The Sun.
London, England, 1847-02-02 00:00:00

the munificence of the mining company, with which h e
was connected, these people would have starved, and - •
they absolutely laid in bed from Saturday eight r,ll
Monday morning, with money in their pocket's, until le
to obtain food. And why ?—because there was
no food in the country. There was ain't! er
subject to which the Noble Lord had turned his
attention. The Noble Lord had estimated the waste
lands of Ireland at 4,600,000 acres, which he propose
reclaim. Mr. Griffiths estimates these lands at 6,290,000 *,
of which he considered 3,725,000 capable' of improve-
ment ; but of these 2,400,000 acres were only fit to be
reclaimed for coarse pasturage for sheep, leaving only
about 1,425,000 which were fit to be reclaimed for corn-
purposes. Then what did the Noble Lord expect to
gain from these waste lands? What was the evidence
on the subject which had
,been laid before the commit.-
tee? Why, the Government had had sufficient experi-
ence of the reclamation of waste lands on their model ferns
in the county of Cork. They had a model farm at a
place called Cobellowkeith, not a very harmonious name
truly. This farm was taken in King William's time, and
in 1836 Mr. Griffiths had estimated the returns. By his
account the attempt,had been made to reclaim the worst
description of soil. It was called flow bog, and was, lin :'
fact, neither more nor less than a sort of loose mut '`
The cost of reclaiming this land is 9/. 9s. 101, and
the whole of the value of the returns had been •
25/. 12s. 6d. in four years, giving an average of a v
loss of 1/. 9s. Bd. per acre. He would now take
the next kind of soil. This was a more compact
kind of soil. The cost of reclaiming this soil was
61. 3s. per acre, and the returns from it were on all
average, and the whole of the produce in four years
was 221. ss. Bd., showing a loss of 1/. 17s. 9d. per acre.
He was one who thought, that for the good of the
commonwealth that any man's estate ought to be en'
tered upon and taken possession of; but it must be an
extreme case which justified such a step, and he
thought that when this money was to be taken from the
people of England to reclaim this land, he thought that
it required no little consideration; and if they were to
take this model example he thought they would
hesitate to expend it on these waste lands. By Mr'
Griffiths's report, the whole of the returnfrom the model
farm was, during three years, only 23/. 9s. Bd. When
the Noble Lord came down to the House and talked, of
reclaiming these 4,600,000 acres of land did he consider
what was the worth of that land. He had calculated
the money to be expended on these 4,600,000 acres, and
found that it would amount to about 4s. an acre, which
was to be expended on land worth about half aecroWn
an acre ; he never knew a greater bubble,_ or had ever
heard a more stupendous attempt on the part of all
Government to impose upon the House. Then, with
respect to another subject, the Noble Lord seemed to
conceive that small holdings were a great benefit 1•01;;.
Ireland. How many holdings did the Noble Lord in-
tend to divide these 6,000,000 acres into. For his =''.•
own part he believed the small holdings to be one ~
of the greatest evils to which Ireland was subject,'
and if the Noble Lord had ever read the blue book to
which he had-so often referred, and which contained the
evidence taken by Lord Devon's commission ; if. he-
could take the Noble Lord into the county of Armaga
he would show him that the prosperity of a countrf
was not in proportion to the ratio of population to
acreage surface, but in the ratio of the capital engaged
on that surface. The Noble Lord seemed to be quite
unaware of the state of Ireland, and seemed to conceive '
that it would be wisest to employ the people in the
cul-
tivation of corn. He would tell the Noble Lord that the
potato was the only produce that could be obtained in
sufficient quantity to feed the people, and that serial
produce sufficient for the purpose never could be °I?.:
tained to support the people. And if he could take Su-
R. Kean and Mr. Kingcu de into Ireland, he
would show that it was so. He had himself :
great number of cottier tenantry, and be had
been obliged to pay the rates for them all. The Noble
Lord at the head of the Foreign Department, who was
one of the best landlords in Ireland, could have told bins
if they had had any conversation with him in the cabinet'
that on one of his estates of 600 acres, the holdings
were divided into only an acre and a half each, on which
at least a population of 2,000 was located, and that be
never received 1001. from the estate in his life, and the!
on a nominal rental of 4,000/. he did not receive 404
They could not get food of the land, much less pay either
e
their rent or their rates: In another place on an estate
of 212 acres, there were 7-00 people-domiciled, and the
establishment of the soup kitchens would have as littleee
effect in alleviating their conditions as the other mess" d
which had been proposed. This Bill was only print!)
on the 29th of January last, and there would be a stroll
objection to it until the people of Ireland had had
opportunity of considering its provisions. It reminded
of the account given of the cholera by a fry rti;
of his, who said it was a disease which began :iv nor
death ; and if the Noble Lord proposed to give outdo
relief to the aged, the sick, and the destitute under his
new poor-law, there would be no objection ; but iflie.
persevered in giving relief to able-bodied labourers. viL,
out the workhouse test, it would be bringing ,T?l.evia
introducing a system that would commence wilnug the
violence, and revolution. It would be deettYLantrf,
last spark' of self-respect in the' minds of thteliility of
and depriving them hereafter of any Pr° d take the
Lord
helping themselves. Would the Noble
consequences of this system ? The whole. of the
estimated at 2,500,u0ye
relief in th
rentalnum be irn
.171,1 aendw destitutea s
poor estimatedweartelO ,O 00,0001., while the
persons, and as he believed the Irish rate of
poor-houses was rated at is. 9d. each, the consequenel
would be that the cost, as he had calculated it, would
be 11,379,0001. This would not only absorb the whole
of the rental in Ireland. but a great portion of the rental
of England also ; and he thought a stronger argument
could not be adduced to the landlords of England Pith
this was. They wished to put the screw on the lam,-
lord's of Ireland, and he believed they were right ; hat
they might put the screw too far, and it should be reCOl'
lected that the landlord only paid half the rates, and the
tenant farmer the other. If they were to have the peer"
law of England in Ireland let them have it altogethef+
for the landlords would prefer that to this bit-by-k.r
system ; but if they did do so let them recollect the titi=.;
her of tenant farmers in England. If they introduce
the present poor-law they would have to
vance at least four or five millions more—(Hear)-411.0 ;
of what use was a poor-law in the time of famine.
