HV 
 
 249 
 
 16R32
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 EVILS OF THE STATE 
 
 OF 
 
 IRELAND: 
 
 THEIR CAUSES, AND THEIR REMEDY 
 
 A POOR LAW. 
 
 BY JOHN REVANS. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JOHN HATCHARD AND SON, 187 PICCADILLY. 
 
 HALF-A-CROWN.]
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED BY C. AND W. REYNKLL, 
 LITTLE PULTENEY STREET.
 
 MV 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 HAVING held the office of Secretary to the Poor Law Inquiry 
 for England and Wales, which led to the Amendment of the 
 Laws in 1834, and subsequently that of Secretary to the Poor 
 Inquiry Commission in Ireland, I have had peculiar opportu- 
 nities for contrasting a state of society in which the most 
 extensive public provision for the destitute has long been estab- 
 lished, with one in which there is as little public provision as in 
 any country in Europe. No other person has enjoyed equal 
 opportunities, for no other person was engaged on both in- 
 quiries. The power of making the contrast is thus almost 
 peculiarly mine. It becomes therefore my duty, as a public 
 servant, to lay the knowledge which favourable circumstances 
 have enabled me to acquire before the country, in order that it 
 may come to a correct judgment respecting the important sub- 
 ject in the inquiry about which I was appointed to assist. I 
 would hope that by thus attempting to be useful I take the 
 best means of showing myself worthy of the two important 
 trusts which his Majesty's Government thought fit to confer 
 upon me. 
 
 Few, perhaps, will be able to conceive, that the mode in which 
 the destitute in society shall be subsisted can afford matter for very 
 grave consideration. The mass of mankind consider it purely a 
 question of benevolence to the poor, or of convenience to the 
 wealthy. They are not aware that it is intimately connected with 
 wages, with capital, with rent, with crime, with population, and 
 even with education ; and that it vitally affects the interests of 
 every member of society, although apparently only concerning a 
 very insignificant portion of a single class. 
 
 From the investigation which 1 was enabled to make in the 
 four years during which 1 was engaged upon the two inquiries, 
 I am convinced that the advantages of a public provision for the 
 destitute able-bodied greatly preponderate over the evils ; 
 and that to the absence of Poor Laws in Ireland, and to the 
 
 3012497
 
 existence of them in England, the present difference between 
 those countries, both for centuries under the same Government, 
 and with nearly the same laws, is mainly attributable. With Poor 
 Laws the people of England have become the most comfortable, 
 whilst, without them, the people of Ireland have remained the most 
 wretched community in Europe. In Ireland, famine is almost of 
 annual recurrence ; crime is there frightful, both from its atrocity 
 and its extent; agriculture in the rudest state; manufactures 
 scarcely in existence ; and the country overrun with hordes of 
 wandering mendicants. In England famine is now only matter 
 of history ; crime less perhaps than in any other country ; agri- 
 culture in the highest perfection ; and manufactures, both in 
 extent and in perfection, are unrivalled. Yet the people of 
 Ireland are clever, industrious, and kind-hearted ; the soil 
 superior to that of England, and the climate equal. 
 
 On the one hand, the political disqualification, during cen- 
 turies, of the great majority of the population, and the compulsory 
 payments to a Church, to the tenets of which they did not sub- 
 scribe, have been assigned as the causes of the present state of 
 Ireland. But granting to these their fullest powers, they are 
 incapable of producing such a state of society. A very con- 
 siderable body of the people of England were similarly circum- 
 stanced during nearly an equal period. The Protestant Dissenters 
 of England bore the same relation to the State Church as did 
 the Catholics of Ireland, both as to political disqualification and 
 as to forcible payments in support of the Ministers of that 
 Church. Yet the Dissenters of England throve and were 
 peaceable, whilst the Catholics of Ireland were wretched and 
 turbulent. The Dissenters of England long paid tithes and church 
 dues without a murmur, whilst the Catholics of Ireland were 
 constantly in rebellion. 
 
 On the other hand, the wretchedness of Ireland is attri- 
 buted to the influence of the prevailing faith. It is certainly 
 remarkable that the Catholic communities both of Europe and 
 of America are generally inferior in civilization to the Protestant. 
 In the north of Scotland, however the people of which are Pro- 
 testant, a state of society exists nearly approximating to that in 
 Ireland ; whilst the Catholic peasantry of Prussia, of France, and 
 of Belgium, are equal in condition to those of the Protestant 
 countries in the north of Europe. Spain, Portugal, Italy, and 
 the Venetian States, have each held a higher position in 
 power, in wealth, and in commerce, though Catholic, than 
 either of the Protestant countries of Europe, excepting Holland 
 and England. And it is a singular circumstance that England is 
 indebted for her principal manufactures to Catholic communities ;
 
 to Flanders for her woollen manufacture, to France and Italy for 
 her cotton ; to Italy for the the introduction, and to France for 
 the improvement of her silk manufacture. 
 
 I think it may be said, that states of civilization and particular 
 creeds are co-existing effects, rather than the cause or the conse- 
 quence of each other. The cause of both being a particular state 
 of mind, or degree of knowledge. It could hardly be said that the 
 worship of external objects, or of a plurality of Deities, are the 
 causes of a savage not cultivating the arts of civilization. 
 
 The wretchedness of the Irish peasantry in sometimes attri- 
 buted to the excess of their number compared with the extent of 
 the land. I find, however, upon comparing purely agricultural 
 countries in Ireland with those which are purely agricultural in 
 England, that there is no foundation for the assertion. Galway, 
 the population of which is one of the most wretched in Ireland, 
 contains as many acres to each individual as Berks, Bucks, 
 Devon, Essex, Monmouth, Norfolk, Hampshire, and Suffolk; 
 half an acre to each individual more than Bedford and Sussex ; 
 and an acre to each individual more than Hertford, Kent, and 
 Wiltshire. Meath, which is purely a grazing county, contains 
 three acres to each individual, whilst Hertfordshire, also a 
 grazing county, has only two acres to each individual. Yet 
 there is scarcely a more wretched peasantry in Ireland than 
 that of Meath, and scarcely a better conditioned peasantry in 
 England than that of Hertfordshire. Kildare, the population 
 of which is as wretched as that of any county in Leinster, has 
 a larger proportion of land to its population than any county 
 in England, with the exceptions of Dorset, Hereford, Lincoln, 
 and Oxford. There are but four counties in the whole of Muns- 
 ter, Leinster, and Connaught ; viz : Cork, Louth, Longford, and 
 Sligo, which have a smaller comparative acreage than Kent, 
 Wilts, and Hertford. This comparison is peculiarly favourable 
 to the assertion, as it claims no allowance for the acknowledged 
 superior fertility of the soil of Ireland. Those who attribute the 
 wretchedness of Ireland to the excess of its population, will of 
 course admit that the agricultural populations will be in a good 
 or a bad state, as each county may have a large or a small pro- 
 portional acreage. Kerry and Kildare have 31 acres to each in- 
 dividual, whilst Louth has only l, yet assuredly the condition of 
 the peasantry of Louth is superior to that of Kerry or Kildare. 
 Again, Waterford, in which the peasantry are fully as comfortable 
 as in any county in the south of Ireland, has an acre and a half 
 less to each person than Kerry and Kildare, and an acre less than 
 Galway and Meath. In making these calculations I have de- 
 ducted the unprofitable land.
 
 The non-residence of a large number of the proprietors has 
 also been stated to be the cause of the present condition of Ire- 
 land. It will, however, be seen, on reference to the subject of 
 " Landlord and Tenant," in the Appendix F. to the Keport of 
 the Irish Poor Commissioners, that the people on the estates of 
 absentee, are frequently in a better condition than those on the 
 estates of resident proprietors. Many properties in England are 
 rarely visited by those to whom they belong; the proprietors of 
 others chiefly reside in France or in Italy ; and on some estates 
 there is not even a residence. Yet I never heard it remarked 
 that the absence of the proprietor was an evil, and I do not be- 
 lieve that the people care whether he is present or absent. 
 
 The state of Belgium is a remarkable refutation of two of the 
 theories relative to Ireland. The population of that country is 
 Catholic, and the lands are much subdivided, yet the people are 
 prosperous and orderly, the cultivation of the land is of the 
 highest description, and manufactures flourish. But a provision 
 for the destitute has existed in Belgium longer than in any 
 country excepting England. 
 
 Although I do not consider it to be a conclusive argument in 
 favour of a public provision for the destitute, that in the most 
 prosperous countries of Europe and America an extensive pro- 
 vision has long existed ; still I do think the fact perfectly refutes 
 the assertion, that poor laws are destructive to the wealth and 
 morals of society. In England, the South of Scotland, Holland, 
 Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Prussia, Denmark, the Hanstowns, 
 most of the German States, and parts of Switzerland, there has 
 long been a most extensive provision for the poor whilst in Ire- 
 land, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Sardinia, Greece, and Turkey, there 
 is not any. Again, the United States of North America have 
 poor laws, but the countries of South America have not. 
 (Foreign Communications, Appendix F, ' Poor Law Inquiry in 
 England.') 
 
 In order to exhibit the advantages to be derived from a pro- 
 vision for the destitute, I shall first show how the peculiar evils 
 which afflict Ireland arise, and how a Poor Law would prevent 
 them ; I shall then show to what extent similar evils have been 
 avoided in England by the adoption of a Poor Law ; and shall 
 conclude with the extent and causes of the evils which have arisen 
 from a public provision in England and in other countries.
 
 NATURE AND CAUSES OF THE EVILS OF 
 IRELAND. 
 
 As the population of Ireland is almost entirely agricultural, 
 and as no information, which can be relied upon, was obtained 
 by the Poor Inquiry Commission relative to the population of the 
 few large towns, 1 shall confine my remarks to the rural popu- 
 lation. 
 
 The circumstances under which the rural population of Ireland 
 earn their subsistence are quite different from those which obtain 
 in England. The rural population of Ireland for the most part 
 can neither be designated petty farmers nor labourers, in the 
 sense in which those terms are applied in Great Britain. 
 Scarcely with an exception, the whole of the peasantry hold land, 
 and also hire themselves for wages. Some hold more land than 
 others some work more for hire than others.* Their holdings 
 vary from one to ten or twelve acres. Those who hold above 
 five acres of land are called " small farmers,"t and give the prin- 
 cipal part of the produce as rent: those who hold land not 
 exceeding two acres generally receive the land in lieu of wages 
 from those by whom they are permanently employed. They 
 are termed " cottiers, "J and form a small class; they are far 
 more numerous in some districts than in others; and are the 
 labourers of the gentry and of farmers who hold more than 20 
 acres. Both classes are equally destitute of capital, and might 
 be designated labourers paid in land. One class till ten or twelve 
 acres each, and are allowed to retain a subsistence for themselves 
 and their families out of the produce. The other class give 
 their labour for as much land as in fair seasons will yield sufficient 
 food for themselves and their families. Between those who pay 
 their rents entirely by labouring for their landlords, and those who 
 wholly depend upon the produce of their holdings for the payment 
 of their rents, there is every possible gradation; some being 
 more dependant upon their farms than upon hire, whilst others 
 depend more upon hire than upon their farms for the means of 
 making such payments. 
 
 Between the cottier and his landlord and employer a rate of 
 wages and a rate of rent are always fixed. From the double con- 
 nection which exists between them as tenant and labourer on the 
 one hand, and landlord and employer on the other, little can 
 be learned of the condition of the peasant by knowing the rate 
 of wages for which he contracts. High wages may be named and 
 
 * The term " landholder " does not mean, as in England, the proprietor 
 or holder in fee : in Ireland it means the occupying tenant. 
 
 f For the circumstances of this class see " Small Tenantry," App. F. 
 J For the circumstances of this class see " Cottier Tenants," App. D.
 
 6 
 
 be passed to the credit of the peasant, but a rent high in comparison 
 with the wages may be placed to his d^bit; and thus he may 
 only be enabled to pay the rent of a piece of ground sufficient 
 for the production of potatoes for the subsistence of his family. 
 One peasant working at sixpence a day may be as well paid as 
 another who receives a shilling a day for his labour, if the em- 
 ployer, in his capacity of landlord, charges a rent for the land 
 proportionate to the rate of wages which he allows. It will 
 generally prove to be the case, that the rent charged to the 
 cottier is in proportion to the rate of his wages, the rent, like 
 the wages, being nominal. The real or actual gain of the peasant 
 in all cases, is about as much land as will yield food barely suffi- 
 cient for his family. The rent of a cabin is always one of the 
 charges which the employer has to make against the wages of 
 his cottier. The cabin is generally a hovel 16 or 20 feet square, 
 the walls of which are made of mud, and its roof of a bad thatch. 
 This hovel rarely contains more than one apartment : the thatch, 
 black from smoke, forms the ceiling ; and the earth on which it 
 stands constitutes the floor. It is frequently without any chim- 
 ney, or with one so badly constructed as to be of but little use. 
 The door is a few boards roughly put together, or perhaps a 
 hurdle ; and a hole in the wall, a foot or eighteen inches square, 
 occasionally containing a few pieces of glass, constitute the 
 window. The cost of erecting these cabins averages 6/. or 11. 
 The annual rent charged to the cottier is 305. or 21., which is the 
 same sum as the labourers in most parts of England pay for their 
 cottages, which cost SO/, or 100/. to erect, consist of four rooms, 
 two on the ground floor and two above, are roofed with tiles or 
 slates, are boarded, plastered, have brick chimneys and iron 
 grates, and have out-houses attached to them which cover more 
 ground, and cost more to erect, than the Irish cottier's hovel. 
 The charge made to the cottier for his cabin will give an idea 
 of the manner in which his wages are absorbed. If the cot- 
 tier refused to accept the cabin at such a rent, his employer 
 would dismiss him. The cottier approximates in the nature of 
 his engagements to the " hind " of Northumberland or Durham. 
 But that such payment in kind is not necessarily disadvantageous 
 to the labourer is clearly proved by the condition of the Northum- 
 brian hinds, who, under that system, are far more comfortable 
 and prosperous than the agricultural labourers in any other part 
 of England. 
 
 Wages in the rural districts of Ireland may almost be said not 
 to exist, though from the infinite variety of rates which are cited 
 in the answers to the questions issued by the Poor Commis- 
 sioners, agricultural employment, as conducted in England, might
 
 be supposed to be very extensive. The inconsistency amongst 
 the various answers is, however, a proof of wages being nominal, 
 and shows the absence of any regular or market rate for labour. 
 
 Besides the " small farmers " and the " cottiers," there 
 is a further class of peasantry the most wretched class in 
 Ireland those who hold barely sufficient land to produce the 
 food of their families, and who are not employed by the persons 
 under whom they occupy. The situation of this class is ex- 
 tremely painful, as they depend for the means of paying their 
 rents upon casual employment, and upon the extra demand for 
 labour which arises at seed time, turf cutting, at harvest, and 
 during other busy seasons. They migrate to England annually, 
 for the purpose of making, during the harvest, something 
 towards the rent of their con-acre ; and their wives and children 
 in the meantime beg about the country. This class, who may be 
 called " casual labourers" are sometimes termed " labourers," 
 and sometimes " con-acre-men." * 
 
 Con-acre, or as it is in some parts of Ireland termed, 
 score, quarter, rood and mock ground, is ground hired by the 
 crop, and not by the year; usually for one crop, but occa- 
 sionally for two or more. The tenant receives the land 
 just in time to prepare it for the seed, and surrenders it as 
 soon as the crop has been secured. It is principally hired for 
 growing potatoes, but occasionally for oats ; and in the north of 
 Ireland sometimes, though very rarely, for flax. The terms of 
 the contract vary greatly. Sometimes the person from whom the 
 con-acre is taken engages to manure, to plough, and to cart the 
 crop; frequently he does not undertake to afford any assistance. 
 The price charged for the land of course depends upon the aid 
 which the tenant requires, f This practice is by no means pecu- 
 liar to Ireland ; it is exceedingly common in Cornwall, Devonshire, 
 Somersetshire, and in some of the midland counties of England. 
 
 The answers to the questions in the supplement to Appendix D, 
 concerning the average earnings of " cottiers " and " labourers," 
 are calculated greatly to mislead those who are not well ac- 
 quainted with the system prevalent in Ireland. Most of those 
 answers state the sum which an ordinary labourer will earn 
 during the year, and allude to his holding a piece of land as if 
 it were in addition to his wages ; whilst the land is the supposed 
 value, and is given in lieu of the nominal money wages, or at 
 least in lieu of and absorbing a large portion of them. At first sight 
 
 * For the circumstances of this class see " Labourers out of employment," 
 App. A. ;' also, " Earnings of Labourers," App. D. to Report of Irish Poor 
 Commissioners. 
 
 t See " Con-acre," App. F.
 
 8 
 
 there appears to be an inconsistency in the evidence. It states 
 that there is a great surplus of labour, and yet that the labourers 
 seldom hire themselves without receiving some money in addi- 
 tion to diet, though sometimes they accept Id. or 2d. It may 
 seem extraordinary that competition does not reduce wages to 
 the mere subsistence of the labourer. Of course, the small 
 farmer would not work for food alone, and the cottier has a 
 regular engagement. The third class of peasantry, " the casual 
 labourers," are the only class who could be expected to work 
 merely for food ; but they will not, because their sole object in 
 seeking employment is to obtain the means of paying for their 
 con-acre. If the produce of their con -acre be exhausted, and 
 their earnings are not sufficient to support their wives and 
 children, they must subsist wholly, or in part, by begging. The 
 labourer naturally feels, that if his wife and children must beg, 
 he may as well partake of their collection, as work hard for no 
 better fare. It would be strange if he were willing to work hard 
 for food, which he could obtain without work. He is not driven 
 to the painful degradation of begging his food : his appearance 
 would be rather prejudicial to the success of his wife and children, 
 who usually beg as widows and orphans. His pride is not more 
 wounded by their begging for his food than for their own : if he 
 accept a sum less than sufficient to support his family, he is quite 
 as much degraded as if he reject employment. Vagrancy, in fact, 
 has put a minimum to wages. The reason usually assigned for 
 wages not falling to the mere subsistence of the labourer himself 
 is^ that farmers will not consent to give less than the ordinary 
 wages, or at all events, will not accept labour for mere food. It 
 is far more probable that the farmers, knowing the labourers have 
 no motive to work under a certain sum, do not offer less, than that 
 men who are themselves but little above destitution, should be 
 so thoughtful of the interests of others ! Whatever may be the 
 mode in which the rent of the peasantry is paid, or their means 
 of subsistence obtained, in one thing they are all equal none has 
 more than a bare subsistence for himself and his family. If one 
 state be better than another, it is that of the peasant who receives 
 a portion of land sufficient to yield food for his family, as the 
 payment for permanent employment. The farmer of ten acres 
 has apparently the best means, because he has the most land; 
 but then he holds it under a rent which does not entitle him to 
 retain even so much of its produce as is required for his subsis- 
 tence, and he is therefore constantly in debt to, and under the 
 power of the person of whom he holds. 
 
 It must not be supposed that the whole of Ireland is 
 divided into petty holdings of ten or twelve acres. In some
 
 9 
 
 districts there are farms containing many hundred acres 
 each. One farm in the county Meath contains 1,700 
 Irish, or 2,500 English, acres ; another, in King's County, 
 contains 500 Irish, or 800 English, acres; a third, in Galway, 
 contains 1,000 Irish, or 1,700 English, acres. But farms in 
 Ireland above 50 acres are almost always appropriated to 
 grazing, and therefore require scarcely any labour; one or 
 two persons upon each farm being sufficient to look after the 
 herds and flocks. Mayo may be instanced to prove that Ireland 
 is not completely divided into small holdings. In that county 
 there is perhaps a larger body of petty holders than in any other 
 in Ireland, and yet the population and acreage of that county 
 bear the same proportion to each other as do those of Hertford- 
 shire. The same proportions hold between Connaught and 
 Suffolk. The counties in Connaught, and Suffolk, and Hertford- 
 shire, have been selected for comparison, because they are pecu- 
 liarly free from manufactures. 
 
 As it may fairly be said of the Irish peasantry, that every family 
 which has not sufficient land to yield its food has one or more 
 of its members supported by begging, it will easily be conceived 
 that every endeavour is made by the peasantry to obtain small 
 holdings, and that they are not influenced in their biddings by the 
 fertility of the land, or by their ability to pay the rent, but 
 solely by the offer which is the most likely to gain them possession. 
 The rents which they promise, they are almost invariably 
 incapable of paying; consequently they become indebted to 
 those under whom they hold, almost as soon as they take posses- 
 sion. They give up in the shape of rent the whole produce of 
 the land with the exception of a sufficiency of potatoes for a 
 subsistence ; but as this is rarely equal to the promised rent, they 
 constantly have against them an increasing balance. In some 
 cases, the largest quantity of produce which their holdings ever 
 yielded, or which, under their system of tillage, they could in the 
 most favourable seasons be made to yield, would not be equal to the 
 rent bid; consequently, if the peasant fulfilled his engagement 
 with his landlord, which he is rarely able to accomplish, he woiild 
 till the ground for nothing, and give his landlord a premium for 
 being allowed to till it. On the sea-coast, fishermen, and in the 
 northern counties, those who have looms, frequently pay more in 
 rent than the market value of the whole produce of the land they 
 hold. It might be supposed, that they would be better without 
 land under such circumstances. But fishing might fail during a 
 week or two, and so might the demand for the produce of the 
 loom, when, did they not possess the land upon which their food is 
 grown, they might starve. The full amount of the rent bid,
 
 10 
 
 however, is rarely paid. The peasant remains constantly in 
 debt to his landlord ; his miserable possessions the wretched 
 clothing of himself and of his family, the two or three stools, 
 and the few pieces of crockery, which his wretched hovel con- 
 tains, would not, if sold, liquidate the standing and generally 
 accumulating debt. The peasantry are mostly a year in 
 arrear, and their excuse for not paying more is destitution. 
 Should the produce of the holding, in any year, be more than 
 usually abundant, or should the peasant by any accident become 
 possessed of any property, his comforts cannot be increased he 
 cannot indulge in better food, nor in a greater quantity of it. 
 His furniture cannot be increased, neither can his wife or 
 children be better clothed. The acquisition must go to the 
 person under whom he holds. The accidental addition will 
 enable him to reduce his arrear of rent, and thus to defer what 
 must sooner or later happen ejectment. But this must be the 
 bound of his expectation. 
 
