The Sun.
London, England, 1868-09-14 00:00:00

'ME SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 14, 1865.

Mil.

• 4 0

BUTT ON THE HUSH LAND
QUESTION.

Last week we gave a brief notice of the lecture
delivered by Mr. Butt, at the Threatre Royal,
Limerick, on the subject of tenant right. Theim-
portance of the question at the present moment, as
well as the masterly manner in which it was treated
by the learned lecturer, is our excuse for reproduc-
ing it at greater length than we were able to do last
week. The greatest interest was manifested by
the gentry of Cork, Kerry, Clare, Tipperary, and
the county of Limerick itself in the lecture, every
part of the capacious building being thronged by
an eager audienca, vilau showei that to them the
question was scarcely second in importance to the
disestab!ishment of the Irish Church :

Mr. BUTT, Q.C., on coining forward, was re-
ceived with most enthusiastic cheering, again and
again renewed. 3n silence was restored he said
—Mr. Chairman, and ladies and gentlemen, in ap-
proaching the great stOject which I have un-
dertaken to bring before you this evening, it
would be mere affectation to say O. It it is one of
vital importance to this country. The question is
one that touches our very national life, and we
all know and feel that. I believe no one who
thinks calmly on the question but will admit that
insecurity of tenure lies at the root and foundation
of all the evils connected with the land system in
Ireland. (Cheers.) Of coarse, too, this must be
considered with reference to the circumstances of
the country—its circumstances, social, political,
and economical. But these are very much ques-
tions of fact; and, therefore, it is a great advan-
tage to me in the views I advocate of being able to
appeal to your testimony—addressing, as I am
doing, representatives from the different localities
of three great agricultural counties. (Applause.)
First, then, I say, that as a general rule the occu-
piers of land in Ireland do not hold their farms at
any higher tenure than that of tenants from year
to year. (Applause.) Leases are the exception.
(Hear, hear.) Is that so? (Cheering, and cries "It
is.") I believe that fact is beginning to be per-
fectly appreciated by public opinion. Now, let me
make this observation :—That this is a new state
of things that has grown up within the present cen-
tury. Probably in the memory of many here leases
were the rule in Ireland—(hear, hear)--and it was
considered as a matter of course that when an estate
fell out of lease new leases should be given. It
would detain us too long to inquire into the causes
which have wrought the change. They are social,
political, and economical. The introduction of the
poor law, for instance, in the words of the late Sir
Matthew Barrington, made the landlords of Ireland
determine, in many instances, to clear the estates
to escape the heavy imposts they anticipated on
their property. Political feeling has also led to the
eviction of tenants. The progress of wealth and
free trade, too, has made many landlords consider
that they will be able to get a better return for their
land hereafter, and has thus induced them to re-
fuse their tenants leases. But no matter what
has been the cause, the fact is incontestible, that
for the first time in the history of Ireland
leases are now the exception. We are, therefore,
dealing with an entirely new state of facts. I
would also say, the landed proprietors of Ireland
have entered into a combination—at all events they
act in concert—in compelling their tenantry to hold
from year to year without the security of a lease.
(Cheers.) What is the effect of this ? I say that
it is—useless it is controlled by public opinion, and,
1 regret to be obliged to say, uncontrolled often by
fear of the " wild justice of revenge"—(cheers)—it
is to place the tenant in the absolute power and
dominion of the landlord. It would be idle to
quote authorities to prove this. The man in Ire-
land who is evicted from his farm has nothing else
to turn to, and therefore the power of arbitrary
eviction resting in the landlord gives him absolute
power over the very life and existence of his tenant.
(Cheers). It is a fact that every year most of the
landlords of Ireland have the absolute power of turn-
ing their tenantry naked on the world, and it only
depends on themselves whether they will exercise
that power or not—whether they will thus reduce
