The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-04 00:00:00

THE IRISH LAITL% LAWS.

A very able letter on the Irish land laws from"
special correspondent" appears in the Daily Telegraph.
The writer gives the history of these laws and of the
social condition of Ireland during the past century.
It was in 1760 that agrarian outrages first became
serious, and compelled the landowners to remove the
grievances of which the tenants complained. The
conspirators took the name of Whiteboys.
They committed robberies of arms, killed
and maimed cattle, and even obnoxious
persons, and burnt dwelling - houses. Their
fury was directed, not only against landlords,
but against bailiffs, against the tenants who sub-
mitted to eviction, and even against those of their
own class who would not join the conspiracy. Tithes
and county cess were among the causes of discontent,
but the main cause was the exorbitant rent of land.
The Irish Parliament, which was composed almost
entirely of landowners, refused to examine the causes
of discontent during the forty years that elapsed
between the outbreak of agrarianism and the Union.
The Attorney-General in 1787, though a member of
a High Tory Administration, and addressing a Par-
liament of landowners, spoke in the strongest terms
of that class. He declared that it was impossible for
human wretchedness to surpass that which existed in
Munster. He said :

" I know that the unhappy tenantry are ground to
powder by relentless landlords. I know that, far from
being able to give the clergy their just dues, they have not
food or raiment for themselves. The landlord grasps the
whole ; and sorry I am to add that, not satisfied with the
present extortion, some landlords have been so base as to
Instigate the insurgents to rob the clergy of their tithes,
not in order to alleviate the distresses of the tenantry, but
that they might add the clergy's share to the cruel rack-
rents already paid !"

The Union took place, but it had no effect upon
the social condition of the peasantry. Committees
of both Houses of Parliament were appointed in
1824. The evidence given before them was Wrible.
Mr. Blackburne, who subsequently held the highest
legal posts under Conservative Administrations, said
of county Kerry that there being no manufactures
land had become a necessary of life. As the popula-
tion multiplied the demand for land increased, and
at last the rent became so high that the tenants
could not pay it. Sir George Lewis, writing
twelve years later, found the same condi-
tion of things, and the commission, presided
over by the Earl of Devon, reported that
it is difficult to say what compensation, apart from
land, will be adequate in a country where land alone
affords a permanent security for food." Then came
the Irish poor law of 1839, by which, and by an
extensive system of Government colonisation, Sir
George alone hoped to put down agrarian crime.
Then came the famine, clearing the estates of their
superabundant population. The total population of
Ireland in 1847 was over 81 millions ; the famine
and the exodus reduced it to GI,: millions. But it was
not the tenants who suffered during that fearful time.
The enormous poor rates overwhelmed the landlords,
and it became necessary to pass the Encumbered
Estates Acts, under which In eight years there
were no fewer than 4,413 petitions for the sale of
estates. These changes, together with repeated
promises to amend the law so as to give the tenants
protection, kept the people quiet for a time. But
repeated falsification of pledges has induced them
once more to rise against laws which even
so high a Tory as Chief Justice Pennefather
declared were "framed with a view to the
interest of the landlord, and to enforce the payment
of rent. The interest of the tenant never entered
into the contemplation of the Legislature. " The
letter concludes with remarking that Englishmen
respect the law because under it they have become
prosperous and happy. Irishmen, unfortunately,
have no such reason.