The Sun.
London, England, 1834-12-23 00:00:00

be very partial indeed. The women and children
could not earn any thing by the mere drainage of
bogs, and as for the poor artizaas in town unused to
such work, they would be starved before the brisk-
ness of trade consequent upon such improvements
would extend to them its benign influence. The only
efl-ctual means of removing the whole mass of misery
is b: a system of Poor Laws. And here it may be
necessary to make one observation, for the purpose °'c
removing an apparent discrepancy between our ad'
vocacy of a poor law for Ireland, and our support °f
the English Poor Law Amendment Bill.—Without 3
poor law it is almost impossible ever to establish ma'
nufactures in an agricultural country. The Aris"
tocracy both fear and despise commerce, and will not
encourage it when they can safely avcid it. Now, the
moment the poor have a legal claim for support on the
soil, it becomes the interest of landlords to provide
them with work. No Noble Lord will feed a
thousand of his tenantry for going idle, if 11
the outlay of a few thousands of pounds he el
put them in a way of supporting themselves, and
doubling his rent-roll at the same time. His first
study will be to establish some branch of manufactmeci
suited to the soil and situation of his property, and
capable of giving work to the young and old on his
estates. Every stream that can turn a mill will be
turned to sonic account—every mine that can 11
worked to advantage will be opened—and every eat'
that can abridge distance and curtail expense in the
removal of the produce of labour, will be cleansed,
widened, and repaired. So far Poor Laws are
blessing, and a necessary one, to the peasantry of a°
-agricultural country. But from the day in which
manufactures are completely established, a compulsory
system of Poor Laws become as potent for evil as it
was before for good. As much has then been done
for the poor, a 3 can be done for them without undoing
all that was done before. The State coach is then 14
the top of the hill, and it is not a propelling power,
but a drag, that is required to keep it from overturning
in the descent. This view of the subject of Poor Love
is, as far as we know, original ; but we think not on
that account the less worthy of the consideration of the

Legislature.
In the last chapter but one of this work, Mr. Inglis
has a very valuable disquisition on the inquiries prose'
cuted by the Poor Law Commissioners in Ireland. A 5
he was furnished with a list of the printed queries, 11e
has drawn up a report, which we presume to think 15
as worthy of the consideration of the Government 0
any which shall be presented by the Parliamentary Coin'
tnissioners. We give it entire, and recommend it t°
the attention of the ensuing House of Commons
" I, Henry David Inglis, acting under no superior order°„!
holding no Government commission ; with no end to 501';
and no party to please ; hoping for no patronage, and fearinbj
ro censure ; and with no view, other than the establishment tti
truth, having just completed a journey throughout Ireland,
and having minutely examined, and inquired into, the con°,l:
tion of the people of that country, do humbly report that t°l;
destitute, infirm, and aged, form a large body of the population
of the cities, towns, and villages of Ireland : that in the judg;
:Went of those best qualified to know the truth, three-fourth
pai is of their number die through the effects of destitution;
tither by the decay of nature, accelerated, or through disetse
induced, by scanty, and unwholesome food,—or else by t'
attack of epidemics, rendered more fatal from the same causes;
That the present condition of this large class is shocking foe
humanity to contemplate, and beyond the efforts of poca'a
beneficence to relieve ; and is a reproach to any civilized alto,
christian country. That the individuals, whose charity Prof
longs for a little the existence of these miserable objects ,o
their compassion, are not the individuals throughout t'
country, whose improvidence, harshness, sordidness, and II;
beet, have contributed to swell the mass of pauperism,--nd
those who possess the chief property in the towns,—nor thnse"
who are the best able to help the indigent: and that, in the,.
circumstances, it becomes an imperative and a sacred cliMi'te,
alike urgent by the demands of humanity, and the rano,
merits of religion, to provide by legislative enactment, for 04
support, on equitable principles, of the aged, impotent,
infirm poor of Ireland.
" That the condition of the agricultural labourers thr0,11,6
out Ireland, is scarcely less deplorable than that of the CIP:o.,
to which I have just alluded. That the supply of labour
calculably exceeds the demand for it ; that but a very sin t,
proportion of this class are able to find constant employmen
that a large proportion are unemployed during one half of th;
whole year : that the wages of labour, even to those who ere
fully employed, do not afford the means of healthy subsist-
ence : that almost the whole of this class live on the very
a
verge of starvation ; and that thereby hourly. additions 81;
made to the ranks of impotent pauperism : that neither wt:
power nor the will of private individuals to give employineuniy
is able in any degree to arrest this progress, or change ,„
condition: that an unemployed population is dangerous to,teoa
peace of a State ; and that the power of restless or vc.c,Keiv
men to inflame the passions of the people, is derived s°',e,
he
from the condition in which that people are placed : that _lose
disorders of Ireland are not owing to Popery, since in tit 04
districts where the people find employment, Catholic 3.„.0
Protestant are alike comfortable; while in those whcrc,t,Pe
people are unemployed, Protestant and Catholic are o.cisv
miserable : that the disorders of Ireland are not in any gis,
degree the result of absenteeism ; since, with few excePt°,o-,
it is impossible to guess, by the condition of the peoan.`ol,
whether the landlord be resident or absent. That absenteet4
in so far as it is an evil, is but a result of more imPerri;,
causes of evil : that the real, and only true source of the 'v.
orders of Ireland, is want of employment : for although
disturbed state of the country acts injuriously upon the ince!eh
ment of capital, and upon residence, this is itself but a re',he
of want of employment for the people : and althouglibireee
rack-rents of Ireland produce incalculable misery, to
originate also in want of employment,—the only cause 0. _
competition for land, which places the power of oppression d,
the hands of its owners. That millions of acres in Ireluich
are reclaimable by the agency of those very materials in
Ireland the most abounds—human labour, and limestone of
that since such is the condition of the lahouring classes t is
Ireland, and such the means of improving that condition, it
the duty of Government to encourage the cultivation of woe
lands, and the improvement of husbandry, by such eaten
to
public works, as will facilitate this end, and as will, h' fire
meanwhile, give employment to the people; and, that in to
event of the landowners of Ireland neglecting or delaYiligter-
take advantage of these facilities, by reason of want of er, the
prise or want of capital, it will then become the duty 0. r,
State to take upon itself the right of operating upon dive,
claimable wastes of Ireland—fair compensation being gig,
and to colonize those wastes for the benefit of the people- to
Before we take leave of this work, we anain beg
recommend it to the attention of all those who %Nis'll to
be made acquainted with the real state of IrelWicl.
We do not express an opinion of its merits, resting fe
it
the rumours which prevail in the metropolis of th,
United Kinadom. We know Ireland and her poP
well—quite as well as Mr. Inglis ; and our knosviedge
is founded on experience, fully equal to what lie has
had during his journey.