The Sun.
London, England, 1821-11-09 00:00:00

[BRITISH PRESS.]

The state of freland at the present moment
cannot fail to excite in this country a large por-
tion of public interest, for it offers many circum-
stances to oui notice which are calculated not
only to call for our deepest sympathy, but to
awaken some serious apprehensions. Accus-
tomed as we have uniformly been in this country
to a, state of comparative security, dreading
neither a musket-shot from behind a hedge as we
walk the high roads in the day-time, nor a visit
in the night from a desperate gang of armed ruf-
fians, we feel a kind of instinctive horror when
we read in the accounts from the south of Ire-
land that such outrages are there of constant
"occurrence, and we wonder at the inefficiency
vf the ordinary Authorities, which cannot
prevent or punish such atrocious offences.—
To those, however, who have remarked the im-
inense military force which has been poured into
the scenes of disturbances, the Government of
Ireland must appear to be possessed of great ac-
tivity and energy, and many will think that in
'employing an abundance of swords, muskets,
and cannons, the Government has done every
thing that can be effected by wisdom and power.
—ln noticing this circumstance some short time
since, we took the liberty of expressing our ap-
prehensions that swords, muskets, and cannons,
though useful on proper occasions, as auxiliaries
to the civil power, would not by themselves be
productive of much good in restoring the system
of society in the disturbed districts to its proper
tone; and we lament to find that the experience
of their efficacy hitherto has not tended to re-
move our fears. The accounts from the south of
Ireland still exhibit offences differing only in the
increased fearlessness of the perpetrators from
those which had caused the employment of so
large a force, and we find obnoxious individuals
amcked, and houses robbed of fire-arms—one
being plundered even in the noon-day, almost
within musket-shot of military parties.

[MORNING CHRONICLE.]

The Ultra Journal, in remarking on the Speech
of the French King, says, " the diminotion of
the oppressive Tax on Land Xcontribution fon-
ciere ) does, we admit, present some prospect of
relief. This, however, must be quite illusory, so
long as the monstrous system of perpetual subdi-
vision of landed property exists in France. That
law, the result of the grossest stupidity in poli-
tics, must ruin any nation ; and if we felt a sen-
timent of hostility towards France, ewe should
prefer such a law, as a mode of ruining the coun-
try, to twenty victories obtained by our arms."
We are free to allow, that the subdivision of
possessions or farms may prevail in a country to a
ruinous extent ; but it is a great mistake to
suppose that this evil can be cured by a
law of primogeniture. At this moment Ire-
land, with a law of primogeniture, and im-
mense landed properties, is split up into mi-
serable patches. France, before the Revolution,
exhibited the same spectacle. The possessions
of the Noblesse descended to the oldest son, but
at the time of the Revolution, seven-eighths of
France, according to Arthur Young, were occu-
pied by Metayers, men in the lowest state of
poverty, to whom the landlord furnished cattle,
seed, 8.7.. c. while he shared the produce with
them. In many parts the land was let to
Middlemen, who re-let it in small divisions to
Metayers. " The division of the farms and po-
pulation is so great," says Arthur Young, " that
the misery flowing from it in many places is ex-
treme•; the idleness of the people is seen the
moment you enter the town on a market day ;
the swarms of people are incredible." The same

Writer accounts for this wretchedness and subdi-
vision of farms. " That the poverty of the te4
nantry, which has given rise to this mischievous'
practice, has arisen from the principles of an ar-,
bitrary Government, cannot be doubted. heavy:
taxes on the farmers, from which the Nobility
and Clergy are exempt, and those taxes levied
arbitrarily at the will of the Intendant and
his stibdelegldl, have been sufficient to impo-
verish the lower classes. .

The farmers are really poor, or apparently
poor, since a rich man will affect poverty, to
escape the arbitrary rise of a tax which pro-
fetses to be in proportion tb his power of bear,
ing it : hence poor Cattle, poor implements, and
poor dung-hills, even on the farms of Men who
could afford the best. What a ruinous and de-
testable system, and how surely calculated to
stop the current of the wealth of the Sovereign as
well as of his people l What man of common
sense and • feeling can lament the fall of a Go-
vernment that conducted itself on such princi-
ples ? And who can justly condemn the people
for their violence, in wresting from the Nobility
and Clergy those privileges and distinctions
which they had used so unworthily, to the de.
pression and ruin of all the inferior classes ?" A
population like this, bred up in ignorance, lazi-
ness, and wretchedness, could not possibly pos-
sess any enterprize, and a mart never thought
of quitting the spot on. which he was born,
while he could obtain the smallest portion
of land. This attachment to the soil, " kept
up by the laws of a people originally in A state
of slavery," became so rooted with them, that
when.in America, as Volney observes, the-French
" blame as immoral the readiness with which an
American sells and quits the estate on which he
was born, or which he has purchased and im-
proved by his own labours, to go and fix himself
in another, though it is not easy to see what mo-
rality there can be in remaining in a place which
you do not find to your wish." And these habits,
the result of ages of misgovernment, accompany-
ing the French to America, kept thorn every
where poor and wretched, while the English,
Swiss, Dutch, and Germans, were every where

thriving.