;; ■ vSi-'i •■-ri -• : . " ■-vS.ftsS.^.t^^'^'^i.- Wfefc:': ^-^t^?^5§^^^'*^i--.- \- .-^'^/■.$, .■^••■ M^ .. . Wm ■;H;:-;v /;^>?:v- .-^:.-%iit ■C3*i: ^;^-- ■■'*:$ ■::^.ym^:>,: ■ .;-> ■•-■.■■ V -t;--."-": >tn ;^ «sfe,. ai.... ■ ■'■1'-^ l^i _,v.;^- I-- ■ •->:■, ... "^i^M&^^!^^?!sm0^'^^^, /0^':^'-- - ^^^---^"^^^ w "-■■•■*:* ^ f^:''. '^:o.:-/:- .•■::^ijlfe 'vk->-^---' '>>. Si;' "'=;^^'i.^^%;:V--' "^.V."' ^ :>«•■ :-.-.aiJ' ..-■■•'■\«/\i; ■:,,:;■;■■•>' r^S^ -V. Its- k-. ri rn^^-J ■^■-"-^ssv. iS??*^»?©i^i^:?v: . '..-ci-ic- ■ -i;:-, . ■3 i,Si*€-ii OF IRELAND. 11". THE PEESENT AND FUTURE Hi 1 THE presp:nt and future lEELAND AS THIi CATTLE FARM OF ENGLAND. AND lll'.K • FK0J3ABLE POPULATION. LEGISLATIVE REMEDIES. F. M. JENNINGS, MK.MHKU OF THE HOYAI- IRISH ACADP^MV : AND FKI,U)W OF THE GEOI.OGICAI, SOCIKTY OF LONDON. SECOND EDITION, DUBLIN : HODGES, SMITPI AND CO. GRAFTON STREET, PUBLISHERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL AND CO. 4, STATIONERS' HALL COURT. 186,5. PRICE ONE SHILLING. ;^"^ PREFACIC TO SECOND EDITION. •'jo fx The First Edition of this Pamphlet was jmblislied under A the name .of " An Irish Merchant," but at the suggestion ^ of various friends I have put my name to the Second, and added a few remarks in the form of a Supplement. I must repeat here what I have stated in the course of this Pamphlet, namely, that the questions which I consider of most importance to Ireland, are those of compensation for tenants' improvements, and replacing the Grand Juries by County Boards, elected either by Rate-payers or by Boards of Guardians, and increasing their powers in rela- tion to taxation, as well as jurisdiction. I would thus in an indirect manner compel absentee proprietors to have at least resident agents. A concise statement of the resources of the country is especially required by English and Scotch read- ers, as well as those in Ireland who have a difficulty in obtaining accurate information on her condition, — to those I should hope that the statistics and facts I have given in relation to her finance, commerce, manufactures, mines and minerals, may prove of use. In an agricultural point of view" I consider as important those facts shewing that the insecurity of the tenure of land is equivalent to a large bounty on rearing cattle and sheep, and therefore an indirect stimulus to emigration. F. M. JENNINGS. CoKK, March. 18G5. CONTENTS. Introduction ....... The Present Condition of Ireland The decline of Political Agitation in Ireland Banking, Insurance, and otlier Commercial E&tablibhments in Ireland ....... Ulster Contrasted with other Provinces The Mineral Resources of Great Britain and Ireland Exports of Great Britain and Ireland Trade and Manufactures of Ireland Decrease of the Agricultural Population of Scotland The Religious Denominations in Ireland Effect of the Depopulation of Ireland on the Established Church The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland Freedom of the Roman Catholic Church Is the Maintenance of the Established Church a real grievance to Roman Catholics ? Would the Secularization of its Property be an advantage to Ireland ? ..... Probable Effects of further Depopulation on the Bench and the Bar ....... Necessity for an Opposition to the Process of Centralization The Causes of Emigration from Ireland The Decrease of the Population, and probable Population of Ireland Irish Distress — The Importation of Foreign Corn . Party Divisions in Ireland ..... Education of the Irish People .... Condition of the Irish Fisheries Success of Irislimen in England, the Colonies, and America What can Ireland expect from her Representatives ? The Grand Jury Sybteni ..... Concluding Remarks ..... Supplement ...... 1 2 6 7 12 14 16 19 24 27 29 33 34 37 40 42 47 54 62 71 73 75 78 80 85 97 V-' ■ ^'- PRESENT AND FUTURE IRELAND. CHAPTER T. INTRODUCTION. In the following pages I propose to give, free from any tinge of sectarianism, an outline of Ireland as it is, poli- tically, socially, and religiously. The task is a difficult one, but undertaken in the hope, possibly a vain one, that it may prove of some use. The resolution to pvit forward this sketch of Ireland had its rise when I was travelling in the United States and Canada, from a comparison of the condition of Irishmen in these countries with that of Irishmen in Ireland, and also with that of the agricultural and manufacturing people of most European countries. I take up the history mainly from the year 1841 and the famine of 1846, but more particularly the condition of Ireland from 1851 to 1863-4, except where allusions are re- quired to more remote periods ; the limits of this pamphlet not permitting a proper consideration of its earlier history, the importance of which I, however, do not either deny or underrate. I give the figures on which I found my opi- nions, and the causes to which I ascribe our present low condition as a nation. B ■■■"-:Jy l^'Jh Observers all admit the disadvantages under which Ire- land so recently entered on the race of competition with the Avorld, after the British Parliament, by the passing of Catholic Emancipation, and Parliamentary and Municipal reform, considered that our political and religious ques- tions were settled. Then came the famine in 1846, fol- lowed by the great experiment of Free Trade in a country ahuost entirely devoted to agriculture. The last twenty years and the coming ten should be considered in the spirit of enquiry, without dogmatism, and, above all, free from even the shadow of a would-be prophetic cast. I shall begin by treating the subject in its most general aspect, then proceed to its details, and conclude with suggestions that I consider of great impor- tance to Ireland's future welfare. My Irish readers will, I hope, bear in mind that my remarks are also meant for the consideration of those at the other side of the channel.' CHAPTER II. THE PRESENT CONDITION OF IRELAND. I FIND it hard to speak of Ireland as a country, so divided is she, religiously and politically, in every view that an observer can take. Our people, save in a few localities, speak English. The Irish language, which is limited to the poorer classes, is rapidly dying out. There is scarcely any manufacturing industry except in the North, and every day sees the farmer and peasant more clothed in English cloth and calicoes, to the exclusion of the coarse but strong home-made fabrics which, even twenty years ago, were common through all the country. This has been facilitated by the absence of a national cos- tume. The faslilons of Enjxland and France conie,to our labouring men and women in the form of old clothes, cast off by the English of all classes, and largely imported into Ireland. We are nearly destitute of mineral wealth, at east of mineral produce ; our manufactures of nearly every description, except in two or three counties of Ulster, are decaying; and our sea-coast fisheries are diminishing. We have now a pojnilation only some 400,000 over the esti- mate of 1805, and about 300,000 under that of the year 1811; whilst up to the bad harvests of 1860, '61, and '62, our progress was the tlieme of writers for over a century, except during famines and pestilences, neither of which were very rare. Only two towns (Belfast and Carrick- fergus) and one county (Dublin)* are increasing in num- bers, whilst others have been diminisliing at the rate of from 16 to 29 per cent, from 1841 to 1851; and from 1851 to 1861 the diminution has continued at the same rate. Yet, with all this, the laws are admirablv adminis- tered, equal justice is meted out, and no distinction of creed is recognized. With what feeUngs of indignation the late and present rulers of Russia are looked on by the world in reference to unhappy Poland ! " The Russian Government appears to desire the absolute extermination of that people, and all Europe loudly, but justly, denounces its brutality and in- humanity. Why does not Russia send a commission to Ireland, which was once called the Poland of England, and examine with a careful eye the very opposite system — where, with justice impartially administered, and without a grievance that could give energy to a popular cry, a nation, in times considered prosperous — even from 1853 to 1861 — rapidly diminished (as it still diminishes) in population? Her people leave her for Great Britain and * The separation of some of the environs from the Borough of Dublin gives an apparent diminution of population, but an increase to the coimty. — Fw/e Census of 1861. . ^^ America at tlicir own oxpciist', and the empire is at a loss to know whether this diminution is advantageous or otherwise. The (juestion, tlierefore, naturally arises, if this decrease of ]»oj)uhition be advantageous, how is its jn'cvious enormous increase to be accounted for? Was it owing to the laws, the habits of the peojde, or the rela- tions of the Landlord and Tenant? The opinions are various, and they differ according to the class of those whom you interrogate. So mysterious a))[)ears to be the phenomenon, that destiny, and not false legislation, is by many considered the fittest exj^hination of it. Tlie late Lord Lieutenant and the Royal Agricultural Society used to congratulate themselves upon the great progress of the country from about 1854 until the tlu'ee bad harvests of 18G0, '61, '62, and these, it is admitted by tvllj have seriously affected the national pros])erity. That they have not completely overwhelmed us is a proof of ehisticity being still left in the country. Had our small Farmers been absolute pro])rietors in fee, the evil, though lessened, must still have been considerable. But as, generally si)eaking, they hold land by a most uncertain tenure, the distress has been greatly aggravated. Providence has sorely tried the nation by an unprece- dented disease in the potato and by the three years of bad harvests above alluded to, the evils of which have fallen almost exclusively on the small tillage farmer, whilst the high prices of cattle, sheep, pigs, and butter have been favourable to the large farmer. In consequence, the popu- lation of all Ireland, even of the two principal grazing counties of Ireland (Roscommon and ]\Ieath) has very seriously diminished by emigration. Munster decreased in double pro})ortion to Connaught during the ten years from 1851 to 18()1 ; and emigration from all has been lessened by the civil war in the United States. When that war is over, thiJ tide of emigration Avill in all proba- bility set in with redoubled vigour. If it does, and if up to 1871 the causes that liave led to the present rnteof diininution shall continue in operation, its effects upon all Ireland as well as on the military power of Great lii itain will he roinarkahle. I write under the conviction that the present laws relative to the letting of land will not he seriously altered until too late ; that the great landlords and ahsentee j)ro- prietors, especially the latter, are interested in the present order of tilings ; that cattle and a little tillage will he m ore favourahle to regularly paid rents, though not such high rents as those which are obtainable from smaller fai'ins ; that as what liingland most desires to have in Ireland is fresh meat and hutter, evei'ything is, in an English-trade point of view, satisfactory and progressing ; hut that, if the Irish agricultural districts decline in population as at present, the English statesman who requires an army must look in vain to Ireland for recruits, while if he looks to England and Scotland, his prospects of getting fighting men will not be much improved, since the Scotch and English increase hut little in most agricultural counties, whilst they diminish in others. I shall endeavour to show that the Whig influence in the House of Commons must soon he diminished, as a natural result of the ])resent state of the laws with reference to land in Ireland. Although I reconunend some: other questions for con- sideration whose importance is not to be underrated, they are all but small when compared with that of land, which, while of great im})ortance to the farmer and labourer, is of equal or greater moment to the bench of bishops, the clergy, the bar, as well as to the merchants and traders. I do not censure the British government for all our miseries, for I endeavour to show where Irishmen tlion- selves are to blame. Ov CHAPTER III. I THE DECLINE OF POLITICAL AGITATION IN IRELAND. '' Since tlie death of Daniel O'Coniiell, Ireland has had no leader who has succeeded in obtaining either the votes or the influence of any large section of its representatives in parliament or of its people. With the exception of the Young Ireland party, the struggles of later years do not claim to be of a national character. The "Brass Band" and the unhappy Sadleir case extinguished all public agi- tation. The " Brass Band " was a formidable nucleus of agitation in 1856. The Government fearing the howl of the united pack threw some juicy bones to the leaders, and the fate of the unhapi)y Sadleir, who had been made a Lord of the Treasury, terminated its career and existence. The amount of Government patronage placed at the disposal of these men was very considerable as long as they commanded parliamentary influence. Is it not won- derful that there have not been more agitators in Ireland, for agitation has paid well ? Yet a single one now is not feared. For agitation there must be union, and for chance of success a popular grievance. \Ji; O'Connell claimed and won the confidence of a propor- tion of the Protestant aristocracy and middle classes, for in his speeches and public acts he never sought to confer undue advantage on his own religion or party. Few men since his death appear to have seriously considered the present and actual condition of Ireland ; although- many have dealt separately with the important questions of parliamentary reform, the poor laws, the famine, and con- sequent reduction of the population, the Encumbered Estates Court, and free trade in grain and cattle, and the immense emigration which, from 1st May, 1851, to 31st December, 1864, amounted to upwards of 1,545,000. CHAPTER IV. BANKING, INSURANCE, AND OTHEB COMMERCIAL ESTABLISHMENTS IN IRELAND.,;,. , : Ireland, practically speaking, consists of two sections so different in their habits of thought and feeling, religiously, politically, and commercially, as to constitute almost two nations, exclusive of the city of Dublin, which, being the capital, must be considered separately. First let us take Ulster, which is recognized throughout Ireland as the Protestant and manufacturing portion ; in which the Roman Catholics are, nevertheless, in excess about 18,000 of the Protestants, though they have but little political influence. All Ulster does not send one Roman Catholic to either house of parliament, not even from the counties of Monaghan, Cavan, Donegal, or Ty- rone, in which that Church has a large numerical majority, there being more than three Roman Catholics to one Pro- testant. The same is true of the Presbyterians, who, although greatly outnumbering the members of the Church of England, either do not desire or are unal)Ie to send a single Presbyterian representative to the House of Commons. All the members of parliament from Ulster are Conservatives. The other provinces of Ireland ap- pear to ignore the Protestants of Ulster in their agitations, and to regard them as natural opponents. O'Connell, who was thoroughly conversant with the whole country. souglit most earnestly to attach Ulster to his side, but without success. Ulster is essentially Protestant, commercially as well as politically. It has three joint-stock banking establish- ments, which are well managed and prosperous, and. possess the confidence of that province and of every other part of Ireland in which their branches exist. The capital of those banks is almost exclusively held in Ulster, and the direction and management are exclusively Pro- testant and local. Without an exception, all the principal offices are held by Irishmen. The head offices are in Belfast. They have heretofore confined themselves, with few and unimportant exceptions, to Ulster, but are now extending, and Avitli success, into Leinster, Connaught, and Dublin city. With a few exceptions, the spinning mills, weaving factories, and bleachgreens of Ulster and the few places in Leinster in which the linen trade has taken root are OAvned by Protestants. There are but three spinning mills in Cavan, Monaghan, and Donegal. That trade has extended but little so far west, the cost of coals and other causes being obstacles; but there is no doubt that, as labour gets dearer in Belfast, those counties will also par- ticipate in its advantages, especially as they grow flax pretty largely. ; ] 1 have no theory to support relative to Roman Catholic countries not being favourable to manufactures. It is a sufficient reply to those who hold this opinion, that France and Belgium maintain a most important position in Europe in this respect ; and it is known that Catalonia and its capital Barcelona in Spain once supplied England with cloths, and are still the seats of large manufactures. As I have before remarked, the province of this pam- phlet is to consider Ireland as it is, except where allu- sions to more remote periods are necessary, and then the quotations avoid all questions of a sectarian bias. The penal laws, what led to tliem, and their effect on the present or past, I endeavour most studiously to avoid. Munster, Connaught, and Leinster, exclusive of Duhlin, do not possess a single local bank, with the exception of those in the metropolis, their banking business bemg prin- cipally carried on through the Bank of Ireland and the Provincial and National Banks.* The head offices of the two latter are in London ; their management is exclusively carried on there, whilst, with one or two exceptions, the best appointments in connexion with one are held by Scotchmen and Englishmen. There are also the Hiber- nian Bank, which has three branches in Leinster, and the Union Bank of Ireland, also managed in London, but on the limited liability principle. This contrasts strongly with self-reliant Ulster. Ireland, in ] 804, possessed fifty-four private banks, almost allof whi('h have failed or have wound up their accounts. In Belfast, three of these private banks have merged into joint-stock companies. In Dublin, three of them still survive, and there are two of more recent date also.f The Bank of Ireland, which is a chartered body like that of the Bank of England, is managed in Dublin. Until 1824, its charter practically prevented the existence of joint-stock banks in Ireland. There are two other joint- stock banks, the Hibernian and the Royal, but they do not issue notes of their own. The Royal does business only in Dublin; the Hibernian, as already mentioned, has three branches in Leinster; and, in connexion with this bank, it may be noted, that all its directors are Roman Catholics. There is full and entire confidence in these banks, whether the management be in Dublin, Belfast, or London. " * Withiu the past few months " The Munster Bank" has been opened in Cork, with a capital of £200,000, £50,000 paid up. It commands public confidence, and owes its existence to a merchant of Cork — an Englishman of ability and enterprise. t La Touche's Bank was in existence in 1760, and still exists. 10 Tlie banks on tlie limited liability principle, though so far successful, are of too recent a date to pay large divi- dends. The older banks pay well. The large dividends paid by them are, of course, mainly owing to the large amounts left on deposit: therefore the absence of local banking in the south, west, and centre of Ireland, and of insurance companies, except in Dublin, must be considered as indicating either want of mutual confidence or of a ten- dency to association, not want of capital. The National Bank has a paid-up capital and reserve of £1,518,000; it has on deposit, £4,200,000, and the amount advanced to the public and the specie held by it exceed the entire amount of deposits in Ireland. The total number of shareholders is 1,444, of whom there are Irish, or resident here, 1,336, leaving the number of Eng- lish shareholders, or resident in England, 108. Most of its directors are Irish, and there are but three officers of this bank in Ireland who are Scotch and English. The Provincial Bank of Ireland has a paid-up capital and reserve of £792,000. The total number of sharehold- ers is 1,200, of whom are Irish, or resident here, 940, and English, or in England, 260. Nearly all the good ap- pointments in this bank, in Ireland as well as in England, are Scotch or English, though the Irish hold in stock £420,000, and the English, £120,000. The Province of Munster alone holds stock in this bank whose marketable value is £464,000. The aggregate amount of the private balances in all the principal joint-stock banks in Ireland in 1862 was £14,388,000; the amount of Government stock held in Ireland in 1862, was ^38,081,000, including East India stock; the amount in savings banks in Ireland in 1861 was £2,153,000; and the amount of money advanced by pawnbrokers in Ireland in 1861 was £1,866,000. Dr. Handcock also estimates the amount of Irish capital in Irish railways at 12^ millions. These figures shqw large amomits, and of great importance to Ireland; but, as I li^ve before remarked, of how little importance compara- tively Ireland is to England when one compares all Ire- land with some of the principal banks in London. The Economist of October, 1864, gives the following. Some banks don't publish their deposits : — The London and Westminster Bank has deposits, £18,500,000. The London Joint-Stock Bank has deposits, nearly £15,000,000. The Union Bank of London has deposits, £19,500,000.