men, women, and children, who arc one day comfort-
able and happy, to beggary, ruin, and exile, the next.
(Cheers.) And if the landlord chooses to exert that
power,remember this—that all the power of the State
is at his command to enforce his decree. No matter
how cruel the eviction—no matter with what cir-
cumstances of injustice it may be accompanied, the
landlord can co !inland the services of the soldiery
and police of the country to enforce his conamand
and drive 11s tenantry from their houses. (Oh,
oh, and a voice " Scully," followed by prolonged
groaning.) Aud more than that—by the law of
the land every one of us—except some of my reve-
rend friends here, who from their sacred profession
would be exempt from such a service—would be
bound by the law of the laud, if he were called on,
to assist in evicting Mr. Scully's tenants. (Great
groaning.) I mention this because when people
talk of not interfering with the rights of property,
in their most extreme and unjust exercise, are en-
forced by the power of the State, which further-
more demands of you and me to aid an eviction if
called ou. (Cheers.) The man who refuses to
go with the sheriff when lie calls out the posse
conlitatus can be punished for it by the
law of the land. Now this, remember, is
a matter of fact. And it is a matter of
fact that the great majority of the tenants
of Ireland have no other interest in their farms than
one year's possession, and just as much more as the
landlord may choose to give them. (Cheers.) We
must, then, ask who are the people that have this
power, and who are those who are subject to it ?
The owners of the soil in Ireland are generally cal-
culated at 10,000. We know accurately that the
tenant farmers are about 500,000. There are
about 600,000 tenements in Ireland, `and taking
one-sixth of these as representing the holders of
town tenements and large holdings, we have half a
million representing the tillers of the soil. Now,
10,000 is too large a calculation for the persons ac-
tually landlords, though that would only give about
300 to each county. But when I speak of land-
lords I mean those in actual exercise of a landlord's
power and rights ; and making the necessary deduc-
tions from the number I have given to make this
limitation, I think I may say that the great majo-
rity of the tenant farmers of Ireland are subject to
an absolute serfdom—l believe a serfdom more
terrible than ever existed for the serf of the
feudal times, when the landlord chooses to exercise
his utmost rights—to practically about 5,000 land-
lords. And, as regards these tenants, if you take
the families of holders and farm labourers—l am
not, I think, mistaken in putting down five in each
family under these denominations, and thus you
have two and a half millions of the popula-
tion of Ireland absolutely dependent for their ex-
istence upon the will and pleasure of little more
than 5,000 people. (Cheers.) He believed evic-
tions for political causes were less frequent now
that) they once were, but simply because of the in-
creased conviction as to the strength and power of
the landlord, which would not let a tsaant brave
him if he felt inclined. As to evictions for social
causes, Mr. Kaye, in his book, had recorded that
there were, in the year 1849, 50,000 evictions in
Ireland. He himself had never been able to verify
this statement if he had not authority ; and he
was perfectly certain that all the horrors and deso-
lation of the Cromwellian wars did not bring as
many human beings to misery as did those evic-
tions. With regard to evictions for violating the
rules of the estate, he narrated a case in which
tenants on the Lansdowne estate, county
Kerry, were tried for the murder of a
boy on one occasion, at the Tralee assizes, before
Chief Baron Pigott. On the trial it was revealed
that these people drove the bey from their door in
the night, and struck the blow that caused his death,
from fear of violating a rule of the estate, not to har-
bour such persons. Mr. Butt dwelt on the horrible
tendency of such rules, when they produced such
effects as this. He also mentioned the case of a
widow lady—a lady though the widow of a tenant
farmer—(cheers)—against whom on another estate
an eviction had been sought to be enforced for har-
bouring her daughter-in-law contrary to the rules
of the estate, one of which forbade marriage in cer-
tain cases. He referred to another case that had

