The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-11-02 00:00:00

THE IRISH POOR

Mr, John Hamilton, an intelligent Irish landlord at
Donegal, has written an excellent letter in the Dublin
University Magazine for November, in which he graphi-
cally describes the present state of things in that country.
He says, last year the question was how to feed the hun-
gry, but this year it is how to unpauperise the paupers;
and in endeavouring to show that there is ample room for
the profitable occupation in general of the whole available
population, he brings forward a number of facts evidencing

his own practical exertions for the well-being of his un-

fortunate countrymen. He say

" Possessing a landed property on the west coast of
Ireland, it was apparent to me, this time last year, that a
crisis was at hand.

" I looked well into the condition of my property,
which is a fair sample of landed properties here. The po-
pulation is dense, about one-half of my tenants holding so
little land as not be subject to pay any poor-rates.
" I perceived at once the destruction that threatened
us, if we did not bring the resources of our bodily strength
and improvable soil into play.
" I tried to convince my tenants, but in vain. Though
I laid out work for them, and offered double the usual
wages, they declined to work (seeing the preparations
making for pauperising by gratuitous relief), and knowing
my anxiety for their welfare, and infected with the preva-
lent moral epidemic, they lazily remained at home as long
as they bad a morsel to eat. Some brilliant exceptions
there were, but this was the general character.

" I availed myself of the existing acts of parliament for
advancing money for drainage, and raised the means (rents
being merely historical facts) of enabling such of my
poorer tenants who wished it, to emigrate; not in order
to get rid of them, but to obtain possession of land to
work upon ; for I found it in vain to try to operate upon
the scraps of their little holdings which I could persuade
them, as a favour, to allow me to drain and improve.
" n the early part of the year I was obliged to work,
almost entirely, with the tenants of other landlords, mine
all holding aloof, though they saw daily hundreds of their
neighbours, who passed their doors, coming to my work ;
and the very men who, in ordinary years, always worked
for three or four months with me, this year refused to
come.

" However, I kept them from receiving public relief as
much as I possibly could, though I was often taunted for
my cruelty, even in my place as a member of the board
of guardians of the poor; and the long-desired result at
length rewarded my perseverance. Hunger at last drove
them to work, after they had sowed their land, and eaten
their last pound of provision. And now for eight months
I have had the satisfaction of seeing industry as decidedly
the rule among my tenants as indolence was; and they
are now as proud of not having had a pauper from among
them in the poor-house, as I can possibly be. Their
moral condition is altered; they feel and acknowledge
their error, and are grateful for what I have done—much,
very much more grateful than the most thankful of those
who received the pauper's relief, and are pauperised.
" I have done all my work (as far as possible from its
nature) by contract. The feeling of the people was quite
against me, and they turned out many times on account
of it ; but by never yielding, and patiently waiting, and
kindly speaking and advising, this was quite got over, and
my labourers have learned to work like men.
The difficulties and delays which I met with in my
arrangements under the drainage acts were so great, that
had I not embarked so largely in the improvement of my
land, 1 w ould never have gone through the vexation occa-
sioned thereby. I mention this merely to show that mine
was not a pet case, in which less than ordinary difficulty
was to be encountered.

" I trust that the arrangements for carrying out the new
' Land Improvement Act,' will be found such that all
landlords will as speedily as easily avail themselves of its
advantages, and that my difficulties will leave a smoother
path behind me.
" The result oemy endeavours is now—
" 1. That every man, woman, and child on my property,
who chooses to work, is fully employed.
" 2. That almost all do choose it.

" 3. That some hundred acres, drained and subsoiled
since Christmas, have yielded crops, which give the
greatest encouragement to go on, and have been so re-
ported by several inspectors sent by the Board of Works.
" 4. That hardly one off my property has had occasion
to seek relief in the poor-house.
" 5. That as my tenants have had, and have still means
of supporting themselves by their earnings, and are in a
better moral condition than those supported by paupers'
pauperising rations, I have a much better prospect of re-
ceiving rent from them than if I had acted other-
wise. (I should add, that this prospect is by no means
merely in the distance, but is realising itself satisfac-
torily.) . - - _ - -

would remark, in conclusion, that I have had every
difficulty to cope with, except personal intimidation, which
can be mentioned. I had no funds to begin upon ;no
encouragement from a disposition in my tenants to meet
my views, and little from any example or co-operation
around me.

" I was surrounded by a population casting themselves
upon public charity, almost totally unchecked and un-
aided, and this greatly enhanced my difficulties.
" I was necessarily occupied, to the exhaustion of body
and mind, in attending to the wants of •the surrounding
paupers, being chairman of the finance, and of two relief
committees, besides my ordinary poor-house business.
" One of my districts is the too notorious Union of
Glenties, whichis enough to brand it as hopeless in the
opinion of most persons ; but by the constant attention of
my son, who has banished himself into that wilderness,
there is neither labour-rate upon our electorate there, nor
any ordinary poor-rate, except for the keeping up of our
share of the poor-house staff."