The Sun.
London, England, 1850-04-05 00:00:00

t more judicious system, might become the creators of
national wealth, are permitted to remain burdens on
the resources of their country —unprofitable con-
sumers, in place of skilful producers. The sterling
ore is there, but the mint stamp is wanting that
would render it available. It possesses real capital
in abundance, but the measure and representative of
value is wanting—a currency adequate to the wants
and exigencies of the country, which would supply
the very life-blood of industry.
Irish landlords have been considered, and in some
degree justly considered, responsible for this untoward
state of affairs. But many, very many, who possess
the inclination want the power to carry their wishes
into practical execution. Some are embarrassed by
the enormous weight of encumbrances handed down
as heir-looms through successive generations ; others
are entitled to but limited estates in their lands : all
are injured by the want of facilities for obtaining the
necessary advances for the permanent and lasting
improvement of their properties, either by way of
loans, or even by the disposal of a portion of their
hereditary domains for the amelioration of the residue.
Even the unembarrassed owner of an entailed estate--
and how few are so favourably circumstanced ?—could
not procure money for its improvement except on
the most exorbitant terms, by way of annuity, with
an insurance on his life, &c., &c. And even if
possessed of other resources, he could not apply them
with justice to the junior members of his family.
The law which gave all to the eldest son, to the ex-
clusion of his less favoured brothers and sisters, made
no allowance to the representatives of the tenant for
life, for the money expended and the improvements
effected on the estate ; and the father would naturally
husband his resources in order to increase the scanty
portions of his younger children, and to enable them
to retain their position in society, :and to enjoy some
of the comforts to which they were accustomed in
their earlier days, rather than to enhance the already
large fortune of the heir by judicious ameliorations.
The law itself, therefore, was more in fault than the
much vituperated landlords of Ireland for the
neglected condition of the soil, and the want of re-.
munerative and reproductive employment for the
labouring population.
If this law at all times, and even before the mys-
terious visitation by which the food of the great ma-
jority of the people was blighted and converted into
a mass of rottenness and corruption, required altera-
tion, it became then at least an imperative necessity.
A statute was enacted by which the poverty of the
country became for the first time a charge upon its
property. Several millions of human beings were
reduced to a state of the most heartrending distress
and destitution, and new liabilities of im-
mense magnitude devolved upon the owners of
land throughout the entire country. But
no adequate measures were passed fir their
relief. Some grants were made and loans
granted, but these were rather for the purpose of
saving the starving labourers from actual death by
doling out a scanty supply barely sufficient to keep
life and soul together, rather than for enabling the
embarrassed proprietors to improve their lands and
to sustain the new and onerous burdens imposed on
them. It was obvious that the only way that the
exigency could be provided for was by enabling the
landowners to affJrd reproductive employment to the
able-bodied labourers, whom they would otherwise
support in idleness. But this imperative duty
could not, in the great majority of in-
stances, be adequately discharged unless fur-
ther facilities were granted to enable them to
obtain the necessary funds, on the only security which
they had to offer—viz., on the land, itself, on the
improvement of which the money was to be expended.
This is now about to be confined to a certain extent
by the Solicitor-General's Bill; but, unfortunately,
the much required boon is not to be conceded to those
who have encountered the brunt of the storm, who
have withstood the enormous pressure to which they
were exposed. On the contrary, they will be further
injured by the additional assistance about to be
bestowed on new men, who may come forward to
purchase properties at greatly reduced prices, to seize
the spoil of the shipwreck.
On this part of the case we would invite the
attention of our readers to a letter which appears
in another part of this day's impression from
an Irish gentleman of great intelligence and high re-
spectability. It is due to Mr. BOWEN to state that his
communication was written before he could by a possi-
bility have seen the article on the subject which ap-
peared in The Sun of the 28th ultimo. His letter
was posted in Dublin on that day, so that any simi-
larity that may appear between his views and our own
must be ascribed to a coincidence of opinions on this
important subject, and to no other cause.
,Mr. Bowers
so closely shows, that the " attempt to raise the
value of encumbered estates by means which must
have the effect of depreciating those which are unencum-
bered, and of reducing the value of their security below
its natural level as to place the injustice and impolicy
of the Bill in its present restricted form in the
strongest light. It is, in fact, the granting of " a
bounty," and that of no inconsiderable character, to
the purchasers of lands under the Commission. They
alone will be enabled to obtain loans on reasonable
terms, and there is even reason to fear that mortgagees
of other estates will call in their charges for the pur-
pose of re-investment on the security of lands having
a Parliamentary title, debentures on which may be
granted for convenient amounts, that will circulate in
the money market as readily as Exchequer-bills, or
even Bank of Ireland notes, bearing a higher rate of
interest than the former, and fructifying and increas-
ing while locked up in the strong-box, or deposited at
the bankers, in place of being wholly unproductive
like the latter.
Mr. BOWEN some time since, in 1848, published a
letter* addressed to the First Lord of her MAJESTY'S
Treasury, which contained some admirable sugges-
tions. In it he suggested an inquiry into the system
of " Mortgage Banks" established in Prussis, by
which " land and interests in land" might be ren-
dered a portion of the currency and available as a
part of the capital of this great country ! We regret
that our space this day will not permit a lengthened
consideration of Mr. BOWES'S judicious propositions ;
we, however, commend his brief but able brochure to
public attention. It will well repay the calm perusal
to which it is eminently entitled.
* " Mortage Banks considered as the Means of Pro-
viding Employment in Ireland." A Letter to Lord John
Russell from C. H. Bowen, Esq. Dublin, 1848, J.
111.'Glashin. Pp. 16.