The Sun.
London, England, 1845-12-02 00:00:00

h. binTOt

LONDON, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2. 1845.

The daily accounts from Ireland of the horrid system
•of 'assassination so prevalent in some districts of that
unfortunate country, are of the most alarming character.
No man considers his life secure from the murderer's
'bullet; the very peasants, who are witnesses in open day
-3f deliberate assassinations, and who might be inclined
to give evidence against the perpetrators of such atro-
cious crimes, are afraid to come forward from a well-
groundad dread of being subjected to the same fate. The
Limerick Chronicle, of Saturday, says, " No rank or ata-
ticu, from the humble cottier to the noble peer, is safe
from outrage. In the county of Clare notices have been
posted, signed Molly Maguire,' not to pay rents—
the unatlts to keep the money in their pockets, And to

have the fear of Molly before them." It appears also
that similar notices had been served on several farmers
in the same county. But horrible facts like these do
not rest merely on newspaper reports, they are vouched
for by the resident noblemen and gentlemen of the
county, and representations of the strongest
character have accordingly been made to the
Irish Government on the subject. Finding that
the LORD -,LIEUTENANT Can render them little
additional protection, without he is empowered by
Act of Parliament to adopt some more coercive system
than that allowed by law, the magistrates of the North
Riding of Tipperary, at a meeting of which Lord
DUNALLY was chairman, have issued an address to the
British public, which paints in the most vivid colours
the deplorable state of that country. "From August,
1844, to February, 1845," they state, " there occurred in
this riding 16 murders, 16 attempted murders, and 52
cases of firing into houses, robberies of farms, grievous
assaults, and threatening notices." They complain to the
English public that they are without protection,
that they have forwarded to succeeding Governments
representations and recommendations on the subject, and
answers received led them to the conclusion that the
Government considered measures of coercion for Ireland
could not be proposed to Parliament with any chance of
success. We are and always have been opposed to any
system of coercion till every legitimate means of pre-
serving life and property had failed, because such partial
enaotments are most invidious, and generally impose
grievous hardships and sufferings on the industrious
and innocent part of the population. Besides, they have
rarely or never effected a radical cure ; the disease at
periods returns with renewed vigour, and the law-
less depredators and murderers recur with impunity
to their dark deeds of cruelty. The whole system of
government in Ireland is out of joint; law is neither
respected nor feared; and till the 'magistrates, Catholic
clergy, and all the well-disposed portion of the com-
munity, combine together for mutual protection and the
discovery of the criminals, we can hardly see any per-
manent cure that Government or Parliament can effect.
In this respect the magistrates of Tipperary have set a
good example; they have endeavoured to make the
English people acquainted with their desperate condi-
tion, and have braved the bullets of the assassins in re-
commending means for the punishment of their
crimes. But why is a labour so imperative left
only to the laity, and to only a very small number
of them? The Catholic clergy are not afraid to come
forward ; they brave the terrors of death in visiting
the huts of those afflicted with fatal and contagious dis-
tempers; they spare no labour in rendering comfort to
the sick and the dying, and no class of men devote
themselves more willingly to their religious duties.
But these are only a portion of their labours, and by
no means the most important, when such maul visi-
tations afflict their country—when life and property are
totally unprotected, and a system is in full operation
which must loosen the bonds of society, drive capital
from Ireland, and obstruct the very means yet
devised (we mean the construction of railroads) for
furnishing employment, and disseminating the blessings
of civilisation among a half-barbarous race. Why do
they not assemble and threaten, as they aro bound by
the precepts of Scripture, with the punishment of
Heaven all those who commit such a flagrant breach of
the commandment, " Thou shalt not commit murder?,
Their injunctions and denunciations would have the
best effect, and would contribute infinitely more to the
abatement of crime than Coercion Bills, and prisons,
and gibbets. It appears that there is a most
culpable apathy displayed on their part in such
dangerous times, and that they cannot remain
longer silent without incurring the most' ewful re-
sponsibility. We here subjoin the ;measures recom-
mended by the Tipperary magistrates to the attention of
the British public :
"First, that a modified insurrection Act be placed on the
statute-book, to be resorted to by Government only in case of
any particular baiony of a county, which shall appear to
the Lord-Lieutenant and Privy Council to require the
same ; and secondly, the creation of a law imposing a fine on
any district where a murder, or attempt to murder, shall
have occurred; the proceeds to be paid over to the family of
the injured party. The insurrection Act to which we refer would
empower the authorities to enter all houses by night. Per-
sons absent from their homes, or strangers discovered in
houses not their usual places of residence, would be obliged
td account for themselves, and, failing to do so satisfactorily,
mighi I.:ie brought before a military tribunal or a special com-
mission, an subjected to severe punishment. Such a mea-
sure would at le;,,!!' afford security during the night to the
houses of the humbler chigses, who might then be induced
with less reluctance to come forward as witnesses in a court
of justice. The bad characters, most ofwhom are well known
to the police, would soon be expallad from the country, and
detection would be more likely to follow the commission of
the crime of murder, inasmuch as the perpetrators of such
acts are usually strangers who come from a distance."

