325.2415 
 G54t
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 ILUNOIS UBRARY 
 
 AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 
 
 BOOKSTACKS
 
 THREE LETTERS 
 
 UPON 
 
 IRISH COLONIZATION, 
 
 ADDRESSED TO 
 
 Sm COLMAN O'LOGHLEN, BART. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN ROBERT G O D L E Y, ESQ 
 
 /6''.; 7
 
 
 To SIR COLEMAN O'LOUGHLEN, Bart. 
 
 Mt DEA.K SiK COLJCAN, 
 
 Knowing, as I do, the deep interest which you take in every effort to ameliorate the 
 
 rA social condition of Ireland, I trust that I need not apologise for making use of your name as » 
 
 • means of drawing attention to the important subject with which the following letter is concerned. 
 
 H I will proceed, therefore, without further preface, to write, nominally to you, but really for the 
 
 j^ public. 
 
 The length of the Memorial on Systematic Colonization from Ireland, which was presented to 
 
 Lord John Russell on the Slst ult., having prevented its insertion in the Irish newspapers, I 
 
 .^,^^ think it desirable to explain, in a more concise manner, the main propositions which it embodies, 
 
 V^n order to make them easily accessible to the Irish pubUc. They are five — First, the necessity of 
 
 ^ Emigration on a very large scale from Ireland to Canada, in order to preserve vast numbers of our 
 
 ^fellow-countrymen from perishing of want. Secondly, the necessity of providing religious instruc- 
 
 ^tion, and other elements of civilization for the Emigrants. Thirdly, the necessity of assistance from 
 
 the State to increase the means of employment in America, and facilitate Emigration. Fourthly, 
 
 the advantage of enlisting private enterprise, in the form of agency, to carry out the plan ; and 
 
 Fifthly, a willingness to bear a property and income tax for the purpose of defraying the expense 
 
 of it. I will treat of these separately, and comment, as I proceed, on some of the objections which 
 
 have been raised to them. 
 
 The first proposition is supported by arguments which shew, that the population of a country, 
 which is forced to pass suddenly from the cultivation of potatoes to that of com and green crops, 
 and from a cheaper to a dearer kind of food, is necessarily for the time redundant ; and that, in 
 order to avoid a great mortality, and an accompanying social disorganization, and to bring about 
 such a state of things as will ultimately/ admit of an increase of population, as well as of the other 
 elements of wealth and greatness, a great immediate diminution of those numbers is absolutely neces- 
 sary. It is shown that no Poor Law, or other measure, affecting only the distribution of existing 
 resources, can make those resources suflScient for the support of a population which has outgrown 
 them, and that the very circumstances — namely, the starvation, misery, and consequent anarchy, 
 which are the results of a population too great for the means of subsistence, must prevent the 
 influx of capital which can alone increase those means. 
 
 It is not necessar)', while writing for Irishmen, to enlarge on this point. All classes in Ireland 
 — landlords, tenants, labourers, tradesmen— shew that they feel the force and truth of our proposi- 
 tion, in the great though desultory efforts which they are making to equalize population with 
 resources, by the very means which we propose — namely, Emigration. 
 
