WHAT IS TO BE DONE 
 
 FOR 
 
 IRELAND.? 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN BALL, Esq., M.R.I.A. 
 
 » $ 
 
 LATE 
 
 ASSISTANT POOR LAW COMMISSIONER, 
 
 &C. &C. &C. 
 
LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED BY T. BRETTELL, RUPERT STREET, HAYMARKET 
 
i 3 » 4* i ^ 
 
 B x 1 w 
 
 Oo. 
 
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 ^ WHAT IS TO BE DONE 
 
 FOR 
 
 IRELAND? 
 
 The present condition of Ireland—the nature 
 of the changes which are occurring beside us 
 and before our very eyes—the means of averting 
 the utter ruin which is impending over entire 
 provinces, and of protecting and maturing such 
 germs of improvement as appear to retain 
 vitality in the midst of the general confusion,— 
 these are topics of such engrossing importance, 
 and, at the same time, of such portentous diffi¬ 
 culty, that no man who is interested in the 
 fortunes of the British Empire can well avoid to 
 consider them, while very few can with any 
 confidence pretend to offer a solution for the 
 perilous problems which they suggest. 
 
 It will lessen the appearance of presumption 
 on the part of a writer unknown to political 
 controversy to state, that in the following pages 
 
 I • 
 x 
 
 P S JF 
 
 < 
 
4 
 
 I shall scrupulously avoid all personal, party, 
 and sectarian questions. My object is simply to 
 lay before the intelligent and well-disposed in 
 either country a plain statement of authentic 
 facts, having reference to the economical and 
 social difficulties of the present crisis; not 
 merely to awaken their attention, for this I 
 believe has already been sufficiently accom¬ 
 plished, but further to assist them in arriving at 
 practical conclusions by giving the results of 
 anxious and painful inquiry and consideration— 
 results based upon personal experience, assisted 
 by frequent discussion with many of those most 
 distinguished by knowledge, ability, and zeal for 
 the public welfare. 
 
 I shall not be expected to enter into details, 
 descriptive or historical, for the purpose of 
 making known the condition of this country, or 
 the causes which had produced that condition, 
 at the period when, owing to the failure of the 
 potato crop in the years 1845 and 1846, the 
 social revolution commenced whose progress we 
 still contemplate and whose results must for a 
 long period decide our destinies. The entire 
 world has resounded with our complaints; in 
 every civilised tongue our miseries, our dissen¬ 
 sions, our wrongs, and our vices, have been dis¬ 
 cussed and recorded. Those who do not already 
 know whatever may be learned by mere reading 
 are little likely to be informed by any attempt 
 
5 
 
 of mine. The sequel of our history up to the 
 spring of the present year is scarcely less well 
 known, and may be summed up in a few pages. 
 
 The partial failure of the potato crop, in the 
 spring of 1846, was met by the timely introduc¬ 
 tion of a moderate supply of Indian corn meal*. 
 The able-bodied poor who had lost their only means 
 of subsistence were employed upon public works. 
 The entire cost of relief during this season was 
 £.733,372, of which sum £.368,000 is repayable 
 to the Treasury from the county rates. The local 
 subscriptions officially reported to the Govern¬ 
 ment amounted to £.98,000; but allowance must 
 be made for other private expenditure for relief 
 purposes, and a large addition for the value of 
 grain consumed in Ireland, which would, under 
 ordinary circumstances, have been exported, and 
 there will not be much error in estimating the 
 direct cost of the first failure of the potato crop 
 at about a million sterling. 
 
 The history of the succeeding year is even 
 better known. In a few weeks the staple food 
 of a population of five millions was all but 
 utterly destroyed. A famine, perhaps the most 
 fearful in its extent of any recorded in history, 
 followed with awful suddenness. To say that 
 the measures adopted by the Government were 
 
 * The amount provided for the relief service was 98,810 
 quarters, of which 84,235 quarters were sold up to August 
 184G. 
 
6 
 
 insufficient to prevent misery, disease, and actual 
 starvation, is not a ground of just reproach, for 
 the visitation was one which no amount of 
 legislative or administrative skill could effectually 
 relieve. The system of employment upon public 
 works, which had been used with tolerable suc¬ 
 cess during the preceding season, was adopted 
 with some modifications of detail. Whether 
 from a reluctance to credit the estimated extent 
 of the failure, though derived from the most 
 authentic sources, or from an erroneous calcula¬ 
 tion of the resources existing in the country, 
 the inevitable consequences of this measure were 
 not perceived. Introduced by the Government 
 at the close of the session, the Bill passed without 
 a word of warning or remonstrance from any of 
 the Irish members of the House of Commons*. 
 The obvious and direct objections to a system of 
 public works, as a means of relief during a 
 period of general famine, are—the increased cost, 
 amounting to fully double that of direct relief 
 in food; the impossibility of effectual superin- 
 
 * In the House of Lords, Lord Monteagle pointed out 
 the dangerous consequences of the proposed measure, and 
 before the Bill had passed a strong remonstrance was 
 drawn up and forwarded to the Prime Minister, at a 
 meeting at which were present, the Earl of Devon, Sir 
 Richard Bourke, Mr. Spring Rice, Mr. Monsell, Sir Vere 
 de Vere, Sir David Roche, and several others of the most 
 influential proprietors of the county of Limerick ; these 
 partial efforts were, however, completely unheeded. 
 
tendence where a large portion of the popula¬ 
 tion become applicants for relief; the hardships 
 and the demoralisation caused by assembling 
 together all the applicants for relief, whether 
 able-bodied, infirm, or diseased, and requiring 
 them to go through the form of out-door work 
 in the midst of an inclement season ; and, worst 
 of all, the permanent injury to the habits of the 
 labouring class, when, through the want of 
 sufficient check and inspection, they become 
 familiarised with a system of sham-work , and 
 lose every incentive to earnest industry. 
 
 But in addition to these evils there was another, 
 which has not yet been generally understood in 
 England, and which can be fully appreciated 
 only by those conversant with the peculiar con¬ 
 dition of this country. 
 
 In spite of unfavourable circumstances, arising 
 from political and social causes, a period of in¬ 
 dustrial improvement had commenced in Ireland. 
 Amongst other indications, the formation and 
 progress of the Irish Agricultural Society suffi¬ 
 ciently proves that a considerable number of 
 proprietors had become alive to the necessity for 
 improvement in the art of the cultivation of land, 
 which had continued in a wretchedly imperfect 
 and semi-barbarous state*. Some amongst them, 
 
 * Once for all I should remark, that, from most general 
 statements, such as that given above, I except the more 
 fortunate districts of Ulster and Leinster, where favourable 
 
8 
 
 prompted by feelings of duty or of enlightened 
 self-interest, had also begun to exert themselves 
 in earnest to improve the condition of the poorer 
 classes, whether small farmers or labourers, upon 
 their estates. Upon the whole, gradual and 
 steady, though not rapid progress was apparent 
 throughout nearly the whole of Ireland ; every 
 year was marked by an increased expenditure of 
 capital in farming; and gradually the tenant 
 farmers were beginning to lose the prejudices and 
 the ignorance which have proved an effectual 
 bar to all improvement on their part. It was 
 necessary that a certain number of persons of 
 superior capital and education should take the 
 lead in a movement of this nature; their influence 
 could only gradually be felt upon the general 
 mass, and it was obvious that a long period must 
 elapse before the farmers could be got to feel any 
 real interest in the amelioration of the condition 
 of the labouring class. 
 
 circumstances acting upon an industrious race have produced, 
 and still maintain, a considerable degree of material pros¬ 
 perity. One of the difficulties that arise in speaking or 
 writing about Ireland proceeds from the fact that scarcely 
 any assertion can be made which is generally true. Not 
 only the whole island, but almost every separate county, ex¬ 
 hibits within it the most strange contrasts in respect to the 
 condition of its inhabitants. Variations, as marked as those 
 which distinguish Tuscany from the most impoverished 
 districts in Poland, may be found within the space of a few 
 miles. 
 
9 
 
 In proportion as it has been natural to feel 
 indignation at the manner in which a large pro¬ 
 portion of the proprietors of this country have 
 forgotten their duties, neglected opportunities, 
 and sacrificed their own interests and those of 
 their successors to careless indolence or self- 
 indulgence, so it was but just to prize the conduct 
 of those who have pursued an opposite course, 
 and upon whose exertions the progress of civil¬ 
 isation must for a long period materially depend. 
 Men of the class here described had for the most 
 part supported the poor of their own neighbour¬ 
 hoods during the spring of 1846 by subscriptions, 
 to which some additional grants were made by the 
 Government; but in the autumn of the same 
 year they found that the only adequate means 
 provided for the relief of a population which had 
 suddenly lost their chief and almost exclusive 
 means of subsistence was by public works. The 
 presentments for the purposes of this Act were 
 made by the magistrates and cess-payers assem¬ 
 bled at Sessions, for each respective barony, half¬ 
 barony, county of a city, or county of a town, in 
 which relief was required. A barony in Ireland 
 includes, upon an average, an area of about 
 65,000 acres, and a population of about 25,000. 
 The rate-payers of each of these large districts 
 were held jointly responsible for the support of 
 famishing multitudes, and at a time when pro¬ 
 prietors received but a small per centage upon 
 
10 
 
 their rents, and when all but the large farmers 
 were in a state bordering on destitution, they 
 were required to contract loans often exceeding 
 in amount the entire annuul value of the district, 
 repayment of which loans as they were informed 
 would be rigidly enforced. 
 
 Although no one can without hesitation differ 
 from so high an authority as Sir Charles Tre¬ 
 velyan, I confess that I cannot concur in his 
 opinion that the measure here described was 
 calculated to induce, or even to permit, of an 
 increased expenditure of capital upon the culti¬ 
 vation and improvement of land*. Such an idea 
 must have rested upon one of two suppositions, 
 each of which appears to me equally untenable. 
 Either it was supposed that a general co-operation 
 of individuals and classes, resident and non-resi¬ 
 dent, solvent and insolvent, proprietors, middle- 
 
 * “ The plan of the Labour Rate Act (9 & 10 Viet., c. 
 107) was based on the supposition that the great majority 
 of the landlords and farmers would make those exertions, 
 and submit to those sacrifices, which the magnitude of the 
 crisis demanded, leaving only a manageable proportion of 
 the population to be supported by the Board of Works; and 
 the Act would probably have answered its object, if a larger 
 instead of a smaller number of persons than usual had been 
 employed in the cultivation and improvement of the land, 
 and the Relief Committees had only put those who were 
 really destitute upon the lists.” (Irish Crisis , p. 31.) It 
 will be recollected that the same opinion was expressed in a 
 letter written by Lord John Russell, and published in the 
 newspapers during the winter of 1846. 
 
11 
 
 men, and farmers, could suddenly be brought 
 about by the magic of an Act of Parliament, or 
 else, that those who had hitherto taken a lead in 
 improvements were men of such abundant capital 
 that, in spite of present losses and prospective 
 taxation, they could afford to invest any required 
 amount of money in improvements with a view 
 to a future remunerative return. 
 
 With respect to general co-operation, I ven¬ 
 ture to doubt whether in districts of such extent 
 it could have been attained in any country in 
 Europe, save in peculiar and exceptional cases; 
 and I feel assured that no one practically con¬ 
 versant with this country for one moment ad¬ 
 mitted the possibility of realising a prospect so 
 illusory. Nor was the second supposition better 
 founded. It had long been a matter of notoriety 
 that the great majority of Irish properties were 
 heavily burdened with debt and with charges 
 created by family settlements, and that even 
 amongst the less incumbered the instances of 
 proprietors possessing large money capital were 
 but rare exceptions. 
 
 It is therefore no subject for surprise that the 
 Labour Rate Act to a great extent paralysed the 
 exertions of improving landlords. Those who 
 lamented the effects of the law could not take 
 upon themselves the responsibility of declining 
 its provisions. They could not encounter the 
 risk of leaving a large population of destitute 
 
12 
 
 poor to precarious support to be obtained from 
 private employment, and, with diminished means, 
 they could not reserve their funds to meet heavy 
 taxation, and at the same time expend those 
 funds in carrying on measures of improvement 
 upon their properties. 
 
 Though these views had not been stated in 
 Parliament, they were not unfelt amongst prac¬ 
 tical men in Ireland. Very soon after the 
 passing of the Act, Mr. Monsell (now M. P. for 
 the county of Limerick) addressed a letter * to 
 Mr. Labouchere, then Chief Secretary for Ireland, 
 advocating a plan by which parties liable for a 
 certain amount of rates should be enabled to 
 cause that amount to be expended in reclamation 
 or improvement of land under the superin¬ 
 tendence of the Board of Works. This plan 
 was warmly supported by many intelligent per¬ 
 sons in this country, and was understood to have 
 met the approval of the then Lord-Lieutenant, 
 the late Earl of Besborough. It is not now 
 desirable to discuss the merits of such a propo¬ 
 sition, but I think it but just to remind my 
 readers that the evils of the public works system 
 were very early perceived and denounced, and 
 that it is therefore incorrect to maintain that no 
 alternative existed, other than that costly and 
 ruinous experiment. In point of fact the move¬ 
 ment did produce some effect. On the 5th of 
 
 * See extracts from this letter in the Appendix, p. 87. 
 
13 
 
 October Mr. Labouchere published a letter, 
 addressed to the Board of Works, by which the 
 Commissioners were authorised to advance funds 
 upon presentments for drainage of lands, and 
 for subsoiling in connection with drainage, upon 
 condition that the proprietors of the land so 
 improved should consent that their estates should 
 be chargeable with the sums so advanced. This 
 measure obviated to a great extent the objections 
 which had made the general Acts for improve¬ 
 ment and drainage unavailing to proprietors at 
 such a crisis: the cumbrous preliminary pro¬ 
 ceedings required by those Acts would have left 
 the people to starve before employment could 
 have been given by advances, to be obtained 
 according to their provisions; while the pro¬ 
 ceedings sanctioned by Mr. Labouchere’s letter 
 required no other delay than that necessary 
 for obtaining competent superintendence. But 
 there remained the main objection, that in the 
 great majority of instances a proprietor who 
 borrowed money for improvements would di¬ 
 minish, but to a very slight extent, the pressure 
 of taxation to which he was already liable, and 
 the circumstances of but few, even of those who 
 most desired to avail themselves of the facilities 
 offered, allowed them to incur such an accu¬ 
 mulated load of taxation. These difficulties 
 were stated in a memorial addressed to the 
 Lord-Lieutenant by the Reproductive Employ- 
 
14 
 
 ment Committee*. In spite of this objection, 
 however, and although the presentments for 
 public works had in most districts been already 
 passed, and those works had actually been 
 commenced, there was no indisposition to take 
 advantage of the provisions of Labouchere’s 
 letter*]*. Upon the application of separate pro¬ 
 prietors, presentments for £.380,607 was passed 
 at sessions, and if, owing to a subsequent change 
 in the law, not more than £.180,000 was ac¬ 
 tually expended, the fact is in no manner 
 attributable to those proprietors who did every¬ 
 thing on their part which the law permitted. 
 
 In the foregoing analysis of the system of 
 public works introduced at the commencement 
 of the famine of 1846, nothing can be farther 
 from my mind than to impute blame to the 
 framers of that measure; but, considering the 
 misconceptions which still exist on this subject, 
 I think it important that its tendency and results 
 should be fully understood. It is very question¬ 
 able whether by any modification, either of the 
 objects or the machinery of such a system, it could 
 have been made effectual for the relief of so 
 
 * See Appendix, p. 95. 
 
 f The proceedings sanctioned by that letter, were 
 subsequently rendered valid by an Act passed at the com¬ 
 mencement of the following session, by which also the 
 Labour Rate Act was further amended by giving power to 
 the Commissioners of Public Works to reduce the area 
 of taxation from baronies to electoral divisions. 
 
15 
 
 fearful a mass of destitution ; but I have no 
 hesitation in expressing my belief that if the 
 pressure had been so distributed as not utterly 
 to restrain the application of enterprise and 
 capital to the cultivation and improvement of 
 land, the resources of this country would at this 
 time have been very considerably increased. 
 
 The public works, though administered with 
 
 untiring energy by men of the highest ability*, 
 
 became at length utterly unmanageable. To 
 
 create within a few months the statf and 
 
 machinerv for the effectual direction and control 
 * 
 
 of an army numbering three-quarters of a mil¬ 
 lion, was a task that exceeded the powers of any 
 public department; the system was abandoned, 
 but not before an expenditure had been incurred 
 of little less than five millions sterling. The 
 system of direct relief in food, which was sub¬ 
 stituted, fully established its intended object. At 
 the comparatively moderate cost of £.1,557,212, 
 an average number of a million and a half of the 
 population, including children, were effectually 
 fed for a period of nearly five months. 
 
 No sufficient data exist for estimating the 
 amount of capital lost to Ireland by the failure 
 of the potato and oat crops in the year 1846. 
 
 * The direction of the proceedings under the Public 
 Works Act, was confided almost exclusively to two of the 
 Commissioners of Public Works, Mr. Griffith and Captain 
 Larcom. 
 
16 
 
 The loss arising from the deprivation of the 
 staple food of a country is not the ordinary 
 money-cost of that food, but the value of the new 
 food which is substituted for it. The cost of the 
 maize imported into Ireland during the season 
 is estimated at about nine millions sterling, and 
 about one million may be allowed for other 
 descriptions of grain—rice, rye, buck wheat, &c. 
 To this should be added the loss from diminished 
 exports of wheat and oats to England, owing 
 either to the loss on a deficient oat-crop, or to 
 the necessity of using these articles as food in 
 the place of potatoes. Another formidable 
 source of loss, was the necessity of sacrificing 
 live stock, especially pigs and poultry, which 
 could no longer be fed with profit upon the 
 expensive food which alone was procurable. 
 Nothing gave so vivid an impression of the 
 ruinous effects of the famine, even in the more 
 prosperous districts, as the utter disappearance 
 of pigs and poultry, the characteristic accompa¬ 
 niments of an Irish landscape. The loss in 
 1846 was nearly limited to the difference be¬ 
 tween the price of fattened animals in ordinary 
 times and their reduced value when sold young 
 or in bad condition during a glut of the market; 
 but in the following season these important 
 sources of income to the small farmers of Ireland 
 had almost disappeared. From the Parliamen¬ 
 tary returns of live stock, taken in the year 1847, 
 
17 
 
 it appears that the number of pigs upon farms 
 less than fifteen statute acres had been reduced 
 to one-eighth of the number found on the same 
 farms in 1841, and the entire number in Ireland 
 was considerably less than one-half of that given 
 in the returns of the former period. So, also, the 
 small farmers had lost nearly three-fourths of 
 their stock of poultry, and for the country at 
 large it had been diminished by one-third. These 
 results are much more striking when we examine 
 into the details and observe the losses which have 
 fallen upon separate districts. Thus, in the pro¬ 
 vince of Connaught, upon 112,132 holdings of 
 less than fifteen statute acres there were, in 1847, 
 but 15,768 pigs, and the whole number in the 
 province was less than one-fourth of that given in 
 the census of 1841. 
 
 The cost of imported food was defrayed in part 
 from the funds granted from the Imperial Ex¬ 
 chequer, consisting of the following principal 
 items:— 
 
 Half the expenditure under the £. 
 
 Labour Rate Act . . . 2,425,000 
 
 Grants under the Temporary 
 
 Relief Act.714,529 
 
 Grants in aid of Relief Com¬ 
 mittees .189,914 
 
 Total . . £.3,329,443 
 
 The entire of this sum was not expended upon 
 
 B 
 
18 
 
 the purchase of food, but we may assume that 
 about £.3,000,000 were so applied, and we should 
 allow about £.500,000 for the amount of volun¬ 
 tary subscriptions transmitted to Ireland from 
 England and from foreign countries*. The re¬ 
 maining £.6,500,000 were derived from the 
 capital existing in Ireland, or from the loans 
 authorised by Parliament, which are now in course 
 of repayment. Adding £.8,500,000 for the loss 
 arising from diminished exports, we may estimate 
 at fifteen millions the actual loss to Ireland from 
 the failure of the crops in 1846, without including 
 the increase of poor-law taxation. 
 
 In 1847 the harvest was generally good, and 
 the failure of potatoes was but slight and partial; 
 but the income of the country was nevertheless 
 considerably reduced, more especially in the 
 western districts. In the first place there was 
 a considerable outlay for seed potatoes imported 
 into Ireland, and for seed of other crops intended 
 to replace them; a certain proportion of arable 
 land occupied by small farmers remained untilled 
 owing to the want of seed ; and the crops substi¬ 
 tuted for potatoes were less productive: there 
 remained, therefore, a smaller surplus available 
 for exportation; and as has already been explained 
 the exportation of swine and cured pork, poultry, 
 and eggs, was very materially diminished. 
 
 * The amount of contributions in food is of course not 
 taken into this account. 
 
19 
 
 But another important result of the loss of 
 the potato crop remains to be considered. The 
 cessation of the con-acre system, the impossibility 
 of supporting a family upon farms of the smallest 
 class with any other description of food, and the 
 great diminution of demand for labour in farming, 
 owing to the diminution of capital in the hands 
 of the employers, and to the panic which seized 
 the farmers throughout the greater part of Ire¬ 
 land—these causes, added to the increased dis¬ 
 position of the peasantry to rely upon public 
 support, led to a fearful increase both of real 
 destitution and of fictitious claims for relief. 
 The Poor Law Extension Act had made the 
 rateable property of Ireland liable, without 
 limit, for the support of this entire mass of 
 destitution, and it was the duty of the Poor 
 Law Commissioners to enforce its provisions by 
 all the means placed at their disposal by the 
 Legislature. The result has been that while 
 the poor-rates collected during the year ending 
 29 th September, 1845, amounted to about 
 £.300,000, the collection for the year ending 
 29th September, 1848, had reached £.1,700,000, 
 showing an increase of £.1,400,000 expended 
 from the resources of Ireland without any return 
 whatsoever*. 
 
 * It must also be recollected that the Poor Law Extension 
 Act was not in full operation during the early part of the 
 period here mentioned. 
 