The general demand for the abolition of restrictions
on the importation of food which has been raised by the
principal Manufacturing towns in the empire within the
last fortnight, has been witnessed with apathy by the great
b 0,127 of English farmers. They have raised no antago-
nistic cry rfir the continuance of protection—they have
not shown any Oxley for the retention of the corn-
laws—they have helc: no meetings, and framed no peti-
tions. This abandonmZ.s.nt of a cause for which they
were recently ready to make Lrge sacrifices, arises from
two causes the agriculturists are convinced that their
prosperity is identified with that of the Zanufacturerg,
that distress in Lancashire is inconsistent pros-

perity in Lincolnshire, and that the fall of profits oo
eotton takes away customers from the growers of corn.
A second, and more important cause, of this change
in the " agricultural mind " is, that the farmers are
beginning to discover that the system of agricultural
protection is a system of mutual plunder, under which
the growers of the different descriptions of agricultural
produce mutually rob one another ; and that it besides
creates an uncertainty which prevents the application of
capital to the improvement of the productive powers of
the soil. This view of the question is very ably main-
tained in a pamphlet just published by two eminent
practical agriculturists, Mr. MORTON and Mr. TRIMMER
—the former already favourably known as the author of
the best treatise on the nature of soils which we possess
in our language. Estimating the average cost of pro-
tection at ss. 6d. per quarter, he proceeds, first, to calcu-
late the effect of this enhanced price on the farmer of
400 acres of land in East Norfolk. Such a farmer sells
no protected article produced by himself except wheat
and barley. Now, it is clear that he must either repay
his labourers the amount of the protecting duty which
they pay on their articles of consumption in the shape
of increased wages, or that the system robs the labourers
to that amount. Having examined all the details of ex-
penditure, with a minuteness which it is not necessary
to follow, Mr. MORTON arrives at the following con-
clusion :

"Amount paid by the cultivator of 400 acres of light land
in East Norfolk, in the shape of protecting duties on agri-
cultural produce consumed by himself, his labourers, and
cattle : and first for seed, as we have allowed the protective
duties on the gross produce of the farm without deducting
the seed, we must here charge the same duties on the corn
sown:—
Seed Corn. Bushels. Acres. £ s. d.
Wheat 21 X 100 = 31i qrs. at ss. 6d.... 811 10
Barley 34 >I 100 = 434 do. at 4s. Bd. ... 10 0 1
Clover, red 121bs. X 100 = 1,200 lbs.
White 8 4 100 800

lbs. 2,000 say 17iewt. at 10s. 8 17 6
Trefoil 8 lbs. N 100 800 say 7h cwt. at ss. 1 15 9
Rye-grass, busbl. x 100 =5O bushLs.l2icwt. at 10s. 6 5 0

£35 10 9
Horse-keep ....... 29 11 6
Oil-cake for sheep and cattle
Tradesmen's bills, 10 per cent. on 1001 lO 0 0
Sundries

Twenty labourers' food
Twenty labourers' beer.. ............ ... ...... ... ... .
. .

. 47 13 4
41.3 2

£209 8 9
" Amount received from protecting duties on the produce
which this farmer sells:—
Wheat 4 qrs. X 100 acres = 400 qrs. at ss. 6d. £llO 0 0
Barley 5 qrs. 01 100 acres = 500 qrs. at 4s. 8d....116 13 4