New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-05-15
IRISH LANDLORDISM.

CORK, April Al am weary Of looking at Irish
misery. 1 am sick at heart with listening to the
grOans of the Irish. Why should travel over all
the Westf It is the same spectacle everywhere
of want and woe, of wretchedness and rags. only
the scene differs. ! have sent you already SO
large q volume of evidence unimDeachable,
to prove that the reports of the Irish distress have
not been exaggerated, that cannot see how any
additional testimony in America would help the
sufferers here. And az the purpose Of THE TRIB-
UNE in sending me to Ireland was not to create
sensation to minister to an unhealthy curiosity
but to lend it's potent influence to alleviate the dis
tress by truthful presentation of the situation.
think that l have accomplished my mission, and
that shall now return.
Let me add few notes / havc made, sitting by
the peat fires of the West that have not hitherto
written out. Efforts have been made in America
with ungenerOus ability to prove that the suffer-
ings of the IRISH pcasantTy were brought on by
their own improvdcnce, and that the landlords were
in no sense responsible for it. inclined to that
belief before left home. l had no sympathy for
Mr. ParneIl or his friends his policy. have
been forced to change my opinions by the black
facts that have stared me In tho face at every STEP
There can be no improvement in the condition Ofthe
IRISH peasantry until the present system of land
tenure is abolished. The Irish landlord is an abso-
lutte despot. There is no check on his tyranny. As
have already said it is not in Ireland as in Eng
land and Scotland, where the landlord has fenced
and drained the land and built the houses and
stables and barns and cottages, or where, if he has
not drained the land, he has given the tenant who
does so guarantee of good faith by granting long
leases either IN regular form or by usage. Even
in England the farmers to-day could not pay their
rent, nor the husbandmen live the wages
they receive, if it were not for the outlet
which the great manufacturing cities give them,
both for their produce and their surplus labOrers.
In England the agricultural labOrer can send some
members of his "lOng family to the factories, and
with them help keep the rest of them out of the
pOor-hOnse. But there is no such resource in Ire
land. England for many generations crushed ont
every effort 10 establish manufactures in Ireland
by the power Of legislation. and her manufacturers
do it to-day by making combinations among them
selves. Besides, the great English landed proprietor
lives on his estates and personally knows lhs
tcnantry. There is n traditional bond of common
interests between them. But there is rarely any
such bond IN ireland. The great estates were con-
fiscated to aliens and religion by long-dls
putcd conquest the landlord and his tenants have
often never seen each others faces and tradition
sends down hatrcds that abscntccism intcnsiiics.
We often hear of landlords being shot their agents
shot but have inquired everywhere in vain for a
been injured or even threatened. Take Lord Lctrm.
lie was shot dead one day on his estate. and the
incident was everywhere published illustration
of the Iawiessncss of the Irish peasantry. have
met priests and journalists who personally knew
the true facts of this mansaughtcr and their testi
mony is unanimous that Lord Lcrim was shot to
avcngp private wrong. English journalists who
privately stated and believed this theory
from their own Investigations were afraid to
publish it,, and the priests who told me the facts
were bound by other considerations TO conceal
them. At Wc>tpOrt Lord ShgOs agent never walks
ont in the street without being guarded by two con-
stables with loaded carbncs II is pretended that
he was ambuscaded and fired Mt by some of Lord
Sligo's tenants, but the investigation before
packed jury was suddenly brought to n close.
Young Smith, the agents son. shot q pOacher,
simple fellow dead at sight, and then made mp the
story that he had been ambnscadcd. In America he
would bc serving n term in the pententiary-un-
less of course he hadlived insomc Of the Gulf States
and had shot negro IN similar circumstances. In
New England he would probably have been hanged
for it.
In the West of Ireland the tenants have made all
the improvements in the land-Or, rather, they
have made it; for when it was first leased to them
it was sterile hillside. or bleak moor or shaking
bog. They make the fences and build the cabins
Is the rent increased. have made this remarl: he
fore in referring to special localities put from all
sources-from priests and commercial travellers
and journalistic have since learned that the Gus
tom IS universal Taxation without repre-
sentatiOn was bad enough; but taxation
with cOnfscatOn Ia still worse. And
landlords in Ireland exercise q power of
taxation and confscation that no Plantagcnet
ever dared to exert. The Bright clauses Of the
Gladstone act give the tenant right to cOmprnsa-
ton for improvements IN case of an eviction but
the remedy is made imperative by special
leases or by qulrks of law or expen-
siye litigation, excepting where tho priest
comes to tho rescne of his parishoner
and calls in the aid of the Land League. Be-
sides. law prevents the landlord from arbitrarily
raising his rent just often he plcases and this
fact absolutely paralyzes ambition and makes thrift
of no avail. tenant who works hard soon finds
that he is only working for his landlord. and that
whether hc raises little or much. more will be
allowed him than barely enough to keep his family
alive.
After having witnessed 80 many scenes of misery
am astOunded at the reckless audacty of some
American journalists who have spread tho report
that these wretched farmers got into debt by in
dulgng in such luxuries Ilcnnesseys brandy, ana
that empty brandy bottles could be seen in almost |
every cabin. II may be true that these empty bot
ties arc sometimes seen in Irish cabins; never saw
single instance of it but it Is also true that these
bottles are never resOld to the Wholesale merchants
that they are OF no commercial value whatever and
therefore. that they are given away and used for |
holding milk when tho cottagers happen to have a |
COW.
1t has also been represented that most of the legal
prosecutions of the small farmers were not the acts
of the great prOpnetOrs or their agents but of the
shOpkeepcrs. This is conspicuous IN sropreseut:-
ton. II tenant fails to pay his rent for Il year,
even although the sum owed is n small one, the
dread power OF the process Of Gectment is called IN
to help the landlord. There Is not shopkeepcr III
told, applies to all the Irish inland towns
where the Indebtedness to him Is not greater
from year to year than the indebtedness to the
landlord. The moneY-lenders charge 20 per cent
M lnlan Mill IL. .l--