20 
 
 Putting together these data we may estimate 
 the loss of capital during the season of 1847-48* 
 at about five millions sterling. We can now 
 appreciate the position of Ireland in the autumn 
 of 1848. During the three preceding years she 
 had lost nearly seventeen millions and a half of 
 capital (money or money’s worth), and she had 
 incurred a debt of £.3,754,739, which, even 
 taking into account the remission of local taxa¬ 
 tion for the constabulary force, entails an increase 
 of £.124,000 in the annual taxation for ten years, 
 and the repayment within one or two years of 
 nearly a million sterling. After all this there 
 remained the increase of taxation for poor relief, 
 which, in the present state of the population, 
 cannot, even under favourable circumstances, be 
 taken at less than £.1,500,000 per annum. I 
 have not taken into account the expenditure 
 under the Land Improvement Act, and the pre¬ 
 vious Drainage Acts. While, on the one hand, 
 there is reason to hope that the outlay under 
 those Acts will be reproductive, and that the 
 resources of the country, after repayment of the 
 money advanced, will be materially increased, 
 and thereby be enabled to afford subsistence to 
 an additional portion of the population; it should 
 not be forgotten that the extraordinary expendi- 
 
 * It is obviously more convenient, for the purposes of this 
 inquiry, to take the interval between the harvest of each 
 successive vear. 
 
 m 
 
21 
 
 ture thus maintained, has supported a greater 
 number of labourers than will ultimately find 
 profitable employment upon the lands improved, 
 and therefore if no adequate means be found for 
 ensuring an increased demand for the labour 
 now absorbed in the execution of works of 
 drainage and improvement, an additional mass 
 of unemployed labour will be thrown upon the 
 poor-rates for support, and from this source 
 alone we may calculate upon an annual addition 
 of from £.200,000 to £.300,000 to the local 
 taxation of Ireland. Thus, even though it be 
 quite true that the present expenditure will 
 ultimately be profitable to all parties, yet there 
 is no doubt that the repayment of these 
 advances, amounting on the whole to about 
 £.200,000 a-year for eleven years, will, so long 
 as the country remains in its present condition, 
 be an additional source of embarrassment to 
 proprietors in the poorer parts of Ireland. 
 
 Such was our condition; men who were in 
 a position to appreciate the dangers and diffi¬ 
 culties, the resources and the hopeful symptoms, 
 were disposed to believe that throughout a great 
 part of Ireland the elements of progress might 
 overcome the present pressure, and that a period 
 of toil and privation would be followed by an era 
 of industrial energy and consequent prosperity. 
 With respect, however, to the unfortunate districts 
 of the west of Ireland, it was hoped, rather than 
 
22 
 
 expected, that the circumstances of the times, 
 aided by the operation of the Encumbered Estates 
 Act, passed during the last Session of Parliament, 
 would lead to so large an investment of capital 
 in the purchase and cultivation of land as might 
 secure future means of subsistence for the 
 famishing population. No one, that I know of, 
 pretended to explain how that population was 
 to be supported until the advent of better 
 times. 
 
 Our destinies thus appeared to hang trembling 
 in the balance when, during the last autumn, we 
 received the certain intelligence of a fourth 
 failure of the potato crop, which had promised 
 an abundant harvest from an extent of land 
 larger than it had ever before occupied, and of a 
 loss upon the wheat crop of one-half the bulk, 
 and two-thirds of the weight of grain throughout 
 the southern half of the island. I believe that 
 it is understating the case to allow seven millions 
 sterling for the loss of the potato crop, and three 
 millions for that of the wheat crop, during the 
 present season. Thus it is an undeniable fact, 
 that at this critical period of our fortunes we 
 have had to sustain a further infliction in the 
 shape of the destruction of £.10,000,000 of the 
 annual income, out of which the subsistence of 
 our population and the fund for the employment 
 of labour have to be provided. 
 
 We may now make a summary estimate of 
 
23 
 
 our losses during* the four years from 1845 to 
 1848:— 
 
 Direct cost to Ireland of the 
 
 failure of 
 
 55 
 
 55 
 
 55 
 
 55 
 
 55 
 
 55 
 
 1845 
 
 1846 
 
 1847 
 
 1848 
 
 700,000 
 
 11,500,000 
 
 5,000,000 
 
 11,400,000 
 
 Total of direct cost - - - - £.28,600,000 
 
 Debt repayable on account of 
 the failure of 1845 
 
 1846* 
 
 ?? 
 
 £. 
 
 368,000 
 
 3,754,739 
 
 Total debt repayable to the 
 Exchequer - 
 
 £.4,122,739 
 
 But a very imperfect idea can be formed of the 
 real amount of the pressure, if it is not recol¬ 
 lected that this total loss of nearly thirty-three 
 millions is not uniformly distributed over the 
 entire island, but that on the contrary the far 
 greater portion of the burden has fallen upon 
 the south and west of Ireland. Here it was that 
 the cultivation of the potato was most extensively 
 spread, and that population compared with the 
 
 * The remission of one-half the cost of the constabulary 
 force amounting to £.192,000 per annum is not taken into 
 this account. 
 
24 
 
 means of subsistence was most excessive; thus 
 the direct loss and the pressure of increased 
 taxation have alike fallen upon the very districts 
 which were least able to sustain them. 
 
 It was necessary that I should at the outset of 
 these remarks endeavour to bring distinctly before 
 the minds of my readers the realities of our situa¬ 
 tion, too much forgotten, as it appears to me, by 
 writers and speakers upon both sides of the 
 Channel. No nation that I know of has ever 
 had to support such heavy inflictions, through 
 agencies beyond human control, within so short 
 a period. Suffering and privation have become 
 to a great extent inevitable; we in Ireland who 
 are weighed down by the pressure, must recollect 
 that although it may be within the pow T er of 
 Government to do a little to assist us in our 
 endeavours to help ourselves, yet the burden has 
 been placed upon our shoulders, and every man 
 must be prepared to feel his share of the 
 weight. 
 
 On the other hand it is scarcely less desirable 
 that our case should be fairly understood and 
 considered in England. It has not been owing, 
 at least directly, to want of industry or skill, or 
 to anv of the other defects which are laid to our 
 
 m 
 
 charge, that these grievous and repeated calamities 
 have borne us to the earth. It may be in a great 
 degree by our own fault that we have been poor, 
 ill-fed, and ill-clothed; but for the causes which 
 
25 
 
 reduced poverty to general destitution, and bad 
 food to starvation, we are not responsible. To 
 our wealthy neighbours our losses may appear 
 supportable, but if they will compare them with 
 our means, or imagine to themselves a propor¬ 
 tional loss out of their so much vaster resources, 
 they will admit that our case is one that rather 
 merits sympathy than contempt and oppro¬ 
 brium. 
 
 As one who bore an humble part in the work 
 of relieving the unequalled mass of misery which 
 in 1846 and 1847 called forth in so noble a 
 manner the best feelings of Englishmen, I am 
 entitled to bear testimony to the greatness of the 
 efforts then made by individuals and by Govern¬ 
 ment ; and to the earnestness, zeal, and self- 
 devotion of those whose duties or whose volun¬ 
 tary charity led them to labour in the cause ; 
 but it can never be sufficiently regretted that at 
 the very period when such national exertions and 
 sacrifices were freely and properly made, the 
 publications which were believed to represent 
 most truly the feelings of the English people, 
 should have overflowed with an unceasing torrent 
 of indiscriminate ridicule, abuse, and contempt 
 for the objects of their benevolence. No right- 
 minded man could complain of the exposure of 
 individual cases of misconduct; it is even a mis¬ 
 fortune to this country that we want organs of 
 public opinion sufficiently honest and fearless to 
 maintain a high standard of public morality by 
 
26 
 
 bringing such offenders to the bar of public 
 opinion; but it was lamentable that at a time 
 when the poorer classes were exhibiting to the 
 world unexampled patience under intense suffer¬ 
 ing, when the great majority of the resident 
 gentry and clergy of all persuasions were freely 
 devoting their means and their unceasing labour 
 to the performance of their duties, occasional 
 instances of turbulence or impatience, of apathy, 
 unreasonable complaint, or dishonesty, should 
 have become pretexts for denunciations in which 
 the names of Ireland and Irishmen were con¬ 
 stantly identified with the objects of just or 
 unjust vituperation. How often have I seen the 
 same post which awakened gratitude by the in¬ 
 telligence of succour from British munificence 
 carry with it printed provocations to indignation 
 against British superciliousness and injustice. 
 When the history of the time is fairly written 
 the same stern condemnation which awaits those 
 who, forgetful of recent benefits, could seek to 
 excite in Ireland a blind hostility against Eng¬ 
 land, will not less surely be awarded to those 
 who contributed to the same object by embitter¬ 
 ing the feelings of Englishmen towards Ireland, 
 and making the very benefits conferred by them 
 wear the garb of injuries*. 
 
 Whether the general interests of the empire, 
 
 * The reader cannot have failed to peruse Mr. Aubrey de 
 Vere’s eloquent volume “ English Misrule and Irish Mis¬ 
 deeds,” in which this subject is admirably treated. 
 
27 
 
 its financial condition, or the real necessities of 
 Ireland, may make it the duty of Government to 
 do much or little, or nothing for the direct relief 
 of our population, it will still be true that our 
 position is one difficult and painful enough to 
 deserve the earnest sympathies of all who are not 
 wrapped up in selfish indifference to the fate of 
 their fellow-men. 
 
 It is fortunate that at the outset I can expect 
 agreement amongst all classes of my readers. It 
 is admitted, with one consent, that the pressing 
 and universal evil under which we labour is 
 poverty; that the produce of the land is insuffi¬ 
 cient to support the people in comfort; and all 
 agree that the chief hope of improvement in our 
 condition depends upon the increased application 
 of labour and capital to agriculture; that this 
 increase of production, admitted to be the first 
 requisite for any improvement in our condition, 
 can be effected in but two ways :—by the full 
 employment of those resources which we already 
 possess, and by the introduction of new enterprise 
 and capital from without. It is to be feared that 
 the expectations of those who lead public opinion 
 in England are too exclusively directed towards 
 the latter alternative, and one of the objects which 
 I propose to myself in these pages is to combat 
 this tendency, which threatens to exercise a most 
 disastrous influence over the destinies of this 
 countrv. 
 
28 
 
 At this point I desire distinctly to assert my 
 belief, that both requisites for progress are alike 
 indispensable, and that any course of legislation 
 which tends to absorb the capital, or to discourage 
 the industrial enterprise now existing in this 
 country, will at the same time oppose an insur¬ 
 mountable bar to the so much desired influx of 
 those elements. It is, I think, an error to pre¬ 
 sent the case of the enterprising and industrious 
 Irishman as an appeal ad miser cordiam, or even 
 as a claim founded merely upon abstract justice. 
 True it is, that those men who have, against every 
 variety of adverse circumstances, by industry, by 
 patience and perseverance, developed the resources 
 of impoverished districts, and commenced the great- 
 work of improvement in the habits and condition 
 of their poorer fellow-countrymen, have the 
 strongest claim that can be preferred to the sym¬ 
 pathies and the justice of the Legislature ; still I 
 maintain that the argument on their behalf rests 
 upon the plainest grounds of economic policy, and 
 that the interests of the entire empire are con¬ 
 cerned in the fate of these men, who are now 
 regarded with so much indifference. 
 
 The present race of improving proprietors and 
 farmers possess the essential qualities which are 
 required from men in their position, energy, en¬ 
 terprise, and skill; and, in addition, they have 
 that in which new comers will generally be defi¬ 
 cient, a knowledge of the manners and disposition 
 
29 
 
 of the labouring class, and some share of their 
 confidence. It may not be very difficult to 
 destroy, or materially to diminish the numbers, 
 already too limited, of this class, but to substitute 
 others in their place would, under any circum¬ 
 stances, be a tedious operation; it may become 
 impossible, if a system of legislation should pre¬ 
 vail under which the qualities, which in a healthy 
 state of society can command success, are here 
 condemned to failure and ruin. 
 
 I propose, then, briefly to consider the means 
 for providing due security for the investment of 
 capital in agriculture by proprietors and tenant 
 farmers ; and for removing landed property from 
 the hands of fictitious owners, and placing it in 
 those of men able to exercise the rights and per¬ 
 form the duties attached to its possession. It will, 
 therefore, be necessary for me to discuss the mea¬ 
 sures which either are in operation or have been 
 proposed with reference to those objects, the 
 Poor Law, the Landlord and Tenant Bill of last 
 Session, the Encumbered Estates Act, and the 
 laws affecting the transfer of real property. 
 It will be advisable, moreover, to notice Emigra¬ 
 tion and Systematic Colonization, so far as these 
 subjects immediately affect the condition of Ire¬ 
 land ; and I shall offer a few remarks upon some 
 of the other proposed measures of improvement 
 which have been suggested. 
 
 The subject to which most of my observations 
 
30 
 
 shall be directed, and which at this moment holds 
 the first place in importance amongst all classes in 
 this country, is, without doubt, the most im¬ 
 portant, and the most perplexing which the pre¬ 
 sent state of society has forced upon the considera¬ 
 tion of statesmen. Permanently to provide a 
 remedy for destitution, without at the same time 
 increasing the evil which it is the object of 
 legislation to cure, is the grand problem which 
 modern society has undertaken to resolve. I 
 believe that the more any man will study the 
 question, the more he will perceive and realise to 
 himself the difficulties which it presents. M. 
 Naville, the author of a valuable work upon this 
 subject*, in speaking of a discussion which took 
 place in Switzerland, between the supporters of 
 large and small areas for settlement and rating, 
 observes that the partisans of each opinion had a 
 great advantage in attacking the plan of their 
 adversaries, but showed extreme weakness when 
 reduced to defend their own views. This remark 
 appears to me equally applicable to alt discussions 
 in which the principles of the Poor Law are 
 concerned, and to be inherent in the very nature 
 of the subject. If the faults of individuals, and 
 the vicious social relations, which are the causes 
 of pauperism, could be remedied by direct legis¬ 
 lation, without entailing serious evil and incon- 
 
 * De la Charite Legale, de ses Effets, de ses Causes, &c., 
 par F. M. L. Naville. Paris, 1836. 
 
31 
 
 venience upon the community, there would be 
 an exception to the general providential laws by 
 which human relations are governed, and a failure 
 of that stimulus by which society is urged 
 onward in the path of progrets. 
 
 Permanent good can be effected only when it 
 becomes possible to mitigate or destroy the causes 
 of pauperism, but I am far from believing that on 
 this accouut we should regard with indifference the 
 course of direct legislation for the relief of the 
 poor. It is the duty of the statesman to weigh 
 the circumstances of his time and country, and to 
 decide upon the course towards which the pre¬ 
 ponderating considerations shall incline. 
 
 Impressed with the extreme difficulty of the 
 task, and admitting that, at the best, I can only 
 hope for partial success, I hope to be excused for 
 entering, at some little length, upon a topic which 
 has engaged my most anxious and continued 
 study and reflection. 
 
 In spite of the experience which has been 
 gained at a heavy cost within the last few years 
 both in this and in foreign countries, it seems as 
 if but few persons had yet learned to moderate the 
 conviction which is popularly entertained as to 
 the power of a Government to alleviate poverty 
 by direct interference for the relief of distress. 
 A still less number probably have acquired defi¬ 
 nite ideas as to the conditions under which that 
 power can justly or safely be exercised. 
 
32 
 
 Although I have no desire to burden these 
 pages by references to the principles of political 
 economy, I think that an allusion to some of the 
 plainest truths of that science may be borne with 
 at a time when so many errors prevail even 
 amongst the well-informed and sincere portion 
 of the public. 
 
 It is an axiom which, were it not so frequently 
 forgotten, one would think it unnecessary to 
 assert, that the rights of labour are prior to every 
 other right connected with property, whether 
 the labourer till a plot of ground before unap¬ 
 propriated, or is employed for daily wages in the 
 field, society, wherever anything deserving the 
 name of Government exists, has always recog¬ 
 nised his right to subsistence for himself and his 
 family. 
 
 It is unnecessary here to consider how in civi¬ 
 lised communities, where population has out¬ 
 stepped the limits within which each man is 
 enabled to procure subsistence for himself and 
 his family by the direct appropriation of na¬ 
 tural products, the existence of a large portion 
 of the labouring class is supported by that part 
 of the accumulated results of previous labour 
 which is called productive capital. This forms 
 the fund for the employment of labour, and if this 
 fund be diminished, or, more properly, if it do 
 not annually increase in the same proportion as 
 the labouring population, the result must be 
 
33 
 
 either that less labourers will be employed or that 
 the same number of labourers must receive lower 
 wages. If in any country the rate of wages is 
 very nearly the lowest at which human life can 
 be supported, the effect of deducting a certain 
 sum from the wages-fund will be to take away 
 the means of subsistence from a proportional 
 number of labourers. 
 
 I need not here go into the detail of the rea¬ 
 sons which induce me to admit that there is no 
 practical danger that a tax for the relief of the 
 helpless poor (including in that designation all 
 who are temporarily or permanently disabled 
 from labour by unprotected infancy, old age, in¬ 
 firmity, bodily or mental defect, or sickness), 
 administered under proper regulations, will in 
 any civilised community tend permanently to 
 diminish the fund for the employment of labour. 
 But it is important to remark that no right to 
 relief can be asserted on behalf of the above- 
 mentioned or any other class of the community, 
 unless this condition of leaving the wages-fund 
 inviolate be strictly complied with. 
 
 The same principle must guide and direct us 
 in considering the abstract justice or the political 
 expediency of a legal provision for the relief of 
 the destitute able-bodied poor. Even though 
 upon other grounds we should be persuaded that 
 such provision is justifiable and desirable, we 
 
 c 
 
34 
 
 must be fully satisfied that it can be administered 
 in such a manner as not to diminish the fund for 
 the employment of labour. If the governing 
 power in any country neglects or violates this 
 condition, it is guilty at once of the grossest in¬ 
 fraction of justice, and the most insane defiance 
 of the plainest principles of common sense. For 
 it can scarcely be necessary to point out that the 
 diminution of the wages-fund in any one year 
 tends, by increasing the mass of pauperism, to 
 increase the burden for the following year; and 
 if the cause which occasioned the original dimi¬ 
 nution continue in operation, it is evident that a 
 continual increase of pauperism and a corre¬ 
 sponding decrease of production must rapidly 
 reduce such a community to a general level of 
 misery. 
 
 I do not imagine that any reasonable mind can 
 refuse assent to the principle here laid down, but I 
 insist that it must not merely be admitted as true, 
 but that it should be recognised as the governing 
 law which must overrule every other considera¬ 
 tion when we attempt to discuss the subject of 
 legislation for the relief of the poor. The greatest 
 errors in policy arise not so much from ignorance 
 or blindness as to the facts and principles in¬ 
 volved, as from a defective perception of their 
 relative importance. Society and human legis¬ 
 lation can advance only by a gradual progress; 
 
35 
 
 we must be content to realise the good which we 
 desire in that order in which Providence has made 
 it possible to us. Impatient attempts to con¬ 
 struct the upper portion of the fabric before we 
 have secured the foundations do but impede real 
 progress, and if rashly persisted in must involve 
 extensive confusion and ruin. 
 
 As to the subject of a legal provision for the 
 relief of the helpless poor, I do not think it neces¬ 
 sary to discuss it at length. The course of legis¬ 
 lation has of late years been altogether decisive 
 in its favour, and it is supported by one argu¬ 
 ment, which appears to my mind altogether to 
 outweigh all the objections of its opponents. The 
 absence of a legal provision involves the permis¬ 
 sion of mendicancy, and the consequent growth 
 of a class of outcasts from society, the children 
 of beggars, who are left to increase from infancy 
 to manhood without the hope or the opportunity 
 of filling any useful place in society. 
 
 A large proportion of the class that subsists 
 by begging will always be attracted towards the 
 larger towns. I cannot conceive any consider¬ 
 ation short of a belief in the utter impossibility 
 of a remedy, which can induce any Christian 
 community to tolerate the existence of the mass 
 of suffering, disease, and crime which is inevitably 
 inflicted upon this most helpless and pitiable 
 class. Nor is it easier to understand how cal¬ 
 culating men can fail to perceive the cost at 
 
36 
 
 which the growth of so expensive a disease is 
 allowed to continue unchecked*. 
 
 Regarding the question, however, merely in 
 the economic point of view, there is no reason to 
 admit that the cost of a legal system of relief to 
 the helpless poor would press too heavily upon 
 the resources of this country*)*. The estimate 
 given in the annexed note amounts to a charge of 
 about 6 per cent, upon the value of rateable pro- 
 
 * I am far from being insensible to the serious imper¬ 
 fections of the education now given in workhouses, and I 
 refer the reader to page 71, where this subject is resumed. 
 Even in its present state the education of pauper children in 
 Ireland is, probably, on the whole, superior to that given to 
 the same class in England; where it is open to serious 
 reproach the fault must be attributable to those who are 
 locally responsible for the due administration of the law. 
 
 f It is not possible to ascertain with accuracy from the 
 returns published by the Poor Law Commissioners the 
 actual cost of relief given to the helpless poor in Ireland. 
 Amongst the classes entitled to relief out of the workhouse 
 under the first section of the Poor Law Extension Act are 
 able-bodied widows having two or more legitimate children ; 
 these cannot properly be included under the denomination 
 of helpless poor. From inquiries in various districts, I esti¬ 
 mate the proportion of this class receiving relief at about 
 one-fifth of the whole number relieved under the first section 
 of the Act. I believe that if we allow ,£.500,000 for the 
 annual cost of maintaining 100,000 of the helpless poor in 
 workhouses at £.5 a head, and £.300,000 for 200,000 of the 
 same class received out of the workhouse, at thirty shillings 
 a head, we should fully meet the real requirements of this 
 portion of the population. 
 
37 
 
 perty. A tax of greater amount could probably 
 be supported without any serious detriment to the 
 industrial development of Ireland. 
 
 The serious difficulties of the subject com¬ 
 mence when we approach the subject of relief to 
 the able-bodied poor. The formidable fact with 
 which we have to deal in Ireland is the absorp¬ 
 tion of a large portion of the productive capital 
 of the country in the maintenance of the unem¬ 
 ployed able-bodied population. 
 