 Galtcay. F 35. " If 1 now let it be known that 1 had a farm of five acres 
 to let, I should have fifty bidders in four-and-twenty hours, and all of them 
 would be ready to promise any rent that might be asked." (Mr Birmingham.) 
 The landlord takes on account, whatever portion of the rent the tenant 
 may be able to offer; the remainder he does not remit, but allows to remain 
 over. A remission of a portion of the rent in either plenty or scarce seasons 
 
 never made as a matter of course; when it does take place it is looked upon 
 as a favour. 
 
 The labourer is, from the absence of any other means of subsisting himself 
 and family, thrown upon the hire of land, and the land he must hire at any 
 rate : the payment of the promised rent is an after consideration ; he always 
 offers such a rent as leaves him nothing of the produce for his own use but 
 potatoes ; his corn being entirely for his landlord's claim. (Rev. Mr Hughes, 
 p. p. and Parker.). 
 
 Leitrim. F. 36 & 37. So great is the competition for small holdings, that if 
 a farm of five acres were vacant, I really believe that nine out of every ten 
 men in the neighbourhood would bid for it if they thought they had the least 
 chance of getting it ; they would be prepared to outbid each other, ad infinitum, 
 in order to get possession of the land ; the rent which the people themselves 
 would deem moderate, would not in any case admit of their making use of any 
 other food than potatoes ; there are even many instances in this barony where 
 the occupier cannot feed himself and family off the land he holds. In his 
 anxiety to grow as much oats (his only marketable produce) as will meet the 
 various claims upon him, he devotes so small a space to the cultivation of 
 potatoes that he is obliged to take a portion of con-acre and to pay for it by 
 wages earned at a time when he would have been better employed on his own 
 
 account. (Rev. T. Afaguire, p. p.) "Where no man," says Mr Armstrong, 
 
 " can calculate on a sufficiency of employment to procure him even a diet of 
 potatoes, the possessor of land alone is certain that he can raise enough of 
 that article for his consumption, and he will promise anything to obtain it." 
 " He must starve or agree to any terms that will procure him a portion of 
 ground, unless he be willing to beg " (Nixon.) 
 
 The labourer has neither a good stitch to his back, nor a good bit in his 
 belly. (Rev. T. Maguire, p. p.)
 
 11 
 
 Mayo. F. 40. If a farm of 10 acres were vacant to morrow you would 
 have from 50 to 100 people looking after it; they would outbid each other to 
 any ;:mount, and promise to pay anything rather than lose it. (Theo. Burke.) 
 
 " The labourer here has no means of living but by getting a piece of land : 
 the truth is he has no other chance; and if the portion be very small, he may 
 have it for nothing, and yet cet no more than a mere existence ; but when a 
 man is miserable in the face of the world, he wi=l promise to pay any rent he is 
 asked." (Kearney.) " If a man had any other way of obtaining a liveli- 
 hood he would not be such a fool as to pay so high a rent. ( Rev. Mr Dwyer, 
 p. P.) 
 
 Stigo. F. 42. The competition for small holdings is so great, that the bid- 
 der offers a rent which he knows he cannot pay. If there be a man going to 
 emigrate to America, on account of his rent being too high, he can always 
 find a person to give him money for his place, and to promise to pay the high 
 
 rent besides. (Rev. Mr Brennan, v. p.) If a farm of 5 or 10 acres were 
 
 vacant in this barony, there would be 40 or 50 who would make proposals over 
 each other's heads; they would take their chance of paying the rent: all they 
 want is to get into possession of the land. (Dodwell.) 
 
 Where there is not employment sufficient for the population the labourer is 
 wholly thrown on the hire of land for a subsistence, and thus, with the alter- 
 native of starvation to himself and family, he is compelled to agree to any 
 
 terms in order to obtain it. (Rev. Mr M' Hugh, p. p., and Mr O'Connor.) 
 
 There is no doubt but that he is thus induced to bid a rent which he knows 
 well is out of his power to pay, and is obliged to give up, in the shape of rent, 
 all but a mere existence; he is only anxious to get hold of the land. (Mr 
 Richard Yates.) 
 
 Dublin. F. 45. If a farm of 5 or 10 acres becomes vacant, competition in- 
 duces the bidders to offer any rent, trusting to the chance of the landlord 
 afterwards reducing it. In this statement the witnesses were unanimous. 
 
 Queen's County. F. 59. If a farm of 5 or 10 acres were vacant in this 
 barony, full 20 or 30 bidders would appear, and bid almost any rent for it : 
 this is caused by the great scarcity of these small farms, from so many having 
 been thrown together into larger ones. 
 
 The landlord usually takes as much of the promised rent as the tenant is 
 able to pay, allowing the remainder to stand over for a time. As already 
 mentioned, the rent is generally allowed to be nearly six months in arrear in 
 the country districts, but near towns only three months. This allowance is 
 made in all years, but more particularly, and in some cases to a greater extent 
 in years of distress. 
 
 The absence of other means of living is the cause of the exorbitant rents 
 paid (or rather undertaken to be paid, for in many cases it it utterly impossi- 
 ble for them to pay them) by the small occupiers : one of them holding five 
 acres, who was present when the Assistant Commissioners were inquiring upon 
 this point, stated his own case in illustration of the fact. His rent was so 
 high that he could not pay it, and get even the barest subsistence; he was 
 consequently in debt, and going fast to total ruin : but what was he to do for 
 an existence ? 
 
 fVicklow. F.59. The competition for small holdings, as single acres,&c., is 
 so great that the peasant wilt bid almost any rent to get possession of one of 
 them, and accordingly the rent is always exorbitantly high, especially as those 
 holdings are almost invariably let by small middle-men, who exact as much as 
 they can wring from the unfortunate tenant, the latter undertaking to pay it 
 in the hope of better times, and trusting to his landlord's compassion for a 
 reduction if prices do not improve.
 
 12 
 
 Small tradesmen, dealers, and others very frequently pay more in rent than 
 is produced on the land. 
 
 The cottier tenant is never able to retain more than a bare subsistence to 
 himself and family, and sometimes not even that. 
 
 The absence of employment throws the labourer upon land as his only 
 means of existence, and thus compels him to submit to any terms in order to 
 obtain it. 
 
 Kerry Truaghanacmy . F. 63. Most abatements that are madein rent are only 
 temporary ; a great number of farmers are under arrears, and have not had 
 them excused. " Middle-men, in some cases, formerly allowed a hanging gale, 
 and then distressed the tenant by calling it suddenly in ; but this has not taken 
 place of late years. Very little arrears of rent have been excused." (Messrs 
 
 Powell and Roche.) It is said, " Such remission certainly does not take 
 
 place as a matter of course. The last three years have been very severe on 
 tenants, and have caused them to go still further into arrear than before." 
 " The cottier tenant, from the rent he pays, is not able to retain for himself 
 and family more than a bare subsistence of the poorest kind of food." (Mr 
 Twiss.) " It is my impression that the small farmers are not in more distress 
 than the class above them." (Mr Twiss.) 
 
 " Rents are raised from the great competition for land." (Mr Miles, Roche.) 
 
 They will run great risks to get land, but we do not think they take land 
 
 without hoping to make the rent of it. Twenty years ago they certainly used 
 to bid rents which they knew they could not pay, but a great alteration has 
 taken place in that respect. (Messrs Powell, O'Leary, Ticiss.) 
 
 Limerick, Conello. F. 64. " A labourer is wholly thrown upon the hire of 
 land for his subsistence, and must agree to any terms the farmer demands. 
 The farmer certainly charges as high a rent as possible for land let to a 
 labourer, and the labourer is willing to take it at an extravagant rent, to get 
 with the land a certainty of employment." (Colonel Dickson, Mr Royal, &c.) 
 
 " He is thus induced to bid a rent which he knows he cannot pay, and must 
 give up everything but an existence." Mr Broicn says, " They will offer any 
 rent to get a roof over them." 
 
 Coshlea. F. 65. A very high rent is always bid for small holdings, " so 
 high that the peasant could seldom pay it except by labour." There are few 
 farms of so small a size as five or 10 acres in this district; but if such a farm 
 was to be let, there would be a great number of bidders, and many of them 
 would offer a rent which the ground could not afford ; their great object would 
 be to get possession of the land. 
 
 Waterford ) Middlethird. F. 71. It is said that, if a farm of five or ten 
 acres were vacant in the barony, " an immense number of competitors would 
 come forward, and they would bid a rent which they knew they could not 
 keep ; they would hope to get a reduction, or to keep possession of the land 
 though they could not pay the whole rent." 
 
 Almost all the tenants are more or less in arrear, having become so during 
 the late bad years. The landlords are not in the habit of forgiving or remit- 
 ting those portions of the rent which the tenants are unable to make up ; 
 they usually remain over as arrears. The proportion of rent left unpaid varies 
 in each year, and according to the difference of landlords' means and disposi- 
 tions. It is stated that rents have not generally been lowered, but since times 
 became so bad, landlords have not received their full rents. A small tenant is 
 not often able to retain from the produce of his holding more than a bare 
 subsistence for himself and his family. 
 
 The witnesses agree in the statement that the labourer, from the absence of 
 other means of living, being so much thrown on the price of land or con-acre
 
 13 
 
 for subsistence, is induced to bid a rent for it which he knows he cannot pay, 
 and to give up to his landlord everything but a bare subsistence. 
 
 Cavan. F. 73. A man bidding for a farm, does not take into account the 
 value of the land at all, he will bid anything that will get it for him. (Mr. 
 Walsh.-) 
 
 " If a farm of five or ten acres were vacant in this barony, there would be 
 
 fifty, every man of them, bidding for it." (Mr Carmichael.) It does not, 
 
 however, follow from this that fanning is profitable, the contrary is the case; 
 " farmers are breaking down as fast as they can." The competition for the 
 tenant-right of a farmer, notwithstanding the high rent, is thus accounted for 
 by Mr Carmichael : " Ireland is too full ; in this part of the country there 
 is no room for the population ; and a man will give anything he has, and pro- 
 mise any rent he is asked, in order to get a holding. I have a farm myself 
 which is considered a bargain, and, if I were to depend on its produce to make 
 the rent and taxes, it would not do it for me." It is usual here to allow a 
 hanging gale, consisting of a half year's rent ; the Assistant Commissioners 
 could hear of but one landlord in the barony who made what they call ' En- 
 glish tenants." In this part of the country no instance was ever heard of a 
 landlord having taken as much of the promised rent as the tenant was able to 
 pay, and excusing or allowing the remainder to stand over. No remission of 
 the rent ever takes place, as a matter of course, either generally in all years, 
 or even in seasons of distress. 
 
 The small tenants (and they are the great majority in this barony) live as 
 poorly as labourers. 
 
 Cavan. F. 73. From the want of any other means of living the labourer is 
 compelled to obtain, on any terms, a little land which may keep himself em- 
 ployed, and preserve his family from starvation. Under these circumstances, 
 " the labourer takes land at any rent, hoping for some God-send or other ; 
 who knows but a good day may come up again ?" (Mr Walsh.) 
 
 Down, Lecale. F. 76. With regard to the cause of the peasantry bidding 
 rents above their means of paying, it was said that a mere labourer here gets 
 no land, except a rood for potatoes; but those who do take land give enormous 
 prices for it, because it is now almost the only resource. It is worthy of re- 
 mark that, since the linen trade, which enabled the small farmers to pay the 
 high rents, has failed, even a greater anxiety prevails to get land; that is, the 
 anxiety to obtain land, even at a high rent, increases, as the means of paying 
 the rent decreases. The farmers now, from all that could be ascertained, gave 
 everything towards the rent, except a bare subsistence. 
 
 Monaghan. F. 77. To the question as to what number of bidders would 
 appear if a farm of five or ten acres were vacant in the barony, it was replied, 
 " There would be plenty of bidders ; I think there would be fifty." (Mr 
 Simpson.) " I agree in that opinion; they crush themselves by undermin- 
 ing each other." (Mr Skelton.) The labourers have only the land to look 
 
 to for support. " They have no extraneous means here, so they can only re- 
 tain very little for their own use." (Rev. Mr M'Mahon, p. p.) 
 
 Fermanagh. F. 76. If a farm of five or ten acres were vacant in the barony 
 
 " there would be as many bidders in the barony as acres." (Mr Black.) 
 
 When a farm is vacant " the question with the bidders is, not what the farm 
 is worth, or what he could reasonably pay for it, but what offer would be likely 
 to get it from the landlord or agent." (Mr Lindsey.) 
 
 Mr Copeland said, " To my knowledge, the entire body of the small tenants 
 of this district are in debt, at least to the amount of one year's rent." Being 
 asked what particular reason he had for coining to that conclusion, he replied, 
 " I know it well; they come to me for provisions on credit regularly every 
 summer, and that gives me an insight into their means."
 
 14 
 
 From the absence of other means of livins, the labourer is almost wholly 
 thrown upon the hire of land for an existence, and thus compelled to agree to 
 any terms in order to obtain it. 
 
 Tyrone. F. 78. If a farm of 5 or 10 acres were vacant there would be a 
 great many applications. " From 10 to 15 persons applied to me for a farm 
 
 from my brother." (Rev. Mr Stack.) " They offer more than they can 
 
 pay in most instances: they would offer anything to get the holding." (Mr 
 Bucliannan.}- In small farms they could never pay the rent out of the pro- 
 duce; they make it up by weaving, or by some other kind of industry. (Mr 
 
 JBlaney.) There are many small farmers who don't eat a bit of their own 
 
 butter from year's end to year's end. (Mr Buchannan.) " When land is 
 
 out of lease the landlords now send out their valuator, and he fixes the rent." 
 
 (Rev. Mr Stack.) " There is no such thing as one man taking land over 
 
 another man's head." (Mr Grugan.) " If a man is not able to pay the 
 
 rent he must go out j but, until he was out, another would not like to bid for 
 
 his land." (Mr Rogers.) The hanging gale varies on different estates, but 
 
 it never exceeds half a year's rent. 
 
 An instance of the utter ignorance even of the better class of 
 Englishmen, relative to the state of Irish society, lately occurred 
 in the House of Commons. I allude to it, not as being a singular 
 instance, but as being of such recent date as to be upon every 
 one's mind. An Irish landlord was accused of having ejected a 
 large body of tenantry, who were stated to be, in consequence, 
 reduced to the greatest distress ; that is, forced to become mendi- 
 cants, or to starve. In answer to the charge, it was alleged that 
 all the persons ejected were greatly in arrear, and a list of sums 
 due from the several parties was read to the house. If, being 
 in arrear be sufficient reason for ejecting a tenant, the whole 
 peasantry of Ireland might be ejected at this or any other mo- 
 ment. The answer, however, satisfied the house, because the 
 British members did not understand the question. In England 
 it would be sufficient ground for ejectment, that a tenant was 
 behind-hand in his payments to the amount of two or three years' 
 rent ; because in England the rent is always in proportion to the 
 power of the tenantry to pay : but in Ireland the rent is always 
 beyond the power of the tenant, and he is consequently in debt 
 before he fairly enters upon his holding. If the point had been 
 thus put to the house, the feeling would have been different : A 
 peasant, under the penalty of vagrancy or starvation, having been 
 compelled to bid a rent for some land which it was impossible 
 for the whole produce to meet, gets into arrear. The tenant has 
 given up to the person under whom he holds every thing but a 
 scanty allowance of potatoes for his family, has lived in a 
 wretched hovel, and has, with his family, gone nearly naked, 
 both by day and by night, in the endeavour to pay the rent 
 which he has promised. The person from whom he has taken 
 the land, having determined to eject him, says, " I will excuse 
 you the 80/. or 100/. which you owe me as arrear of rent."
 
 15 
 
 The 80/. or 100/. is, however, really the excess of rent over the 
 value of the whole produce of the land whilst the peasant held it. 
 The person under whom he held, however, lays claim to great 
 liberality in relinquishing his claim to this sum, which he knew 
 never could be paid, and calls the tenant " ill advised " because 
 he is afraid of starvation, or is unwilling to take a bag upon his 
 back and beg potatoes from door to door from one end of 
 Ireland to the other. 
 
 This would be a true statement of ninety-nine out of every 
 hundred cases of ejectment and remission of rent. I know 
 not the facts of the particular instance, but had the British 
 Members of the House of Commons understood the state of 
 Ireland they would have received the explanation with caution. 
 They cannot, however, be blamed for not understanding a 
 state of society as little like that of Great Britain as the state 
 of Hindostan. 
 
 This case has attracted much notice, because the numbers 
 ejected were great, and the assigned cause of ejectment was 
 religious and political feeling. But similar cases are of daily 
 occurrence, and have been so time out of mind, and will be so 
 for evermore, unless steps are taken to change the relative 
 position of the peasant and his employer. Ejectment of the 
 peasantry is in the power of every person in Ireland from whom 
 they hold their lands, and is freely exercised to satisfy every variety 
 of feeling. Protestants, Catholics, and every other sect, equally 
 use it towards those of their own, as towards those of other 
 sects ; and it is equally resorted to by Tories, Whigs, and 
 Radicals. It is useless to blame those who have the power for 
 exercising it; the arbitrary use of the power we possess is 
 common to us all. The system, and the system alone, is to 
 blame. 
 
 County Carlotjo. Patrick Byrne, being asked the cause of his downfall, states, 
 " My first ' take ' was I/. 8s. per acre, and when my lease was out, my landlord 
 raised my second take to 2/. 5*. 6flf ; I should either promise to pay it or quit 
 at once. As I was loath to leave the place I was born and reared in, I strove 
 to stay and keep the roof over my poor mother's head; however, with all our 
 industry and hard work, what was not in the land could not be taken out of 
 it; we could not pay the rent, so of course we were put out. The old woman, 
 however, went to the landlord, and told him he got all the produce that came 
 off the land; that he knew very well he got the very corn, after it was cut, 
 drawn away by his own carts and horses ; that the cows we reared went to 
 pay the rent; all would not do; and the only answer she got was, that the 
 ground was his, and the money hers, and as she could not pay the rent he 
 fixed on it, she should go somewhere else. She is now 70 years of age. sir, 
 and it is hard to see her depending on my labour, particularly when I can 
 scarcely get any."
 
 16 
 
 In England the occupier of land mostly holds directly under the 
 proprietor in fee, and therefore the term " landlord" might gene- 
 rally be used ; but in Ireland a very considerable portion of the 
 land held by the peasantry has an intermediate tenant, or as he 
 is called in Ireland, a middle-man, and the landlord or proprietor 
 in fee of the property has not the slightest power to interfere 
 with those who occupy his land. 
 
 From ignorance of this circumstance much odium has in Eng- 
 land been unjustly cast upon individuals who own the fee of 
 lands in Ireland, for harshness to the tenantry on estates. The 
 tenantry on the estates of Lord A. or Mr B., having been 
 ejected and cruelly treated, it is immediately supposed in Eng- 
 land that Lord A. or Mr B. is to blame, though they have not the 
 power to eject or retain the tenantry. Many proprietors, whose 
 immediate tenants are among the most comfortable in Ireland 
 have been accused of cruelty and oppression, solely in conse- 
 quence of the conduct of their middle-men, over whom they had 
 no legal and no moral influence. Frequently, when part of the 
 occupiers hold under middle-men, and part under the proprietor in 
 fee, the proprietor in fee is seriously injured by the wretched tenan- 
 try, over whose circumstances he has no control, living upon those 
 who, as holding directly from him, he has been able to make more 
 comfortable. On the other hand, a most unfair imputation has been 
 cast upon all intermediate tenants in Ireland, under the head of 
 " middle-men," as oppressors of the peasantry. There are two 
 classes of middle-men in Ireland, those who hold on lives renewable 
 for ever, and those who hold under terminable leases. The first 
 of these are in the position of copyholders in England, and possess 
 a more beneficial interest than the proprietor in fee ; the other 
 class possess a more or less beneficial interest in proportion to 
 the unexpired term of their leases. There are middle-men in 
 Ireland, of both classes, as kind to their tenantry as those who 
 possess the fee. To cast blame, therefore, upon the proprietor 
 in fee, or upon any of the middle-men, unless the tenantry hold 
 directly under them, is most unjust. There are sub-landlords 
 or middle-men in England, but no one cares whether he holds 
 under the first or under the tenth landlord. 
 
 F. A remarkable instance of the various interests possessed in the same estate 
 was detailed respecting a large piece of land in this barony. The proprietor 
 in fee is Alderman Harty, who purchased from an individual in whose fa- 
 vour it had been cofisrated after the battle of Aughrim, in the revolution of 
 1688. Alderman Harty receives 9d. an acre from Major Warburton, the 
 first lessee ; Mr Handy pays, under an old lease, 2s 6d. an acre to Major 
 Warburton; John North holds under Mr Handy and pays 6s. an acre; 
 John North has sublet to several small tenants, and receives from them on
 
 17 
 
 an average of ll. 7s. an acre. The above particulars were read aloud to the 
 meeting, and it was replied they were correct. 
 
 The following statements, made by the medical attendants of 
 the dispensaries and infirmaries in Ireland, when questioned as to 
 the nature and causes of prevailing diseases, sufficiently attest the 
 smallness of the means which the peasantry retain to themselves : 
 
 County Rothscommon, Strokestown Dispensary, B. Part II. The medical at- 
 tendant having resided some time in England, was able to compare the state of 
 the poorer classes in the two countries, and he was decidedly of opinion that the 
 amount of disease among the lower Irish is much greater than among the 
 same order of English. This difference he was disposed to attribute to the 
 food and to the destitute and neglected state of the Irish in his district ; they 
 are scantily fed, have scarcely any clothing or bedding, and too often very im- 
 perfect shelter from the ruinous state of their cabins. 
 
 County Roscommon, Turmonberry Dispensary. Dr Shauly gives a most me- 
 lancholy picture of the great and general destitution which prevails in this- 
 part of the country and at Strokestown, where he resides, and his description 
 would apply but too well to all the eastern and southern parts of Roscommon 
 which we have as yet visited ; he says that he has often been called to cabins 
 where he has found four and even seven children with their mother, labouring 
 under fever, lying on a little dirty straw, and with one old blanket for cover- 
 ing amongst them, no light in the hovel, and obliged to beg the loan of a white 
 candle (a luxury they cannot afford) for the doctor to examine them. 
 
