The Sun.
London, England, 1846-09-17 00:00:00

ettentagrnt

LONDON, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1846

The accounts received each day from Ireland add a
fearful corroboration to the tale of misery and suffer-
ing occasioned in that unhappy land by the total de-
struction of the potato crop, the desolation that has
blighted the almost universal food of the people. The
conduct of the sufferers hai,been in the highest degree
creditable to them, evincing a degree of patience in
their afflictions, and a confidence and hope in the
exertions of the Executive, a conviction that no efforts
will be spared to afford all just and reasonable relief
to the working classes to provide a sufficiency of
plain and wholesome food in the place of that which
,'vas been lost to the country, and to furnish them
'th the means of purchasing that food, by securing
adeq •uate employment to every man who is willing to
give a fair day's work in exchange for a fair day's
Such confidence must not be misplaced,

-wages.
The people must be fed, no matter what difficulties

may be encountered, how great a diminution may
take place in the luxuries and superfluities of the
wealthier classes. The first, the grand
principle is, that every owner of land
must employ the poor belonging to that
land ; the people have a right to be provided
with food from the land on which they were born and
located, that support may be exchanged for the labour
of those demanding it ; but if useful occupation be
not provided for them they must be maintained in
idleness. This is a principle which has long been
admitted and acted on in this country. It was the
foundation on which the poor-law of the reign of
ELIZABETII was based. It is one of ,he institutions
of England which must be extended to Ireland, in
order to place her people on the promised footing of
entire and perfect equality with ourselves. This,
then, being admitted, and few we trust can be found
with sufficient hardihood to gainsay or deny it, the
first object should be the setting to work of that vast
quantity of labour, so as to obtain a profitable return,
in order by its means to increase and multiply the
natural wealth of the country, the produc-
tive qualities of the soil—to construct useful
works which will repay the cost of their execution,
to reclaim waste lands, and to bring into cultivation
new tracts and districts that have hitherto been
neglected, but which, if duly attended to, would.
speedily yield an ample dividend on the amount of
the expenditure incurred, and produce large quanti-
ties of food to meet the increasing wants of the
people. Let it not be said that there is not an ample
field for the judicious occupation of the unemployed
labourer. At this moment there are no less than four
millions of acres of waste lands still untouched,
which in a few short years would pay, at the lowest
calculation, more than ten per cent on the cost of
their reclamation. With such a sphere of action, why
should there be a necessity for seeking for
the means of employment ? Every encourage-
ment should be given to private enterprise.
Every landowner who is able and willing
to commence operations on unproductive parts of his
estate, or who can induce capitalists to co-operate
with him in so doing, should have every assistance
given to him for that purpose. Loans might be fairly
advanced by the State proportioned to and in aid of
his own outlay. There could be no objection thereto
similar to that which is so justly entertained against
the advance of money for the payment of charges and
encumbrances affecting other lands. In every case,

therefore, where the owner of the soil is willing to
undertake the cultivation and improvement of his own
lands, he should be permitted to do so ; at the same
time, furnishing satisfactory evidence that his attempt
is a fair and bona fide one, and that the works pro-
gress, under his superintendence, at a reasonable rate.
If, however, he wants the ability or the will, no
fancied right of property, no unwillingness to inter-
fere with private possessions, should be permitted to
impede and obstruct measures of vast public utility.
We every day are witnesses to the compulsory
sale of property of every description; cultivated lands,
buildings, all are taken away from the proprietors,
who are obliged to accept the price or value at which
they may be assessed by a jury of their countrymen,
because their acquisition is necessary for the com-
pletion of a work of magnitude which may be bene-
ficial to the public, although its profits and returns
might be applicable to individuals. If, then, it is
just in such a case, and for such a purpose, to deprive
parties of the property, whether willing or unwilling,
how much more equitable is it to take that which the
nominal owners have suffered to lie waste and unpro-
ductive, idle and unimproved; more particularly
when an option in the first instance is afforded to the
proprietor himself to undertake the speculation, and,
in the event of his refusal, the fair value is given him
therefor ?
Having thus clearly established the right of
the State again to take possession of the lands which
it originally granted, we think the vast benefit to
the public not merely justifies such an act, but
imperatively calls for its adoption. The requisite
funds for the undertaking might be procured in many
different ways. A waste land stock might be created
similar to that which in Belgium was procured for
the construction of railroads, which were planned by
and remained the property of the State, or it might
be offered to associated companies of capitalists, who
by such means would, we doubt not, acquire consi-
derable profit, in addition to the vast benefits they
would confer on the community at large. Either of
these methods, we consider, would be desirable ;
but there are many other ways in which
the object could be attained; for instance,
a judicious system of loans and advances
to be applied under the auspices and with the ap-
probation of the Board of Works. The employment
thus afforded, the outlay might be dispensed gradually,
so that the returns from the earlier works might
assist in those which should be attempted at a later
period. Two or three millions would, in the first
instance, be amply sufficient to mitigate the existing
distress, and tf., test the efficacy of the project. How-
ever large such a sum might appear, its expenditure
would be as nothing in comparison to the distress
thereby relieved, the vast benefits attained. It
would be auxiliary to the occupation that will be pro-
duced by the railroads in progress of construction, the
improvements by thorough drainage, fencing, and
bringing into high cultivation the lands already in
use. It would go far to mitigate, if not entirely to
remove, the existing distress, and surely for such a
purpose, and with the great probability, if not the
certainty, of an adequate return, a sum less than
one-fifth of that which was cheerfully devoted to the
abolition of slavery in the British Colonies might
fairly be risked. The subject is too important to be
compressed within the space applicable to a single
article. We shall, on an early occasion, return
thereto, and we hope to be enabled to show that the
present distress may be made the means of great and
I permanent advantage to our sister kingdom.

