Chapter VIII: Part THE LAST (8)

Lord George Bentinck, to whose opinions and to whose statements great weight is deservedly attached, expresses his dissatisfaction at the working of the Irish Poor-law, because while £5,000,000 is expended annually in this country in succouring 16,000,000, only £250,000 is spent in Ireland in giving relief to 8,000,000 of the people. But if his lordship took time to consider, he would see that the disproportionate expenditure was not caused by any restrictions which the Irish law imposed, but _by the unwillingness of the Irish people to take advantage of its enactments_. If he had recourse to the returns of the commissioners, he would have found, that while in the year ending January 1844 the gross number of those who received parochial relief in Ireland was 53,582, the number of those who received similar relief in England amounted to 4,279,565, considerably more than one-fourth of the population, of whom 958,057 _actually entered the Bastiles_. Thus we have _nearly the sixteenth part of the population seeking in-door relief in England and Wales, and not the one hundred and twentieth part in Ireland_. But the small numbers admitted in Ireland, and the small expenditure incurred in succouring the poor in that country, is not the fault of the law. It sets no limit to the benevolence of the guardians. Neither is it the fault of those who administer it; for the guardians being almost all thorough-paced patriots, of whom the great majority pay under ten shillings annually to the tax, never reject applicants, and frequently solicit persons to become candidates for admission. And when we consider that those who, we are told, "dwell in ditches and live on weeds," and to whom "beds and blankets are rare luxuries," have only to apply for shelter where they can have good beds and better diet than the commissioners assure us they are even accustomed to at home, we cannot but express surprise at the taste of our neighbours, who prefer dirt and starvation to cleanliness and abundance; and our sympathy for persons who bewail their sufferings, and yet will not accept the proffered relief, must be greatly diminished.

The truth is, and facts such as those prove it, that though there is more squalid filth and raggedness in Ireland, (for those are national tastes,) there is much less of real misery or distress in that country than exists in England.

To make their coercive policy palatable to their present supporters, the ministry announce the immediate introduction of a bill to regulate the arrangements between landlord and tenant, and to secure the latter adequate compensation for any improvements he may have effected. It is always better for governments to leave the adjustment of private rights to the parties concerned in them. But if they are to be guided in their legislation by _the evidence_ given before the land-commissioners, _and not by the report which it pleased those gentlemen to adopt_, there never was a case in which such interference was less called for. We do not find in the whole mass a solitary well substantiated instance in which an improving and rent-paying tenant was dispossessed by the landlord for the purpose of availing himself of the additional value which had been given to his land. And Mr Stewart, an extensive agent and land-valuator, declared in his examination, "that he considered improving tenants had, at the expiration of their tenures, a just claim upon the consideration of their landlords--_a claim_," he continues, "_which, in a great number of instances coming under my own observation, I never yet knew to be disregarded._" Can the government believe that contingent and trifling rewards for levelling old ditches, and for building ill-constructed houses, will be sufficient to satisfy men who, according to Mr Maher's sworn testimony, "_desire no such improvements, even when they are paid promptly for their execution_;" or that drainage will be effected, in the hope of their being allowed a paltry consideration in case they are dispossessed, "_by persons who threaten with death those who are willing to give them at once the full value of their labour_?" Not a bit of it. Any attempt to legislate on the subject will only increase the present difficulties. If you give the tenant a right to execute such improvements as he pleases, and guarantee him remuneration, who is to be the umpire between the occupier and the landlord?--"a commissioner." Well, where are you to get respectable men to act in such a capacity, with the certainty that if they decided honestly, they would become unpopular, and secure the reward of death? And if you take those commissioners from the class of small farmers, and pay them by the business they transact, why, then, there will be no limit to jobbing and dishonesty--each of them will bid for popularity and increase of income, by deciding in favour of the tenant, and against the landlord, in all instances--and litigation and confusion without end will be the consequence. As to Mr O'Connell's other remedies--extension of municipal reform, and increase of representation--grant them, and what could the change effect? No extension of municipal reform can possibly make the corporations more revolutionary than they are--with one solitary exception (Belfast), his influence and his principles prevail in all. They are all at his beck, "good men and true." What more would he have? What more could any alteration in the law effect for him? And as to the increase in the Irish representation, what benefit could that be to the country, when, admitting that the number of members were increased, the additional ones would only swell the amount of those who altogether, and purposely, absent themselves from their duties, under the sanction of their constituents, and by the express dictation of their leader.

With the facts which we have laid before them--with the proofs which we have adduced from their own authorities, to show that there is neither injustice nor oppression practised on the Irish people, that their distress is to a great extent simulated, and their poverty the fruits of their own misconduct--we ask the government, will they continue to allow themselves to be misled by the mistatements of interested and designing men, who, while accounting for the state of Ireland, _assert_ one thing and _swear_ another; will they legislate for that country on the suggestions of persons who make a boast of their hatred of England, and openly express their desire for her humiliation--who, with loyalty on their lips, seek Repeal because they know it must produce separation; and who hesitate not to advocate measures which they feel must be ruinous to all classes of their fellow-countrymen, because they hope to accomplish, through the agency of the British ministry, what they have hitherto been unable to effect by flattery or by force--the alienation of the loyal and well-disposed from the British connexion?