 A large proportion of the pectoral complaints and rheumatic affections 
 under which the peasantry labour in this district may be ascribed to the insuf- 
 ficient shelter afforded by the wretched mud hovels in which they reside, and 
 in which the entire family reposes indiscriminately on the damp floor. 
 
 County Roscommon Infirmary. The constant use of potatoes without any 
 admixture of other and better food, without any flesh meat, and even without 
 milk, necessarily produces a debilitated habit of body. Mr Flanagan said 
 that in some places the poor were not without milk, but it was admitted that 
 they were so for the most part; even to such a degree, according to Mr 
 Lysaght, that children continue at the breast for three or four years, to the 
 great injury of the mother. Stomach and bowel complaints are frequent 
 consequences of bad potatoes, and even when disease is averted, relapses are 
 common from the use of no better food. We may sum up the chief causes 
 of disease in bad clothing, dirty, ill-ventilated, and smoky habitations, and a 
 want of every kind of bedding; want of sustenance has been known in some 
 instances to produce disease. 
 
 County ff^ickloic, Curnew Dispensary. The medical attendant of the dis- 
 pensary stated that the " use of potatoes, as the only article of diet among 
 the poor, is the origin of the frequent bowel and stomach complaints to which 
 they are generally liable." He adds, that " their condition as to clothes, fur- 
 niture, and bedding, and indeed as to every thing called comforts, is miserable 
 and wretched in the extreme. In many instances," continues the same 
 witness, " I have found that persons to whose assistance I have been sum- 
 moned, under the idea that they were labouring under some determinate 
 disease, have in reality been suffering from destitution. In such cases, food 
 of a proper quality would have been of infinitely greater service than any me- 
 dicine whatever." 
 
 County Down, Ballycarrew Dispensary. It was considered that the want of 
 sufficient food was often the cause of actual disease in the district.
 
 18 
 
 County Dotcn, Caxtlewellan Di.ipengnry.-Tbc principal causes of disease 
 were stated to be bad food, bad lodging and clothing, and intemperance. 
 
 Should not these statements be sufficiently convincing, under 
 the several heads of food, clothing, fuel, and cabins, contained in 
 the Appendix D. of the Irish Poor Report, a minute description 
 will be found of the domestic miseries of the Irish peasantry. 
 To give a correct idea of their condition to those who have never 
 been out of England would be impossible. There are an infinity 
 of circumstances, forming an aggregate of wretchedness which 
 does not exist in this country. A deserted hovel could here and 
 there be found which had been used by a pig or a cow, but then 
 all around it would bear the marks of prosperity. In Ireland 
 there are villages of hovels, with every surrounding object in 
 keeping. Every thing in that unfortunate country presents the 
 appearance of recklessness, as every thing in England presents 
 the appearance of neatness and of care. The Irish peasant has 
 found, by a bitter experience, that care and frugality meet with , 
 no reward in his own country. 
 
 D. 74. Men grow careless about themselves and their houses when 
 
 they feel that they cannot be worse off than they are. " Many a man must 
 lie in bed to have his only shirt washed ; and some cannot afford to buy soap." 
 
 (Lolly.) " Some cabins are kept clean enough ; for the floor is easily 
 
 swept, and there is little besides to sweep or wash." (Byrne.) " There is 
 
 such a thing as a man not having the heart to care how things look with him 
 when he knows he is coming to nothing : the cries and distress of a man's 
 
 children weigh on his spirit sore." (Ward.*) "Habit, I believe, is the 
 
 chief obstacle to improvements of this kind." (Rev. Mr Martin.) " There 
 
 are perceptible improvements where there is education, but poverty must 
 always tend to produce slovenly habits ; and it is to be deeply regretted that 
 
 the peasant seldom looks beyond potatoes and milk." (Mr Ward.) " It 
 
 would be well for us if we all could get even that." (Ward.) " I admit 
 
 indeed, that there would be little use in their looking beyond the potatoes 
 and milk, as they need not look for what they could not find." (Mr Ward.) 
 
 Down. " It is hard," says a cottier tenant, " for a man who is over head 
 and ears in debt to be industrious, he knows not what to look to." 
 
 I have observed that the recklessness of the peasantry extends to 
 the better classes, as in England the steady and regular habits of 
 the lower and middling classes are distinguishable in the higher. 
 In Ireland it may be said, that men of business have the habits of 
 men of pleasure ; whilst in England men who have not any fixed 
 occupation, who may be termed men of pleasure, have, even in 
 the exercise of their dissipations, the punctual and methodical 
 habits of men of business. 
 
 We must not wonder that the peasant, to gain even the wretched 
 position of a tenant, labours hard and makes boundless promises. 
 Neither ought we to wonder at his utter want of all calculation. 
 The alternative before him is debt or starvation, and we may be
 
 19 
 
 confident that he prefers the former. The dread of starvation 
 renders it impossible for him to hesitate. He knows he cannot 
 pay his rent he knows that he will be unable to gain a steady 
 and comfortable subsistence for his family he knows that he 
 can save nothing for times of sickness and old age. He is 
 driven to be regardless of all these considerations. He promises 
 to pay, well knowing that performance is impossible. If he do 
 not promise, he must starve. 
 
 Galway, Par. Kilcreest. A. 358. Michael Mahon, a small farmer, says, 
 must I not to-morrow, if turned out of my holding, go to beg ? though I can 
 live very middling as long as I am left in it. 
 
 County Mayo, Parish of Bnrrish oole, A. 498. John Garovan last year held 
 land, but being unable to pay his rent, was ejected ; is a good laboarer, and 
 would gladly work if he got employment ; his wife is dead, and he now begs 
 himself with three young children ; the eldest carries the bag, and he carries 
 the youngest. 
 
 Pat O'Connor did hold land, but was unable to pay his rent ; is now a la- 
 bourer j his wife and three children beg through the Summer. 
 
 County Mayo, Parish of Cong. A. 500. Pat Carty lost his land; has his 
 wife and mother-in-law living with him ; he is able to work any day he gets 
 work, but that is not often ; the mother-in-law begs, and divides with them ; 
 he does not beg at home, but they all sometimes set off for the county Gal way. 
 
 It was also stated that beggars, almost without exception, consist of persons 
 who have once earned their own livelihood, but have been reduced by the 
 death of parent and husband, by old age disabling them for work, or by the 
 loss of their farms. The Rev. Mr Hulden would particularly insist on the 
 latter cause, but as one leading less immediately to public than to private 
 beggary. 
 
 Butler agrees with him and says, this is November day, our whole village 
 has been served with a notice to quit ; I am just going to see who will be left 
 in their houses, and of the 24 families I fear not many will light a fire on 
 their hearth again. 
 
 The assistant Commissioners, in a note to this paragraph, say they subse- 
 quently heard that the threat against Butler's Village was not executed ; but 
 we have retained the expression he used, when he dreaded it, as exhibiting 
 more forcibly, by the depth of feeling it betrays, the poor man's own sense 
 of the utter destitution consequent on the loss of his land in a country 
 where labour affords him no refuge, than any detailed and measured state- 
 ment we could make of its results. 
 
 Mayo, Parish of Kilgeevar. A. 504. The witnesses, speaking of vagrants, 
 say, they have all at one time or other earned their own subsistence. The 
 causes that led to their destitution, as mentioned by the witnesses, are, 
 orphan-age, widowhood, sickness of the principal earner of the family, ejec- 
 tion for arrears of rent, high rents, and low prices. 
 
 Mayo, Parish Kilimore. A. 506. Captain Nugent and the other witnesses 
 agree with Mr Lyons, that the number of such beggars has considerably in- 
 creased. Donohoe says it is greatly increased ; what has become of all that 
 have been ejected in the last two years ? they are nearly all begging money in 
 the way described. 
 
 Mayo, Parish Murrisk. If a man lose his ground in this Barony, he may 
 as well take the bag at once. (Luddane.) 
 
 County Dublin, Balrothery. F. Speaking of those who have been ejected,
 
 20 
 
 the witnesses say they have suffered great privation in every way, want of 
 food, shelter, and fuel, sickness, and all the other miseries of extreme po- 
 verty, 10 which houseless and pennyless wanderers could be subject. 
 
 County Carlow, Parish Carlow. A. Those who contend for the increase of 
 vagrancies attribute it to the policy of landlords consolidating their small 
 farms. One of the witnesses states his knowledge of two or three families 
 thus circumstanced in town. One in particular, who had a good farm and 
 was well off, now in a state of the greatest poverty, and must beg in a few 
 days. 
 
 County Carlow, Parish Dunleckny. A. 540. Rev. John Phelan says, " I 
 recollect in one instance of ten or eleven families who were driven off one 
 town-land, three or four persons perished in most melancholy destitution. 
 A few of the dispossessed families erected temporary huts in the dyke of 
 the road opposite the land from which they were removed, by placing 
 a few sticks covered with straw and potatoe stalks, as a shield against the 
 trials of the weather, but the rain flowed in ; and some who had not strength 
 to bear up against the trials they had to encounter, sunk beneath them." 
 
 Kilkenny. F. 91. Of those who have at different times baen ejected the 
 witnesses are unable to give any general account, or to say what has become 
 of them. " Some have fixed themselves in the outskirts of towns, and en- 
 deavour to subsist by occasional hire and by taking con acre; others have 
 left this part of the country altogether; and I heard of a few becoming men- 
 dicants." (Mr M' Henri/.) 
 
 King's Co: F. 93. Mr RiAgway said, "that when tenants were ejected, 
 very few gentlemen gave them settlements ; they were mostly thrown on the 
 world." 
 
 Louth. F. 95. Many of them houseless wanderers dispersed over the 
 whole country and neighbouring towns, wherever they could find a temporary 
 shelter. As a proof of the wretchedness to which these unfortunate persons 
 were frequently reduced, the following circumstances were related by one of 
 the witnesses, a gentleman of high respectability and standing, who was one 
 of the committee of the Mendicity Society established at Dundalk in 1827. 
 Great distress existed in the town at that time, and in the course of their 
 visits to inquire into the state of the poor, the committee found in one street 
 alone, sixty individuals who had been ejected from an adjoining estate in the 
 month of May before ; they were in the greatest want and destitution. 
 
 Meath Bar : Kells. F. 98. Those who remained at home, except in a few cases 
 where they were constantly employed by the proprietors, suffered the greatest 
 privations from poverty and want of employment, as has been already de- 
 scribed in the instances quoted above; those who have gone to settle on bogs 
 are generally most miserable, except a few who are situated near towns, and 
 who have a little money and a horse and cart, and can afford to hire bog 
 ground and to live while they are cutting and drying the turf, which they 
 afterwards convey to, and sell in the town for fuel : it is utterly impossible for 
 the peasantry to lay by any savings to meet such occurrences. 
 
 Bar : Mayfenrngh. F. 100. " A few of the ejected tenantry have emigrated, 
 but most of them have dispersed through the country, and have become 
 labourers, and are located in the neighbourhood of towns and on bogs; 
 others have become beggars, and have died from grief and hardship." 
 (Rev. Mr Tuite, p. p., and others.) As already described, these ejected 
 tenantry are subjected to great privations. Rev. Mr Tuite, P. p. has had 
 thirteen ejected families begging through his parish at one time, and lying 
 houseless on the road side The witnesses cannot state to what extent those 
 who have settled on bogs have thriven. The peasantry cannot be expected to 
 save and lay up a provision against the possibility of ejectment.
 
 21 
 
 Queen's Co: Bar: Maryborough. F. 102. Many of the ejected tenants who 
 sought refuge in Maryborough have fallen into great distress and poverty since 
 they came there. (Mr Martin, James Sinnot, E. Cullen.) 
 
 fVicklow. F. 106. Most of the tenants ejected in this barony have under- 
 gone great privations of every description. One of them, who previously 
 held twenty-five acres of land, took a cabin and two acres of barren mountain, 
 near Baltinglass, working also as a labourer. The change of fortune and of 
 habits, and the extreme poverty he fell into, so affected him, that he died of 
 grief, exhaustion, and want, two years afterwards, while working as a labourer 
 at a new road ; his family have been since^his death, and are now, in the 
 greatest misery.' (This case was known to almost all the witnesses present, 
 as it occurred close to the town, and created a great sensation in the neigh- 
 bourhood.) Michael Dempsey stated that two other small farmers, who had 
 been ejected from their holdings, came to reside in the town and became 
 labourers ; both fell into great distress, and the wife of one of them died from 
 fretting and want, within a few months. He has known their families to be 
 frequently reduced to one meal a day, and had he not given them food they 
 must have died from absolute starvation. There were many others in and 
 near the town, and disposed on the mountains in the barony, who had suffered 
 and were now suffering great hardship and privations. 
 
 Clare. F. 108. Those from Kilfalboy parish have been dispersed through 
 the country ; they have all " gone to the bad ; " a good many of them, it was 
 added, " took new little pieces of land on the mountains from other land- 
 lords." (Carroll, Slattery, Hayley, Moriarty.) 
 
 Tipperary. F. 1 18. Mr Fitzgerald says, " A considerable proportion of 
 the pauper population of the towns in this barony consists of persons who 
 have been at some time dispossessed of land. They must suffer much cer- 
 tainly, but they are soon lost sight of." 
 
 ffaterford. F. For some months they were living in the ditches in the 
 neighbourhood, and suffering severely from both hunger and cold. 
 
 Cavan. F. 125. "Some of the tenantry who were ejected, went among 
 their friends and became labourers ; some went to America, and not a few 
 
 to beg." (Rev. Mr Brady, p. p.) The peasantry have no possible means of 
 
 providing against any contingencies, such as ejection, &c., under present 
 arrangements ; the thing is utterly impossible. (Rev. Mr Brady, p. p.) 
 
 To this vital importance of land to the peasantry of Ireland, most 
 of the evils which afflict society in that country may be distinctly 
 traced. Some arise directly from the endeavour to obtain land ; but 
 the majority arise indirectly, as the offsprings of the system of " no- 
 minal rents;" itself the immediate consequence of the competition. 
 
 The direct effect of the importance of land to the pea- 
 santry, is a general combination, in defiance of the laws, to 
 prevent ejectment from their holdings; from which it may be 
 said, without the fear of contradiction, that nine-tenths of the 
 violence to person, and of the destruction to property, in Ireland 
 proceeds. To be convinced of this it is only necessary to watch 
 the assigned cause for the various atrocities which are related in 
 the English papers. So strictly is it the fact, that if a law could 
 be passed capable of preventing exorbitant rents, and consequent 
 ejectment, from holdings under ten acres, the Irish people would 
 form one of the most peaceful communities in Europe. Outrage
 
 22 
 
 upon person and upon property would be almost unknown 
 amongst them. When the crimes committed in Ireland are 
 enumerated, and the motives which lead to them are suppressed, 
 the peasantry appear to be actuated by the most savage feelings. 
 But when the motives for their committal, and the mode of 
 effecting these outrages, are considered, they appear rather as 
 cool and deliberate punishments inflicted by a community upon 
 those who had offended against the general laws of that com- 
 munity ; laws enacted not by the legislature, but by a still more 
 powerful lawgiver public opinion. Putting to death is not 
 necessarily murder : no one says that an executioner has mur- 
 dered those whom he has put to death. Beating a man is not 
 necessarily a crime : no one says that the drummer of a regiment 
 who has flogged a hundred men has committed a hundred crimes. 
 It is very important, therefore, when we learn that a man has 
 put another to death, or has beaten him severely, to know 
 whether he has done so from personal malice, or whether he has 
 been the mere instrument for giving effect to the decision of the 
 community. 
 
 So systematic and free from personal feeling are the outrages 
 in Ireland, as to want but the formal trial in order to give the 
 whole proceeding the character of a legal punishment. - It 
 appears as though the legislature had omitted to provide for the 
 wants of society in one particular, and that society had privately 
 filled up the omission. 
 
 The principal portion of the crimes committed in the rural 
 districts in Ireland have these remarkable features : 
 
 First, That they are rarely committed by the aggrieved party ; 
 but most frequently by persons who come from a distance, and 
 to whom the individual or the property to be injured was pre- 
 viously unknown, 
 
 Secondly, That these crimes receive the sanction not only of 
 the aggrieved party, but of the whole of the peasantry in the 
 neighbourhood in which they are perpetrated, and in every other 
 part of Ireland. 
 
 Thirdly, That this sanction is only extended to crimes against 
 individuals who have taken lands, from which others have been 
 ejected; against the person who served notice of ejectment, 
 who has ejected, or has distrained for rent, and upon the keeper 
 in charge of the holding. The crimes appear to be shooting the 
 individual, burning his property, maiming and destroying his 
 cattle, and forcibly retaking the lands. 
 
 Although the trial in each case does not become public, there is 
 every reason to believe that a council is in every instance held 
 before the committal of an outrage, and that the species of out-
 
 23 
 
 rage is determined by the council, after weighing the circum- 
 stances which have excited the displeasure of the peasantry of the 
 neighbourhood. Notice is then sent to some distant fraternity, 
 with the signs by which those who are chosen to commit the 
 crime can make themselves known to the council, in order that 
 the person or the property destined for injury may be pointed 
 out. These councils are known by the titles of riband-societies, 
 wliitefeet, blackfeet, whiteboys, and by a variety of others, which 
 change with place and with time. Many of these societies 
 originated in private or party squabbles, but seem quickly to 
 have espoused the great grievance, but for which they would 
 have expired nearly as soon as they were created. 
 
 Galwuy. F. 80. " People will not acknowledge that they have been de- 
 terred by threats, but I suspect such has been the case to some degree." 
 (Mr Comyn.) 
 
 Sligo. D. 14. The Rev. Mr Yates said, " He was afraid constant em- 
 ployment would not in Ireland be productive of the benefits which might 
 fairly be expected from it: in the immediate neighbourhood of Sir R. Gr. 
 Booth's residence there was as much employment given as anywhere, and yet 
 threatening notices were of frequent occurrence there ; and no later than this 
 last spring a large stack of corn was burnt, and several ploughs maliciously 
 broken." Young Shato replied, " You forget, Mr Yates, that the real rea- 
 son of those outrages was that the poor people were unhinged, and driven 
 out of their lands and dwellings at Ballygilligan; and that, besides, they are 
 by no means constantly employed; they still consider themselves aggrieved." 
 
 Sligo. F. 42. A considerable proportion of the crimes committed in this 
 barony is connected directly or indirectly with the taking of land; every 
 opposition is made to any change in the arrangement of lands in Sir R. O. 
 Booth's domain. A stack of wheat was lately burned, and several ploughs 
 
 and other implements broken to pieces. (Mr Dodwell.) John Logan 
 
 exclaims, " No wonder when you turned 120 people out of their lands at 
 
 Balligilligan." Mr Dodwell continues, " Taylor was a tenant in arrear, 
 
 and we gave him notice to quit ; Lindsay, his brother-in-law, came to me 
 and paid up the arrear. As Sir R. G. Booth does not permit of sub-division, 
 Lindsay asked permission to occupy a portion of Taylor's land, that in that 
 manner he might pay himself in part for the money advanced on account of 
 the latter. He obtained leave to do so, and put a horse and some cows on 
 the land ; his relations would not allow this, and they accordingly cut his 
 horse's throat." The destitution apprehended, or really brought on, is the 
 
 cause of the crime. (Mr Lumey.) There is no reason to fear that any 
 
 privations short of perfect destitution would urge the cottier to crime ; it 
 would at least require that utter destitution was approaching. (Messrs Yates 
 
 and Dodwell.) Rents have not been in the least affected by intimidation 
 
 on the part of the peasantry; they have never combined with a view to 
 lower rents. (Sir A. Creighton, Bart.) 
 
 The committal of outrages is sanctioned by the mass of agricultural work- 
 ing people, as is proved by the difficulty, amounting to an impossibility, of 
 discovering the authors of the crimes. (Mr Richard Yates.) 
 
 Leitrim. F. 37. It has been already mentioned that the design of Mr 
 Lane Fox for the more judicious arrangement of farms on his estate, were 
 opposed by the tenantry concerned to the utmost of their power. " The 
 fact is," remarks Rev. T. Maguire, P. P. " they naturally looked with sus-
 
 24 
 
 picion on any measure which tended in the least to interfere with their only 
 means of livelihood ; they feared that they would be left destitute, and that 
 was the cause of their violence." Though perfect destitution was not the 
 result, they were urged to crime by their privations ; many participated in 
 the threats of violence, although they were assured that it was intended to 
 provide them with a certain amount of employment. (Kelt and 0' Donnell.) 
 
 There was reason to think that maiiy persons from Sltgo, fearing, perhaps, 
 that similar measures might be extended to their part of the country, took 
 
 part in the disturbances alluded to. (Nixon.} The intimidation, however, 
 
 to which the peasantry resorted, was of no avail ; the new arrangements 
 
 were effected at the point of the bayonet. (Rev. T. Maguire, p. p.) 
 
 " Not at the point of the bayonet, Mr Maguire." (/fell.) " When I say 
 
 at the point of the bayonet, I mean that the thing was clone by the assistance 
 of numbers of soldiers and police." (Rev. T. Maguire, p. p.) 
 
 Leitrim. F. 39. " I should think that if any general clearance were 
 attempted (a thing that has never been done here), means woul^d be taken to 
 deter any person from availing himself of any land thus vacated j it could 
 not be otherwise where the people know that, at least at present, they have 
 no other certain means of obtaining even the commonest food than by the 
 occupation of land." (Mr Norris and O'Brien.) 
 
 Dublin. F. 44. Cases have sometimes occurred where outrage, connected 
 with the taking of land, has been sanctioned by the mass of the working 
 people, and committed by persons who have not themselves been sufferers from 
 the supposed injury. This has been when the act sought to be revenged was 
 of an aggravated nature, and considered as an act of aggression against a 
 whole class of persons, and therefore taken up by all as a matter in which 
 every man of that class was equally interested ; such cases, however, appear 
 to have been very rare. 
 
 Meath. F. 52. There are very few crimes committed here at all, but 
 those few have usually been directly or indirectly connected with the taking 
 of lands, the payment of tithes, or other charges affecting land, but especially 
 with the taking of land over the heads of others. The crimes have been 
 produced by feelings exasperated by privations ; they have generally been 
 committed by strangers who are not known, and, of course, are the most 
 likely to escape detection and punishment. 
 