 The facts already made public and the further 
 evidence which is given in the Appendix, must 
 be admitted to prove conclusively the fact that 
 the wages-fund throughout a considerable part 
 of Ireland has been diminished to a most serious 
 extent. I shall give reasons for believing that 
 the entire effect is not to be attributed to the 
 operation of the Poor Law even in its present 
 form ; and I am very far from thinking that, by 
 proper modifications of the law, it will be impos¬ 
 sible to provide adequate relief for the able- 
 bodied destitute poor without further impairing 
 the resources of this country; but I have no 
 hesitation in coming to the conclusion that if 
 that object cannot speedily be attained, a con¬ 
 tinuance of the attempt to enforce the present 
 law in the poorer districts will involve a greater 
 amount of misery and desolation than the total 
 discontinuance of relief to the able-bodied. 
 
 The one mode of administering relief to the 
 
-38 
 
 able-bodied poor, which experience has shown 
 to be capable of restraining the unlimited growth 
 of pauperism, is that of confining them in work- 
 houses. Under no other system is it possible 
 permanently to preserve the inducements to in¬ 
 dependent industry, and to avoid holding out to 
 the labouring classes positive temptation to a 
 servile dependence upon public support. The 
 combined testimony of the most able, impartial, 
 and philanthropic witnesses who have studied 
 and observed the working of poor-laws in Europe 
 and America, proves, without a doubt, that relief 
 to the able-bodied, unaccompanied by restrictions 
 which make their condition less desirable than 
 that of the independent labourer, has had in 
 every country where it has been introduced, the 
 uniform tendency to lower the physical and 
 moral condition of the poorer classes, and to 
 check the development of industry throughout 
 the entire community. The rapidity with which 
 these evils are developed, depends upon the cha¬ 
 racter and condition of the population of each 
 country, but no doubt remains as to the ultimate 
 result. 
 
 In Ireland, however, we have at the present 
 time no need to appeal to the experience of other 
 countries. With every allowance for the effects 
 of the failure of crops, it is impossible to doubt 
 the disastrous results of out-door relief to the 
 able-bodied poor in these districts, where it has 
 
39 
 
 become the duty of the Poor Law Commissioners 
 to issue orders for that purpose under the second 
 section of the Poor Law Extension Act. I 
 should multiply tenfold the Appendix to these 
 pages if I were to attempt to collect together the 
 published evidence on this subject. Parlia¬ 
 mentary papers, reports from Inspectors of 
 Unions, daily newspapers, all concur in repre¬ 
 senting a most fearful deterioration in the habits 
 and disposition of our population, never accus¬ 
 tomed to obtain by their imperfect industry more 
 than a bare subsistence, so soon as they are ena¬ 
 bled to obtain food without any other restrictions 
 than such mockery of labour as it is alone pos¬ 
 sible to obtain by employment of paupers. There 
 is nothing in this which could surprise those who 
 know anything of the condition of the poorer 
 districts in Ireland ; the same causes must have 
 produced the same consequences in any other 
 country in which the labouring class had become 
 habituated to nearly the lowest possible physical 
 condition. 
 
 There is no reason to believe that, in enacting 
 the recent changes in the Irish Poor Law, the 
 Government or the Legislature seriously contem¬ 
 plated that out-door relief to the able-bodied 
 should become an usual practice in any part of 
 Ireland. The Act expressly limits the period for 
 which the order authorising relief of this kind 
 shall remain in force to two months, and it is 
 
40 
 
 but giving credit for an ordinary share of good 
 sense to the authors of the Bill, to suppose that 
 they had not utterly forgotten or disregarded the 
 evidence and the advice of all the most competent 
 persons belonging to either country, who have 
 spoken or written upon the subject. Although, 
 as is not unnatural, such charges are sometimes 
 made by those who are suffering from the work¬ 
 ing of the present law, I will not believe that the 
 Legislature has been so unmindful of its reponsi- 
 bility to every portion of this vast empire, or so 
 blind to the common interests which link toge¬ 
 ther each member of the entire body, as carelessly 
 to adopt an expedient which would, for a short 
 time, postpone a present difficulty at the cost of 
 the speedy disorganisation of society throughout 
 one-third of Ireland. 
 
 I am persuaded that, even if some individuals 
 were disposed, through impatience at the diffi¬ 
 culty of the subject, or through an unprincipled 
 desire to seek popularity in England at the 
 expense of Ireland, to fling upon us a trouble¬ 
 some burden, without much heeding the condi¬ 
 tions under which alone it could become support¬ 
 able, the great majority of all parties in England 
 w*ere labouring under an honest misconception of 
 the results of the proposed extension of the Poor 
 Law. It was continually asserted and believed 
 that the effect of the new law would be to 
 induce the owners and occupiers of land to 
 
41 
 
 provide employment for the labouring class, 
 and that efficient means had been provided 
 for placing the land in the hands of bond fide 
 proprietors, who would have adequate security 
 for the remunerative investment of capital in 
 improved agriculture. 
 
 That the present law, under the existing cir¬ 
 cumstances of more than half of Ireland, tends to 
 restrict the expenditure of capital in agriculture 
 on the part of the present proprietors and 
 farmers, and to prevent the transfer of property 
 to new holders possessed of skill and capital, are 
 propsitions which have by this time been conclu¬ 
 sively established. If, when the evidence of 
 these facts shall be fully laid before Parliament, 
 the Government should fail to attempt a remedy 
 for a state of things so alarming, so fraught with 
 irremediable ruin and confusion, they will go far 
 to prove the truth of the worst charges which 
 have been brought in this country against Impe¬ 
 rial legislation. 
 
 With reference to the effect of the present 
 Poor Law in checking agricultural improve¬ 
 ment, I have endeavoured to take every means 
 in my power for ascertaining the extent and 
 nature of the evil. I have not contented myself 
 with the statements which abound in every news¬ 
 paper, but have examined for myself into the 
 circumstances of many districts with which I am 
 acquainted, and sought by observation and in- 
 
42 
 
 quiry to arrive at an accurate knowledge of the 
 truth*. The result has been to satisfy me that 
 the mischief is not now universal throughout 
 more than about one-third of the island, and 
 that it extends partially through a remaining 
 third: I believe, moreover, that the effect, espe¬ 
 cially amongst the farmers, is greater than the 
 cause now justifies, and is in great measure due 
 to a panic which, here as in other cases, tends 
 very speedily to realise the worst evils which 
 it apprehends. 
 
 With these reservations I must contend that 
 the necessary result of the present law, is very 
 frequently to place an absolute bar to the exten¬ 
 sion of productive industry. I am not now con¬ 
 sidering whether the law T does or does not, should 
 or should not stimulate the employers of labour 
 —that is a separate question, to which I shall 
 speedily allude. But when I find enterprising 
 men, who had not waited for the pressure of the 
 last few years to commence a course of improve¬ 
 ment, who have actually succeeded in adding to 
 the productiveness of the soil, and to the comfort 
 of its inhabitants, forced to restrict or desist 
 from their operations, not because these had 
 ceased to be profitable to themselves and to 
 those whom they employed, but because the 
 means destined for the payment of wages had 
 been taken from them for the support of the poor 
 * For evidence on this subject, see Appendix, p. 108. 
 
43 
 
 upon neighbouring properties, I cannot doubt 
 but that a mischief has been inflicted, not only 
 upon the individual, but upon the entire com¬ 
 munity. That which I have here described has 
 actually occurred in many instances, and I 
 know that in very many others the means of 
 employers are rapidly becoming exhausted, and 
 they must soon arrive at the same result. 
 
 This portion of the existing evil, which I 
 consider necessary in the present circumstances 
 of this country, arises from the actual amount 
 of taxation ; the further and still more extensive 
 portion, which is due to panic , depends upon 
 the uncertainty of the amount of future taxation. 
 None but the few landlords who possess a very 
 large share of the property of an electoral division, 
 and the still less number who are able, by co¬ 
 operation with the other proprietors in the same 
 division, to calculate the proportion between 
 those who require support and the means for 
 providing it, are able in the least degree to 
 foresee or to make provision for the demands 
 to which they may be subjected. So long as 
 this country remains in the transition state in 
 which the demand for labour is not a fixed 
 ascertainable quantity, but one which depends 
 upon the varying amount of capital and enter¬ 
 prise of those who now occupy the land, or of 
 those who may speedily succeed them, this 
 formidable degree of uncertainty must continue, 
 
44 
 
 and must still paralyse the exertions of all 
 classes of employers. The apprehension arising 
 from this cause is sufficiently potent with the 
 proprietors; but with the tenant farmer, pos¬ 
 sessing less information and intelligence, and 
 always disposed to exaggerate that which is 
 unknown, the fear of increasing taxation has 
 become a spectre which is daily driving hundreds 
 of small capitalists to abandon their farms and 
 depart with all that they can remove, to swell 
 the wealth and increase the feelings of hostility 
 to Great Britain in the United States of America. 
 The man who has a hundred pounds available 
 for the employment of labour cannot guess 
 whether the rate which last month was £.10 
 may not become £.50 when the collector calls 
 upon him in the ensuing spring. The neigh¬ 
 bouring gentleman who now’ employs some 
 hundreds of destitute labourers may be driven 
 to discontinue that employment, as that other 
 neighbour was last summer, and the rates must 
 then be increased to an unknown and therefore 
 thrice exaggerated amount. The farmer knows 
 that he is ruined if unable to meet the collector’s 
 demand—his cattle and moveables must be 
 sacrificed at a depreciated, often at a merely 
 nominal, price. The result is that which we 
 now behold—the farmers who remain turn off 
 labourers and half cultivate their land; our 
 ports are crowded with emigrants, chiefly the 
 
45 
 
 more industrious and provident of the tenant 
 farmers of the south and west, who hasten to 
 dispose of property and sacrifice everything in 
 the desire to leave our shores*. It is useless 
 to contend that this panic is in a great degree 
 unfounded; that many of those who leave the 
 country might, by good farming and industry, 
 safely continue at home and realise comfort and 
 independence; we must take our population 
 such as we find them, and if we would not 
 consummate the ruin of this countrv, we must 
 put a stop to a state of things which is daily 
 diminishing our remaining capital, and destroying 
 every chance of improvement. 
 
 It is to the uncertain character of the poor- 
 rate taxation that I attribute the chief part in 
 the second evil result of the present law—the 
 tendency to discourage the investment of new 
 capital in the purchase and cultivation of land. 
 So long as it is impossible for a man to form a 
 reasonable estimate of the charges to which 
 property may be subject, no one of common 
 prudence will become a purchaser unless at an 
 enormous depreciation, sufficient to cover with 
 a wide margin the possible increase of taxation. 
 This depreciation would be so serious through 
 
 * Such is the depreciation of produce, owing in part to 
 emigration and in part to the actual distress of the farmers 
 who remain, that good meat is now sold in some southern 
 counties at two-pence per pound. 
 
46 
 
 about half of Ireland, that the combined influence 
 of creditors will generally prevent sales*. The 
 prior incumbrances have no sufficient motive 
 in urging on sales so long as they receive their 
 interest, and subsequent creditors will generally 
 prefer to submit to some loss and irregularity in 
 the payment of interest, rather than risk the 
 more serious loss of principal. 
 
 Thus we see that the policy which dictated 
 the recent Encumbered Estates Act, principally 
 with a view to the investment of new capital 
 in land, is defeated by the present state of the 
 law, and this fact is one which of itself should 
 satisfy even those whose sympathies are alto¬ 
 gether denied to the present proprietors of the 
 necessity for change*]*. 
 
 Before I state the conditions which, according 
 to my judgment, are indispensable for the suc- 
 
 * A small property in Fermoy Union, favourably circum¬ 
 stanced in having but a few considerable tenants, was sold, 
 within the last few weeks, for twelve years’ purchase. 
 
 f This is one of the points as to which persons little 
 acquainted with Ireland are most exposed to error. One 
 property may retain its full value, while the adjoining one 
 is reduced bv one-half or two-thirds, owing to local circum- 
 stances. Thus it is quite possible that a purchaser, with 
 sufficient capital, might prudently give twenty years’ pur¬ 
 chase for a property in the worst parts of Mayo, and yet 
 that no one could be found to give eight years’ purchase 
 for any other estate that will be offered for sale in that 
 county for many years to come. 
 
47 
 
 cessful working of the Poor Law in Ireland, I 
 shall make a few observations upon a subject 
 which has given rise to a difference of opinion 
 amongst some of the most able men in this 
 country. 
 
 It was frequently maintained in Parliament, 
 by the supporters of the proposed Poor Law 
 Extension Act, that one effect of making the 
 employers of labour responsible for the support 
 of the able-bodied poor would be to stimulate 
 that class to devise means for the support of 
 the labourer by independent employment at 
 money wages. Subsequently it has been argued 
 by some of those who desire the limitation of 
 the area of rating to individual properties, that 
 by this means only can a sufficient stimulus be 
 given to the exertions of proprietors and farmers. 
 To this it has been replied that it is a mistake 
 to assume that it is the proper object of a Poor 
 Law to give any stimulus to the holder of 
 capital to expend that capital in employment. 
 The true motive for expenditure is the prospect 
 of a remunerative return; this will infallibly act 
 in a free labour market, and any additional 
 artificial stimulus will, if it act at all, tend to 
 cause a less productive investment, and, there¬ 
 fore, to diminish the wealth of the community. 
 Again, we are reminded that by a stimulus is 
 meant some provision by which the proprietor 
 who fails to provide employment, or, in other 
 
48 
 
 words, that the labourer should have a means 
 of securing wages other than his own industry 
 and good conduct. 
 
 It is impossible to deny that the last-men¬ 
 tioned arguments have great weight, and that 
 in a healthy state of society they should be held 
 conclusive. But the practical way to consider 
 them is to examine whether the assumptions 
 which they involve hold good in this country 
 at the present time, when owing to the want of 
 industrial enterprise of landlords and farmers 
 they do not generally invest their capital in the 
 way in which it would be most productive*, 
 and owing to the defects of the law which 
 impede the free transfer of land, and discourage 
 purchasers, new capital does not flow in to supply 
 the place of that which is either altogether 
 wanting, or is lying unemployed in the hands of 
 the present holders. There is no reason to fear 
 that in practice any additional stimulus would 
 create an unproductive outlay of capital in a 
 country where such ample opportunities exist 
 for its remunerative investment. On the other 
 hand, I think that the workhouse test will always 
 be a sufficient check to the wilful pauperism of 
 labourers, and where that is absent the speedy 
 pauperisation of the entire class is under one or 
 the other system equally inevitable. I must 
 
 * See a letter from Mr. Monsell, M.P., published in 
 the Morning Chronicle of the 2.3rd of December, 1848. 
 
49 
 
 confess, however, that I am so sensible of the 
 evils which a more stringent law of settlement 
 (inseparable from property-rating) would pro¬ 
 duce, that I should not wish to see any change 
 in the law w 7 hich would involve the 'permanent 
 chargeability of pauper labourers upon the sepa¬ 
 rate estates where they are at present located, 
 while I do not find that any less stringent 
 measure than property-rating is adequate to 
 meet the evils now pressing upon us. I shall 
 speedily point out the mode in which I conceive 
 that the difficulties attending the adoption of the 
 principle may best be solved. 
 
 The objects which legislation in connection 
 with the relief of destitution must accomplish 
 are these:—It must not by excessive taxation 
 withdraw from productive industry those funds 
 which would otherwise be devoted to the main¬ 
 tenance of independent labourers, and therefore 
 the actual or possible amount of assessment upon 
 those proprietors who are engaged in the career 
 of improvement should not be such as to prohibit 
 or deter them from exertion ; it should remove 
 those obstacles by which the transfer of land to 
 those who are able and willing to develop its 
 resources are impeded, and it should not allow 
 that operation to be delayed by the prospect of 
 an overwhelming and unlimited amount of 
 taxation ; in districts where the existing resources 
 are manifestly inadequate to the maintenance of 
 
 n 
 
50 
 
 the inhabitants (proved by the impossibility of 
 providing relief in workhouses for the able-bodied 
 destitute poor) it should provide adequate means 
 for the removal of a sufficient number of the 
 population, instead of continuing a system by 
 which the slender capital of such districts is 
 rapidly absorbed, and the labouring class inured 
 to habits of indolent dependence ; lastly, it should 
 restrain as far as possible that disposition to shift 
 the burden of taxation which has acquired an 
 infamous notoriety under the names of clearing 
 or extermination. If in addition to these objects 
 it should provide an additional stimulus to the 
 employment of the labouring class in productive 
 industry, the result would, in the present state of 
 Ireland, be highly advantageous. 
 
 The various means by which it has been pro¬ 
 posed to accomplish the conditions above stated, 
 may be referred, with slight differences of detail, 
 to three plans, each of which has been advocated 
 by men of considerable practical ability: these 
 are, the limitation of local taxation, the excess 
 being supplied from national orimperial resources; 
 the partial exemption fvom rating of persons 
 paying a certain sum as wages; and, finally, the 
 limitation of the area of rating to individual 
 properties, with some provision for assistance to 
 those properties which are manifestly unable to 
 support the existing population. 
 
 Assuming that the Boundary Commissioners 
 
51 
 
 appointed to investigate the propriety of altering 
 the limits of the present unions and electoral 
 divisions, will recommend a considerable subdi¬ 
 vision of the present area of chargeability, and a 
 closer adherence to the boundaries of estates, I 
 am of opinion that the limitation of the amount 
 of local taxation would mitigate to a great ex¬ 
 tent the evils of the present system. If when 
 the rate on any one electoral division amounted 
 to five shillings within the year, the excess were 
 charged to the union at large, and when the 
 separate union rate reached half-a-crown per 
 annum, public funds to be administered by public 
 officers were advanced to sustain or remove 
 the weight of local destitution, some confidence 
 would be restored to the improving landlord and 
 farmer, the panic which is driving men into 
 voluntary exile would be allayed, and the de¬ 
 preciation in the value of land, which at pre¬ 
 sent restrains both purchaser and seller, would 
 find a definite and calculable limit. But I ap¬ 
 prehend that this plan would but very imperfectly 
 remove the present discouragement to enterprise 
 in the improvement of land. But few would 
 feel that their position could be materially im¬ 
 proved by their own exertions; the general 
 disposition of all classes when subjected to an 
 uniform pressure would be to accommodate them¬ 
 selves to it, and allow the amount of local pauper¬ 
 ism to be partially relieved by public funds. It 
 may be, that in England the result would be 
 
52 
 
 different; that the prospect of ultimate advantage 
 would preserve the spirit of enterprise under 
 such a weight of new taxation; but in a country 
 where the desire for accumulation is much weaker, 
 and where experience has not created confidence 
 in the results of successful exertion, the addition 
 of the immediate advantage of relief from taxa¬ 
 tion to the prospective benefits of agricultural 
 improvements, is not more than the necessary 
 inducement to that general and earnest effort to 
 develop our latent resources, by which alone we 
 can be raised from our present wretched and still 
 sinking condition. 
 
 The plan of exempting from taxation for the 
 relief of the able-bodied those who should find 
 employment for the labourers upon a townland, 
 or an entire property, has been advocated by 
 several active and intelligent men. An outline 
 of the details by which such a system should be 
 worked has been drawn up and circulated by 
 Mr. Crosbie*, one of the most active and im- 
 
 * See Appendix, p. 98. If any measure resembling 
 this plan were adopted, it would be necessary that the person 
 claiming exemption should have served a notice of his inten¬ 
 tion upon the Board of Guardians at the commencement of 
 the half year, and it would be much better that the two rates 
 proposed should be distinguished as rates for workhouses 
 and out-door relief. This would limit the application 
 of the system to those unions where the out-door relief 
 is extensively given, but it would partially protect the 
 employer against the misconduct of labourers, by allowing 
 him without forfeiting his exemption to refer such labourers 
 to the workhouse as an alternative for employment. 
 
53 
 
 proving landlords in the south of Ireland. The 
 advantage possessed by this system over either of 
 the others here discussed is the security and 
 stimulus which it applies to the tenants as well 
 as to the landlords. The tenant occupying a 
 single townland, or a number of tenants co¬ 
 operating for the purpose, would feel themselves 
 free to apply the sum now paid as poor-rate to 
 the profitable employment of labourers. 
 
 I am far from undervaluing this advantage, and 
 if on other grounds it were allowable to accept 
 the plan, I should think this point a strong re¬ 
 commendation in its favour. But, in the first 
 place, owing to the extreme irregularity in the dis¬ 
 tribution of population, the effect of this plan 
 would be to withdraw from taxation all the less 
 populous and less pauperised townlands, leaving 
 those which contain villages and hamlets to be 
 burdened up to the extreme limit at which the 
 rate in aid should be applied. The second and 
 most formidable objection is the complete destruc¬ 
 tion of the freedom of the labour market, a result 
 which would no less certainly attend a proposed 
 modification of the same principle by which the 
 labouring population should be apportioned to 
 the several occupiers in the ratio of their valua¬ 
 tion, or of the extent of arable land held by 
 them. 
 
 The terms and conditions of employment would 
 no longer depend upon the free action of the 
 
54 
 
 employer and the labourer; they would be con¬ 
 tinually subjected to discussion and inquiry before 
 a tribunal, especially ill-fitted properly to decide 
 them. According to the bias of the Board of 
 Guardians, the employer would be in the power 
 of the labourer, or the labourer in that of the 
 employer. 
 
 The labourer would be ad scriptus glebce , and 
 we should see a revival of evils which were 
 thought peculiar to a former state of society, and 
 which it was the especial object of the Poor Law 
 Amendment Act to eradicate in England. Under 
 the proposed plan the sympathies of the tenant 
 class would be enlisted on the side of the employer, 
 and being consequently sure of the support of 
 the guardians, complete control would be placed 
 in his hands. I confess that observation and 
 experience have made me very averse to any 
 system which would entrust the fate of the 
 labouring class so unreservedly to the charity and 
 forbearance of the landlords and farmers, as I 
 should equally object to see these at the mercy 
 of a body so ignorant and blind, even to their 
 own direct interest, as are the poorer class in this 
 country *. 
 
 * It is well known that many branches of native industry 
 have been partially or altogether driven from Ireland into 
 England and Scotland by the combinations of workmen who 
 have maintained rates ot wages higher than those given to 
 skilful artisans on the other side of the Channel. 
 
