The Sun.
London, England, 1851-04-09 00:00:00

WEDNESDAY

diately after 1845 the three great causee to which the i :
present condition of Ireland was attributed took thAr
rise ; the first cause was the fareine in 1816, the change
in the poor-laws, and the disastrous change in the corn.:
laws inflicted inimediately on that coantry. He P701.11C1
commence eiith the poor-law and the state of the
poor. 1n1845 the poor-law taxation of Ireland amounted :
to 310.000/. He.found in 1840, according to official returns,
that the poor rate amounted to 1,500.7101., an increase
of taxation on that head alone of more than 1,200,000/.
He knew he should be told that 90,000 persons
less were receiving relief, but ho was in a condition to
show this was the grossest delusion that had ever been
practised on the people. In 1849 Government were urged
to limit the out-door relief in Ireland by forcing the
workhouse test on every man on the books. When a Bill
to that effect was passing through the House, he moved a
clause to the effect that out-door relief should cease after
January, 1851. Every Member agreed in the opinion
that the principle of the Bill of 1537, where no out-door :
relief was given, should be returned to. The Right Hon.
Gentleman the Secretary for Ireland pledged himself that
the principle should be adhered to, and he withdrew his
clause. The Right Hon. Gentleman had kept his pro-
mise; and the boards of guardians had been impressed
with the necessity of providing workhouse accommoda-
tion, and adopting the workhouse test in all cases. The
boards of guardians had put the test to all the paupers
on their hats, end the consequence was that 90,000
persons fewer received relief. But thin was no proof
that the poverty of the country hid been le:laced to that
extent. He denied that poverty had been reduced
to that extent; for if out-door relief was again
introduced, there would not only be 90,000 on the
hooks again, but 120,000 would be within the limit.
There had been an increase of the in-door pauperism of
Ireland, and the tax for the relief of pauperism had in-
creased upwards of 1,200,0001. since 1845. The county
rates since the same year had increased 300,0001. Ac-
cording to Captain Larcom's report, the land under cul-
tivation was 1,139,000 acres less in 1840 than in 1847.
There had, therefore, been a loss of the produce of
those acres, which could not amount to a less sum than
6,600 000/. The importation of swine from Ireland to
this country had decreased in value since 1845 at least
1,000,0001., and the decrease in the importation of sheep
imported was not less than 500,0001. What hope was
there for a country in which such an increase had taken
place in the taxation, and such a decrease in its produc-
tion? The sales that had taken place under the En-
cumbered Estates Act showed that landed property had
fallen from 21 years' purchase to 14 years' purchase.
In Waterford the value of household property bad fallen
60 per cent. In fact, its trade was vanishing, its shop-
keepers were all but bankrupt, and the farmers in the
neighbourhood were in such distress as not to be able to
employ one labourer in place of four they employed
before 1845. In a letter of Dr. Murray, Catholic Arch-
bishop of Dublin, to one of his clergymen on the subject
of a collection for the Catholic university, he stated,
that in the present impoverished condition of the city
of Dublin, he could not bring himself to call on the
poor labourer and struggling artisan for any contribu-
tion. In a free-trade newspaper—the only newspaper
patronised in Ireland by the Government, the Dublin
Evening Post—there was a paragraph in which it was
admitted that the agricultural distress of the country
was a formidable evil, and one for which there did not
appear any hope of a remedy. Since 1845 there had
been a great decrease in the number of coaches and
other public conveyances in Ireland. In Waterford,
previous to 1845, there used to be forty pairs of horses
kept for coaching, and now there were but sixteen pairs.
Of the two steamers that used to ply to and from Bris-
tol, one had been given up and the other was about to
be given up for want of support. A correspondent of
his, a Whig gentleman, who had made great sacrifices
for the party, writing to him on the 24th February,
stated—" The report of the resignation of the Ministers
has just reached this, and I regret to say that it has
been received with unusual satisfaction.—(Laughter.)
The Whigs have been very unfortunate in the govern-
ment of Ireland.—(Hear, hear.) Trade has been
smashed.—(` Hear, hear' from the Irish Members.) The
landlords were ruined.—(Hear, hear.) The tenants
were broken.—(' Hear' from the same quarter.) The
labourers were in the poor-house, and such of the people
as had the means were flying out of the kingdom by
parishes." The Irish nation, totally wrecked, was left to
be devoured by its own paupers. The cities, towns, and
villages were half deserted. The cottages of many of the
peasants were levelled to the ground, and their former
tenants were wandering about the country as beggars
and thieves. The emigration that was going on proved
the miserable condition of the country, and he was
alarmed when be considered the class who were leaving
the country. The pauper was left behind, but the
farmer, with capital, was taking his leave. He fully
agreed with what Lord Stanley had said on this subject,
when addressing his friends a few nights ago. He be-
lieved nothing but extreme misery, or the prospect of it,
could drive an Irishman from the land of his birth.
Another, and perhaps the strongest proof of the wretched
state of Ireland, was the amount of offences against pro-
perty without violence. In 1845 the number was 6,686,
but in 1849 it wes 23,179.—(Hear, hear.) He perceived
from the newspapers of that day that a deficiency had
occurred in the Customs revenue of Ireland to the
amount of 87,0001. In this country the Customs re-
venue had increased, but in Ireland it had diminished.
In the last month there had been in Ireland a deficiency
in the circulating medium of 120,000/. Did not such a
state of things demand inquiry ?—(Hear.) He hoped
Government were not unwilling to grapple with the
subject. If they admitted what he had said, and should
tell him that they had no remedy, they would confess
their impotence to govern the country. He begged
to move that a Select Committee be appointed to in-
quire into the present condition of Ireland, with a view
to suggest some remedy for the distress existing there.
Sir L. O'BRIEN said it was little known to the House
what was passing in some districts of Ireland. The case
of Kilrush had been brought under notice the other
night; and though he objected to the slur cast upon the
chairman in that instance—as a more honourable man
did not live—it was the truth that lls. in the pound had
already been paid for poor-rates, and now another rate
of 4s. 6d. further was added to it. But this was not all.
In the Callan union 15s. was paid in the pound,
leaving 4s. 6d. only for the landlord. The
consequence was that the farmers threw up the
land and went to America, leaving the landlord
to pay the rate. The estimate for the support of the
poor was 16s. 10d. in the electoral division with which
he was connected; and in the Kenmure union it was
1/. 6s. He asked the Government how did they mean to
deal with the question? They had got 68,0001. from the
rate-in-aid this year. What would they do next year?
The multiplication of grime was awful. One gaol built
:or 169 prisoners had now 600 within its walls, and its

