The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-11-11
The Great Irish Question.

henSlVe eSnlOll Ol tlie SredI 1IlSu queSlioui
which is now looming up in the public mind
and attracting the earnest attention OF both
legislators and people In order to right
understanding Of the evil, as it exists, and
OF the remedies which are proposed we
condense from the Tribune statement OF
the most salient points.
At present, the Irish tenants are wholly
at the mercy Of their landlords. They may
be turned out any time, and if they resist
the crowbars arc used, the huts are levelled,
and the miserable peasantry cast homeless
upon the charity Of their neighbOrs To
such an extent was the process carried out,
that in 1874 Mr.. Bernal Osborne said in the
House E Commons that between the years
1889 and lS43 the number OF individual oc-
cupiers served with processes was 70, 982, a
number which represented 354, 9lO individu-
als-five persons being allowed to each fam
ily-rendered houseless and homeless. AS
the result of debate in the House of Com
mons, an act of Parliament was passed pro-
viding that no process should be executed
on any Christmas day or Good FRIDAY
very humane act. Between the years lS4l
and 1861, during which the clearance of
estates was continued, the population of
Ireland, as he found from official records,
became reduced from STA, 900 to S, 700 000
In other words, while in Scotland, with its
$500, 900 of people, there was an increase
OF 1850 0OO Ireland suffered decrease of
2,474,OO6. During the debate in 1866 it was
stated by Mr.. Gregory, M. P. for Galway,
that 95 per cent. of the present holders of
land in Ireland were tenants at wil-that
was, had no legal document whatever to Sc
cure their tenancy. In one case within four
days 36 houses were levelled; and sum OF
G700 was afterward raised to send the oc-
cupiers to Australia. 'Those poor people,
"when released from the poorhouse to which
'they had been taken, went to the once
'happy valley where they had lived, and
"kneeling over the tombs where their fathers
''and the children of many of them were
buried, took grass clods away, and going
''to their broken-down houses, took splin-
''ters from the door-posts, that they might
'carry away with them memorials OF the
"yillage they loved and of the land of their
''birth."
The Irishman is nearly always tenant at
will. He has no lease or contract, and,
though he may greatly increase the value OF
his holding by improvements, may be turned
out in many districts, at any moment, with
out penny. In Ulster the system is some
what better. The principle of the Ulster
Tenant Right is that any man who has the
agricultural holding OF farm may sell his
right to another, the incoming tenant pay
ing to the outgoing one sum in cOnsidera-
ton of what labor he has put into the land
and leaves in it. Even here, the landlord
is an enormous gaiaer; for the cost OF i'm
provements rests Upon the tenants alone;
nor is he restricte by the fact Of improve
ments from increasing his rent. Yet this
partial protection system is so much better
than no protection ut all that Ulster is the
most prosperous province in the island.
Munster has 4, 100000 acres and Ulster only
1000, 900; but the amount of property in
Ulster is .e3,901OO and in Munster only
G3, 500, O00 TIE number of persons on the
square mile in Munster is only l6o, in Ulster
it is 22l. The number Of separate farm
holdings in Munster was 1875, Isl; in Ulster
it was 22l, 946. The number of farms at
rent OF from G. to eS was, in Munster,
22, 700; in Ulster, $1,000; farms from sS to
elO, in Munster, 927O; in Ulster, 81, l25;
farms from elO to,e15 in Munster, 5000;
in Ulster, 33, 900. The total holdings and
small-class farms varying in rent from ca
to e2O, was go, 400 in Munster, and (making
allowance for a difference Of one-tenth,) in
Ulster, 10000. There were in Ulster
nearly three times the number OF small hold
ings Us in Munster, and yet by common con-
sent the Ulster population was happy, pros
porous and wealthy; while in Munster. where
there were more large farms, the people
were miserable, discontented and disafect-
ed. OF farms paying rent OF over ESQ,
there were O,COO in Munster and 6OOO in
Ulster. What would be the result upon the
production OF food? That was question
in which English and Irish were alike inter
ested. The cereal crops in Munster amount
ed in value to G2,2l3, 900 year. Crops of
the same kind in Ulster were worth G3, ,Ol6,-
900 year, or (allowing for difference. in
area, nearly e. 25Oo0O The whole crops
in Ulster-cereal, hay and clover-amount-
ed in value together in 1867 TO elO,O0O, ,000
against e7,O0), OO) in Munster. We're the
whole OF Ireland subject to the improved
small-farm system of Ulster, Ell, 100000
worth of produce would be added to its
present e3O,OOO,OOO worth. "Why, with
s'more fertile land, and more favorable
"climate, was Munster at such disadvan-
'tage? The explanation was that Ulster
chad tenant right OF occupancy"
The people who have reclaimed bog aQd
mountain and marsh are without leases
without any claim whatever upon the land.
When tenant has made his farm pay
rent and living, he often ceases to improve
it for fear that his landlord will regard his