* Thus, three banks in London have each a greater amount on deposit, than the entire of the principal banks of Ire- land. "This is not to be wondered at, since the Poor Law valuation of Ireland was in 1862 £12,570,000; this is usually below the rental — the latter was probably, at least, £15,000,0G0."t Of this, about one-fourth is re- mitted to absentees. : Dublin possesses two fire and life assurance companies, an underwriters' association, and a marine branch con- nected with one of the life assurance companies. These are the only Irish public insurance companies. The amount of fire insurance duty paid in all Ireland amounted, in 1861, to £80,495, of which these two Dublin companies paid less than £14,000. The value of Irish farming stock insured but not paying duty amounts to £1,121,556. Of this the Dublin companies insured only £182,265 worth. Were these companies worked with that vigour which' the Scotch and English companies display, the result must have been more satisfactory, considering the position and characters of the managers as well as their mercantile success. The shares of one of these companies are at a considerable premium. * The Clydesdale Bankmg Company, Scotland, has on deposit £4,000,000 The British Linen Company Bank, Scotland, over £6,000,000. t Wm. Nelson Hancock's Keport on supposed decline of Irish prosperity. 12 The amount of life insurances effected cannot be ascer- tained, for the stamp duties being paid by tlie head offices in London, Edinburgh, &c. are necessarily included in the British returns. Ireland is not credited with the stamp duty. But the Dublin offices have only a limited share of life business compared with the great British insurance companies. In the speech of a director at the half-yearly meeting of the National Insurance Com- pany held in Dublin in January, 1863, he said he was sure the report must be most gratifying to every gen- tleman present. The company commenced with a capital of £92,000 Irish, and now they had a capital of £381,000 British. He was a little surprised that the premiums upon life insurance amounted to so small a sum' as £7,000. What a difference between Great Britain and Ireland ! Small towns all through England, Scotland, and even in Wales, are doing large life and lire business, besides the no less prosperous offices in London, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. There are a few annuity societies, but the total capital in the government consols of those in Dublin and Cork taken together is under £90,000. The amount of capital held in the banks and railways is a proof that it is not want of money is the reason why Insurance companies are so few. CHAPTER V. ULSTER CONTRASTED WITH THE OTHER PROVINCES. Before proceedmg further note the position of Ulster. Its representatives in the House of Commons and its nobility not alone Protestant but Church of Enfjland ; ;,■; 13 ■ ::■;-. .;:/- ,.:,.;: its great capitalists, manufacturers, and bankers, with a few exceptions, Protestants ; the Presbyterians working in harmony with the other Protestants. Ulster is organized, directed, and I may add, officered by Irishmen, all loyal, and in favour of British connection, proud of their Scotch and English descent. Though the other banks have offices through the country as w^ell as the Bank of Ireland, their business is inferior to that of their Ulster competitors. Protestant Ulster is, therefore, the most national Province in Ireland. Now, contrast w^th Ulster the three provinces of Mun- ster, Connaught, and Leinster, leaving Dublin, as has been already mentioned, for separate consideration. They are remarkable for the absence of flax, cotton, or other manufactures of importance, having only those of Mal- comson of Waterford, Russell of Limerick, and a few others in Drogheda, Dublin, &c. Their once great export flour trade all but annihilated ; almost their entire bank- ing monopolized by banks with the head offices in Lon- don — the only exceptions being the Bank of Ireland, manao;ed in Dublin, the three branches of the Hibernian Bank in Leinster, the Munster Bank opened in Cork September, 1864, which has no bran(:;hes, and nine branches of the Belfast banks in Connaught and Leinster, There is but little mutual trade between any Uxo Irish cities or districts. In fact, almost all our commerce is w^ith England and Scotland. The social bearing of this fact is not less important than its commercial aspect. Our eastern seaports are but depots whence our agricultural produce is forwarded to Great Britain, and where British manufac- tures are received and distributed. This absence of mu- tual trade between Ulster and the other provinces tends to keep up that distrust that has so long existed. Another important fact is the immigration of Scotch and English into Ireland. The English, but especially 14 the Scotch, are rapidly increasing in numbers in every branch of wholesale and retail trade throughout every part of the country. Now, of what use is any agitation of Protestants ignor- ing Roman Catholics, or of Roman Catholics not recog- nizing the Protestant influence ? How utterly useless any movement that does not unite all ! In Dublin as well as all through Ireland (excluding Ulster) there is commercially much unity and harmony amongst all persuasions. The Bank of Ireland has had Roman Catholic governors as well as the greatest rail- way companies chairmen of that Church. Though Dublin returns generally Protestant and Con- servative members of Parliament, that would be a falla- cious test if it led one to ignore or undervalue the wealth, power, or influence, commercially or socially, of the Roman Catholics in Dublin, or of Leinster, Munster, or Connaught, were the same test applied. At the same time a lover of his country must regret a species of antagonism amongst Irish society of a kind that it is hard to describe, and an undercurrent prevailing that most people consider comes certainly not from a reli- gious but a sectarian character. CHAPTER VI. THE MINERAL RESOURCES OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. There are some mining companies in Dublin, a few of which are prosperous. The vast difference between Ire- land and Great Britain in their mineral resources is almost 15 entirely neglected in comparing the two countries. That they must possess a very material influence on the wealth of Great Britain, a glance at the following figiires will prove : — .' VALUE OF MINERAL PRODUCTS IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND IN 1863. Great Britain Ireland Great Britain Ireland Great Britain Ireland Great Britain Ireland Great Britain Ireland . Great Britain Ireland Great Britain Ireland Great Britain Ireland Great Britain Ireland COALS. Tons. Total Value. . 86,165,165) . 127,050; ^20,572,945 COPPER ORE. 96,132) . U,81ol ^^100,554 LEAD ORE. 88,871) IRON ORE. . 9,057,287) . 31,6731- ^3,240,890 TIN. 14.224) _ I £963,985 ZINC. 9,807) 3,892) -£29,968 SILVER. Ounces. ;. 600,101 > . . 13,165| ^I'^'^^l PIG IRON. Tons. . . 4,510,040) J. i ^£11,275,100 SULPHUR ORE. 30,784) . .0 62,035; ^62,035 Total value of all minerals, not including pig iron, pro- duced in Great Britain and Ireland in 1863, £27,338,258, which includes earthy minerals, and of which latter Ire- land is almost deficient. 10 , -• I : 1 have taken the above from Hunt's Mining Record, i 18<)3, and, though perhaps not absolutely correct, they i must shew that Ireland had better not rely too much on her mineral resources for her future prosperity. The years 1859 and 18(^0 shew about the same relative pro- portions, and the returns of 1862 are more unfavourable to Ireland. CHAPTER Vn. EXPOKTS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. The following shows the value of the exports of Great Britain and Ireland for the year 1862 : — Apparel and Slops Beer and Ale .... Brass and Copper Manufactures Cotton Maniifactures Do. Yarn . . . Earthen Avare Haberdashery and Millinery Hardware and Cutlery . Iron and Unwrought Steel Leather .... Linen Manufactures . Machinery and Mill Work Silk Manufactures Tin Ware and Plates Woollen and Worsted Yarn Woollen Matrafactures . ' . Arms and Ammunition £2,557,683 1,592,490 2,889,501 .30,542,537 6,202,240 1,220,217 3,573,544 3,310,317 11,354,148 2,216,979 5,132,106 4,092,663 2,360,527 1,247,967 3,825,998 13,147,000 2,267,047 Total value of exports £123,789,261* inclusive of Ire- land. * In 1863, the exports were valued at £146,000,000, in part owing to the great rise in the value of cotton and linen goods. ■■"■■'"':.;'■'■■'; ■■-..■■;■■... 17: '': "■■•-;■;: -^.:\ I have not enumerated in the above table any article of which less than one million sterling in value was ex- ported. These can he found well tabulated in Thorn's Almanacs for Ireland as well as for Great Britain, works on which I have drawn largely for information. The returns as obtained from England, including the linen and butter, &c., and the foreign exports of Ireland wdiich pass through England on their way to foreign countries, are considered as British. The value of the linen and linen yarn exports of Ireland amounted to about ifc'4,400,000 per annum previous to the late increase in value, owing to the increased price of cotton and flax. As our export trade of manufactures Y)ractically consist, excepting linen, of sewed muslin, some cotton, and other manufactures so small in amount as to be under two millions sterling in value, they are hardly w^orth mentioning. Of the i^U 23,000,000 Avorth exported by Great Britain and Ire- land to foreign countries, Ireland's share must be under ^£^8,000,000 sterling. Mr. Pope Hennessy, a member for the King's County, has directed the attention of Govern- ment to the defects in the manner in which the Irish returns are given. ci ■ The conclusion which I draw^ from these figures is this: — That whether these facts are left out through ignorance or design, any comparison as to legislation or taxation between a country possessing so much mineral wealth as Great Britain and a poor agricultural province like Ireland must be fallacious. I give the cotton, silk, woollen, and other important trades of Great Britain ; but I do not lav so much stress upon them, as, if there was energy to establish and patriot- ism to support them in their first struggles, many of them might be profitably carried on here, especially if bad laws did not impede the obtaining of w^ater-power sites, and if absentee proprietors, through absence and carelessness, did not ignore our wants, and, of equal importance with all 18 these, if" tlie Irisli consumer did not too often pi'efer tlie products of Engluiid from a tliouglitless ])rejudicc. In looking Luck through the history of Ireland, one is met everywhere by the absence of the landed j^roprietors. It is impossible to calculate its disastrous effects at all times even down to the present. That this was felt in the last century will be seen by the following letters from His Grace Hugh Boulter, Lord Primate of all Ireland : — ^'Duhliny February 13 CHAPTER XI. EFFECT OF THE DEPOPULATION OF IRELAND ON THE ESTABLISHED CHUUCH. ■ I WILL HOW proceed to consider the effect of the depopula- tion of Ireland on the religious institutions of the country. First, as to the Established Church, with its two arch- hishops and its ten bishops. Lord Stanley (now the Earl of Derby) brought in the Church Temporalities Act, which passed on the 14th of August, 1833, and two archbishops and eight bishops were cut off. The Act, of course, only applied to those sees on the death of their then pre- lates, the last of whom died in 1850. In 1834 (accord- ing to the report of the Public Instruction Committee), there were in Ireland 852,064 members of the Established Church including the Methodists. This was the first time a census was taken of the different religious bodies in Ire- land. At present there are ten bishops and two arch- bishops to 678,661 Episcopalians ; that is (divided by tweh-e), one bishop to less than 58,000; and that, by the census of 1861, excludes the IMethodists, whose number is 44,532. I should look with reo;ret at anv movement in the present state of Ireland tending to diminish our posi- tion as a nation. As a nation, the Establishment and its ten archbishops and bishops is not an unbecoming number. Four members of its body are amongst the privy council of Ireland. Let us sink to the position of two English coun- ties, in population and wealth, and what can we reasonably expect ? Even now, the population of Lancashire and Yorkshire is estimated at less than a million under that of all Ireland. Lord Derby may again, with the assistance of the lords spiritual and temporal and of the head of the Church on the throne, reduce the number of bishops by 30 six ; leaving us but four bishops and two archbishops, as, by the Act of Union of Great Britain and Ireland, the principle of annual parliaments was admitted in permitting only four in rotation of the Irish bishops to sit in the House • of Lords of the Imperial Parliament. If the duties of the English and Irish bench of bishops be considered, and the numbers of Episcopalians be taken into account, probably there would be left but one archbishop and one bishop. The Public Instruction Act of 1834 says: — "There are some benefices (more particularly in the southern and west- ern parts of Ireland) in which there are no members of the Established Church." These benefices have been handed over to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for Church pur- poses. Even now there are — taking the Methodists as 43,000 in 1834—130,000 few^er churchmen than in that year, and in Connaught and Munster their numbers are at present under 118,000. What the Established Church in Ireland has to fear from its English friends may be best seen in a Bill brought in in 1835 by Lord John Russell (now Earl Russell), Lord Morpeth (the late Earl of Carlisle), and others: — Part 4:tli, clause of preamble — " And whereas it is just and necessary for the establishment of peace and good order in Ireland, and conducive to religion and morality, that after adequate provision made for the spiritual wants of the members of the Established Church, the surplus income of such parishes shall be applied to the moral and religious education of the people without distinction of religious persuasion." The meaning of this may be best explained by sections 58, 59, and part of 60, which 1 quote: — 60th Section. — " And be it enacted, that if it shall appear by such report that there are any such members of the said Established Church in such parish, but that such number does not exceed fifty, it shall and may be lawful for the said Ecclesiastical Commissioners, either to direct that the ecclesiastical duties and care of souls in such parish shall be committed to and performed by the incumbent or officiating minister of some adjoin- ing parish." The greatest enemies of the Church could not desire a greater blow to tlie Establishment. The idea of fifty being a mini mum, and speaking of the adjoining parish, forget- ting what is to be done if the adjoining parislies are equally- deficient, or if five parishes could not make up the number ; and that there are many parishes in that and even in a worse position may be seen by the subjoined table: — Table showing the Parishes of Ireland, classified according to the Established Church. CLASSIFICATION OF PARISHES. Number of parishes containing no menihers ] and not more than 20 members . More than 20 and not more than 50 . • • 382 - 416 | More than 50 and not more than l6o . . . 307 - 349 ] More than 100 and not more than 200 . More than 200 and not more than 500 . More than 500 and not more than 1,000 More than 1,000 and not more than 2,000 More than 2,000 and not more than 5,000 More than 5,000 and not more than 10,000 More than 10,000 and not more than 20,000 More than 20,000 and not more than 30,000 . 7— - — More than 30,000 and not more than 40,000 . — - — More than 40,000 members — - — Number of parishes in 1861, 2,428. There were 33 more parishes in 1861 than 1834. There are two Archbishops and ten Bishops in Ireland, and the total number of Clergy is 2,281. The opinion of the Bishop of Oxford on this subject will be seen by the following extract from a speech deli- vered by him at the Church Congress held at Manchester in October, 1863: " The whole idea of the Church of Ireland, if I understand it aright, is, that it is to be a missionary Church. Now it is not in the notion of a mis- sionary Church that it is to provide for two families, say, for instance, of Protestants in a ynde district a clergymen and church and an income, with his glebe and garden, and that it should leave all other districts of the same chm'ch, where God has stirred the minds of men, and brouglit them to the truth — that there it should leave no provision for doing His work among the people. There should be, I think, the power of tempora- ESTABLISED CHURCH 1834. 1861. . 204 - 199 . 456 - 575 . 382 - 416 . 307 - 349 . 317 - 270 . 315 - 309 . 197 - 141 . 125 - 106 . 76 - 53 . 14 - 8 2 - 32 rily, at least, removing tlie work of tlio instituted clergyman from the parish where he can do notliing to a district Avhere he can do everything." 'I'lio public now know liow many benefices are in apo- sition ready to be lianded over, but, judging from tlie past, not to tlie curates and other Irish expectants. The P^cclesiastical Commissioners have at present between their dliferent funds over £2()0,()()() in their possession. Now this is well worthy of the consideration of a practical ])eo- ])le iike the English. Remember it is the United Church of England and Ireland. Why not have a conunon purse ? There is the Archbishop of Dublin and the Bishop of Derrv, both Eni>"lishmen, wdiilst there is not a siuirle Irishman on the episcopal bench in England. The annual revenue of the Clergy of the Established Church is about £447,000 ]>er annum. Lord Carlisle and Earl Russell desired the funds for education, Avliile the Bishop of Oxfoi'd appears to mean that, as the funds are of the United Church of Eno-land and Ireland, the clcrojvmen should be removed from the district where he can do nothing to a district wdiere he can do everything. Does he mean to England? The Fellows of the University of Dublin are very deeply interested in keeping u}) the Establishment. There is pro- motion from the ranks of the Fellows to rich livino;s and to the episco])al bench. There was no pressure from with- out to have this last Irish census one of creeds. It was not so in Great Britain. Doubtless, it is meant to be the forerunner of some change similar to that which took place in 1834, when the first census of creeds w^as taken in Ire- land. The following extract from letters of Hugh Boulter, Lord Primate of Ireland in 1 734, sheAvs what were consi- dered qualifications for bishops in his time : — " Bublin, Janitari/ \4fh, 17B4:. i " To the Duke of Dorset. '• As to the Bishoprick of Killala, we have in our pubhe letter named threi' for it, whom we all think to be well affected to his Majesty. But I 33 cannot but think witli my Lonl Clianeellor and the-Archblshoi) of Dublin, that it will be very dangerous to let the majority of natives, wlio are already twelve on the bench, grow greater ; and we cannot but be appre- hensive that, as they grow stronger there, they will grow more untractable. "I have, therefore, by this post, wrote to Sir Robert Walpole; and I make it my earnest request to your Grace that some prudent English divine, of good character, may be thought of to be sent amongst us, since we have not any Englishman here at present of that age, prudence, and good character as to avoid a clamour if he were made a bishop. CHAPTER XII. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN IRELAND. But most nearly does the prosperity of the country affect the Roman Catholic Church. There is a limit to what tlie people can give. Their churches, convents, hospitals, built previous and since the famine over the whole country, and almost exclusively raised by funds contributed in Ireland, are numerous, and many of them vast and splendid edifices. The Church that is supported by the voluntary contribu- tions of the people, and the majority of them the poorest, must be the first sufferer. According to Battersby's Catholic Directory for 1864, published in Dublin, there are in Ireland, including arch- bishops, bishops, coadjutor bishops, parish priests, and cu- rates, 2,560 ; priests in seminaries, chaplains, and religious in monasteries, 528; total, 3,088. There are in Ireland 2,339 Roman Catholic chapels. The average annual amount of the receipts of the clergy out of the offerings of the faithful is thus estimated by Father Adolphe Penaud:* * Priest of the Oratory of the Immaculate Conception, in his book on Ireland, translated from the French, 1862, page 459. I prefer taking his estimate for the year 1 862, though it shews a sliglit difference from the numbers in Battersby's Catholic Directory. D >> 34 ,^ . 28 Bishops, at £500 .... £14,000 ;^ 1,036 Parish Priests, at £200 . . . 207,200 !?' 1 ,491 Curates, at £80 .... 119,280 Total . . . .