There is a remedy for the ills of Ireland, and a simple and an efficacious remedy it will be found to be, if adopted. Enforce obedience to the laws, and establish security of life and property, no matter at what sacrifices or by what means. The more severe and uncompromising the measure by which those objects shall be sought to be effected, the more prompt will be the success, and the more merciful the operation. Freedom of action once attained, you may safely leave the gentry and the people to make their own arrangements, and count with certainty on the rapid improvement of the country, and the full development of its resources, provided only you maintain that fair degree of protection which can alone enable Ireland to compete with more favoured countries.

The Association must be suppressed: it will be folly to expect peace or tranquillity while that pestilent body is in existence; smite it "hip and thigh," and you at once cut off the fruitful sources of discontent and crime. Stop the rent, and at one blow you annihilate the profligate press, which turns the minds of the people from their legitimate avocations, which panders to their prejudices, and excites them to outrage. Of what use will it be to confine the peasant to his house by night, if you allow him to be beset during the day by the noxious publications which contain the treason of the Conciliation Hall?

Will it be just to tax the unfortunate farmers when they are compelled to become participators in crime, and to shelter the guilty for the purpose of obtaining that protection from outrages which the government are too negligent or too impotent to afford them? The plan which it is proposed to adopt, of recompensing those who suffer in person or property by a tax levied on the locality in which the crime was committed, _has been long in operation,[11] and found to be utterly inefficacious_. What is the use of an additional police force, when all the exertions of those men will be rendered ineffectual by the insufficiency of the laws which you refuse to strengthen? The guilty cannot be affected by taxation, for they hold no land; they cannot be punished by the ordinary laws, for they have established a system which baffles their operation; but once enact effective Law, and proclaim down the Association--show the people that you are determined to maintain social order and to suppress insubordination--then, _but not till then_, will you rally the good in defence of justice, and deter the guilty from the commission of crime.

FOOTNOTES:

[3] _Times_, December 25, 1845.

[4] It is a curious fact, that the only witnesses whose testimony the Earl of Devon ventured to use in support of Lord Stanley's bill, were those of Mr Balfe, chairman of the "committee of grievances;" a _discharged dragoon_, who was contradicted in almost every statement he made by the most respectable persons on their oaths, and who was obliged to retract some voluntarily; and of Mr Byrne, of the value of whose opinion, or whose statements, we can form some estimate, from the following extract from the evidence of Nicholas Maher, Esq.

Appendix B., No. 1097.

He is asked, has he read a particular statement of Mr Byrne's? And his answer is:--"I _have_ read the evidence, and I must just state that Mr Byrne is a person to whose evidence I would not give any weight."

[5]

IRELAND--LAND IS EXEMPT FROM

Assessed taxes, £4,204,855
Income tax, 5,158,470
Malt tax, 4,998,130
----------
£14,361,455

This is the _net_ amount of those taxes. The _gross_ amount which is levied off the people will be about fifteen millions and a half, or nearly one third of the total amount of the income of the country, towards which Ireland does not contribute a single shilling.

[6] According to the Government survey, Leitrim contains 375,992 acres; the valuation, including the houses of the gentry and shopkeepers, is L.120,000: add 25 per cent, or L.30,000, and we have the fair rent at L.150,000, or under eight shillings an acre.

[7] Mr Reade, an extensive landowner, and a gentleman who appears to be perfectly competent to form a correct opinion on the subject, laid before the commissioners, as the result of his own experience, the following statement:--

Comparative Valuation of the Barony of Carberry, co. Kildare, all
situated between twenty and thirty miles of Dublin; with two canals
passing through it, and consisting of 45,000 acres of good feeding
and tillage land, with a similar quantity of equally good land, or
nearly so, in England, Scotland, France, and Belgium, originally
made in 1828, and since corrected:--

------------------------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------
| England. | Scotland. | Belgium. | France. | Ireland.
+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------
| £ s. d.| £ s. d.| £ s. d.| £ s. d.| £ s. d.
Gross contents, 48,278 acres,}| | | | |
rent calculated on 42,000 }|55,650 0 0 |75,600 0 0 |55,650 0 0|41,938 0 0 |31,500 0 0
acres, }| | (Taxation | | |
| | included.) | | |
Tithe and direct taxation, |17,955 0 0 | 0 0 0 | 7,481 0 0 | 5,962 0 0 | 0 0 0
Poor-rate, one half, | 0 0 0 | 0 0 0 | 0 0 0 | 0 0 0 | 325 7 6
County Cess. 1s. 8d. in the } | | | | |
pound, on Mr Griffth's } | 0 0 0 | 0 0 0 | 0 0 0 | 0 0 0 | 2,266 13 4
valuation, } | | | | |
+------------+------------+------------+------------+-----------
Total, | 73,605 0 0 | 75,600 0 0 | 63,131 0 0 | 47,900 0 0 |34,092 0 10
------------------------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------

Total to landlord, L.31,500 0 0
Deduct landlord's half, poor-rate, L.325 7 6
Rent-charge, 4d. in the pound, 563 6 0
--------- 888 13 6
-----------
Total to landlord in Ireland, net, L.30,611 6 6
-----------

OBSERVATIONS.