 ^ 
 
 53459
 
 There is at present, no limit to Emigration, but the means of paying for a passage, and of 
 finding emplojTnent in America ; it is, therefore, unjust to accuse us of wishing to drive people out 
 of Ireland ; we would only enable them to do, in a systematic, orderly, efficient manner ; and in con- 
 nexion with all the appliances and means of civilization, that which they are almost frantically anxious 
 to do, even in the disorderly, and scrambling fashion, which is now pursued. If to offer to the Irish 
 people faciUties to do what they like, shew hostility to them, we are their worst enemies ; if to 
 prefer seeing them civilized and prosperous abroad, to keeping them in penury and wretchedness at 
 home, be want of patriotism, we are no patriots ; but we are convinced that our countrymen will 
 take a very different view of our proceedings and motives ; they will perceive that our reasoning is 
 sound, and our conclusions inevitable, and they will agree with us, that the adoption of a plan 
 founded on the principles which we advocate is necessary for the present safety, as well as for the 
 future prosperity of Ireland. JBut I must not be misunderstood ; 1 believe that the existence of a 
 surplus population in the midst of undeveloped resources, is an anomaly — and a misfortune ; but I 
 find that anomaly existing, and I hear of no tolerably plausible suggestion for removing it, except 
 that contained in our memorial. Ireland, under different social arrangements, may sustain in 
 comfort a far greater population than that which is now found to be redundant ; but our argument 
 is, that in order to give us, as it were, breathing time and elbow-room to effect those arrangements, 
 a large immediate diminution of numbers is necessary. I have taken every opportunity of express- 
 ing my deep conviction that the necessity of Emigration, is a calamity for the country from whence 
 it proceeds, and shews that the social system of that country is in an unsatisfactory state — but 
 that is not the question now — the questions are, whether the existing resources of Ireland are 
 sufficient to feed the people ; and whether, if not, there be any available means of equalizing 
 resources and people, except Emigration, and those questions, I feel no doubt, the Irish people 
 will determine as we have determined them. In fact, as I have before said, what is going on around 
 us every day, shews that they are already determined ; it is unnecessary to argue further against 
 theories which are practically disavowed by the hundreds of thousands which are now emigrating, 
 and the millions more that would emigrate if they could— 1 may therefore assume, that our 
 first proposition is proved — namely, the necessity of a very large Emigration. 
 
 We next proceed to shew the principles Upon which our plan of Colonization is founded, and 
 this brings me to a consideration of the second proposition which I have mentioned — the neces- 
 sity of providing religious instruction for the Emigrants, and of supplying other aids which may 
 make their Settlements orderly, prosperous and civilized. 
 
 We are strongly impressed with the conviction, that no system of Colonization is worthy of the 
 name, which does not contemplate more than a mere improvement in the material and financial 
 prospects of the Emigrant. We feel deeply the responsibility attaching to those who would encourage 
 a population, however wretched, to break the ties which bind civilized society together, to leave 
 pastors, friends, and kindred, and to scatter themselves in a state of moral destitution over the 
 wildernesses of the New World. It is melancholy to reflect on the numbers of our countrymen who 
 are to be met with in various parts of the New World, almost relapsing into barbarism from long 
 isolation, deprived of access to all the influences of civilization, without the means of educating their
 
 children, or of attending the services of their Church, and often feeling that they have purchased 
 an increase of material prosperity, too dearly, at the price of those religious and moral blessings 
 which they have left behind. These considerations apply especially to the Irish, who are a very 
 religious, as well as sociable people, and who therefore suffer in a peculiar manner from the evils 
 to which we have alluded. The result is, that few Irish Roman Catholics, comparatively speaking, 
 go upon land at all in America ; and that the great majority of them congregate in the large towns 
 of Canada and the United States. It is impossible not to see that they are there regarded by the 
 natives with contempt and aversion, mixed with fear, — that their presence is looked upon as a 
 necessary evil, and that all the worst characteristics of their race are perpetuated and aggravated by 
 their position. 
 
 It is in the hope of remedying these great evils, and of turning thereby our present calamity 
 into a means of permanently improving the position of the Irish people in America, that we have 
 proposed to the Government to provide for the Irish Emigrants the necessary aids to civilized, and 
 (what may be called) social settlement. The first place among these aids we have naturally given 
 to the endowment of their clergy, and we have done so, not only from a conviction that no system 
 of Colonization can prosper which is not founded on religious principles, but from a belief in the 
 peculiar necessity which exists for sending, along with large masses of the Irish people, a propor- 
 tionate number of that order of men who have been their guides and governors in their native land. 
 We believe, that in a good system of Colonization, institutions should emigrate as well as people, 
 and as an Emigration of Roman Catholic Irish must necessarily contain a very small portion of 
 gentry and capitalists, the natural leaders of a young society, we think it of great importance that 
 the leadership, without which an Irish Emigration would be the most helpless, and least prosperous, 
 in the world, should be supplied by enabling their clergy to accompany them. 
 
 We believe that further aids of settlement ought to be provided, in the shape of such acces- 
 sories of civilization as require combination of labour — for example, mills, roads, bridges, and main 
 drainage. We conceive that by the preparation of settlements in the manner which I have 
 indicated, the difficulties which are found to attend upon Irish Colonization may be removed, and 
 nuclei formed for the creation of an Irish people, with full scope for the working of an Irish 
 nationality, under all the favorable circumstances which the new world offers. 
 
