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

deficiency
must be made up by some extraordinary
•Pans ; but with r. c.oect to ft-e amount to he
eoutiitaiteil a:.(', 1..' • • •
question to be s• ttled by the Hotbe. It must be renaebibered,
%sever, that whenever England went to war, Ireland had to
eoutribute her money and the energy of her velour towards
maintaining the contest ; and when Ireland was viiited by a
"'amity very similar to a war, she ought not to be thrown
iro her own resources. He had no hesitation in tel:ing the
Mae, that had the Irish Parliament been in existence this
It eat calamity would have been prevented by a great national
not
; and when he was told that Ireland could
rt meet the distress out of her own resources,
t: Only pointed to dna fact that the year previous
t the union, Ireland incurred a debt of from seven
° eight millions sterling, for the purpose of maintaining the
war: How different, however, was their position. The
itlefilleot of the Ministry had left the population in a state of
Prikle destitution. He did not think the Noble Lord had
given sufficient reason why he had not opened the ports weeks
ago, nor had the Chancellor of the Exchequer shown good
erase for not supplying the people with food. When the
People were starving, no doctrines of political economy ought
to stand in the way of the relief of a .tarying population ;
sad had Government had less scruples about interfering with
speculators and trade, they would not have heard of portions
sit Me population dying of starvation. ather than suffer
u°ll a circumstance as that; Government ought to have
scoured the world from one end to the other for
ecru ; but, instead of doing that, they had
encouraged speculations in demanding, not trade, but mono-
Pell prices. He came now to the question of employing the
People on public works. He would express an opinion with
respect to one of the measures of Government. He alluded
!o the money proposed to be expended on public works ; now
If that money were to be expended on works of national im-
portance the landlords of Ireland would not object to contri-
bute. The Government proposed an extension of the poor-
la_lms Now, he had been always favourable to the
principle • of the poor-laws, and when the Noble
rd said that there was an indisposition to carry out
the principle of the poor-laws, he did an injustice to the peo-
ple of Ireland. When the Noble Lord alluded to Castlebar,
Le had forgotten to mention the fact that in Ireland there was
a much larger number in the poor-houses than these establish-
ments were originally intended for. The poor-laws, cars
tied out to the extent proposed, would amount to confiscation
in Ireland. With respect to what certain gentlemen had ad-
vanced with respect to giving relief in Ireland, he had only to
observe that no poor-law however comprehensive in principle
or elaborate in detail could meet such a calamity as the present
evil that afflicted Ireland. Therefore the principle promul-
gated, with respect to the duration of relief which had been
Promulgated, that if there were a poor-law in Ireland they
would meet the distress, was erroneous. Now the
Noble Lord had said that after the passing of the
rneasures be had submitted to the House he would
trodnce subsequent subsidiary measures. After that
harvest they should have as great a pressure as they had
at present, therefore they must take some prompt and
efficient measure for the absorption of surplus labour.
ear.) Considering the loan proposed to be advanced with
S?ference to this subject, he would throw out a suggestion to
Me Government that it would be desirable that the amount
of the charge for investigation, together with the mode of its
4PPlications should be carefully inquired into. He held in his
thata letter from a gentleman who stated that the amount
would be advanced by the Board of Works, for
the
de, put ore of subsoil would be very large in-
mOney(Hear hear.) He now came to the application of
g for the reclamation of waste land in Ireland. The
obleLord had stated that there were six millions of waste
1:14 in Ireland. He was quite satisfied that if they reclaimed
rid of that character they would confer a great benefit on the
People of Ireland, because they would create a greater number
1:11,11uall proprietors in fee—a most desirable class—and the
respect
if well managed, would work most successfully. With
Gentleman
to encumbered land (we understood the Honourable
to say) he thought it was most injurious
have land ss d by proprietors who had a
!norm posse-se
bit
Ity influence from their posit ion but no capa-
t,,, of improving their land. The Noble Lord had also
proposed to introduce measures of a temporary character for the
commutation of tithes. That, he believed, would effect much
Bed, With respect to fisheries, he would offer an observa-
if'. There were 90,000 persons engaged in fisheries in Ire-
r€l, who might be employed in augmenting the supplies for
future years. The Noble Lord should have recollected it had,
The
Pressed, year after year, by Commissions on the subject.