come within his own professional experience, where
it transpired that a landlord was in the habit of
serving every year 200 or 300 notices to quit—
not to get possession of the farms, but to arrange
them as be thought fit, without being under any
compliment to the tenants. He adverted at some
length to the Derryveagh evictions in Donegal, on
the estate of Mr. Adare, where, because the land-
lord took into his head that the tenants had
some knowledge of the parties guilty of the murder
of his steward, he turned out 340 human beings—a
whole country side—on the roadside, without food
or shelter. With regard to that question of emi-
gration, a great mistake was made by some persons
upholding extreme landlord rights. Nobody ever'.
said it was the people evicted who go to America,
but the people who dread eviction--(hear, hear)—
and it was, therefore, no answer to say that emi-
gration was not caused by evictions. It was they
who felt themselves falling who went. (Hear,
hear.) The slight decrease in the emigration re-
cently alluded to by the Duke of Abercorn at Derry
he (Mr. Butt) believed was caused by a reviving
hope that Parliament may do something to secure
their holdings to the tenants—(cheers) ; and it was
just one of the reasons why he had felt a hesitation
in coming there that evening, or in taking part in
any political action in Ireland, because he was
afraid of being a party to exciting hopes in the
people that may again he doomed to disappoint-
ment. Ile would not be telling the whole truth if
he did not say also that the emigration had been
stayed by a dangerous reliance by the people
upon a hope of coming deliverance, not by con-
stitutional means ; and very many were waiting
only to see whether it comes or not. (Cheers.) If
these hopes were disappointed—if the Legislature
put no check upon the arbitrary power of the land-
lord, and another attempted insurrection had to be
crushed—and that one would be crushed, if it were
crushed in blood--(immense cheering)—they would
see an exodus from Ireland compared with which
all they had seen was but trifling. The spectacle
would be that of a God-like people, who, leaving
their temples and shaking the dust from their feet,
would say, "Let us arise, and let us go hence ;"
and then Europe would be startled by the wail of a
nation that left its curse to its oppressors. (Ap-
plause.) He knew there were people who would
say—Let them go, and let Englishmen take their
place. Did they think the Irish would submit to
that--(no, no)—or that when they went they would
elingnsdocfome back. (Hear,
vengeance? (A
vnooticcea:rryAnwditchomtheebm feelings
A
hear.) The cost of adapting the Irish soil to
the condition in which the English people would
take it was variously estimated ; and he entered
into a calculation by which he estimated the
cost of £150,000,000. If that game were tried
and successfully —God forbid it should—the
result would bo that the landlords would
perish in the same ruin with the tenants ; for
they could not withdraw the mass that supported
the building, and not shake its summit. (Hear,
hear.) It occurred before in 1847. Don't talk to
him of English capital. As Bishop Keane had said
the true capital was in the heaven-made machine—
the strong arm, the willing heart, and the bright
intellect that God had given to wan to reclaim the
soil. (Loud cheers.) It was with that capital
whatever improvements had been made in Ireland
had been made ; and if they were to have improve-
ment in Ireland they must give the tenants security.
(Applause.) The conclusion he bad arrived at,
after long, prudent, careful—and if he knew him-
self in his own heart, after honest consideration—
(hear, hear)—was this :—He proposed that every
occupier got a lease for sixty-three years, at a fair
rent to be ascertained by valuation. (Hear, hear.)
He should bind himself not to injure his landlord's
property by any improper cultivation—not subdi-
vide without his landlord's consent—be liable to
eviction if he did not pay his rent—but, subject to
that, be should hold his land against ilia landlord.
If any accidental circumstance raised the value of
the farm independent of the tenants' improvements,
there should be a scale, such as that by which tithe
rent-charge was ascertained, by which the benefit
would be given to the landlord. (Applause. That
was his proposal, and he would abide by it. Ile
thought it the best bargain the landlords could
make. He denied that any man had a right of
property in the land in the sense that he could hold
it against the good of the people ; and he believed
there was no landed property in Ireland which was
not held upon the express conditions of placing the
tenantry with long leases upon it. When King
James confiscated the counties of Ulster, he con-
ferred them again on the express condition that
natives should tenant them for estates of lives, or
for years, or in fee simple ; and that was the foun-
dation of the tenant right in the north of which
they heard so much. When the owners of the
laud sought to violate that tenant right in 1770,
the people rose in arms to resist it ; there were
special commissions to try the insurgents, but
the jurors being of their own class would not
convict them. Since then no attempt had been
made to destroy the tenant-right of the North,
and hence its prosperity. (Cheers.) Bat the
lands of Munster were granted on similar condi-
tions, and when the tenant-right was there violated
the Roman Catholic population was held down by
penal laws, and they had not the power to resist the
injustice. Let no man then tell him it was differ-
ence of race or religion that caused the difference
in point of prosperity between the North and South
of Ireland. It was tenant right—security of tenure,
and that training from early childhood in a feeling
of independence. (Cheers.) Concluding his lec-
ture Mr. Butt said one day or other by some means
the serfdom of the Irish nation will come to an end.
(Hear, hear, and
loud cheers.) The mighty voice
of mankind proclaims all over Europe and in Ame-
rica that slavery
is broken down—even in the wild
steppes of Russia the voice of a despot has declared
serfdom abolished ; and in the course of events,
sooner or later,
peacefully or by violence, freedom
will come to the serfs of Ireland. (Enthusiastic
applause.) I hope it will come peacefully ; and if
anything I have said to-night—or any labour I have
taken upon me in endeavouring to point public at-
tention to this great question, contributes to its
right and just solution, I certainly shall feel I have
not laboured in vain. Mr. Butt resumed his seat
amid immense and prolonged applause.