1547, within three years after the pet favourite of.the
Hon. Member, the 43d of Elizabeth had been passed,
dearth occurred in the country, and it was universellyof.
allowed that the people were starving from the wanto,
food. Eight years alter that another famine hadcurred, and a Committee of that House had sat to ido
quire into the causes, and they had unanimously ulaor
a report that it was utterly beyond the power of a Pees
law to prevent the sufferings of the people. Bosco°. re
it then obviate the present calamity of Ireland. Tobin
was another great omission in the plan of the 14°,0
Lord. He would not speak of emigration, for tube
would be to set the whole country against any man wfor
mighthave adopted a system of wholesale colonisation,_,e
,he country, and he was surprised when he saw so 11°'
a man as the Lord Advocate among the Government
l
titan who had turned his attention so much to the !,1/ 0
ject—he was surprised that he had not been consulted
05,.
this important point. He was not for adopting anY gder
less system of colonisation, for he would place it un
the direction of the minister's religion, and have it
managed that no evil should result to the colonists, ""
:hat a gnat benefit should be obtained for the countrL
['here was one other great omission in the speech of the
Noble Lord, for lie conceived that no system for the
re-
generation of Ireland would be complete which did Ve
altogether obviate the evils of that system.—(Hear.)
measure could be successful that did not entirely all
the condition of the agricultural classes, and
away with the small holdings in that countrP
tor it bad destroyed the agricultural labourers as a claw
The Noble Lord complained that the Irish peasant well;
work in London or Liverpool, but would not work in
Ireland. What was the reason of that ? why, becall,sje
in England his work was required, and was well pal
while in Ireland he sought in vain for employment, 14
whets he got it, he was badly paid. There was ~ n „
more able, a more industrious labourer in the world than
the Irish peasant, but in Ireland it was useless to atteniP
to work.—(Hear, hear.) The Hon. Member for
Limerick (Mr. S. O'Brien) complained of the absente_.e
landlords, but there was a much more mischievous ell
than that, and that was the class of nominal owners °A
property, men who were at the mercy of some agent, an
who could neither help themselves or be of use to
body else. This was a class which ought to be got rid 4: ' .
for if they really meant to improve the condition of ;et
land, they must go to the root of the evil, do e• A
AO.
with this effete system of granting loans, and
the whole system of real property in Ireland. -1‘"
they must also alter the system of government in,
Ira
land. They must either do away with their Lord -141. '„;se-
tenant, or make him a king in reality; and they
take steps also for Parliament meeting at stated 5060 n
in the Castle of Dublin. If the Lord Lieutenant was t°
be an efficient agent, he must be made a member 0-f t he•
Cabinet. It was of no use to have a person in Ireland .
sitting behind a cumbrous lumbering vehicle, in idle in;
efficiency, while another person in a distant place sv.n,
i'
driving them roughly over the stones. Then, again,
there must be none of that bitterness of dispositionetum,t
acerbity on the score of religion, that odium theolorc
which
that forgets the charity which believeth all thing''
all things, which is first peaceable, then pure, and
which
thinketh no evil ; for if they did not look .
s, the
union, however binding it might appear could,mor
tojto be t,lo
with religious differences, never prove anything
than a party difference. It was a spirit that would roll
ibnaetkhethwt
'orweatitoerfathoef
" Nor deal damnation round the land
foelreland for its centa-
pcoiveitl,ishaetiwonartnoedthtehle6mt—h century, but,
This country owed a vast debt to
notbe cancelled
and it was toby
centu-
ries of nsisgevernment,
compensation only. It could only be
On each he deems his
a mere pecuniary comperes
pa.ssing a law for the relief of
ne comprehensive spirit, free
Ireland in a wise,
leraece, and parochial bigotry.--
from sectarian iuto
cancelled by that
ifalrogues,ea

(Cheer s.) wished to address a few words to the
-absorbing topic, and he did not think he
could better accomplish the duty he had imposed upon himself
Mr. S. 0
than by following the topics in the order they were adverted te
by the Noble' Lord at the head of the Government, when he
addressed the House the otl,er eveniug. The Noble Lord, 113
the first place, referred to those melancholy statistics with Bthßis all-absorbing iB
House upon I
re-
gard to Ireland which had lattirly been brought under the cosi-.
sideration of Parliament; but the Noble Lord did not appear
to draw the obvious deduction from them that they were the
result of misrule.—( Hear, hear.) He would, however, reserve
that part of the subject till another occasion, and come at once
to the question of distress. Now it was not fair to say there
had been a loss of so many acres of potatoes,
which, wilier ordinary circumstances, amounted te a certain
quantity; but it was their duty to calculate what was the
amount of corn which it would be necessary to receive, in orde
to replace that loss of potatoes. Proceeding upon such a Cal-
culation, it appeared to him that the loss of potatoes could only.
be replaced by a certain quantity of corn. Now, the loss sn!.
tamed by Ireland, by the destruction of the potato-crop, could
not be computed at less than twenty or thirty millions sterling,
and he asked the House in what way that loss was to be made_
up, At all events, it was gaits clear that the