annual cost was increased from 1,0001, to 6,0001. The
workhouses were equally crowded as the gaols: in the
city of Limerick alone there were 7,000 people in the
union, living on the poor-rates. The landlords of Ire-
land were driven by the terrible pressure to demand the
workhouse test. He called upon the Government to give
more weight, in the administration of the law, to the
local authorities; and he was satisfied the country gen-
tlemen would administer it better, and at less expense.
Last year the poor-law Btu* cost 17,0001.—more than a
third of all that was spent on the poor; all of which
might be saved if his proposition ware adopted. Ile
supported the motion for a Committee.
Sir W. SOMERVILLE said the Hon. Baronet who
introduced the motion had introduced it in an ingenious
manner. He said he attributed the distress of Ireland
to the famine, the corn-law, and the poor-law; but he
attacked, the poor-law alone, and left the impression
that it was to that law alone the present misery of Ire-
land was to be traced.
Sir W. BARRON—No, no.
Sir W. SOMERVILLE—The llon.Gentleman seemed
to refer to 1845 as a period of prosperity in Ireland; but
he (Sir W. Somerville) referred to the Member for the
University of Dublin, and also to the report of Lord
Devon's Commission, to show that in this year the condi-
tion of the labouring population of Ireland was the most
wretched and most miserable imaginable.—(Hear, hear.)
The Hon. Gentlemen drew a comparison between the
amount of rates in 1848 and 1851, omitting the interme-
diate periods; but the returns of all the years would
show whether there was such an increase in the rates
and in the number of paupers. There were the ex-
penses of the poor-law in three years, and the numbers
relieved :

Cost. Numbers relieved.
1848 ... £425,000 ... 555,000
1849 ... 302,000 290,000
1850 ... 247,000 ... 200,000
He (Sir W. Somerville) did tot mean to say that Ireland
was in a prosperous state, but he did assert that the com-
parison of the lion. Gentleman was not accurate. The
Hon. Gentleman said ho had moved the omission of out-
door relief in the amended poor-law, but that he (Sir
W. Somerville) had opposed it. But the Hon. Baronet
was obliged to admit that the poor-law board had acted
up to the spirit of the law in every respect, and he cen-
sured that board for doing that which he did himself.
The Hon. Gentleman proved from Captain Larcom's re-
port, by some process he (Sir W. Somerville) did not
comprehend, that there was a decreased quantity of land
cultivated in Ireland; but as he (Sir W. Somerville) read
that report, he came to a contrary conclusion. Captain
Larcom's report did not exist in 1845—not until 1847.
This was the return:—

TOTAL ACRES UNDER CULTIVATION.
1847 ... ... 5,238,575
1848 ... 5,108,0E2
1849 . . 5,543,000

Sir W. BARRON said the Right Hon. Gentleman had
misapprehended him. What he said was, that in corn
—including peas and wheat—Captain Larcom's returns,
in 1847, gave 8,313,579 acres under cultivation, while,
in 1849, 2,174,480 acres only were under such cultiva-
tion, leaving a deficit of 1,139,000 acres.
Sir W. SOXIERVILLE.—It did not signify what was
the cultivation, so long as the land was cultivated; and
he thought green crops were all the better. The mean
result, however, was, that more land was under culti-
vation in 1849 than in 1847. There was the subject,
too, of the export of cattle. In dealing with the statis-
tics of that question also, his Hon. Friend had only taken
as much as suited his purpose. One useful description of
animal might have fallen off; but there were documents
on the table of the House to show that the exportation of
horses and other cattle had increased since 1849. Now,
he might urge from these that Ireland was in a state of
prosperity, bill he did not want to do any such thing,
although ho wished he could avouch as much; all he
wanted to say was, that which he thought—namely,
that within the last two years, as compared with the two
miserable preceding ones, there was some improvement
and some amelioration in the condition of the country.—
(Hear.) The Hon. Baronet had then branched off to his
own locality, and had told them that the county cess paid
by the City of Waterford was less than it was years ago.
Now he (Sir W. Somerville) did not mean to say from
that that the city was in a flourishing condition; what
he meant to say was, that picking out statements after
that manner was not the mode of furnishing the real facts
of the me, and arguments founded on such ought not to