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

Obrellilktifll

LONDON, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 184

The returns moved for last night by the Earl of
DIOUNTCASHEL, in the House of Lords, had for their
object the attaining of some degree of certainty as to
the amount of encumbrances affecting Irish estates.
The melancholy fact of the onerous character of the
burdens, the heavy interest payable by the Irish land-
lords as a body, the sad result of their own or their
predecessors' extravagances and imprudence, does not
require the confirmation of official returns to obtain
easy credence. It is a well-known fact that from
five to six millions of pounds sterling are required to
keep down the annual interest of the encumbrances
affecting real property in Ireland, which, as the
average interest of money in that country may be
reckoned at five per cent. per annum, would show from
one hundred to one hundred and twenty millions
sterling as the amount of debts, the repay-
ment of which is secured on the land of
that country. We do not think that the Noble Lord
would have made the sad reality more certain, if he
had obtained the information he required. In the
first place, he would only have the rental of the lands
which are already under the control of the Court of
Chancery, but he should not thereby be enabled to
state what portion of the rental was applicable to the
purposes of the present owners, after providing for
the payment of the annual charges; and, secondly, he
would know nothing of the cases where the proprietor
still received his own rents, and devoted a large por-
tion thereof to the satisfaction of the accruing interest
on the charges; where the encumbrancers were satisfied
to leave the collection in his hands without having re-
course to the machinery of the Court of Chancery.
Whatever legislation may be contemplated on the
facts desired to be proved by those returns may
fairly be introduced on the universally-admitted
state of things.
Perhaps, among the many causes that have contri-
buted to the lamentable condition of our sister king-
dom, few have had a greater effect in producing that
result than the embarrassments and pecuniary diffi-
culties of the proprietors of the soil, coupled with the
strict settlements and entails, and the other laws by
which the free disposal and transfer of property in
land was fettered and restrained. The apparent pos-
sessor was not really the owner, nor could he deal
with the property in that capacity. The nominal
owner of extensive districts and wide-spread domains
had a large and showy rent-roll, but in reality a small
income. He was little better than the agent, the trustee
of others. He could not maintain his position in
society on the small balance remaining for his use ;
after providing for the necessary payments, he found
debts accumulating which he could only satisfy by
insuring his life and mortgaging his estate for life.
His own necessities prevented him from expending
any sum of money on improvements, no matter how
beneficial they might be, or how ample the return of
which they might give reasonable expectation. He
could not sell or dispose of any portion of the property,
no matterhow greatly its alienation might enhance the
value of the remainder. In fact, although differing in
name, he differed little in character from the middle-
man, the monster grievance of Ireland. Like him, he
was obliged, by any; means, to increase his present
rental, to extort the highest possible amount from
the occupiers, to let to the person who
would assure the highest rent, without re-
gard to his character or prospects of payment. If
lands were out of lease the rental was increased to
the utmost possible degree, or the tenant displaced in
order to make room for a new occupier, who would
promise a larger payment; thus the occupier had no
certainty or security of tenure, the lands remained
unimproved, and the greater portion of the kingdom
presented the melancholy appearances of neglect and
bad cultivation'which have attracted so much attention
and given occasion to so many well-founded corn
plaints.

What then is the remedy to be adopted ? What
palliative can be found by which the disease may be
removed, or even mitigated ? Simply this—that
every facility must be given to the free transfer of
land, that so much of it as may be necessary to satisfy
the encumbrances affecting it should as speedily
as possible be brought to the hammer. Make it an
article of free sale, and reduce the expenses of

transfer to a reasonable and moderate amount. Sim

plify the laws relating to real property, and make
such arrangements as will give: full security of
tile; cut off entails and settlements; or, at least
let them affect the purchase-money in place of the
land itself. That purchase-money may be placed in
the funds, or on other good and sufficient secu-
rities, and subjected to the trusts that theretofore ap-
plied to the land. The greatest blessing that can be
conferred upon a nation—a solvent and unember-

rinsed proprietary—will be obtained. If the land
could be conveyed, and a good and perfect title as-

sured to the purchasers, there are numbers of persons
with sufficient capital ready to bid for all that may
be brought into the market. The supply cannot ex-

teed the demand so as unduly to depreciate the

value of the commodity in the market. Even the

unencumbered proprietor will frequently find it his

interest to sell a part to improve the rest of his pro
... _

perty ; and the soil of the country will pass into the
hands of those who have the capital and ability to

manage it with the greatest advantage to them

selves and to their country.