 Kilkenny Bar : Gulmoy, F. 45. " Some years ago a system of outrage 
 connected with the taking of land was universally prevalent, in addition to 
 general disturbance resulting from the tithe system." "The barony has, how- 
 ever, been quite peaceable for some years, and the cessation of outrage cor- 
 responded precisely with the cessation of the exaction of tithe." " It was 
 impossible that people would be quiet when such things occurred, as that a 
 woman's cloak has been stripped from her back on her way to mass for tithe 
 due to the clergyman." (Captain Delany. ) 
 
 " The perpetrators were usually persons who had been reduced to destitu- 
 tion, and were prompted to crime by revenge or despair." (Mr J. Cahill.} 
 
 The peasantry are now quiet from a persuasion that the Government 
 
 have come to the determination of investigating the causes of their distress. 
 
 (Messrs Murphy, Delany, and Rev. Dr Brennan, P.P.) " The more serious 
 
 crimes were usually committed by persons brought from a distance, and even 
 
 hired for the purpose." (Mr Coyne.} None of the witnesses have any 
 
 reason to suppose that any persons above the small landholder have been the 
 instigators to these outrages with a view to protect themselves from ejection. 
 Rents were not so much aimed at by them as the inclination to select tenants 
 and to get rid of small occupants. So much sanctioned were these outrages 
 by the mass of the agricultural people, that they always manifested joy when 
 they heard of them. (Captain Delany and Mr Cahill.)
 
 25 
 
 Kilkenny Bar : Gowran. F. 4-6. Mr Flood states, " It is my opinion that 
 almost all the outrages committed in this district are, or have been, con- 
 nected with tithes or the taking of land ; speaking as a magistrate, very few 
 cases of ordinary felony come under my observation." 
 
 The following list of outrages connected with the taking of land, was fur- 
 nished by the chief constable of police in this town (Thomastown). The 
 crimes result, in great part, either from absolute destitution caused by the 
 loss of land, or from the fear of it. 
 
 On the 20th of September 1832, at night, the houses of Richard Browne 
 and James Conway, of Kilcarry, were attacked by an armed party, about 10 
 in number, who swore them to give up their houses and land. 
 
 22nd November 1832. An armed party visited the houses of James 
 Dinneef and Widow Dullard, of Killarney, and ordered them to give up their 
 land, and beat Dinneef severely. 
 
 3rd December 1832. The house of Edward Murphy, of Kilmurry, was 
 sUtacked by an armed party, about 20 in number, who beat him severely, and 
 swore him to give up his farm, 
 
 5th January 1833. A threatening notice was served on Mr Hutchinson, 
 of Killiney, stating that his days were but few if he did not give up his farm. 
 
 8th January 1833. On this night a man named Edward Murphy was at- 
 tacked, fired at, and severely wounded by two men on the road at Kiljames 
 near Thomastown, in consequence of having taken a farm. 
 
 15th January 1833. A man named Richard Holehan, of Catheralsrath, 
 was served with a threatening notice, ordering him to give up his land. 
 
 22nd January 1833. At night, the house of a man named Michael Sul- 
 livan, of Annamult, was attacked by an armed party, who beat him severely 
 and ordered him to give up a farm of three acres. 
 
 22nd January 1833. At night, the houses of Michael Phelan and Cormack 
 Fielding, of Annamult, were attacked by an armed party, who ordered them 
 not to sleep another night in their houses ; that if they did they would 
 murder them. 
 
 22nd January 1833. At night, the house of James Hickey, of Annamult, 
 was attacked by an armed party, who beat him severely and ordered him to 
 give up three acres of land. 
 
 22nd January 1833. At night, the house of Dennis Dunn, of Ennisnagg, 
 was attacked by an armed party, in consequence of his having taken land. 
 
 14th February 1833. At night, the house of John Gorman, of Kilmu- 
 nahan, was attacked by an armed party, who swore him to give up some land. 
 
 27th February 1833. At night, an armed party attacked the house of 
 James Clooney, of Barretstown, and ordered him to divide his land into 
 lots. 
 
 5th March 1833. At night, an armed party attacked the house of Edward 
 Hanrahan, of Stonecarty, and threatened him with death, if he did not give 
 up his land. 
 
 27th March 1833. Two men, armed with pistols, came to the house of 
 James Cummerford, of Rossboultry, and ordered him to tell John Casee 
 and Edward Walsh to give up their farms. 
 
 20th March 1833. At night, the houses of John Galven and James 
 Conway, of Ruppah, were attacked by an armed party, who ordered them to 
 give up their farms. 
 
 " So general is this system of violence connected with land, that even the 
 landlord cannot, in some instances, enter into possession of his own lands." 
 
 (Rev. Mr Incin.) It often comes out on trials, that both those interested 
 
 and those not interested, in the act sought to be avenged, have equally par-
 
 26 
 
 ticipated in the crime. (Mr Flood.) It is not known that persons much, 
 
 above the small landholders have instigated the peasantry to those outrages. 
 
 The persons concerned in them do not seem to direct their attention so 
 much to the lowering of rents, as to preventing the free disposal of land in 
 the way of changing tenants. (Mr Splint.) 
 
 The committal of them is undoubtedly approved of by the labouring por- 
 tion of the agricultural population as necessary to protect their general 
 interest. 
 
 King's Co : F. 49. Many of the crimes committed in the neighbourhood are 
 connected with the taking of land ; and Mr Odium states that " there is a 
 feeling among the people that no man has a right to come in on the land of 
 another." He adds " that he considers destitution to be the cause of this 
 feeling, and a soreness arising out of what they conceive unjust dealing on 
 the part of the landlords : thus, for instance, when a man is put out, and his 
 successor gets the land at a lower rate than it was set for before, the tenant 
 who has been ejected thinks that he should have got a trial at the lowered 
 rent." It was stated that in many cases the ejected tenant suffers extremely, 
 and that there is a very general feeling in favour of those dispossessed ; but 
 Mr Kennedy observes that, in general, when a crime is committed, it is some 
 person connected with the dispossessed family who perpetrates it. He men- 
 tioned the following case as having occurred a few years since : " A farmer 
 hired a soldier to shoot a man who took his farm ; the soldier did so, and 
 afterwards turned king's evidence, and the farmer was hanged." Mr Odium 
 states that there has not been any combination here against rents ; and Mr 
 Porter added, " It is not that they 'will not pay, but they cannot." To out- 
 rages committed about the taking of land the sanction of the agricultural 
 classes is very generally given ; and Mr Kennedy says, " There is every op- 
 position given to a new comer, and few would be willing to take land from 
 which a man has been ejected :" upon which Mr Oldum observed, " I don't 
 know that : so great is tne anxiety to obtain land that men are willing to run 
 all risks." This custom of making their own regulations, and uniting to re- 
 dress their wrongs, was considered very mischievous in its consequences. 
 Mr Odium remarked, " There cannot be a worse custom ; but latterly the 
 country is quiet, and the feeling not so strong." 
 
 Meuth, Mayfenragh. F. 54 No considerable proportion of the crime 
 committed in this barony is connected with the taking of land, or the charges 
 affecting land. Serious crimes of this nature have, however, occurred in the 
 neighbouring barony : they have often been committed by persons who were 
 not themselves sufferers from the acts of the individuals whom they injured. 
 
 IVichlow. F. 59. No crimes have been committed here during the last 
 eight or ten years, and no very serious offences could be proved to have 
 been in any way connected with the taking of land, the paying of tithes, or 
 other charges affecting land. 
 
 Rev. Mr Lalor, p. p., thought that even though perfect destitution were 
 not the result of ejectment, yet, if actual ejectment took place, the same 
 bad feeling would still exist among the ejected tenants against those who 
 took their land. 
 
 Queen's Co: Bar: Maryborough. F. 55 A large proportion of the crimes 
 committed in the neighbourhood were formerly connected, directly or indi- 
 rectly, with the taking of land, the paying of tithes, or other charges affecting 
 land, especially three or four years ago, at which time outrages of this 
 description were very frequent ; but within the last six months the country 
 has been extremely peaceable, more so, indeed, than for fourteen or fifteen 
 years before. (Mr
 
 27 
 
 The following list of outrages connected with land was furnished to the 
 Assistant Commissioner by Mr ffray from the police books : 
 
 7th February 1829. A number of armed men attacked the house of the 
 widow M'Daniel, of Ballyknocken, who forced her son-in-law (Robin) to 
 swear that he would have nothing to do with a farm he had lately taken from 
 Major Cassan, from which the former occupant was ejected. 
 
 15th March 1829. On the night of this date a house, the property of a 
 man named Huslam, on the estate of Major Cassan, was maliciously con- 
 sumed at Lalor's Mill, he having recently taken same together with a farm. 
 
 20th March 1829. On the night of this date the houses of James Sutcliffe, 
 Martin Whelan, and Peter Dunn, near Poorman's Bridge, were attacked 
 by a party of armed men, who swore them to quit their farms in twenty-one 
 days. 
 
 12th April 1829. On this night a house was maliciously burned at Bally- 
 corney, the property of Major Cassan : the farm on which the house stood 
 had been lately taken by new tenants. 
 
 4th Juae 1829. An armed party attacked the house of Mr Rielly, of 
 Clonboyne, who swore him to quit his farm. 
 
 8th December 1829. An armed party attacked the house of Stephen 
 Hosey, of Capoley, who swore him to quit his land within fifteen days. 
 
 23d April 1831. On this night the house of Mr Thomas Seal, of Clon- 
 addcasey, was attacked by a party of insurgents, \vho fired a shot through his 
 hall-door, and left a threatening notice, ordering him not to bid for land now 
 out of lease, which was held by him and family for the last seventy years. 
 
 18th May 1831. The dwelling-houses of Mr James Fitzpatrick and Con- 
 rahy, of Lalor's Hill, and Finnelly, of Clonadd, were attacked and broken 
 open by a party of Rockites, who swore them to give up their lands. 
 
 llth March 1832. On this evening a party of armed men went to the 
 house of Denis Donoghue, of Meelick, and ordered him to give up his land. 
 
 18th March 1832. On this evening the house of James Mahony, of Clon- 
 bar, was attacked and entered by a party of men, who ordered him to give up 
 some land he had in possession for the last ten years ; they threatened to 
 burn the house if he would not comply with their orders. 
 
 18 April 1832. On this night the house of Denis Donoghue, of Meelick, 
 was attacked by an armed party, who beat and abused him in a cruel manner, 
 and ordered him to give up three and a half acres of land. 
 
 4th November 1832. On this night three armed men entered the house of 
 Patrick Geoghegan, of Ballylusk, and ordered him to give up some land he 
 had recently taken. 
 
 2d October 1833. On this night a party of armed men went to the house 
 of Denis Lynch, of Clomack, and ordered him to give up eight acres of land 
 which he had had in his possession for the last six years. 
 
 1834-. A Rockite party attacked the dwelling-house of John Clondron, of 
 Clonenagh, broke his windows, and ordered him to quit his place. 
 
 8th April 1825. A man named William Carter was brutally murdered at 
 Upper Ballyfin, near Mountrath, for fencing in some land which he rented 
 from Lord Maryborough, and which land was formerly a commonage. 
 
 These crimes and outrages were not generally perpetrated by persons in 
 distressed circumstances, although the cause assigned by those who com- 
 mitted them was to avenge the persons who were ruined or injured by being 
 ejected from their farms, to prevent others from taking them, and to protect 
 
 the general interests of the poor. (Mr Wray.)- " There certainly have 
 
 been some cases in which ejected tenants have been driven to such a state of 
 mind, by the total or comparative ruin caused them by being ejected from 
 their land, that they did not care what became of them, and were ready to do
 
 28 
 
 anything ; some of the persons convicted of these crimes and outrages were 
 completely destitute, and one of them, who was executed in this town (Mary- 
 borough), left his family (a wife and four children) in such distress, that, had 
 not a subscription been raised for them by myself and others, they must lite- 
 rally have starved. This man had previously been in the most wretched state 
 of poverty, and had probably been prevailed upon, in consequence, to parti- 
 cipate in the crime for which he suffered." (Mr ff^ray.) 
 
 No case has been proved of persons much above the small landholder having 
 instigated the people to Whiteboyism, &c., with a view to protecting them- 
 selves from ejectment; but this has certainly often occurred, and might and 
 ought to have been proved against those persons. (Mr fFray.) 
 
 Queen's Co: Bar: Portnahinch. F. 68. This barony has always been more 
 peaceable than most others, and few crimes have occurred. One or two of 
 them, however, have been connected with matters relating to land, and, in 
 several of the adjoining baronies, the number and atrocity of such crimes and 
 outrages were fearfully great, especially a few years ago ; but within the last 
 twelvemonth they have much diminished, and the country is now more tran- 
 quil than it has been for many years. It is supposed that in general the 
 landholder has been driven into such crimes by the destitution of his family, 
 and in many cases there is no doubt of this being the case. Even though 
 perfect destitution were not the result of ejectment from his farm, it is sup- 
 posed that in many cases the ejected tenant might still be exasperated to crime 
 from attachment to his little holding, and the deep sense of injustice and 
 oppression, and consequent legitimacy of revenge, which all that class enter- 
 tain towards the persons who eject them from their land, and if possible still 
 more towards those who take it after they have been ejected. These crimes are 
 not confined to the individual sufferers, but there is a general fellow feeling 
 among small landholders and labourers which induces them to make common 
 cause with those who have been ejected, thinking this necessary to protect 
 their general interests, and to be the only means of putting a stop to eject- 
 ments. No instances are known of persons above the class of small land- 
 holders instigating the people to such outrages, with a view of protecting 
 themselves from ejectment ; but it is suspected by many that some persons of 
 that class have indirectly, or at least tacitly encouraged that system. Among 
 the proofs of the mass of the working people making common cause with the 
 perpetrators of these crimes, may be given that of their never directly or 
 indirectly assisting in apprehending the offender, however atrocious may be 
 the crime committed. Rents, however, remain unaffected by this system of 
 intimidation, for, however strong may be the fear of outrage in those who 
 offer^rent, or take land from which another has been ejected, the fear of des- 
 titution and starvation is still stronger, and land may be considered as the 
 only means of subsistence. 
 
 Tiperary, Bar. Middlethird. F. 67. " It is our opinion that a large propor- 
 tion of the crimes committed in this neighbourhood, are connected with the 
 competition for land, tithes not having been sought for during the last two 
 years. No outrages have arisen from that source, and we know of no opposi- 
 tioa to county rates, which are the only other charges." (Messrs Fitzgerald, 
 Pennefather, Long-, Clarke, Magistrates.) 
 
 It is stated that hundreds of instances could be given of threatening notices 
 having been sent to those who had taken land from which others had been 
 ejected ; of outrages committed on such persons ; and of parties repossessing 
 themselves of ground, and endeavouring to alarm the landlord and force him 
 to take or retain certain tenants. 
 
 The following instances are given of crimes arising out of the cases of eject- 
 ment, which had taken place within the district of Mr Fitzgerald, stipendiary 
 magistrate :
 
 29 
 
 In November last the house of John Murphy, Esq., of Woodford, was 
 attacked and fired into, and a threatening notice left, because he had taken a 
 farm of which the previous tenant had been dispossessed. 
 
 In the same month, the house of William Lynch was fired into, and Mrs 
 Lynch narrowly escaped being shot. The cause of the outrage was the same 
 as in the previous instance. 
 
 In the same month a party of armed men appeared on the lands of Bally, 
 sheehan, for the purpose of intimidating some men who were employed by Mr 
 John White, of Cashel, agent to Smith Barry, Esq., to work on a farm of 
 which the previous tenant had been dispossessed. In April last an armed party 
 lay in wait to murder Thomas Hogan, who lately took a farm at Drumeleer, 
 near Kilfeacle, of which the previous tenant had been dispossessed. They in- 
 tended to have murdered him while working on the lands above mentioned. 
 
 In May last two shots were fired in the lawn of Mr William Murphy, of 
 Ballynamona, and on the same night, a bull, his property was shot, Mr Mur- 
 phy was about to take from the Earl of Mountcashel some land, of which the 
 previous tenant had been dispossessed. Subsequently the same gentleman 
 was shot at near his own gate, and five bullets passed through the chaise in 
 which he was travelling. 
 
 In June last a burning took place at Ballysheean, the property of Smith 
 Barry, Esq., supposed to have been committed by a disappointed bidder of a 
 farm, of which the previous tenant had been dispossessed. 
 
 Within the present year a farmer, named Woodlock, living near Clonghaleigh 
 or Knockrue, while at work on some land which he had lately taken, and of 
 which the previous tenant had been dispossessed, was attacked by a party of 
 men having their faces blackened, who ordered him to give up the farm. 
 
 Near New Inn, a farmer, named Lonergan, almost 80 years of age, was shot 
 dead in his own yard, because he had taken a farm which the former tenant 
 had sold, but which, subsequently, the brother of that tenant wished to get 
 possession of. One man was found guilty of this murder, and the son of the 
 deceased compromised the murder with the remainder. 
 
 A conspiracy was formed by six men to shoot Dr Fitzgerald, the stipendiary 
 magistrate, when going to the assize town, because he was to superintend a 
 prosecution against a man named Burke, charged with a murder arising from 
 the dispossessing some tenants of land. 
 
 Some of the same gang conspired to shoot Mr Daniel Mansergh.because he 
 took a farm which the former tenant had surrendered, and which one of this 
 gang wanted to take. Mr Mansergh was only saved by riding fast and getting 
 before the party on the road ; his farm-house and carts were subsequently 
 burned on the same farm. 
 
 The same gang lay in wait to shoot Mr John White, agent to Smith Barry, 
 Esq., because ejectments had been served on the tenants; and Mr White's 
 life was saved by his returning another road. 
 
 On another occasion the same gang agreed to shoot one Edmund Russell, 
 because he was a Crown witness against a man named Brien, charged with the 
 murder of John Bibby; the murder arose out of ejectments from land ; the 
 father of Bibby was murdered on the same night with himself. On the 4th of 
 October last, a fellow armed with a blunderbuss lay in wait to shoot Mr Price 
 because he distrained some tenants for rent. Last autumn Mr Hunt, agent 
 to the Kilfeacle property, when going to distrain for rent, was driven off by 
 the appearance of a large party of men who had collected to resist him. In 
 June 1831, Lord Mountcashel ejected several tenants at Rose Green, and 
 several of them re-entered and took forcible possession. At Clonhaleigh Mr 
 Cooke ejected a tenant, and set the farm to a man named Walsh ; on various 
 occasions since (both by day and by night) armed parties have made attacks on
 
 30 
 
 the house, firing shots and destroying the fences, and, at length, it was found 
 necessary to place a party of police in the farm yard, and to make it a 
 station. 
 
 Mr Michael Dwyer, who was a prominent tithe agitator in his time, ejected 
 and distrained some tenants at Lynone ; he is now obliged, when he goes to 
 that farm, to have a guard of police ; his care-taker was attacked by an armed 
 party, and obliged to give up his situation. 
 
 On the 4th of August 1834, at Clonkelly, a house was burned, belonging to 
 Simon Ryan, from which the former tenant had been ejected. 
 
 On 25th August 1834, at Grange, the house of John Woods, who was 
 placed as keeper over the other tenants, was attacked and fired into by night, 
 and Woods was ordered to surrender his employment. 
 
 On the 5th July 1834, at Ballinree, the house of John Bushe was attacked 
 by an armed party, who ordered him to give up his situation as keeper over 
 the tenants. __ 
 
 On the 25th July 1834, at night, a number of men assembled and levelled 
 a house at Clashavogue, the property of Patrick Quinn ; on going away they 
 desired Quinn to quit the place. 
 
 On the 20th June 1834, John Hickey, who had been placed as keeper on 
 the lands of Sacken, was attacked by two men, who fractured his skull and 
 broke his arm. 
 
 At Mullogh five armed men, with their faces blackened, went to shoot 
 Thomas Morrisey, because he was obliged to dispossess some of his under- 
 tenants ; his life was saved by the party mistaking for him a neighbouring 
 farmer, whom they met near Morrisey's house. A police party, and, subse- 
 quently, a party of military have been placed in his house for his protection. 
 
 In August 1832, a cow, the property of a man named Dwyer, at Ardmayle, 
 was shot, because Dwyer had taken some land, of which the previous tenant, 
 named Burke, had been dispossessed. In the same month Dwyer's care- 
 taker, a man named Shea, teas shot dead in the noonday in a public house at 
 Ardmayle, by young Burke and his brother-in-law, Breen, who were hanged 
 for the murder : since that time several other serious outrages have been per- 
 petrated against Dwyer. 
 
 On the 24th June 1834, the houses of Wflliam Hayes and William Cross, 
 of Ballykelly, were attacked by an armed party, who fired into them, and left 
 orders not to take a farm lately held by one Mahony. 
 
 On the 28th of June 1834,' the house of John Carew, of Marlhill, was 
 fired into by an armed party, and the door broken, because he had recently 
 taken a farm from which the previous tenant had been ejected. 
 
 On the 30th June 1834, an armed party of fifteen men, with their faces 
 blackened, entered and searched the house of Mr John Heney, of Ballyna- 
 hinch, for the purpose of killing him, because he was about ejecting some 
 tenants. 
 
 On the 28th of May 1834, Thomas and Edmund Quinn, aided and assisted 
 by others, forcibly re-entered and took possession of the lands Garry- 
 Andrew, of which they had been dispossessed by the sheriff under a habere. 
 
 On the first day of spring assizes 1835, a party of twelve or fourteen 
 armed men, with their faces blackened, waylaid, attacked, and desperately 
 wounded Dr Charles Fitzpatrick, at Coolmore, while on his way to the 
 assize town, to prosecute an appeal against some tenants, against whom he had 
 obtained ejectment decrees; this party robbed him of the papers which 
 he had to produce in support of his case. 
 
 In the summer of J834 an armed party by night visited Lord Ormond's 
 tenants, near Golden, and swore them not to pay more than half rent for that 
 year.
 
 31 
 
 At Clonhalcigh, James Horan was shot dead, in the noonday, in his own 
 garden, by two brothers, named Regan, whose father had been ejected from 
 the farm which Horan had taken. The murderers were hanged. 
 
 The above are selected out of a number of similar cases. 
 