 I will reserve for a future day a description of the means by which we propose that employ- 
 ment shall be found for the emigrants, on their arrival, and of the machinery by which, as we 
 conceive, the whole plan ought to be conducted. 
 
 I remain, my dear Sir Colman, 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 JOHN ROBERT GODLEY.
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 To SIR COLMAN O'LOGHLEN, Bart. 
 
 My seab Sik Colman, 
 
 The Emigration of this year cannot be computed at less than 200,000 persons, but its character 
 is such as to make it no subject of congratulation to Irishmen. A very large proportion of these, probably 
 more than half, belong to the classes which contribute to bear, not to increase, the burden of poor rates. 
 Paupers, strictly so called, — that is, men who are now supported by the public, and who must in all 
 probability continue so to be, — cannot of course emigrate by means of their own resources ; and the 
 number of those enabled by landlords and friends in America to emigrate, cannot certainly be very large 
 in proportion to the whole Emigration. Yet the number of mere labourers which will land in Canada this 
 year will probably fully equal, if it do not exceed, the means of employing them. I anticipate great 
 distress in America this year, from the immigration of labour, for which the country is not prepared. The 
 existing system (if such a state of things may be called a system) is defective in every respect— defective 
 as regards Ireland, for it tends to carry off a disproportionate number of those whom we can least spare ; 
 and defective as regards America, for it makes no provision for the limited number of labourers whom it 
 removes. We want to redress these anomalies ; to remove from Ireland the class of which she has at 
 present a redundant supply, and to secure to them the means of permanent well-being in new countries. 
 How are these objects to be accomplished ? 
 
 It is necessary to premise, that we have fixed upon British America as the only possible field for 
 a Colonization such as we require, from its comparative proximity, and the consequent cheapness of Emigra- 
 tion to it, as well as from its being the only country where there would be a sufficient quantity of food ready 
 for a large number of additional mouths. It is, then, to British America that we have altogether directed 
 our attention. Let us consider its position. It contains an unlimited field of employment for capital, in 
 the shape of fertile land, intersected by water communications, with a healthy climate, and under a 
 vigorous constitutional government. It is only necessary to describe British America, in order to see, 
 that, unless some causes, not immediately apparent, were at work to impede the flow of capital towards 
 the most profitable field, it would at this moment attract all the disposable capital which is now producing 
 only the low rate of profit current in Great Britain. The capacity for employing capital, and the desire felt 
 for it, is shewn, not only hy a priori reasoning, but by unmistakeable facta; by the testimony of 
 Colonial authorities, by the constant efforts which the Colonists are making to procure it in this country ; 
 and above all, by the exhorbitant interest which is paid for its use. Give us but capital, says the united 
 voice of all parties in the provinces, and we can employ profitably any amount of labour. And yet 
 hitherto hardly any British capital has been invested in Canada; consequently there has been a very small
 
 demand for immigrant labour. If then we can discover and remove the causes which have prevented the 
 investment of capital, we shall thereby produce an immediate and very great demand for the labour which 
 is seeking a market. In our Memorial to Loed John Russell, we have stated our views of the nature 
 of those causes, and the conclusions to which we were led by the consideration of them. I will briefly 
 recapitulate them. 
 
 In the first place, till very lately, Canada possessed no organization capable of administering 
 effectually in the improvement of the country, the capital which it required. This was one very important 
 reason for the inferior demand for labour in Canada, as compared with the rural districts of the United 
 States. The organization has now been provided by the establishment of municipal councils, with powers 
 of borrowing money, and taxing districts, for the purposes of local improvement. The administrative 
 bodies now exist, but they cannot procure adequate funds. Colonial enterprises are at the lowest point of 
 discredit in the British money market. American securities of all kinds are treated with positive ridicule 
 in the City of London. It is not merely distance — it is not a doubt of the pecuniary return to be 
 expected from investments, it is a conviction that no reliance can be placed on the good faith of American 
 borrowers, which prevents British capitalists from even listening to their applications. Political causes, 
 such as the recent rebellions, and the vicinity of the United States, contribute to the prevalence of this 
 feeling. Its effect is, that no Capital, or next to none, can be procured on any terras in this country for 
 British America. Whilst the new American States procure Capital from the money markets of the 
 American cities, the British provinces are compelled to remain with their resources undeveloped, and their 
 progress retarded, the British money market, their natural source of supply, being closed against 
 them by the causes which I have enumerated. 
 
