The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-15 00:00:00

A moral revolution has utterly subverted the social
abric of Ireland : a new edifice—an edifice based upon
centuries of awful experience, and proportioned to the
greater enlightenment of the Legislature of these times
—has to be erected upon the ruins caused by that revo-
lution. It was from the agony of prophecy that were born
the books of Sibylline wisdom ; and it is from the very
torments of her present condition that Ireland is ex-
tracting the sureties of her future happiness. The old
and accursed system, by which one entire moiety of her
population was continued in a perpetual state of des.
titution, has been slowly undermined by ages of in-
creasing woe—it has tottered to its foundations from
the shocks administered by the late visitations 01
DIVINE PROVIDENCE—its irrevocable doom was pro
nounced on Friday evening in the speech of Lord JOHN
RUSSELL. Richly as the proprietary of Ireland has
deserved a retribution for the manifold wrongs
by which they have reduced their country to a state
of continual wretchedness, and rendered it at pe.
riodical intervals subject to the deathful scourge 01
famine, the Government is effecting the redemption of
the innocent million without sacrificing the interests
of the culpable few. Ireland has hitherto been
abandoned to the discretion of her landowners. Par-
titioned into enormous estates by the questionable
munificence of successive monarchs, from ELI-
ZABETII downwards to WILLIAM - awarded
to adventurers and loyalists in the way of either re-
compense or bounty Ireland has, from the re-
motest periods of her history, presented us only w.th
one monctonous and deplorable spectacle of suffering.
A cottier population has been multiplied on her soil
to an extent that foreboded, from its corn
mencement, some great catastrophe like the one
in which she is even now involved. An
overwhelming majority of her community has existed
for many generations under the ban of this terrible
alternative—either to subsist by sufferance under the
murderous extortion of her landlords, or to infest the
island like a vast army of " gaberlunzies." By this
evil system the maladies of Ireland have been
frightfully multiplied, and under its shadow
mendicity has become the national character-
istic. So enormously had these woes accu-
mulated, and so entirely had the poison of the
scheme eaten into the very substance of the Irish
constitution,, that it required nothing less than an un-
paralleltd crisis to effect the renovation of her decayed
powers, and the eradication of the numerous- diseases
preying upon her vitals. It required a crisis o
convulsions, for it is only by the throes of such a crisis
that abuses are destroyed en masse, and the whole phy-
sical and moral condition of a people renewed. Thai
crisis has arrived. Ireland has been stricken witl
starvation : her potato-grounds have become pits o:
vegetable corruption : her agriculture has been gene-
rally smitten by amysterious and destructive power:
millions of her people—millions accustomed at the
best times to fare meagerly and live upon the
doles of a precarious benevolence—have been visited
with famine and disease, and the utter deprivation
of all the ordinary means of obtaining employment.
Out of those abysses of affliction, however, are
emerging not merely their present redemption, but
their ultimate and permanent prosperity.
Government has not only advanced manfully
and generously to the salvation of the starving
peasantry, but it has had the courage and
the wisdom to conceive a scheme by the
operation of which the recurrence of all the miseries
formerly incidental to Ireland will be impossible.
By the imposition of local rates proportioned to the
local rental, the local destitution will henceforth re-
ceive a local provision. That is the secret of the
measures introduced to Parliament by the Ministry.
It is the secret of political economy and of legislative
charity. It is the secret of the poor-laws. Grievous
as has been the clamouring against the introduction
of a plan like this into Ireland, it is, nevertheless, to be
introduced at once, and to be universally applied. Is
there not in this determination of the Legislature a
forethought compatible with its reputation, a bold-
ness equivalent to its activity, a justice propor-
tioned to its extraordinary liberality ? Let any
man review the course pursued by the Government
since the commencement of the evils now rife in Ire-
land, let him consider how its generosity has vied in
its increase with the extension and development of
those evils, let him remember that whereas 30,000
only were at first employed on public works, the
number had risen, on the 27th of February
last, to no less than 708,228 ; that whereas
the amount expended upon relief works was in
September only 54,8781., it reached in February to
upwards of 944,000/. ; that arrangements were made
under its direction for the purchase of seed to the
value of 50,0001., and for the elevation of the provi-
sions in store to the extent of about 10,000 tons—let
him remember the ardour, and the energy, and the
incessant toil of the Legislature in behalf of Ireland
from the very opening of the session, and then de-
signate this Poor Relief (Ireland) Bill a rash Bill,
an onerous, or an injudicious Bill. The accusation
is impossible when the measure is considered in con-
nexion with the various arrangements making apart
from this proposition itself. The drainage plan, the recla-
mation of waste land, the improvements of the fisheries,
of the ports and of the harbours, would be severally
palliative—if the matter were considered as requiring
anything like palliation—of the introduction of the
poor-law into Ireland. But the introduction of that
system of relief to pauperism requires no extenuation,
as it is only synonymous with the rights of the Irish
peasantry.

