The Sun.
London, England, 1827-10-26 00:00:00

IRELAND.

• STATE OF SOCIETY IN THE COUNTRY.—
There are more ranks in society in Ireland than
any country with which I am acquainted. In
England, for instance, society in the country is
divided into the nobility, the gentry, the farmers,
or substantial yeomen, and labourers. Speaking
of the country parts only, I purposely omit the
commercial, the manufacturing, and professional
ranks, which are confined to the large towns,
and aw the same •in both England and Ireland
—in the latter, manufaCtures are few or none.
Of the nobility of Ireland, and ,the higher gen-
try, such as Members of Parliament, I am also
saved the trouble of speaking, as you have spe-
cimens enough of both every winter, and unhap-
pily for Ireland, permanently residing with you.
The gentry and yeomanry are split here into
numberless castes. Of the former, many are in-
, eluded' in the class of gaol birds, to whom re-
' ference is made in a preceding notice of " the
! state of landed property." But there are many
honourable exceptions. There are still to be
found among. the wrecks of society here many
Squires of ancient family, lovers of justice, and
of peace, and of their country—men who reside
on their, estates, respected more than feared ;
who pay their debts without compulsion,•admi-.
nister justice with impartiality, and are ex-
amples of virtue and domestic happiness to
their humble neighbours : but it is in the genus
of farmers the shades and degrees are to be found.
The Squireen is placed at the head, oil the
confines that separate the gentry from the yeo-
manrv—just as the oyster and the polypus are
placed by naturalists on the link that divides
animated from inanimate nature. This creature,
contemptible ?in conduct as well as name, is
sometimes the spurious offspring of a prodigal
Lord or Squire, sometimes the enriched agent
of the absentee—not unfrequently, too, the in-
dolent son of an industrious parent, wealthy
farmer, or shopkeeper—is found often thrust
into the commission of the peace—keeps his
horses and hounds—imitating his betters in
every thing but their virtues. He measures his

power of doing good or evil by the length of his
rent-roil. By his servility and sycophancy, he
often tries, but seldom obtains, admittance to
company of high rank, and from the middling
ranks he separates himself by his arrogance and
affectation—always sure to rule his immediate
dependents with a rod of iron. In these and
other respects the Squireen becomes the centre
of a system of his own, and forms a distinct spe-
cies in Ireland.
The S/nween comes next in order. The

farmer, ambitious to be a Squireen, gives up
husbandry, hangs upon the dark wall, m a cor-
ner remote and unseen, the honourable imple-
ments of his father's calling, lets the farm at a
rack-rent to the cottiers, who were before the
companions of his daily labour, but who are thus
suddenly transformed into tenants—perhaps into
40s. freeholders; for it is not the least misfor-
tune of Ireland, that men scarcely able to keep a
house desire to become freeholders. The Mu-

neen counts on paper an income' of 1001. a-year,
drawn from these paupers, whom he dignifies
with the name of tenants. He is now qualified
to. keep his gun ; he pursues the
...3guireen's
hounds, on a special day ; he is also seen with
hiS fishing-rod in due season. Between these
pursuits, so unsuited 'to—his miserable condi-
tiOn, by day, and the more vicious ones,
maddening his - brains with WhiSky punch, or
seducing simple country Maidens, at night, the
Shuzzeen wastes the precious time.- Though his
tenantry and family, if he have any, are in equal
distress, 'yet appearing the, gentleman still, he has
one day the Ensign in country quarters the com-
panion of his revels---:next day he sits, with equal
satisfaction, with the dancing-master, or the
horse-rider of the parish. Rejected by the better !
orders, be in his turn disdains the company of:
the..farmer, and is therefore left alone in • the ,
world, or abandons himself to the company of
every stray character that goes his way. Unable
to support himself by the, scanty means dragged

THE FARMEns.—The two last orders are
excrescences grown upon Irish society—inere
superfluous links in the chain—neither fit for use
nor ornament. The farmer, over whom they af-
fected a superiority, follows them with his con-
tempt, and punishes their insolence by branding
them with these diminutive names, to mark their
degeneracy. • To these Sguireens and Shuneelis,
contra-distinguiShed from the farmer, may be ap-
plied the words of one of Ireland's poets ;
They, like' Princes and 'Lords
• May flourish ormay fade,
A breath can make them, as a breath has made;
-13nt.a: bold peasantry, their country's pride,
• ' When, once destroyed, can never be supplied."
The race'of peaSantry, however, is not yet quite
extinct in Ireland. There are still to be found
many substantial farmers who, never aspiring be-
yond their station, struggled successfully against
the distresses brought on them by the reverses of
the years' 1816 and 1817. They have presented
the interesting picture of industry and honesty
struggling with adversity,'whiCh they have sur-
vived. !Many .such -Men" can still be found ill
Ireland, as sound and substantial as the yeomanry
of England. 'These are
.the men who cultivate
the soil, who pay the rents to reckless absentees,
who produce the corn, and the butter, and the
beef, and the pork, that supply the markets of
England.
THE LABOUREns.-The last and most nu-
merous Class- remain 'yet to be described ; they
Consist4,,of 'men who support themselves and
families by their labour; arsixpence pe'r day—of
farmers' servants,, who have no families, of half
the forty Shilling' freehOlders through the coun-
try, of nominal householders, rogues and vaga-
bonds, who know not when they rise in the
morning where they shall sleep at night. The
appellation of " labourer" is too respectable for
the four-fifths of this class. The real labourers,
are useful men, working hard for a mere trifle;
but such a trifle as supports their families on po-
tatoes and milk. Attached to the farmer for they work, they share his comforts and.
Sympathise in his distress. This class of men is
not numerous, and still less numerous are farm
servants. Formerly eight or ten healthy, al.le.
bodied young men might be found residing- in
the house of a respectable farmer, accumulating
their wages for years, andliving in common with
the family. But that custom is now altered,—
Such a rage has lately prevailed for the possession
of a house and wife, that as soon as a farmer's
servant man can acquire the price of a pot and a
pair of blankets, and the consent of some simple
girl to marry him, off they go to the Priest to be
married. The Priest has no alternative ;he sees
the evil consequences of such marriages as. clearly
as Dr. Malthus himself, but he sanctions the
union as better than a sinful cohabitatiOn, whiji
would be the result of his refusal ; the honey-
moon is spent in raising a mud-wall cabin on the
side of the road. From this pair of paupers issue
forthwith a progeny of brats, who disgrace the
country by their nakedness and savage appear-
ance. The father's earnings are not sufficient to
support them ; there are no Poor Laivs, nor 11:y
manufactures to employ them. The Only re-
source left is for them andthe mother
.to rush
forth from the cabin at sunrise, traverse the Conn-,
try, collect what they can of potatoes, eat some;
and bring home the rest for supper, robbing the
hedges on their way for the night's firing. They
at length grow familiar with this sort of predatory
life—the ease balances the hunger of it. A few
of them may afterwards be made to labour
honestly, but the greater part of them 'continue
vagabonds, or become even Worse in time. It is:
impossible to describe the wretchedness of these,
people, from whom also, I am of opinion, pro-
ceeds much of that crime which stains the history
of Ireland.