 The following instances are mentioned as a proof that ejectments not im- 
 mediately connected with land do not produce disturbances : 
 
 A schoolhouse was built many years ago in the parish of Ballychean on 
 ground rented on certain terms ; the rent was not paid, and this year a pro-" 
 cess of ejectment has been brought against the schoolmaster and the parish 
 priest as joint defendants; and it has not produced any outrage or popular dis- 
 turbances in the parish, though the action is brought against the two persons, 
 who may naturally be supposed capable of exciting the feelings of their 
 neighbours. 
 
 Crimes connected with land-hiring are rarely committed by the persons 
 most immediately interested. (Messrs Long, Fitzgerald, Clarke, Pennefather.} 
 To illustrate this, the following instances were given : 
 
 Mr Chadwick, agent to Mr Sadleir, who had been dispossessing some 
 tenants on the lands of Rathconan, was superintending the building of a 
 police barracks, and while speaking to a man on the road, at two o'clock in 
 the afternoon, two men jumped over the hedge and shot him dead; the mur- 
 derers (one of whom was afterwards executed), were quite unconnected with 
 the ground which had been undertenanted. 
 
 On the 1st of November last Captain Maguire was killed in his own shrub- 
 bery, near his own door, by two persons (strangers) brought there for the 
 purpose by some tenants who were under ejectment. 
 
 To the question whether the people are ever instigated to assassination, 
 Whiteboyism, &c., by people much superior to themselves in condition, Dr 
 Fitzgerald gives the following answer, referring to two murders which have 
 been already mentioned : " In June 1834, a young man, named John Bibby, 
 was murdered within half a mile of Cashel, about four o'clock in the after- 
 noon. On the same night, about half past ten, his father was murdered 
 about 12 miles from Cashel; and both these murders were procured by a 
 person whom I will not name publicly, belonging to the better order of far- 
 mers, in consequence of being turned out of land which it was conjectured the 
 agent was going to let to the Bibbies. This case is for trial at the ensuing 
 assizes." 
 
 The other witnesses present concur in the statements that such instigations 
 do take place. They likewise agree in stating that rents have been affected 
 by intimidation ; that the committal of outrages of this nature is sanctioned 
 directly or indirectly by the mass of the agricultural working people as neces- 
 sary to protect their general interest ; and that lawless habits and a reckless- 
 ness of life may be traced to this practice of making their own regulations 
 and joining in the infliction of punishments for private wrongs. 
 
 The following instance of outrage was mentioned : 
 
 Baron Pennefather, considered truly to be one of the best landlords in the 
 country, purchased some years ago an estate at Knockgraffon, at that time 
 overrun with population. He purchased out the redundant population, divided 
 the estate into larger farms, gave leases to the tenants on moderate terms, 
 and built slated houses for them in one word, made them as comfortable as 
 their class requires : in the present year not one of them would pay a far- 
 thing's rent (they had paid in all former years), and he was obliged to direct 
 his agent to distrain on 99 of them, who all held land in quantities varying 
 from 5 to 60 acres. They had received notice that they would be distrained 
 on, if they did not pay by a certain day ; not having done so 12 were dis- 
 trained on in one day, and whilst the drivers were taking the cattle to the
 
 32 
 
 pound, they were attacked at noon-day by eight armed men, with blackened 
 faces, who rescued the cattle and spared two of the drivers, who were tenants 
 on the property, but beat, until they left him for dead, a man named Quinlan, 
 who had been brought out from Cashel to assist them. 
 
 Limerick, Barony Conello. F. 65. Latterly there have been very few 
 disturbances in this barony. A few acts of violence, however, can be traced 
 to causes connected with the taking of land. 
 
 Colonel Dickson says, " A man was hanged at the last assizes for murdering 
 a man because he was the last life in the lease, and they conceived if the 
 lease was out they would get a renewal." 
 
 Mr Browne says, " In 1834, a farm belonging to Mr Dickson, at Shana- 
 golden, was let to a now tenant, and soon after the house was set on fire, and 
 all his goods and cattle were burned." 
 
 There was another case, this spring, in Shanid, of a similar sort; the out- 
 houses were set on fire at night, and the new tenant could barely save his 
 cows. Colonel Dickson says, " I let a farm to a poor widow whose house 
 was attacked and the out-houses burned very soon after she entered on the 
 farm." Burnings and other crimes are generally attributed to the destitution 
 to which tenants and their families are reduced by losing their farms." (Co- 
 lonel Dickson, Mr Royal.) " Even if not reduced to perfect destitution, I 
 
 think an expelled tenant, from the advice of those around him, would com- 
 mit violence. It is considered so great a hardship to be turned out that he 
 
 would be recommended and assisted to revenge himself." (Mr Brown.') 
 
 Crimes connected with land-hiring are often committed by those who are not 
 themselves sufferers from the acts of the person whom they injure. It is 
 said there is a private feeling amongst the peasantry that the ejected tenunt 
 should not commit the crime himself, as it is supposed he would be sus- 
 pected. Several instances of hiring others to commit outrages have oc- 
 curred in Limerick. It was proved that the murderer of Mr Millar received 
 2s. 6d. ; another man, who was hung for shooting a post-boy, confessed he 
 received 10s. for doing it. 
 
 "Before the year 1822 it was generally believed that the smaller land- 
 holders were incited to the commission of outrages by persons of superior 
 rank to themselves ; but this could never be legally proved against them. 
 Since 1822 this part of the country has been quiet. We cannot say what 
 motive may have induced people secretly to incite others to disturbances." 
 
 (Mr Brown, &c.) It is not thought that rents have been affected by 
 
 intimidation. " The mass of the agricultural working people are at least 
 easily got to assist in the commission of outrages, though perhaps not often 
 the originators of them." (Mr Brown, Colonel Dickson.) 
 
 fFuterford Barony, Decies without Drunny. F. 70. A large proportion of the 
 crimes committed here are connected with the taking of land. (Mr B. 
 
 Boate.) " We think that the system of intimidation does not exist to any 
 
 extent in this county. We cannot mention any cases of outrage that have 
 taken place connected with taking land." (Messrs Hudson, O'Brien, Qualey, 
 
 and Welsh.) Such crimes, when they take place, are committed by 
 
 strangers employed by the sufferers, as being the least likely to be suspected. 
 (Mr Boate, &c.) Persons above the rank of the small landholders have in- 
 stigated the people to Whiteboyism,&c. Farmers' sons of the more comfort- 
 able class have been engaged in it. (Mr Boate.) There has been no instance 
 
 of rents having been affected by intimidation on the part of the peasantry. 
 
 (Messrs Boate and Healy.) In some instances, but generally, the committal 
 
 of outrages is sanctioned by the mass of the agricultural working people. (Mr 
 Boats and Mr Heley.) 
 
 Barony Middlethird. F. 71. It is stated that this county is comparatively
 
 33 
 
 a quiet one, but any disturbances that have taken place here are supposed to 
 have arisen from causes connected with the taking of land -consolidation of 
 farms and eviction of tenants. Tithes are not demanded now, but were for- 
 merly a source of disturbance. (Mr Christmas and Mr Ronrii/ne.) Land- 
 holders are supposed to have been led to commit crime by their wives and 
 children having been left destitute. Crimes connected with the taking of, or 
 ejection from, land, are generally committed by persons not themselves inte- 
 rested, but procured by the sufferer. (Mr Christmas and Mr Maxwell.) 
 There has been no instance in this barony of people being instigated to 
 Whiteboyism by persons of a superior rank to themselves (Mr Duckett and 
 Mr Sherlock.) 
 
 Fermanagh. F. 76. There have been no combinations or crimes con- 
 nected with the taking of land, nor have rents been affected by combinations 
 on the part of the peasantry of this barony; but in other parts of the county 
 of Fermanagh crimes arising out of that cause have been committed. 
 
 Monnghun. F. 77. Mr Hamilton is of opinion that a great many outrages, 
 and of the worst description, arise from the taking of land. On the point 
 whether it was the destitution of the labourer, or the fear of it, that led him 
 to crime, the Rev. Mr M'Mahon, p. p , said " That is no doubt the cause." 
 Upon examination into the cases mentioned by persons present of outrages 
 committed, it was found that it was by the friends of those ejected that the 
 outrages were committed on those who took the land. Several persons were 
 found guilty and sentenced to transportation for life at the last assizes of 
 Monaghan, for beating a man to death who took land from which another had 
 been ejected. Many instances were also mentioned of burnings that had 
 taken place, and of notices served on persons, warning them not to take land 
 from which some others had been ejectevl ; but the gentlemen present said 
 the system was not very prevalent throughout the barony, but was confined 
 chiefly to the parish of Tydavnet. 
 
 Tyrone. F. 78. In conversation with the farmers in different parts of the 
 district as to whether outrages were sanctioned by the mass of the agricul- 
 tural working people, as necessary to protect their general interest, they said 
 that if a man took land over their heads they would be revenged ; the expres- 
 sion of one farmer on this occasion was, " that he would stand over the man 
 who took his land and see him burning in flames." 
 
 A remarkable instance in proof of the extreme fertility of 
 land-letting in the production of crime appears in the preceding 
 evidence taken in the barony of Middlethird, county Tipperary. 
 After the recital of a long list of crimes, immediately connected 
 with land taking, an instance is given of the priest and school- 
 master of the parish, having been ejected from a piece of land 
 upon which they had built a schoolroom. And no violence 
 was committed upon the parties connected with the ejectment. 
 That community of which so much lawlessness had been nar- 
 rated were not excited to crime, although the persons they hold 
 the most sacred were immediately concerned. It would be 
 impossible to produce stronger proof that wild and ungovernable 
 passions are not the instigators to the majority of the great 
 crimes of Ireland, for a distinction could not possibly be drawn 
 more nicely than between the land which gives food, and the 
 land which does not ; especially considering that the latter was 
 
 D
 
 34 
 
 held by persons towards whom the attachment of the peasantry 
 is proverbially great. Another proof that they are not insti- 
 gated to crime by general habits of lawlessness is, that they 
 rarely illtreat strangers who go about seeking work, or those 
 who underbid them when working for money wages, which they 
 obtain only when engaged in occasional employment. They do 
 not depend upon wages for food, but for the means of paying the 
 rent of the land which gives the food. Wages are not, therefore, 
 deemed of the same importance as land, which is their first 
 thought, and to which all other things are secondary. This, 
 though a nice distinction, is a difference. In towns, however, 
 wages are all important : combinations similar to those in the 
 rural districts exist for the protection of the working men, and 
 punishments are awarded equally frightful with those practised 
 by the peasantry. Trades Unions in towns are analagous to 
 Riband Societies in the rural districts, and both were insti- 
 tuted with the same view protection of the labouring classes 
 from destitution. 
 
 The same motives which lead to the commission of crime as a 
 punishment for land-taking, also induce the peasantry to screen 
 those who execute their decrees, and to endeavour to impede 
 and to punish those who attempt to bring the criminal before 
 the tribunals of the country. 
 
 The witnesses against the murderer of one who has taken 
 " land over the head," are frequently murdered either before 
 trial to prevent conviction, or after trial as a warning to others. 
 Even the magistrate who has been about to receive evidence 
 against a murderer has been shot at, and every attempt at inti- 
 midation practised upon him. 
 
 Tipperary, Middlethird. The same Gony agreed to shoot one Edmund 
 Russell, because he was a crown witness against a man named Breen, charged 
 with the murder of John Bibby. The murder arose out of ejectment from 
 land. 
 
 A conspiracy was formed by six men to shoot Mr Fitzgerald, the magis- 
 trate, when going to the assize town ; because he was to superintend a pro- 
 secution against a man named Burke, charged with murder, arising from the 
 dispossessing some tenants of land. 
 
 It is a proof of the sanction of the peasantry that the man 
 who has committed a murder does not conceal the fact, but 
 boasts of it. He is one who is believed to have done an essen- 
 tial good to society, and knows that by the people he is deemed 
 entitled to shelter, to work, to food ; and to every indulgence, 
 and every mark of favour which they can bestow. 
 
 In further proof of the feeling prevalent amongst the pasantry 
 on this subject, I may cite the extraordinary case of a man who 
 came into a neighbourhood in which he was unknown and
 
 35 
 
 accused himself of murder. On being arrested and questioned 
 by the magistrates, it turned out, that he had falsely accused 
 himself, well knowing that the accusation would procure him 
 food and shelter. It is notorious that the farmers feel bound to 
 find work for persons who may be guilty of such offences, and 
 that the peasantry look upon those who are hanged or tran- 
 sported for such offences as martyrs for the general good, and 
 that they protect and cherish their widows and orphans. 
 
 Tipperary, Middlelhird. Mr Fitzgerald says, " I know an instance of 
 a man, who went to a district some miles from this, and stated that 
 he had committed murder, and had been obliged to quit his own place, 
 being on the " run ;" this having transpired, in sometime after he was 
 brought before me, and it was satisfactorily proved that he was not 
 guilty of the offence he charged himself with ; when questioned as to 
 his charging himself with so ruinous an offence, he replied it was his 
 anxiety to obtain work. The Rev. Mr Stiffon having had the fore- 
 going evidence read to him said, I know that a feeling would exist, and a very 
 strong one in favour of giving work to a man under such circumstances, 
 because he was in a forlorn condition, having risked his life in the popular 
 cause, having put an end to an oppressive landlord and the collector, &c. 
 
 Tipperary. F. 119. The Assistant Commissioners were accosted one day 
 by a man, who stated that he was glad he met them, as he was anxious to ask 
 how he should act under the following circumstances : 
 
 " I held that farm (pointing to some ground near the road side) at a deal 
 higher rent than the land could make; and of course I got into arrear. I was 
 immediately turned out by the landlord, and my wife and children are now 
 beholden to the neighbours. Of course no one dare take it until they got my 
 gwd-will of it, and I'm waiting until Government passes the Corporation Bill, 
 to see if I would get it back then, as it is what is called corporation land; and 
 I believe the landlord turned me out unjustly, as he himself has no real title 
 in it, only he is rich and I am poor." 
 
 The Assistant Commissioners then asked him what feeling he would enter- 
 tain against any man who might chance to take it. He replied, " To be sure 
 I would have a bad feeling to him, and why should not I ? The devil a much 
 of the world's bread he would eat after it any way, as I would die to have his 
 life, or any one like him, that would step in to take the oread out of my wife's 
 and children's mouths." 
 
 The Assistant Commissioners then asked him with what feelings would the 
 peasantry look on the family of a man who was handed for " beating a man 
 to death" * under such circumstances? He replied, " His wife and family 
 would be regarded, and why not? I would take the bit out of my wife's or 
 children's mouth before I would see his, the poor things ! want it ; because 
 didn't he lose his life for the good of the people, and die in the ' cause?' 
 And I'll tell you what is more, gentlemen, that although the people may 
 ' fault' and abuse the ' Whifefeet,' and boys that go round at night with the 
 ' blackfaces' that only for them the whole country would be in a rising-; the 
 poor would have no protection at all, the landlords would hunt them out, 
 like rats out of a corn-stack, without any sort of compunction, only they 
 know the ground would be left on their hands, as any man that would take 
 it ' knows his fate;' and sure, if in doing that any boy should suffer (i. e., be 
 hanged), why should we not succour the poor things left behind them ? Sure 
 
 * The man appeared to dislike calling it murder, and those are the words he used.
 
 36 
 
 was not it to prevent us, and the likes of us, being turned adrift on the wide 
 world that they came to that pass? " 
 
 In asking what would be the feeling towards an " informer," he replied, 
 " Faith, he should quit that moment, or ' God help him ;' and, more than 
 that, the people would ' disgust' even his family and every one belonging to 
 him, because he would be nothing better than a ' blood seller.' " 
 
 A person at Cashel, who had been ejected from a small farm, which another 
 man wished to take, but did not dare, applied to the Assistant Commissioners 
 for their advice as to whether he should accept a sum of money which that 
 person offered him,* to do him no mischief if he entered on his old farm, or 
 whether he should decline to receive it, and wait for the chance of his land 
 being again got for him by something connected with Poor-laws. He stated 
 that the man who offered him the money dare not take the land, for fear that 
 he (the old tenant) should murder him. 
 
 It is frequently supposed that the peasantry in all cases resist 
 the law. This is not true. There are crimes which they, as 
 well as the law, condemn, and when their own interests and the 
 law coincide, so far from impeding they assist those who are 
 charged with its execution. A man who had evidently com- 
 mitted one of those murders which receive the sanction of the 
 peasantry, having successfully eluded the pursuit of the police, 
 the constable at length bethought himself of assuring the 
 people that the man had been guilty of a rape, when they 
 instantly surrendered him. 
 
 Tipperary, Middlethird. The Rev. Mr Mulony states I was informed by 
 a chief Constable of Police that he was in pursuit of a man charged with 
 murder, a,nd that he was frustrated in his attempts to arrest him by the peo- 
 ple screening him ; but he at last thought of a plan by which he might suc- 
 ceed, which was merely informing them that the man had committed a rape, 
 when the people immediately assisted him in arresting him. 
 
 The outrages committed are apparently most disproportionate to 
 the injury which they are intended to punish. But when it is con- 
 sidered that loss of land in Ireland means, in most cases, a life of 
 mendicancy, in many cases starvation, and in all a state of 
 misery, more to be dreaded than death, the disproportion of the 
 punishment to the offence will not appear so great. Again, it is 
 necessary to consider that more lenient punishments are impossi- 
 ble, where secrecy and expedition are imperative conditions. 
 
 It is worthy of the most serious consideration that the same 
 peasantry who sanction the greatest atrocities, both against person 
 and property, give daily proof of possessing in the highest per- 
 fection the finest sympathies which adorn human nature. No 
 points connected with the Irish peasantry are better estab- 
 lished by the evidence, than their universal affection towards 
 their relatives and friends, and their humanity to the wandering 
 stranger. In the various relations of child, of parent, and of 
 
 * . e. For his good-will.
 
 37 
 
 friend, they appear to be unrivalled. Frequently the man, who 
 at night deprived his fellow creature of life, had a few hours 
 previously divided his last potatoe with the widow and the 
 orphan ; and those who witness and sanction his crime return 
 to shelter and to comfort the houseless and hungry. 
 
 All ranks concur in stating, that however destitute may be the 
 condition of the peasantry, outrage on the person for the purpose 
 of robbery, breaking into dwelling-houses, horse, cattle, and 
 sheep-stealing, are almost unknown. 
 
 Political outrages are nearly as rare, and do not bear the pro- 
 portion of 1 per cent, upon crimes connected with landholding. 
 In those counties which have been proclaimed, and in which it 
 has been found necessary to enforce " Coercion" and " Peace 
 Preservation Acts," and to increase the police, it will generally 
 be found, that an extensive ejectment of the wretched tenantry 
 had preceded the disturbances, and that the atrocities committed 
 were in revenge upon those who have taken possession. As to 
 forms of government, the peasantry neither understand nor care 
 about them. They believe certain individuals to be their friends, 
 and to be anxious to gain food and justice for them, and there- 
 fore they are in favour of certain individuals. If they obtained 
 food and justice their political wants would be satisfied. 
 
 Mayo, 381. Rev. Mr Gibbons, though not present at this day's examina- 
 tion, told us yesterday in connexion with this subject, that the greatest 
 anxiety prevails among his people to learn whether any changes are in pro- 
 gress that are likely to better their condition ; in the words of one of them- 
 selves, " Is the Government doing anything for us, or will we be better off 
 next year than we are this ?" They always apply to him, as he gets the only 
 newspaper that comes into the parish. "When I can tell them the Govern- 
 ment is thinking of them," he says, " I send them away happy and contented : 
 this inquiry has given them great hopes. God grant that they may be not 
 disappointed ?" 
 
 Religio-political outrages are nearly confined to the north, 
 where the population is mixed. In the provinces of Connaught, 
 Leinster, and Munster, the number of Protestants in a parish 
 is so few, as to render feuds between them and the Catholics 
 impossible. These statements will appear incredible to those 
 who have been in the habit of concluding that all disturbances 
 and outrages in Ireland are political, instead of being in almost 
 every case connected with food. 
 
 It is a very common error in England to suppose that out- 
 rages in Ireland are by Catholics on Protestants, whilst nine- 
 tenths of them are committed by Catholics on Catholics, and 
 have not the slightest connexion with religious feeling. Pro- 
 testants are rarely concerned in Agrarian disturbances, their 
 condition being generally more comfortable than that of the
 
 38 
 
 Catholics. Being of the same persuasion as the majority of the 
 landlords, they are greatly favoured. 
 
 Down, Bar. Iveagh. F. 14-0. Upon the question, " Whether many would 
 now emigrate, if a free passage to America were given them, who have 
 hitherto forborne to do so ?" William Rowan answered, " Several would, 
 because their privileges are infringed upon as Protestants" " / would, for one." 
 
 (Thomas Rowan.) Hogan explained the circumstance in this way; " that 
 
 until lately the Roman Catholics got no leases of land, but the Protestants 
 had good ones; and when their leases were falling in now the landlords were 
 raising the rent on them as well as on the Roman Catholic, so that now they 
 were not hetter off than the Roman Catholics, and may be some of them did 
 not like that, and went away." 
 
 In like manner, it is commonly believed that the opposition to 
 tithes by the peasantry is wholly connected with religious feeling. 
 This is not the truth. The contention is purely domestic. A 
 starving peasantry refuse to share their scanty meal with the minis- 
 ter of a different religion, from whom they do not feel that they 
 derive any advantage. Were they not distressed they would no 
 more have opposed tithes and church rates, or cess, than did the 
 Dissenters of England, by whom, from their comfortable condi- 
 tion, those imposts were not till lately deemed worthy of per- 
 sonal strife. The peasantry of Ireland cannot be expected to 
 perceive, that if the amount which is now paid for tithe did not 
 go to the clergy, it would be taken for rent ; many, however, are 
 now becoming sensible of the fact. 
 
 Besides the more serious crimes against person and against 
 property which are resorted to under a general league of the 
 peasantry, in order to give them greater security in their 
 holdings, and which are the direct effects of the anxiety for 
 land, there are others of a milder nature which indirectly pro- 
 ceed from the same source, and form part of the series of evils 
 which I am about to point out, as being produced through the 
 medium of nominal rents which system originates in the 
 anxiety for land. 
 