£340,480 '' Taking this as a starting point, we should calculate the yearly amount as £340,480 for the revenue of the pastors out of the charity of the faithful." In addition to all this, the Roman Catholics have to provide for the erection and repair of their churches, the building of seminaries, con- vents, monasteries, " Catholic University," hospitals, and, in a word, for every work of piety and charity. They receive from the State only the annual gift to Maynooth of £30,000, dating from 1795. The various poor law unions, counties, and cities contribute an allowance to the Roman Catholic chaplains of the workhouses, gaols, and lunatic asylums. I ■ CHAPTER XIII. [ ■. ' ' ■ FREEDOM OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. On this subject I shall give the opinion of the Count de Montalambert as expressed by him in 1858 in his pam- phlet on the Debate on India in the English Parliament : " From all this we are permitted to conclude, witliout by any means wishing to pardon the persecutions and spoliations of which England has rendered herself guilty towards the Irisli, that nowhere in tlie world does the Catholic Church, at the present day enjoy m fact, such complete and such absolute Uberty as in England and Ireland. Let us add that, cum hoc, si non propter hoc, no nation in the world is more insulted at the pre- sent day than Great Britain, by the greater number of the Catholic jour- nals of France, Belgium, and Italy, and especially by those which in former times affirmed that the liberty of the Church was uiseparable in their pro- gramme from general liberty. It will be objected to me, perhaps, that liberty is not sufficient to obtain justice. So be it. But it is sufficient at OK all events for the purpose of demanding it, and meriting it. SxKcess is sometimes long waited for, but it almost always comes some time or other, and it lasts. None of the conquests gained since 1 780 in favour of the liberty of the Catholics of England and Ireland have yet been distmbed, or even threatened." Father Adolplio Penaud, whom I have before referred to, writes at page 451 — " Hitherto we have accused the English Government sufficiently to be entitled to declare aloud how much honour that Government does itself in the eye of the woi-ld by respecting as it now does, the liberty of adminis- tration and government which is essential to the Catholic Church. We are aware that in 1850, in a fit of ill-temper, mider the influence of old preju- dices, it revived, in the case of the Irish Bishops, and enacted in the case of the English, the law forbidding them to bear the titles of their sees. But we need scarcely observe that no one in England thinks of enforcing these childish and superannuated proscriptions In Ireland, then, as in England, there is nothing to trammel the pastoral and admi- nistrative action of the Church Thank God they have there got no organic laws, and Galilean liberties. Bishops govern their diocesses, and priests their parishes, without being interfered with by anyone, and without having any spy set to watch over them. Liberty of charity, is neitlier less entire, nor less respected than that of the pastoral ministry. All works of Catholic devotion are founded, extended, multi- plied, and managed, without interference ; and no body thinks of fettering them or watching them, or still less of taking them under protection." . The following shows what position the Bishops in France are in when tliey venture on the discussion of other than religious questions, and contrasts most strongly with the liberty of the Irish Roman Catholic Bishops : — THE FRENCH EMPEROR AND THE FRENCH CHURCH. In August, 1863, the Moniteur published the following decree signed by the Emperor, and coiintersigned by M. Baroche, Keeper of the Seals and Minister of Justice and of Public Worship: — "A pamphlet having been published, having for its title, 'Reply of various Bishops to Consultations addressed to them relative to the forthcoming Elections,' the said pamphlet being signed by the Archbishop of Cambrai, of Tours, of Rennes, and by the Bishops of Metz, Nantes, Orleans, and Chartres, we have decreed and decree as follows : — " Considering that it is an established principle that, at all times, by the canonical law and confirmed by the bull and decree which fixed tlie new circumscription of the dioceses, that the powers of bishops are limited within the bounds of that circumscription, and cannot be exercised except within their respective dioceses : n2 ■ 36 ■ : :j " Considering that the arohbishops and bishops have no right to delibe- rate together or to adopt resolutions in common without the express per- mission of the Government : '' Considering that, according to the terms of declaration of 1 682, it is a fun- damental maxim of the public law of France that the head of the Church and the Church itself have not received any power except upon spiritual matters, and not upon temporal things ; tliat, consequently, the pastoral letters which bishojjs may address to the faithful of their dioceses only must be confined to instructing them in their religious duties : " Considering tliat the i)amplUet in question has been addressed by the archbishops and bishops who have put their names to it, not only to the faithful and clergy of their respective dioceses, but to the faithful and clergy of the French Empire, by the medium of the daily newspapers and by a pamphlet distributed in the departments : " Considering that the said pamphlet is evidently the result of a common agreement and joint resolution : " Considering that its objects is by no means to instruct the faithful in their religious duties ; that it is in fact a political programme : "Relative to the letter of the Archbishop of Tours : "Considering that tliat letter challenges the riglit of the Government to inforce the respect due by the bishops to the laws imposed by the Em- pire : I " Considering that it contains a censure upon certain acts attributed to the Government and concerning its foreign poh'cy : " That, under this double head, it constitutes a violation of the laws of the Empire and an abuse of power : " Having consulted our Council of State, we have decreed as follows : — " Art. 1. — There is abuse of power in the pamphlet entitled, ' Reply of certain Bishops to the consultations addressed to them relative to the forthcoming Elections,' signed and published by the Archbishops of Cam- brai, Tours, and Rennes, and by the Bishops of Metz, Nantes, Orleans and Chartres. "The said pamphlet is suppressed. " Art. 2. There is an abuse of power in the letter addressed to our Minis- ter of Public Instruction and Worship by the Archbishop of Tours on the 4th of June last. "The said letter is suppressed. "Art. 3. Oii^ ^linister of State, and our Keeper of the Seals, Minister of Justice and of Public Worship, are charged, each as far as lie is con«erned, with the execution of the present decree, which will be inserted in the Bul- etin des Lois. " Approved August 16, 18G3. " Napoleon. ' Countersigned, " Baroche." 37 CHAPTER XIV. IS THE MAINTENANCE OF THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH A KEAL GRIEVANCE TO ROMAN- CATHOLICS? WOULD THE SECULARIZATION OF ITS TROPERTT BE AN ADVANTAGE TO IRELAND? ^.^ . One grievance tlie Roman Catholics in Ireland complain of is having to support the Established Church. To what extent is that real ? and have not the Protestants also reason to be dissatisfied in having to subscribe to build and fur- nish Roman Catholic chapels, as well as to contribute to Roman Catholic clergy ? The tithes are principally paid by Protestants, and are a charge on the land. According to the Irish Church Directory the total rent-charge of Ireland is about £400,000 paid by the lajf -lords, in the proportion of £376,000 by Protestant landlords, and £30,000 by Roman Catholic landlords. I admit tliat to have to support a religion opposed to one's convictions is a grievance ; but in the complicated condition of affairs in Great Britain or Ireland can it be avoided ? Take the Roman Catholic chaplains of the jails, lunatic asylums, and workhouses in Ireland, where, in addition to the sala- ries these public institutions pay, some have built and allocated commodious places for the worship of the Roman Catholic inmates ; in other words, have built Roman Catho- lic chapels out of the rates paid by Protestants in part. There is, therefore, not a Protestant paying poor rates or taxes who does not contribute to the support of the Roman Catholic clergy. Now, argued as a question of princi])le solely, both are equally placed in the same position of supporting the religion they object to, and that out of the local rates of the district. There is, besides, the Go-vern- ment grant to Maynooth, and the salaries to the various Roman Catholic chaplains in the army. Tlic iiToatest amount of o•rio^-llnce i:> to tlie Roman Catholics as being the greatest number, and the tithes being ])ni(l as rent first to the hmdlord, thev contribute directly or indirectly, and haye, therefore, the greatest reason to complain. On the other hand, no one doubts, that were tlie Established Cliurch compelled to be supported by yoluntary contributions, the tithes would be applied either to the expenses of education or to other requirements of the state. They are too large a sum for the landlord to be permitted to pocket or for the tenant, who has long since been relieyed of their direct payment. Tn other words, the secularization of the property of the Established Church would, if the funds were applied to education or other lay purposes in Ireland, be a practical withdrawal of so much money spent in the country. For if applied to education, it would lessen by so much the parliamentary grant. If diverted from its present use, it would diminish the number of reverend educated resident oentlemen in localities where, except the clerg^auen, few are to "be found. It would be a triumph to the opponents of the Established Cliurch ; but unless they could obtain for themselves a share of the tithes, it Avould be practically, even for them, a barren victory. It must not be forgotten that the Roman Catholic bisho})s and the extreme Protestant party both demand from the State that the grant of money for educational purposes should be divided so as to be expended by each free from Government control. This appears to be the only ground on which those two opposing forces l)resent even one point of union. i The Protestant clergy and laity subscribe largely for the Church Education Society as opposed to the National svstem. So also do the Roman Catholics fur their own educational establishments, presided over by the religious orders, which form, from their numbers and iiood man- aacmcnt, a formidtiblo rival to the National sa stem. : /■,.v^/■^:■f.^:.39>.;■ ■■ ■ :, : The amount of money applied to the support of the Protestant bishops and clergy, and to the building and repairs of churches, is as follows, per annum : — Total gross sum about £520,000 The Rev. Adolplie Penaud, estimates, in his book on Ire- land, the annual contributions to the bishops, parish priests, curates, and priests in seminaries, out of the charity of the Faithful to be ... , . 340,000 Total of both Churches . ..£860,000 To this must be added the large amounts contributed for the building of chapels, monasteries, schools, and their re- pairs, as well as rents from endowments and legacies, the extra contributions of the Established Church, Presbyte- rians, Methodists, and other religious bodies for the sup- port of their clergy, the building of their churches and schools, and rents from their endowments, as well as legacies. Admitting some inaccuracy in the above figures, I feel confident that Ireland must pay annually consider- ably over one million for religious purposes. Now, when one knows that the entire county -cess levied all over Ireland for the making of roads, bridges, all pub- lic works (exclusive of city taxation), constabulary ex- penses (in part), public charities, repayment of Govern- ment loans, &c., &c., amounted in 1861, to £1,069,000, it enables one to form an opinion what Ireland would have to pay in proportion to local taxation if the property of the Established Church were secularized and applied for education, &c. The Government grant for National Edu- cation in 1863 was £316,000. The British exchequer would be the gainer to that amount, and probably would relieve itself also of the £30,000 annually given to May- nooth, the Regium Vonum, nearly £40,000, the grants to the Queen's Colleges, &c. Whatever party in Ireland advocates the Avithdrawal of s6 much Government money, levied off Great Britain and 40 I Ireland and spent in this country, has, no douLt, consi- dered this question in all its bearings. i Doubtless, whateA'er goA'ernment secularizes the Church property woidd also be called on to divest Trinity College of its valuable estates. i CHAPTER XV. PROBABLE EFFECTS OF FURTHER DEPOPULATION ON THE BENCH AND THE BAR. j There are in Ireland a Lord Chancellor, a Lord Justice of Appeal, a Master of the Rolls, four Masters in Chancery, twelve Judges (including the Chief Justices and Chief Baron), the Judge of the Court of Probate, three Judges of the Landed Estates Court, a Judge in the Court of Ad- miralty, two Judges in the Bankruptcy Court, and thirty- three Chairmen of Quarter Sessions, besides Recorders. These latter have so reduced the criminal business of the judges who go circuit, that the French would call it pro- menade legale; since, from the few serious criminal cases or important civil ones that come before the higher courts, the absence of great mercantile questions and of mining cases, there is easy work for those functionaries. The total number of convictions in Ireland, at assizes and quarter sessions, in 1863, was* only 3,285. Four per- sons were hanged, and 518 transported or sent to penal servitude. The total number of causes tried in the supe- rior courts, as also before the judges of assizes in 1863, were 740. Total amount recovered, £34,068. That, being the first year of civil returns, is not quite correct, but cannot be more than a few per cent, wrong. ; In England and Wales in 1863 there Avere 15,790 con- ..r . victions. The numbers for that year sent to penal servi- tude or transported were 3,1(>7, and 29 were sentenced to death, of whom 22 were executed. If the bar takes up this question of nationality as opposed to centralisation it will be well. If not, there can be no doubt of their annihilation as far as hopes of future pro- motion for the majority. Nevertheless, I do not hope much from the bar, for they have displayed but little in- dependent spirit in some important cases. The spirit of party and of clique override plain common honour and honesty in this country. Whether our judges be deaf or blind or incapable of duty from age they seldom accept their liberal retiring allowance, and the bar do not protest. This establishment of the judges is not too great for a nation ; but for Ireland — a country not exceedinir five non- metropolitan English counties in population, and those five enormously greater in valuation — it is certainly overmuch.* There is a movement at present going on and a com- mission sitting about the equalization of the law and other matters in connection with its administrators and adminis- tration . With the transference of the judges, the transference of the bar must follow. To be sure, the change would not be difficult for a barrister. He can remove almost as easily as a Bedouin Arab ; but attorneys and solicitors cannot follow so easily, the complicated nature of their professional busi- ness and their occupations as agents all tending to prevent them. England for the Irish is no use to them as a cry unless to the younger members of their families who may follow the profession of the bar. Success in all professions now means taking business from their neighbours, the re- sult of a diminished population, manufactures, &c. To the solicitors any alteration giving permission to their English brethren to practice in Ireland must be injurious. The immense properties held by Irish absentee landlords noAV * Sec Supplement. 42 requiring Irish solicitors for their legal business would as far as possible be managed in England. And, except to a very few Irish solicitors, pennission to practise in England would be of no use whatever. CHAPTER XVI. ! NECESSITY FOU AN OPrOSITION TO THE PKOCESS OF CENTRALIZATION. Great praise is due to the Dublin Corporation, whose* unanimity saved the viceroyalty. But for that union of all parties in Dublin city, we should be still further advanced in the position of an English farm than now. With the Lord Lieutenant goes the privy council.* Wliat an absurd cry if Yorkshire and Lancashire were to demaiul a privy council ! Yet not more ridiculous than for Ireland to ask it back if it be once dissolved. Now for a little fact. The Irish lighthouses have been under the Ballast Board of Dublin ; the Irish dues were less than the Scotch or English, and the Irish establishment worked cheaper. All w^ ere well managed. The Trinity Board in London, who exercised control over Ireland, worked not only harmoniously but paternally with the Irish Board. The latter had £100,000 on hands. In 1854, the Board of Trade took possession of the money. The prudent Scotch Board had no money to take. The English had expended all their savings in purchasing pri- vate lights, and they were well spent in so doing. The Board of Trade took away the steamer of the Irish Board and left the Scotch Board theirs. Now, the west of Ireland is more dangerous than any part of the English coast ; and • A Pamphlet on the State of Ireland, by D. C. Heron, Esq., Q.C, is well worthy of attention. ; requires efficient inspection, for wliicli the use of a steamer was absolutely necessary; but the Trinity Board were to lend a boat to the Irish Board. Mr. Milner Gibson, Pre- sident of the Board of Trade, at last in 1861, gave per- mission to the Irish Board to order one, though for eight years they had remained without one ; Scotland not being deprived of her's in the meantime. Gentle suasion by members of Parliament obtained this tardy redress. I do not consider it improper to have all the lights under one rvdino; board in London, with one fund, but to take awav from the Ballast Board of Dublin the control of what was well managed while their own was left to Scotland was indeed remarkable, but by no means exceptional treatment in regard to Ireland. A royal commission on light-houses now proposes that there shall be one official in Dublin and one in Scotland in place of the present admittedly honest management. If Irish members con- tinue indolent and blind, Scotland will be left as it is, and Ireland will be deprived of almost the last trace on her own soil of a national control of her own affairs. It is but a trifle in itself, but it is the straw that shows how the current flows. A national movement is our only hope, and yet I believe it to be almost an impossibility. Our 105 members of Par- liament are almost 105 units, each in his separate sphere of action. It is the corporations, the poor-law boards, the town commissioners, and public meetings that must make Irish members do their- duty. How instructive to Irish members is the following fact: — ; - " When the Earl of Airlie asked m the House of Lords, ' whether the Government intended to hitroduce any measure for the better management of roads in Scotland,' the Dulce of Argyle said that ' road reform was almost the only (question ^qjon which it ivas found impossible to get the Scotch members to agree. The best way would be that, instead of a general mea- sure, each county should apply for a local bill for the regulation of its own roads. In his own county these matters were regulated entirely by a local Act.'"— Jiwes, Feb. 13th, 1863. 44 ' - \ It may bo su'ul that it is better for lis to be like an Eiiir- lisli or Scotch county. If it be so, let it be uiulerstood that it is only like a very poor aoricultural county we can be. If that be the most desirable position, everything at j>reseiit is so rapidly tending that "way that no special action is required to hasten it. But if, on the other hand, it is desired to be still a nation, in order to effect any good a movement must be made. All parties must unite — all to whom a radical change will work evil, to whom it is de-: sirable that there should be a population, towns and cities. As for those to whom these considerations may not seem important, Ave must appeal to their patriotism for aid. If gain be the chief object of the laiuled proprietors, that, many of them think, can be best attained by converting the coiui- try into pasture and dismissing the tenants. Still it is dangerous for a country, as well as an individual, to have all the eii'ffs in one basket. There have been oreat inur- rains in Ireland among cattle, and doubtless, there will l)c again. Ireland, trusting to cattle as her chief source of wealth, is as dangerous as trusting to the potato, or Lancashire relying on cotton. But that is considering Ireland as a nation. To those who look on Ireland as on so many ; English counties, the case is quite different. If Ireland ceases to be a nation, it will then be better for that portion of " West Briton" west of the Irish Sea to devote herself to raising that commodity that Great Britain most wants — fresh meat. The nationality I ask is, in other words, a barrier to the process of centralization, which, if canned out, must even- tually terminate in reducing Ireland to the position of a ' grazing farm to England, and Ireland's capital to the posi- i tion of a provincial town. i - The similarity of the English and Irish laws and modes [ of judicial procedure offer but little obstacle to a union of I the courts of law. Fortunately for Scotland, which even ; still retains portions of the civil law and peculiarities in her legal mode of procedure, it would be all hut impossi- ble to transfer her courts of law to London. If they be removed from Dublin, one of the slender barriers to centralization would cease. And writers may try to prove that, as in no previous portion of her history did she export more cattle, in no previous portion of her his- tory was she more prosperous. It were well that Ireland considered this question of a Viceroy, and not leave it to Dublin alone to speak of its importance to the country. Remote provinces, especially when poor and agricultural, ^re generally governed by cliques; but to remove the governing clique to London, entirely beyond the control of Irish public opinion, would, I believe, only hasten the process of centralization. Ireland is the only maritime country in the world whose exports are all but solely agricultural, where there is free trade in all productions of nature and art, but where land is rigidly bound up, its sale fettered and sur- rounded by numerous restrictions. Every intelligent per- son is aware that, although immense good has been effected by the Encumbered and Landed Estates Court, the sale of land is still fettered. A large part of Ireland is held by absentees. Some of these are the noble and wealthy pro- prietors whose duties in the Houses of Lords and Commons retain them for a time in England, or who hover about the court, or who hold estates in both countries. They hand down to their successors these estates united. This of itself produces a non-resident proprietory, in addition to those to whom the attractions of England are a sufficient inducement to keep them from Ireland. To say nothing of the drain of the rent, there is the absence