Abe extension of these t sheries would. as he had already
stated, augment the supplies of food, and, therefore, were
entitled to the consideration of the Government. With respect
!,0 the subject of emigration, he would detain the House for a
Lew moments. They must only send out to their colonies as
many
as those colonies could receive. But 290.000 persons
_notild be sent out to the colonies, independent of those who
'mat emigrate to the United States. The Noble Lord had
oositted
in. to mention in his measures one thing that was more
"'Portant than all of them. He meant a measure that
would secure to the tenantry of Ireland the right
°I compensation for their improvements, and that
!could tend more to the employment of surplus labour in Ire-
land than perhaps any other measure that could be proposed.
Without venturing upon the subject which the Noble Mena.,
bet for Lynn intended to bring before the House, he would
lay that the employment of labour in Ireland upon railways
Should be afforded by every possible means. There was one
other subject to which he wished to allude,—namely, ab-
senteeism, as he felt fully persuaded that until
they had adopted some measure to induce the absent proprie-
tory to perform their duties towards Ireland, it would be im-
Possible to produce that state of felicity which the Noble Lord
Contemplated. 4,000,000/. were drawn from Ireland in absen••
teeism, and it was impossible to conceive that a country under
these circumstances could flourish. He would take an oppor-
tunity of testing the opinion of the House upon this question.
There were several details which he would not feel justified
in entering upon at present, but which hereafter the House
Would have an opportunity of discussing. He would not con-
clude without expressing a hope that the Government would
employ the national resources of Ireland on works of national
advantage.
Mr. ROEBUCK said, that as a Member representing an
English county, be hoped it would not be considered imper-
tinent in him to make a few observations to the Government,
?,nethe subject of the present condition of Ireland, because, if
representative of that country wera to be allowed to make
their statements of misery and want, it might be fancied that distress did not extend beyond the shores of Ireland, or that
relißef was needed by none other than her unhappy population.
There were, however, others who suffered, but who suffered
a different spirit from those who were represented by the
en• Members for Ireland—who suffered, but without Plaitingcorn-
of the misconduct of Government—and who, while
:43' suffered, laboriously endeavoured to help themselves,
n!1 that, too, by their own unaided energies, who
animated
13;eby a desire to kelp, disdained to throw themselves in
*O4 and almost helpless impotence before the House, but
ve manfully, boldly, and energetically to ameliorate their
that and minister to their own necessities. He knew
o,.ti had been insinuated that a malignant spirit dictated the
Opinions of those who held opinions upon the present duty of
ar.yoverninent similar to those entertained by himself. He
cw back the inuendo with its deserved contempt. He had
a duty to perform to his own country, and that duty he was de-
;Mined to fulfil to the utmost of his abilities. The House
ern" now called upon to legislate for Ireland in a particular
In OneY. The Noble Lord at the head of the Government,
a introducing his measures to the notice of the House, had, it
the proposed other measures not having for their object
of
relief of the people of Ireland, but for the re.
of rotation of that country.—( Hear, hear.) The measures
e Noble Lord might be separated into three dis-
co"t
„ Parts, first, the amelioration of the distress of the
rsslilLrY ; secondly, the re-construction of its national cha-
"er; and the third, relating to what was passing in the
kind of the Noble Lord, when he made the mysterious corn-
td9llflication to the House upon the subject of the future con-
aim of
Ireland. It behoved the House well to consider
When they contemplated the state of Ireland, that there were
!It that country two broad distinctions between the classes of
its inhabitants, there was a large majority of the people living
al a labouring population upon the land, and there was another
Cats, consisting of persons, who were the so-called proprietors
of the land. Both of these classes were now as mendicants
before the House—the one asked of the House that the people
should be relieved from starvation, the other demands, in a
commanding tone, that the landlords should be saved from
It was necessary for the House to consider the condition
4:4 those two classed. The labouring population of Ireland
Were habitually bordering upon starvation, they were always
aeon that great calamity; the brink of that misery, into the
;Ts of which they had fallen in the present year,
They were a people who had always been reduced to subsist
on the lowest species of food in which, in a civilised condition,
it •;8 possible for a human being to live, and upon the smallest
quantity of that unwholesome and inefficient food. They lived
neon the smallest holdings of land, not as in other countries
where remunerating wages were given in return for labour, but.
