The Sun.
London, England, 1845-02-24 00:00:00

be placed upon some ene favourite plan, as likely to afford an
effectual remedy for the admitted evils; whereas we feel certain
that such substantial and permanent relief to the distress still
prevalent in Ireland, can only be hoped for from a combination
of measures adapting themselves to the varying circumstances
under which the owners and occupiers of land are placed in dif-
ferent parts of the country.
We find that the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the
nature and extent of the several hogs in Ireland, and the prac-
ticability of draining arid cultivating them, appointed under the
49th George 111., c. Itt2, made four several reports in 1810,
1811, and 1814, in which they express their entire conviction
of the practicability or cultivating with profit an immense ex-
tent of land lying waste in Ireland. They confine their re-
commendations to the legislative removal of the obstacles to
the improvement of these lands, which arise from the uncer-
tainty prevailing with regard to the boundaries of contiguous
estates, and from the existence of various rights upon them,
which are claimed by the neighbouring tenantry • and to
which obstacles they considered that the uncultivated state of
these lands was chiefly to be ascribed.
In the year 1819 a Select Committee of the House of Com-
mons on the state of disease and employment of the poor in
Ireland, regretting the small extent to which the recommends-
tions of the farmer Commissioners had been acted upon, and
pointing out the great evils of a redundant population, recom-
mend the adoption of measures for the clearing, lowering, and
embanking of rivers, by which so much low ground in various
parts of the country is flooded, and for the drainage and re-
clamation of bogs and marshes. They also strongly urge the
opening of communications through the mountain districts, and
with the fisheries on their coasts, on principles similar to those
applied in the case of the Highlands of Scotland.
The Select Committee of the Commons, in 1823, advert to
the mi•ery among the poor, arising from the want of employ-
ment. This want they considered might be supplied, in part
at least, by the extension of the linen trade to the south of
Ireland—by the continued encouragement of fisheries—by the
erection of piers and the formation of harbours—by the open-
ing of mountain roads, and by any other works of public
utility; all being aided and encouraged by public money, "given
by the nation to stimulate private exertions."
The Committee also express their concurrence in an opinion
stated in the report of 1819, of the necessity of passing a general
Drainage Bill for Ireland.
The reports of Committees of both Houses of Parliament,
in 1825, contain a great variety of suggestions made to them
ith reference to the political and social state of Ireland,
which they press upon the attentive consideration of Parlia-
ment ; but as these suggestions are rather reported as points
for consideration than as being supported by the opinion of the
respective Committees, it does not appear to be necessary to
state them at length in this place.
In three reports in 1826 and 1827, from the Select Com •
mittee on emigration from the United Kingdom, the condi-
tion of Ireland, and the state of its poorer classes, are par-
ticularly referred to, and emigration advocated as the only
effectual means of removing the evils of over-population,
pauperism, mendicancy, and destitution which prevail in
that country, and of obtaining the advantages proposed to
he effected by the Irish Subletting Act, then lately passed
(7 Geo. IV., e. 29.)
In 1830 a Select Committee of the House of Commons, on
the state of the poorer classes in Ireland, took a large body of
evidence on the condition of the people of that country, and in
their report laid before the House a summary of that evidence,
with their observations upon it.
In speaking of the peasantry generally, the Committee state
" a very considerable praportion of the population (variously
estimated at a fourth and a fifth of the whole) is considered to
he out of employment." Great distress is described as ensuing
from the want of demand for labour; but notwithstanding the
misery in many districts, there is said to be evidence of great
improvement in the state of the peasantry of late years, and
every indication of its continuance.
The next topic reported on by the Committee is the law and
practice in the relations between landlord and tenant. After
describing the extent to which the subletting and subdivision
of farms and lands had been carried during the war, and under
the influence of war prices, and the change in the system of
managing lands which took place at the peace, they speak of the
misery occasioned to the ejected tenantry by the consolidations
of farms. Still, however, being of opinion that such consolida-
tion was absolutely necessary, the Committee proceed with a
summary view of the state of trade—the effects of steam navi-
gation—the state of manufactures—the state of the savings'
banes, and the charitable loan societies—the health of the
poor, as shown by the admission to fever hospitals--and the
state of the country, as described by the criminal returns; and
after an account of the laws which affect the poor, and of the
charitable institutions of Ireland, both public and private, they
state the remedial measures which they propose fur adoption,
of which the following appear to come within the scope of our
inquiry :-
1. The extension of public works upon the principle of loans
repayable and adequately secured.
By extracts from former reports they prove that for a long
period admissions have been made by Parliamentary authori-
ties, that the then system of carrying on public works had been
lung open to serious objection. They describe the system
pursued: in the Highlands of Scotland, and the beneficial results
attending it, and state their conviction that equally good effects
would ensue from the adoptions of a similar system in Ireland,
founding that conviction on the great improvement produced
in various parts of the country by public works, effected by
public grants or loans in aid of local funds, or upon the security
of local taxes.

2. The extension of inland navigation on similar principles.
3. Improvement of the grand jury laws.
After referring to the importance and nature of these laws,
the Committee turn to the question of the applotment of the
assessments, and express their decided opinion ,that the county
assessments should, in whole or in part, be imposed upon the
landlords. In support of their view, they qUote from reports
made by former Committees, and the evit:ence taken before
them on the subject.

The Committee advert to other proposed amendments in the
grand jury system, relating to the more equable distribution
of public works, and a more convenient period for their exe-
eution=viz., when there is least demand for agricultural la-
bour, and to the establishment of money payments in all pub-
lic works.
4. Drainage and embankments.