of the social influence of the proprietor, and with these the absence of a middle class dependent on their expenditure and swayed by their example. v- V What the opinion of Her Majesty's Ministers on the 46 question of absenteeism is can be seen by a reference to the Queen's speech. Whenever Parliament is prorogued, part of the Queen's speecli to both houses runs thus, as in August, 1862 : — " lu returning to your several counties, you will still hare important duties to perform, and Her Majesty fervently prays that the blessing of Almighty God may assist your efforts, and may direct them to the attainment of this object of Her Majesty's constant soli- citude, the welfare and happiness of her people." Gootl advice, certainly, but not at all applicable to absentee landlords, who have no house in their counties, and who do not visit their estates once even in five or ten years, i Cromwell is reported to have said when he was in Ireland, " That if there was an Earl of Cork in every province of Ireland, it would have been impossible for the Irish to have raised a rebellion ;" owing to the great improvements he carried on. His great estates have been divided, and two at least of those who inherit are absentees. One does not possess a dwelling-house in Ireland, and they as well as others studiously avoid, as far as this country is concerned, the " important duties, to perform" which " Her Majesty fervently prays " that God may assist them, when returning to their several counties, that they seldom visit. Earl Russell said during the famine that the laws of political economy must be applied to Ireland ; but does that statesman forget that the laws referring to land out- rage all its principles, and especially in this poor agricul- tural country, which is practically destitute of mineral wealth, and which has but one branch of manufacture located in part of a single province? To Ireland as a country, land and its cultivation is everything ; it is its trade, its manufactures, its hope and its sheet anchor. Without security of tenure, there can be no confidence — without confidence no exertion or expenditure. The horrors of the Irish famine were greatly aggravated hy tlie absence of resident gentry to undertake the dis- ti'ibution of food that England and the English people so nobly contributed to mitigate the universal distress. CHAPTER XVI. THE CAUSES OF EMIGRATION FROM IRELAND. Canada taxes English manufactures up to twenty per cent. All our colonies do the same in various degrees, some even taxing their exports through their almost inde- pendent legislatures. But in them all, land is practically free in all its relations. The United States of America previous to the war taxed British manufactures up to and over thirty per cent. We all know that land is equally free in the United States of America ; that it can be bought and sold in large and small portions, and cannot be entailed. The emigration thither has of late diminished, owing to the civil war now raging in that country ; but when that is over, and immi- grants are required, our j)opulation will fly there faster than ever. The great incentives to emigration, and also to success in a foreign land or in a colony, no matter from what class the emigrant is taken, is an uncomfortable home, and no prospect of better or happier days in his own country. It is this that drives the Irishman abroad, that sends the German across the Atlantic and it is the absence of this that now keeps the Frenchman in France- The revocation of the edict of Nantes fulfilled all the conditions of misery, and where in the history of the world were there more admirable settlers than the French Protestants 48 who were expelled by that measure, and took refuge in Great Britain and Ireland, and even in America ? The United States of America, Canada, Australia, and our colonies, who desire an increased population, attain their end by reversing altogether the system pursued in Ireland. They tax all the necessaries of life, but they facilitate the sale and occupation of land. They confer on the pur- chaser all the rights of a landlord, and he elects the county board who levy rates. i What a contrast is Ireland : — trade and commerce free, and all the necessaries of life untaxed ; the larger portion of the country held by tenants at will or on short leases, and a want of confidence between the landlord and tenant ; absentee landlords represented by agents, unable or unwill- ing to take into consideration the requirements of tlie county or of their tenants ; the entire cost of roads, jails, police, and all county expenses (exclusive of poor-rate) solely levied off the tenant, who has no voice in the elec- tion of the grand juror who taxes him. What if America should cheapen her lands still farther, increase the time for demanding payment, pay the passage of the emigrant from New York to the Mississippi, would not the recruitino; sero;eant then become an institution of the past as far as Ireland and the Scotch highlands are concerned? Our population of 5,798,000 in 1861, con- sidering the decrease by emigration, and the number of births, does not represent the proportion of able-bodied men and women which it otherwise would. The remark in many districts of the country is too true, that there is far too great a proportion of old and worn-out men and women left at home. It is better not forget Bluchers remark when, looking from St Paxil's over London, he exclaimed, " What a city to plunder!" The emigration returns of 180 1 state that only 1 per cent, of the emigrants was over 55 years of age, and that only 76 per cent, were under 5 years of age. From the returns for 1860 we learn that " the great majority was composed of the young and vigorous ;" 70-4 of the emi- grants in this year were between the ages of 15 and 35. The returns for seven months of 1862 show a slight increase over those of 1861, though 1860 shows a decrease as compared with those of 1859. In 1863 it was 117,000, and in 1864 it was 114,000. This is practically an immense reduction on the force and vitality of those who remain ni the country, and an additional warn- ing to the church, the bench, the bar, and all interested in the property of the country as to our exhaustion as a nation, and their own impending decay. My belief is that the agricultural community who can afford to emigrate are really not the parties in this country who are the most deeply interested in a fair settlement. The vast emigration of the last few years is not only owing to the money sent home to their families by former emigrants, though that amounts to several millions, but to the higher wages now being paid to the labourer than formerly, and which are increasing in amount. Increased wages render tillage more costly ; at the same time wheat and oats are diminishing in price, whilst cattle and sheep are becoming dearer. This state of things tends not only to emigration but still further to throw the country into sheep and cattle. Were it to stop now, it would certainly be better for those who still remain, did our numbers represent an average able-bodied population. The general rule in the letting of land in England is to dispense with a lease, the proprietor erecting and keeping in order all the farm buildings, and amicable arrangements being made between landlord and tenant for draining and improvements. From the cautious and practical character of the people this system works well, and the comitry prospers. Lowland Scotland has its leases, but in the cultivated districts they ara generally only for nineteen years with arrangements between landlord and tenant in 50 ■ '" M cases of buildings and permanent improvements. Things there go on satisfactorily so far as the mutual relation of tliose two parties, though not as Avell formerly. In Ireland the svstcm has chanfijed so often within these forty years that matters are as unsettled as ever. From 1793 to 1850 the right of voting for members of parliament was dependent on the possession of a lease for a term of years or a life or lives. Leases then were given because the political poAver of the proprietor depended upon the tenant possessing leases. There were various alterations in this rule until the act of 1850 made the voting dependent on a certain valuation for poor rate. This was meant by Earl Russell to get rid of bickerings of all kinds, and to give a really honest representation. It immediately, I must say, tended to increase whig influence and the number of Irish whig supporters of the noble lord in parliament. Then followed the Encumbered Estates Court, under which one-twelfth of the country has changed hands, as well as the Landed Estates Court, which is at present in operation. The practical result of all this is that leases are less usual than ever in Ireland. The proprietor commands much more influence over the yearly tenants than over those who have leases, and the new proprietors are generally investors who want fair interest for their money, yet are by no means indifferent to the possession of political influence. A reference to the sales of land of late years shows that a much larger amount of money is paid where there are no leases in existence or where those which do exist are near expiring. This is, of course, reckoning on getting extra value on the expiration of the old leases. Now this again unsettles the tenants in various districts all through the country. The measure was doubtless well meant by Lord Russell, but it was really the most fatal blow ever given to leases in Ireland. The almost universal rule through Ireland is for the tenant to make all the improvements whether he has a lease or not, and if he plants a tree he cannot cut it down unless it has been previously registered, a step which, except hy- men of means, is not resorted to ; and hence the country is so sparsely timbered. A building once erected, like- wise belongs to the landlord. The result is that there is but little planting or improvement even where short leases exist. The landlord has no confidence in the tenant, nor the tenant in the landlord, except in Ulster, where tenant- right is recognized as the custom. A farm is a manufactory where by skill, labour, and capital, farming produce is manufactured. Ireland's chief competitors in the supply of meat, butter, &c., are those districts lying to the east of the German Ocean and the north of France, Portugal, and Spain. The best tilled land in Europe is occupied by peasant proprietors. Let us suppose that the Lancashire cotton mills were to be handed over to the lords of the soil, that the machinery and buildings were to be held under an uncertain tenure, that at the end of every year the chances were that a percentage of the manufacturers were to be dismissed without compensation, and, above all, that there was a state of uncertainty and want of confidence between both parties — in what condition would affairs be in a few years ? They would soon represent the condition of things in Ireland as far as a comparison of such a kind is legitimate. Lord Derby's opinion is thus given in a speech of Alder- man Dillon's before the Dublin Corporation, April 23rd, 1863:— ^- .-:;/-;,-; ^ " Tn England, as in Ireland, the tiller of the soil is generally a tenant, and, I believe, in most cases, as in Ireland, a tenant without a lease. Yet it would be a great mistake to suppose that his condition is similar to that of the Irish tenant. He is not, when entering on the occupation of his land, under the necessity of converting a wilderness into a habitable farm. He has not to drain, to fence, to build at his own expense. He gets his farm fully furnished, sows his seed in ground ready to receive it, and accordingly receives for his outlay a rapid and certain return. This differ* e2 .--■■• I'lice between the condition of the English and the Irish occupier is clearly- pointed out in a speech made in the House of Lords in the year 1845 by J-iord Stanley (now the Earl of Derby) ; and my friends on the other side ^^ ill be glad, I have no doubt, to tind themselves in such good company ^^hen they come to vote by-and-bye in favour of this petition : — ' If,' said Lord StanUy, in 1S45, when presenting his petition to the House of Lords, as a member of the cabinet of Sir Robert Peel, his Tenants' Compensation (Ireland) Bill, ' the relative circumstances of landlord and tenant were the same in Ireland as thc^^ are in England, I do not know that I should be disposed to support any bill to interfere with those relations. But the cir- cumstances of Ireland and England in this respect are so different that I think a sufficient reason for such interference is proved. . . . Imagine the case of any one of your lordships having an estate of £20,000 a year divided into twenty-acre farms, the tenants being tenants at will only, and required not only to make good, and keep in repair, all drains, fences, and out-buildings, but even to build their own dwelling-houses. Could that noble lord be surprised to find that no improvement took place on those farms, and that the dwellings of the tenants were mere hovels ? Could he be siu-prised to find on those farms everything neglected and in ruin — the land unproductive, tlie (cultivation defective, and the estate peopled by an idle, dissolute, and disturbed population ? And j^et this, with some honour- able exceptions, is not a highly-coloured picture of the position of a large portion of the tenantry of Ireland. Then is not this a state of things iu which it is for the interest even of the landlord himself that we should in- terfere to give to the tenant some seciu-ity and encouragement, that if he choose to spend his capital and labour in improvements that increase the value of the property, he should not be turned out of his wretched hovel without compensation for his outlay, either in money or labour.' Now, here I think Lord Derby has given a conclusive answer to an argument which is conimonlj' used against all claims of protection for the Irish tenant. AYhy, it is constantly asked, does the English farmer get on so well without any legislative protection ? It is just the case of two persons, one of whom takes an unfurnished house, and furnishes it his own expense ; the other takes a house ready furnished at the expense of the landlord. The landlord of the former, when resuming possession, lays claim to the furniture which his tenant has purchased with his own money, and the tenant — if he complains, as he would be very likely to do — is referred to the case of the gentleman next door, who, when leaving, makes no claim to the furniture, which never belonged to him. But there is another ad- vantage which the English tenant possesses. He is shielded from unjust treatment by a strong public opinion which pervades every class of society (hear, hear) — which resents an injury done to an Englishman, and froAvns on the wrong-doer This public opinion has given birth to various agri- cultural usages in favour of the tenant, entitling him to compensation when dispossessed, and which customs have been liberally adopted and recognised by the English judges, and now form part of the law of the land. For tiitf Irish tenant, on the contrary, there is no protection whatever afforded by public opinion, by custom, or by law. If he toil, if he improve, if he biiild, all this is done for a master, who expects, in addition, implicit obedience to every mandate lie may clioose to issue (hear, hear), and who resents as an act of presumptuous usurpation any attempt on his part to exercise an independent judgment on any subject whatever. The result of all this on the condition and character of the people is thus described by Mr. John S. Mill : — ' A situation more devoid of motive to either labour or self-command the inaagination cannot conceive. The inducements of free human beings are taken away, and those of a slive not substituted. He has nothing to hope, and nothing to fear, except being dispossessed of his holding, and against this he protects himself by the ultima ratio of a defensive civil I believe that if the land question be left unsettled the bishops and the bench as well as the other learned profes- sions must decline, men of business emio-rate, railroads diminish in value, and all our towns, save a few on the eastern seaboard, decay. The whigs may possibly be moved to action by the fact that the present state of things must at every election diminish the number of their supporters in the counties. The settlement of the great questions that gave O'Con- nell his influence — Catholic emancipation, tithes, reform, municipal reform, and, almost as much as all those, the fact of whigs and conservatives recognizing that the Roman Catholics were to be represented on the bench and in all places of honour and emolument, have left the members of the Church of Rome as well as all other pro- fessing liberals w^ith scarcely a grievance that can give colour to any popular cry at elections. The natural result has been that the liberal party, which was formerly una- nimous when backed and led by the Roman Catholic clergy, is now split up and divided for want of a popular grievance ; and landed property being now let on short leases or without any, is again commanding the votes in the counties. Ireland is going out of lease, and Irishmen out of Ire- 64 land. Our hamlets are ceasing to exist, and the towns are becomino- villao;es. , CHAPTER XVIII. THE DECREASE OF THE POPULATION AND PROBABLE POPULATION OF IRELAND. i To those desirous of examining into the population of counties, in relation to the valuation and some other questions of importance, I give the following figures, which are well worthy of observation. I consider a comparison between Sutherland and Ar- gyleshire, tAvo poor Scotch counties; Sutherland with a population of 13, and Argyleshire with 24, to the square mile, in a general way comparable to the Counties of Donegal and Mayo in Ireland — yet Mayo has a popula- tion of 119, and Donegal of 127 to the square mile. That there must be an enormous diminution of popula- tion in those Irish counties, if farms be consolidated, few ■will deny. Whether those people are to enlist in the armies of the United States, to invade Canada, or in those of Great Britain, to keep India in subjection, must depend on a good Tenant Compensation Bill. For, if improved to the extent of some of the Scotch counties — that of Argyleshire — which has lost from its small population, from 1851 to 1861, 12 per cent., there will be no military preserves from which to recruit the British army. Doubtless, the Emperor of the French is thoroughly conversant with those matters, as well as the President of the United States, who has drawn largely from Ireland for his armies. ; \': 55 •U«tUOOTlOd U0B3 04 SU0SJ3tI o C5 IN 00 — 5C :•; 00 ■— »o-*«c» •jfiunoo HOBS ui JO ox O M W >« ^ -* -^ C5 OOOOlOCCCCCCC>U eoco(Mi-iTt — P-O 13 !- O "— *^ .-5J " cap TS o o o o o o o 000 00000000 t- 00 M 00 -"ti rj< (^^ eo (N ■* » O -/3 +J « C-^ S ° ^ t- p 1^ c ^ £ p. <" o =* '^ H ._. •3(101 ojTjnbs sad 'uoi:} -EllldOcI SSOJO ^ O -^ O CO l~ CI -H (M -* 1— I »0 10 CO C-' -* o" to C5 OS CO CO O) 1-1 <» 1-- CO »:: o oo 0^ C Ci -* O CO ■" t^ CO'fiCOCOCOOJ'-iCO o la cc 10 »a -* CO 05 t- t^ C^ O 1— 1 C4 ■— 1 i-t C^ 1 t~ CO Ci 1-- O CO CO — ' W CO !M ^ CO C-. l^ c: O >0 (M I— (M ■— CI 00 10 I— l-^COC s U3»^ O S « .-1 O lO CO O IM b- CO O O 05 Ci 00 Cv| 00 ■* 0 OO CO O .-I r-i t^ CO CO ■*COi— I 1— ICOCOOOCOIOCO-*! CO ro"co' cTo't-^otT-^i-^'iH'.-r eo*' o »-i >-< 00 00 o >o l>- ; lO 00 c^ t^ CO 00 • of CD co" ci" -^ no" •«ti U5 CO C'l (M CD > ■» a 5 O .-3- P ^- 3 O Ch O r-l CO CI O O CO 00 CO Ci 00 '.~ -* t^ Ci CO ci t^ ^"^-^'~:. i-T iC otf -^ Ci" -*i T^ir (M CO 00 CO C^l 00 ^< ,— 1 ->*l 10 ■>*< ■*ICO-* lfteOCOC5CD>OODCC CO ^ !M -H l^ OO o c. c: ^ o CO C^)_t-^ lO_C0 O (M t^ CO OD >— I t^ >n^ cT ■*" cT 0" -*" -"i^ oT -^ 153" cocr^t- -CS *' CD 1— C CI CO •— I — " C^ 1— 1 y, t-t p I— 1 *M tu U3 C! « Pd S < » o o t- 05 in cs CO m CO 00 o ^ 00 .-I f— t t^ Ci CO Ci »n t— * 1-1 (M n CO-^COCDt-lOrHCJ CO 00 in 00 — ^cocDCiin (M 00 (M t>C5000^COOOCD 1-1 CO (M ^ CM -H Cj w s c.S PS M O JH hJ Q :z; w I £ 2 •^3 .£5 •:2 12; S : O tt.S s -g «» ^ p ^ ^5 CS '-' so OJ s i T3 03 H c '^ C "^ 2 a. a o u o !Z5 56 , i. Londonderry County belongs principally to tlie London > companies, wlio are amongst tlie best landlords in the , country. The tenants, with good reason, have absolute - confidence in their landlords, and their mutual dealings ■_ are governed by justice and consideration. Exclusive of towns of over. 5,000 inhabitants, that county has a population of 193 to the square mile, and about 22 per cent, of the families are engaged in manu- j facture, including the towns. It is far inferior in fertility to many other counties, but its large population are comfortable, mainly owing to the ^ high character of the landlords. It has but one policeman : to every 1,188 inhabitants, whilst Tipperary has one in 218. The population of the borough of Kilkenny in 1851 was r 20,625 ; in the year 1861 it had diminished to the extent i of 6,451, or at the rate of thirty-one per cent. In like • manner that of Clonmel in 1851 was 15,204 ; in 1861 it \ had fallen away by 3,430, or at the rate of twenty-two per I cent. ; and the city of Limerick in 1851 contained 53,782, j w^hich was lessened in 1861 by 9,306, or at the rate of i seventeen per cent. The decrease of the county of Tipperary in the same period was twenty -five per cent. ; of the county of Meath twenty-one per cent.; and of ' twelve other counties from fifteen to twenty per cent. ; each. Belfast and Carrickfergus were the only towns , and the county of Dublin* the only county in Ireland i which increased their population in these ten years. ; The largest Irish town to v/hich no tide flows is Kilkenny ; Clonmel is the next, and, excepting these, there is not another inland Irish town containing 10,000 inhabitants. : On the other hand, if we look to the agricultural counties ; in England we shall find that Buckinghamshire has one 1 town with over 27,000 inhabitants ; Bedfordshire has one ; * '] The City of Dublin has, practically sijcaking, increased. — See page 3. town with over 15,000, and another with over 13,000 inha- bitants ; Leicestershire one town with over 68,000, and ano- ther with over 10,000 inhabitants ; Nottinghamshire* one town with over 74,000,~and another over 11,000 inhabi- tants ; Wiltshire one toWn with over 12,000, and another with over 9,000 mhabitants. What can cause this large population in those counties, which have but few mines, and are practically non-manufacturing, but the state of the land question ? And can we look on absenteeism as carried out in Ireland as altogether guiltless of the difference which exists to our disadvantage? When five English agricul- tural counties have diminished since 1851 to the extent of more then 23,000 inhabitants, what can Ireland expect as to her future? It is important to compare various counties in Ireland with analagous ones in England and Scotland so as to enable us to understand better the relative position of Ireland. It is imj)Ossible to find strictly analagous condi- tions, but I have endeavoured to do so as fairly as I could — deducting all towns over 5,000 inhabitants, so as to arrive at the agricultural population more closely, as well as giving Lancashire to enable one to contrast the condi- tion of the greatest manufacturing county. I am aware that the valuation of England, Ireland, and Scotland are all carried on upon different principles. Besides the designation of the word " waste-land " has a different meaning in the two countries. Nevertheless, I consider it sufficiently important to publish, and so far in- cline to think that the valuation per head may, when taken into comparison with agricultural coimties in both countries, be a probable guide to Ireland's future popula- tion. The farm buildings in England and comparative absence of them in Ireland doubtless make comparison more difficult. * The cities of Nottingham and Leicester possess manufactures, but the coimties must be considered as agricultural. 