 In order then to create a demand for Irish labour, by means of British capital, we must improve 
 Colonial credit effectually, so as to remove from the minds of the capitalist all doubt upon the matter of faith 
 or obligation, as well as the necessity of insurance (as it were) against adverse political events, and to 
 allow his calculations to be based altogether upon the question of pecuniary return, as would be the case 
 if his investment were to be made in Great Britain. This end we have proposed to attain by means of 
 a guarantee on the part of the Imperial Government of a certain low rate of interest for money laid out on 
 Canadian improvements, and by legislation, giving to contracts between British capitalists and public 
 bodies in the Provinces, the validity of Imperial law. If this were done, we conceive that nearly as much 
 capital would be directed into British America, as if, with all its own peculiarly favourable circumstances, 
 it were brought across the Atlantic, and became geographically, as well as politically, an integral part of 
 Great Britain. 
 
 Besides the capital which the improvement of Colonial credit by British legislation would 
 attract into the natural and ordinary channels, through the medium of which a new Country is made 
 habitable, we contemplate the outlay of a large sum of money in preparing settlements for the labourers 
 who shall have saved money out of their earnings, and shall be ready to go upon the land — an outlay 
 which will of course involve a proportionably increased demand for labonr. Now much of this outlay 
 must be considered as unproductive in a financial point of view ; it will consist in the erection of churches 
 and schools, and the endowment of clergy, as well as in the material improvements which I have before
 
 mentioned. Irish Colonization for this reason (amongst, perhaps, others) has never been found to " pay " 
 as a private speculation ; it requires aids which involve the speculator in too large an expense ; he would 
 come into the land market in a country where land is a drug, at a disadvantage too great to be overcome. 
 We propose therefore that this outlay shall be contributed indirectly, but gratuitously, by the State, 
 through a medium which I shall hereafter describe ; and it will constitute the chief part of the expenditure 
 by which the State is called upon to assist the movement which we anticipate. 
 
 Private individuals and companies possessing wild land in the Colonies, will no doubt zealously 
 co-operate in promoting our settlements. The attraction of capital and population to their land will be a 
 matter of immense importance to them. They will vie with each other in offering facilities, such as sites 
 for buildings, and land for glebes, as well as the privilege of selUng land to the settlers at a low price, 
 and they will be amply repaid by the increased value which the settlement will confer upon their own 
 reserves, which are now absolutely worthless and unproductive. 
 
 Another and very potent means of increasing the demand for labour in British America can hardly 
 be appreciated by those who are not practically acquainted with the social condition of the Irish in 
 America. It is the use of such instruments of moral attraction as shall produce the immigration of 
 Capitalists from the United States into British America. This is a subject on which the assertions of the 
 Memorialists will probably be contradicted by the Americans, for obvious reasons. Yet I fearlessly 
 repeat them, relying not only on my own personal observation, but on the testimony of every individual, 
 British and American, acquainted with the subject, with whom I have ever had an opportunity of con- 
 versing. The Irish Roman Catholics, as a class (allowing for individual exceptions), are in a false, 
 uncomfortable, inferior position in the United States. Financially they prosper, no doubt ; they get on 
 very well as domestic servants, labourers on public works, mechanics, tradesmen ; but they are regarded 
 by the " Native Americans " with contempt in a social, and with jealousy in a political, point of view ; 
 and as I have before said, they very rarely become (as we should from their previous habits expect them 
 to become) proprietors and occupiers of land. 
 
 Under these circumstances I have no doubt whatever, that if they saw a prospect of the growth 
 and development of an Irish Nationality in British America, if they saw their Church amply endowed, 
 and their countrymen likely to become, by the legitimate influence of the majority, politically paramount 
 there, Irish-born capitalists, men who have made and saved money in America, would come over in very 
 considerable numbers, to invest it among their own countrymen. There is a very strong Irish feeling in 
 America ; Irish nationality has not been destroyed, though it is overpowered and neutralized, and I feel con- 
 vinced that the idea of an Irish people in America, would evoke a simultaneous and extensive sympathetic 
 movement among Irish-bom Americans from Maine to Georgia. 
 
