The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-01 00:00:00

S J N
•
SMALL MEASURES FOR IRE
TO THE EDITOR OF THE sS'Et
SIR,—At a moment of almost unparalleled,/ dare', ley, 7---71
when the lives and properties of millions of th'eepeeiple of-eel=
this great empire hang, with a painful importance upcai :4 kt
the measures of the Government, and upon ilie'fiat of
the Legislature—when the heart must be permitted
to bring her dictates to the wisdom of the head—may so
humble an individual as I tun he permitted, through
your kind courtesy, to offer a few remarks upon the all.
important subject of legislating for Ireland, to bring ray.
feeble taper to the blaze of light which is now, through
the columns of an unrivalled press, thrown over her
wants and her misfortunes; and to crave your indulgence
while I take a short entice of the ungenerous tone which
has, on this subject, been adopted by what I may call
the great history of " the 7itnes." Feeling, Sir, with
other Irishmen, very grateful for much that this influen-
tial journal and its talented commission have done, from
time to time, to rouse our Lisle landlords to a sense of
lat,h.sn,!ltiridedudtbiteiaatasinttedri
snr tossfetpneo,„nte)sicim,btiplpiettilitel:e%otifiou
dtt;l.)7soirtrilsplaoiciwtainohnafi,tnmdanaiydn
these sentiments little to pollute, nothing to justify, the
recent mast unfair, violent, and sw eepr:g attacks, in that
paper, upon Irish landlords, but am very reluctantly
obliged to Juin in the alini,st univer:al feeling of painful
indignation with v.hich these statements have been re-
ceived. No or,e is more aware of the high, and often
onerous. nuties which the press has to perform in-wield-
ilia for the pireelic good the enormous power
which its own talent, and public confidence, may
place in its hands—no ore more blaiol.l3 to bear
humble testimony to the wisdom. moderation,
and justice, in ‘shich it has generally upheld this sacred
trust, no one more ready to admit that where strong feel-
ings are aroused, it is difficult to stag the pen of an
honest and enthusiastic writer. Still I would ask in all
courtesy. if, while the dark clouds of a mysterious and
deep eftliction, still hug over this ill-fated country,
whils the hand of the Almighty has let loose upon it,
the withering. scourge of famine arid of pestilence, while
we know not where his mercy may place a limit to our
sufferings, if, it is only, Sir, at such a season the Times
can strike with such cruel anti unrelenting blows, the
already overtaxed, overtoiled, and overabused Irish
gentry ? Why is it that in this instance as in that of
the Court Martial, in the seventh Hussars, last Septem-
ber, we find the bulky influence of this journal
thrown so reedit) and so recklessly into the scale of
public prejudice and misconception—defeating only the
poor ambition of the writer? Colonel Whyte and Lord
St. Laurence, the Adjutant of that distinguished regi-
me3it, in the strict and proper performance of a most
paiefal duty, carried with them in a gnat degree the
sympathy ot a right-minded arid intelligent public, when
the Times assailed them and made that feeling universal.
My present object, however, in addressing you, Sir, is
not so much to offer a feeble vindication of my gallant
brother officers of the British army, or to Irish landlord;
as to express my crateful admiration of the manner in
which my talented countrymen have met their ungenerous
assailants; they have replied to empty words by energetic
action, they have met irritation and anger with
forbearance and manly temper, they have borne down
prejudice and opposition, by an eloquent and earnest
vindication of their character and of their rights ; they,
have appealed in enlightened argument, in a high spirit
of confidence and courtesy, to a noble public, and they
have been met with universal sympathy and respect.
Their time, their money, and their health, are freely
'acrificed to relieve their starving fellow-countrymen,
and God will bless them for it. Most truly have they
proved themselves worthy to cope with the great and
afflicting exigencies of their unhappy country—they
have fairly won the admiration of a world, and can well
afford to pass by such statements as some of those in the
Times and House of Commons, in the consoling convic-
tion that such must ever carry with them their own best
refutation, their own most complete condemnation.
Having thus performed a pleasing duty towards the great
Irish party—a noble confederacy in a noble cause—you
will, Sir, I am sure, permit me once more to assure you
of the regret I feel in being obliged thus strongly to ex-
press my disapproval of the unmeasured length to which
this paper has carried its condemnation of Irish land-
lords, a vast number of whom are not to be surpassed in
the civilised world for every feeling which can adorn
their position or benefit mankind ; enlightened, gene-
rous, and humane, the condition of their properties best
attest their worth. While I must now join in deep dis-
approbation of another class of Irish proprietors, from
whose " penny wise," short-sighted views, reckless or
rapacious conduct, spring up, in my opinion, the chief
sources of Irish discontent, poverty, and outrage. A
man comes to one of these gentlemen with
400 t. in his pocket, to take a farm of a hundred
acres. The really needy, or habitually im-
provident landlord, asks him what fine he is
prepared to pay him, as there are many who wish for the
farm, and he cannot afford to let it without one. The man
offers one, or even two hundred, but the previous infor-
mation of an agent or bailiff gets from him finally the
third hundred pounds, and he goes into the farm a san-
guine but a ruined man. Glad to get a respectable wife
and family settled, the poor hard-working fellow struggles
en fur years, perhaps in want, privation, nod in waning
hope, to inevitable beggary, when the exasperated land-
lord enters the house with an execution in his band, and
drives out upon a cold world an intelligent, respectable,
used industrious, but heart-broken man, involuntarily to
swell the number or those homeless and forlorn beings
who goad and sting our nob tippy country into madness,
misery, and crime, while the wretched landlerd loses is
the non-payment of his rant, soil deterioration
of his land, four times the situ for which
'he blindly awn ti el perk p, an entire family ;
Al the high rewlr .s his posi:ion, aid all the best
fi line, of his, hoer. In t sir. and in small holdings,
het,.~ the yearly value of 10/, lies the master evil which
afflicts this country, and moil this class of Irish pro-
prietors recognise their duty and their interest to be
identical with the great principle of " Live and let live,"
we can hope for huh. to emend, little to amcloriate.