00 
 
 The third alternative which has been sug¬ 
 gested is to make each separate property the area 
 of chargeability and rating, leaving the electoral 
 division as the area for representation. I think 
 that it cannot be disputed by any one practically 
 acquainted with this country, that this system 
 would lead to a rapid extension of agricultural 
 improvement, and though it would precipitate the 
 already certain ruin of the owners of many en¬ 
 cumbered and pauperised properties, it would 
 afford the means of saving themselves to de¬ 
 serving men, who will otherwise be forced to share 
 
 • 
 
 the fate of their neighbours. Assuming that a 
 discretionary power were given to the Poor Law 
 Commissioners to form towns into separate areas 
 of rating, that a change in the law of settlement 
 should make it less easy for the rural districts to 
 throw their surplus pauperism upon the larger 
 towns, and that an union rate should he applied 
 in aid of those properties which would otherwise 
 be utterly confiscated, there remain the objec¬ 
 tions of injustice to individuals, imperfect repre¬ 
 sentation, and interference with the free employ¬ 
 ment of labour. 
 
 Injustice, that is, great inequality of taxation 
 without corresponding deserts or demerits on the 
 part of those taxed, is inevitable under any prac¬ 
 ticable system in the present state of this country. 
 True it is, that I cannot in justice claim exemp¬ 
 tion from rating, because from some accident the 
 
prudence of a tenant, or the act of an ancestor, 
 my property has few pauper inhabitants, less still 
 can I do so if I have used my legal powers to 
 drive them away to other estates or to the nearest 
 town; but it is quite as little just that I should 
 profit because the estates of two or three neigh¬ 
 bouring proprietors are cleared, or that I should 
 be ruined because they are overcrowded with 
 unemployed labourers, whom they cannot or will 
 not employ. We must be contented to deal with 
 the unequal distribution of pauperism as a fact, 
 and to mitigate its pressure upon those localities 
 where it is insupportable. 
 
 With property-rating, the guardian elected for 
 an electoral division would have no community 
 of interest with the greater portion of those whom 
 he would be supposed to represent. This is a 
 serious objection, yet with competent relieving 
 officers, and due watchfulness on the part of the 
 owners or representatives of property, it would 
 not be formidable nor comparable in importance 
 to the other considerations involved in the ques¬ 
 tion. It should be recollected that under the 
 present system the guardian of a division of 
 15,000 or 20,000 acres must frequently be in¬ 
 competent to determine the facts as to residence 
 of an applicant for relief, wffiereas under pro¬ 
 perty-rating the parties interested would always 
 have access to the means of ascertaining the 
 truth. 
 
57 
 
 The interference in the relations between 
 the employer and the labour, is without doubt 
 the chief objection to property-rating. It 
 would be probably less felt that under the system 
 of exemption, where an employer undertakes to 
 provide for a definite number of the able-bodied 
 poor, but yet, though at first no material aggra¬ 
 vation of the present state of things would be 
 perceived, I apprehend that if permanently esta¬ 
 blished it would place a bar to any real improve¬ 
 ment in the condition of the labouring class. I 
 agree to some extent with Mr. Monsell, who 
 argues in his able letter to the Morning Chro¬ 
 nicle , to which I have already referred, that 
 the unhealthy relations between capital and 
 labour which are anticipated by the opponents 
 of property-rating already exist in this country, 
 and must exist wherever the proportion of capital 
 and labour is insufficient; but, admitting that 
 this is true to a great extent, it scarcely furnishes 
 an argument for a measure which would tend to 
 perpetuate that portion of our present evils. 
 
 The reader will now ask whether I am pre¬ 
 pared with any practical suggestions by which 
 to reconcile the apparently incompatible objects 
 which we desire to secure—adequate security for 
 the investment of capital in agricultural im¬ 
 provement, and freedom in the relations between 
 the employer and the labourer ? 
 
 Aware of the disadvantages to which a writer 
 
58 
 
 submits, who, instead of criticising the plans of 
 others, ventures to produce propositions of his 
 own, and fully persuaded of the impossibility of 
 devising any course which shall be altogether 
 unobjectionable, I proceed to give an outline of 
 the measure which I would recommend. 
 
 Saving a general power to the Poor Law Com. 
 missioners to unite properties below a certain 
 small area, and to constitute towns and even 
 large villages, not belonging to the owner of ad¬ 
 jacent lands, into separate divisions for the pur¬ 
 poses of chargeability and rating, I would make 
 the area for these purposes coincident with the 
 boundaries of separate properties*. Whenever 
 the rate leviable in any one year upon any such 
 division exceeded five shillings in the pound ster¬ 
 ling upon the existing valuation, the surplus 
 should be carried to the account of the union at 
 large. Whenever the rate leviable upon the 
 union at large (which it must be remembered is 
 in addition to that assessed upon each separate 
 rateable division) exceeded half-a-crown in the 
 pound, the guardians and the proprietors of any 
 division should be empowered to apply to the 
 Poor Law Commissioners, who should be au¬ 
 thorised to apply funds to be advanced by the 
 Treasury to assist such residents upon any 
 
 * The definition of a property being the estate of any one 
 or more individuals qualified to apply as owners under the 
 Land Improvement Act. 
 
59 
 
 property in the union liable for more than five 
 shillings in the pound as should be willing to 
 emigrate. 
 
 One-half of such advances should be charged 
 as a debt, repayable with interest in yearly in¬ 
 stalments by the owner ; or, in the case of towns, 
 by the ratepayers, of the rateable division re¬ 
 lieved, the remaining moiety being a free grant. 
 All advances for emigration purposes should be 
 administered by an Inspector under the Poor 
 Law Commissioners. The limits of electoral di¬ 
 visions for the purposes of representation should 
 remain as at present, the report of the relieving 
 officer as to the residence and chargeability of 
 paupers being held conclusive, unless appealed 
 against by a ratepayer, in which case it would 
 be desirable that a Poor Law Inspector should 
 have the power to hear and determine such ap¬ 
 peals, awarding reasonable costs where the com¬ 
 plainant or the relieving officer appeared guilty of 
 haste, fraud, or negligence. The provisions of 
 the present law as to chargeability of paupers 
 should be altered in the following manner. 
 Every person receiving relief should be charge¬ 
 able to the rateable division on which he or she 
 had resided or usually slept for thirty months 
 within the four years preceding admission to 
 relief, but not having so resided, to be charged 
 to the union at large. Any person having been 
 in receipt of relief in or out of the workhouse, 
 
60 
 
 again admitted to relief within twelve months from 
 the time when such relief ceased should be charge¬ 
 able to the same rateable division as before, but 
 otherwise to be chargeable to the union at large. 
 Any person appearing from the books of the union 
 to have been, either continuously or at separate 
 intervals, in receipt of relief for a period amount¬ 
 ing altogether to four years, should thenceforward 
 become chargeable to the union at large. 
 
 It is upon the foregoing provisions as to 
 chargeability that I rely for the means of coun¬ 
 teracting the two principal evils of property¬ 
 rating, the increased temptation to clearing pro¬ 
 perty by landlords, and the gradual approach to 
 the compulsory labour system, such as existed in 
 those parishes in England, where before the pass¬ 
 ing of the Poor Law Amendment Act the Labour 
 Pate prevailed. In order to show the necessity 
 of some change in the present law affecting 
 the chargeability of paupers, it is necessary to 
 refer to the interpretation which has been given 
 by the law officers of the crown to the 12th 
 section of the Poor Law Extension Act*. That 
 section was held to have a retrospective ope¬ 
 ration, so that persons already in receipt of relief 
 and charged to separate electoral divisions under 
 the former Acts in force in Ireland became 
 
 * See First Annual Report of the Commissioners for ad¬ 
 ministering the laws for relief of the poor in Ireland, p. 85. 
 8vo. edition. 
 
61 
 
 chargeable to the union at large after the passing 
 of the Poor Law Extension Act in all cases where 
 they had not at the period of the last application for 
 relief been resident in some one electoral division 
 for thirty months out of the preceding three years. 
 A reply to a further query respecting the charge- 
 ability of persons returning to the workhouse 
 within six months from the time when they 
 were last discharged, though somewhat ambi¬ 
 guous in its terms, implies that unless at the time 
 of the new application such persons have resided 
 for thirty months out of the preceding three 
 years in the electoral division to which they were 
 previously chargeable, they should be charged to 
 the union at large. 
 
 Although these opinions have been promul¬ 
 gated by the Poor Law Commissioners, neither 
 of them have been generally acted upon, and it 
 may be held that the opportunity for a revision 
 of the register of those receiving relief prior to 
 the passing of the late Act has virtually lapsed, 
 but the latter opinion has important practical 
 consequences, which will, doubtless, before long, 
 be perceived by those who would benefit by its 
 application. 
 
 The extension of the period of residence neces¬ 
 sary for chargeability provided by the late Act 
 was intended as a protection to the towns which, 
 under the Act of 6 and 7 Viet., cap. 92, became 
 chargeable with the support of the rural poor 
 
62 
 
 who had resided for twelve months before apply¬ 
 ing for relief, but both Acts permit an abuse 
 which is now likely to become common, and 
 which is certainly contrary to all notions of 
 justice. Proprietors who compel or induce the 
 destitute cottier tenantry upon their estates to 
 give up their holdings, by providing them with 
 the means of subsistence for six months before 
 applying for relief, throw the support of such 
 persons upon the union at large, and thus escape, 
 with a slender imposition, from the obligation of 
 supporting those whom they have deprived of 
 their only means of subsistence. But according 
 to the opinion above quoted, still readier means 
 exist for throwing the burden upon the union, 
 by inducing those who are already receiving 
 relief to take their discharge, and allowing them 
 to apply again within a few days, when they 
 would be chargeable to the union. 
 
 I am by no means unwilling that the support 
 of the permanent pauperism of Ireland should 
 gradually be transferred to the larger area of 
 unions, although such a process would in some 
 degree weaken the motives to careful local admi¬ 
 nistration of the law; but I am quite sure that 
 a moderate time should be allowed to elapse 
 before the country can be prepared for such a 
 charge; and, in any case, I should wish that it 
 should be effected regularly and openly, rather 
 than by an evasion of the law, which would 
 
63 
 
 generally be employed by those who least deserve 
 any special favour from the Legislature. 
 
 The provisions which I have proposed, would 
 make it impossible for an exterminating landlord 
 to shift from himself the burden of supporting his 
 own poor, except by providing them with the 
 means of supporting themselves for eighteen 
 months after they ceased to reside upon his 
 estate. The evils of a too stringent law of set¬ 
 tlement would be mitigated, if not avoided alto¬ 
 gether, by the gradual withdrawal of the per¬ 
 manent surplus population, who could not be 
 profitably employed in their own districts, from 
 the smaller area of taxation, and placing the 
 responsibility of their support upon the com¬ 
 munity. 
 
 The principle here advocated is, as far as 
 I know, new to Poor Law legislation. It 
 appears to me, after much reflection, to be sound 
 in theory; and if circumstances should appear 
 favourable to its introduction, I should wish to 
 see it extended to other parts of the empire. 
 That those who possess the chief control over 
 the condition of the working classes, should, 
 in the first place, be responsible for their support; 
 but that as soon as a permanent surplus is ascer¬ 
 tained, the community should become interested 
 in the means of relieving their destitution, 
 appears to be an arrangement more equitable, 
 
64 
 
 and quite as easily worked as the partial sub¬ 
 division of large areas into parishes or electoral 
 divisions. 
 
 I have now to consider some of the details 
 affecting the proposed modification of the law. 
 The materials for the actual sub-division of the 
 present electoral into rateable divisions, coter¬ 
 minous with separate estates, are nearly complete 
 at the present time. The Commissioners ap¬ 
 pointed to revise the boundaries of unions and 
 electoral divisions, have found it necessary for 
 their purpose to collect full materials as to 
 the distribution of property in Ireland, and have, 
 as I am informed, prepared maps, in which the 
 separate estates are distinguished by a distinct 
 colour or number. I have endeavoured to ascer¬ 
 tain from the most competent authority, that of 
 intelligent clerks of unions, what amount of 
 practical difficulty and trouble would result from 
 the great increase in the number of rateable 
 divisions, and I have satisfied myself that this 
 objection is much less serious than I had in the 
 first instance supposed. I have been assured by 
 the clerk of one very large union, in which 
 property is much divided, that with an ordinary 
 assistant for the mere mechanical work, he would 
 have no difficulty in carrying on the proposed 
 system. I am, therefore, disposed to recommend 
 that the limit to which the sub-division should 
 be extended be very low:—no rateable division 
 
65 
 
 containing less than one townland, or 200 statute 
 acres. 
 
 There is some difficulty in deciding whether 
 separate properties belonging to the same owner 
 in one union should be united into a single 
 rateable division, or should each be rated sepa¬ 
 rately. The latter arrangement is open to an 
 abuse which it would be very difficult to prevent 
 or detect. The proprietor, relying upon the 
 proposed provisions for assistance, from the 
 union or from public funds, would be enabled 
 to concentrate the pauperism of all his separate 
 properties upon a single small division, and 
 thereby to relieve himself from all taxation beyond 
 a certain per centage of the value of that 
 division. I am therefore of opinion that separate 
 properties belonging to the same owner should not 
 be formed into separate rateable divisions unless 
 each such separate area be valued for poor-rate 
 at not less than £.1000 per annum. 
 
 The objections to an union rate in aid of the 
 separate rateable divisions are obvious enough. 
 
 It cannot be denied that in the case of very 
 much pauperised districts, where no practicable 
 amount of exertion can enable the proprietor 
 to reduce his rates below the limit, the existence / 
 of a rate in aid may make those locally interested 
 more reckless as to further additions to the load 
 of pauperism; but in the first place the carrying 
 
 E 
 
66 
 
 of surplus rate to the account of the union does 
 not completely relieve the local rate-payer of his 
 share of the burden, and, after all, the practical 
 way to consider the question, is to compare the 
 proposed arrangement with the present system. 
 The average area of electoral divisions through¬ 
 out Ireland is about 10,000 statute acres, but in 
 the north-eastern unions this average does not 
 exceed 6000 acres, while in twenty of the western 
 unions it is over 17,000 acres. With but few 
 exceptions the present system differs but very 
 little in its practical working from that of union 
 rating, except that it does not offer the same 
 amount of convenience for administrative pur¬ 
 poses. 
 
 There is not much reason to apprehend that 
 the proprietors throughout Ireland, once possessed 
 of freedom of action, will, as has been suggested, 
 accommodate themselves passively to a maximum 
 rate of five shillings in the pound, and leave the 
 surplus pauperism of the poorer districts to be 
 supported by the rest of the community. A 
 permanent rate of that amount would necessitate 
 a considerable change in landed property, and 
 with such assistance at the outset as is necessary 
 to make the continuance of any Poor Law prac¬ 
 ticable, those of the present proprietors who 
 can command capital, or those who may succeed 
 by purchase hereafter, will infallibly find means 
 
67 
 
 for the productive employment of the population, 
 rather than submit to taxation for supporting 
 them in idleness. 
 
 The proposition to assist emigration from public 
 funds will be met by inquiring whence the funds 
 for such a purpose are to be derived. It has 
 been proposed, by extending the income-tax to 
 Ireland, to raise funds applicable to the support 
 of the establishment charges in connection with 
 workhouse relief, and to the assistance of emi¬ 
 grants from the poorer districts. On this I will 
 only remark, that if, upon general grounds, it 
 appears expedient to extend direct taxation to 
 Ireland, whether in the form of income-tax, or 
 in the much preferable shape of a tax upon the 
 profits of realised property, which has recently 
 been supported by the authority of Mr. McGregor, 
 I know of no sufficient reason for objecting to 
 it; but I cannot conceive how those who support 
 the union between Ireland and Great Britain, 
 can consistently maintain that whatever expend¬ 
 iture is really required for remedying the com¬ 
 plicated results of centuries of misgovernment 
 and misconduct, which still forbid all real progress 
 throughout a large part of this country, should 
 be measured or limited by the amount of new 
 taxation which it may be possible to impose. 
 To tax Dublin or Belfast for the relief of Mayo, 
 otherwise than in common with the rest of the 
 empire, is to concede a principle which, if 
 
68 
 
 logically followed out, leads to the separation of 
 the two countries. The only question for a 
 consistent statesman is to ascertain whether any 
 expenditure of public funds is absolutely required 
 by the condition of the western districts in 
 Ireland, and if so, how those funds may properly 
 be applied. 
 
 It has been completely proved that the re¬ 
 sources of many unions are utterly inadequate 
 to the support of the present inhabitants. The 
 people must die if they be not removed else¬ 
 where, or supported at home out of public funds. 
 The last plan is incompatible with good ad¬ 
 ministration, and the first will not, I hope, be 
 seriously advocated. The only remaining course 
 is to advance sufficient funds for the removal of 
 those whose existence where they now live 
 reduces all around them to the level of their own 
 misery. If, as is probable, it be possible, by the 
 imposition of a moderate income or property-tax, 
 to defray the interest on any sum advanced for 
 this purpose from the Imperial Exchequer, the 
 result will be equally advantageous to this 
 country and the rest of the empire. 
 
 It may be objected that it is inconsistent for 
 those who admit that there is ample scope in 
 Ireland for the productive expenditure of capital 
 in the reclamation and improvement of land, to 
 advocate emigration from those very districts 
 which, being the least improved, offer the 
 
69 
 
 greatest opportunities for the employment of 
 labour. Those who argue in this way forget 
 that a population can be maintained only out of 
 existing resources, and that an utter excess of 
 population directly impedes the very process 
 through which alone future means for their sup¬ 
 port can be provided. Allowing about half-a- 
 crown in the pound for the cost of supporting 
 the helpless poor, the plan which I propose 
 would leave in each district a surplus able-bodied 
 population, whose maintenance as paupers will cost 
 five shillings in the pound, and to support whom 
 as independent labourers an increase of one-third 
 in the annual value of each district relieved by 
 emigration would be required. Under the most 
 favourable circumstances we cannot expect a 
 more rapid increase in the means of sustaining 
 population. 
 
 I have now to offer a few suggestions as to 
 some details of the present law which appear to 
 me to demand alteration. 
 
 I have already observed that the including 
 able-bodied widows, having more than one child, 
 amongst the classes permanently entitled to out¬ 
 door relief in the first section of the Poor Law 
 Extension Act, is contrary to all sound prin¬ 
 ciples of Poor Law legislation, inasmuch as it 
 removes the proper inducement to industry 
 amongst a class who are capable of contributing 
 to production. It is, moreover, exposed to the 
 
70 
 
 serious practical evil of encouraging desertion. 
 Men who would not leave their families to receive 
 relief in the workhouse have no difficulty in so 
 doing when they know that their wives, by re¬ 
 presenting themselves as widows, are enabled to 
 receive relief in money or food at their own 
 homes. 
 
 The number of persons relieved under the 
 first section is already very formidable, amounting 
 in some of the southern unions to 20 per cent, 
 of the entire population*. There can be no 
 doubt but that considerable abuses must exist in 
 such cases, and there is no class as to which 
 they are more easily introduced than this one of 
 able-bodied widows. 
 
 Another and more important object is the 
 extension of industrial schools for the education 
 of pauper children. The value of these insti¬ 
 tutions is now generally admitted; and a strong 
 desire for improvement in this respect exists in 
 many parts of Ireland. The invaluable Reports 
 of Dr. Kay Shuttle worth and Mr. Tufnell j* 
 have made the general principles which affect 
 this question so familiar to the public, that it is 
 not necessary to do more than to point out the 
 
 * This fact alone appears to me conclusive against a plan 
 sometimes suggested, of placing the support of the helpless 
 poor to the account of the union at large. 
 
 | Published in a separate volume by the Poor Law Com¬ 
 
 missioners. 
 
71 
 
 difficulties which stand in the way of its 
 progress. The cost of buildings suitable for a 
 good industrial school being about twice as great 
 as that of providing lodging for the same 
 number of children in ordinary workhouses, the 
 outlay for the purpose may be considered to be 
 a sacrifice made by the present generation for 
 the benefit of their successors ; and in this point 
 of view the community in general may be said 
 to be as much interested as each particular 
 locality. It is only in places where ample 
 means, public spirit, and intelligence co-exist that 
 such a sacrifice will be made ; and, indeed, in 
 the present circumstances of Ireland, it can 
 scarcely be expected that the requisite conditions 
 will anywhere be found. I should be prepared 
 to support a general scheme for the extension of 
 district industrial schools in every part of the 
 empire; but, in any case, I think that assistance, 
 in the form of a grant for at least one-half of the 
 cost of the construction of the requisite buildings, 
 would be highly advantageous to the future 
 progress of this country, and be amply repaid by 
 the improved industry and morality of those who, 
 by no fault of theirs, have been from their birth 
 deprived of every favourable influence. 
 
 One further suggestion 1 have to offer as to 
 one of the best grounded complaints against the 
 working of the present Poor Law. It is notorious 
 that the valuation of rateable property, which 
 
72 
 
 serves as the basis of taxation for relief of the 
 poor, has generally been performed in the most 
 defective manner, owing in part to the want of 
 skill or corrupt bias of the persons employed as 
 valuators, and in part to the necessary absence of 
 any uniform principle amongst persons chosen at 
 random from various classes of the community. 
 The instances of inequality and consequent in¬ 
 justice are so frequent as to make this evil a 
 characteristic of the present taxation. The only 
 effectual remedy will be found in the completion 
 of the general valuation of Ireland, and its adapt¬ 
 ation to the purposes of Poor Law r rating. 
 Various causes have tended to retard the con¬ 
 clusion of this most important work. The time 
 of Mr. Griffith, under wffiose direction and control 
 the operations have been placed, has been largely 
 interfered with by the exigencies of other branches 
 of the public service, for which his talents and 
 experience have been demanded; and it is be¬ 
 lieved that the staff placed at his disposal might 
 be considerably increased with a corresponding 
 advantage in hastening the completion of the 
 work. I believe that all those practically con¬ 
 cerned in the administration of this country will 
 agree that there is no single way in which public 
 funds may more profitably be expended than 
 this, and, as I shall presently point out, a consider¬ 
 able proportion of the staff employed may be 
 permanently retained with advantage to the public 
 
73 
 
 service. The principle of valuation by competent 
 public officers being conceded, it may be hoped 
 that it will not again be abandoned, and that pro¬ 
 vision will be made for the periodic revision of 
 such valuation. A very important proviso, the 
 absence of which is felt as a material check to 
 agricultural improvement, would be the exemp¬ 
 tion of lands reclaimed, or improved by thorough 
 drainage from re-valuation, until the expiration 
 of five or seven years from the commencement of 
 the improvements. Under the existing system 
 the increase of taxation frequently precedes the 
 increase of production consequent upon improve¬ 
 ments, and the proprietor is forced at the same 
 time to repay the cost of the work without any 
 increase to his means. 
 