 But before I leave this part of the subject, I cannot avoid briefly noticing that form of opposition 
 to our plan, which consists in deprecating the establishment of a distinctively Irish or Celtic Nationality. 
 I protest altogether against any unfavorable inferences of this nature which may be drawn from the 
 example of the Irish in Ireland. I maintain that they have never had a fair chance yet. I do not intend 
 to enter the region of political controversy, and consequently refrain from enlarging on this point ; but, so 
 far^ all must I think agree with me. They have never, I repeat, had a fair chance yet, either in Europe or
 
 America. I believe the natural development of Irish national tendencies would be of a conservative, 
 aristocratical, and religious character, and consequently that the creation of an Irish Nation, with the 
 incalculable advantages of religious, historical, and generic unity, would be the means of raising up a most 
 wholesome antidote and counterpoise to the unmixed democracy of the American Republic. 
 
 But this is a digression ; the point to which I wished principally to direct your attention, and to 
 which I would now recall it, is the increased demand for immigrant labour which, as I contend, would be 
 created by the attraction of American capitalists. 
 
 It is impossible to calculate, at all accurately, how much capital would be directed, by the various 
 means which I have pointed out, into British America, or, consequently, what amount of additional labour 
 could be profitably absorbed. Any sum, or any number, which I might name, would be of course purely 
 hypothetical ; I will therefore content myself with assuming (what no one surely can deny), that a very 
 great additional introduction of both capital and labour would take place ; so great, that Ireland would be 
 effectually relieved, and the materials aflForded for realizing, on a great scale, the magnificent idea of Syste- 
 matic Colonization. In my next letter I will describe the machinery on which we rely for carrying our 
 plan into successful operation. 
 
 I am, my dear SiK Colman, 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 JOHN ROBERT GODLEY.
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 To SIR COLMAN O'LOGHLEN, Bart. 
 
 Mt DEA.R Sib Colman, 
 
 Having stated the causes which induce us to consider a large additional Emigration necessary, 
 the principles upon which we think it ought to be founded, and the means which we have suggested 
 for giving employment, and facilitating Settlement, in British America, it remains for me to explain 
 why we have proposed that private enterprise should be enlisted, in the form of Agency, to carry 
 out the plan, and why we believe that the interference of the State should consist merely of aid to 
 such enterprise, and of bounty upon its success ; why we want, in short, to get a Company of 
 Merchants to colonize by contract. 
 
 The plan which we have proposed, is as follows ; that a Company be formed with a large 
 amount of subscribed capital ; that it be authorized to lend money to public bodies in Canada, and 
 to undertake public works there on its own account ; that its loans be backed by the guarantee of a 
 limited interest, and its investments by the sanction t»f Imperial law ; and that the direct pecuniary 
 contribution of the State to the settlements, which we contemplate, be given in the form of premium 
 to the Company when the settlement shall have been completed. We have proposed that a fair 
 average shall be struck of the cost of such aids of settlement as I have described in a former letter, 
 that a certain sum per head shall be paid by the Government to the Company for Emigrants satis- 
 factorily settled, and that payment shall be due when, and not until, the Governor General shall 
 certify that the objects of the Imperial Government shall be fully accomplished. 
 
 Now this plan, if practicable, (as we can prove it to be), has many and obvious advantages. 
 In the first place the Government will be secured against unprofitable outlay ; if the experiment 
 wholly or partially fail, precisely in the same proportion will its cost be reduced. In the second 
 place, there is an. infinitely increased probability that it will not fail, when it is conducted under the 
 incentive of a strong private interest in success constantly operating on the Agent. Everything 
 which can be done by contract is best done by contract ; and we have argued that the extensive 
 and multifarious business involved in carrying out such a system of Colonization as we contemplate, 
 can, and therefore ought to, be the subject of a contract. The business would consist of raising 
 money in this country to be lent to public bodies in America — undertaking works in the Colony — 
 providing aids of settlement — managing the contributions to the fund for passage-money, and 
 generally of whatever should need to be done, whether in Canada, or in Ireland, with a view to the 
 smooth and efficient working of the whole plan. The incentive, the only effectual incentive, to carry 
 on successfully such a series of operations, must be the hope of pecuniary gain. The gain of the
 
 Company would consist partly in the high rate of profit current in America, but chiefly in the 
 Government bounty on successful settlement. The Company would therefore set in motion, with 
 this end, all those subordinate instruments and agencies, direct and indirect, which private enterprise 
 alone is capable of employing with effect. It would use every effort to increase Emigration, to 
 stimulate the investment of capital by offering it on reasonable terms, to enlarge the field of 
 employment by undertaking public works, to give such wages as would enable the labourers to go 
 as soon as possible upon land, and above all to make its settlements both morally and materially so 
 attractive, as to exhibit in the greatest possible numbers, those civilized and prosperous settlers, 
 whose existence would be the condition of its own gain. 
 