58 The distribution of land in Ireland is shown thus : — Arable Land in 1801, under Crops „ „ Grass „ „ Fallow 5,890,53(J acres. 9,533,529 40,760 ir),46-t,825 316,597 49,236 627,464 4,357,338 20,815,i60 Total of Arable Land Plantations . . . _ . Land under Towns _ . . . „ „ Water - _ - . Uncultivated - . . _ . Total of Ireland The county Kilkenny is far richer than the average of Ii'eland ; it is an inhind county, possesses various small collieries, and is withal a most peaceable district of Ire- land, and is, therefore, comparable in a general way with Buckinghamshire, though there are a fcAv counties more decidedly agricultural, as Rutland, which county has the largest adult agricultural population in England, and has no town of over 5,000 inhabitants. The valuation of Ireland in 1860 divided by the popula- tion of 18G1 gives £,2 2s. 3d. as the proportion of the valuation to each person. The valuation of Meath, which has no town of over 5,000 inhabitants, is £4 18s. 6d. per head. i Rutlandshire is £7 6s. per head, and has no town of over 5,000 inhabitants. • , Countv Kilkennv, havinfj one town of 14,000 inhabi- tants, has a valuation per head of £2 14s. 9d. Buckinghamshire has a population in towns of over 5,000 of 49,000, and has a valuation per head of £4 3s. In this way, by selecting counties similarly circum- stanced, one may make comparisons tending to shew what Ireland under large farms and with improved agriculture may become. The population of Scotland divided by the valuation is £3 17s. Id. per head. ! The population of England and Wales on the income- tax valuation is £5 per head ; but if the Poor Law valua- tion of the most purely agricultural counties in England were taken, it would not practically affect the results, as by it Rutland is £6 3s., Huntingdon £4 15s., Norfolk £4 5s. per head. Lancashire, the great manufacturing county, is valued 17s. higher per head by the Poor Law than the income- tax valuation. Now take Ireland, and suppose her valuation per head was £4, her gross population would be 3,070,000. Take into consideration the rapid diminution of her po- pulation, not from 1841 to 1851 — the years that include the famine — but from 1851 to 1861, the greater part of which time was considered prosperous, that twelve coun- ties lost from 15 to 20 per cent., that Meath lost 21 per cent., the County Tipperary 26 per cent., and all Ireland lost Hi per cent., that the emigration is still going on, amounting from 1861 to 1864 inclusive, to 371,849. Does it not appear probable that, with free trade in corn, and want of confidence between landlord and tenant, that her future population must be about three millions ? Again, I ask, has not the great increase as well as decrease of population in Ireland taken place under that land system which gives the tenant no security for his improvements. The poor law now makes landlords more careful as to the increase of people on their lands and a strong movement in favour of an out-door relief system — still further acts as a check on population — but above all, a demand for men in America, is sure to be still further increased when the war ceases. So that, even if the po- tato again flourishes as of old — though it may thereby retard the emigration, it must be a long time ere it pro- duces any great effect ; the poor law and the possibility of out-door relief being the controlling power in checking population. Eight Scotch counties, many of them very small, in which manufactures and mining are the leading features, contain 1,976,359 inhabitants; these include all the large cities; whilst the remaining 24 .agricultural counties, some 60 .1 " ■ -, -.1 of wliicli possess coal and minerals, have only 1^065,934 inhabitants. Eight of the largest Scotch cities have a collective population of 927,364, which with those scat- tered over her mineral districts, leaves but a small propor- tion for her agricultural population. In all Scotland the number of Avomen exceeds that of men in the proportion of 1 1 per cent., thus lessening the force of the country over 11 per cent., especially from the recruiting sergeant's point of view. In the county of Sutlierland the women are 18 per cent, in excess. No wonder some of the clergy of Scotland lament the condition of the agricultural popu- lation, w^ho are diminishing in the agricultural counties of Scotland, varying from twelve to two per cent, from the year 1851 to 1861. The only town in Dumfriesshire having more than 5,000 inhabitants is Dumfries, and it has a population of 14,923. The annual value of the property of the county, exclusive of royal burgh's and railways, £360,000. It has an area of 1,098 square miles, whilst its population is only 71 to the square mile. It has a large portion about one-third under pasture. Berwickshire is principally a tillage^county, and has no town containing over 5,000 inhabitants. The annual value of real property in the county is £294,226. Its area is 473 square miles, rather more than half that of the county of Meath. Its population is under 78 to the square mile.* This county lies on the sea coast near Edinburgh, and as well as Dumfriesshire has a fair share of railroads. Both Berwickshire and Dumfries are agricultural counties. From the valuation being taken in a different manner in Scot- land and Ireland, it is impossible to make an accurate comparison, but, allowing a large margin, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the probable population of Ireland must continue to diminish until it has dwindled ' ' , i * The population of Ireland at the rate of Berwickshire would be 2,535,702. down to three or three and a half millions, or possibly less, even with an improved agriculture. Considering that the emigration has been mainly of the most vigorous of our population, one must reckon on a proportionate diminution of the old people left behind; and if the eniio;ration continues for the next three or four years at the same rate as from 1851 to 1858 or from 1851 to 1861 the population will still be diminishing in a dispro- portionately large number by the death of those old people. If the emigration ceases and a fair rate of increase takes place — even say such increase as has occurred within the last decennial period of the census from 1851 to 1861 — there is still reason to apprehend serious danger to the prosperity of the country unless the land question be settled. But if an emigration continues 70 per cent, of which consists of individuals between the ages of fifteen and forty-five* then I say every interest in the country must feel it. The diminution of the members of the Church of Eng- land since 1834 is most instructive. It is believed that few or no members of that Church died directly from famine. Owing to the great struggle for land for many years before the famine, the Protestants were outbid by the Roman Catholics, and the emigration is, in the absence of returns at that time, believed to have been largely of per- sons of the Protestant faith. The landlord preferred high rents, and, whenever the opportunity occurred, raised them so high, that the solvent Protestant tenantry left Ireland in multitudes ; the diminution in the number of Protestants during the period from 1834 to 1861, being 224,731. I should not consider the diminution of the population as a question of such serious import but for the circum- * According to the Emigration Eeport of 1861, nearly eighty-three in every hundred persons who emigrated in that yea.r were between the ages of fifteen and forty-five, and only one per cent of the whole number was over fifty-five. ^2 in- stances in relation to it. Like most other eniiirration, it is from the most vigorous class, especially in reference to age. But it is accompanied with an immense decline in the relative proportion of the manufacturing population, 24 per cent, of the families in 1851 being engaged in manufacture, whilst only 17-5 in 1861. The fact of the decline of population in the grazing counties being so large, and the opinion of our rulers that farms are still too small, is thus admitted by Sir Robert Peel in a speech delivered at a meeting of the Royal Dublin Society, on 21st November, 1864: — " Now the great difficulty Avhich we have to struggle against in this country is undoubtedly — and I do not think there is a man in this room who will contradict me — that we are incumbered in our operations for drainage purposes on a large scale by tlie enormous number of small holders of land. Will any one credit it ? In this country out of 600,000 holders of land there are at least 450,000 of them holding land to an extent under 30 acres. That is a state of things which all of us, in the best interests of the country, in the best interests of the persons who hold that land, should wish to deprecate. It would be bettor for those holders of land varying from half an acre to an acre, or two or five acres, that they should become intelligent labourers instead of wasting their time and substance — but substance they have none — wasting their time upon those small holdings, on which they never can acquire position, and wliich is one of the black spots, I tliink in the argicultural condition of the country." The scarcity of farm buildings still exists, though every facility is afforded for raising money to erect them, if the landlord would but agree with the tenant, and bor- row the money the Government proffers on easy terms. From the insecurity of tenure, the tenants of Ireland are competing with the world under free trade in grain with their hands tied. This insecurity prevents farm buildings being erected, and those false conditions are driving the country into pasture, not alone those districts w^ell suited for cattle but those wet, moist lands not suited for permanent grass, unless drained. 6B CHAPTER XIX. ; IRISH DISTRESS THE IMPORTATION OF FOREIGN CORN. Previous to the famine and the introduction of free trade Great Britain imported but little foreign corn whilst Ire- land exported largely. Ireland has now become a large importer of wheat, Indian corn, and American bacon. Such a revulsion of trade has left deep marks, especially in those counties where formerly immense mills manu- factured the wheat into flour for the British market. The money to procure this food has been partly found in the savmgs of the people, but more largely in the exports of cattle, sheep, pigs, butter, and oats. Last year the distress was considerable, but the important fact is, that this distress occurred with a diminishing population, and was, no doubt, to be ascribed principally to the bad harvests of the three previous years. The following extracts from speeches of Sir Robert Peel and Mr. Maguire in the debate in the House of Commons on the 20th of February, 1863, on the distress in Ireland are instructive as showing the condition of things during the preceding three years. I distinctly state, however, that most of Tuy deductions are drawn from facts and figures from 1841 to 1863, and that a few good or bad harvests can only retard or hasten the inevitable progress of all Ireland (excepting the manufacturing counties of Ulster) to the position of an English agricultural county : Mr. Maguire said — Sir, during the last three years, unfortunately, Ireland, instead of advancing as other countries have done, has retrograded in material prosperity, in live stock, and in agricultural produce. This is proved beyond doubt by the returns supplied by Government, and vrhose general accuracy has not been questioned. In the quantity of land under cultivation there has been a serious falling off. The number of acres under cultivation in 1841 was 7,000,000, while in 1862 it was but 5,751,195 showing a decrease of nearly a million and a quarter acres. Comparing 64 the year 1862 with the year 1 SGI, the decrease in the aumber of acres under cultivation was 138,841. The decrease in the v;ilue of live stock in the same year, as compared with the year previous, was 1,564,710. Com- paring the year 1862 with the year 1859, when the condition of the comitiy was comparatively prosperous, the falling off is somewhat fearful. In 1859, the value of live stock was £35,368,000, and in 1862 it was £31,204,000— showing a decrease of no less than £4,164,000! Another most important fact must be taken into consideration with respect to tlie downward progress of the country. Ireland, instead of being a grain- exporting comitry, has bec^ome a grain-importing country ; instead of raising sufficient food for her people, and being able to send a large surplus to the markets of this country, she has come to depend for lier own supply uijon com imported from abroad. Thus, in the year 1861, Ireland imported foreign corn to the amount of more than £6,000,000, while her exports wc'c but £2,000,000 of lier own produce. I have not the exact returns for last year ; but assuming, which is not probable, that a less quantity was imported in 1862 than in 1861, and that I set down, for fear of exaggera- tion, at but £4,000,000 — it is clear that Ireland lias, in two years, imported for her own use no less than £10,000,000 of foreign corn. Add to this tlie melancholy fact that she has lost in three years live stock to the amount of £4,164,000. If these facts do not show tliat Ireland is steadily going back, then, sir, I do not know what value there is in figures. During the recess, a distinguished member of this house, writing under the signature " M.P." in one of the London morning papers (the Star'), expressed his wonder how the people of Ireland paid for these enormous imports. The fact is, they were, as- 1 have shown, pajdng for them out of their capital, instead of out of their income — in other words, they were eating up their substance. Sir Robert Peel. — I can only reply to the hon. gentleman in the lan- guage used by the noble viscount at the head of the Government. Over the causes that afflict Ireland we have no control ; they are the result of inclement seasons, of atmospheric influences, that it Avould be impossible to circumscribe or prevent ; while the distress in Lancashire springs from human causes, which, God knows, we all desire should come to a termina- tion as speedily as possible. Wlien the hon gentleman endeavours to frame a comparison between the suffering in Ireland and Lancashire, Ave must remember that, terrible as have been the trials in Lancashire, no public gi-ants of money were made ; but, taking the comparison as pre- sented by the Poor Law figm-es, I am disposed to believe that the state of Ireland does not justify the melancholy picture which some persons are disposed to draw. The hon. member also referred to the statistics of Irish prosperity, and observed that the number of acres under cultivation had decreased, while the live stock had increased in number. That is perfectly true. Owuig to successive bad seasons, the farmers have thought it better to turn their holdings into pasturage than to expose themselves to the losses entailed by bad and defective crops. It was contended by the hon. 65 member for Limerick that the rates iu Irehmd were very heavy — I think he said over 3s. 6d. in the pound, in a very great number of instances. It is important that I should put my hon friend right on that head, because I have just received a return from Dublin showing the average poundage on the rates now in course of collection in Ireland. It says, " There are 54 electoral districts where the rates exceed 3s. in the pound, and there are eight where the rates exceed 5s. ; but the average poundage on tlie rates in Ireland does not exceed more than Is. 2d. in the pound." That does not show a very heavy pressure generally on the rates ; and I would observe that with all this suffering, I am informed by the best authority that the sanitary condition of the people was never better. A great deal of harm, in my opinion, is done by speeches and discussions in the public press as to how Ireland may be saved, they are calculated to exercise the worst possible effect on clas;ses of persons whose condition is undoubtedly improv- ing. (No. no.) Well, of course that is a matter of opinion, and I hold my opinion very strongly. No doubt, much distress does exist but iu every case where the slightest appearance of undue pressure has been reported to the Government, I lost not a moment in taking every step to excite attention to the circumstances, and particularly to incite the Poor Law Inspectors to active measures*. I do not wish to make the slightest allusion to my per- sonal exertions, but as the hon. gentleman refers to the precautions which the Government ought to take, I am compelled to do so. In one district in the County Cork great and sudden pressure existed, and a most charitable lady, whose name can never be mentioned except in connection with some noble action, wrote to ask whether I could give her any information with regard to that part of Ireland. The House will at once understand that I allude to Miss Coutts. I told her that if she would communicate with a most respectable resident clergyman, Father Leader, I had no doubt he would give her every assistance. I believe she did so, and that the priest in the locality gave her the most satisfactory and complete information. That lady, out of her own pocket, paid the emigration expenses of numerous destitute families, and thus relieved the poverty of the district. Tha ease, and others which 1 could mention in the County Galway, wiU show that, although I had no funds at my own disposal, no time was lost in taking every step which I was legitimately entitled to adopt for the pur- pose of attracting attention to cases of destitution. The subject is one weU worthy the attention of the House and of parliament, and I am glad the honorable member has brought it forward. On the part of the Govern- ment, however, I can give Mm no answer but that which I have already done. I hope the depressing influences of past seasons may be ameliorated in the present year ; and I believe we have passed the worst period of pressm-e. The Poor Law Commisioners wiite this day that they believe the climax wUl be reached in a fortnight or three weeks ; and I am assured by other persons that, so far from the condition of Ireland deteriorating in the manner that some are disposed to believe, its state is soimd and satis- factory ; and that if the depressing influences of the time were past, the OG ; nati\e energies of the people would rouse theinsalves, and we might look for an opening season of inci'eased prosperity." As we need not expect any alteration in tlie legislation '^i land, emigration appears to be the only cure for the ills under which Ireland labours; but emigration of the class we send is a disease, not a remedy. The following comparative view of the population and number of cattle, &c. in Ireland will be found not unworthy of observation as shewing the progressive decrease in the number of people, and the corresponding increase in cattle and sheep: — | I'opulation. Cattle. Sheep. Pigs. 8,196,000 1841 1.8G3,000 2,106,000 1,412,000 6,574,000 1851 2,967,000 2,122,000 1,084,000 5,798,000 18G1 3,471,000 3,556,000 1,102,000 If all this emigration, according to the late Viceroy (Lord Carlisle) and our rulers, be of advantage, what an admis- sion of the careless goverinnent of late years by which this enormous increase of population took place, without an attem})t at remedying it ? But all this continues, and no appearance of any settlement of the land question, the con- dition of which appears to offer every inducement to enor- mous increase of population or to an emigration of an unexampled extent. Perhaps nothing more clearly shows the miserable position to which many parts of the country are reduced from the want of a middle class than the fact that the Poor-law Commissioners have had to reduce the amount of qualification of elective guardians from £30, the high- est rate, to £25, £20, £15, and even to £10. The lowest rate in Leinster is £20. Ulster has six unions and parts of unions in which the guardians are eligible at a qualification of £10; but these are in the counties of Donegal and Tyrone. In Connaught there are eleven unions and parts of unions in which the valuation is down to £10, and one ;;v;^:::/;y;--,;... :';;■; ■67v;- in which it does not exceed £6. In Munster there are three down to £10. How can the local government of a country be properly administered nnder such a condition of things ? Now, assuminfj that we return to the old condition of harvests and seasons, the former state cannot be brought back so readily. Free trade, the Irish famine, and bad harvests in Ireland, have so stimulated the corn-producing districts of the world that for many years they will con- tintie to grow wheat at as low a proportional rate as ever, so that we must expect wheat and Indian corn to be im- ported for many years even if not exactly remunerative. But Great Britain must mainly rely on this country for cattle and sheep. As carried on in large farms, grazing is admitted to have been the most profitable farming for the lan41ords and large farmers for many years. It is forgotten by most that the present condition of Ireland as to emigration and not growing grain enough for her own people is not new in her history. The an- nexed portions of letters from Primate Boulter to the Duke of i^Jewcastle and Sir Robert Walpole are worthy of consideration at the present time, contrasting with a corn circular of February 5, 1864, from Messrs. J. and C. Sturge, the eminent merchants, who say — " Tuming to Ireland, we find that country imports bread-stuffs nearly as largely as ever, ■whilst the process of ' selling up,' to which we have before alluded, continues on much the same scale as in the three past years ; the diminution in stock having been 23,715 horses, 426,125 cattle, 298,411 sheep, and 1 12,803 pigs. The area of wheat grown was only 264,766 acres, or 21 ,555 less than in the previous year, and about a similar extent of land seems to have gone altogether out of cultivation. This selling off of farm stock and the diminution in deposits at the different banks, referred to in Dr. Hancock's report to the Government, to a great extent explain what had been so puzzling a problem to many in the trade, viz., how Ireland paid for her large importations of corn. Ireland continues to take a large portion of the arrivals on the coast, particularly of wheat." v2 ■ OS Now see Prlniute BoulttM': — " liiihlin, March \?,tlt, 1728. "To the Duko of Ni>wcastli'. 