The Committee, strongly impressed with the advantage of
this class of improvements, recommend the trial of one or two
experiments in the reclamation of waste lands, on a limited
scale, at the public expense.
5. A correction of the abuses incidental to the system of
tolls and customs.
7. Emigration.
Emigration is considered by the Committee to be pecu-
liarly applicable, as a remedial measure, to the present state
of Ireland, and of the relations of landlord and tenant there.
They recommend that facilities should be afforded by Go-
vernment to such peasants as were disposed voluntarily to emi-
grate, and who could, either by themselves or their landlords
(it being for the interest of both that farms should be consoli-
dated), provide funds to defray the expense of their passage and
location in America.

10. A correction of the abuses incidental to custodian writs.
11. A cheap and effectual mode of determining disputed
wills, legacies, and intestacies, for small sun's.

It is proposed by the Committee to give power to the as-
sistant barristers to adjudicate in those matters, in respect to
sums of a limited amount.

The report conchides with the enumeration of a series of
measures, proposed with the view of carrying out the recom-
mendations contained in it.

As a means of alleviating the distress occasioned by the re-
moval of tenants, it is proposed by the Select Committee on
the state of Ireland in 1832, that public money should be given
in aid of such sums as may be paid by a landlord to a removed
and destitute tenant, with a view to its being employed in
emigration.

The Select Committee, in 1835, on the amount of advances
made by the Commissioners of Public Works, in their two
reports, urged the importance of an extension of public
works, on the principle of loans and grants; and of an ex-
tensive system of drainage and land improvement under the
Board of Works; and they proposed several amendmi.ths in
the law, to give additional facilities fur the attainment of both
these objects.

Among other matters not embraced by the commission
under which we are acting, the Commissioners of Poor Inquiry
(in their third report, 1635) recommend the adoption of mea-
sures to promote emigration trom Ireland, partly by aid from the
general funds of the empire, and partly by rates and contribu-
tions in Ireland.

With a view to the improvement of land in Ireland, they
recommend the appointment of a Board of Improvement, with
extensive powers for the drainage and reclamation of unculti-
vated and partially cultivated lands. They propose to combine
in some respects the operations of this new board with those of
the Board of Works, and that the fund at the disposal of the
latter should be increased ; they also recommend that additional
powers should be conferred on that board, with a view to the
promotion of all public works; and in order to remove some
of the obstacles which have hitherto stood in the way of ex-
tensive improvements, they propose to give to tenants for life,
&c., in Ireland, certain leasing and charging powers not now
possessed by them.
The Committee of 1836 directed their inquiries into the
duties, salaries, and fees of the officers paid by the counties,
and into the presentments compulsory on grand juries. 'I hey
recommend the union of same offices, more particularly of
the Clerk of the Crown and the Clerk of the Peace, and that
the duties of the united office be performed in person by a
resident officer ; also the appointment of assistants to the
county surveyor, and the reduction of the class of compulsory
presentments.
The Commission of 1840, appointed to revise the several
laws whereby moneys were then raised by grand jury pre-
sentments, recommended, among many other changes, that
magistrates qualified by property within the barony, and the
elected guardians of the poor, should alone form the dis-
trict presentment sessions' court, of which there was to be but.
one in the year; that there should be a finance committee and
road wardens to pay the contractors quarterly; that the
Board of Works should have a corps of assistant en-
gineers under it for the more effectual control of new roads ;
that the offices of clerk of the peace and clerk of the crown,
and those of treasurer and secretary, be united ; that a judicial
committee of the Privy Council be appointed as a board of
appeal from the decision of grand juries and of the Board of
Works, and that the Privy Council should make rules for the
management of all gaols.
Lastly, the Committee of 1844, on the townland valuation,
recommended that the system of valuation which had been
adopted on the stiigOitiatt of the select committee of 1824 on
the survey and valuation of /relaud, and under the provisions
of the 6 and 7 Wm. IV., c. 84, should be discontinued, and
that a tenement valuation according to the net annual value for
a fair average term of years, and -applicable to the imposition
and levy of all local taxes, be substituted.
Th.?), then proceeded to suggest that the county cess and the
poor rate should be levied together, and that the same prin-
ciple of payment between landlord and tenant be applied to
both taxes. •
_

The principal measures which appear to have followed from
:hone various Committees and Commissions have been, the

tow gland survey, the valuation Acts, the several public works
Acts, the drainage Acts, the Act for the abolition of custodiam
writs, an extension of the civil bill jurisdiction to legacies of
small amount, and the alteration of the grand jury system by
the Acts of 1834 and 1836. _ . .

At this stage of our report, and before adverting to those
details to which the course of our inquiries has directed our
attention, it may be proper to make a few observations of a
general nature, and having, as we conceive, an important
bearing upon every part of the subject under consideration.
Whatever difference of opinion may be put forward or enter-
tained upon other point,, the testimony given is unfortunately
too uniform in representing the unimproved state of extensive
districts, the want of employment, and the consequent poverty
and hardships under which a large portion of the agricultural
population continually labour.
The obvious remedy for this state of things is to provide
remunerative employment, which may at once increase the
productive powers of the country, and improve the condition of
the people.
By what means and under what arrangements for the occu-
pation of land, this object can be most certainly attained—what
difficulties and impediments may be removed—and what assist-
ance can be properly given by the interference of Parliament or
the exertions of individuals, are points well worthy of considera-
tion by all those who have the welfare of Ireland at heart, and
upon which it will be our duty to offer some suggestions ; but
we wish, in this place, to record our decided opinion, that agri-
cultural improvement, that is, an increased and improved culti-
vation of the soil of Ireland, is one of the first and most im-

portant steps towards improvement in the condition of the people.
Another general remark which our tour through the country
and an extensive intercourse with the farming classes enables
us to make, is, that in almost every part of Ireland unequivocal