The Sun.
London, England, 1847-12-21 00:00:00

cAIISES OF IRISH DISTRESS AN D
IRISH DISTURBANCES.

TO T 11.6;
EDITOR 01: THE SUN.
SlR,—Enclosed is a ...I"'r to Sir Robert Peel, which
`bind in your paper. We
you will oblige us by pu...1'.6
wish it to appear in your et, 'lump.,, because you have
always advocated the cause of our people, and have
ever " tempered justice with merge
Pee. 1847.

TIPPERARY.

TO SIR ROBERT PREI;.
At a period when the voice of every mt.n is raised
.
against us, having full confidence in the integOY of your
intentions, and in the desire of the present race of
British statesmen to repair as far as practicable the evils
of two centuries of misrule, we address ourselves to you;
and in confiding our cause to your hands we entreat
that when you speak of " what we are," you do not
forget " what made us what we are"—that long series of
oppression which has driven the remnant of a faithful
people to the lowest depths of human degradation. We
confess that we are now poor and ignorant ; we admit
that some of us, impatient under our sufferings, have
committed acts of wickedness which we all deplore;" we
proclaim to the world that we are willing to labour,
that we occupy a fertile land, whose natural resources
are sufficient to maintain twice our number, and yet we
are idle, we are naked, we are starving, we are hopeless.
flow has this come to pasz? To arrive at the cause it,
is necessary to go back two centuries; when Cromwell
bad annihilated the regal power' in England between
1640 and 1650, he pursued royalty to its last refuge in
Ireland, at the head of an overwhelming;force composed
of the dregs of the English and Scote.4 People, and
rapidly sultjugated the entire nation, wht.'n, knowing
that although he had crushed their power he could
neither eradicate their loyalty nor their religksqn, this
politic and ruthless man determined to destroy their
nationality; and being also desirous to rid himself ote an
army for which he had no further use, and whose rettml
to England he dreaded, he forced the Irish people into
the western districts, and confiscating every acre of
Irish prcpertay in twenty-two counties, drove the ancient
nobility anti gentry, with their families, and the
descendants of the early English invaders, who had by
that time become iden::fied with them, either as ruined
men from the country, of into the wild and barren
regions of the west, and redis.l:l;buted the whole of the
forfeited lands amongst bis army thus by one act an
honoured and ancient aristocracy wea displaced by a
fanatic and barbarous soldiery. At the Restoration,
while the English estates were for the most pu-t restored
to the original proprietors, the soldiers of tht, Protec-
torate were confirmed in their usurpations in Irelb. nd,as
;rem their number and power it was considered ttn w'r
to disturb them. And an ungrateful king, to whom %.
Irish people had been faithful through every change o.
fortune, on the 27th of September, 1662, signed tnt Act
of Parliament which made beggars of a nation, aticf
transferred the patrimony of those whose fathers bss
died in the defence of his dynasty to his fathers'a•
murderers. _ _

The new proprietors of Ireland, accustomed to the
license of a camp, habituated to a life of rapine and tu-
muli, without principle, scorning and trampling upon
justice, and incapable of cultivating the arts of peace,
were of all men the least fitted to become the founders
of an aristocracy. They lived as in an enemy's country,
in every native they recognized a traitor ; and, fearing
that the voice of indignant Europe might at length
reach the hearts of the British people, they Contrived to
keep the English Government in a constent state of
alarm by false reports of conspiracies and ebelhons
until they succeeded in forcing themselves betw,"ee the
Irish people and their king, and in having them, elves
considered as the sole preservers of Ireland to .the
British Crown ; possessed of every place of power, the,"
tainted the fountains of justice, and one penal enact-
ment followed the other , each surpassing its predecessor*
in barbarity, until they quickly succeeded in effrteing tfte
last trace of our ancient nobility and in debasing out
people.
The present race of Irish landowaers, indebted foe
their existence to an unjust and bloody revolution,
descended from these men, from whom they inherit, with
their estates, a contempt of the people, a disregard of
the duties attached to the possession of property in all
civilized nations, and a spirit of oppression and injustice,
which two hundred years may have tempered, bat has
not removed. In their want of sympathy with the people,
their improvidence, their repugnance to residing in tb.e
country, their hankering after England, and their cone
stant expectation that the Government will continue to
relieve them from all the duties and responsibilities of
their position, who cannot identify the pampered
descendants of the foreign soldier? With an her:4l-
- instinct, they would still keep the remnant of our'
people " hewers of wood and drawers of water." Dis-
daining the productive arts, the commerce and manufac—
tures of the country under these men have languiebed
and died ; grinding exactions and unjust restrictiovi
have prevented the formation of a middle class, who
alone can employ the people and develop the resources
of a country ; the shuttle of the neglected peasant
weaver is unable to contend with the thousand spindles
of the Manchester manufacturer, fostered by an
enlightened " and beloved" aristocracy. Without a
market for his labour he is driven to the land for the
means of life; but there is compeilion also : every one
sTishes to live—all want land. He sets for its owner,
the descendant of Cromwell's soldier is he ; but too
ignorant and indolent to manage his estate, he has
leased it to a second party, the second to a thit .1. the
third to a fourth, the fourth has subdivided it
smaller portions; he is willing to sublet one if these to
the peasant weaver, but it must be on his own terms.
What are they? An annual rent equal to the entire
value of the crop in the best harvest, with power at any
time, after the first twelve months, to pull down his cabin
over his head if he does not pay this rent, and turn him
houseless into a ditch to die. The peasant hesitates, he
sees destruction before him ; others are entreating for
the empty cabin and plot of potato ground on ;my terms.
He fears to lose it—the wife of his bosom and his children
are starving. His present necessities blind his eves to
the future ; reckless of consequences, he subscrae's to
the terms and gets possession ; his family are under' a
roof; for the moment he is saved. The seasons roll on; he'
labours on his spot of earth, the harvest is gathered;
but his family have consumed a portion of its produce,
and he cannot complete his engagement with his land-
lord, he falls behindhand ; the next year the harvest is a
failure, he can pay but little, and falls still further
behindhand. The driver comes and seizes his pig, the
furniture of his little cabin—all is sold! He becomes
desperate, but he still clings to life, to the handful of
earth; he struggles through the next winter; the Al-
mighty God sees fit to visit the land with an universal
blight, his ground yields no return for his labour, pesti-
lence and famine stalk abroad,; the agent comes for his
rent, he can pay nothing. One morning the cabin is sur-
rounded bysoldiers, police, and drivers—in a few moments
it is level with the ground. He is alone, he sees his children
houseless and crouching to the winter's blast,—and, Sir
Hobert Peel, " he is what he is."