'Tlio humour of jioiiic; to Amorica still contiiiuos, and the scarcity of provisions certainly- makes many quit us : tlicre arc now seven ships at Kolfast that are carrying off about 1,000 passontjcrs thitlier, and if we knew liow to stoj) them, as most of tliem can ncitlier get victuals nor work at home, it would he cruel to do it. We have sent for 2,400 quarters of rye from Coningshery ; when they arrive, which will probably be about the middle of May, we hope the i)rice of things will fall considerably in the North, and we supjiose they will mend pretty nnich when our sui)plies arrive from Munster." " DuhUn, March 7th, 1727. "To the Duke of Newcastle. " There is another liill gone over, part of wliich is for the encourage- ment of tillage ; it is to the same purpose as one that went from the Council to England at his Majesty's happy accession. It gives no jire- nnum to the exporter of corn, but obliges ever^^ person occupying 100 acres or more to plough five acres for every 100 acres he ]>ossesses, excepting meadows and other i)asture lands; and as the landlords in some i)arts here tye up their tenants from ploughing, it ivleases the tenant from such arti- cles as far as five acres hi 100 ; but that the landlord may be no sufferer, the tenant is not at liberty to burn-beat the land. " For want of tillage our young fellows havi> no employment at liome, and go ir.to foreign service ; and upon any accident in our harvest, we are in danger of a famine. " Since I came here, in the year 172,"), there was almost a famine among the poi)r. Last year the dearness of corn was such that thousands of families (piitted their habitations to seek bread elsewhere, and many hun- dreds ])erished ; this ^-ear the poor had consumed their^potatoes, which is their winter subsistence, near two months sooner than ordinary, and are already, through dearness of corn, in that want, that in some places they begin already to quit their habitations. I hope we shall meet with so much compassion at the Council as to let us have this Bill returned, that the inconveniencies we are at present so frequently exposed to may be gn' iually removed." • , i ?' DiibUu, March 31, 1729. " To Sir Robert Walpole. "But as the calamities of this kingdom are at present very great, and by the desertion of many of their people to America, and the poA-erty of the greatest part of the rest, their contributions, particularly in the North, are very much fallen otY, it would be a great instance of his aiajesty's goodness if lie woukl consider their present distress." T, The following qviottition I consider as more curious than useful. I do not draw any comparison between Italy and Ireland : — " Cato was ask^'d one day, ' Wliat ought the father of a family to he if he consulted the best interests of his prosperity?' 'A good cattle brecdi'i-,' 'What comes next in importance?' 'The middling cattlebreeder.' ' Wiuit next?' ' The bad cattle breeder.' 'Fourthly?' ' The husbandman '"— Cic.de Offic. 11-25. Porcius Cato (Cato Major) was born before Christ 2F)4. In Cato's time Sicily was called " the storehouse of our republic, the nurse of the Roman people." Sicily and North Africa supplied corn to Rome, and agriculture declining, the Campagna and other districts were devoted to pasture. CHAPTER XX. PARTY DIVISIONS IN IRELAND. In the provinces of Ireland in which Roman Catholics form the vast majority of the population there are few of those party contentions so conmion in Ulster. Faction- fights indeed take place exclusively amongst the Roman Catholic population, and are therefore free from any tinge of religious animosity. Of late years a party has ai-isen in Ireland \\hich is utterly regardless of everything national. Their number it is difficult to recognise, and their influence may possibly be unknown until the next general election. In ]8()0, Soli- citor-General Deasy, a native of the county of Cork, had again to come before his constituents on being made attor- ney-general. He and his family have always been Ro- man Catholics, and they stood in high esteem not only with their own co-religionists, but with their Protestant 70 j- • neighbours and countrymen of all classes, and lie was in favour of tenant-right. The county of Cork, which contains nearly 16,000 electors, was the scene of action. Lord Campden, an English noLleman, who was known to be absolutely unacquainted with the wants of this country, was proposed by one section of the Roman Catholic party. It Avas a strong measure for those who assisted to put in Serjeant Deasy before, that they should put him to the trouble and expense of a contested elec- tion on his being advanced one step nearer the bench. However, he was opposed with vigour and enei'gy, and but for the influence and votes of the Protestants, who rallied round him, including some members of the most, perhaps the very most, conservative families in the county of Cork, he Avould inevitably have lost his election. There was a great division between the Roman Catholics on this occasion, and from various letters Avhich have been seen by a few privileged people it was ascertained that some of the conservative leaders of the highest rank in England, in order to catch a vote at such a critical time, exercised all their influence w'ith the Protestant aristocracy of the county of Cork on behalf of Lord Campden. Never was there such an annihilation of all the landmarks of parties in Ireland as during that election. Those who brought Lord Campden forward are now silent. Are they brood- ing over their supposed wrongs? or are they preparing agaiu to put out Irish gentlemen of ability and judgment, and to replace them with Englishmen utterly deficient in every requirement essential for Irish members ? I allude solely to these sectarian questions to shew how utterly useless in the present position of the country must be an agitation either opposed to or ignoring a province like Ulster, so wealthy from the possession of tenant-right and from its manufactures, so self-reliant in the character of its people, so much more powerfulr than any other portion of Ireland in the number of its resident nobility and gentry, who harmonise with the middle and poorer classes in their politics and religion, to say nothing of their intense horror of a separation from England, and whose boast is of their Scotch and English descent from the time of their first settlement by Elizabeth and James. These remarks do not apply to Donegal, Cavan, or Tyrone, where the Catholics predominate, though these counties geographically belong to Ulster. Ulsiter, save the non-manufacturing portions, is at present tolerably content that province never joined in the agitations of the south and west, and, having lost fewer inhabitants since the census of 1841 than any other part of Ireland, is relatively more powerful than ever. CHAPTER XXr. EDUCATION OF THE IRISH PEOPLE. I AM confident there is one course of policy as to educa- tion, public appointments, or general government which not even Sir Robert Peel or any Irish Secretary or Lord Lieutenant has ever yet had the courage to try, and that is a policy of justice. Every student of Irish affairs is familiar with the language of Sir John Davis, attorney- general for Ireland in the reign of James I.: — " There is no nation of people under the sunne that doth love equal and indifferent justice better than the Irish, or will rest better satisfied with the execution thereof, although it be against themselves, so they may have the protection and benefit of tlie law when upon just cause they do desire it." ^ Lord Coke also says:— - " Of the kingdom of Ireland, I have been informed by many of them that have had judicial places there, and partly of mine owne knowledge, that there is no nation in the Christian world that are greater lovers of justice (whereof we shall principally treat) than they are ; which vertue 72 must of necessity be accompanied with many others ; and, besides, they are descended of the ancient Britaines, and therefore the more endeared to us."* ' There are but few inducements to tempt an outlay of capital in a country with a population diminishing even within the last ten years at the rate of 13 per cent., and that 13 per cent, the hest portion of the people. Edu- cation to fit them for England and America is, therefore, the more important. The treatment of the uneducated Irishman in America save when wanted for some purpose of political party is truly deplorable ; bitter are the curses which they pour on those whom they consider the causes of their ignorance. In the National schools there were in 1851 over 520,000 m 1856 over 560,000, and in 186 J over 803,000 pupils ; Ulster having the largest number relatively as well as absolutely. These numbers are exclusive of those edu- cated in the various schools of all denominations. These National schools are opposed by the extremists of both great parties, especially by the chiu'chmen on either hand. Is not their success a great national protest against them ? Sir John Bowring states that according to some Chinese historians, the Chinese Empire was greatly distracted about a thousand years ago, the various provinces being dissatisfied at the unfair distribution of government patron- age, that the result was the introduction of the present system by which literature was made the test of fitness for employment. In considering the state of Ireland, the com- petitive examinations must not be overlooked. She has obtained a far larger relative number than her population w^ould entitle her to. From the poverty of the country and the taste of the people, who prefer professions to com- merce, they have won such a number of places that the influence of the system of competitive examinations in * Coke's Fourth Institutes, chapter 76. . 73 binding the middle class Irish to British connection is very considerable, and must not be overlooked by any one considering the state of feeling in the country. CHAPTER XXIII. I CONDITION OF THE IRISH FISHERIES. The Irish sea fisheries have not yet, except in a few localities, recovered from the shock which they received in the famine years. The reports of the commissioners of fisheries exhibit a lamentable state of things in this respect. The western coast of Ireland, like that part of Scotland exposed to the fury of the western Atlantic, is not capable of being fished during the stormy seasons of the year. It will not repay large capital to remain idle so long, or to be at use for such a limited time as during the continuance of fair weather. Therefore we cannot expect fishing to be carried on witli vigour on that coast. No such reason, however, can be assigned on the eastern side of Ireland; yet there also it languishes, save in a very few localities. Nearly all round the coasts from Antrim to Cork, that is, on the eastern seaboard, the boats of Cornwall and the Isle of Man fish during the spring and summer. Their takes are often immense, and their principal markets are the same as those of the Irish with whom they compete. Now, this evinces on our part a strange Avant of enter- prize, of knowledge, or of both. There is no lack of courage in our men, and there is plenty of capital in the towns ; yet the sea fisheries decay. No doubt they are hampered by laws relative to sea fishery, administered by men who define fishing grounds for one kind of fishing, 74 ■ and prohibit it for another, and there is no knowledge at present possessed by naturalists or fishery commissioners to enable them correctly to decide the questions brought before them. The English sea-fishery is free from this species of control. At the time of the famine, in many fishing districts the fishermen died off or emigrated in great numbers. Since then the high rate of wages in the mercantile marine proved too great a temptation, and the younger men left, the boys entering largely into the royal navy. Things are now getting worse than ever. All through Ireland, in almost every city and town, Englishmen and Scotchmen, who have arrived in the country as settlers, generally poor, have realized large fortunes, not in introducing new manufactures, but in the ordinary staple trades of all kinds, such as warehouses for the sale of cotton and Manchester goods, grocery establishments, seed shops, provision stores, &c. There is no prejudice in Ireland against strangers, and the success of these settlers must either result from an actual feeling in favor of strangers, or because they understand better how to conduct their business. There are but few instances of Irishmen succeeding in the great towns of Scotland in a similar manner. It is remarkable, however, that, as a rule not without exceptions, the English and Scotch farmers who attempt to settle in Ireland of late years have not been so successful, and that they still continue to leave the country. Were Scotchmen or Englishmen to' take up the sea fishing in some of our seaports, I believe it would be of immense advantage not only to themselves but to the districts which they might select. There is an utter want of organization on our coasts to assist the fishermen. There are too few piers, nor are there any arrangements for drawing up fishing-boats, or for giving the strands a slope ; and it is clear that the poor Irish cannot, unaided by advice or counsel, assist themselves in these respects. ^ The fishery commission for Ireland consists of the Board of Works and one inspecting commissioner ; and the reports on the sea fisheries are principally sent in by the coast-guard to them. This commission should be at once reorganized. There should be a sort of unpaid har- bour-trust or board of commissioners in all those fishing districts ; they could be appointed through the poor-law guardians, and be presided over by the nearest coast- guard officer ; their reports would be sure to meet with attention from the public. The miserable condition of the fishing districts from the want of any suggestive mind to look after them is really melancholy, and the reports of the fishery commis- sioners relative to the sea fisheries weakly pourtray the wretched state of things. With the exception of Arklow, Howth, and one or two other localities, the whole presents a gloomy record of decay. CHAPTER XXIV. SUCCESS OF IRISHMEN IN ENGLAND, THE COLONIES, AND AMERICA. I MUST in common justice say that the English and Scotch who come amongst us still continue, as of old, to be "more Irish than the Irish themselves." The Irishman, so successful in the higher walks of the various professions in England and in the colonies as well as at home, is apparently more suited for those employments which require individual energy, power, and intellect than for those which succeed by means of united action, association, and partnership ; and yet the Irishmen whose habits have been formed from living in England or in America are amongst the first in such enterprises, as well as those from Ulster. Amongst the most successful men in Liverpool i f i.^*-. 76 • ^ •:./- in the mercantile world are to be found some of onr countrymen, who are not only remarkable from the mag- nitude of their operations but for their high character. It is now almost forgotten that the great transatlantic steam trade, at present so successful, was first inagurated in the city of Cork. The Sirius, a steamer of about 750 tons, was first proposed to be started from Cork by Mr. James Beale of that city. She was commanded by Cap- tain Roberts, a Cork man, and made her first voyage to New York in seventeen days from Cork harbour ; she sailed 4th April, 1833. It was knowai that the experiment could not pay, and half the loss fell upon six individuals, three of whom were Irish. By this trip the possibility of steamers trading to America was decided, although some of the most scientific men of the day had declared that the success of such an attempt was impossible. The natives of Scotland and the north of Ireland have been amongst the most successful in America, mainly owing to their having had the advantage of education. But England especially is the great field for educated Irishmen. Few know the numbers of successful Irishmen who are gaining honour and wealth in a country which is so rapidly expanding in trade, commerce, and infiuence that there is ample room for talent and energy, come from where they may — and they do come from all the world. It is not necessary to go back so far as the days of Edmund Burke and the Duke of Wellington, both Irish- men descended from Irish families. Two years ago there were four, now there are three, Irish occupants of the judicial bench in England. Sir Hugh Cairns, member for Belfast, and late solicitor-general of England, is sure of being Lord Chancellor when the Conservatives get into power, the first Irishman to hold that position, though the late Lord Lvndhurst was of Irish extraction ; Sir John Lawrence, the present Governor-General of India, and his brothers, Sir Henry Lawrence and Sir R. Mont- 77 . gomery, Governor of the Punjaub. In the mercantile world also we may claim as countrymen the late Sir William Brown, Bart., of Liverpool, head of the great commercial house of Brown, Brothers and Company ; and the Pre-ddent of the Institution of the Civil Engineers, . J. R. M'Lean, Esq. Within the last few years, the two ■/ * j judges in Liverpool, the High Sheriff, the late Sir W. Brown, Bart., S. R. Graves, Esq., late Mayor of Liverpool, were all Irishmen, &c., &c., &c. In Upper Canada and Australia the fact that Irishmen occupy many of the highest positions is so well known that I cannot afford space to give their names nor to do more than allude to those who have succeeded in literature and the fine arts. The press of England has been long remarkable for the number of Irishmen con- nected with it, and that more especially in the highest departments. Mr. Russell, the Times' correspondent in the Crimea, India, and America, is not better known as an Irishman than are some of the editors of " the leading , journal." It is certainly the case that Irishmen in Eng- land who attain position are apt to become even more English than the English themselves. Thus we lose some of our best blood, and it is no wonder that it should be so. The metropolis of England, with its nearly three millions of inhabitants, absorbs that species of talent we have pro- duced in such quantity, appreciates it, and remunerates it most liberally. The numbers who occupy the highest position in art and literature are too numerous to mention. Of the success of Irishmen in America it would be superfluous to speak, but the following remarks recently published in the Philadelphia Universe may be quoted, the more particularly as they express nothing but what is well known to be the fact: — " Doctor Brownson, an Anglo-Saxon, and one of the first philosophers in the world, has admitted in his review of D'Arcy Magee's work, that the ■-. \ 78 best writers in America are tlie descendants of Irishmen. The first men in the pulpit, at the bar, in the halls of legislation, and in the editorial rooms of the coimtry, are men of undoubted Irish Celtic blood, Archbishop Carroll, Archbishop Hughes, the Kenricks, Archbishop Purcell, Dr. Cahill, the Breckinridges, the Chamberses, several most eloquent Jesuits and Augustinians, a number of the Protestant Bishops of Virginia, and very many others had no bloodjn them but Irish blood. Every one knows that the best preachers, in all denominations, in the coimtry are full of Hibernian blood. William Smith O'Brien was informed in Washington by several Congressmen and Senators that they themselves were of Irish descent. According to the ' History of the Press,' lately published in Philadelphia, five-eighths of the editors in the Union are Irishmen." ■:'/ ■ 'm > CHAPTER XXV. WHAT CAN IRELAND EXPECT FROM HER REPRESENTATIVES ? From the past Ireland can expect but little except disunion among her representatives. Those who are connected with land, and have not