The Peninsula seems destined to be embroiled for
evermore, and unless some strenuous or miraculous
regeneration takes place, both in the Spanish and Por-
tuguese Governments, that destiny is in a fair way
of being fulfilled. While the inhabitants of Madrid
are thrown into the utmost excitement by the:pros-
pect of beholding the Due DE MON TPENSIER abduct
the Infanta LUISA, the population of Lisbon is cast
into a state of peculiar tribulation by the possi-
bility of being again subjected to a Cabral
Administration. It is difficult, indeed, to de-
termine which of the Peninsular kingdoms is
involved in the greater embarrassment. The
Spaniards, almost with one accord, are indignant at
those machinations of the French Embassy by
which the national integrity of their common country
is placed in such remarkable jeopardy; and the reso-
lute persistence of King Louis PHILIPPE and his
ambassador, M. BaEssoN, in consummating their en-
deavours, promises to enkindle a flame in the bosoms
of the Spaniards which cannot be very readily ex-
tinguished. The Portuguese, on the other hand,
are plunged into the most agonising uncer-
tainty. Miguelite insurgents, or rather par-
ties of guerrillas, leagued together ostensibly
for the purpose of upholding the cause of Don
MiGuEL, are roving about the northern provinces of
Minho and Tras-os-Montes, creating much anxiety in
the minds of the southern civilians, and harassing the
troops which have been dispatched for their sup-
pression, not merely by the violence of their sallies,
but by the rapidity of their movements among the
mountains. So considerable have been these disturb-
ances, that General Count DAs ANTAS has been com-
pelled to require additional reinforcements to the
forces committed to his direction, and which forces
had been already rendered more formidable both in
numerical strength and in general efficiency.
Not merely, however, have the northern provinces
of Portugal been the scene of these insurrectionary
movements, not only have these guerillas brought
terror amongst the peaceable inhabitants of Moncao,
Nobrega, Pico de Regalados, and Braga, but the
southern provinces appear to have suffered from a
proportionate disorganisation, and the Alemtejo has
been the arena of nearly similar outbreaks. What
may be the ultimate consequence of these continual
commotions it is almost impossible even to
conjecture. It is, moreover, so generally believed
that the guerilla insurgents are abetted by the parti-
sans of the late Cabral Government, that the
Spanish Ministry is desirous of reinstating the Cabral
party in power, and that the Queen of PORTUGAL
herself is most solicitous for the return of its ob-
• noxious leader ; that the people continue in the most