Where the return was small, uncertain, badly and unskilfully
applied, without the asesistance which capital could render, or
the skill which education could confer. Their labour was the
Power of mere brute force applied by numbers to the land,
!lying for its return the smallest quantity which a soil, natu-
rally fertile, could produce. In this condition the race had
Multiplied exceedingly, and the multiplication of the numbers
.1 that unhappy people had been aided by its proximity to
England, for in spite of every means which could he adopted to
Prevent it, capital, however small, had dribbled into Ireland,
and those small sums had had only the effect of increasing the
amount of population, without in the least degree elevating their
national character. Such was the physical. condition of the
great body of the labouring population of Ireland. Nor were
they to be considered as in a chronic state of disease, the pre-
sent was but an acute form of the disease ; starvation was at
present exist*, mere starvation was constantly threatening.
a
They were not class of persons who, although they labourtd,
live by the wages of labour, for in most cases they had the
worst of all masters—the poor man himself. This was the
class who came to that house and asked for bread to keep them
from starvation. It was not because the people of England
did not sympathise with their distress that they hesitated to
assuage it, but it was because they believed that any relief
would only extend the distress they sought to remove, and to
multiy the horrors they se fervently
enleitoesired to avert. He
would now advert tomethespootkheernboted
of all the demandedndlordtsooi be Lee-
deemed from ruin.
Ire-
land, He took upon himself to say that the nominal pro-
prietors of Ireland were not the landlords of that country.
—(Hear, hear.) The real landlords of Ireland were the
mortgagees and the tax-gatherers. The Irish landlord had all
the desire fer show which landed proprietorship could bestow,
but they were not possessed of the wealth which should be the
support of that pride, and the maintenance of that love of dis-
Play, and the consequence was, that, like their poorer country-
men, the landlords, too, were in a state of chronic disease—
always on the verge of ruin and heavily in debt. They are not
the masters of their own estates, and are obliged to live from
hand to mouth, craving at everything, grasping at everything
and totally unable to perform the duties which really devolved
upon the possessor of the soil. When he saw such men es
these come to demand ef the House to be preserved from ruin
he was driven to inquire, what was the cause of their forlorn
condition, Unhappily the landlords of Ireland had beenin
reality the cause in a great measure of all the miseries which
had befallen their unhappy country. They had always been a
favoured class by that House. The whole of the legislation
for that country had been dictated to by landlords. The Govern-
ment had passed the multitudes of the people in order to give
additional strength to the dominance of the landlords. They
had misapplied all those powers which successive Governments
had given them, and had now brought themselves to the brink
of ruin, and the whole body of the
va eople to the brink of star-
tion. But how has this been effected ? The steps were
Zrtain and clear. It was impossible to mistake
ern. The general character of the Irish landed
treprietor was some years past one of joyous
°sPitalitY their national character was, that they had
no prudence; and the consequence of the deficiency of that
virtueil was, that their hospitality brought them constantly into
ttrto;vleorecoming indebted, they looked around them in order to
how their present wants could be supplied ; to attain
s end, every possible resource was ransacked and at length
thet_,vnonstrous grievance which now overspreads the country
"K its rise, and the distribution of land into small divisions
took place. Then it was that the pour men commenced a
system of competition with each other to obtain possession of
these small parcels; they were induced to hid against each
other, and the most extravagant demands of the landlords were
• readily complied with by the parties who so eagerly desired pos-
uunm• The consequence of this had been, that the
rents in Ireland were much higher than they were
In England. A larger return from the land went
ilatc) the pockets of the landlords, and of all the larger sums