Star. — 1831-06-01 (London, England)

IRISH PRASANTRV.  - ------- ---- Letter from Mr. Lawless on the state of Ireland : How is the Irish peasant protected by the laws of his country when reduced to want and destitution, either by the impossibility of getting employment, the visitation of disease, or old age, or by the countless ills to which our nature is subject ? The law abandons him to the resources of despair. To beg, or to rob, or to murder, is the refuge of the Irish peasant, when he files from his cabin, where he beholds these children, so dear to him, struggling with all the horrors of famine. In England, a man so situated appeals to the law, and finds protection in its mercy. There. fore in England public crime scarcely or ever proceeds from the distress or suffering of the peasant; in Ireland it is eternally the parent of every public outrage. Well, then, in Ireland the remedy of the peasant, without food for himself or his children, is to beg, or to rob, or to murder. In the county of Clete, at this moment, an immense population arc denied the miserable resource of a few yards of ground 'to cultivate their potatoes, their only means of existence. Tillage gave way to pasture—the profits of the latter were too dazzling to keep alive the claims of the poor—the peasant's little garden was swallowed up by the all-devour. lug grazier—its inhabitants were sent forth to do as they could ; find sustenance where they may ; live or perish as their fortune might order it ; and yet we all wonder that a people so situated, withint any refuge in the law of the country—without any poor-rate under which the famishing peasant could find a temporary shelter, should rise up at midnight, and take deadly and indiscriminate vengeance on all around th,m. Where are they to apply distress P—Where is the in the extremity of this deep proprietor of the soil on which they are doomed to perish ? —ln England, in France, or in Italy. consuming the produce of that labourer who is doomed to starve on the very ground he has cultivated. What, then, is the cause of the murders and desolation which Clare exbiliits P—Famine—ei famished popolation—an unfeeling gentrf, and the want of that great parental law Which protects tbs. Englishman and his children, in all the storms and vicissitudes of life: and never will Ireland cease to be visited with the calamities to which the gentry of Clare are now the victims, until the latter are forced, by the liw of the land, to contribute a portion of their property to the-support and protection of the poor, who are always willing to work, but who, as at present, are unable to procure it. MUt this is not the only evil or grievance under which the pour man labours. Had we all our absentee property at this moment in Ireland, amounting to at least five millions annually; had we our own parliament, making laws in their own country ; perpetually watching ores national improvement, seizing opportunities, emu. taging her manufactures, commerce. science, education, agri. culture, applying an instant remedy to instant rot-chief ; mixing with the constittsent body, catching the sentiment of the public mind. reflecting public opinion, acting upon its imputes and regulating its excess, ( I quote the mods of the present Lord Chid* Justice of Ireland), " were we so blessed as to possess this essential condition of a nation's greatness, still a poot law, guarding the porn against tho vicissitudes of seasons and the visitation. of disease, would be a necessaryinrtitution to assure the security of pro perty, the peace of the community, and Or comfort of tits es sant."