brought in a Tenant Compensation Bill, or have not thought it their duty to pay a portion of the Grand Jury Cess, are not likely to call on Parliament to enact laws curtailing their powers and taxing themselves. They might at least devote their time to minor questions, to diminish the enormous expense of Parliamentary legis- lation. The funds of the Irish woods and land revenue and the proceeds of the fore shore, now being rapidly sold, is, exclusive of the latter, about £50,000 per annum. This would be a good object to unite all parties; it would be one on which absolute harmony could be had. This money has of late been spent on Holyrood-house and the decorations of Trafalgar-square, and I cannot regard any one as an honest, patriotic Irishman who does not feel it is time to spend this money exclusively in Ireland, and not only so but to demand the arrears. Let the proceeds / ■> y 79 -:y: of the first year go to Dublin ; let those of the second be divided between the principal cities of each of the pro- vinces that return two members ; and let those of the third be divided amongst all the cities and boroughs that send one member each to parliament — to be laid out in such ornamental and useful manner as the governing body of each town may decide. The millions which have been voted for harbours of refuge in the south of England, with additional grants repeatedly conceded, practically ignore any expenditure in this country. But a report on harbours of refuge presented to the House of Commons in 1859 distinctly recommends small grants for Waterford Harbour and for Carlingford Bay, both being recommended rather as advantageous to the Channel trade and Scotland than as a boon to either place. The great expenditure still goes on in England, but not one penny in Ireland. The Irish members will probably move in this question, but, unless soon urged, the money voted will be spent, and a special vote for the Irish harbours would certainly not be' granted. There are seven Government dockyards in England and Wales; but Cork does not possess even a single forge for the repair of Government ships, although it is the greatest port-of-call in the world, the most western port in Europe, acceptable at all times by soundings so w^ell defined that fogs is no obstacle to entrance, a harbour wdthout a bar, and the refuge of all disabled ships of all the great steam and sailing companies, and in which even the Great Eastern found a refuge. Private enterprise has given her great dry docks, one of them large enough for any ship in the royal navy. But it is distinctly understood by all parties in England that no public money is to be spent in Ireland that can possibly be avoided. Even the Government ships are never paid off in an Irish port. When Carlingford, Waterford, and Cork are in their 80 present position, one may well ask, is it really a fact that Ireland sends 105 members to Parliament? The expense of Parliamentary opposition is evident from the following : — A deputatiom from the Corporation waited on the late Lord Lieutenant, requesting a government grant towards rebuilding Carlisle Bridge, in Dublin, a few months before. The difference of expense in holding those inquiries in Dublin and London would have enabled a splendid bridge to be built, instead of their getting a polite refusal from the Viceroy. Poor Ireland is plundered in this most legal manner when endeavouring to improve. The Irish Times of December 22nd, 1863, says: — "On the discussion of the Dublin Improvement Act, on Saturday, in the Corporation, Alderman Dillon noticed the large amount expended within a very limited period in promoting various Corporation Bills before Par- liament. The ratepayers may be well alarmed at finding a new Bill promoted when they learn that since 1859 — a period of four years — £25,000 have been spent in parliamentary costs. Bills are drawn up without suflScient care or deliberation — they are hiu-ried into Parliament — defended at a lavish expenditure — and then found to be almost useless. A very unfair and extraordinary rule prevails in ParUament respecting such Bills. The charges of a Bill depend not upon its utility or necessity, but upon the amount of capital it proposes to expend." CHAPTER XXVI. THE GRAND JURY SYSTEM. The Grand Jury question involves many considerations of great importance to Ireland. If our Grand Juries were elected and had power similar to the bodies known in Canada as the "county councils," their influence would be beneficially felt ; whereas now their existence ceases a few weeks after their appointment, and being merely ir 81 . -y^': .■■■ nominees of the high sheriff, spenders of taxes, and not controlled except indirectly by the ratepayers, their power is limited and their influence unimportant. Grand juries or county councils also should have power to appoint local trusts or honorary commissioners to look after the piers for fishing boats, to slope the strands, and put up simple machinery to haul up boats from the storms. Expenditure of this kind' would pay fifty-fold in a few years. The position of these out-fishing stations is most miserable. A good grand- jury bill would be one of the most valuable measures that could be passed. Instead of being nominated by the high sheriff, why not permit boards of guardians to nominate jurors in proportion to the taxation of the union, to remain in office until their successors were appointed, and subject in their acts to the control of the judges as at present, or the chairman of the county, who is in Ireland always a man of standing at the bar ? There is a great dislike amongst many men well versed in county questions to agitate the counties by elections for grand jurors by an appeal to the ratepayers. But if these men were elected by the boards of guardians, where property as well as the magistracy are so largely repre- sented, they would command an influence with Government that would place them in a position to receive great pow- ers that at present could not be granted to grand juries. Even let the Government appoint the chairman, and give him power to exclude all political questions from being brought forward. The chairmen of each county council should meet at stated times to arrange such matters as effected the interests of adjoining counties. They could not from their constitution become political bodies dangerous to the state ; and, though I should not object to a more liberal representation, in this as in other recommendations I 82 .! ■■■ y advocate measures that might be granted even by timid f . statesmen. . i I After the above was printed I saw the Grand Jury 1 Bill brought in this session (1864) by Mr. Blake, M.P. for Waterford, which was thrown out by a large majority, pro- I" / bably from its plan of all taxpayers voting for grand jurors. Grand Jury Cess is the tax levied for making roads, :t bridges, and other county works, and is exclusively paid f . by the occupier. J It is most unjust that a tenant at will has to make the l_ ■- public roads and bridges leading to his farm, which sub- I ject him to an increase of rent for the advantages they ; confer, and tlien give his landlord an extra rent for those I facilities that he the tenant has paid for. 1 r Besides there are the charges for prosecution of offen- ' ders, constabulary, &c., all levied under the Grand Jury system; and those who pay the taxes have no voice in the selection of grand jurors, or the associated ratepayers. ; As the tenant in Ireland has no right on being evicted ^ to claim damages from his landlord, for permanent or ^ substantial improvements, I consider that the landlord should pay all Gi'and Jur}'- Cess where the tenants have no leases, or leases under 20 years. Where there are leases with over 20 years unexpired, that the landlord and tenant should pay half each ; and all leases over that, say 30 years, the tenant to pay all. i But whatever legislation takes place it is universally admitted that taxation without any representation is uncon- stitutional. [ Must it not be evident to all that one of the most I serious grievances to a poor country like Ireland is the prodigious cost of obtaining parliamentary sanction to works of improvement ? Wealthy England can afford to pay the enormous expenses which attach to all parlia- mentary Bills even when opposed, but they are absolutely 1.. 83 ruinous when levied off a poor agricultural country like ; Ireland. These expenses, in too many cases ruinous, are still more injurious in their effects, in preventing the development of legitimate enterprises. I cannot within the limits of this pamphlet do more than suggest that commissioners should be appointed to go down at the promoters' expense to decide on railway and other similar enterprises, leaving a parliamentary committee as a court of final reference in extreme cases. There are various streams in Ireland which, by means of a few judicious embankments, would render immense water-power available, and would be greatly to the ad van- ' tage of the public and of all mill-owners ; but, as the law at present stands, one person holding out can either dictate unreasonable terms, or can force an appeal to Parliament, which when once broached inevitably shelves the project, except it be of great magnitude. This surely is a great public grievance ; but, even when all parties are agreed as to any project requiring the sanction of Parliament, an enormous bill will be certainly run up ; so that it is no won- der that parliamentary agents amass such large fortunes. Those parliamentary committees seldom sit for more than four or five hours each day, and the witnesses^ generally at immense expense, are brought over to a court and tribunal too often unsuited for their work. There they sit, listening to a class of evidence which nobody would dare to intrude upon any court held in the locality whose interests were involved in the project in question^ yet specious withal, and prepared by the parliamentary agents according to the known tendencies of the members of the committee, or their ignorance of the customs of the district whose interests are involved. Having been a witness, I speak from experience. The Lords' committees have at times, in apparent wantonness of power, thro^vTi impediments in the way of . ■ ■g2-: .- 84 i the baronial guarantee system for Irish railways, and have thus put the few local objectors to be found in most districts in a position to override the great majority of their neighbours. When a barony is almost unanimous in willingness to tax itself for any object of public con- venience, it should not be left in the power of a few persons to frustrate this intention. The absence of a baronial guarantee sometimes more than doubles the cost of railway lines ; and yet by this system, where formerly permitted, part of the Great Western Railway of Ireland was cheaply made. i Mr. Hemans, the engineer of the Irish Great Western Railway, says : — " It must bo conceded tlmt the guarantee system has in the Great "West- em Railway of Ireland proved highly beneficial. As a proof that this has been felt to be the case, since the completion of the Galway line many attempts have been made in other coimties and provinces to obtain Acts of Parliament for lines secured on similar guarantees. Many grand juries have met and passed resolutions in favour of lines founded on this system. Extensive surveys have been made, and plans deposited. But it is extra- ordinary that when the bills are laid before ParUament, the most deter- mined opposition is given in every influential quarter to the guarantee clauses, and they have been defeated ; ands many counties which volun- teered self-taxation have been deprived of the benefits to be derived from railways. Three Acts of ParUament only have been allowed to pass with guarantee clauses, . . . and even in these instances the clauses were 60 hampered with impossible and useless conditions, that they were found to be totally inoperative, except in the case of the Irish Great "Western. The plan recommended by the parliamentary commission, that lines should be guaranteed by local rates, although successful in the only one case attempted, has been set aside by determined prejudice, and was even stig- matized by a high personage in offensive terms as a mere excuse for soli- citors, engineers, and contractors to get up works for their own benefits." 85 CHAPTER XXVII. CONCLUDINa REMARKS. : In considering the condition of Ireland I believe it neces- sary in the first place clearly to understand whether one regards the country as a nation — or an agricultural pro- vince of Great Britain, The people of Ireland look*on her as a nation, whilst the rest of the empire consider her to have no more special claim on the public purse than Wales or an English county. Now much depends on what view the observer takes. What claim has an agricultural province possessing manufactures only in a couple of counties, and almost quite deficient in discovered mineral treasures, for mail packets first to arrive at her shores? . ., Why should there be Government dockyards, public expenditure, &c., &c., conceded to a remote agricultural province, if those requirements of the State can be better or easier worked nearer the capital or centre of Great Britain ? Ireland does not yet recognize that practically she has ceased to be a nation. She yet considers herself to have a claim on the public expenditure because she is Ireland and a nation. - ■ Now were our Irish members agreed on any great point, had they a policy, or had they remedial measures to propose, were even twenty-five of one mind, the power they would possess, considering the nearly balanced state of parties, would be immense indeed. How futile for people in Ireland to be blaming this Government or that Government, for not taking into consideration Irish questions, when their own members are not united ; if therefore any class of electors desire a 86 • change, they must make their members conform to their ideas, or demand on the principles of justice the inter- ference of the British Parliament, for it must be evident to all that the present is not a time for agitation. i I believe Ireland could bear its drain of absentee rents and the absence of the social influence *of its great pro- prietors, if it had manufactures diffused over the country. That it could pay for foreign corn, clothing, in fact all its imports, and its people live well if it had manu- factures to exchange for them, or great mineral treasures like England or lowland Scotland. ' I That even deficient in minerals and manufactures she yet could pay large rents to non-resident proprietors, if her farmers and landowners as a rule had mutual trust and confidence in one another. I believe that with all its drawbacks, it may still be a model country for landed proprietors, great cattle and sheep farmers, and support some three miUions of people, allowing that the linen manufactures of Ulster thrive as heretofore. But I do not believe that a British Parliament who have already entertained the withdrawal of the Viceroy, &c., &c., will permit her the few remaining remnants of nationality, separate courts of justice, a privy council, &c. &c., when shorn of the strength of numbers. She may be a quiet agricultural province of "West Britain," but must cease to have a claim to be a nation. My idea of the value and importance of nationality is in proportion as it resists the system of centralization. The great object of this pamphlet is to prove that some law which will practically put the tenant in the same position of security for his outlay that he has in England, is of the greatest importance to the towns and cities quite as much as to the country districts in Ireland. When the whole country demands this, there is but little doubt that some bill of practical application will be passed, 87 but until the entire community are impressed with this conviction and make it most prominent, it will not meet with that consideration itdeserves. The fact that neither the Corporation nor the Chamber of Commerce of Dublin alluded to the land question in : . their addresses to the Lord Lieutenant in 1864, shows . . ; that it has not that prominence in the public mind that it deserves. My ideas and opinions on the land question are far better expressed in the words of the present Lord Derby in the year 1845, which I quote from Hansard: — Tenants' Compensation Bill (Ireland). — Brought in by Lord Stanley j I June 9th, 1845. Discussion, June 28th, in the House of Lords. : . ' J] " But although he admitted the expediency of legislating as far as pos- -j sible upon the same principles for Ireland as for England and Scotland, ■ ,• yet because the circumstances of Ireland as regarded the relations between v . . . ; :j landlord and tenant were so widely different from those. which obtained .. ':[- d of the case. The principle that the tenant should receive compensation .i for permanent improvements was pretty generally admitted." I "Could it be denied that upon a vast space of the surface of Ireland -' '-^ there was immense room for improvement to be effected by labour, and • \ : • J that there was a vast amount of superabundant labour seeking for and ; ij desirous of employment, but the employment of which was checked / : i! because there was no certainty of a return for the laying out of capital. . si In England the right was secured not only by law but by the custom of ;; ■ .. .■; the coimtry, which was equivalent to law; that right was capable of ,^ being pleaded in a court of law, and compensation was awarded for ■ r^ improvements, made not only without the consent of the landlord, but if . 1 made without asking his leave for a single one of them. - " :'^ "That custom, which had the force of law in England, applied to various improvements and outlay of a very limited duration." ; ^ " In a great part of the south of England, where there were large quan- tities of copse-wood and faggot-wood, nothing was more common than to drain with that faggot-wood. ,; "The tenant, even the tenant at will, never asked the opinion of his ■■■/^ landlord whether he should drain a particular field — he drained it. The : . 1 work might last twelve, fifteen, or twenty years, and it may not be per- •'''--:■] manent though durable. And yet without asking leave of the landlord, I being a teuant at will, and being ejected by his landlord, would summon him for compensation, and the custom of the country would compel him to pay the tenant. But that was neither the law nor the custom in Ire- land, and he asked their lordships to apply that by law in Ireland which by custom had the force of law in England." I advocate no extreme measures ; I only desire such a settlement of the land question as Lord Derby has put forward. That no men of any class, as a rule, will invest money or labour on an uncertain tenure or bad security requires no proof. By the last Census there were but 17 per cent, of the families in all Ireland connected with manufactures. By the Census of 1851 there were 25 per cent. It requires no further proof to shew that the land question is the most important to Ireland, since manufactures are declining. I have introduced into this pamphlet various other Irish questions, but solely Avith the view to the general condition of the country being better understood, espe- cially by my English and Scotch readers ; for it is not to be expected that Irish landlords will advocate a tenant compensation bill, therefore I have endeavoured to bring forward some of the leading facts connected with Ireland as well as those measures she most requires, and hope that Parliament will soon consider the Irish Land Question an imperial one, and that the English and Scotch members will be called on to arbitrate on this question, not less important to Great Britain than to Ireland. The existence of our Indian empire is mainly depen- dant on a large army of Europeans ; over 80,000 are now required. The soldier of the British army is far inferior now to the men formerly recruited from the agricultural classes j I have this on the best authority. It is admitted in mili- i tary circles that the men want stamina and endurance; and this is evident on review days at Aldershott and the Curragh. i If the depopulation of Ireland goes on at the present rate, that army must be recruited by German or other mercenaries,, or the pay of the soldier largely increased. During the Crimean war the authorities had to reduce the height of the recruit, and even at the present time the standard is below what was previously required. England may rely on her navy for protection from invasion as well as on her volunteer force ; but for inter- ference on the continent of Europe she must soon be powerless. Census of Scotland Report, 1861 : — " These tables show in the most pointed manner to what an extent the long protracted war, at the beginning of the present century, drained the country of its male population ; Scotland in 1801 having its male popula tion so reduced that there were 117 females to every 100 males." The almost entire absence of the great landed proprie- tors, or of responsible or resident agents on their estates, is perhaps the greatest loss to any country, to Ireland especially, that has no yeoman class, and whose manu- factures are limited, and confined almost altogether to a few counties in Ulster. Another effect of this absenteeism is that the Poor Law Valuation for guardians has to be reduced so low as given in page 66. Grand jurors must also be drawn from classes not accustomed to the administration of funds. This is shown in the following extract from a pamphlet on Ireland by Gustavus T. Dalton, 1864:— : " Absenteeism is as rife as ever, and where it prevails its bitter fruits abound. Take the county of Leitrim, for instance. In that coimty, the head-quarters of Molly Maguireism, where the monotony of desolation is only broken by an occasional agrarian outrage, the majority of the land- lords are absentees. A friend of mine assured me that a tradesman with whom he lodged during the assizes, and to whom he paid a guinea a week for his lodgings, was a grand juror, the county not affording a panel of gentlemen, at least of gentlemen who were to be found at their posts when wanted." TV ' 90 i Is not Parliament, after over sixty years of union prac- tically speaking, conferring good laws and admirable institutions on a country, unhappily, deficient in the con- ditions suited for carrying them out? How soon will British statesmen recognise the necessity for legislation on the land question, when the only respect- able or educated residents in too many country districts are the Protestant clergyman, the parish priest, and the doctor. Arthur Young, in 1771), writes in reference to absen- tees : — " There are few countries in the worhl that do not experience the disad- vantage of remitting a part of their rents to landlords who reside else- where." " In Ireland the amount proportioned to the territory is greater pro- bably than in most other instances, and not having a free trade with the kingdom in which such absentees spend their fortunes, it is cut off from that return which Scotland experiences for the loss of her rents." The absentee question is one of the most difficult to offer an opinion on. It was a great difficulty in the time of the Lord Primate Boulter in 1727, where he complains of too many clergymen being magistrates from want of resident gentlemen. Seepage 18. . It is now as important as ever, and from other causes, in 'addition to those of former times, even more so, From the facility given by railroads, or other causes difficult to decide, many of the gentry are moving from their estates to the towns on the eastern seaboard, but most especially to Dublin. I can offer no practical suggestion as a remedy for absenteeism, except those referred to before. That is, electing grand jurors by the boards of guardians, and increasing their powers. As their meetings would be fre- quent, say monthly, the absentee proprietors would find it their interest to have resident agents. But it must be evident to all thinking men that it is important to have some class in the country districts per- -.