 The necessity of amendment in the present 
 Poor Law being the subject which most urgently 
 demands the attention of the Legislature, and 
 with respect to which public opinion is most 
 unsettled, I have been induced to enter into 
 details which must have wearied most of my 
 readers. I shall pass more lightly over the other 
 topics which remain to be noticed, not because I 
 underrate their importance, but that they either 
 present less practical difficulty, or that I feel 
 myself less competent to discuss their details. 
 
 First in order, as being connected with the 
 object of security for the investment of capital in 
 agriculture, is the necessity of providing compen- 
 
74 
 
 sation for improvements effected by the tenant. 
 The measure which passed the House of Commons 
 during the last session is so superior to those 
 Avhich preceded it that I shall keep it principally 
 in view in the few remarks which I have to offer 
 on the subject. 
 
 Every one who has attempted to devise a measure 
 for regulating and assuring the mutual rights of 
 landlords and tenants has felt the extreme diffi¬ 
 culty of legal interference on a subject which, 
 in a well-regulated state of society, should be 
 arranged by an equitable contract between the 
 two parties. But it is precisely because the re¬ 
 lations between landlord and tenant in Ireland 
 have been upon the worst possible footing, that 
 a law assuring to each his just rights is the indis¬ 
 pensable preliminary to the existence of equitable 
 voluntary arrangements, and for this purpose one 
 of the foremost provisions of such a measure, 
 should be to sanction and facilitate such volun¬ 
 tary agreements. To accomplish the direct ob¬ 
 jects of the law it should make the machinery as 
 simple and speedy in its operation as possible, 
 and on this ground the intervention of a respon¬ 
 sible public officer, whose decision should be 
 final and binding upon all parties, appears to me 
 almost indispensable to the success of the measure; 
 the possibility of incurring expense in litigation 
 would make it absolutely a dead letter. Con- 
 curring in most of the provisions of the Bill of 
 
75 
 
 last session as, in its amended form, it passed 
 the House of Commons, I may express the earnest 
 hope that another year may not pass without 
 satisfying the claims of justice and sound policy 
 which have so long awaited an equitable adjust¬ 
 ment of this question. Although the diminished 
 competition for land must at the present time 
 materially lessen the power hitherto possessed by 
 landlords, yet, with the experience of the past, 
 we cannot expect to see tenants generally disposed 
 to invest additional capital and labour in improve¬ 
 ments so long as the state of law shall make it 
 still possible for a proprietor to deprive them of 
 the fruits of enterprise by increasing rent, or by 
 removing them from their holdings without any 
 equivalent compensation. 
 
 The Encumbered Estates Act of last session 
 will, it is generally believed, be found much less 
 efficacious in its operation than was expected by 
 those who supported that important measure. 
 The subject is so closely connected with the 
 whole state of the laws affecting the transfer of 
 real property, that it is impossible to consider it 
 separately; and it has already been found in 
 practice that it will fail to accomplish the objects 
 which it was the policy of that Act to promote, 
 without a thorough revision and an extensive 
 reform of that branch of the law. A topic so 
 vast, so complicated in its bearings, and so 
 difficult in its practical details, would require a 
 
76 
 
 considerable treatise for its thorough discussion ; 
 it will be sufficient for me to recapitulate the 
 principal objects which it should be the aim of 
 such a reform to achieve. 
 
 First. A complete system of national regis¬ 
 tration, as well for the purpose of ascertaining 
 and finally settling the title to land held in fee, 
 as for simplifying the record of all legal trans¬ 
 actions affecting it, whether of the nature of 
 conveyance or incumbrance. 
 
 Secondly. The removal or considerable dimi¬ 
 nution of taxation affecting leases or sales of 
 landed property. 
 
 Thirdly. The simplification of the compli¬ 
 cated tenures by which land is held in Ireland, 
 giving a power to the tenant to convert certain 
 tenures into perpetuities at an equitable rent, 
 and to purchase the fee by the redemption of 
 such quit rents. 
 
 Fourthly. The limitation of the power of 
 tying up land by legal process in such a manner 
 as to prevent its sale or conveyance, with due 
 security to the rights of all parties having legal 
 or equitable claims to the property represented by 
 such land. 
 
 If it be really believed that the introduction 
 of capital and skill are indispensable to perma¬ 
 nent improvement in the impoverished districts 
 of Ireland, there is no possibility of further post¬ 
 poning measures, without which that change 
 
cannot be accomplished. Making all due allow¬ 
 ance for the time really required for maturing 
 good practical measures, it will be felt hereafter 
 that any Government which shall allow the fear 
 of opposition, the representations of interested 
 parties, or the mere reluctance to encounter a 
 difficult subject to delay the settlement of this 
 question, will have grievously failed in the per¬ 
 formance of their duty to this country. I cannot 
 but hope that such will not be the case with the 
 present Government, when I find that most of 
 the measures above enumerated have been sup¬ 
 ported by the eminent authority of Sir Charles 
 Trevelyan, in his “ Irish Crisis,” to which I have 
 already referred. 
 
 It has been the less necessary for me to enter 
 at length into this branch of my subject, as the 
 public must be, to a great extent, convinced of 
 the necessity for considerable changes in the 
 law, through the publications of such practical 
 and competent writers as Mr. Jonathan Pirn, 
 Mr. Pierce Mahony, and Mr. Booth. I believe 
 that the majority of the intelligent landowners in 
 this country are by this time fully persuaded 
 that their own real interest will be better served 
 by a course of legislation which would tend to 
 accelerate improvement, than by a fruitless 
 attempt to prop up the present tottering system, 
 in which a large portion of the land of this 
 country is retained in the hands of men who are 
 
78 
 
 unable to make it serviceable to themselves or 
 to the community. I am persuaded that the 
 alarmists, who threaten a general confiscation of 
 landed property as the result of any useful 
 change in the law, very much exaggerate the 
 results which would in reality be produced. 
 Many must, doubtless, consent to a sacrifice of 
 some portion of their apparent position; but in 
 most cases the growth of national prosperity 
 would far more than counterbalance the seeming 
 loss, by substituting a real for a nominal income, 
 and genuine independence of circumstances for 
 fictitious importance. 
 
 In connection with this subject I will notice 
 a claim occasionally made by embarrassed pro¬ 
 prietors for the imposition of a portion of Poor 
 Law taxation upon mortgagees and persons 
 deriving income under family settlements. With 
 respect to the first-named parties the proposition 
 is clearly unjust. There is no assignable reason 
 for taxing mortgagees who do not exercise any of 
 the rights of property otherwise than in common 
 with all other members of the community. As 
 well might it be proposed to authorise the payers 
 of poor-rate to deduct a proportion of the rate 
 from their tradesmen’s bills. 
 
 With respect, however, to family charges the 
 case is different. These charges were created 
 with reference to the value of the estate at the 
 period of settlement; and it certainly appears 
 
79 
 
 unjust that nearly the entire proceeds of an estate 
 should, as now happens, be payable to parties 
 who were merely intended to enjoy a moderate 
 proportion of the income arising from it. There 
 is some difficulty in devising a mode of fairly 
 adjusting this question,since the rental commonly 
 exceeds the valuation for Poor Law purposes; 
 and, therefore, the landlord should not be entitled 
 to deduct a poundage-rate equal to the actual 
 deduction from his income as compared with the 
 valuation. I am inclined to propose that any 
 proprietor of rateable property, liable to pay an 
 annual sum charged upon such property to any 
 person not having given valuable consideration 
 for the same, should be entitled to deduct from 
 each pound sterling two-thirds of the poundage- 
 rate, which, if assessed upon the annual value of 
 the said property according to the valuation then 
 in force in the Union, would equal the amount of 
 poor-rate actually paid in respect to the said 
 property by the said proprietor, as shown by 
 receipts from the collector, or deducted from rent 
 payable to him by tenants, as shown by the 
 tenants’ receipts. 
 
 The subjects of Emigration and Colonization 
 are altogether too extensive to be discussed in 
 these pages. I have been forced to anticipate 
 some observations, which I should have made at 
 this point, when speaking of the absolute neces¬ 
 sity of relieving over-population by the removal 
 
80 
 
 of those who cannot be supported from the 
 existing resources of certain districts. The pro¬ 
 priety of providing immediate employment in the 
 colonies, upon useful public works, for a portion 
 of the destitute able-bodied population who 
 would emigrate if assisted in the manner which I 
 have proposed, should necessarily be considered 
 in connection with any public measure for pro¬ 
 moting emigration. So much information has 
 recently been given to the public by the publica¬ 
 tion of the evidence taken before the Committees 
 House of Lords, which sat in 1847 and 1848, and 
 by the pamphlets of such men as Sir Randolph 
 Routh, Mr. Godley, &c. that the facts and the 
 general principles involved must be familiar to 
 most of my readers. I think it proper, however, 
 to notice the chief objection which is made to any 
 assistance from public funds being applied to this 
 object. It is known that the number of emi¬ 
 grants from Irish ports in 1847, was 95,952, and it 
 is believed from 40,000 to 50,000 Irish emigrants 
 sailed from English ports, making a total number 
 of about 140,000 who left Ireland in that year ; 
 and it is expected that the returns for the present 
 year will even exceed that number. AVith these 
 data it is argued that the present rate for emigra¬ 
 tion is as great as the circumstances either of Ire¬ 
 land or the colonies demand; that the result of 
 giving any assistance from public funds would be 
 actually to diminish the present flow of population 
 
81 
 
 from Ireland, by leading all classes to seek the 
 means of transport from that source, rather than 
 from their own savings or sacrifices. This mode 
 of viewing the question utterly loses sight of the 
 conditions under which alone emigration is de¬ 
 sirable or profitable to this country. What we 
 require is not less population, but more capital. 
 The only reason for sending away what we now 
 call surplus inhabitants is, that in our poorer 
 districts there do not exist means for giving them 
 productive employment, and that there is no 
 reasonable prospect, so long as they continue 
 to overcrowd the labour market that capital will 
 flow in, and render those parts of Ireland capable 
 of sustaining in comforts a population equal to 
 that which now dwells there in squalid misery. 
 
 On the other hand, it is important that too 
 much should not be expected from emigration as 
 a means for the improvement of Ireland. In 
 districts where there still exists enterprise and 
 capital, the removal of the nests of pauperism 
 which have grown round most of the towns and 
 larger villages, and which, under the operation 
 of the Poor Law, are rapidly absorbing the 
 existing resources, will frequently be a direct 
 source of prosperity. But in the poorer parts 
 of the west of Ireland emigration will, of itself, 
 be but of small service, except to the individuals 
 whom it may rescue from their present idle, 
 degraded, and half-starved condition. Those 
 
 F 
 
82 
 
 districts will be merely brought back to the 
 condition in which a great part of Ireland 
 remained for centuries, with a thin population, 
 little agricultural skill, and no capital. Emigra¬ 
 tion is indeed an indispensable preliminary, but 
 if not accompanied by measures which will give 
 security for the investment of capital, whether 
 by proprietors or tenant farmers, and remove 
 the obstacles which now retard or prevent its 
 influx, no permanent improvement can be ex¬ 
 pected. 
 
 I have, throughout the preceding pages, 
 
 abstained from anv allusion to a measure which 
 
 * » 
 
 has been most earnestly recommended by some 
 of those who have laboured to forward the 
 progress of improvement in Ireland. I allude to 
 the reclamation of waste lands by the State. 
 I had myself, to a great extent, shared the 
 opinions of those who were disposed to place 
 confidence in that proposal; but I confess that 
 inquiry and further consideration have led me 
 to doubt its efficacy. The circumstances which 
 determine the profitableness of such an investment 
 of capital are not susceptible of easy or immediate 
 calculation, and it is quite clear that if the 
 undertaking be not profitable, it would be a 
 waste of the national funds to devote them to 
 the purpose. It is most probable that if the 
 obstacles which now prevent the application of 
 capital to the land be removed, a considerable 
 
83 
 
 extent of reclamation will gradually be effected 
 in those localities where it will be attended with 
 advantage. But it is doubted by those most 
 competent to decide such a question, whether 
 at the present time any extensive tracts of 
 waste land could be reclaimed at a cost which 
 would remunerate an ordinary capitalist for his 
 outlay. 
 
 As it is not impossible, however, that attempts 
 may be made by individuals or companies to 
 improve or reclaim districts now little populated, 
 I should be disposed to suggest that the provisions 
 above recommended, as to emigration from over- 
 populated districts, should be extended to internal 
 migration or home colonization, by giving au¬ 
 thority to Boards of Guardians, and to the Poor 
 Law Commissioners, to advance a certain sum 
 per head as outfit to parties undertaking the 
 reclamation of waste lands, upon their con¬ 
 structing approved habitations for immigrant 
 labourers. 
 
 The propriety of the completion by the State 
 of general arterial drainage, and other works 
 which would facilitate the reclamation or improve¬ 
 ment of land, such as deepening streams, &c. 
 is a question quite independent of that above 
 noticed, and appears to me to be recommended 
 by the soundest policy. 
 
 A measure, not indeed universal in its appli¬ 
 cation, but yet urgently called for by the condition 
 
84 
 
 of many extensive districts, is a reform in the 
 management of property under the Court of 
 Chancery. If it has at length been decided that 
 the Legislature shall take cognizance of the duties 
 connected with the possession of property, and 
 shall as far as possible secure their performance, 
 it is not too much to expect that where the rights 
 of property devolve upon its own creatures, it 
 should cease to permit so scandalous a neglect of 
 those duties as is inevitable under the existing 
 system of administration. Amongst the many 
 varieties of misery which this country presents, 
 I can assert, from extensive observation, that 
 properties placed under the management of Courts 
 of Equity display the most uniform of hopeless 
 spectacles of wretchedness and neglect. 
 
 In the preceding pages I have freely stated 
 my opinion that nothing less than the concurrence 
 of a number of remedial measures, appropriate 
 to the numerous evils which affect the state of 
 Ireland, can be of any real service towards her 
 recovery from her present condition; unfortu¬ 
 nately, I am well aware that the temper of the 
 times, the character of our leading statesmen, the 
 very genius of our form of Government, are all 
 unfavourable to so great an effort of legislation 
 as that which our circumstances require. 
 
 If my voice could have any weight at this con- 
 jucture, I would earnestly adjure those who have 
 the responsibility of directing our destiny calmly 
 
85 
 
 to view our condition, and to see whether a great 
 and unusual effort is not required to achieve 
 a victory over the delays and impediments by 
 which measures of acknowledged utility are 
 retarded, until they cease to be of any practical 
 value. In time of peace it may be safe to pro¬ 
 ceed slowly and unequally in arranging the 
 details of military preparation, but when the 
 enemy is in the field, a General who satisfies 
 himself with attending to any single portion 
 of his duties, or neglects to provide for the 
 subsistence or clothing of his troops, the con¬ 
 veyance of his artillery, protection for his bag¬ 
 gage, or any other essential to safety and success, 
 is rightly pronounced incompetent to fill his 
 high position, and unworthy of the confidence of 
 his country. In the present circumstances of 
 Ireland, it is not enough to propose or to promise 
 useful changes—they must be accomplished, and 
 that speedily, if she is to be preserved from utter 
 ruin and confusion. 
 
 The most pressing and prominent evils of this 
 country are those connected with economical 
 and social causes; I have, therefore, felt my¬ 
 self justified in considering them apart from 
 the other causes which affect our position, and 
 which have so long disturbed and agitated the- 
 public mind. I should not, however, deal 
 fairly with my readers, if I allowed them to 
 suppose that these are of no importance, or that 
 
86 
 
 they will not demand further legislative inter¬ 
 ference. The false principles by which the 
 Government of Ireland has so long been guided, 
 and from which the entire empire has reaped such 
 bitter fruits, have been for the most part abjured 
 and abandoned; but if England will not continue 
 to suffer from her misdeeds, she must complete 
 the work of justice. That great reparation, 
 which was commenced in 1829, must be followed 
 on to its legitimate conclusion; perfect equality 
 of legal rights and religious faith must be 
 thoroughly and practically acknowledged ; then, 
 and not until then, that progress towards pro¬ 
 sperity and contentment can commence, which 
 Time, the healer of the evils of the past, alone 
 can lead to the desired consummation. 
 
 P. S.—Since the above pages were written, I 
 have seen a copy of Resolutions passed at a 
 general meeting of Poor Law Guardians, in 
 Dublin, which appear to a considerable extent 
 to agree with the recommendations herein con¬ 
 tained. Having been written for the most part 
 in the country, it is probable that I may have 
 omitted to notice several of the most recent pub¬ 
 lications on the subjects herein alluded to. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 APPENDIX, A. 
 
 Extracts from a Letter addressed to the Right Honourable 
 Henry Labouchere, Chief Secretary for Ireland , by 
 William Monsell, Esq., dated September 18, 1846. 
 
 * * * * # 
 
 It is but very lately that our real position has been 
 known. When the provisions of the 9th and 10th Victoria, 
 c. 107, were arranged by the Government, they did not 
 foresee that before the 1st of September the rot among the 
 potatoes would be making fearful ravages in every electoral 
 division in Ireland; that in a number of electoral divisions 
 there would not be a potato fit to eat upon the 1st of 
 October; and that there probably would not remain any 
 potatoes available for human food in any part of Ireland 
 
 upon the 1st of November. 
 
 # # # # # 
 
 I have already shown the magnitude of the sum which 
 must be expended for the present year. We are probably 
 entering upon a series of years of distress. The money 
 necessary for the support of the Irish people during their 
 transition from one sort of food to another, must—at all 
 events a very large proportion of it must—be raised from 
 the land. If this sum, paid by the land, does not revolve 
 back again upon the land, if this “ secretion be not again 
 
88 
 
 “ absorbed into the mass of blood,” it will be impossible for 
 the nation to recover the shock. 
 
 ir Vfc & & 
 
 I repeat that in every corner of Ireland, in every barony, 
 almost in every townland, the money expended upon its 
 improvement would return a large interest. In drainage 
 alone millions might be so expended that they would return 
 an interest of at least 10 per cent (the usual estimate made 
 by practical men is higher, but I am anxious to avoid 
 exaggeration), and the capital of the country would be, of 
 course, largely increased by such an expenditure. In pro¬ 
 portion to the increase or decrease of capital will be the 
 increase or decrease of the demand for labour; and as all 
 that our poor require to make them prosperous and happy 
 is employment, every measure for Ireland is mischievous or 
 beneficial in proportion as it increases or diminishes the 
 means of giving them employment. An increasing capital 
 
 will employ more labour—a decreasing capital, less. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 Every occupier of land who pays for a useless and un¬ 
 profitable work will be less able next year to give employ¬ 
 ment than he is now, by the precise amount which he is 
 rated for such work; while the expenditure of the same 
 sum, so assessed upon profitable improvement of his land, 
 would enable him to employ next year a larger number of 
 labourers than he can now do, by the exact amount of 
 increase to his income which would be derived from such 
 improvement. And it is very important here to remark 
 that not only would he be enabled to employ more labour, 
 but the present circumstances of the country would induce 
 him to do so. The farmers are all asking what they shall 
 grow next year in place of potatoes. They must leave their 
 land idle or adopt a new mode of husbandry, and this im¬ 
 proved husbandry will involve an increase of labour. If 
 their capital is to be diminished, not increased, how are 
 
89 
 
 their fields to be tilled ? This, then, is the first evil of the 
 existing Act, that it involves the expenditure of vast sums 
 of money to be torn out of the already small capital of this 
 country, on unproductive labour—that it will increase the 
 disproportion already existing between capital and labour, 
 and perpetuate misery by taking away the means of giving 
 employment. 
 
 This plan has certainly its apt parallel in the conduct of 
 the youth who spends, during his first university term, a 
 considerable portion of his patrimony; and as the hand of 
 ruin is gently laid upon him by silky tradesmen, who 
 promise him a long day for the payment of his bill, so also 
 this unproductive expenditure is rendered more tolerable, 
 although not less certain, in its operation, by its being made 
 
 with borrowed money. 
 
 ♦ 
 
 It is, for these reasons, perfectly certain that public works 
 are not a satisfactory way to give to the destitute that 
 employment they require. There is a place in which they 
 are eminently useful. They must be used as a means, not 
 as an end—as a screw to enforce the employment of labour 
 in a profitable way. The Government cannot, by Act of 
 Parliament, compel drainage or fencing; but they can compel 
 the owners of land to employ the poor, and make those who 
 refuse to employ them on productive labour, pay for their 
 employment on public works. There must be some impulse 
 besides public spirit to put a large proportion of those who 
 ought to exert themselves into motion, and unfortunately 
 there is no stimulus which is so universal in its operation as 
 self-interest. This, then, brings me to another objection to 
 the new Act, viz. that it makes no difference between the 
 improving landlord and the man who either neglects his duty 
 at home, or, in some distant land, consumes the produce of 
 those hereditary possessions upon which he has never be¬ 
 stowed a thought. It is a dead flat—an equality of injustice; 
 
 G 
 
90 
 
 or, if there be any inequality in it, it is not in favour of, but 
 
 against the improving landowner. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 Therefore, this simple level of taxation is a direct penalty 
 inflicted by the State on improvements. The one man has 
 made his tenants comfortable, and few of them require relief, 
 the other has ground them to the earth, and they are starving ; 
 and the first is to contribute more towards the support of 
 his neighbour’s poor—the poor whom his neighbour, by his 
 own misconduct, has created—than their own landlord does ; 
 for the one pays a cess merely on rent—the other, on rent 
 and capital expended. Surely such a system is as impolitic 
 as it is unjust. The prosperity of every country is very 
 much involved in the conduct of the wealthy and the 
 powerful. You ought, therefore, to encourage, urge, assist 
 the improving landlord, and not tax him for those who 
 neglect their duties; you should endeavour to drive the 
 negligent, indolent, or hard-hearted landowner “ into his 
 “ duties or out of his position.” 
 