A very prevalent, and we might almost say a per-
fectly unanimous, feeling is abroad, that it were more
in accordance with the character hitherto assumed by
our Government to allow the official correspondence
relating to the Montpensier marriage to terminate
with the last communication received at the Foreign
Office from M. GUIZOT. The advisability of this i
abstinence from further diplomatic retorts is obvious.
The Ministers of a great nation are neither to be
the
by a false punctilio, nor are they to yield to
master passion of viragoes, namely, a fretful
determination "to have the last word." Every
dispassionate and intelligent man recognises the truth
of these
principles of administration,
dispassionate and
intelligent
the correspondence in
teuigentm aanadacknowledgesconsequently
the advisability of dropping
eTgr diplomatic
the accomplishment of
that very ordinary trick
a
question, and thereby pr
legerdemain_
the transformation of a bundle of
opportune No
for
letters into some-
thing
more dangerous than
wastepaper.
moment could possibly be more
our withdrawal from the epistolary squabble here-

tofore maintained with the unconscientious leader
of the Cabinet of the Tuilleries. Nothing whatever
can be obtained advantageous to the interests of Great
Britain byexposing still further the contemptible sophis-
tries ofa shameless statesman. Lord PALMERSTON might
double the extent of his masterly documents, illus-
trative of the Spanish policy adopted by the present
Administration, without divulging the chicaneries of
M. GuizoT in a more conspicuous light, or
without rendering one jot more apparent the baseness
and juggling of that accomplished parasite.
The merits of this extraordinary misunderstanding
between England and France can scarcely be un-
folded more entirely than they are already, and,
therefore, a cessation from a correspondence that has
become, not merely superfluous, butliterally hazardous,
is manifestly the only rational course to be pursued.
Before the matter is brought to this comparative
settlement, it were reasonable, however, to enume-
rate the evils which have arisen indirectly and
directly from the selfish encroachments of King
Louis PHILIPPE and the accommodating morality of
his truckling Minister. It were well to see the
fruits which have been already gathered from these
sown seeds of international jealousy, and to form
some estimate of the pernicious consequences which
are always inevitable from a similar dereliction of all
the most sacred duties of statesmanship.
In Spain herself the harvest of troubles resulting from
this incongruous alliance are even now being rapidly
gathered in ; the confidence of the population in their
rulers has been shaken to its foundation with so much
violence that the powerful Cabinet of IsTuulTz has
been utterly subverted, and considerable difficulty is
experienced in constructing a new Administration
from its debris. Insomuch have these difficulties
accumulated round the Palace of ISABELI A, that the
efforts of CASA IRUJO to form a Government have
proved altogether ineffectual, and it is somewhat
doubtful whether CASTRO I ORozco will be enabled
to collect into one compact body so many hetero-
geneous statesmen. But, apart from the considera-
tions of the obstacles existing to the establishment
of an Executive in the Peninsula, the whole frame-
work of Spanish society has been thrown into con-
fusion by the dastardly concessions of the rejected
Afrancesados ; the moral influence of ISABELLA
over her subjects is almost wholly eradi-
dicated from the hearts of the people, and the multi-
tude look with suspicion both upon her pageantries
and her seclusion. In Portugal, again, the evil con-
sequences of this introduction of Gallic power into
the Peninsula has been significantly experienced upon
her eastern frontiers, while DIETZ has fomented those
unconstitutional animosities in the heart of the king-
dom. It is unnecessary to trace the direct connexion
existing between the espousal of the INFANTA and the
incorporation of Cracow. It is equally superfluous
to specify the rupture of the entente cordiale solely in
consequence of the execrable duplicity of the Prench
Government. By the binding of that marriage knot
all the holiest bonds of amity between nation and
nation were loosened.

We suspect that King LOUIS PHILIPPE and hiss ami-
liar M. GUIZOT will ultimately find themselves in the
position of the gluttonous cur in IEsoP, who loses
the substance in snapping at the shadow. In legisla-
tion, as well as in the marts of commerce, to the
statesman and the sovereign, as well as to the
pedlar and the costermonger, the venerable adage is
under all circumstances applicable, "Honesty is the
best policy." GUIZOT is finding this out already in
the execration with which his hypocrisy is regarded by
the more sensible among his fellow-countrymen.
Louis PHILIPPE'S turn will follow. The moral laws
are inexorable in their fulfilment. Time may elapse
to lull the anxieties of the credulous, but ultimately
there is certain to come the retribution, and the very
procrastination of that retribution renders it on its
arrival only the more awful and overwhelming. The
recent calamities of Spain have each its NEMESIS, and
the swords of those avengers will descend together.

