Star.
London, England, 1831-03-25 00:00:00

DISTRESS IN IRELAND.

. A respectable meeting was held yesterday at the Mansion. house, the
Lord Mayor in the Chair, to set on foot measures for rslievinF the dis-
tress now prevailing in many districts of the west of Ireland. Ilte Earls
of Clarendon and Caledon were present, as likewise Mr. Byng. M P for
Middlesex ; Sir John Burke, for the county of Galway ; Air. Fitz.
gerald, ALP. for Kerry Mr. Dominick Brown, for Mayo; Mr. W 3 se,
for Tipperary ; Mr. Leader, for Kilkenny; Alr. John Smith, Mr. Shit,
Aldermen Wood, Venable*, Hunter, &e. besides a rtepec.;!bte
company of from 300 to 400 persons. The proceedings were of an :...t.r.
eating nature. Resolutions moved and supported by Mr..l. Smith. e son
noblemen, and the members of Parliament above.tnention..l, de. 'armory
of the dreadful extent of famine and misery throughout the west or Ire-
land, were past unanimously by the meeting, a committee appointed to
manage subscriptions, and a sum of several hundr..d pounds raised on
the spot for the relief of the unhappy people. It is to be remarked.
however, that out of near 100 Irish members of the House of Cons.
mons, now collected In and neat London, at least an equal number of
Peers, with extensive possessions in Ireland, and ,hrice or tour
times that amount of landlords, having great though mirror
fortunes, who might be particularised as absentees, and whose names
and persons are equally well known in this metropolis, only the stn,lle
Peer, Lord Caledon, and the five or six Irish gentlemen whom we hive
enumerated, felt sympathy enough in the sufferings of their wretched
tenantry or countrymen, to attend and countenance these charitable pi is.
enedings,—announced, as they were, in all the newspapers, and carried
into effect by the high-principled humanity of the British public for
their service.

Well might Lord Caledon. and the Knight of Kerry, express the i'o-
miliation which Ahead them, at the reiterated appeals to English dm.
rity, made on behalf of a starving people, whose laws affiirded them nu
shield or security against want, and who seemed to have been systemati-
cally abandoned by their natural protectors.
The latter gentleman, who represents the county of Kerry, gave con.
siderable satisfaction to the meeting, by an assurance that an extensive
measure, which he had bestowed much time and labour in pieparing,
and had brought under the immediate notice both of the Duke of Wel-
lington's Government and of Lord Grey's,—at least, in all its great
outlines,—is about to be carried into immediate operation; the effect of
which, in all human probability, will be to prevent any future drain
upon the benevolence of England, for the relief of Irish suffering, and
to supersede the wholesale influx of Irish labourers into this country,
when destitute of employment and of food at home, by establishing a
regular authority, under which the boded estates of Ireland sl.all be
taxed, for the means of employing the hbouring population, In modes
and on works conducive to the solid Improvement of the country._
This system—a poor law in prineiple--tbengb a striking deviation from
the English poor law in detail, may speedily effect a change in the con-
dition of a large proportion of the Iriiipeneentry, which will be felt in
that of the labourers throughout many districts of Great Britain.
Mr. Leanza produced a powerful sensation upon the meeting by
holding up to them the picture of an Irish landlord, such as any man
of extensive property might be, but yid* alas, has few copies in the
chute to which that worthy, generous, and high.spirited gentleman be.
longs. Mr. Leader has himself, for nearly tin years, kept in constant
employment, on his own grat estates, from 700 to 800 of his tenantry.
He never has gone to bed at night without ascertaining that he had
in store a year's provisions for Iris people, in case of a failure of the
potato-crops, and the consequence of this course of noble and pa-
ternal beneficence is, that no human being on his estates has ever been
indebted for one meal to English charity. A single individual such as
Mr. Leader is sufficient to redeem a whole shipload of Irish landlords
from contempt. He may well command the respect of a British
audience.

The present mission being sudden and unhooked for, being also. from
the prospect of a new legislative measure for Ireland, one which is not
likely to recur, we can do no otherwise than recommend that a list of
Irish absentees front the distressed districts, who do not Contribute to
the charitable fund, be made public, and we heartily wish the cause; -
srlf a complete and prompt success.