The Sun.
London, England, 1821-12-25 00:00:00

wouicLbe fruitless, perhaps more injurious than otherw,...e.
While, on the other hand," you say, " It is certainly, possible
evenlor sbsentee Landlords to promote these objects almost
effectually as if they resided-On their respective estates;"'

With regard to Landloeds residing.—Though
it cannot be supposed that the residence of w!sli-
educated and well-conducted men could fail of
being an advantage to any Country, yet froin the
former and present practice of letting lands to,
Tenants who do not occupy, but who are resident,
perhaps, in some distant town„ or even so far
away as in England, and from (as 1 before stat-
ed,) the pernicious practice pursued by the occu-
pying Tenants of letting and re-letting frorn one
to the other, and, after these minute divisions
and sub-divisions, called farms, again allotting
smaller portions of ground to labourers,-frotn these
causes, therefore; when Landlords became set-
tled upon their estates, they would soon perceive
themselves. to be mere cyphers, surrounded by
hosts of cultivators, who were tenants to ottie-i'
men, and over whom they could have no sort of
controul, but, on the contrary, they would be
kept in a perpetual state of vexation from the
poorer classes of renters and labourers committing
unceasing. pillage and thefts upon their trees,
fences, hay, turnips (if they ventured to grow
them,) and perhaps upon their flocks of sheep.

The extensive plans of public improvement
which you say the Landowners ought patiently
and unceasingly to devise and carry into effect,
are not to be accomplished except by the assist-
ance of Government. As an absentee Landlord,
possessing sufficient knowledge of the circum-
stances relating to Ireland, (from having resided
at different periods of my life in different partS
of that Kingdom,) to enable me to judge more
correctly than many others of what alterations
may be really serviceable to it, I have thought
it my duty, from time to time, to point out suck'
improvements as appeared to me likely to be be-
neficial to the public. I some time since exerted
myself to draw the attention of Government to a
public work in the South of Ireland, which, if it
were now carried into execution, would give-eth'-
ployment to the peasantry in the district which
is the seat of the present disturbance, and, no
doubt, by furnishing the means of subsistence to
that part of the population at present unemploy-
ed, (who, as I have been told, would' work for
4d. per day ! ! !) would check the further spread
of snch outrages as have been lately committed,
and render it improbable, when they were -onC,e.
put -a-stop to, that they should ever again occur:
The district in which -the disturbances prevail
more than in any other part of Ireland, lies be-
tween Cork and Limerick ; in •no part of ;thee
United Kingdom do the people experience such
dreadfal distress for fuel as in this disturbed dis-
trict. In consequence -of the deficiency.of this
necessary of life, the want of which, at all seasons
of the year, is ten thousand times nare-severely
felt by those who (like the mass of the population
of Ireland) subsist themselves upon potatoes,
than by those, who, (like the English labourers)
subsist upon bread, cheese,and other articles which
seldom require the consumption of fuel. From
this distress for fuel, and the wish in the interior
of this district to obtain the bituminous coal of
England, and a cheap conveyance, not only for
Coal, but also for Corn, Flour, Limestone;•• and
Timber, (of which article Ireland • affords none
for building, or scarcely any for making Ploughs,
Harrows, or field gates), and also. Slate, Iron, and
other weighty orbulky materials, or manufactured
articles, it was therefore' thought requisite that, a
Canal should be dug between the above mentioned
two cities, passing through, or near to, several
towns in the interior, the inhabitants of which
were -certain of becoming wealthy, if Coal and
the other articles enumerated could be conveyed
at a cheap rate to and from the coast. At the
time. of high prices, when money was of course
more plentiful than at present, the plan of digging
a Canal from Cork to Limerick was in agitation,
and I have been informed that an Engineer *as
employed to survey the ground and to mark out
the course of the intended Canal ; but, from the
jealousy of certain individuals, this great National
work was crushed in its infancy. I consider
this as the greatest misfortune, for not only doi
think the digging of this Canal would have had a
powerful effect in preventing these unhappy dis-
turbances, but I am also quite sure that nothing
can be done to better the wretched condition of
the people of the disturbed' parts of the South of
Ireland, without sufficient supplies of the bitu-
minous coal of England ; for without it no ma-
nufactures can be carried on to any beneficial
purpose, no large market town (as in England,)
can possibly arise in the interior of the country,
but a great proportion of the population will
continue to live in miserable mud hovels ; being
nearly independent of society, and only solici-
tous to raise potatoes for their subsistence, and
by some means to obtain a sufficiency of fuel to
boil them, notwithstanding their wretched state,
they will increase in number, and become dtiily
more and more turbulent and unmanageable.
Under these circumstances, I trust that Govern-
ment kill see the necessity of giving employment
to the well disposed lahonrer between Cork and
Limerick, in carrying into execution the great
public work before mentioned, which, in its pro-
gress, will be a means of checking the disturb-
ances, and when completed will not only enrich
the South of Ireland, but alter the manners and
habits of its people ; and, at the same time, as
coal and other materials and manufactured arti-
cles will be required in much greater quantities
than before—it is evident that the wealth of
England will proportionably increase.
am,l
_ •"
Your obedient humble Servant,
AN. ..IRISH LANDLORD.