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

REPORT OF THE IRISH LAND
COMMISSIONERS.

TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.
.May it please your Majesty,
Your Majesty's commission, bearing date the 20th of Nov.,
1843, having directed us to inquire into the state of the law
and practice, in respect to the occupation of land in Ireland,
and in respect also to the burdens of county cess and other
charges which fall respectively on the landlord and occupying
tenant; and to report as to the amendments, if any, of the
existing laws, which, having due regard to the just rights of
property, may he calculated to encourage the cultivation of the
t' soil, to extend a better system of agriculture, and to improve
the relation between landlord and tenant in that part of the
United Kingdom, it is row our duty to lay before your Majesty
a statement of our proceedings, and the opinions which our
investigations have led us to form.
We met in Dublin early in December, and appointed as our
secretary John Pitt Kennedy. Esq., formerly of the Royal
Et gineers, and resident for many years in Ireland, where he has
devoted much attention to all matters connected with land in
that country.
Our attention was, in the first instance, naturally directed
to an examination of the state of the law of landlord and
tenant, and the practice under it ; and with this view we exa-
mined many of the assistant barristers and agents extensively
engaged in the management of estates in different parts of the
country, and other persons whom we thought likely to give us
genersl information.
For the purpose also of obtainiug evidence upon the subjects
of our inquiry from different parts of the country, and from
various classes of persons, we addressed the letter (No. I, ap-
pended to this report) to every board of guardians throughout
the country, to every Bishop of the Established Church, to
every Roman Catholic Bishop, and to the heads of the Presby-
terian Church, from whom generally we received material
assistance.
Numerous communications soon poured in upon us, from all
parts of the country, many of them having reference to parti-
cular cases, and others conveying suggestions, or giving hints
for inquiry; and several documents, and some witnesses were
also sent to us for examination by a committee of the Repeal
Association. IVe then addressed the circular (No. 2) to the
parties from whom replies to our former letter had been re-
ceived; we also sent the letter (No. 3) to those by whom
statements of particular cases had been forwarded to us, and
called for several returns, to some of which more particular re-
ference will hereafter be made.
From these various sources much information was derived
before we left Dublin.
After a short time we proceeded through the counties of
Louth, Armagh, Down, Antrim, Londonderry, Tyrone, and
Monaghan.
We then adjourned to London, where we examined some
witnesses, and in the course of the summer and autumn com-
pleted our tour through the country, having thus visited and
sought information in every county in Ireland, and having at
more than 90 towns examined upon oath upwards of 1,100
witnesses, the whole of whose evidence, with their names
and descriptions, will be found in the Appendix.
We have thus obtained information from persons of every
class and condition of life, and have caused indexes to be
prepared in such a form as will afford a ready means of
reference to any part of the evidence which has been thus
taken

We explained, in the letter before referred to (No. 3), the
principle upon which we should feel it our duty sometimes to
investigate individual cases, and to hear complaints, for which
it was wholly beyond the scope of our commission to afford any
remedy.
Many such statements have been made to us which, al-
though each of them may probably relate to a single case, yet,
taken together, would, if well founded, furnish evidence of
some system calling for alteration and amendment.
individual,lvith hwiemf,elatn
and
t aoffuorrdduetyv,erays
ofparpoarstupnosi
tsyibfloer, to
Whenever the evidence had reference to the conduct of an
nc
explanation.c° m m
u ni
The statements forwarded in reply to our circulars ( Nos. 5
and 6), by those who did not consider it necessary to tender
themselves for examination, we have inserted in the Appendix
(omitting such passages as appeared to us irrelevant; and we
have taken care, by a note in the margin of the evidence, to
enable a reference to be made at once to the explanation, and a
judgment to be thus formed as to the real state of the case.
In the great majority of cases, this course of proceeding has
appeared to give satisfaction to the parties concerned ; but, in
some very few instances, individuals have declined to give any
answer to allegations which they designated as calumnious or
absurd, and have therefore left us no alternative but to report
the evidence without any explanatory statement.
Previously to our leaving Dublin, we had prepared and cir-
culated a paper of queries ( No. 4), with a view to point atten-
tion to those subjects to which our examination would be prin-
cipally directed.
In the selection of witnesses for examination we were
guided by the recommendation of the board of guardians or of
the clergy and others, made in consequence of our circular; we
also examined numerous persons who tendered evidence, and
sought out others from whom we thought that we might
derive useful information.
We had with us also a full register of all the documents and
letters that had been sent to us, with complaints or suggestions
—to all of which we gave such attention and made such in-
quiries respecting them, as, in the best exercise of our judg-
ment, they seemed to require.
In addition to all this, we saw and conversed with a great
number of persons, at different places, whose examination upon
oath we did not think it proper to take, either on account of
the vagueness of their statement, or of the length of time that
had elapsed since the facts referred to had occurred (10, 20, or
even 40 years), or because, admitting all their assertions to be
correct, we found they could not afford materials towards form-
ing a just conclusion upon the subjects referred to us.
The evidence has run to a great length, and contains neces-
sarily very much of repetition and sameness. But we were
willing to subject ourselves to criticism upon this account
rather than to expose ourselves to the more serious charge of
having made a partial selection, either of persons to be ex-
amined, or of the places or subjects to which our evidence
should apply.
Our object was to present a general view of the state of the
country, with respect to the occupation of land, and this could
only be done by frequently putting the same question and
making similar inquiries in different places.
Before entering upon any detailed statement of the result
of our inquiry, we think it may not he uninteresting or unin-
sti uctive to give a slight sketch of the manner in which landed
property in Ireland has been dealt with for a long series of
years; and we believe that such a review is important to a
clear understanding of the subject, and to the successful investi-
gation of the sources from which many of the present evils
have sprung.