 If the man who has spent his time and his money on the 
 amelioration of the condition of his dependants is to be taxed 
 for the support of those who have spent neither the one nor 
 the other upon anything but self-gratification, you will 
 compel him to give up his improvements. You will take 
 away from him, not perhaps the disposition, but the power 
 to carry them on. He cannot support the whole of his own 
 and half his neighbour’s poor. He must, therefore, allow 
 them all to go upon the public works, and to be supported 
 by the public purse ; and what will be the effect—the effect 
 both physical and moral—of such injustice ? It is the office 
 of Government to prevent evil. By this means they would 
 encourage it; and however true it may be that they can do 
 little positive good, they would at all events show their power 
 of doing a great deal of positive harm. But it may be said 
 what are Government to do ? If they exempt well-managed 
 
91 
 
 estates from the support of the poor who inhabit ill-managed 
 estates, who will support them ? A badly managed, over- 
 populated property will not be able to support its own poor. 
 Well, who is responsible for the bad management of any 
 property besides the individual to whom it belongs ? Cer¬ 
 tainly not the owner of the neighbouring property. He has 
 not had the slightest control over it. He has had nothing 
 to say to the direction or education of its proprietor. He 
 has not directly or indirectly had any power over him ; and 
 without power there can be no responsibility. 
 
 I do not wish to allude even to what are usually called 
 politics; but yet I cannot help saying that for the misdeeds 
 of such a proprietor, the governing powers of the country 
 are, to say the least of it, far more responsible than any 
 other person or persons. Laws educate ; it was the Govern¬ 
 ment that made the laws, and the sort of education which a 
 few years ago they gave, did not certainly tend to foster any 
 proper notion of responsibility in the breasts of those who 
 were brought up under them. But the old laws have given 
 place to wiser and better ones. Government has repented. 
 True ; but there are two parts of repentance—amendment of 
 life, and restitution. The exercise of the former does not 
 dispense with the necessity of the latter. It does, therefore, 
 seem to me that justice and the interests of the community 
 would be far better consulted by giving some assistance out 
 of the Consolidated Fund to over-peopled miserable pro¬ 
 perties, than by over-taxing the benevolent landlord, whose 
 property happens to be contiguous to them, throwing those 
 at present receiving regular employment out of work. This, 
 then, is a most serious evil in the plan under our consider¬ 
 ation. It taxes alike those who do their duty, and those 
 who, by neglecting it, increase the amount of destitution. 
 Such appears to me to be some of the most objection¬ 
 able features of the existing measure for relieving dis¬ 
 tress :— 
 
92 
 
 1. Unproductive work, to be executed by borrowed 
 money. 
 
 2. The demoralisation of the people, by congregating 
 them in large masses on public works. 
 
 3. The diversion of one-fourth of the money to be raised 
 from the relief of the destitute. 
 
 4. The taxing improving landowners and occupiers for 
 the sins of those who neglect their duty. 
 
 As there is some truth in Jeremy Bentham’s remark, that 
 no one has a right to object to any existing system who has 
 not got a better to suggest in its place, I shall now take the 
 liberty of again urging upon your notice the plan I laid 
 before you last week; and I may just remark that the fact 
 of this plan, in its main outlines, having suggested itself, at 
 the same time and without communication with one another, 
 to some persons of intelligence in the county of Limerick; 
 to the writer of the well-considered resolutions adopted in 
 the county of Meath ; and to Mr. Ball, who superintended 
 last year the Relief Committees in the south of Ireland; 
 may be taken, perhaps, as some slight presumption in favour 
 of its wisdom and feasibility. I will now insert the paper 
 I submitted to you, and then proceed to point out the 
 advantages w 7 hich it appears to me to possess over the 
 existing law. 
 
 “ As it is desirable that the sums of money to be spent on 
 u the relief of the poor should be applied to productive 
 “ labour, it is suggested that after the holding of the 
 “ present sessions in any barony or district, and after the 
 u probable sum of money required to employ the poor in 
 u such barony or district for some months be ascertained, 
 “ such sums be forthwith applotted on the owners and 
 “ occupiers of land in each district, according to the Poor 
 u Law valuation. 
 
 “ That such applotment be placed at the next police 
 “ barrack, within the district, for three days, for the 
 
93 
 
 “ information of all cess-payers who may wish to see it; 
 “ and that notice of its being so placed be posted on the 
 “ usual place for posting notices in the district.” 
 
 “ That it shall be lawful for any persons representing at 
 “ least three-fourths of the taxation of any townland, or 
 “ number of contiguous townlands associating themselves 
 “ together, to require the sum to be levied off such town- 
 “ land or townlands, to be spent in productive works, and 
 “ that such v r orks, upon being approved of by the Board 
 “ of Works, be executed by their officer; and that the 
 “ wages of labourers employed on them be paid by the 
 “ pay-clerk of the district, under the same regulations as 
 “ are laid dovm for public works.” 
 
 u That the officer of the Board of Works, at his discre- 
 u tion, employ on such w'orks the persons recommended to 
 “ him by the district Relief Committee, and none others; 
 “ and that such w r orks be, as far as possible, laid out in 
 u task-work.” 
 
 “ That the Board of Works be authorised, upon such 
 “ arrangements being made, to postpone such portion of 
 “ the public works, recommended by the Presentment 
 “ Sessions, as they shall see fit; and to expend the portion 
 “ of the money presented on any townland, in carrying out 
 “ the requisition from such townland.” 
 
 You will observe that these suggestions agree with the 
 enactments of the 10th Victoria in every particular except 
 one, and that one is, the application of the money raised. 
 This plan proposes to raisethe samesum from the same persons. 
 It places the execution of w r orks and payment of labourers 
 in the same hands. But instead of setting these labourers 
 to work on unproductive works, it employs them on profit¬ 
 able labour. It returns to the land what it takes from it, 
 only taking care that in its way, v T hat is so taken may 
 relieve the destitute. It confers a benefit upon the landowner 
 and farmer, because it improves their property; and while 
 witli one hand it takes money out of their pockets, with the 
 
94 
 
 other it gives them the means to pay it. It confers a benefit 
 upon the labourer, because it provides him with work near 
 his own home; because it does not demoralise him, by 
 placing him with large masses, where the evil-disposed so 
 often give the tone to the whole lot; and because it gives 
 him a better chance than he otherwise could have of being 
 regularly employed in future years. It gets over the diffi¬ 
 culty of finding competent stewards to place over the works, 
 because it makes it the interest of every occupier of land to 
 see the work on his land properly executed. It insures the 
 expenditure of the whole amount of money to be raised for 
 the relief of the destitute, because the work which it con¬ 
 templates requires no purchase of land, and very little horse 
 work or blasting. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 Never since the connection of Ireland with England, has 
 so awful a power been placed in the hands of any statesman 
 as in yours. The whole country is, as it were, fused to your 
 hands. On you depends the future shape which it will 
 assume. If you use your opportunities well—if you develop 
 its resources—if you increase its capital—if you improve its 
 agriculture—if you distribute its wealth as it ought to be 
 distributed, its progress in the next two or three years will 
 be greater than the progress ever made by any country in 
 the same time. 
 
 If you take the easy course—if you throw away the 
 opportunity placed by Providence in your hands—if you 
 allow the vast sums, of which you have to direct the distri¬ 
 bution, to be spent unproductively, we shall retrograde as 
 fast as under the other alternative we should have advanced; 
 and those who have been year after year hoping against 
 hope, and labouring against the tide, will fold their hands in 
 despair. 
 
 I am, my dear Sir, &c., 
 
 WILLIAM MONSELL. 
 
95 
 
 APPENDIX, B. 
 
 To His Excellency The Earl of Besborough, Lord 
 Lieutenant-General and General Governor of Ireland, 
 fyc., Sfc., fyc. 
 
 The Memorial of the Undersigned Proprietors and Occupiers 
 
 of Land in Ireland. 
 
 Humbly Showeth, 
 
 That your Memorialists received with great satisfaction 
 the announcement contained in Mr. Secretary Labouchere’s 
 Letter, of the 5th October last, to the Chairman of the Board 
 of Public Works, that your Excellency was prepared to 
 give a more extended operation to the Act for the Employ¬ 
 ment of the labouring poor of this country, than was contem¬ 
 plated by the original provisions of that law. 
 
 That with a view of availing themselves of the construc¬ 
 tion which your Excellency appeared thus prepared to 
 sanction, your Memorialists directed their immediate atten¬ 
 tion to the introduction of the system of reproductive works 
 into their respective districts, but they regret to be compelled 
 to state, that, for one or more of the following reasons, they 
 are of opinion that in the majority of cases it is impossible to 
 carry out your Excellency’s views in the manner directed 
 by Mr. Labouchere’s Letter :— 
 
 1st.—Because it is scarcely possible to discover works of 
 such universal benefit as will render them profitable or repro¬ 
 ductive to all the inhabitants of any electoral division. 
 
 2nd.—Because, by the terms of Mr. Labouchere’s Letter, 
 drainage, in connection with subsoiling, appears to be the 
 only work of a private character, authorised as a substitute 
 for public works; whereas, in many districts of Ireland, 
 thorough drainage is not required, though subsoiling may be 
 
96 
 
 carried on advantageously, while in others works of a totally 
 different character, such as clearing, fencing, or the making 
 of farm roads, are the chief works to which labour could at 
 present be most beneficially applied. 
 
 3rd.—Because in cases of works, the cost of which is to be 
 made an exclusive charge on the lands to be improved, as 
 specified in paragraph No. 4 of Mr. Labouchere’s Letter, it 
 is necessary to the just operation of the system, that each 
 and every proprietor should undertake his own proportion of 
 the sum to which the electoral division is assessed ; and this 
 unanimity it is seldom possible to attain for various reasons, 
 which will occur to all practical persons. The number of 
 electoral divisions in Ireland is about 2050, representing, 
 according to the Ordnance survey, about 60,000 townlands 
 chiefly in the hands of separate proprietors, being upon an 
 average about 30 townlands to each electoral division; of 
 these many are in the hands of absentees, whose consent it is 
 almost impossible to obtain; others may be of unsound 
 mind, or infants; more may be strict tenants for life, in 
 which cases there are many difficulties and impediments to 
 obtaining the required guarantee; whilst others may be in 
 such embarrassed circumstances, that the whole rental of 
 their property may be absorbed in payment of interest 
 money and expenses; or a few proprietors may prefer 
 a public road to private works, and by their opposition 
 counteract the wishes of the majority for the adoption of 
 reproductive works in their electoral division. Any of these 
 causes would, in the opinion of your Memorialists, either 
 render inoperative the relaxation of the law contemplated by 
 your Excellency, or so embarrass the proceedings of those 
 who choose to avail themselves of its provisions as to render 
 their efforts for that purpose totally unavailing. 
 
 Your Memorialists are indeed well aware that by the 
 interpretation given to Mr. Labouchere’s Letter, if a 
 portion only of the assessment on an electoral division 
 
97 
 
 is expended on reproductive works, the general amount of 
 rate will be thereby reduced ; but they submit to your Excel¬ 
 lency, that, in practice, this will seldom if ever be carried 
 out, because it cannot be expected that a proprietor will 
 submit both to the direct charge incurred for drainage or 
 other improvement of his property (which, it must be 
 remembered, is imposed solely for the sake of employing 
 the destitute poor) and likewise to that proportion of the 
 general rate which is cast upon him by the refusal of other 
 proprietors to undertake their own share. Such a state of 
 things would not only involve the enterprising proprietor in 
 a double expense, but would, in precisely the same propor¬ 
 tion, relieve his negligent neighbour from his allotted share 
 of the burden. 
 
 To obviate these difficulties, and to carry out the principle 
 which your Excellency has so wisely recognised, that the 
 amount of taxation necessary to meet the present emergency 
 shall be expended upon reproductive works, your Memo¬ 
 rialists respectfully submit, that each proprietor who may be 
 willing to charge his proportion of the rate for employing 
 the poor upon any particular land to be improved thereby, 
 shall be entitled to have it expended on his own land, and be 
 relieved to that extent from the payment of rate; and that 
 the works so to be undertaken shall not be confined to 
 drainage or subsoiling, but shall include all works of a 
 reproductive nature, suited to the wants of the locality 
 for which they are proposed, provided only that such works 
 meet with the approbation of the Board of Public Works. 
 
 Your Memorialists humbly beg to remind your Excel¬ 
 lency, that in this request they but seek to avail themselves 
 of your Excellency’s benevolent intentions, without the 
 necessity of a combined movement on the part of every 
 proprietor in an electoral division. That by these sugges¬ 
 tions the details of the system are not by any means rendered 
 more complicated or difficult, but, on the contrary, that the 
 
98 
 
 adoption of townlands, in preference to electoral divisions, 
 will be found in practice more simple and easy, and in its 
 results productive of this great advantage, that it will turn 
 the current of labour back into its legitimate channels. 
 
 Your Memorialists, therefore, humbly but earnestly pray 
 your Excellency to enlarge the terms by which your Excel¬ 
 lency’s intentions are at present limited, and to declare, 
 “ That any townland which shall expend in labour upon 
 “ drainage or other productive works its proportion of the 
 “ sum assessed on the barony in which it is situated, shall 
 “ be exempt from further taxation on that behalf.” 
 
 And your Memorialists, as in duty bound, will ever pray. 
 
 APPENDIX, C. 
 
 Observations and Suggestions 
 
 On the Subject of the Present Question of Taxation under 
 the Poor Law Extension Act for Ireland , submitted 
 to the consideration of his Excellency the Earl of 
 Clarendon, Lord Lieutenant-General and Governor 
 of Ireland. 
 
 By William Talbot Crosbie, Esq., D. L., Ardfei't 
 
 Abbey , County of Kerry. 
 
 While it is a matter of dispute whether the labouring 
 class of Ireland are not too numerous to find profitable 
 employment in the ordinary occupations of agriculture, sup¬ 
 posing the whole available land of Ireland to be brought 
 into full cultivation—that is, where nothing further is 
 required than is the case in a farm in the highest state 
 of improvement, namely, to plough and manure the land, 
 put in the crops, and reap their produce—it is quite indis- 
 
99 
 
 putable that for some years to come, in order to bring 
 the land to that desirable state, there can be found full and 
 profitable occupation for all the able-bodied labourers of 
 that part of the kingdom. For all the most necessary and 
 expensive of such works of reclamation and improvement 
 the Legislature have agreed to provide the landed proprietors 
 with funds by loan, on terms the most advantageous; and 
 though the amount to which such loans are limited is small, 
 compared to the requirements of the country, it can hardly be 
 doubted that, in the present calamitous state of Ireland, 
 Government would be ready to extend this very judicious aid 
 to any amount that might be necessary for the development 
 of its resources. Under these circumstances, with profitable 
 employment for the labourer at hand, and money provided 
 to pay for such employment, it would appear difficult to 
 believe that the landed property of Ireland is weighed down 
 —in some cases nearly confiscated—by a tax for supporting 
 the able-bodied poor in a state of the most demoralising 
 idleness ; such is, nevertheless, the case. It is notorious that 
 though the amount of loan above alluded to as granted by 
 the Legislature has been applied for, yet the works for which 
 it was intended have not been carried on so rapidly or 
 zealously as might have been expected. And it is quite 
 certain that were a further amount sanctioned by Parlia¬ 
 ment, proprietors would not be found to any considerable 
 extent prepared to avail themselves of it. 
 
 As to the cause of this apparently unaccountable state of 
 things, there is in this country scarcely a second opinion. 
 There is no man practically acquainted with the country and 
 the working of the Poor Law, who will not assign the 
 unjust pressure caused by the present area of taxation as the 
 chief cause of this anomalous state of things. As the law 
 stands at present, the proprietor who performs his duty 
 to the full, employing every able-bodied labourer on his 
 estate, fails to relieve himself from rate, except in the same 
 
100 
 
 degree in which he relieves every idle proprietor in the same 
 electoral division: it is quite right that he should bear his 
 proportion of the expense of the helpless class, and of 
 the workhouse establishment; but that, having employed 
 all his own labourers, he should pay for the support of the 
 able-bodied poor in the remainder of the electoral division, 
 in the same proportion as those other proprietors who have 
 neglected their duty, appears to me most unjust, and, as long 
 as such a grievance exists, it must naturally act as a heavy 
 discouragement to those who are disposed to exert them¬ 
 selves. This injustice cannot be more forcibly illustrated 
 than in the case of Mr. St. John Blacker:— 
 
 “ This gentleman, on his estate in the county of Kerry, in 
 “ the Listowel Union, laid out between the December 1, 
 “ 1847, and September 16, 1848, a sum of j£.2810 15s. 9 d. 
 “ in works of improvement; this was paid to labourers, of 
 u whom he employed from 280 to 300 daily, exclusive of 
 u what was paid for implements, and to overseers—exclusive, 
 “ also, of a tilery, at which twenty-five hands were employed. 
 u Yet, notwithstanding this very considerable outlay, and his 
 “ having employed all the labourers on his own property, and 
 “ a large number from other lands, he has, during the same 
 “ period, been subjected to three rates, amounting together to 
 “ 11s. 10 d. in the pound.” Nor can I more strongly contrast 
 the evils which arise from the placing it beyond the power 
 of any proprietor to relieve himself by his exertions, and the 
 advantages which result from enabling him to do so, than 
 by stating what actually took place in the adjoining electoral 
 divisions of Ardfert and Abbeydorney. In the summer of 
 1847, under the operations of the “ Temporary Relief Act,” 
 the proprietor* of almost the entire of the latter electoral 
 division succeeded, by means of combination with his 
 tenants, and by mutual exertion, in employing all the able- 
 bodied poor of this district; so that the amount of gratuitous 
 
 * The Proprietor is Mr. Crosbie, the writer of this Paper. 
 
101 
 
 relief in that division required only for the support of 
 the helpless poor, employment having been provided for the 
 able-bodied, was but at the rate of Is. Qd. per pound on the 
 valuation, raised by subscription and voluntary assessment: 
 whereas, in the division of Ardfert, managed by the same 
 Relief Committee, the same proprietor, holding but a com¬ 
 paratively small portion of it, having failed in effecting a 
 similar combination of exertion with the owners and occu¬ 
 piers of this electoral division, gratuitous relief amounted, in 
 consequence, to a rate of 5s. Id. in the pound. To remedy 
 the state of things here described, many suggestions have 
 been made, of which two only have been seriously advocated, 
 namely :— 
 
 1st. To make townlands the area of taxation instead of 
 electoral divisions. 
 
 2nd. To constitute, wherever practicable, individual pro¬ 
 perties into electoral divisions; and where this was not 
 possible, to combine two or more propertiesisimilarly circum¬ 
 stanced, and where owners were anxious to act in conjunction, 
 into one electoral division. 
 
 There is no doubt that either of the foregoing projects 
 would remedy the evil here complained of; but there appears 
 to be so much difficulty in carrying out either, and so many 
 counterbalancing objections have been raised to them, if 
 even practicable, that I have, after the best consideration I 
 could give the matter, endeavoured to frame these sugges¬ 
 tions, with a view to insure in a great degree the same effects, 
 and to avoid the greater part of the objections made to the 
 former proposed changes. As far as I have been able to 
 gather, the objections made to townland taxation are chiefly 
 the following:— 
 
 1st. The immense amount of detail required for each union 
 to keep distinct accounts for every townland, which in some 
 instances consist of only a few acres. 
 
 2nd. The want of unity of action and purpose where a 
 union was split up into such very minute divisions. 
 
102 
 
 3rd. The impossibility of representing at the Board of 
 Guardians (with whom rests the power of taxation) such 
 small divisions. 
 
 4th. The undue advantage given to the townlands from 
 which the population had been cleared, or to farms merely 
 devoted to grazing purposes. 
 
 5th. The direct inducement to such clearing of townlands, 
 commonly called extermination. 
 
 To the second proposition, viz., to make a property, or two 
 or more combining properties, into electoral divisions, it is 
 thought, generally speaking, this is impracticable, from the 
 way in which properties are scattered and intersected—and, 
 if practicable, it would be open to several of the objections 
 above detailed, as well as to some peculiar to itself. For 
 instance, we will suppose the case—on an extensive property 
 an industrious tenant occupying a townland, and employing 
 all his labourers, and surrounded by other tenants who did 
 nothing, and with an absentee and unimproving landlord; 
 this tenant, notwithstanding his exertions, would have to pay 
 the heavy rate applicable to the entire estate. In lieu 
 therefore of either of the above propositions, I would suggest 
 that in every electoral division there be two rates—the first 
 for the expenses and maintenance of the establishment and 
 the helpless class—that this rate be as at present levied 
 off the entire electoral division, without any power of 
 exemption. 
 
 That there be a second rate for the support of the able- 
 bodied for the first six months; this rate to be also levied on 
 the entire electoral division, estimated sufficient to support all 
 the able-bodied paupers for that period. 
 
 That previous to striking all future rates the books of the 
 electoral division be examined, and any townland not ap¬ 
 pearing to have furnished any able-bodied for relief during 
 the previous six months, to be deducted from the gross 
 valuation of the division on which, the estimated amount 
 required for the able-bodied for the next six months is 
 
103 
 
 to be assessed, and to be exempted from all shares of 
 this rate. 
 
 For example, we will suppose an electoral division to 
 consist of ten townlands, a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, k, each 
 valued at .£.200, making a total of <£.2000; that an amount 
 of £.400 is estimated as necessary for the able-bodied for 
 the next six months, and a rate is about to be struck: as the 
 law stands at present, this would be assessed on the entire 
 division valued at £.2000, making a rate of four shillings 
 in the pound; but if, on examining the books for the pre¬ 
 vious half year, it be found that no able-bodied paupers have 
 been relieved from the townlands c and d, then their amount, 
 £.400, to be deducted from the gross valuation of the elec¬ 
 toral division, and the amount required, £.400, to be assessed 
 on the remaining townlands valued at £.1600; c and d 
 would then be exempt, and the remainder of the electoral 
 division would be subject to a 5s. rate. If in any case the 
 rate on the electoral division, or rather on the unexempted 
 portion of it, exceed a certain amount, say Is. in the £.1, 
 then a rate in aid to be levied off the whole electoral divi¬ 
 sion, without any power of exemption ; if again, an electoral 
 division, or any part thereof, become liable to a certain rate, 
 say 10s. per £.1, then a rate in aid to be levied off the union 
 at large *. Towns to be provided for by making them, where 
 the population exceeds, say 1000, an electoral division of 
 themselves; and when their rate exceeds the average of the 
 union, which average shall be calculated as if the rate were on 
 the entire net annual value of each electoral division, with¬ 
 out exemption ot any townland, then that a rate in aid be 
 levied off the union at large. 
 