 As, by violence, the peasantry seek to terrify, and thus to 
 keep off succeeding tenants, so by paying all that their means 
 permit they seek to conciliate, and thus to render their land- 
 lords unwilling to eject them. This compels the peasantry 
 to be content with a quantity just sufficient to sustain 
 existence of the poorest food, viz. the potatoe, and to culti- 
 vate the least nutritious, and what is even worse, the most 
 perishable species of that vegetable the lumper. The use of 
 the apple or of the cup potatoe is more expensive, and, conse- 
 quently, is discouraged by those under whom the peasantry 
 hold their lands. 
 
 Duldin. F. 227. Though most of the small occupiers and labourers grow 
 apples and cups, they do not use them themselves, with the few exceptions
 
 39 
 
 mentioned, except as holiday fare, and as a little indulgence on particular occa- 
 sions. They can only afford to consume the lumpers or coarsest quality 
 themselves, on account of the much larger produce, and consequent cheap- 
 ness, of that sort. The apples yield 10 to 15 per eent. less than the cups, 
 and the cups 10 to 15 per cent, less than the lumpers, making a difference of 
 20 to 30 per cent, between the produce of the best and the worst quali- 
 ties. To illustrate the practice and the feeling of the country in this respect, 
 the following occurrence was related by one of the witnesses : A landlord, 
 in passing the door of one of his tenants, a small occupier, who was in 
 arrears with his rent, saw one of his daughters washing potatoes at the door, 
 and, perceiving that they were of the apple kind, asked her if they were 
 intended for her dinner. Upon being answered that they were, he en- 
 tered the house, and asked the tenant what he meant by eating apple potatoes 
 when they were fetching so good a price in Dublin, and while he did not pay 
 him (the landlord^ his rent? 
 
 An annual famine in Ireland is the immediate consequence 
 of the use of the potatoe for the subsistence of the people. 
 
 There are two circumstances connected with the potatoe 
 which make it wholly unfit for the principal food of a nation. 
 
 First, Even the best quality becomes unfit for human food 
 in less than a twelvemonth, and, consequently, a period pre- 
 cedes each crop, during which the population are compelled to 
 be content with food unwholesome in quality, as well as insuf- 
 ficient in quantity. The old potatoe begins to decay generally 
 about the end of June, whilst the new crop does not come to 
 maturity till the beginning of September ; the length of the 
 time of scarcity, depends both on the time that the old crop 
 will keep, and the season at which the new crop comes in. 
 
 The second objection to the potatoe as the principal food 
 for a people, is its bulkiness, and consequent difficulty and 
 expense of conveyance. In Ireland potatoes are often com- 
 paratively cheap twenty miles only from a place at which a 
 famine exists. To carry potatoes that distance, even on a good 
 road, enhances their price 50 per cent. 
 
 During the months of June, July, August, and September, 
 the whole of the labouring population suffer the severest priva- 
 tion, few of them having a sufficient quantity even of a food 
 which has begun to decay, and many being obliged to stay the 
 cravings of hunger by resorting to the use of weeds in mixture 
 with the half putrid potatoe. At this season starvation some- 
 times occurs in those parts of Ireland in which all are equally 
 necessitous, as in the Connemara district of Galway, in the 
 district of Erris in Mayo, and in parts of Kerry. 
 
 Death from inanition, however, is almost as little known 
 in Ireland as in Great Britain, and can only occur during 
 this season, as at other times no person would be refused a 
 meal, so charitable are the peasantry. But though death 
 from inanition is so rare as to be almost unknown the
 
 40 
 
 cases of premature old age, arising from scanty and bad food, are 
 frightfully abundant. Fatal fevers from the same cause are 
 annually numerous, and dropsy is commonly generated thereby, 
 even in very young children, a disease which rarely occurs in 
 England to persons under 40 or 50 years of age. 
 
 So severe are the sufferings of the peasantry during the 
 months of June, July, August, and September, that even the 
 most quiet and best disposed, yield to the cravings of nature; 
 and remarkable as the Irish peasantry are for patient endurance 
 of misery, they are then continually driven to commit depre- 
 dations. Provisions of every description are stolen by them ; 
 and pits and outhouses containing potatoes are frequently 
 broken open. Potatoes, cabbages, and turnips, are rooted up 
 whilst growing. Provision boats on the canals, and provision 
 carts on the roads are either robbed, or the sale of their contents 
 enforced to prevent them from leaving the district. Sacks are 
 cut whilst standing in the markets, or in carts on the roads, and 
 the provisions thus strewn on the ground. Corn stores and 
 bakers' shops are broken into, and cows are milked during the 
 night. 
 
 Robberies which are punishable with imprisonment and even 
 with transportation are numerous during these months, and 
 sufficient in number to crowd the prisons. But no one will in 
 such cases prosecute. All seem to recognise the severity of the 
 distress which can instigate the peasantry to such acts, and 
 consequently anger gives place to pity. 
 
 The labourer, if prosecuted, must associate with felons, be- 
 cause he will not starve, and society must run the risk of those 
 evils which may be expected to follow from the demoralization 
 of himself and his children. 
 
 Galway, Parish Tuam. A. 364. Numbers would rather starve than expose 
 themselves to the shame of a prison, a feeling, however, which increasing 
 distress is wearing away. Some few instances are known of persons having 
 been guilty of robberies with a view to relieving themselves from want. Dr 
 John Hale. 
 
 Parish Kittimore. A. 360 They often steal turf, potatoes, and cabbage, 
 when in sreat want; I have caught persons stealing my own. I did not pro- 
 ecute them ; common humanity prevented me, for I knew that it was want 
 caused them to do it. (Egan.) 
 
 Mayo, Barony Tyrawley. A. 366." Plunder," says Duffy, " and such 
 business has often brought an honest man to transportation. Many a mis- 
 chief is done in poverty and distress that would not be done but for them. 
 When I am hungry and want a meal, I will go out at night, and do what I 
 would never do if hunger did not drive me. When a man is hungry, the 
 shame goes off him ; many a mischief is done to gentlemen of the country 
 that they must overlook, when they know the povery of the people ; and the 
 poor man's potatoes and cabbage suffer, too; and if I saw my own suffering; 
 I would take my eyes off" the man when 1 knew his distress" Cooper says,
 
 41 
 
 " When a man has nothing to eat, and nothing to do but to sit by the fire (if 
 he has one) and think of his misery, many strange thoughts will be running 
 through his head, and it is hard for him to keep them out." Mr Costello, 
 Mr t'erschoyle, Mr Caldicell, &c. say, " It is a common practice here to root 
 potatoes from the ridge; or the pit and out-offices, where potatoes were 
 stored, have frequently been broken open by night and plundered." 
 
 Roscommon, Parish Boyle. A. 388. Mr Lloyd stated that he once saw 
 a man cutting a large hole in the side of the road, which he said he was doing 
 to obtain manure. " If you persist, I shall be compelled to send you to 
 gaol." " Indeed, then, your honour, I should be extremely obliged to you 
 if you would." " It is not uncommon," said Mr Crofton, " to hear tho poor 
 jesting upon their having such a last resort, but the instances where it is 
 put into practice are exceedingly rare. Potatoe pits, in scarce seasons, have 
 been known to be broken open, but dishonesty is not fairly chargeable upon 
 any class of the poor, except the hardened beggars; starvation is, generally 
 speaking, not heard of." 
 
 Slig'o, Purisli Kilmacshalgan. H. 392. There are not many instances of 
 persons being driven to commit robberies to relieve themselves from destitu- 
 tion. Some years ago, at a time of great distress, there were robberies of 
 provisions, and certainly from hunger solely. 
 
 Parish A g hade. A. 394. The petty robberies of potatoes which fre- 
 quently are committed arise altogether from destitution and want, not from 
 immoral feelings, and never to procure their being sent to prison for food. 
 
 Co. Cork, Par. St Mary's, Shandon. A. 443. Sometimes you see the chil- 
 dren of the poor stealing hay and straw from the carts on the quay, and thus 
 grow up to be thieves and pickpockets. 
 
 Parish Killeagh. H. 435. Potatoes, notwithstanding the expense of car- 
 riage, would be often brought from where they are abundant and cheap, to 
 parishes where they are very dear, but for a dread that they would be stopped 
 in some intermediate parish, and forcibly compelled to be sold. 
 
 Carious Carlow. A. 394 They do not commit offences for the purpose of 
 being sent to gaol where they would get food, they prefer begging. But Mr 
 Butler states he has heard a woman exclaim from the dock when acquitted 
 she would rather go back to prison, as she had no means of support. 
 
 The poor have been known to attack bakers' shops and boats with provi- 
 sions, in times of great scarcity and distress. 
 
 Half the petty thefts are from distress. " Many," says Mr Butler, " have 
 been brought before me as a magistrate, under such circumstances. It is to 
 us all a matter of wonder how they bear their situation with half the patience 
 they do." Kenna says, " There were five stone of potatoes stolen from him 
 to day, five barrels of potatoes have been taken from the same cause in one 
 night : Kenna observes, my cow has been often milked in the night to serve 
 the children. 
 
 Byrne and Kennie say, If under such circumstances they took half what we 
 possess in the world, we would not prosecute. They have not committed 
 outrages, though left most destitute. All the witnesses agreed that without 
 doubt the amount of evil thus created and propagated was greater than any 
 that would arise from giving them direct support. 
 
 Par. Ludlow. A. 599. None have committed offences for the sake of being 
 supported in gaol ; but many declare their disposition to do so to obtain food, 
 which they would rather do than starve. Many are cuilty of small thefts, 
 chiefly of taking potatoes by night out of the pits. Mr J. Murphy has had 
 his cows milked three or four times this summer, as he believes, from mere 
 distress; and he also lost in one night two barrels of potatoes. The destitute 
 have not been guilty of outrages upon persons for the purpose of preventing
 
 42 
 
 starvation. Unquestionably society suffers more by demoralization thus 
 created than it would by directly supporting them. 
 
 Par. St Mulling. A. 596. Instances are not wanting where great dis- 
 tress has driven poor people to steal potatoes and other provisions. Dr Wil- 
 cockt is induced from what he has heard, to think the practice very frequent ; 
 and the Rev. Mr Sounders stated, " I have at the present moment a man in 
 my employment who robbed me of potatoes four or five years ago, when 
 labouring under sheer privation, for which reason I did not prosecute him." 
 
 A. 395. Messrs O'Neill, Dowling, &c. say, " they know many instances 
 of labourers out of employment threatening to commit offences, that they 
 may be sent to gaol, if they could not procure some food for their wives and 
 families." 
 
 Kildare, Par. Kilcock A. 399. Mr Hughes states" If they were to break 
 all the windows in Kilcock, not a soul would send them to gaol, well know- 
 ing their real wants and distress." And he farther adds, " there is no act to 
 which a destitute starving people may not be driven, naturally thinking that 
 any change must be for the better. The poor here do not steal anything." 
 Mr Hughes says, "they would rather go beg it from the farmers than steal. 
 Though they are not guilty of any outrages on person, but for the most part 
 depend upon the neighbours, yet during the month of July 1830, a time of 
 great distress, thetanal boats were stopped and robbed of provisions." 
 
 Carberry. A. 397. They steal potatoes when in great distress ; and in 
 the neighbouring parishes outrages have been committed by plundering boats 
 and provision carts. Society suffers much more from such outrages and 
 constant pilfering than it would by a tax. 
 
 Par. Nans. A. 400. It is a matter of frequent occurrence to find able- 
 bodied persons committing trifling offences for the purpose of being sent to 
 gaol, and getting food and shelter there, and, of course, must mix with the 
 worst characters, and suffer by contamination with their vices. 
 
 Captain Connor states, during seasons of great want, when any provisions 
 are stolen, the magistrates direct the police to go to the houses of those la- 
 bourers whose destitution is well known ; and the provisions, if not discovered 
 within the house, are always secreted near it. 
 
 Pat Byrne, now a labourer, formerly a farmer of 60 acres, says, I have 
 often stolen potatoes from my mother in order to give them to men whose 
 families I knew to be starving. 
 
 Afeath, Par. Clonard. A. 406. There are many instances of stealing from 
 destitution. Mr Flood says, I perfectly recollect three or four instances. 
 
 Dublin, Balrot/tery. Potatoe fields indeed have been pilfered, sacks cut in 
 the markets and on carts, and other petty robberies committed, but all of 
 potatoes and other articles of food. 
 
 Meath, Kells. When scarcity existed, the people stopped carts and cut the 
 sacks containing potatoes, which they strewed on the road, not with the ob- 
 ject of plundering, but to prevent strangers from coming to purchase, and take 
 them out of the country. 
 
 Meath, Mayfeuragh. Disturbances have become more frequent in years of 
 scarcity only as far as these disturbances related to provisions ; in such sea- 
 sons, the labourers stole bread, and broke open potatoe stores, and stopped 
 corn and potatoe carts in the mid-day and on the high road. Gilshimmon 
 recollected that in the last year of the scarcity of potatoes, the working 
 classes broke open his potatoe house, and some of his neighbours' barns ; and 
 that some sent their corn into the town stores for safety. 
 
 Louth, Dundalk. Disturbances have arisen from the scarcity of potatoes, 
 only as far as related to food. This was the case in the year 1826 and 1830 
 and other years of general scarcity, during which, the labouring classes were
 
 43 
 
 obliged to beg for potatoes or meat, and in some cases where they were refused 
 they took them forcibly. 
 
 Kerry, Truck. 7. In 1822 and 1823 the country was disturbed, and po- 
 tatoes were very dear. In 1816 the country was tranquil and potatoes were 
 dear. In 1825 also they were dear, and the country was quite tranquil. We 
 do not expect disturbances because we foresee a scarcity of food. (O'Keeffe.') 
 
 Limerick, Conmallue. Mr Boyse says, I know several instances where dis- 
 turbances that became very important originated in this way. For instance, 
 during years of scarcity, labourers have collected and gone round the district 
 administering oaths to provision merchants and farmers, which afterwards 
 ended in very general disturbances. Mr Blenncrhasset says, in 1821 the first 
 acts of violence were entering into houses and insisting on the price of milk ; 
 afterwards these disturbances spread to other objects. Captain Dickinson 
 says, I consider that men who are badly clad and whose houses are badly 
 roofed and careless, whether they are out patrolling at night or not. Mr 
 Boyse says, I know men who have committed petty thefts for the purpose of 
 being transported. 
 
 Londonderry. Par. Drumachose. A. 469. Henry Greir knew one man who 
 was driven through destitution to steal some potatoes for his wife and family; 
 he was sent to gaol, but is now an industrious man, caretaker to a gentleman 
 near this, and his wife and children bear an excellent character. No misery, in 
 99 cases out of 100, leads them to commit offences. They scarcely if ever 
 steal, and then only sufficient of potatoes to prevent starvation. 
 
 Bar: Loughinsholin. A. 471. Bradley says, the poor would all but starve; 
 they would live on half a meal a day before they beg, much less before they 
 would steal. Potatoe pits have been occasionally in scarce times opened by 
 destitute persons, but not si nee Mr Holmes came; he had found frequently his 
 potatoe pits broken open, but generally traced it to thieving rather than to 
 want. 
 
 Londonderry, Par. Upper Cunber. A. 468. Potatoes have sometimes been 
 stolen in hard times, to relieve immediate destitution, but very few offences of 
 this nature have been committed. Millar, however, said, I have heard a man 
 declare when he was in great distress, that he wished he was in gaol, for there 
 he would be fed, at least. But no instance was known where persons had 
 endeavoured for this reason to be sent to gaol. Very few thefts, and no out- 
 rages, have been committed owing to destitution. 
 
 City of Londonderry. A. 473. Paupers do not steal, but householders, 
 through fear of starvation, have been known to open potatoe pits; this is very 
 rare, and only occurs in hard seasons. No outrages have occurred from want 
 here. 
 
 Par. Dungiven. A. 470. Of the few who have been sent to gaol for trifling 
 offences caused by destitution, almost all become again industrious. They 
 will do all but starve, and that is as much as any man can require. (Irwon.) 
 
 The unwillingness to prosecute sufficiently explains one of 
 the most striking circumstances, established by the almost in- 
 variable assurance of the wealthier classes, that the poor, even 
 whilst suffering under the severest want, do not seek the food 
 and shelter of a prison : they are permitted to take those things 
 for which alone they could desire such a refuge. So strong are 
 those assurances as at first to create astonishment at the ex- 
 tremely high morality of the people; a morality which in Eng- 
 land is not even enforced, as the proof of a theft being urged by 
 immediate starvation usually screens the culprit.
 
 To offend against the laws, or to lie down and perish, is the 
 bitter choice open to the Irish peasantry. Those crimes which 
 in England and in many countries are dictated by the immoral 
 desire to live a life of luxury and dissipation without undergoing 
 the toil of industry, are almost unknown in Ireland, as burglary, 
 highway robbery, sheep, horse, and cattle stealing. The highest 
 credit is undoubtedly due to the peasantry of Ireland for their 
 honesty. Wretched as their condition is at all times, it is 
 almost incredible, that they are seldom guilty of robbery, but 
 to appease the cravings of the moment. Since, however, famine 
 is of annual recurrence, since there are at all times and in all 
 districts persons unable to procure food, in no country can 
 property of that discription be less secure. Distress is no 
 doubt frequently aggravated by the insecurity which thus 
 exists in the transmission of food. Those who would find it to 
 their interest to convey it to districts in which it is scarce, are 
 constantly deterred by the risk of its being plundered by the 
 starving population amongst whom it must pass. 
 
 Did corn form the principal food of Ireland, famine would be as 
 little known as it is in Great Britain. Most descriptions of corn 
 will remain sound during four or five years under proper treat- 
 ment, and thus the surplus of a fine harvest becomes available 
 in a year of scarcity. The facility, and consequently the cheap- 
 ness with which corn can be conveyed, is another material quality 
 in its favor, from which famine is almost impossible within a few 
 miles of abundance. A hundred weight of potatoes will only 
 maintain a man eight days, whilst one cwt. of meal will maintain 
 him from 50 to 56 days. (See App. D. Irish Report.) As corn 
 in bulk is more portable than meal, it can be transported more 
 cheaply, and at one-seventh or one-eighth the expense of pota~ 
 toes. There are but few parts of Ireland now in which the state 
 of the roads would be an impediment to the transport of food, 
 the roads being in most parts nearly as good as those of England. 
 
 It might perhaps be difficult to estimate with accuracy the 
 comparative cost, on an average of years, of potatoes and corn, 
 as a food. Against the potatoes must be placed, first, the cost 
 of producing that portion of the crop which perishes before it 
 can be consumed, which in some years must be important, 
 because, the produce of successive years being very different, it 
 is always necessary to plant as much ground as will, under fair 
 circumstances, yield a sufficient quantity of food for the comino- 
 year. Should the season prove more than ordinarily favorable 
 the surplus may amount to a fifth or a. sixth of the whole crop. 
 Secondly, a very large allowance is requisite to meet the des- 
 truction of the crops during growth. The peasantry being
 
 45 
 
 constantly compelled, from the deterioration of their stock and 
 their inability to purchase meal, to dig portions of the growing 
 crop prematurely. Sometimes they dig it when the produce is 
 not more than a fourth of what it would have been at full growth. 
 Sometimes they raise the stalks, take the young potatoes off 
 when about the size of a marble, and replace the stalks upon 
 the chance of their producing a full crop. 
 
 Galway, E 1. The longer the time that intervenes between the failure 
 of the old crop and the coming in of the new, the greater the distress of the 
 peasantry. Some are obliged to take out the potatoes when not the size of 
 a pigeon's egg; and many who have not the new potatoes to dig, are reduced 
 to one meal of potatoes, and a meal of cabbage, in the day. 
 
 F 3. It is not uncommon to see the poor anticipate their crops, and 
 dig them not only before they have acquired their full growth, but whilst they 
 are still absolutely as unwholesome as when too old. (Rev. Mr Hughes, P.P.) 
 
 Leitrim. F 4. Those who cnn afford to have an opinion as to the qua- 
 lity of their potatoes, consider that they begin to deteriorate about the begin- 
 ning of June, and that they have become positively unwholesome by the end 
 of the month ; however, the poor stick to them as long as the}' last, and that 
 is in general until the middle of July. '(Rev. '/'. Maguife, P. p.) 
 
 The greater portion of the new crop is not fit for use until the 15th of 
 August, but long before that time the labourers have begun to dig theirs, 
 especially if they wish to avoid going on credit. 
 
 Mayo. E. 5. -After the beginning of August the old potatoes are not 
 considered good. The Rev. Mr Dwyer, p. p., states that, " then the people 
 believe they begin to be unwholesome, but they would be very glad to get 
 them, nevertheless. The main crop of potatoes is not fit for digging or for 
 storage till November, when the stalks begin to wither. However, the dig- 
 ging of potatoes for daily use commences after Garlick Sunday, but not to 
 such an extent as to prevent a great rise in the price ; and a considerable 
 quantity of that crop is prematurely used, and much loss thereby incurred ; 
 but the people cannot wait when their last year's crop has been exhaused." 
 (Sir S. O'Malley, Bart.) 
 
 Sligo. F. 7. The shortest period known to have intervened between the 
 old crop becoming unfit, and the new crop becoming fit, for human food, is a 
 fortnight, but with many it extends to two months ; and in proportion to its 
 length is the distress that prevails, and the debt incurred by the necessity of 
 living on credit." (Mr Dodwell.') " I have known those who could not 
 get credit to dig their new potatoes whilst the roots were not bigger than 
 plums. I should say that the too early use of the new potatoe is worse than 
 the too long use of the old. I am sure, that in the first month's digging of 
 new potatoes there is as much destroyed, as, if allowed to arrive at full 
 growth, would have sufficed for three months' consumption. (Rev. Mr 
 
 Yates.) There are no means known of making the superabundant crop of 
 
 potatoes of one year provide for the scarcity of the next. (Mr Lumey.) 
 
 Kings. F. 13. Mr Odium states, that at the end of summer potatoes 
 are generally consumed ; and he further stated, " I have frequently known 
 the poor man to suffer severely, being obliged to dig his potatoe ground, where 
 he would have more than three times the produce in six weeks after; this is 
 often a matter of great suffering." A month is sometimes known to inter- 
 vene, after the old crop is consumed, before the new one is fit for use, 
 during which period the distress is greatly aggravated, inasmuch as the defi-
 
 46 
 
 ciency of one year's potato crop cannot be supplied by the surplus of the 
 former ; for potatoes cannot be kept over from year to year as corn can. 
 