■■•;;.■.:■■;■; 91 ■■■--■:-■".■ ^ manent. Therefore, the more necessary to have the land question so settled that tenants should have good security for their investments. There are other causes, however, at work that tend to depopulation in Ireland. The adverse seasons were felt with more than double severity by the small farmer. The price of grain dimi- nishing of late to such an extent as to be adverse to tillage, and the prices of sheep and cattle, butter and wool increasing. In plain English the farmer cannot pay his rent and live ; that is the small farmer who has no interest in his land, and who has no farm buildings to rear and- fatten stock. There is no country in Northern Europe where the winters are so mild as Ireland, therefore, no country where cattle can be raised with less buildings; no country, therefore, where so great facilities and inducements exist, when cattle and sheep are dear, and everything indicating a continuance of high prices to change from tillage to pas- ture. Therefore, extra caution is required that for pre- sent profit a population be not sacrificed to advantage landlord and tenant graziers. It is comparatively of little consequence to a grazier, who does not require farm buildings, whether he has a lease or not. Statesmen should therefore consider, that where there is no compensation for tenants' improvements, as in Ire- land, and with high prices for cattle, sheep, and butter, and low prices for grain, that it is, practically speaking, equivalent to a bounty on rearing cattle and sheep ; or, in other words, that the rapid emigration from Ireland, the diminution of land under tillage, and the extension of pasture, is the natural result of those laws that give the tenant no compensation for improvements, or security in his holding. 92 The position of Ireland is now, and has been for 18 years, that of an agricultural country; importing largely? wheat, Indian corn, pork, &c., without which she would have lost possibly over half her population from famine. Importing everything in the way of manufactures, except linen, and paying for all from her exports of oats, barley, cattle, sheep, pigs, butter, and her linen manufactures. Previous to the famine her farmers and labourers were largely clothed in home-spun wool and flax. The farm-labourer received but little ready money, getting in lieu the grass for so many sheep, and land for potatoes, and was able to feed one pig at least on the worst potatoes. Now, that system is changed owing to the destruction and partial diminution of the potato crop, and he receives chiefly money wages instead ; thus the labourer has be- come a purchaser of all the necessaries of life, having ceased to manufacture or produce anything except the agricultural produce sent to the markets. This has in part tended to the prosperity of the towns, and the increase of house rent in every city and town on the east coast of Ireland, telling most favourably on those through which the English manufacture and Indian corn and wheat were imported, and cattle, sheep, and pigs, oats, butter, &c., exported. NoAv, however, the citici; and towns on the west coast, and the towns and villages in the centre of the country, have seriously felt and suffered from these constant changes. First, they all suffered from the famine ; then came a return of prosperity from about the year '54, which continued until the bad harvests of 'GO, '61, and 62. In those latter years the cattle and live stock of the country diminished as well as the number of acres undel* cultivation. Ftom i860 to 1864 rnttle and sheep have again ln= ef eased, though hoffips and pigs hftve deei'eased. Any comparison between England and Ireland must be made with great caution, not alone from the great dif- ference that exists in the absence of manufactures and mines and minerals in Ireland, but the absence of that population who have either made or inherited fortunes realized at home, in India, the colonies, or foreign lands, and the recipients of foreign investments scattered all throujrh England. Looking to counties in England and Ireland, it appears as if a security in the land tenure giving a permanency to the population is the real foundation on which many manufactures depend. Such as the straw plait trade-in Buckinghamshire, as well as the weaving in those districts in Ulster, where the tenants have security for their expen- diture, and are a permanent class. There has not been since the Union more than about one entry into Trinity College every second year as filius nobilis, or son of a nobleman. Great numbers of the gentry also graduate at Oxford and Cambridge. Of the twelve Protestant Irish archbishops and bishops four have taken their degrees in Cambridge. No wonder, therefore, that nationality, in the usual sense of the term, is gradually disappearing from Ireland. The Ribbon system in Ireland — that secret organization — that endeavours by murder of obnoxious landlords or agents to secure to the tenant the possession of his land — is secretly supported by the tenantry in some counties. In other districts of Ireland where tenant right prevails, and even in some southern counties it is unknown, and would cease to exist under any legislative enactment securing to the tenant those conditions advocated by the Earl of Derby. It is not generally known that great facilities exist for borrowing money foi* draining, building, and improving, on terms most advantageotis for both landlord and tenant, but they RfG but Httlo availed of The tenant cannot 94 borrow without the landlord's sanction, and from Avant of harmony bet Aveen both, the country suffers. Sir Robert Peel's proposal in reference to arterial drainage would be most important, but some correction of his figures in reference to consolidating farms I give from the second edition of Gtistavus T. Dalton's pamphlet on Ireland, 18()4:— " But if Sir Robert Peel means to imply that all holdings under thirty acres are too small, he can hardly have arrived at this conclusion from a careful study of the statistics which he Ijuotes, and ■which, strange as it may appear to many, lead to a directly opposite conclusion. A very few facts from these returns will prove how essential the class of holders under thirty acres are to the well-being of the whole agricultural community. " The amount of arable land in Ireland is 15,811,991 acres, exclusive of waste. Of this, the holdings under thirty acres comprise 4,759,063 acres, or considerably less than one-third. " The value of the stock in 1862 was £31,866,698, of which £10,554,978 belonged to the holders of under thirty acres — very nearly one-third. Their stock was more valuable in proportion to the size of their farms than that of the larger holders. But if we exclude sheep, the result is still more favourable to them. Of horned cattle, the value in 1862 Mas £21,100,339, of which the holders in question owned £6,899,387 ; of horses, the value was £4,763,482, of Avhich these holders owned £1,793,856 ; of pigs, the value was £1,373,311, of which they possessed £581,374. " Thus, holding considerably less than one-third of the land, they hold, in value, considerably more than one-third of the stock, if we exclude sheep, for which, of course, in any quantity, small holdings are not adapted. I may say, by the way, that sheep are not a suitable stock for the soil of those counties in which small holdings most abound — Armagh, for instance." The great increase of the A^alue of land in Ulster from tenant-right has escaped general attention, and is not taken into consideration in Griffith's Valuation. A purchaser in the Landed Estates Court finds on buying an estate where tenant-right prevails, that the tenants under him value their holdings from half to about the same value that he has given for the fee-simple. The system that prevails in Ulster, I give in the words 1:- of a gentleman a resident of and conversant with that province: — " Tenant-right prevails more or less all through the province of Ulster, and bears a higher price on large estates than small ones ; when arbitrarily interfered with, it assumes the aspect of the sale of army commissions, a regulation official price, and an additional sum given in secret." That such an increase of value would be the rule over the whole country were Lord Derby's views carried out in favour of tenant compensation, there can be no doubt. If that statesman, Avitli Mr. Disraeli, would make a Tenant Compensation Bill a cabinet question, the Whigs might bid farewell to Irish support at the next general election, and the real valuation of Ireland be increased from 50 to 100 per cent. I trust the day may come when Ireland will forget whether the men in power are Whigs or Conservatives, and be equally ready to receive justice at the hands of either party; and that her claims shall be put forward solely on the considerations of justice, and for the benefit of the whole British empire. I consider from all the circumstances of the country that Ireland must still diminish in population, not alone from reasons given in the body of the pamphlet, but com- paring her with other countries, and the number of their inhabitants to the English square mile. Ireland has a population of 181 to the square mile; France 176; Prussia 156 ; Denmark 110, and Scotland 101. The county of Sutherland is 13, a little under that of Siberia, which is 15.* Those countries are principally agricultural, therefore a comparison with Ireland is legi- timate. It must not be forgotten that about one-third of Ireland, though uncultivated is, in a degree, profitable either for grazing or supplying fuel. In conclusion, I beg to observe that in this endeavour * Fi-ederick ^Martin's Statesman's Year Book. Va 96 to pourtray, in this publication, the condition of Ireland, I have been solely actuated by a desire to supply a want felt by many, of giving the condition and requirements of the country, free as far as possible from a sectarian character. It may possibly be of more use to English and Scotch readers than to my own countrymen ; and were it not that newspapers often hesitate to review or criticize works that are not for sale, I should have printed this pamphlet only for private circulation; <• SUPPLEMENT. Immediately after this Pamphlet had been printed, the general meetings of some of the railway companies took place, and the depreciation in all the leading lines has been a topic of great interest. A discussion on Ireland, February 24th, in the House of Commons, has also at- tracted great attention. 7 In relation to the flax crop, which was alluded to in that _ debate it escaped the notice of those members who spoke that the great flax. exporting countries, Holland and Bel- gium, have a population per square mile, the fornier 309, and the latter 401, and those jtountifs in Ireland'grow the greatest amount of flax that have the largest agricultural population per square mile. '' j Russia, though an exporter of flax, grows it more espe- cially, as a seed crdp. The largest proportion of flax in the year 1862 was grown in Ireland on farms between five and fifteen acres, the second largest between fifteen and thirty, and the - third largest between thirty and fifty acres. The same rule holds good in former years. Ulster produces more flax than any other province in Ireland, and has much the largest proportion of farms of those sizes that grow the largest quantity of flax. In all Ireland there are one hundred and sixty-three ; V thousand farms between five and fifteen acres; there are v' 98 ^; . seventy-four thousand of these in Ulster, and about the same proportion exists in reference to farms between fifteen and thirty acres. The evidence is strong, therefore, that any diminution in the number of small farms must seriously affect the production of flax. Now, Sir Robert Peel said at the meeting of the Royal Dublin Society, November, 1864: "Will any one credit it ? In this country, out of 600,000 holders of land, there are at least 450,000 of them holding land to an extent under thirty acres. That is a state of things which all of us, in the best interests of the persons who hold that land, should wish to deprecate." ^ I believe that Sir Robert Peel and all Englishmen are most desirous to do what is right in reference to Ireland, but the theory of leading agriculturists is at present in favour of large farms. What is the opinion of the Railroad interest ? The speech of Mr. Haughton, chairman of the Great Southern Railway, in reference to the extraordinary dimi- nution in the cattle traffic on that great line within the fast three years, affords striking confirmation of the deca- dence of the chief interest of the kingdom — agriculture. To test whether the decline in the cattle traffic on that line was not exceptional, he applied to the various steam- packet and other carrying companies, from which he learned that diminution, to a far greater extent, existed in every one of their cases. He accounts for it by the fact, that during the last three years of bad harvests, the small farmers were forced to sell their cattle in order to pay their rents, combined with^the emigration and decrease oj STiiall holders, whose vast numbers supplied, heretofore, the main portion of the store of young stock for the great graziers who finished and fattened them. \ - The following from a recent pamphlet by G. T. Dalton an Irish landlord and extensive land agent is important : — 99 " A certain portion of the Marquis of Headfort's demesne, in Meath, is let every year by auction for grazing purposes only. The land is of the very finest quality. I give a return of the lettings for the last four years They are as follows : — 1861 - - - -^ £1,20118 1 >- ■ : ■ ,\ 1862 ----- 1,190 2 3 1863 1,058 16 1864 1,008 This is a fall of 20 per cent., in four years, on the letting value of perhaps the best grazing land in Ireland, close to a railway station. Every grazier in Ireland knows what this means. It means, that owing to the emigration of the small farmers, who were the principal breeders of calves, store cattle have become so dear in comparison to beef, that the farmer who fattens them for the Liverpool or Dublin market, cannot afford to pay the same rent as formerly for finishing lands, if he is to make any profit at all." Sir Robert Peel is however aware, that want of security for outlay is required, for lie said: — "I myself have seen in the county Cork, and elsewhere, land which I have been told was let at 18s. to 22s. an acre, but so wet, chiU, and rank, from standing waters, from want of drainage, that I venture to say it was not worth 5s. an acre. I ask any reasonable man how can a tenant be expected to pay rent under these circumstances? It is impossible. Then comes a much more difficult question. If he cannot pay the rent — if he is willing even, he does not like, with a certain insecurity of tenure in some places — he does not like to make an outlay out of his own pocket, when he is not certain tJuxt that outlay may be considered to him in a due proportion without heavier rents to pay." The following quotation from a recent pamphlet by D. C. Heron, LL.D., an eminent Queen's Counsel, and author of various legal works, shews the condition of the Bar in Ireland as contrasted with England : — " As property vanishes, those who live by the litigation concerning that property also disappear. The number of practising barristers is rapidly dimuiishing. In 1788, the names of 612 barristers appeared in the Dublin Directory. This list included the Judges, twenty-five King's Counsel, and represents about 450 practising barristers. The number of barristers paying their subscriptions to the Law Library of the Four Courts amounted to 690 in the year 1850. From that year down to 1859 it gradually decreased to 424. In 1861 it amounted to 427. This number represents all the barristers looking for practice at the Four Courts. And a severe struggle for existence was endured by many persons whilst the 100 number of practising barristers in Ireland was being reduced in eleven years, by poverty, from 690 to 424 I calculate that in the year 1800 the number of barristers in Ireland was about one-half of the number in England. In 1830 it was about one-half. In 1850 it was about one-fourth. In 1 862 the number of barristers in Ireland is about one- tenth of the number of barristers in England." A reference to page 40 will shew the immense propor- tion of patronage to be divided amongst a diminishing Bar. It is important that the Bar of Ireland, whose influence on the country has ever been of great importance, should feel that if the trade, business, manufactures and condition of the country decline, their interests are not unassailable, and that they are in the same boat with their countrymen. The account of expenditure in 1863, excluding] the cost of criminal prosecutions, for the Lord Chancellor, the Judges of the various courts, and the Chairmen of Coun- ties, is over £240,000.* In conclusion, I must reiterate, that the prosperity of Ireland is not shewn by the number of sheep and cattle it exports, though that appears to be the test mainly applied by English statesmen of late years. The following letter to the Times, from the Earl of Longford, a Peer of the Bealm, as well as an Irish noble- man, so accurately shows the feelings of a large landed proprietor with regard to Ireland, and so fully justifies the views I have stated in reference to the pecuniary advantages that many think must result to the landholders and graziers by converting Ireland into a great cattle farm, that, I give it here in full : — I IRISH STATISTICS. TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES. • Sir, — Your " Englishman" has done good service to Ireland ; and. good service to Ireland is good service to Great Britain. I annex, in continua- - • Thom's Almanac for 1865. 101 tion of his statements, a short extract from the Census Tables, 1861, pages 8, 9 : — Years. Dinsion of Surface. Acres. Arable. Plantation. Towns. "Water. Uncultivated. 1841 ... 1851 ... 1861 ... 13,464,300 14,802,581 15,464,825 374,482 304,906 316,597 42,929 45,590 49,236 630,825 631,210 627,464 6,295,735 5,023,984 4,357,338 The same table reduced to proportions per cent. :- Years. Division of Surface. Acres. Arable. Plantation. Towns. Water. Uncultivated. 1841 ... 1851 ... 1861 ... 64-71 71-14 74-29 1-80 1-47 1-52 0-21 0-22 0-24 303 3 03 3-02 30-25 24-14 20-93 Value of Agricultural Stock. Years. In all Ireland. On each 100 acres. 1841 1851 1861 £21,105,808 £27,649,151 £33,363,194 £104 £136 £164 There has been a decrease in 1862-63, but an improvement recommenced in 1864. I read no ruin in these figures. I, as an Irish proprietor, have every confidence that the Census of 1871 mil show as good progressive results as former decennial periods. Your obedient servant, London, ilfareft 2«d, 1865. LONGFORD. The above letter so admirably and obviously illustrates the partial view of Ireland taken by writers who, in com- ing to their conclusions, ignore all facts except those bearing on their position, that it reminds me of a few famous lines by Lord John Manners, which however, 102 '"'■■' '^ "■■ I '■''■■■■■''-.: I- '^ one must not forget are poetry, and besides written - in the abstract : > " Let wealth and commerce, laws and learning die, ; i But leave us still our old nobility." The true test of the prosperity of a country is not what is sent out of it, but what is used in it: I mean by the prosperity of a country the comforts which the great mass of the inhabitants enjoy. A country is prosperous and its people comfortable not according to what it exports — not even to what is raised in it, but according to what is used in it; and no mistake could be greater, none more fatal in its consequences upon all one's reasoning, than even when estimating the prosperity of a country by the true test of what is used in it — to be content merely with an ascertainment of its vahie, without carefully inquiring what is the distribution of the food, the necessaries, and the luxuries of life, amongst all classes of the community. , >X i • Am- ■r ,-v-,... ■ ■ ''■■.ff.r'.. ir ... ;^. *'■. X, 3 ^ ' ~t<^^!X.*V' ^^i- I .■j*%;