Much might be written upon the philosophy of
the arguments in favour of the Government measure
which were advanced candidly and simply, and yet
most earnestly and most impressively, by Lord JOHN
RUSSELL. Such an extension of our remarks, how-
ever, is altogether superfluous. We shall turn from the
consideration of that speech to one of the numberless
schemes which have latterly presented themselves as cal-
culated to assist the Irish multitude in redeeming their
own condition. While the zeal of the agriculturists
is directed to the irrigation, and
,manuring, and
drainage of the soil fur the purposes of growing
crops of a nutritious and profitable character, it is
most desirable that one branch of agricultural enter-
prise shall not be overlooked. The branch to which we
allude is of a peculiarly national description, and its
prosperity would in a great measure ensure the
ptfahreentsupreesrryis f
ts3;emoof the agriculturists and the manu-
atilerelacnutvatiNoVn o flax. We
fmean,ax.
At
of co uprrsee:
sent we have not an oppportunity of entering
more into the enumeration of the advantages certain
to accrue from the culture of flax than by extracting

The Railway Commissioners have published their
first report, in pursuance of the resolution of the
House of Commons, " that all railway Bills shall be
referred to the Commissioners for their report to the
House upon certain points, previously to such Bills
being considered in Committees of the House." In
the present instance the projects of the South-Eastern
Company, are eight in number, five of which are placed
in Group No. 1, and the remainder in No. 3,
form the subjects of the report. The Commis •
sioners state the impossibility of their being respon-
sible for the correctness of the information that could
only be obtained from the companies themselves, but
at the same time do full justice to the company in
the present instance, for the great readiness they ex-
hibited in supplying the requisite answers to their
inquiries, and state that they see no reason to doubt
the accuracy of the information so given.
In consequence of the above resolution, every
existing company applying for fresh powers to Par-
liament, must render a complete account of its
stewardship, and show in what manner, arid to
what extent, it has executed the powers granted
by any former Act or Acts, and the report is to
state the opinion of the Commissioners thereon, and
also as to any special provisions with which it may in
any case be expedient to accompany the grant of any
new powers. A salutary check will thus be held over the
several companies, as there are few, indeed, that will
not have occasion to apply to the Legislature at some
time or another, and the expose to which they will
necessarily be subjected will prevent any abuse •of the
;rusts reposed in them. These inquiries, however,
appear, in the present report, to have been restricted
to the pecuniary affairs of the companies; ar,d we
should gladly have seen them further extended to the
nature and sufficiency of the accommodation provided
for the public, in return for the virtual monopoly con-
ceded to them, the el eapness and moderation of their
fares; tolls, and charges; the number of trains running
every day ; and whether any and what addktional
number would be required for the public convenience,
and the giving of every due facility to the traffic,
whether of passengers or goods, particularly
the number of third-class trains so dispe.tched ;
the speed attained, and the goodness of the carriages
provided for the poorer classes. We conceive that
information on all these points would be extremely
useful, and that special provisions may fairly be in-
troduced into the Acts of any of the comps pies who
have hitherto failed in their duty to the public, re-
quiring them to amend in any of these paz titulars
where they have been found in fault, before tiny new
powers are conceded.
The eight Bills now applied for will, if sanctioned
by the Legislature, enable the South-Eastern Corn.
' puny to raise additional capital to the e3:tent of
3,025,7501., and to borrow 1,007,8101., while by the
former Acts, twenty in number, it had p3vver to
raise a capital of 6,415,0331., and to borrow
2,218,710/. Of their capital money there :has been
received 4,290,0751. Bs. 10d., and 3,656,420 i. ss. re-
mains to be paid, showing that the company have
sustained a loss of 244,5042 Gs. 2c1., in conse-
quence, it is stated, of the forfeiture of sora a of the
ear:iest shares, which, when sold, in many ilistances
did not realise the amount of the calls due upo: a them.
Another singular circumstance connected si ith the
company is, that on various occasions they issued
to their proprietors shares of a lower pecuniary
amount than their original shares, but whic 5, never-
theless, were entitled to equal dividends. lWe find,
therefore, shares of 501., 251., 321., 331. Gs. Bd., and
301., all of which participate equally in the pr ofits of
the company. The Commissioners, however,. are of
opinion that, as these new shares were issued to the
holders of the original shares, the interests of Ova pub-
lic will not be materially affected by these tr ansac-
tions, provided that in any future calculati on of
profits, with a view either to the revision of fares,
or the sale of the railway, under the provisTnns of
the 7th and Bth Vic., c. 85, the different shin, as are
reckoned at the amounts at which they wt:i:e re-
spectively issued, and not as 501. shares, a s they
have been erroneously termed in share lists.. The
different dealings of the company, either by ti /ay of
purchase or loan, are set forth, and a particu4lar re-
ference is made to the purchase of Folkstone Har-
bour, which, if the transaction were now pendi t ,g, or
if the arrangements were to be authorised by :any of
the present Bills, the Commissioners would ti: ink it
their duty to report specially on. They now„ how-
ever, only allude to it as an example of a trans action
to which in future the attention of Parliament ought
to he specially directed. The Commissionersi most
justly reprobate in the strongest mane er a
custom which has extensively prevailed, and • which
may be considered as having received the tacit per-
mission of Parliament, and for which, therefor •e, no

peculiar blame is ascribable to the company. It is
the custom of directors signing the subscriptioz con-
tracts for large sums on the understanding tho. it is
solely on behalf of the company, and that the y are

not to be called on for the sums for - which

they appear liable upon their contracts. Troi i the

Commissioners state to be a violation of the real

spirit of the standing orders, although it may be con-

sidered a technical compliance therewith, and w,e _fully

admit the sufficiency of the reasons adduced foir that

opinion : they also question the propriety of corn pa-
_ _ _

nies making the Parliamentary deposit out of funds

_ .
authorised to be raised for other purposes.
We would gladly have seen some allusion to the