How great is the contrast, how different the results on
the properties of such landlords as Lord Fur uham, Lord
Erne, laird Besteirtiugh, Mr. Sharman Crawford, Lord
Deron, Lord George lltil, Lord Abercorn, Mr. Fortes-
cue, Sir A. Brink, eel. Bruen, and thank God, an
hundred others. Here you will see the reciprocal
duties of landlord and tenant wisely and warmly
recognised. Here you e iie see tnen protected, contented,
and happy, whose sole ambition is in all things to evince
their gratitude to their letidliird, and to hand down to
their children a fair farm and a fair fame. When such
teelines spring from the heart, you tray feel assured that
the morel and social condition of that people is sound.
Which is best ? I would ask of Irish landlords, the
shot of the midnight assassin, the howl of the
starving incendiary around them, or the long loud
shouts of joy which welcome back to his home the
friend, the benefactor, and the guide? Surely, it must
be such sounds as these is hide make the happy man
happier, the good man better ; it must be such sounds
as these which open wide the fountains of the heart,
and sends the glad current of life hounding in joy and
triumph over the cares and crosses of a fickle world. I
agree very much with Mr. Hamilton, that it is a series
more of n little measures " which we require than of
great and sweeping changes ; but as few have pointed
any such out, or seem willing to do so, I am sure I will
be allowed to offer one or two suggestions which may at
ttll events lead to a better and more practical considera-
tion of this important subject. In the first place, I cer-
tainly think an "absentee tax" would be only a fair
instalment of the compensation due to this country for
the money yearly drawn and spent out of it ; and, al-
though I also concur with Sir G. Wood, that some of
the absentee landlords are among the very best, and
might naturally enough strongly object to be thus taxed
to swell the public Exchegeatteatrni,edc.alaunst,deiltichoeatntfsa:gn_cedsrs,
f so or
draining,
itraisedyou
to be spent on their own several estates, in giving pre-
miumsfrostra ngreen
n de fencing,rols
a rnse
will anihilate their opposition ; for this reason—that
although these enlightened landlords do at
this moment spend, and have for years done so,
large sums in the aevancement of agneulture and
improvement of their estates, they will have simply to
withhold such portion of that suns as may be equivalent
to the new tax._ They arc thus no sufferers in their in-
come, and all their best objects are equally attended to,
while the like benefits are compulsorily conferred on the
poor tenants of the thoughtless, the reckless, and the
improvident, and to give them still a direct and pleasing
interest in the benefit accruing to their estates, they
could point out six names of their most respectable
farmers to the nearest deputy-lieutenant of the county,
who should nominate three of these as judges for the
year, for the distribution of such prizes as the tax on the
property may yield In the next place, Sir, I propose
that money be at once, and for many years to come,
perhaps, advanced in loan from the Consolidated Fund,
for the purpose of giving a stimulus to manufactures in
this issue for an over agricultural population," he
as t
talented Member for Dublin, Mr. Gregory, justly terms
them ; • e
thee- are, indeed, what we really require,
and
ithreel4muidlE, the
esteam-engine, the loom, the print work,
manufactory—these elements of wealth,
George Bentinck, and
and manly sympathy of Lord .
I did fear
with ardent best wishes for his successtn his measure
that there were some points bringing
it before the
in the moment and manner .of
objected to by the
which would cause it to be
country,
situated as Lord
chief Minister of the Crown,
although warmly and gratefully recognising
present
he proposed must be imperfect., unless aided and
kind
mwehternomthitsheomut,laayceoismdpualnyiecdertbiy-
illustrated by the important auxiliary one of encourage.
evaci:sl)panariyoinmpliiouesssisyme.ef
dtporilfotehif
tiipotimihl,aaesvnnier
tlafehnorceueo nearest
nb adoptedethe rag is:
—When
interest and
John Russell is, and I still think every enactment of the
e
dfftmmint
eihueloeue,
certi-
fied, 31::t
reb(so)i
pyunetraosr :e receiving
certain
smelt ncteya:tuonnihmsntvui
:tiotopnlsaliaogc company,
furnished
security.h,prr:
eeti
afiltsiaolass,l yradhl
themselveswi
et
fhoh cttld,
safensmnci
somethinghu
raisingalways
kotyttn.attestedettihlhl
ibleesaysffg:oeoc iecrlanrul
mane-
factories, generous
a noodthrserd
egi
Tailheienadeciviu--
property so far completed,
everlastingn
impoverished
country
some in thsums
advancing an equal sum to that already expended. In
doing so a generous and enlightened Ministry justly
the happy medium, through the high influence of which
surplus English capital, a
lbleschoamr
share
becoming
in return for the hundreds of thou-
sands annually drawn from poor Ireland, and squandered
in rich and happy England ; and for the repayment
of which I can imagine no better security than what is
here proposed. I would earnestly recommend, also, that
money he advanced on the same priUciple, as nearly as
can be, to encourage the construction of a capable and
strong description of vessel, and thus make deep sea-
fishing w hat it is not, and ought to be, a great source
of national profit and employment. The next point I
consider most essential is, to infuse a more healthy
tone into the rural population of the country, by stimu-
lating industry and self-reliance, by the gradual aboli-
tion of small holdings, and by a better and more com-
pact allotment of tillage land to farmers, all nearly of
which may be accomplished through a wise system of
encouragement to eaugratiori, and which might be the