A VOICE FROM TIPPERARY.

COURT CIRCULAR.
Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wale;
Prince Alfred, the Princess Royal, and the Princess
Alice, took airings on Sunday in the pleasure grounds
and plantations of Osborne.

The lion. and Rev. C. Leslie Courtenay left Os-
borne yesterday.
Sir James Clark has taken his departure tsom.
Osborne.
Her Majesty and Prince Albert, accOmpanied by
the royal children, and attended by the Ladies and
Gentlemen of the royal suite, will, it is expected,
leave Osborne this day for Windsor Castle.

His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge
visited the Duchess of Gloucester yesterday, at
Gloucester House.

a t At h
eCabFoirneei
nC.
oo
ffiu tic ce
ta sw
ahse ladt tye
ne sdteedr dbayy
La fo tredr njooohnn,
Russell, the Marquis of Lansdowne, Sir George
Grey, Viscount Palmerston, Earl Grey, the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, the Earl of Auckland, Sir
John Hobhouse, Lord Campbell, the Marquis of
Clanricarde, Viscount Morpeth, and the Right Hon.
T. B. Macaulay. The Council sat two hours.
Mr. Charles Buller, Chief Poor-law Commissioner,
had an interview with the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer yesterday, at his official residence in Downing-
street.
The Duke of Wellington attended the early service
in the Chapel Royal, St. James's, on Sunday. The
Rev. Dr. Wesley officiated and preached the sermon.
The Hon. and Rev. Baptist Noel preached the ser-
mon at the daily service. The Duke and Duchess of
Beaufort, and the Marquis of Winchester were among
the nobility present.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.
TATTERSALL'S.—YESTERDAY.
WAXEFIELD STEEPLECHASE.
100 even laid on the field agst The Chandler and the
Glaucus gelding (Wolverhampton), and 4 to 1 agst The
Chandler.

LrVERPOOL STEEPLECHASE.
15 to 1 agst Mr. Brettel's The Curate
20 to 1 agst Mr. Barry's Sir Arthur—taken
20 to 1 agst Mr. Moseley's Richard the First—taken
TWO THOUSAND GUINEAS STAKES.
5 to 1 agst Mr. Mostyn's Surplice—taken
DERBY.
11 to 2 agst Scott's lot—taken to 2001.
40 to 1 agst Mr. Greville's Rosslyn—taken to 100/.
40 to 1 agst Mr. Nunn's The Fowler—taken

CHESTER CUP.
1,000 to 15 agst Mr. Disney's Keleshe—taken two or
three times.

DEATH OF HER ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCESS PAUL
OF WITETEMBERG.—Her Royal Highness Princess Paul
of Wurtemberg died on the evening of the 13th inst.,
at Bamberg, after a short illness. The Queen of Bavaria,
her sister, and the Princes Edward and Frederick of
Saxe-Altenberg, were present at her death-bed.
POST-OFFICE NOTICE.—The Brazilian Post-office
having consented to withdraw the charge which it had
imposed on newspapers from the United Kingdom de-
livered in Brazil, on and atter the Ist of January next,
no charge will be made in the United Kingdom on
British newspapers posted in accordance with the usual
restrictions. addressed to Brazil, when conveyed by
be
been del
miveardeedff for
thefr m o c
opnovs
etaygaen
packet; and in like manner Brazilian newspapers ad.
will
dressed to the United Kingdom, and brought to this
packet,
country by
Arrangements
*cc,
of mails to Madeira and the Western Coast of Africa,
and the mails for these stations will be henceforth made
up on the last day of each month.