location in the land, and induces you to think
that the prosperity of Ireland can only be accom-
plished by its depopulation. Abandon the hope of
carrying out an improved system of cultivation
through the farmers, but try what can be accom-
plished by the agency of the labourers employed upon
small model farms (not exceeding, I should say, two
acres each) ; you may then see what may be accom-
plished by the now idle con acre spade, and you will
have established a system which will afford at once
increased production and increased employment, and
you will be in a condition to coerce your " do.
nothing " tenants by adopting it to take a fair
share of the public burthen ; they will resist no doubt,
but they will resist in vain. Backed by the hard
working labourer, you will be more than a snatch
for "Captain Rock." There is undoubtedly much
difficulty in employing the Irish labourer to advan-
tage, he is unfortunately not disposed to "give a fair
day's work for a fair day's wages," and he is totally
unfit to be entrusted with the ownership of the
smallest allotment of land ; but let him be employed
under your directions merely to cultivate the land,
without having any ownership in it, let the crop be
his own after deducting a fair rent for the land, and.
the value of the seed and manure furnished to himb
you, you will then find that an acre of land so culti-
vated will, besides yielding a fair rent, leave a sur-
plus of production sufficient to take the cultivator
from off the relief list of next year, besides giving
him employment for three months at least of his
waste time.—l have the honour to be, my Lords
and Gentlemen, your obedient servant, S.