The Sun.
London, England, 1846-12-11 00:00:00

mpoverishment, it is to the magistrates, the landlords

and the wealthier classes generally in the several ba•
ronies. Unless the more competent and influential pro
tectors of the peasantry bestir themselves betimes, unless
they are sedulous in their researches after the penni-
less and the foodless in their neighbourhood, unless
they abstain more from the refusal of applications for
relief, these nine famine-stricken Irish are only the
predecessors of so many hundreds. It is not only for
the more immediate salvation of the destitute
that so much exertion is required from the less
afflicted members of the community—it is for the
ultimate advantage, and maybe for the imme-
diate preservation of the latter. Extreme want is as
powerful an incitement to crime and insubordination
as the evilest of evil passions. Goaded on by the ra-
vages of hunger, the most peaceful are transformed
into the most rebellious, the utmost gentleness
Into the most obdurate cruelty, the most virtuous
citizens into the most desperate criminals. And
in Ireland famine is rendered an infinitely more
powerful excitation to violence, inasmuch as it is act-
ing upon men naturally passiont.te and enthusiastic.
There are already unfortunate evidences of the
formidable consequences of the still existing
visitation. Instead of welcoming the individuals
deputed to bestow upon them the wages and
employment determined upon by the Board of Works,
instead of receiving the officers of that noble institu-
tion as their saviours, the half-maddened peasants
subject them to maltreatment. If -we may credit a
hideous rumour in a respectable Irish newspaper, one of
the appointed overseers has recently been assassinated
in the county Clare, having been actually " cut to
pieces with reaping-hooks." Whether this almost in-
credible intelligence be based upon an actual or an
imaginary occurrence, it is indisputable that the
agents of the Board of Works are frequently mo-
lested in the discharge of their generous and bene-
volent duties. Sometimes they are treated with
extreme brutality, and their lives are continually in
peril. What a horrible condition is this for a civi-
lised people ! What a bitter mockery to the advance-
ment and diffusion of knowledge—to the spread of
morality—to the vaunted happiness and grandeur of
the British islands I Such an accumulation of
misery is unknown amongst the Carribeans, or the
inhabitants of the Marquesas. In destroying the
officers of the Board of Works, the Irish peasantry
are immolating their benefactors as dastardly, as
vilely, as cruelly, as did the Dantonists the lovers of
peaceful regeneration. The heinous guilt of those
crimes, however, is not attached to the mass.
it is attached to the lawless perpetrators alone,
By delivering these disturbers of public tranquillity
up to justice—men who have the deplorable
audacity to deride the laws both of GOD and man—
the more gentle and unrebellious sufferers may hasten
their own extrication from misery, and, in doing so,
simultaneously remove a curse from their native land.
Unless the righteous members of that community
act thus boldly, and thus honestly, the anticipation of
the Irish melodist can never be realised, " the rain-
bow of hope " to Ireland can never emerge,
" Bright through the flood
Of her tears and her blood."

Unkss such a natural course be pursued, the
peasantry will still continue to perish in their cabins
like dogs, the visible ban of poverty will still remain
upon that misgoverned and afflicted country.

We yesterday pointed out the great differences ex-
isting between the cases of the proprietors of lands
and of the parties who have advanced their capital on
the security of those lands. The first class are spe-
culators in the value of the soil—they will reap the
entire benefit of any improvement in its price, and
should therefore be fairly responsible for any loss that
may be sustained. They enjoy all the rights and
privileges incidental to the possession of that
description of property, they are likewise bound to
perform 'all the duties appertaining thereto. The
other parties, on the contrary, have a certain fixed
sum, which, under any circumstances, they must re-
ceive ; they cannot claim more in seasons of extraor-
dinary fertility and prosperity ; they cannot be re-
quired to receive less in times of scarcity and
famine. The property in the land is respon-
sible to them fur a certain fixed amount of
money ; on payment thereof, with all interest, it will
be discharged from any further liability, no matter
what may he its improved value ; and it cannot be
exonerated for a lower amount, whatever might be its
depreciation. For ages the landowners have had the
best of the speculation ; it is notorious that the value
of ;and has within the last 70 or 80 years (and there
are many charges on estates in Ireland of a much
longer date) been more than quadrupled, while the
value of money has materially fallen. And it would
be in the highest degree unreasonable, now that cir-
cumstances are in some degree altered, to suppose
that any portion of the present burden or loss
should be cast upon the mortgagees or encum-
brancers. There is no possibility of the Legislature
sanctioning any principle so unjust and inequitable.
But, even supposing that such a project were in
contemplation, what would be its immediate effect ?
Why, manifestly, that every encumbrancer would take
the most summary steps to enforce the payment of
his demand. The Legislature could scarcely be
asked to enact a suspension of cash payments in
favour of the landowner ; they could not be required
to blot out all debts chargeable on, or payable out of
real property, or to reduce them by a certain per
tentage. The right to sue, to demand the immediate
payment of his principal, must still be reserved to the
creditor, whenever the time stipulated for the repay-
ment has expired, unless every law of credit, as well
public as private, is to be violated and destroyed, and
that we should collectively and individually become a
nation of repudiators. There is, therefore, little pros-
pect that Parliament will recognise any proposi-
tion so monstrous as to subject the mortgagees
or encurnbrancers to any portion of the burdens al-
ready incurred, or which may hereafter be imposed.
Neither would it be for the benefit of the landowners
themselves that such should be the case; on this
ground, therefore, there is no reasonable cause for the
panic to which we have alluded.
The foregoing observations are general in their ap-
plimtion to every landowner and encumbrancer
throughout the entire kingdom. What we are about
to state with respect to the only other ground that
could justify the fears of the creditors, and which, if
well founded, might induce them to institute pro-
ceedings for the recovery of their debts, viz., an inabi-
lity on the part of the landlords to meet the de►nands
for interest, in consequence of the present distressed
state of the country, and the great difficulty expe-
rienced in the collection of rents, must, to a certain
extent, depend on the circumstances of each parti-
cular case—the relative value of the estate to the
amount of the charges with which it is burdened, the
state and solvency of the tenantry, the number and
size of the farms, and a variety of other circum-
stances too numerous to specify in detail. We hope,
however, to be enabled to establish that estates in
Ireland are as good securities as they ever have been
for the several sums advanced upon them, and that
the greatest inconvenience that any prudent encum-
brancer can be subjected to, is the affording of a
temporary indulgence to his debtor, and allowing him
a prolonged period for the payment of his interest,
which, in fact, is less in amount than what he must