We inserted yesterday another letter from Mr.
RIGBY WASON to Lord Joni; RUSSELL, upon the
subject of waste lands in Ireland. The writer notices
with satisfaction that the Government plan which has
been propounded upon this momentous question is
identical, in all its outlines, with the suggestions
which he recently submitted, through our columns,
in a series of letters to the Premier. We have our-
selves some reason to rejoice at this coincidence, in-
asmuch as we earnestly took the lead in support-
ing Mr. RIGBY WASON'S views, conceiving that they
were the soundest of any which were being con-
stantly thrown out for the consideration of Govern-
ment, with the view of raising agriculture in Ireland
from its present depressed condition. Moreover, the
vast good which this gentleman had effected on his
own property in Scotland, to an extent of some
miles, under the auspices of the very system which
he strenuously urged the Administration to adopt,
increased our confidence in his every recomme nda-
tion—Experto crede. The object of Mr. IL Wit sox s
last communication is to except to a matter of detail in
Lord J. RUSSELL'S scheme, but which is, nevertheless,
one of essential importance. It is officially proposed to
divide the unreclaimed land into holdings of not less
than twenty-five, nor more than fifty acres. The
question of what shall be the maximum and mini-
mum size of the farms in Ireland is the most interest-
ing one that can be entertained in reference to her
agricultural improvement. It cannot be too delibe-
rately canvassed in all its bearings, for, it is beyond
all doubt, that a great portion of the agrarian dis-
turbances, and of the other social evils of Ire-
land, are to be attributed to the prevalence
of the cottier system. The mode in which a
considerable quantity of the Irish soil, for the most
part miserably cultivated, has been, as it were, infi-
nitessimally partitioned by the tenantry, despite of the
will of their helpless landlords, it is matter of noto-
riety has been prolific of pernicious consequences.
The art of husbandry has completely decayed beneath
its blighting influence, and demoralisation has been
engendered to a frightful extent. The springs of
human energy have been dried up, and a spirit of
self-reliance, the great pivot on which national inde-
pendence rests, is unknown to the great body of the
Irish peasantry. Small possessions, then, have, be-
yond controversy, constituted the chief bane of Ire-
land's prosperity. We know by experience in Eng-
land and Scotland, that diminutive farms, are
most undesirable; their disadvantages must be
greatly augmented in a country where there are
no manufactures, furnishing channels of employment
for redundant labour. Taught by the past the im-
policy of the cottier system, we ought to be exceed-
ingly provident of not permitting the new farms,
intended to be carved out of the unredeemed land, to
be of such inferior dimensions as to render them inci-
dental to the propagation of the evils the effects of
which we have now so bitterly to deplore. ta addi-
tion to this, we must be careful to give every (facility
to the tenantry for obtaining a tenure of a secure and
simple description.
The great desideratum in Ireland is to
create a body of proprietors who shall become
permanent employers of labour at remuu urative
wages. We consider that we shall come far short
of this object; indeed, we doubt if we should in any
wise compass it with the limitation of acres proposed
by the Government. Our hope is, however, th at the
question will again undergo the deliberate reflection
of the Cabinet. Lord J. RUSSELL does not thittk the

small holdings have been injurious, because, in Ar

magh, the most prosperous and best cultivated county
in Ireland, the greatest division of land exists.. But
the statistics which Mr. R. WAsoN has pre seated,
and the reasoning he has advanced upon them,. strike
us as being subversive of the foundations on •which

;ha head of the Government rests his cone] U 3 ions,

Out of the 685,389 farms into which Ireh tna is

divided, 636,997 are under 30 acres, and only 4`,8,312

above that number.

Under five acres we fin d the

large figure of 306,915. The cottier system is uni-
versally condemned. It seems a contradiction, t.;bize-
fore, to appeal to Ulster, where it is most exte us ive.
This province, compared with Munster, has rtet Orly
double the number of cottier holdings from one to

five acres; and were it not that Armagh is the cei atre
of the linen trade, Ulster would no doubt have; had
the same sad experience which has inseparably aco m-
panied the dwarfish division of territory in the otl ler
provinces. "If, therefore," shrewdly observes. 11r.
R. WASON, "the prosperity of Ulster is not endiroly
reland
th owing to another cause—that of the linen tr
surely our duty would be to assimilate the r est of
Ireland with
nthumatboefrUoflsctoetrti,
earndhoinldcirnegassefrasommto
au
tch
possible o to