 Louth. F. 14 The distress of the peasantry is almost always very great 
 at this season, from the united causes of the want of potatoes, and the ab- 
 sence of employment, the month of July and the first half of August being a 
 time during which work is extremely scarce. In fact, it may be said to 
 amount, for those who have large families and not regular work, to an annual 
 return of temporary famine. Those persons are under the necessity of be- 
 ginning to take up their new crop of potatoes long before they come to 
 maturity, and as they are frequently at that time not larger than marbles or 
 walnuts, the dread of encroaching on their next year's means of subsistence, 
 induces them to put themselves upon the shortest possible allowance which 
 will support nature. (Mr W. Hackett, Mr Trainer.} 
 
 Meath Kellt. F. 16. The witnesses, and other persons of all classes, 
 gave the Assistant Commissioners the most appalling accounts of the dreadful 
 state to which the want of food, between the two crops of potatoes, had 
 reduced the poor in many former years. Privation (the usual allowance of 
 potatoes being curtailed by one-half or two-thirds) was the common lot of 
 almost all labourers only occasionally employed, but numerous families were 
 obliged to live on a few pennyworths of meal, weekly (which they begged, or 
 borrowed, during that time,), made up into a kind of soup, by boiling it with 
 the weed commonly called prassagft in Ireland, and charlock (wild mustard) 
 in England. This plant is decidedly unwholesome, and when eaten in the 
 manner just described, is said to render the skin nearly as yellow as its own 
 flower. To such an extent is this practice carried in seasons of scarcity, and 
 such are its noxious effects on the health of the poor, that the clergy were 
 obliged to forbid their eating this weed; and in some cases the priests and 
 farmers set persons to prevent them from gathering it. 
 
 In a number of cases the Assistant Commissioners found families subsist- 
 ing entirely on their new crop of potatoes. The average size of the potatoe 
 did not, at the time, exceed the size of a walnut ; and, as they were thus 
 consuming their crop about ten times as fast as if it had maintained its full 
 maturity, the effect of such a knowledge must have been (and, it is well 
 known, always is) to enforce the smallest possible allowance on those of 
 whom that crop was to form almost the sole means of subsistence for the 
 ensuing year. Independently of the ocular proofs of this lamentable antici- 
 pation of the crop, which the Assistant Commissioners had, by seeing the 
 new potatoes boiling, or being eaten in a number of the cabins which they 
 visited, the existence of the practice was confirmed, in many other cases, by 
 seeing women and boys in the act of digging them up, and by occasionally 
 meeting with ridges already partly cleared of their produce. 
 
 Tyrone. F. 37. In July the potatoe usually becomes unfit for food. 
 Instances were mentioned of the cottiers being obliged to dig out potatoes in 
 one month which would have been sufficient provision for three months, if 
 the poor cottiers could afford time for the potatoes to ripen. 
 
 The opinion of all the farmers was, that an acre of potatoes contains three 
 times the quantity of human food than an acre of corn contains. 
 
 By the premature digging of the crop, not only is great des- 
 truction and consequent expense caused, but the chance of 
 famine during the following season greatly encreased. 
 
 Another item in the calculation is, that the low feeding to 
 which the peasantry are reduced during this and other seasons
 
 47 
 
 makes them weak, and thus their labour is rendered inefficient, 
 and therefore dear. It appears that they are frequently too weak 
 from bad or insufficient food to perform their work. More men 
 therefore are usually assigned to a quantity of work than in 
 England. 
 
 Mr Condon says, " A labourer of mine has a severe affection of the bowels 
 annually at the season when he begins to eat young potatoes. He suffers so 
 much that it considerably lessons his strength ; indeed I am so well aware 
 of it that I never give him such hard work to do then as at any other season 
 of the year. None of my labourers are so strong when they first begin to eat 
 young potatoes as at any other season, and it is commonly remarked among 
 themselves. They also know that the white potatoe, commonly grown for its 
 prolific and hardy qualities, is not such strong food, nor so supporting as ' cup* 
 potatoes. This is shown by their different effects upon cattle; white potatoes 
 will not make a bullock so fat as the 'cup' sort." 
 
 It is frequently asserted that choice rather than poverty 
 induces the peasantry of Ireland to resort to the potatoe as 
 their staple food The use of meal and of flour being rare, 
 they have not the utensils or skill with which to make them 
 palatable, especially to make flour into bread. They make 
 it into a badly baked dough, in which shape it is, of 
 course, far less agreeable than the potatoe. In the towns in 
 which there are bakers, they use bread on holidays, as a great 
 treat; and those of the Irish who come to England or go to 
 America feed upon bread as much as do the English or the Ameri- 
 cans, though they might easily obtain a supply of potatoes. 
 
 Galway, Kilconnell. When it was asked " Whether the peasantry pre- 
 ferred potatoes to meal or bread," John Ginessey and others exclaimed, 
 " Arrah then, Sir, why should we prefer that, that we feed our pigs on to 
 better food, don't you like it better yourself, and why shouldn't we ? Never 
 believe them that would want to make you think that we'd eat wet lumpers 
 if we could get good bread." There is no reason to suppose that the pea- 
 santry in any degree prefer potatoes to bread ; whenever they can afford it 
 they substitute meal, but in general they only use wheaten bread on certain 
 festivals and occasions of rejoicing, such as marriages, &c. (Rev. Mr Hughes.) 
 
 Mayo, Murrish. The small occupiers present declare their dislike to an 
 unmixed diet of potatoes. Some of them exclaimed, " Just try potatoes for 
 six months and you'll never wish to eat another." 
 
 Sligo, Carberry. The peasantry seem most in favour of a mixed diet con- 
 sisting of both meal or bread and potatoes. We like potatoes very well, 
 but we don't like never to get any thing else. If a labouring man had even 
 apples instead of wet lumpers or ' cups,' he would not grumble much. (James 
 Gorman.) 
 
 Meath, Moyfuragh. All the labourers both in court and elsewhere, said 
 that they were tired of living on potatoes alone, and would much rather have 
 meal and bread, but they would like to have some of each for a change. 
 " Potatoes, " they said, were not " staying enough " (nourishing) for a man to 
 work hard upon. 
 
 Trwghanacmy, Kerry. They would prefer bread for breakfast and potatoes 
 for dinner. (Murphy Connor.) 
 
 The reasons which the peasantry assign, however, are
 
 48 
 
 high rents and low wages. It may be inferred, that if the 
 production was increased the peasantry would be enabled 
 to use corn ; but if the production were instantly increased 
 four-fold, they would be as poor as they now are, and would 
 give precisely the same reason why they use the potatoe as 
 a staple food. The Irish peasant's contract is a bare subsis- 
 tence of the cheapest food. His anxiety for land and for em- 
 ployment would be then what it is now, and competition would 
 cause him to make the same contract. If this be not the case, 
 why do not the peasantry on the lich lands feed on corn? 
 Those lands yield twice and three times as much as the 
 mountain and bog lands, on which others equally ill fed are 
 located. 
 
 The next evil to society, which arises from the anxiety of the 
 peasantry for land, acting through a system of nominal rents, 
 is the production of a large class of mendicants, wandering 
 about the country seeking food and shelter. 
 
 [Jnder the most favourable circumstances in which health 
 and vigour can place the peasantry of Ireland, they are barely 
 able to retain even sufficient of the cheapest food ; it is there- 
 fore impossible for them to provide against those contingencies to 
 which as human beings they are subject ^bla age and prolonged 
 sickness and, in the event of their premature decease, against 
 destitution in their widows and children. An extensive body, 
 consisting of aged persons, orphan children, and women with 
 young families, are, therefore, through destitution, compelled 
 to wander about the country begging for food and shelter. 
 
 Of the vagrants, widows with young families and orphan 
 children form an immense proportion : men past work and 
 their wives form another portion ; and the wives and children 
 of the " casual labourers," who have been distinguished as the 
 third class of peasantry, form the remainder. The wives and 
 children of the " casual labourers " only beg during the 
 summer months, when their con-acre potatoes are exhausted, 
 and when their husbands go to England or wander about Ire- 
 land in search of employment. Able-bodied men rarely beg ; 
 first, because they are either at work or seeking work ; and, 
 secondly, because their appearance would be prejudicial to the 
 success of their families, who generally represent themselves as 
 widows and orphans. When they accompany their wives, they 
 generally stay out of sight and carry the bag. Under the head 
 of widows, those women who have young families and have 
 been deserted by their husbands are included. 
 
 Instances frequently occur of men deserting their wives and 
 families, because their feelings will not permit them to witness 
 in those whom they love sufferings which they cannot avert or
 
 49 
 
 alleviate. Society forbids a man to leave his wife and his chil- 
 dren, principally because they should look to him for support. 
 But when he is unable to afford them any assistance this object 
 cannot be frustrated by his absence. In the peculiar circum- 
 stances of the Irish peasantry, it is difficult to determine 
 whether the act of the man leaving his family is most to be 
 condemned, or the good feelings which urges him to that ex- 
 tremity, to be applauded. It is evident, however, that the 
 poverty must be hopeless, which can induce the Irish peasant 
 in whom family attachment is so strong, to leave those who are 
 nearest and dearest to him his wife and his children. 
 
 Roscommnn, Par. Moore. A. 390. There are only two instances recollected 
 of men deserting their wives and families ; one was a labourer, and the other 
 a tradesman, both went to America. Poverty drives persons into many crimes 
 which they otherwise would not have been guilty of. 
 
 Rosc'tmmon, Par. Boyle. A. 358. Women with families are never aban- 
 doned by their husbands owing to distress ; there are in a few cases, other 
 motives which may produce this result. 
 
 Galieay, Par. Tuam. A. 363. There are some instances of women with 
 families being deserted by their husbands, but not many among the labouring 
 classes. ^Archbishop Tuam.) 
 
 Sligo, Par. A. 393. ^Fhere are one or two instances, however, where men 
 under the pressure of distress, have abandoned their families and not since 
 been heard of. Their families are now confirmed mendicants. 
 
 Londonderry, Par. Mayhem. A. 393. There are many instances where 
 women with families have been abandoned by their husbands. 
 
 Londonderry, Par. Drumuchase. A. 469. Few parents or husbands intend 
 to desert their families, but many, especially of late, have left to go in search 
 of work, and never returned. They sometimes send for their families. 
 Henry Greer knew two cases of total desertion in two years. 
 
 Meath, Par. Clonard. A. 406. Mr Langle remembers two or three cases 
 where it has occurred. 
 
 Kildare, Par. Naas. A. 400. Mr Hardy states, during the cholera I was 
 going along the road, and saw a woman lying in a ditch with six children 
 round her ; I gave her a drink of water and had her removed to the fever 
 hospital, where she died in three days ; this woman I knew had been aban- 
 doned by her husband, he not being able to get work, and not having the 
 heart to see his family famishing. 
 
 Kildare, Par. Naas. A. 400. Families are occasionally abandoned by men 
 out of work, who cannot bear to see them starve. 
 
 Carlow, Carlow. A. 394. In this parish there are no instances of husbands 
 deserting the family on account of destitution, but in an adjoining parish one 
 instance was told by Byrne to have occurred : a man deserted his family, a 
 wife and four children, about four years ago ; he could not get employment, 
 and could not bear to see them starving around him : he had been industrious, 
 the family became beggars. 
 
 Carlow, Par. Tvttow. A. 396. There are numerous instances of husbands 
 deserting their families. James Ketly Mason stated, that about a month ago 
 my son-in-law, who was a blacksmith, finding himself without employment for 
 five weeks, deserted his wife and three children, who returned to me for support. 
 
 It may be asked why widows do not, by industry, earn sub- 
 
 E
 
 50 
 
 sistence for their families. The answer is, that considering the 
 limited extent of employment, and the low rate of wages, a 
 woman, particularly if she has a family of young children, 
 cannot possibly maintain herself, much less a family, by her 
 industry. Those who earn their subsistence are peculiarly 
 circumstanced, and form a small minority. In farming there 
 is not any employment for them, excepting during a few weeks 
 in the Spring and Autumn, in sowing potatoes, saving turf, 
 pulling flax, sheaving, weeding, and hay-making, which do not 
 occupy more than two months ; when some earn sixpence 
 to a shilling a day. But those who earn such wages are gene- 
 rally peculiar for their strength and skill. Knitting and spin- 
 ning are the only occupations which are general, and to be had 
 throughout the year ; at these occupations, however, the great 
 majority cannot make more than Hd. a day, or 9d. per week. 
 Till within late years the linen trade had always afforded a full 
 subsistence to women. In many cases they could make by it 
 more than a man could by field labour. 
 
 It mostly happens that a woman, when first deprived of her 
 husband, retains the land he held, as well as a pig, and if he 
 was a small farmer, perhaps a cow, or a horse. So long as she 
 is able to pay the rent the land is not taken from her. In many 
 cases, more leniency is shown towards widows in the payment 
 than towards any other class. There are some instances in most 
 districts of the landlord even granting a cabin, with a small 
 piece of land rent-free, to the widows of the labourers, who 
 had long been in his employment. In cultivating their lands, 
 widows receive great assistance, as it is a common custom 
 throughout Ireland for the labourers to assemble on Sunday 
 mornings before service, on holidays, and before and after 
 their own hours for working, to dig the plots of ground, and to 
 get in the crops of widows. But with their utmost exertions 
 and the assistance thus afforded them, widows are not often able 
 to struggle for more than one or two years. They gradually 
 part with the few things that remained at the death of their 
 husbands, and when they cease to be able to pay the rent, 
 their holdings are taken from them. Frequently when a widow 
 is ejected, the neighbours build her a hut by the road-side, 
 on the borders of a bog, or on waste land, and she 
 at first goes from cabin to cabin, receiving a few potatoes 
 or a meal from one, and a few potatoes or a meal from another. 
 With the scanty assistance which their neighbours and rela- 
 tions are able ,to afford them, and by occasional donations from 
 the trifling collections made at the different congregations, they
 
 51 
 
 sometimes struggle against mendicancy till their children are 
 old enough to assist them. Some who are particularly active 
 and clever, turn to huxtering, others resort to the sale of 
 illicit whiskey. 
 
 Keeping what are in Ireland termed Shebean houses is nearly 
 confined to widows, who cannot otherwise earn a subsistence. 
 They have no choice but to starve or to live by acts which 
 are deemed by them disgraceful. To defraud the revenue 
 is rarely esteemed crime by the poorer classes in any country. 
 They avoid doing so only because punishment attaches to the 
 act, and not because they deem it immoral. No one appears 
 to be injured, and therefore it is viewed as distinct from theft, 
 and of minor turpitude. According to Mr Miler, of Mayo, 
 they think it " is more creditable to go into gaol for it than for 
 theft, or to beg the world." 
 
 Mayo, Parish Aughavale. A. 121. Mr Large goes on to say, if they can 
 escape detection, dealing in illicit whiskey is a more profitable business than 
 any other they can engage in. There is little reluctance to engage in it. It 
 is considered no disgrace, and it must be a very tempting trade when, having 
 been confined three months in gaol for the offence, they are found commit- 
 ting it again. Mr Miler says, the temptation is that they have no other 
 means of earning their bread, and it is more creditable to go into gaol for it, 
 than go in for theft, or to beg the world. 
 
 Carisk Kilgrevar. A. 124. Mr Evilysays, widows and wives sell illicit 
 spirits : it is the only profitable employment an industrious woman can find. 
 
 Biirony Trawley. A. 129. and 23. Two of those visited were inhabited by 
 widows. One of them who had six young children and an aged father to 
 support, being questioned as to her means of support : " That," said she, 
 pointing to a whiskey bottle, "is my sole dependence; I have no means on 
 earth to keep my children inside the door with me, but to borrow Is. from 
 one neighbour or other, and buy a drop of poteen to sell again. She was 
 all but naked, and stated that she had no other clothes than what she then 
 wore, not even a cloak good or bad. She described herself and family as 
 often not tasting food more than once in twenty-four hours, and not having 
 even then a full meal. " I would sometimes" said she, "go out and beg, but 
 I have no sort of covering for myself and children ; we would be famished 
 to death with the cold if we went with such clothes as we have." 
 
 Kildare, Parish Kilocock. A. 135. None of the widows in this parish sell 
 illicit spirits, but in Newton parish adjoining there are three or four instances 
 of widows who keep Shebean houses. They are driven to the sale of illicit 
 spirits : and this is one of the greatest nuisances in the parish, from which 
 much vice proceeds. 
 
 Londonderry, Parish Coleraine. A. 181. A few widows are remakable for 
 being driven to the sale of illicit spirits as a means of obtaining subsistence. 
 
 The description given of the physical condition of those who 
 struggle against vagrancy proves them to be the most wretched 
 of a destitute peasantry ; they are, without exception, described 
 by their fellow-parishioners " as being more miserable than 
 any other class in the community ;" as rarely able to procure 
 more than two meals of dry potatoes in the day, frequently only
 
 52 
 
 one, and never able to afford what is termed " kitchen" (but- 
 termilk, herrings, salt.) His Grace the Archbishop of Tuam 
 speaking of this class says, " the number of meals which they 
 " can afford to use may be averaged at two nothing but dry 
 " potatoes. It is not easy to estimate the exact quantity of 
 " which each meal consists ; it is, however, often in the long 
 " summer (as they say) scarce." Their cabins are generally the 
 most wretched hovels in the parish ; they are frequently so dila- 
 pidated as to admit the weather, and rarely contain a single 
 article of furniture. Their beds are a little straw upon the 
 ground, sometimes without even a blanket to cover them. 
 Of clothing they and their children rarely possess sufficient 
 for decency, more rarely sufficient to protect them from the cold, 
 and many are nearly naked. Few, however, are able to struggle 
 on ; the largest number are, immediately upon their widowhood, 
 driven to vagrancy, and tramp about the country, carrying some 
 and followed by others of their children. (See widows with 
 young families, Appendix A.) 
 
 The aged form but a small proportion of the vagrants 1st, 
 Because they are mostly too infirm to move about ; and 2ndly, 
 Because it is held by the peasantry to be a sacred duty to sup- 
 port their aged parents, a duty which nothing but the most biting 
 poverty seems to overcome. No act is considered more 
 thoroughly to degrade the young, or more certainly brings 
 upon them the indignation of their neighbours, than re- 
 fusing food and shelter to their aged parents. In some 
 parts of the country even the younger relatives will suc- 
 cour the aged should they be childless. Although this feel- 
 ing in favour of protecting the aged is chiefly induced by a 
 benevolent disposition in the peasantry, there can be no 
 doubt that self-interest is an additional and powerful motive 
 with them. By protecting their parents, they set an example 
 to their own children. The first class of peasantry, those who 
 hold more than five acres of land, are mostly able to main- 
 tain their aged parents. The second class the " cottier 
 tenants" however, are frequently much inconvenienced 
 thereby ; and the women, fearing for the food of their children 
 sometimes drive the parents of their husbands from their cabins. 
 But the third class, those who hold tinder two acres, and do 
 not possess regular employment, are rarely able to support the 
 aged. The women and children of many of that class 
 are beggars during a portion of the year; and the aged, con- 
 cerned at diminishing the scanty fare of their children and 
 their grand-children, and feeling that their own condition 
 will be improved, sometimes voluntarily take " to the bag." 
 Before this painful resolution can be taken by those who have
 
 53 
 
 not been accustomed to beg in youth, many a severe struggle 
 with inward pride has taken place. The children, by 
 remonstrances, and not unfrequently even by force, attempt to 
 prevent this degradation of their parents; a degradation, how- 
 ever, from which no peasant in Ireland can ever be secure under 
 the present system. It is a very remarkable feature in the 
 character of the Irish peasantry, that whilst all commiserate 
 and speak well of those who have been driven to beg, they 
 nevertheless deem begging disgraceful. Their sensitiveness on 
 this point is remarkably exhibited in their unwillingness 
 to admit that any persons of their district resort to vagrancy. 
 They usually state, that if any beg, it must be when from 
 home, and in search of work; and that the beggars in their 
 district come from parishes in the neighbourhood, or from 
 distant counties. This representation is in fact true, as none 
 but the most depraved seem willing to beg where they are known. 
 Those who live by vagrancy, when they return upon a visit to 
 the places of their nativity to join their friends and relations, 
 strictly abstain from asking alms. It is admitted on all hands, 
 however, that those who consent to beg are better provided for 
 than those who depend upon the precarious provision which 
 their children possess. Next to the misery which those who 
 are driven to vagrancy suffer, the chief evil in the existence of 
 a large body of persons wandering about the country seeking 
 alms, is apparently the heavy tax which it inflicts upon those 
 who are scarcely a degree above themselves in condition. Did 
 the support of the vagrants really fall upon the peasantry, 
 the tax would be a greater evil than it is. But this cannot be 
 the case, because they are compelled to give up, in the shape 
 of rent, all but a bare subsistence. What is given to the 
 beggar, therefore, is substracted from rent, and not from the 
 earnings of the peasantry. Upon the landlord the weight of 
 this class ultimately falls ; and it will easily be seen that 
 vagrancy leads to a greater expense per head than is incurred 
 for the peasantry who are living by industry. A beggar will 
 usually gain more by begging than an able-bodied man can by 
 industry; and during certain periods of the year, between 
 potatoe digging and Christmas, very much more. Alms being 
 principally given in potatoes, all beyond their consumption 
 they usually sell or exchange, and procure tea, tobacco, and 
 whiskey comforts of which the peasantry rarely partake. 
 Their surplus collections must be considerable, as many per- 
 sons depend for potatoes upon the supply which they can 
 purchase from vagrants. The witnesses in the parish of Castle 
 Pollard, county Westmeath, said
 
 54 
 
 A woman who keeps a small shop in this neighbourhood, lately sold 300 
 stone of potatoes, which she had purchased solely from vagrants. 
 
 Vagrants sometimes meet together, and carouse upon the 
 produce of their surplus collections, and many accumulate 
 sums which would be large for an Irish peasant. It is very 
 difficult to ascertain whether the number of vagrants is in- 
 creased by the facility with which food can be obtained. Some 
 of those who gave evidence were of opinion that persons resort to 
 mendicancy as an easier life than industry ; while some say 
 that few willingly adopt that course, but that many who have 
 been driven to it continue it from preference. Others again 
 assert that all escape from it as quickly as possible. Those 
 who have not formed an estimate of the value of the alms given 
 to vagrants will be surprised at its amount. In the parish of 
 Clonard, county Meath, containing 14000 acres, and a popu- 
 lation of 5000 ; the alms-giving was calculated to amount to 
 at least 7001. a year, or nearly 3s. a head upon the whole 
 population, which is equal to the assessment in many parishes 
 in England. 
 