 Though the arguments for employing the Agency of a Company for the purpose of Coloniza- 
 tion appear so powerful and obvious, there is no part of our plan which has given rise to more 
 objections, and which people have shewn more hesitation in adopting. Now it might be sufficient 
 to answer these objections by saying, " Give us what we ask ; namely, a Commission of Inquiry ; 
 and if we cannot make it appear that the other objects of our Memorial will be effected in the best 
 and cheapest way by a Company, then let that part of our plan be thrown aside, and let Govern- 
 ment pursue those objects by more direct action on its own responsibility." But I confess that I 
 consider this part of our plan as so essential to the successful working of the whole, that I am glad 
 to take every opportunity to impress its importance on the minds of those who take an interest in 
 the subject; and with that view I will now notice and answer some of the objections which have 
 been made to it. These arise chiefiy, I think, from want of acquaintance with the History of 
 Colonies, and the art of Colonization, and accordingly I find that a writer in the "Time*," who 
 strongly opposes our plan on Anti-Irish grounds, but who is evidently familiar with the subject 
 generally, admits that in all Systematic Colonization, the agency of " Great Companies " must 
 henceforth be employed. 
 
 In the first place it is said, that we shall never be able to form a Company, which shall under- 
 take to " colonize by contract ; " and in the second place, that it will fail if it do so. Now, I say, 
 that if it can be shewn to the merchants of the City of London, that there is a good chance of 
 profit to be made by embarking in any commercial enterprize, a Company will be formed in a week, 
 which will undertake it ; and that in the case under consideration, the Government may make it 
 their interest to colonize the waste territory of Canada with Irishmen, (if the Government choose to 
 do so,) by offering to them a contract upon sufficiently advantageous terms. British capitalists 
 will do anything by contract, and do it as well as it can be done, too. But, moreover, the objec- 
 tors forget that the principle of " colonizing by contract " is no new one. Not one of our early 
 American Colonies was colonized otherwise than by private individuals or Companies who 
 received grants of land on condition of settling them. In later times the same principle 
 has been adopted in Canada. For example. Colonel Talbot received a grant of 50,000 
 acres of wild land, on condition of settling a certain district of country with Emigrants from 
 Europe. He did so, and his grant was accordingly confirmed. But to come nearer home ; 
 perhaps the most rapid and permanent colonizing operation on record is the Plantation of Ulster 
 in the reign of James the First ; this was effected precisely in the same manner, as regards
 
 agency, which we now recommend ; the merchants of the City of London received large grants 
 of territory on condition of " locating " a certain number of English or Scotch Protestants on 
 every thousand acres ; the manner in which this was to be done, the number and size of the houses, 
 the extent of the enclosures, &c. were specified as the terras of the contract between the Crown and 
 the Companies, and those terms were fulfilled, in a wonderfully short space of time, and in spite of 
 obstacles of all kinds, over a vast district of country. 
 
 In the present case, the Crown has no land to dispose of, and accordingly we propose that a 
 grant of money be substituted for it ; in every other respect the operation which we wish to be the 
 subject of a contract between Government and the capitalist, is of a precisely analogous nature to 
 that which I have described ; the conditions are hot more difficult to arrange, and the obstacles to 
 settlement fewer. If James the First had possessed a Colonial Office, and attempted to plant 
 Ulster through its instrumentality, I have no doubt that he would have succeeded no better than 
 the French have done in Algeria, or than our own Government did in their attempt to colonize 
 part of Canada from Ireland in 1825. 
 