 That whereas (as the law now stands) a pauper removed 
 from an electoral division, to which he was fairly chargeable 
 can, by being kept for six months from off the books, be placed 
 
 * If an income-tax be possible, I should prefer this as a remedy for 
 such a case as a district requiring such an exorbitant rate. 
 
104 
 
 after that period on the union at large, instead of against the 
 electoral division, I would suggest that this regulation be 
 changed, and that, in every case, the pauper be required to 
 prove in what electoral division he has spent the longest 
 continuous period out of the last (say) five years, and that he 
 be in all cases charged against such electoral division, and so 
 continue as long as he remains chargeable. 
 
 This plan, no doubt, does not effect all that is desirable, but 
 stimulates to exertion in two ways. It places it within the 
 reach of almost every proprietor to escape the able-bodied 
 rate, by affording employment to that class; and it throws 
 an additional burden on those who persevere in doing 
 nothing. These, it will be admitted, are two very im¬ 
 portant points gained ; and while promoting them it, in the 
 first place, avoids all the complication and detail of account 
 required for the townland rating, as it is only necessary that 
 care be taken that every pauper put on the books of an 
 electoral division should have his own townland accu¬ 
 rately noted. This is supposed to be done at present, and by 
 a little care can be strictly enforced. 
 
 2nd. The rate for the helpless poor, as well as the possible 
 contingency of a rate in aid, is sufficient to keep up a com¬ 
 munity of interest, and to prevent that severance and limita¬ 
 tion of attention to individual property, and consequent 
 neglect of the concerns of the union, which might be the 
 consequence of the purely townland rating. 
 
 3rd. The above, to a certain degree, also answers the third 
 objection stated to the townland system. 
 
 4th. There is no doubt that some townlands which have 
 been cleared, as well as farms entirely applied to grazing 
 purposes, will, as is objected to the townland system, also 
 under the plan now proposed, reap an undue advantage; 
 but the rate in aid will reach such cases and so far miti¬ 
 gate them; besides, it is to be hoped that, practically 
 speaking, such cases of exemption will bear but a small 
 
105 
 
 proportion to those where exemption will be obtained by 
 stimulated exertion on the part of those concerned *. 
 
 5th. As to inducement to prospective clearance of exter¬ 
 mination, it is to be hoped that such cases will be met by 
 the recent Act in reference thereto. But it can readily be 
 shown that to this proposal the objection does not apply; 
 but that, on the contrary, as compared with the present state 
 of the Poor Law, it must act to discourage, and not to 
 encourage, extermination. A proprietor now anxious to 
 relieve his property from an over-population, has, after 
 effecting a clearance, merely to bear his proportion of the 
 increase caused in the rate of the electoral division for the 
 support of the parties ejected—a very small drawback, com¬ 
 pared to the great benefit arising from the local relief. 
 But, under the system proposed, a landlord—anxious as any 
 one would be to exempt his townlands from taxation—can, 
 under ordinary circumstances, do so by the employment of 
 the able-bodied resident thereon; but, should he have driven 
 therefrom any large number of his paupers to another estate, 
 any one of these (who for two years and a-half are, by the 
 present law, chargeable as against their former residences) 
 obtaining relief, disentitled him to such exemption ; and this 
 is a circumstance against which no vigilance or exertion on 
 his part can protect him. 
 
 I trust that the foregoing makes out my case of miti¬ 
 gating, where it does not altogether remove, the evils 
 now complained of; while it avoids the chief parts of 
 the objections made to the proposed system of townland 
 rating; and I therefore, with some degree of confidence, 
 entreat your Excellency’s powerful aid to have these sugges¬ 
 tions carried into effect. 
 
 * It might be advisable to limit exemption to cases where it is shown 
 that a certain average of employment of labour has been afforded. 
 
 H 
 
106 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 ? 
 
 D. 
 
 Extracts from the Report of George Nicholls, Esq. on 
 
 Irish Poor Laws. 
 
 Paragraph 115.—Emigration ought not, I think, under 
 any circumstances, to be looked to as an ordinary resource. 
 An excess of population is an evil: to relieve that excess by 
 emigration is so far good; but it may be doubted whether 
 the parent stock is not enfeebled by the remedy thus applied. 
 In general, the most active and enterprising emigrate, 
 leaving the more feeble and less robust and resolute at 
 home. Thus a continual drain of its best elements lowers 
 the tone and reduces the general vigour of the community, 
 at the same time that it imparts an additional stimulus to 
 the tendency towards an undue increase of population, which 
 was the immediate cause of the disease. 
 
 Paragraph 116.—In saying this I do not contend against 
 the resort to emigration as a relief from an existing evil, 
 but merely wish to point out the inexpediency of encouraging 
 it as an improved practice in our social system. The 
 necessity for its adoption should be regarded as an indica¬ 
 tion of disease, which it would be better to prevent than 
 to relieve. The means of prevention will be found in the 
 education and improved moral and prudential habits of the 
 community. In proportion as these prevail will its general 
 character be elevated, and individuals will feel a wholesome 
 dread of entailing upon themselves burthens which will 
 depress their position in the social scale. In Ireland, un¬ 
 happily, these prudential considerations do not prevail at 
 all, or prevail in a very imperfect degree; and the conse¬ 
 quence is, that marriages are daily contracted with the most 
 
107 
 
 reckless improvidence. Boys and girls marry, literally 
 without habitation or any means of support, trusting, as 
 they say, to Providence, as others have done before them. 
 It is quite lamentable to witness the effects of this ignorant 
 recklessness, which, by occasioning an excessively rapid 
 increase in their numbers, tends to depress the whole popu¬ 
 lation, and to extend the sphere of wretchedness and want.” 
 
 Paragraph 117.— Emigration not only may, but l 
 believe must, be had recourse to, as a present means of 
 relief, whenever the population becomes excessive in any 
 district and no opening for migration can be found. The 
 actual excess of population will be indicated by the pressure 
 of able-bodied labourers upon the workhouse. If any con¬ 
 siderable number of these enter the workhouse and remain 
 there subject to its discipline, it may be taken as a proof of 
 their actual inability to provide for themselves, and of the 
 consequent excess of labourers beyond the means of employ¬ 
 ment. Under such circumstances emigration must be 
 looked to as the best, if not the only present remedy ; and 
 express provision should, I think, be made in the Act for 
 defraying the expense which this would occasion, as well as 
 for the regulations under which it should be carried into 
 effect. 
 
 Paragraph 118.—With reference to the expense I pro¬ 
 pose that the charge of emigration should in every case be 
 equally born by the Government and the union from which 
 the emigrants proceed. This division of the charge appears 
 to me to be equitable ; for although the union only is imme¬ 
 diately benefited, yet eventually the whole empire is re¬ 
 lieved, excess in one portion of it tending to occasion an 
 excess in the whole. The emigration should, I think, be 
 limited to a British colony, where such arrangements might 
 be made, through the intervention of the Colonial Office, 
 as would serve to protect the emigrants on their first arrival 
 and also ensure their obtaining employment at the earliest 
 
108 
 
 period. This is important alike for themselves and the 
 community: at home they were a burthen; in their new 
 position they will increase the general productive powers of 
 the empire, as well as enlarge the demand for British pro¬ 
 duce. In every case, however, the emigration should be 
 conducted under the control of the central authority, and 
 be subjected to such regulations as the Government may 
 deem it right to establish. 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 9 
 
 Facts relative to the present Condition of Unions in the 
 West and South of Ireland. 
 
 The daily newspapers and other periodical publications 
 have for some time past abounded with statements relative 
 to the condition of the poor and the working of the Poor 
 Law in every part of Ireland. Some of these statements 
 are doubtless entitled to full confidence, but in many instances 
 they appear to be more or less influenced by the particular 
 opinions or interests of the writer. I have thought that it 
 might be useful that a person accustomed to inquiries of 
 this nature, and beyond the reach of local influences, should 
 endeavour to ascertain the real condition of some of the 
 poorer districts. For this purpose I have visited several 
 parts of the West and South of Ireland, and have besides 
 sought for accurate information from persons upon whom I 
 was able to place reliance. I have been disappointed in my 
 hopes of collecting a mass of statistical information, which 
 appeared proper to throw light upon the subjects discussed 
 in the text, but I believe that the following statements may 
 be relied upon as possessing as much accuracy as the nature 
 of the subject admits:— 
 
109 
 
 Ballina, Castlebar , Clifden , and Westport Unions . 
 
 The four above-named unions, comprising the extreme 
 west of Connaught, so far resemble each other in the 
 general circumstances of their condition that, to avoid 
 repetition, I shall speak of them together. I should premise 
 that my personal inquiries have been confined to Westport 
 union; but I have been furnished with information re¬ 
 specting the other unions above named from the most 
 trustworthy sources. A general idea of the condition and 
 resources of these unions may be formed from the following 
 table:— 
 
 Union. 
 
 Area of 
 statute acres. 
 
 Population 
 in 1841. 
 
 Poor Law 
 valuation. 
 
 No. of 
 acres 
 
 under crops 
 in 1847. 
 
 Proportion of 
 rated value to 
 population. 
 
 
 
 
 £. 
 
 
 £. s. 
 
 d. 
 
 -Ballina 
 
 504,115 
 
 120,787 
 
 95,774 
 
 38,038 
 
 15 
 
 10 
 
 Castlebar . 
 
 160,687 
 
 61,063 
 
 50,981 
 
 20,421 
 
 16 
 
 8 
 
 Clifden 
 
 189,504 
 
 33,465 
 
 22,426 
 
 5,527 
 
 13 
 
 5 
 
 Westport . 
 
 330,176 
 
 77,952 
 
 38,876 
 
 16,168 
 
 10 
 
 0 
 
 Total 
 
 1,184,482 
 
 293,267 
 
 208,057 
 
 80,154 
 
 14 
 
 2 
 
 We have here an area greater than that of the county of 
 Northumberland, with a population one-sixth more nume¬ 
 rous, while the annual value of rateable property is to that 
 in Northumberland as 2 to 13, or, more properly speaking, 
 this was the proportion before the failure of the potato crops 
 reduced more than half of the population to pauperism, and 
 at the same time diminished in nearly the same ratio the 
 actual sources from which the support of the poor is to be 
 derived. The district, including these and some portions of 
 the adjoining unions, presents the widest example of the 
 disastrous effects of the cottier tenure of land amongst a 
 population accustomed to a low standard of comfort, and 
 unused to regular industry or economy. Large properties 
 were granted by the chief proprietors, in long leases, at low 
 
110 
 
 money rents. Upon these the process of continual sub¬ 
 division was carried on without interference from the land¬ 
 lord, usually too neglectful to heed the practice, but unable 
 effectually to check it, even when desirous of so doing, 
 owing to the expensive and uncertain operation of the law. 
 A population subsisting altogether upon potatoes continued 
 to increase even beyond the limit at which they could assure 
 themselves a regular supply of that food. Holdings were 
 continually subdivided, squatters settled upon the most 
 barren spots, and a large proportion of the inhabitants were 
 accustomed to eke out the deficient supply of potatoes during 
 the summer season by sea-weed, limpets, and such garbage 
 as they could collect upon the sea-coast, whither in conse¬ 
 quence the great affluence of population naturally directed 
 itself. 
 
 Less even than elsewhere in Ireland was there any trace 
 of the class of regular agricultural labourers. The larger 
 farmers employed their land in grazing cattle or in sheep 
 pasture; and their demand for labour was almost limited to 
 one or two servant boys, employed as herds or to assist in 
 the tillage of a few acres. The concurrent effect of the 
 famine and the extension of the Poor Law has been to cause 
 a large portion of the smaller holders to give up their land; 
 thousands of acres have been surrendered to proprietors and 
 middlemen; but the constant drain of capital in a district, 
 always wretchedly poor, has made it equally impossible for 
 these parties to cultivate the land themselves, or to find 
 tenants capable of so doing. The fisheries, though con¬ 
 ducted with insufficient capital, and deficient energy and 
 skill, largely contributed to the support of the population 
 in times past; but in the present utterly impoverished con¬ 
 dition of the country they have completely failed, except 
 where supported in two places by the establishment of 
 curing-stations, one of which has, I am informed, been 
 abandoned. 
 
Ill 
 
 To complete the parallel between the unions here men¬ 
 tioned and the county of Northumberland, we should 
 remark that four unions here contain 41 electoral divisions, 
 with an average of 28,890 acres and 7152 inhabitants to 
 each division, while in Northumberland 12 unions contain 
 537 parishes, with an average of 2189 acres and 495 in¬ 
 habitants to each parish. If abuses of various kinds exist 
 in these western unions, if improper persons are admitted to 
 relief, if relieving officers defraud the poor or the rate¬ 
 payers, if there is a total absence of general co-operation for 
 the administration of the law, it must be admitted that this 
 is no more than might be expected where the interests and 
 local knowledge of individuals are utterly lost in districts of 
 such unmanageable extent. 
 
 Public attention has recently been directed to the fact 
 that in spite of the pressure of pauperism in these unions, 
 the rates imposed have not borne any adequate proportion 
 to the rated value ; the poundage-rates struck for the year 
 ending September 29, 1848, being an average of four 
 shillings in Ballina and Westport unions, and five shillings 
 in Castlebar union, while those struck in October 1848 
 have varied from three to five shillings. These rates have 
 been made, not upon an estimate of the sum really required 
 for the support of the destitute poor, but solely with a view 
 to the means of the ratepayers. The following table shows 
 the rate of expenditure for the week ending January 6, 
 1849 
 
 UNION. 
 
 Number 
 relieved in 
 Workhouse. 
 
 | 
 
 Number 
 
 on 
 
 out-door 
 
 Relief. 
 
 Cost of 
 Workhouse 
 Relief. 
 
 Cost of 
 out-door 
 Relief. 
 
 Estimated 
 
 Cost of 
 
 Establishment. 
 
 Total 
 
 weekly 
 
 Cost. 
 
 
 
 
 £. s. 
 
 £. s. 
 
 £. 
 
 £. s. 
 
 Ballina 
 
 2679 
 
 16,849 
 
 181 16 
 
 534 10 
 
 180 
 
 896 6 
 
 Castlebar . 
 
 1561 
 
 8,309 
 
 118 14 
 
 214 2 
 
 85 
 
 417 16 
 
 Westport . 
 
 1528 
 
 9,250 
 
 114 11 
 
 174 2 
 
 80 
 
 368 13 
 
112 
 
 But it is important to observe that these sums do not 
 represent the real cost of giving an adequate subsistence to 
 the destitute poor. In Westport union the weekly expendi¬ 
 ture for each individual receiving out-door relief is not more 
 than fourpence halfpenny. Owing to the embarrassed state 
 of the finances, and the difficulty of obtaining any supplies 
 whatever from the contractors, the allowance of one pound 
 of meal per day to each adult and half that quantity for 
 children, which is usually deemed the minimum of human 
 subsistence, is reduced by one-fourth or one-third, and the 
 unfortunate paupers are merely kept alive in an enfeebled 
 and emaciated condition. 
 
 , Again, to judge from the past year, we must expect the 
 demands for out-door relief to increase very much as the 
 season advances, and we should fix the average expenditure 
 for the entire year above the point which it has attained in 
 J anuary. 
 
 Omitting, however, to take either of these circumstances 
 into account, and neglecting moreover the actual liabilities 
 of these unions, though considerable (amounting in West- 
 port union to more than .£.6000), we shall have the following 
 estimate of the annual cost of relief:— 
 
 £. s. d. 
 
 Ballina .... 46,607 12 0 
 
 Castlebar . . ... 21,725 12 0 
 
 Westport .... 19,169 16 0 
 
 But these sums not being assessed uniformly, we should 
 require poundage-rates, varying from seven to fifteen 
 shillings, on the several electoral divisions. It might be 
 just possible to collect the first-named rate in some of the 
 less impoverished divisions, but those in which a fifteen¬ 
 shilling rate would be required are precisely the districts so 
 utterly pauperised that it is almost impossible to levy the 
 current rates of three or four shillings. Instances are now 
 frequent of seizures for poor-rate in which the only property 
 
113 
 
 found by the collector is household furniture and bedding*, 
 so that the operation of the law is to create directly, and by 
 no circuitous process, the very destitution which it attempts 
 to relieve. Upon minute inquiry I find that the most 
 extensive proprietor in Westport union has received during 
 the year 1848 from the tenant-farmers upon his estate very 
 little more than the amount of poor-rate for which he was 
 liable as immediate lessor of holdings rated below <£.4, 
 added to the tithe rent-charge and the cost of collection. 
 This state of things, in which the surplus income of a district, 
 over and above the actual subsistence of the cultivators of 
 the soil, is so small in proportion to the sum necessary for 
 the support of the destitute poor, exhibits an instance of the 
 condition of society in which the working of a Poor Law 
 becomes in reality an impossibility. I confess that the 
 result of observation has satisfied me that the limit assigned 
 in the text, by which five shillings in the pound should be 
 required from the electoral division, and two shillings and 
 sixpence from the union, before assistance should be given 
 for emigration, is too high for the poorer unions in the West 
 of Ireland. The reason of this is that the valuation of land 
 under a system of potato culture is no longer applicable at 
 the present time. In order to make the proposed limit 
 practically serviceable in a few of the poorer unions it would 
 be necessary to fix the limit at about two-thirds of that 
 which I have proposed as the general rule. 
 
 The diminution of the population has been one of the 
 most apparent results of the successive failures of the potato 
 crop in these unions. Three causes have produced this 
 result:—The frightful mortality of the winter 1846-1847 ; 
 the emigration, or migration to other districts, of the 
 smaller holders of land, who have either voluntarily given 
 up their holdings or been evicted by their landlords; lastly, 
 
 * The seizure of bedding for poor-rate, though a frequent practice, is 
 of doubtful legality. 
 
114 
 
 the diminished number of births by which the ordinary 
 equilibrium of the population is maintained. It is not pos¬ 
 sible to arrive at accurate results for a large district, but I 
 believe that the following return for the electoral division 
 of Ballyhean, in Castlebar union, may be relied upon:— 
 
 B ALLIN A UNION. 
 
 Ballysokeery Electoral Division, Population 
 in 1841, 6034. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Births. 
 
 Marriages. 
 
 Deaths. 
 
 Births. 
 
 Marriages. 
 
 Deaths. 
 
 1845 
 
 
 _ 
 
 ... 
 
 136 
 
 22 
 
 25* 
 
 1840 
 
 25 
 
 4 
 
 300 
 
 127 
 
 17 
 
 110 
 
 1847 
 
 19 
 
 3 
 
 355 
 
 54 
 
 6 
 
 258 
 
 1848 
 
 26 
 
 4 
 
 200 
 
 28 
 
 3 
 
 178 
 
 CASTLEBAR UNION. 
 
 Ballyhean Electoral Division, 
 Population in 1841, 4032. 
 
 Showing a diminution from increased mortality and di¬ 
 minished births of 354, or nearly nine per cent, on the 
 population, within three years. I am compelled, however, 
 to believe that the mortality was very much greater in some 
 districts. 
 
 Allowing 12 per cent, for the increase of population from 
 1841 to 1846, and borrowing from a subsequent return the 
 number of emigrants who have left these electoral divisions 
 during the last two years, we have the following general 
 results:— 
 
 
 Probable 
 
 Excess of 
 
 Number of 
 
 Loss of 
 
 Per Centage 
 
 Electoral 
 
 Population 
 
 Deaths over 
 
 Emigrants 
 
 Population 
 
 of diminution 
 
 Division. 
 
 in January 
 
 Births during 
 
 during the 
 
 during the 
 
 in 
 
 
 1846. 
 
 the last 3years. 
 
 last 2 years. 
 
 last 3 years 
 
 Population. 
 
 Ballysokeery. 
 
 6758 
 
 785 
 
 1114 
 
 1899 
 
 28 
 
 Ballyhean .. 
 
 4516 
 
 337 
 
 184 
 
 521 
 
 11§ 
 
 The probable population of Westport union in 1846 
 was about 87,000, and allowing 20,000 excess of deaths 
 over births and 5000 to have gone away, there would 
 remain 62,000. Marriages have diminished to about one- 
 
 * Apparently a mistake, or error in copying. 
 
115 
 
 sixth of the former number, and births have fallen off to 
 nearly an equal extent. Emigration and migration to 
 England and Scotland have proceeded most extensively in 
 Ballina, and to a considerable extent in the other unions. 
 I have obtained from trustworthy sources the following 
 returns from two electoral divisions in Ballina and Cas¬ 
 tlebar unions respectively:— 
 
 Union. 
 
 Electoral 
 
 Division. 
 
 Number of Families 
 who have 
 Emigrated or 
 Migrated 
 
 Number of 
 Individuals 
 composing those 
 Families. 
 
 Number of Families 
 who were holders 
 of land. 
 
 Total number of 
 acres occupied by 
 them. 
 
 Number of Families 
 occupying land who 
 departed without 
 
 paying rent. 
 
 Number of Families 
 
 who are known to 
 
 have emigrated to 
 
 N. America. 
 
 Number of Families 
 
 in Great Britain, 
 
 or destination not 
 
 known. 
 
 Total area of 
 
 Electoral Division 
 
 in statute acres. 
 
 Population of 
 
 Electoral Division 
 
 in 1841. 
 
 Ballina . 
 
 Ballysokeery . 
 
 234 
 
 1114 
 
 234 
 
 1459 
 
 193 
 
 153 
 
 81 
 
 12,692 
 
 6034 
 
 Castlebar 
 
 Ballyliean . . 
 