The Rev. Dr. Drew, Rector of Loughinialand,
has addressed the following letter to Mr. Butt,
Q.C., in reference to the above lecture
" Dundrum, Clough, County Down,
September 7.

"My dear Butt,—lf every other man in the
world entertained doubts of my sincerity, you, at
least, would give me credit for honesty and just in-
tentions. I write to you accordingly, because my
mind has been stirred in its inmost depths by the
perusal of your address in my native city of Lime-
rick. I do not regard the subject of your address
as a political one. It ought to be regarded solely
as a question of humanity, justice, common sense,
and common honesty. I wish my lot had never
been cast in rural places. As a clergyman, I hear
what neither landlords nor agents never hear. I see
the depression of the people; their sighs and groans
are before me. They are brought so low as often to
praise and glorify those who, in their secret hearts,
are the objects of abhorrence. All this came out
gradually before me. Nor did I feel as I ought to
feel in their behalf until, in my own person and
purse, I became the victim of a system of tyranny
which cries from earth to Heaven for relief. Were
I to narrate my own story it would startle many of
the Protestants of Ireland. There are good land-
lords—never a better than the late Lord Down-
shire or the living and beloved Lord Roden. But
there are too many of another state of feeling and
action. There are estates in the north where the
screw is never withdrawn from its circuitous and
oppressive work. Tenant-right is an unfortunate and
delusive affair, simply because it is almost invariably
used to the landlord's advantage. Hero we have an
election in prospect, and in many counties no
farmer will be permitted to think or act for him-
self. What right any one man has to demand the
surrender of another's vote I never could see. It is
an act of sheer felony—a perfect 'stand and de-
liver' affair. To hear a man slavishly and timor-
ously say, I must give my votes as the landlord

wishes,' is an admission that the Legislature which
bestowed the right of voting on the tenant should
not see him robbed of his right, or subsequently
scourged or banished from home and land because
he disregarded a landlord's nod or the menaces of a
land agent. At no little hazard of losing the friend-
ship of some who are high, and good, and kind, I
write as I now do.—Yours, my dear Butt, very sin-
cerely,
" THOMAS DREW."

THE WES7IIIINS7ER REGIS7RATION.
(THIS DAY.)

Mr. Senior, the barrister appointed to revise the
list of voters for the city of Westminster, opened
his court this morning, in the Lords' Justices Court,
Westminster Hall.

Mr. Norman was the Liberal agent, Mr. Walter
Noakes and Capt. Armstrong for the Conservatives,
and Mr. Moon supported the lodger claimants.
The preliminaries having been arranged, it was
decided to take the householders first and the lodger
claimants after. The parish of St. Ann's, Soho,
was first taken.