The rent in Ireland was _averaged_, from _personal_ knowledge and
inquiry, at 25s. the Irish acre, equal to 15s. the statute acre. It
has not varied essentially since 1828.

In Scotland, the rent was calculated at L.2, 5s. the Scotch acre,
equal to L.1, 16s. the statute acre.

In England, the rent was calculated at L.1:6:6 per statute acre.

In Belgium, the rent-value of land is taken as equal to England.
The taxation being considerably less than half that of England.

In France, the land is valued at one-fourth less than Belgium. The
taxation bearing a near proportion in both countries.

The taxation in Ireland and Scotland is nearly on a par: rather
heavier in Ireland.

Taxation in England, including tithes, 8s. 7d. per acre. I believe
below the reality.

Government valuation of same land, exclusive of houses, L.25,843 0 0
-- -- -- with houses, 27,208 0 0

[8] Speech at the Conciliation Hall, in reply to the charges of the _Times_ Commissioner.

[9] The following letter, written by Sir David Roche to a Cork agitator of the name of Denny Lane, who accused him of having turned out three hundred families, and said his life had been _five_ times attempted, will show the value which should be set on the assertions of such people, and the treatment which the very best Irish landlords receive:--

"I have bought out a few who were tenants-at-will, forgiving them large arrears of rent, and making them in every instance a present of their year's crop, stock, &c., and either finding them other farms, or giving them money to enable them to enter into other pursuits: such, sir, have been my transactions with the small number who have left my land, none of whom, I dare say, every charged me with harshness or injustice. As you have thought proper to turn public accuser, I beg to refer you to Mr Charles Seegrue, the only gentleman in Cork with whom I have had any transactions regarding tenants, and he will inform you on the determination of his interest in a large farm, how many of his under-tenants I dismissed, and what arrangements were made on that occasion. If I don't mistake, he will state that all were continued on their farms, and that the arrears _of rent due, to have been compromised by me, and the tenants forgiven the amount, and a reduction of one-third made on their respective rents, besides building houses for all that required them, and for which no charge was made_; and in every other place where I had any arrangements to make with tenants, that similar consideration had been shown; and although I have had large transactions connected with land in the counties of Limerick, Clare, and Kerry, in all of which counties the Devon Commission sat, you will not find a single instance of oppression, or any complaint having been made, much less to the extent of turning out three hundred families, which you have thought proper to charge me with. As to your assertion, that my life has been attempted five times within the last year, I can assure you that no attempt was ever made on my life before the last assizes, and then not for turning out a tenant, _but because I refused to assist a tenant to turn out his brother's widow while her husband lay on his bed of death, hardly allowing the body to get cold, when he insisted that I should help him to add the widow's holding to his own_."

[10] The Appendix to the 10th Report affords some curious and important information as to the classes in which destitution is to be found. The commissioners directed the clerks of the unions to furnish them with lists of the severest cases of destitution which were relieved in the different houses, and the occupations which they had previously followed, and accordingly 870 cases are given in the Appendix by them. It appears the number of males above fifteen years of age relieved in the quarter ending 9th April 1844, was _only_ 11,224.

Of Peasants. Of Servants. Of Mendicants.
Male labourers, 4599 Male servants, 585 Male, 1473
Female, 924 Female, 4653 Female, 3745
---- ---- ----
Total, 5523 Total, 5238 Total, 5218

_Of farmers who had held, or were still in occupation of land, 79_

Thus we see, that the number of servants and vagrants requiring relief, amounted to within three hundred of the numbers of the agricultural labourers, and that the number of those _connected with the possession of land, and who had sought relief on account of termination of leases, non-payment of rent, expulsion because they were tenants-at-will, or temporary distress, amounted to the incredibly small number of seventy-nine_.

We ought also to add, that in every instance in which a labouring man is stated in those reports to have entered the houses in a state of ill health, he was discharged _at his own request_ when his health had been re-established. How are the _assertions_ which we hear made every day to be reconciled with _facts_ such as those?

[11] The only difference is that the power heretofore vested in and exercised by the Grand Juries, will, by this bill, be transferred to the Lord-Lieutenant.

THE MODERN PILGRIM'S PROGRESS.

THE FRAGMENT OF A DREAM.