 81 
 
 184 
 
 36 
 
 148 
 
 27 
 
 56 
 
 25 
 
 7,731 
 
 4032 
 
 It may appear almost paradoxical to assert that at a time 
 when so great a diminution of the population has been 
 effected, without any direct interference to promote emigra¬ 
 tion, a further decrease should be required. To understand 
 the peculiar grounds on which this conclusion depends, it is 
 necessary to consider that this part of Ireland has main¬ 
 tained a population occupying the mere margin of civilisa¬ 
 tion, producing sufficient means of subsistence for them¬ 
 selves, but a very small surplus from which capital could 
 accumulate. Upon the occurrence of the calamity which 
 has reduced the largest portion of them to destitution, no 
 resources are found from which the necessities of the 
 destitute can be adequately supplied. 
 
 One of the most disastrous consequences of the change 
 which has reduced a great part of the population to idleness 
 and dependence on public support, is the utter insecurity 
 of property in these districts. Robberies and thefts of all 
 kinds have increased to a most serious extent, and offer a 
 
116 
 
 formidable check to the efforts of improving farmers, or the 
 introduction of new capital into these unfortunate districts. 
 
 A letter from Mr. Graham, a proprietor in Clifden union, 
 published some weeks ago in the “ Times,” contains so 
 clear a statement of the condition of western proprietors that 
 I am induced to reprint it:— 
 
 TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES. 
 
 Dallinakill, Clifden , County of Galway , 
 December 1, 1848. 
 
 Sir, —Being convinced that it is the wish of your journal 
 to be set right on every point connected with the present 
 crisis in Ireland, I beg to say, in the leading article of the 
 “ Times,” dated 17th November, it is stated, that no land¬ 
 lord can for a moment hesitate about the expediency of em¬ 
 barking a large sum in giving employment, and thereby 
 relieving the destitution, in place of allowing the paupers on 
 his estate to remain in half-starved idleness, as recipients of 
 out-door relief; and, “ if his private resources do not enable 
 “ him to adopt this course, by a recent enactment of the 
 “ Legislature, he can procure money from Government as 
 u a loan for the purpose.” You are evidently not aware 
 that by the present Poor Law, the hands of every landlord 
 and ratepayer, anxious to discharge the duties of property 
 in this, and, I may say, in every other respect, are completely 
 paralysed, as they are not only liable to pay an equal portion 
 towards the support of the destitution existing on the badly- 
 managed properties of their neighbours, but also, by an ex¬ 
 traordinary perversion of every principle of justice and 
 common sense, the more employment they give the larger 
 amount of rate they will have to pay, though, probably, 
 most of those individuals to whom that employment has been 
 afforded belong to and reside on other estates, as, when 
 capital is expended on the improvement or reclamation of 
 waste land, a revision takes place, and the rated value is in- 
 
117 
 
 creased to an enormous degree, though the improvement 
 effected is not, nor will be for some time, reproductive. A 
 few facts will exemplify this fully. I am a proprietor in the 
 Clifden union, in which there were at one period last summer 
 21,000 persons receiving relief, out of a population of 30,000. 
 The properties in it are principally of large acreable extent, 
 and nearly one-half the landlords are most anxious that the 
 poor of each estate should be supported by employment 
 given on it by themselves and their tenants, and would 
 guarantee this being effectually done ; but owing to the 
 present state of the law, and the great destitution existing, it 
 is impossible to carry it out, without having also to pay a 
 larger proportion of rate (on account of the improvements 
 which would be made) to support the poor of non-resident 
 and unimproving landlords in other parts of this extensive 
 union, forty miles long, than would fall to the lot of those 
 very’proprietors themselves to pay. A Lancashire gentleman, 
 son to Mr. Eastwood, of Brindle Lodge, near Preston, who 
 has got a lease for ever from me of a large improveable 
 tract, and who in the two years he has resided here, has 
 expended between <£.4000 and £.5000 on it, having em¬ 
 ployed on the average fifty labourers daily, and in summer 
 sometimes as many as 120, most of them belonging to the 
 properties of other proprietors, and there not being one 
 single pauper on the large townland on which he resides, con¬ 
 taining 2658 acres, on the valuation of the union being revised 
 the other day, had his improvements valued at an increase of 
 £.115 a year, though none of them are as yet in the slightest 
 degree reproductive. The result is Mr. Eastwood has dis¬ 
 missed all his labourers, except twelve; and until a change 
 in the law takes place, has completely ceased all his improve¬ 
 ments and employment, by which so many families were 
 supported, who are now thrown on the union as recipients 
 of out-door relief. Another gentleman, Mr. Prior, who has 
 a similar lease from me, and obtained from Government 
 
118 
 
 <£.800 as a loan, under the Act you refer to in your article 
 of the 17th ult., the first instalment of which, .£.160, he has 
 already laid out on his farm, having previously expended a 
 large amount of private capital on it, had his improvements, 
 effected with this Government money, valued, and his rates 
 increased in an equal manner; the consequence of which is, 
 that he wrote last week to the Government, saying he must 
 decline taking the remainder of the £.800, as his doing 
 so would make him liable to pay a greater sum than he 
 even now does, to support the paupers of other estates. 
 A third gentleman, Mr. Crauford Butler, of the county of 
 Carlow, who has also a lease for ever on this estate, and 
 has likewise obtained a loan of <£.1000 from Government, 
 with two instalments of which, <£.400, he has made great 
 improvements, and has reclaimed a good deal of waste 
 ground, having with it, latterly, and with his own private 
 resources for years previously, given most general and 
 extensive employment—having at one period above two 
 hundred men at work daily—has, from the same cause, 
 expressed his determination not to take the remainder of his 
 loan, and has reduced largely the number of his labourers. 
 I mention these facts to show that the attempt has been 
 literally made to carry out your suggestions here, as well 
 as many other parts of Ireland; but owing to the 
 principles of the present Poor Law, the boon granted by 
 the Legislature to benefit the country, by facilitating im¬ 
 provement and employment, is completely nullified; and 
 until the law with respect to improvements on land, being 
 subject to increased rate for a certain extended period, is 
 altered, and until each property or townland is directly liable 
 to support the destitution existing on it, by employment or 
 otherwise, the hands of every man, whether improving land¬ 
 lord or industrious farmer, are completely tied, and the 
 position of this country must go from bad to worse, the 
 laying out of capital on land being completely put a stop 
 
119 
 
 to. A Poor Law is essentially necessary, but it should not 
 be so constituted as effectually to swamp individual exertion, 
 and confound, in one chaos, the good and the bad—those 
 who are desirous of discharging the duties property involves, 
 and those who are not. The many other evils connected 
 wdth the present system of Poor Laws, and its ruinous 
 consequences to the most vital interests of every class of 
 the community, from the landlord, whose property is con¬ 
 fiscated, and the farmer, the fruits of whose industry are 
 swept away by it, down to the pauper who is utterly 
 demoralised by its gratuitous and enervating bounty, I 
 leave to those who will bring them forward more forcibly 
 than I can; but I trust you will use the information I have 
 given you for the purpose of removing the very erroneous 
 impression of the apathy of Irish landlords, which your 
 article of the 17th ult. must have given rise to, and of 
 laying the position in which this country is placed fairly 
 before the British public. 
 
 I have the honour to be, Sir, 
 
 Your most faithful Servant, 
 
 FRANCIS J. GRAHAM. 
 
 Dungarvan, Kanturk, and Listowel Unions. 
 
 The condition of Munster differs in some essential respects 
 from that of the west of Connaught. I have been able to 
 collect some information with reference to three unions in 
 different parts of the province, which represent pretty fairly 
 the condition of the counties in which they are respectively 
 situated. 
 
 Dungarvan Union. 
 
 This union comprises the central part of the county of 
 Waterford, with an area of 151,832 statute acres, valued for 
 Poor Law rating at .£.94,591, and having a population of 
 
120 
 
 G8,642 inhabitants, according to the census of 1841. I have 
 been able to obtain but little accurate information with 
 respect to this union, which is the more to be regretted as it 
 exhibits in a remarkable degree the most striking contrasts 
 between adjacent properties, in respect to the condition of the 
 population and the progress of improvement. 
 
 I am acquainted with the condition of one property upon 
 which the proprietor had been accustomed, for many years, 
 to expend a considerable portion of his income in improve¬ 
 ments. Barren mountain-land had been successfully re¬ 
 claimed, new houses had been built for the farmers and 
 labourers, and a considerable population subsisted in compara¬ 
 tive prosperity. Although there is not a single pauper upon 
 the entire estate, the proprietor paid <£.600 for poor-rates 
 during the past year, and is now liable for an equal amount 
 for the current rate. The result has been to cause a reduction 
 in the amount of employment given by this gentleman, and 
 nearly the entire sum payable for the pauperism of neigh¬ 
 bouring neglected properties, will, in effect, be deducted 
 from the wages of labourers on his own property. 
 
 I have received some trustworthy information with refer¬ 
 ence to the amount of emigration in the western parts of this 
 union. 
 
 The electoral division of Aglish contained 5174 inhabi¬ 
 tants in 1841. During the years 1847 and 1848, 182 
 individuals emigrated, many of them single men, who it is 
 believed will send for their families as soon as they^ are 
 established in America. Of this number thirteen were 
 farmers, occupying about 240 statute acres. The united 
 parishes of Aglish and Whitechurch contained in 1841 a 
 population of 8577 souls. The following, return shows the 
 comparative diminution in births and marriages :— 
 
 Births. Marriages. 
 
 Average of four years, ending 1st 
 
 November, 1846 .. 264 521 
 
 Year ending 1st November, 1848 112 24 
 
121 
 
 In the absence of an accurate registry it is impossible to 
 ascertain with certainty the number of deaths occurring in a 
 given time, but I am assured, upon good authority, that 
 they amounted to not less than 1000 within the last two years, 
 out of a population of about 9000. 
 
 Kanturk Union. 
 
 This union has an area of 2*56,892 statute acres, its valua¬ 
 tion for poor-rate is .£.106,114, and its population in 1841 
 was 85,861. This shows about <£.1 4s. 9 d. of rateable 
 value to each inhabitant; the general proportion in the 
 province of Munster being about <£.1 11s. There are about 
 55,000 acres in the union under crops, the remainder being 
 for the most part mountainous pasture or bog. The fol¬ 
 lowing; table shows the amount of rates struck and levied in 
 the union during the year 1848, together with the propor¬ 
 tion of rateable value to population, and the extent of cul¬ 
 tivated land in each electoral division :— 
 
 Electoral 
 
 Division. 
 
 Poundage 
 Rate struck 
 in March 
 1848. 
 
 Poundage 
 Rate struck 
 in Nov. 
 1848. 
 
 Total 
 of Rates 
 struck in 
 1848. 
 
 Popula¬ 
 tion in 
 1841. 
 
 Proportion 
 of Rated 
 Value to 
 Population 
 
 Acres 
 under 
 Crops in 
 1847. 
 
 Total 
 Area in 
 Statute 
 Acres. 
 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 
 £. 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 
 
 Kanturk .... 
 
 5 
 
 0 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 7,497 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 3G49 
 
 14,421 
 
 Castlemagner 
 
 2 
 
 0 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 10 
 
 3,007 
 
 2 
 
 0 
 
 8 
 
 2922 
 
 7,842 
 
 Clonmeen .. 
 
 4 
 
 G 
 
 2 
 
 G 
 
 7 
 
 0 
 
 7,052 
 
 0 
 
 18 
 
 11 
 
 5223 
 
 21,845 
 
 Cullen. 
 
 5 
 
 0 
 
 2 
 
 G 
 
 7 
 
 G 
 
 5,490 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 11 
 
 3103 
 
 13,675 
 
 Drisliane ... 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 o 
 
 /•%/ 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 8,808 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 4295 
 
 29,885 
 
 Droumtariff . 
 
 G 
 
 0 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 7,271 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 4255 
 
 15,235 
 
 Kilbolane .. 
 
 4 
 
 G 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 0 
 
 4,155 
 
 1 
 
 11 
 
 2 
 
 2848 
 
 9,884 
 
 Kilbrin .... 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 10 
 
 6,92G 
 
 1 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 5088 
 
 14,169 
 
 Kilmeen .... 
 
 5 
 
 0 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 8 
 
 0 
 
 10,380 
 
 0 
 
 17 
 
 1 
 
 G044 
 
 36,708 
 
 Knocktemple. 
 
 5 
 
 0 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 G 
 
 2,933 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 2800 
 
 5,696 
 
 Newmarket.. 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 0 
 
 8,8G3 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 5601 
 
 45,778 
 
 Nohavaldaly . 
 
 2 
 
 6 . 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 0 
 
 3,954 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 2340 
 
 1G,371 
 
 Shandrum .. 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 G.187 
 
 1 
 
 18 
 
 10 
 
 4953 
 
 12,010 
 
 Tullylease .. 
 
 6 
 
 0 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 9 
 
 0 
 
 3,278 
 
 0 
 
 18 
 
 8 
 
 1746 
 
 8,290 
 
 It is seen in the above table that in the year 1848, the 
 poundage-rates in this union have varied from 4s. 8 cl. to 9s. 
 
 I 
 
122 
 
 in the pound. The total amount of rates struck for that 
 year is «£.34,828, or rather more than 32 per cent, upon the 
 net annual value of the entire union. Owing to reductions 
 in rent, it is probable that the entire of this taxation has been 
 borne by the proprietors, and to this cause we may attribute 
 the circumstance that a comparatively small number of 
 farmers have given up their holdings for the purpose of 
 emigrating. Those who have departed belong to the better 
 class of small farmers. I was able to ascertain with some 
 certainty that four persons who have gone from one pro¬ 
 perty in the union had taken about ,£.280 in money in addi¬ 
 tion to their outfit. The result of conversations with some 
 of the proprietors and several intelligent farmers in the 
 union was to satisfy me that the immediate effect of the 
 
 distress of the last three years, and the concurrent increase 
 
 * * 
 
 of taxation, has been to lead all classes of farmers to reduce 
 considerably the amount of employment given to agricul¬ 
 tural labourers. A few active proprietors have applied for 
 loans under the Land Improvement Act, but a much larger 
 number are deterred from so doing by the apprehension of 
 being unable to meet the instalments of repayment required 
 by that Act. 
 
 It will illustrate the preceding statement to give the fol¬ 
 lowing particulars with reference to a single property. 
 
 The estate of Curraghs, in the electoral division of 
 Kilbrin, contains about 2300 statute acres. It is divided 
 into 42 holdings, one of which has been sublet by a tenant 
 to cottier subtenants. Besides the families of the tenants 
 there are about 60 families of labourers, containing about 
 70 able-bodied men living upon the estate. All these 
 labourers were formerly in constant employment with the 
 farmers, and were allowed sixpence a-day besides their own 
 diet. N o money, however, actually passed, as the labourers 
 invariably were allowed con-acre potato land, paid for by 
 their wages, without which, in fact, their families could not 
 
123 
 
 have subsisted at that nominal rate of wa^es. On the failure 
 of the potato-crop in the autumn of 1846, the farmers being 
 seized with the panic which then prevailed, discharged all 
 their labourers, who accordingly sought employment upon 
 the public works. The proprietor applied for advances for 
 drainage under Labouchere’s Letter, and received ,£.700 in 
 the spring of 1847; he has since received £.1700 under the 
 Land Improvement Act; and partly with these sums, 
 and partly from his own funds, he has kept in constant 
 employment nearly all the labourers on the estate, and at 
 times an additional number from the neighbourhood. The 
 • farmers have shown no disposition to take the labourers 
 back lo their employment, and at the present time not 
 more than 10 or 12 are so employed. The proprietor now 
 employs 57 men, but he states that on the completion of the 
 drainage works he cannot continue to give them profitable 
 employment. Some of the most intelligent farmers admitted 
 that the cultivation of the land was much injured by 
 the want of sufficient hands being employed, portion of it 
 being imperfectly tilled. ^ portion being let to run 
 to grass; but the;- otate that having to support 800 or 900 
 paupers, they cannot afford to lay out anything more upon 
 labour. Two of these farmers said that they thought that 
 if the property formed an electoral division to itself, the 
 labourers would all be taken back again into employment 
 by the farmers on the estate. A third farmer wished that 
 all the labourers of the union should be fairly divided 
 amongst the occupiers of land, but he failed to explain 
 how they should in that case be made to work. 
 
 The gentleman above referred to is likewise a proprietor 
 in Cullen and Droumtariff electoral divisions. In the year 
 1847, he attempted to induce the other proprietors in those 
 districts to unite for the purpose of providing employment 
 for the able-bodied poor; in the first-named division he did 
 not receive a single answer to his letters, and, therefore, 
 
124 
 
 abandoned the attempt; in Droumtariff, some partial co¬ 
 operation was effected, and about ,£.1000 was expended in 
 drainage and improvement. 
 
 Listowel Union. 
 
 This union, which includes the northern part of Kerry, has 
 an area of 208,964 acres, the Poor Law valuation is £.97,558, 
 and the population in 1841 was 78,756. These numbers 
 show upon the average of the union a proportion of £.1 4s. 9d. 
 rateable value to each inhabitant, which is the same that 
 exists in Kanturk union, and is somewhat above the average; 
 for the county of Kerry. The following table shows the 
 amount of rates struck in the union during the year 1848, 
 together with other particulars respecting the several electoral 
 divisions : — 
 
 - 
 
 ELECTORAL 
 
 DIVISION. 
 
 03 
 
 +2 
 
 ® C GO 
 
 tx o 
 s: 5 s> 
 
 ^ is £ 
 
 3 
 
 o 
 
 p. 
 
 03 22 
 
 c£ _ CO 
 
 cs .s ~ 
 
 © ^ 
 
 S’ S 
 - ~ 
 c » S 
 o o 
 
 — z, ; 
 
 c tt 
 Q3 
 
 c3 
 
 r— 
 
 %- 
 
 cz 
 
 O 
 
 struck in 1848. 
 
 V 
 
 Pop lation 
 ir. 1841. 
 
 Proportion 
 of Rated 
 Value to 
 Population. 
 
 No. of Acres 
 under Crops 
 in 1847. 
 
 Total Area 
 in Statute 
 Acres. 
 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 
 £. 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 
 
 Abbeydorney . 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 0 
 
 3142 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 0 
 
 1908 
 
 7,228 
 
 Ardfert 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 ‘9 
 
 G 
 
 3583 
 
 1 
 
 0 
 
 G 
 
 1891 
 
 5,633 
 
 Ballyheigne . 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 4 
 
 0 
 
 7 
 
 0 
 
 4795 
 
 0 
 
 14 
 
 5 
 
 192o 
 
 J 1 .873 
 
 Ballylongford 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 
 10 
 
 GG06 
 
 1 
 
 0 
 
 5 
 
 3121 
 
 16,761 
 
 Dromkeen 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 G 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 8 
 
 6480 
 
 0 
 
 16 
 
 7 
 
 2950 
 
 11,084 
 
 Duagh . 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 3 
 
 G 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 4411 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 3448 
 
 16,763 
 
 Gunsborougli 
 
 0 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 3247 
 
 1 
 
 17 
 
 0 
 
 2152 
 
 13,770 
 
 Kilconly 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 9 
 
 9 
 
 5 
 
 9 
 
 2210 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 831 
 
 5,743 
 
 Kilfeigliuv 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 2317 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 1274 
 
 10,232 
 
 Kilflvn 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 0 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 1088 
 
 1 
 
 12 
 
 1 
 
 1012 
 
 G,696 
 
 Kill all an 
 
 o 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 11 
 
 1555 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 1078 
 
 4,054 
 
 Killahimiv 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 8 
 
 3050 
 
 0 
 
 18 
 
 3 
 
 1162 
 
 4,673 
 
 Kilmoyly 
 
 9 
 
 /V 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 5 
 
 G 
 
 5371 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 3790 
 
 9,391 
 
 Kilslienane 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 7 
 
 3 
 
 2342 
 
 1 
 
 7 
 
 0 
 
 2G85 
 
 14,655 
 
 Kiltomy 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 5 
 
 G 
 
 4145 
 
 1 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 2220 
 
 12,773 
 
 Knock anure . 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 2012 
 
 1 
 
 18 
 
 0 
 
 989 
 
 8,937 
 
 Lisselton 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 3 
 
 G 
 
 6 
 
 G 
 
 ’2G38 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 1422 
 
 8,290 
 
 Listowel 
 
 2 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 G 
 
 0 
 
 7715 
 
 1 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 3556 
 
 13,968 
 
 Newton Sandes 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 
 3293 
 
 1 
 
 9 
 
 0 
 
 3201 
 
 10,699 
 
 Battoo . . 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 6 
 
 0 
 
 3654 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 1972 
 
 7,032 
 
 Tarbert 
 
 0 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 5102 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 11 
 
 2788 
 
 9,204 
 
125= 
 
 The rates vary from 3$. 6d. to 9s. 8 d. in the several elec- 
 toral divisions. The small number in which the taxation 
 has not exceeded a poundage-rate of 5s. do not appear to 
 have suffered very much, but in the greater number of the 
 electoral divisions of this union the symptoms of over-taxa¬ 
 tion are only too manifest. A considerable number of the 
 middling class of farmers have emigrated during the last two 
 years, and the practice of departing surreptitiously (usually 
 by night) carrying away moveables, and leaving rent and 
 other debts unpaid, has become exceedingly common. I 
 have not yet obtained returns which would show the nature 
 and extent of the emigration which has taken place, but 
 from my inquiries I am persuaded that the effect as hitherto 
 conducted has been still further to depress the condition of 
 the labouring class, by diminishing the proportion of capital 
 to labour. Some facts illustrative of the working of the law 
 in this union are stated in Mr. Crosbie’s letter (Appendix, GJI 
 1 shall close these observations by remarking that ■ 
 more especially in districts similarly circumstanced to thi? 
 union, that the emigration of that portion of the labouring 
 class who cannot be employed with the amount of capital now 
 applied to agriculture, would contribute powerfully to the 
 progress of improvement. A certain impulse has been 
 given, some enterprise and capital are forthcoming, but at 
 present they have to struggle with the depressing effects of 
 excessive taxation; and it is to be feared, that if this should 
 continue, enterprise will be deadened and capital unproduc- 
 tively wasted. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 FRINTED BI T. BRETT ELL, RUPERT STREET, HAT MARKET.