In the civil contentions which at various periods and during
many centuries disturbed the repose of England and Scotland,
property gradually passed from the feudal tenure of former
times to the more civilised relation of landlord and tenant, as
known to our present law.
It is for us briefly to show how different has been the case in
Ireland.

Without entering at any length into the history of the past,
we cannot avoid noticing a few prominent matters which exer-
cised a material influence in producing the existing relation of
landlord and tenant. We allude to the confiscations and colo-
nisations of Elizabeth and James—the wars of Cromwell—
and, lastly, the penal code.
The first of these led, in many instances, to the possession
of large tracts by individuals whose more extensive estates in
England made them regardless and neglectful of their proper-
ties in Ireland.

Again, the confiscations of the lands of O'Neill in the north,
and Desmond, in the south, were followed by the plantations
of Ulster and Munster; the extensive settlement of Scotch
and English in the counties of Ulster has introduced habits and
customs which give a different character to that province from
other parts of the island. Hence also is supposed to have
arisen the system of tenant-right, which, as forming a singular
feature in the relation of landlord and tenant, we shall have
occasion afterwards to notice. In Munster the plantation was
more imperfectly carried out, and a class of undertakers, unac-
companied by those followers whom they were equally bound
by the terms of their grant to introduce, became the landlords
of the native peasantry in many parts of those districts, pro-
ducing, for that reason, comparatively little change.
The adventurers who obtained debentures from Cromwell,
formed, for the most part, a small proprietary; and, being
generally resident, exercised an influence on the relations of
society different from that produced by the large and absent
grantees of former reigns.
These confiscations were followed at a later period by the
enactment of the penal laws, which, affecting as they did, the
position of the Roman Catholics as regarded landed property,
must have had a very general influence on society in such a
country as Ireland.

The;e laws, both in their enactment and in their subsequent
relaxations, have affected materially the position of occupier and
proprietor. They interfered with almost every mode of dealing
with landed property by those who professed that religion, and,
by creating a feeling of insecurity, directly checked their
industry.

The Protestant landlords also suffered indirectly from the
operation of the same laws ; for, in letting their estates, they
were, to a degree, confined in the selection of their tenants, to
those who alone could enjoy any permanent tenure under them,
and were exclusively entitled to the
,elective franchise. Many
landlords parted with the whole, or a great portion of their
property, for long terms, and thus avoided all immediate con-.
tact with the inferior occupiers, so that all the inferior duties of
a landlord were left for performance to a middleman. The latter,
on the ether hand, in the favourable position in which the laws
had indirectly placed him, as regarded the proprietor, dictated
very frequently his own terms to the landlord ; and restrictive
covenants against subletting or subdividing were seldom inserted.
About eighty years after their first introduction a relaxation
of these laws took place.
Among many measures professedly for the improvement of
Ireland, an Act was passed in 1771, which allowed Roman
Catholics to take a lease for sixty-one years of not less thaw ten
acres, or more than fifty, of bog, with only half an acre of ara-
ble land for the site of a house, but not to be situated within a
mile of a town ; and if it was not reclaimed in twenty-one
years, the lease to belvoid. In 1777 it was enacted that titles
tot hitherto litigated should not be disturbed, and Roman Ca-
tholics were allowed to take leases for any term under 1,000
years. In 1782 they were allows(' to aequire freehold property
for lives or by inheritance. and in 1793 ,was passed a further
enactment, which materially affected the position oflandlord
and tenant. The 40s. franchise was bythat Act extended to
Roman Catholics ; the landlords and the •middlemen- then
found the importance of a numerous following of tenantry,
and subdivision and subletting, being by this law indi-
rectly encouraged, greatly increased. The war with
France raised considerably the profits of the occupier,
who was thus enabled to pay a large rent to the
mesne lessee. These causes produced throughout the
country a class of intermediate proprietors, known by the
name of middlemen, whose decline after the cessation of the
war, and the fall of prices in 1815, brought with it much of
the evils we have witnessed of late years. Many who,
during the long war, had amassed much wealth, had become
proprietors in fee ; others, who had not been so successful,
struggled in after years to maintain a position in society
which their failing resources could not support. Their sub-
tenants were unable to pay " war-rents." The middleman
himself, who had come under rent during the same period,
became equally unable to meet his engagements. All be-
came impoverished ; the middleman parted with his interest
or under-let the little land he had hitherto retained in his
own hands; himself and his family were involved rapidly in
ruin. The landlord, in many cases, was obliged to look
to the occupiers for his rent, or, at the expiration of the
lease, found the farms covered with a pauper, and, it may
be, a superabundant population. Subsequently, the Act of
1829 destroyed the political value of the 40s. freeholder, and
to relieve his property from the burden which this chain of
circumstances brought upon it, the landlord, in too many
instances, adopted what has been called the " clearance
system."

What we have thus written will suffice to show how extra-
ordinary have been the changes which property has undergone
in Ireland, how much it has been affected by extrinsic events,
and by causes unconnected either with the natural circumstances
ofthe country or the people.
With a view of bringing more clearly under notice the posi-
tion in which the questions referred to us by your Majesty's
Commission now actually stand, it may be useful, in the next
place, to take a short review of the inquiries which have been
carried on upon subjects connected with the social condition of
Ireland, by Committees of Perliament or by Commissioners
spcially appointed.
If we may venture, without presumption, to make any re-
mark in the nature of criticism upon the reports of those from
whose labours so much valuable information is to bd derived, we
hould say that in many of them too much reliance appears to