 Government, especially the Government of a country possessing a popular constitution, labours 
 under innumerable disadvantages in carrying on any operation of a complicated and difficult nature. 
 In a great number of cases these must be submitted to, from the impossibility of finding a substitute 
 for direct Governmental agency ; but they are not the less real on that account. A Government is 
 compelled, or at least tempted, to appoint its officers with reference to Parliamentary influence ; it 
 cannot dismiss them without some definite and proveable ground of complaint ; nor are the motives 
 which can alone be brought to bear upon its Members, such as patriotism, love of fame, and sense of 
 duty, found to produce (except in a comparatively few favoured cases) that unwearied, per- 
 feevering, exclusive, pursuit of success, which can alone insure its attainment. This truth is 
 exemplified especially in the administration of remote dependencies, to which it is difficult to direct 
 public attention, and with reference to which, consequently, ministerial responsibility is of a very 
 slight and nominal kind. If we compare, accordingly, the administration of affairs in Crown 
 Colonies with that of such corporations as, for example, the East India Company, and the Hudson's 
 Bay Company, it is impossible not to be struck by the contrast which is exhibited by them, both at 
 the seat of Direction, and in the countries which are the scene of their operations. The policy 
 pursued in the former is as feeble, vacillating, and ineffectual, as that of the latter is vigorous, 
 consistent, and successful ; nor is the superiority of the Companies less remarkable in the choice of 
 their officers than in the character of their policy. I do not blame the Members of our successive 
 Governments for the defects in their Colonial administration ; the inferiority is in the system, not in 
 the men ; I only allude to them for the purpose of showing that as in every case where it is possible 
 to employ the agency of private enterprise, it is desirable to do it, so it is proved by experience to 
 J)e especially desirable in such cases as that now under consideration, namely — the management of 
 an extensive and complicated colonizing operation in a remote dependency. 
 
 The only part of our plan which it remains for me to explain and defend, is the means by which 
 we propose to defray the expense which it involves. For this purpose we have suggested that 
 a Property and Income-Tax be imposed upon Ireland, of such an amount as to provide the interest
 
 of the money which it will be necessary for the Government to advance, and a sinking-Fund for its 
 repayment ; and we have calculated that if our plan be as successful, and, therefore, as costly, as we 
 can possibly expect, the Incorae-Tax required to defray the cost of it will not be heavier than that 
 which is now paid by Great Britain. 
 
 Now I maintain that this proposal is both just and expedient. It is just, because there is no 
 reason whatever why property of all kinds should not be taxed for the relief of the poor, except 
 reasons which concern the local administration of a Poor-Law. If it were convenient that fund- 
 holders, mortgagees, &c. should be called on to contribute, equally with landholders, to pre- 
 serve their fellow-creatures from destitution by a .poor-rate, I can conceive no plea of justice upon 
 which they could claim exemption. Again, the commercial and professional classes suffer no less 
 surely (though not perhaps so directly) from the ruin and demoralization which extensive pauperism 
 entails upon a country, than the occupiers of land; while in the establishment of new and 
 prosperous agricultural colonies, the interests of commerce and manufactures are involved far more 
 deeply than those of domestic agriculture. Upon every ground, then, it is just that all classes in 
 Ireland should contribute to the expense of colonization. 
 
 Nor is the expediency of our proposal less manifest than its justice; it is well known that 
 Ireland was originally exempted from the Income Tax only on the ground of the supposed tem- 
 porary nature of that tax, and the absence of Irish machinery for its collection. If, as is but too 
 probable, the Income Tax is to be permanent, there is not the sUghtest doubt, indeed the leading 
 statesmen of both parties have declared, that it will be extended to Ireland. It is therefore so much 
 clear gain if we can connect it with an object specially beneficial to us ; while the consent of Great 
 Britain will be secured by the advantages which our plan, if adopted, will confer upon the Empire at 
 large ; in the extension of trade, in the encouragement of manufactures, and in the diversion from 
 the British shores of the perpetual and increasing stream of Irish pauperism. On the other hand, 
 we may rest assured that if we lose our present opportunity, we shall have the tax, without the 
 benefit of its expenditure. For these reasons I strongly recommend to my countrymen not to run 
 the risk of defeating altogether a plan so beneficial to Ireland, by an ill-judged resistance to a part 
 which is so essential to the chance of its success, as that now under consideration. 
 
 If any further objections occur to me as deserving of refutation, I will deal with them in a 
 future letter. 
 
 I am, my dear SiK Colman, 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 JOHN ROBERT GODLEY.