miserable state of uncertainty, a prey to the most 1 '
distressing anticipations. Any implement would be
seized with avidity for the purpose of annihilating
projects so calculated to prove detrimental to the
nation generally. The proceedings, therefore, in the
Minho are fraught with the utmost importance to the
excited imaginations of the population of the capital.
By an assurance conveyed in the columns of the
Diario, they were for a period lulled into a delu-
sive belief that the Miguelite guerillas had been
dispersed, and that a permanent pacification
had ensued. Intelligence, however, has been subse-
quently received of the renewal of these disturbances,
and of the requisition of Count DAS ANTAS for two
additional regiments. The guerilla warfare is indeed of
such" a vagrant character, and resembles so much the
predatory incursions of Cossacks, that nothing is more
improbable than the speedy extermination of the in-
surgents. Portugal, if not in the most calamitous, is
unquestionably in the most precarious, condition.
Something of a surprising and unexpected character
can alone extricate this kingdom from anarchy, and
restore it to a respectable position among the Euro-
pean principalities.
In the midst of the general confusion of the Peninsula
there is, nevertheless, reviving a sentiment of patriotic
sincerity. Opinions are abroad among certain classes
of the people, and men are already associated together
anxious for a rational adjustment of all difficulties—
prepared to make all reasonable concessions—and
filled with a deep and ineradicable reverence for the
genius of constitutional liberty. Such sentiments
are entertained both in Spain and in Portugal—
sentiments inspiring the population of the former
with a repugnance to any endeavour on the part of
France to abstract from to nationality which is at
present ensured by the reigning family ; and in-
spiring the population of the latter with a dread of
the threatened domination of CABRAL. These sen-
timents, it is true, are entertained by a minority ; bu
when we recal to our recollection the obscure room
in Manchester, partitioned off by a dingy red curtain,
with its little junto of free-traders, and when we re-
member how that project, from being at first con-
sidered chimerical and contemptible, became at
last of gigantic puissance, and was ultimately
realised in the Imperial Parliament at Westminster,
we cannot but still feel satisfied that the twin nations
of the Peninsula may restore to themselves peace and
prosperity, and at length assume their original and
elevated position among the civilised kingdoms of the
earth.

The Shah of PERSIA, in consequence of the death
of his eldest son, who was carried off by the cholera,
has named MALEK KASSIM Miaza, brother to the late
SuAn, one of the most learned men in the country,
and who is well versed in the European languages, to
be guardian to his second son, now heir to the throne,
who is only eleven years of age. MALEK KASSIM is
Governor of Tabris.

A letter from Rome, dated Sept. 8, which appears
in the Semaphore de Marseilles, says, that from the
date of the publication of the amnesty, the Roman
people resolved to give the Holy Father a public
testimonial of their gratitude, and decided that it
should be on the Bth instant, the Feast of the Nati-
vity. A subscription was accordingly opened for the
purpose of erecting a monument destined to comme-
morate that act of clemency, and a temporary trium-
phal arch, representing the intended monument was
built on the Piazza del Popolo ; its summit and base
were surrounded with statues, symbols of religion
and of the virtues of which Pius IX. is
the model. Inscriptions extolling those vir-
tues, in appropriate and affecting terms, adorn
the columns. A rich carpet, with the arms of
the Holy Father, surrounded with various devices,
was spread under the arch ; and thence to the Qui-
rinal the whole line which the pontifical cortege was to
pursue was strewn with flowers. It is impossible to
describe the aspect of the Corso at this moment. I
can only compare it to an immense saloon, magnifi-
cently decorated, offering to the eye everything that
is calculated to move the heart and mind. 100,000
enthusiastic spectators, richly dressed, completed its
decoration. It was a truly sublime spectacle. The
most profound silence pervaded the crowd on the an-
nouncement of the approach of the Sovereign Pontiff,
and permitted us to hear the distant acclamations
which saluted his passage. Five horse Gendarmes
opened a passage for the cortege through the multitude.
Five hundred young men, dressed in black, holding
branches of laurel in their hands and bearing the pontifi-
cal colours, walked six abreast, and sang hymns in praise
of Plus IX. They were followed by the household
of the POPE, dressed in crimson, and after them came
the pontifical carriage, from which his HOLINESS,
whose tears betrayed his deep emotion, bestowed his
benediction under showers of flowers and sonnets,
and amidst the most deafening acclamations." . . . .
" Pius 1X.," adds the correspondent of the Sema-
phore," now possesses a moral power that nothing
can resist. The Sovereigns of the other states of
Italy are fully aware of it. They know that their
subjects would instantly respond to an appeal of the
Sovereign Pontiff. The time is come when princes
should meditate on those words of Scripture,—Et
nunc reges intelligite. May they soon comprehend
their meaning ! On the other hand, may the hope
conceived by the friends of progress and of a wise
liberty, from the glorious and promising accession of
Pius IX. to the chair of St. PETE; not be ultimately
deceived !"