 Though the relief of vagrants is not a tax upon the 
 peasantry, they are severe sufferers by sheltering them. 
 Their scanty apparel and small household articles are fre- 
 quently stolen, which, though miserable and of little value, 
 they are quite unable to replace. Fever, measles, small- 
 pox, besides many other infectious and contagious diseases, 
 are constantly spread through a country by beggars, who, as 
 they rarely sleep more than one night in any cabin, rapidly 
 communicate. It often happens that sickness is contracted 
 by a peasant's family through housing them, which incapaci- 
 tates the father for a long period, and entails continued dis- 
 tress upon all dependent upon him ; and should he die, upon his 
 wife and children, who must become vagrants. The moral 
 evils arising from vagrancy are also considerable ; vagrants 
 are in the habit of conveying scandal from cabin to cabin, and 
 messages, from one district to another, relative to outrages. They 
 also entice away young females for the purpose of prostitution. 
 As vagrants are continually changing from one part of the coun- 
 try to another, it is impossible to trace their personal conduct. 
 All persons profess to be quite ignorant about the habits and 
 character of those they relieve. No one, therefore, can tell how 
 many of the children which any woman may have with her are 
 illegitimate whether the mother or her daughters are addicted 
 to prostitution, or the male children to thieving whether 
 the father is alive, and whether he could obtain work, and 
 whether they have been beggars from birth, or have been re-
 
 55 
 
 duced by misfortune. Yet a knowledge of these circumstances 
 is most important in determining the nature and extent of the 
 evils arising from a large class of vagrants. As character is of 
 no value to a vagrant, for no one seeks to know before he gives 
 relief, and as the temptations to vice of every description must 
 be great, there is much reason for believing that those who have 
 long continued as vagrants lead a very immoral life. Wandering 
 about the country, sleeping wherever they can obtain shelter, 
 and seldom sleeping two nights in the same place, it is scarcely 
 possible for those of the women who are in the least degree 
 good looking, to avoid the temptations to which they must be 
 perpetually subjected. It is generally stated throughout Ire- 
 land, that the proportion of illegitimate children is very con- 
 siderable amongst the wandering females, and that prostitution 
 is frequently the resource of widows, as well as of girls who 
 have been betrayed and driven from their homes. This cannot 
 be matter of astonishment, when it considered that females 
 cannot maintain themselves by honest industry, however well 
 inclined, and consequently that even the wives and daughters 
 of the poorest class are occasionally forced by poverty to yield 
 to that mode of gaining a subsistence. 
 
 Kildare. A. 136. The system of thus driving the mothers to vagrancy, 
 and sometimes to prostitution, must have the greatest tendency to burden 
 society with a number of indolent and vicious persons. 
 
 Kildare, 400. Sometimes the women of the family are driven to prosti- 
 tution. 
 
 Carlow, 395. Often the females are driven to prostitution by their 
 poverty. John Homan says, " I know a dozen instances of girls who were 
 thus driven to prostitution." 
 
 Carlow ', 396. But the women and girls are frequently driven to pros- 
 titution. 
 
 Longford, 140. The Rev. Mr O'D said there were some instances 
 
 of it. 
 
 Longford, 137. The Rev. Mr M'Can states " the he has known widows, 
 after having passed through the stages by private charity and by mendicancy, 
 to have been driven by absolute want to prostitution." 
 
 City of Cork, 160. Their necessities sometimes drive them to prostitution. 
 
 Cork, 442. Even instances have been known of the daughters of decent 
 fathers driven to street prostitution by poverty. 
 
 City of Derry, 4/3. Prostitution sometimes arises in towns from dis- 
 tress; they " cannot starve," but nothing can compel to it in the country. 
 
 Derry, 471. All agreed that the girls were often driven by distress to 
 prostitution. " In fact," said Mr M 'Gammon, " there are but very few of 
 them who are not prostitutes." And destitution was believed by all to be 
 the most common cause of this. 
 
 Derry, 185. If the widow is young, she is sometimes led by begging to 
 prostitution. 
 
 Roscommon, 388. In some rare instances the women and girls are driven 
 to prostitution. 
 
 Galu-ay, 363. Archbishop of Tuam : " Whether women and girls be-
 
 56 
 
 come prostitutes, when employment fails, or not, depends entirely on the 
 temptation held out to them ; if a person above their own condition will give 
 money, or money's worth, for present relief, flesh and blood, or rather the 
 cravings of nature, must prevail." 
 
 Gatwny, 363. The Rev. Dr M'Hale : " Tn reply to the question whe- 
 ther, when work fails the family, the females are ever driven to prostitu- 
 tion ? Seldom or ever, except when hard-hearted, wealthy profligates, avail- 
 ing themselves of their property, contrive, after much importunity, to rob 
 them of their virtue, and bring them to misfortune." 
 
 Clare. A. 423. The Rev Mr O'Brien said, that .though distress had some- 
 times been extreme in this parish, yet it has never been followed by one of 
 the worst effects which had resulted from it elsewhere, that of driving the 
 women to prostitution. He knew of no such consequence ; but on applying 
 to Shells, the carpenter, on this point, who had been longer in the town than 
 Mr O'Bryen, he said that, in consequence of the eviction of tenants at 
 Mahanish, which has been above alluded to, three girls of the name of 
 Moran came to live in Newmarket; one of them was the woman who was 
 afterwards suspected of infanticide, and the other two have been or are pros- 
 titutes. 
 
 A powerful stimulus to population is another of the effects 
 of the extreme importance of land to the peasantry, acting 
 through a system of nominal rents. 
 
 The hopeless destitution in which the peasantry are kept by 
 that system, convinces them that no exertion, no frugality on 
 their part, will enable them to provide against destitution in 
 their old age. They likewise know, that if, whilst able-bodied 
 and in the prime of life, they can scarcely obtain subsistence, 
 there is little chance of their gaining a livelihood by industry 
 when strength shall have begun to fail them. The life of a 
 vagrant is consequently the prospective old age of every Irish 
 peasant, unless he has children able and willing to support him. 
 Every prudent peasant in Ireland, therefore, marries whilst yet 
 in his boyhood, that he may have children grown up before his 
 strength begins to decline. With this view it is scarcely pos- 
 sible for him to marry too early, as the privations to which the 
 Irish peasantry from their birth are subject cause them to be- 
 come, when compared with the life of the English labourer, 
 prematurely old. His children are the savings' bank of the Irish 
 peasant. They are the only property which cannot be taken 
 under the nominal rent. Thus, whilst excess of population is 
 assigned as a cause of the miseries of Ireland, the strongest 
 stimulant to early marriage is allowed to exist. 
 
 Sligo. 493. And Dr Kenny said, " I think early marriages are most useful 
 here; a man looks forward to be supported in age by his family, and thus 
 often says, ' If God give us a family, they will support us when we are beyond 
 work.' If a man marry at the age' of 35, he will be broken down and unable 
 to work before his children can be grown enough to support him, as a boy 
 seldom gets more than half a man's hire till 18; but when a man marries 
 young, his children will be able to support him before he is beyond his labour."
 
 57 
 
 Kerry. 430. It was the general opinion of those present, that the ordinary 
 extent of employment would not support a labourer, even on potatoes, if he 
 had a family to provide for. It was also remarked by Mr M'Ennery, that the 
 poorer the individuals were, the more anxious they were to marry. He had 
 observed the same disposition in France, and in other countries. This chiefly 
 arose from the anxiety to have children to support them in their old age; 
 and he often heard them express these very sentiments ; women despairing of 
 being married often get bastard children, with the very same view. It was 
 his opinion that early marriages were the very strongest proof of the poverty 
 of the country. 
 
 Kerry. 448. A woman had an illegitimate child with a view (as she herself 
 stated) of having "somebody to look after her when she was too old to take 
 care of herself." 
 
 Clare. 417. Mr O'Grady has heard it observed, when a destitute unmarried 
 person has been seen begging, " What a fool she was not to have got married, 
 and she would have had children to keep her from that line of life." 
 
 Kildare. 64. It has never been assigned as a reason for women having ille- 
 gitimate children, that they look to these children ai a means of support in 
 their old age; yet Mr Reilly states "that there are three instances in his 
 neighbourhood of bastards supporting their mothers." 
 
 Carloir. 211. Both sexes constantly assign as a reason for marrying, the 
 wish to have children to support them when old, so much so, that James Neil 
 thought he could recollect hundreds who have assigned it as the only source of 
 being provided for in their old age. Rev. B. Johnstone corroborated this 
 opinion, as he frequently heard in cabins parents telling their children that it 
 would soon become their turn to support them in old age. 
 
 Carlow. 60. Women often have illegitimate children at or after 40 years 
 of age; and James Neil has heard beggars daclare that when they could not 
 get married, they had such children for the purpose of supporting them in age. 
 
 fPestmeatk. A. 411. Persons are also induced to marry with the hope of 
 having a family to support them when they have become old and infirm : as 
 was said, "they consider that when they have brought up a family, they have 
 made a provision for their old age." Formerly it was a certain provision, but 
 now the difficulty of support is so great they are often obliged to beg. 
 
 Donegal. 465. The poorer classes are invariably found more anxious to 
 marry early than the more comfortable classes: the farmers, and those who 
 are better off, do not marry until they have some little subsistence ; those, 
 however, who are very poor, are frequently heard to say, " We cannot be 
 worse off than we are, and probably our children will be a great support 
 to us." 
 
 Londonderry. A. 469. The poorest marry the earliest, frequently from the 
 the hope of having children to assist them in their old age. " I have often 
 heard men say, that he who grew old without marrying, would rue it in the 
 end; and it is a common remark, that they are better off who have children 
 
 to maintain them. (M'lvor.) " The poor think," said Morrison, " that 
 
 any change must be for the better. Those who are better off, look for a for- 
 tune, and the farmers' sons always marry later than the labourer, and are 
 more cautious," Millar, a beggar, said, "A poor man ought to marry |;oung, 
 that his weans may be able to assist him v/hen he grows old." 
 
 The same system that of nominal rents which urges them 
 to early marriage, also removes the obstacle which exists with 
 other classes, and with the labouring classes of other communi- 
 ties, viz. the fear of losing those comforts to which they have 
 been accustomed, it being scarcely possible for the condition of
 
 58 
 
 the Irish peasant to be worse. The inability of a woman at any 
 age to earn her own subsistence, makes her most desirous to 
 be married. Women require a husband to maintain them 
 whilst young, and children to maintain them when old. If a 
 woman be without the one in youth, or without the other in 
 age, the life of a beggar is the best she can expect. Parents 
 are anxious that their daughters should be married, as they are 
 a burthen to them whilst single, and can, if married, assist 
 them in their old age. It is evident, therefore, that besides the 
 usual motives to marriage, there are in Ireland many powerful 
 additions. The peasant women constantly seek illicit inter- 
 course, with the view of inducing marriage. Their chances of 
 success are great. The clergy of all persuasions seem in- 
 variably to recommend (which is equivalent to enforcing) mar- 
 riage in all cases of previous intercourse, provided the woman 
 has previously borne a good character. " The clergy of all 
 persuasions discourage early marriage, except in cases of preg- 
 nancy ; but pregnancy before marriage is by no means uncom- 
 mon" (Antrim). Should the injunctions of the clergy fail to 
 induce the man to marry, the friends of the women frequently 
 threaten him with violence, which threat is often success- 
 ful. In case the persuasions of the clergy and the threats 
 of the male relations fail her, the woman has still another re- 
 source she swears, or threatens to swear, a rape against him. 
 This practice seems to be extremely common in Ireland, and is 
 mostly successful. In some cases men marry merely upon the 
 threat; in others when brought before a magistrate, whose 
 influence is usually exerted to induce them to marry. Some 
 men do not yield till they are in prison ; whilst a few do not 
 consent till the trial has commenced, or even till the verdict is 
 given against them. Many endeavours have been made to pre- 
 vent the influence of this threat, but hitherto without avail. 
 The only means of counteracting the practice whilst the single 
 women of the labouring classes remain in so destitute a state, 
 is to remove the punishment ; but such a step would be yield- 
 ing up the whole female population to every licentious vagabond 
 in society, and would produce evils a thousandfold more ter- 
 rible than those it might prevent. The fear of prospective 
 want is therefore as fertile a source of incontinence, as present 
 and pressing destitution. 
 
 Mayo. A. 53. " Mr Lyons is confident that nine out of ten rape cases are 
 fictitious, got up merely for the purpose of forcing marriage; under this im- 
 pression, a regulation has been imposed upon the Catholic clergy of this diocese, 
 not to marry such parties while a prosecution is pending. 
 
 Mayo. 52. Mr Cramton has known many cases of the father marrying the 
 woman rather than pay the wages , he also says many prosecutions for rape
 
 59 
 
 come before the magistrates, which are dropped on the marriage of the parties. 
 " Nothing so common," he says, " as husband-hunting;" such cases are more 
 frequent since some men have been lately executed for the offence ; within 
 the last six months at least six such cases have occurred in this district. 
 Carlow. A. 60. Mr Singleton knows an instance which occurred this day, 
 of a young woman and her parents threatening a man with violence if he did 
 not marry her, and he has promised to do so. 
 
 The Rev. Mr Kehoe says, " It is usual with women, not only to threaten, 
 but actually to swear a rape against the reputed father, in order to induce him 
 to marry, and that on an average they succeed in their object in half the num- 
 ber of cases. 
 
 Mr Hawkshaw states two instances, as coming under his own knowledge 
 within the last nine months. In the one the boy married the woman, but 
 within four months subsequently deserted her. In the other, the man is in 
 prison under the charge ; but from circumstances which have transpired, very 
 little doubt is entertained but that the grand jury will ignore the bill. 
 
 Carlow. 62. Marriage is frequently induced from the woman threatening to 
 swear a rape against the father. James Neil remembered ten cases within 
 the last five or six years ; one man, he said, did marry under such a threat, but 
 soon afterwards deserted his wife ; and he saw a young man who preferred 
 going to Carlow gaol, rather than marry under the threat. 
 
 Rev. B. Johnston thought it was as common for a woman to act so, as for 
 the sun to shine, and recollected many instances where marriage had, in con- 
 sequence, actually taken place. 
 
 Carlow. 63. In answer to the question whether it was usual for women to 
 threaten an accusation of rape against the men whom they wished to obtain for 
 husbands, Mr Archbald replied that it was " very common ;" he knew a wo- 
 man who had sworn to five charges; and no later than three months ago, a 
 woman who was making application for wages observed, " Please your honor, 
 I intended to have made a hanging business of it." The man who is accused 
 was subsequently advised by his landlord to marry her. 
 
 Kildare. 64. " I believe," says Mr Healy, " it is a very frequent occurrence 
 for a woman to swear a rape against a man to induce marriage, and I remem- 
 ber two or three instances of such threats, but in none of these cases did it 
 succeed; but I know two cases where it did succeed, and both men immedi- 
 ately after marriage absconded, and emigrated to America." Mr Kearny 
 states, " A woman about last March, swore a rape before me against a man ; 
 he was arrested and sent to gaol ; but she quitted the country, and did not 
 prosecute ; for anything that appeared before the bench, it was supposed her 
 inducement was money." 
 
 During the two centuries ending in 1796, in which the Poor 
 Laws had existed in England, it was always considered that 
 they had been the means of checking early marriages. It was 
 supposed that the proprietors of the land, from the fear of 
 having to support, through the Poor Laws, a larger body of 
 labourers than their lands required, had prevented early mar-, 
 riages by reducing the number of habitations. The ground for 
 this supposition was merely that the population of Ireland had 
 increased more rapidly than the population of England. I do 
 not believe that such an effect could be produced by such 
 means. If it could, why were not these means resorted to 
 during the last thirty years ? The late inquiry in Ireland has
 
 60 
 
 shown that the Poor Laws in England, during the first two 
 centuries, did check early marriages ; not in the manner sup- 
 posed, but by removing one of the chief inducements to them 
 the fear of destitution in old age. During the last thirty years, 
 viz. since the scale allowance system was introduced into 
 their administration in 1796, the Poor Laws became a prolific 
 source of early marriage, as they made a large family the con- 
 dition upon which the labourer's comforts in early life could be 
 increased. Though the good administration of Poor Laws, 
 therefore, had checked early marriage, the mal-administratiori 
 had been as great an incentive to them in England as the total 
 absence of a public provision had been in Ireland. 
 
 It will naturally be inferred that as the great anxiety for 
 land, and the system of nominal rents, through which it oper- 
 ates, are so extensively injurious, some check to their influence 
 would have been devised, were they not beneficial to some 
 class. But singular as it may appear they are injurious to all. 
 The landlords are those to whom they may be supposed to be 
 advantageous, but to no class are they more injurious. 
 
 The landlords of Ireland are constantly charged with 
 drawing enormous rents. Making allowance for the differ- 
 ence between the English and Irish acre, the latter being 
 nearly double the size of the former, and for the superior 
 fertility of the land of Ireland, the rent received by the Irish 
 landlord is less than that obtained by the English ; but looking 
 to the comparative ability of the tenantry to pay, the Irish 
 rental is unquestionably excessive. The following opinion is 
 expressed by the Rev. Charles Clarke, of Beccles, Suffolk, 
 who has farmed extensively in that county for many years, 
 and was one of the Assistant-Commissioners : 
 
 F. 213. If the quality of soil be alone regarded, it may be safely asserted 
 that the rents are not so high as in that part of England with which the En- 
 glish Assistant Commissioner is more particularly acquainted ; but, if the 
 agricultural knowledge and skill of the occupiers be taken into consideration, 
 a much higher value is et upon the land than they are fairly competent 
 to pay. 
 
 The entire dependence of the peasantry upon land and the 
 nominal rent system, to which it gives birth, act most forcibly 
 in depressing agriculture, an evil which reacts upon the land- 
 lord, by diminishing his receipts, and upon the peasantry by 
 diminishing employment. The system of nominal rents de- 
 prives the holders of the land of the means of tilling it, and of 
 all motive to skill and exertion in its cultivation. 
 
 In the evidence upon agriculture, remarks upon the want 
 of skill and enterprize in the great proportion of the pea-
 
 61 
 
 santry are of constant recurrence. A little reflection must 
 convince every one that a system of nominal rents would 
 deprive the peasantry of the means to improve, and of the 
 chance of deriving benefit from such improvements as they 
 might make ; and consequently that they would become 
 apathetic. The Assistant Commissioners who visited the 
 county Cavan, say " Major Bayley, a gentleman of experi- 
 " ence, and a magistrate, stated publicly, that agriculture was 
 " in the most degraded state possible ; nowhere in the world 
 " could it be worse." Expressions to the same effect were made 
 in every part of Ireland, by the most intelligent of the gentry, 
 and nowhere more frequently than in the provinces of Ulster 
 and Leinster, which provinces are certainly the best cultivated 
 districts of the country. In these remarks the gentry are 
 fully supported by the reports of the Assistant Commissioners, 
 Scotchmen and Englishmen, practically acquainted with the 
 agriculture of Great Britain. The Assistant Commissioners 
 visited some of the farms in each Barony, for the purpose of 
 personally inspecting their condition, and made their state- 
 ments therefore from observation, with the advantage of 
 having previously held a public examination of a large body of 
 the agriculturists of the district, including landlords, farmers, 
 and labourers by whom they had been informed of all those 
 circumstances which they would require to know previously to 
 forming a correct conclusion. 
 
 To obtain land, the peasantry not only bid rents which the 
 land could not enable them to pay, even though farmed under the 
 advantages of skill and capital ; but they submit to every spe- 
 cies of extortion from those by whom the land is possessed, or 
 by whose influence it can be obtained. It is common for them, 
 in order to obtain possession of a farm, to pay half a year's or a 
 year's rent in advance, by way of temptation to the person who 
 can give them possession. In the North of Ireland it is re- 
 quired of the incoming tenant that he shall assume the arrears 
 of rent left unpaid by his predecessor ; and if any one of the 
 competitors can pay up the arrears upon entering, he is certain 
 of preference. In some instances the interest of the wife or 
 sister of the person who can give possession of the land, or of 
 the wife or sister of his agent, is necessary to the success of 
 the applicants, and must be bought. To obtain this, every 
 bidder offers the largest sum which he can command, knowing 
 that he who fees highest is the surest of success. Thus bribing 
 the agent in the shape of fees is another mode by which the 
 peasant is deprived of his trifling property. Besides the per- 
 mission of the landlord or his agent, the sanction of the out-
 
 62 
 
 going tenant must also be often purchased. The risk of death 
 which every one incurs who enters upon land without the sanc- 
 tion of the outgoing tenant, compels those who are about to 
 succeed to purchase this sanction. So established is the usage, 
 that those who have land to let in Ireland rarely refuse as a 
 tenant the person to whom the outgoing tenant has sold the 
 good-will. The death of the incoming tenant and the death of 
 the landlord, or the destruction of his property, would be the 
 effect of resisting this practice. In England such a custom 
 would be considered as infringing upon the rights of the land- 
 lord. No doubt can exist that the landlords of Ireland do not 
 possess the power over their land which is enjoyed by English 
 proprietors ; and this is one of the many consequences arising 
 from the peasantry being forced to combine against the law, in 
 order to preserve their existence. 
 
 The limited control which the possessor of land in Ireland 
 can safely exercise over it, frequently thwarts the intentions of 
 those who are anxious to raise the condition of their tenantry. 
 Many landlords with the view of improving the condition of their 
 tenants, let their lands at rents, which leave to them a com- 
 fortable subsistence. Their benevolent object however soon 
 becomes defeated ; those who are seeking land offer to those who 
 hold under such landlords, considerable sums for possession, 
 though there is no lease to transfer sums equal to the value 
 of the difference between the required and the ordinary rent for 
 such land. It is true that each tenant may upon leaving obtain 
 the sum that he gave upon entering, but in the meantime he is 
 deprived of the capital requisite to his farming operations. Whe- 
 ther it be the outgoing tenant or the possessor of the land who 
 must be bribed, he who offers the largest sum is the most likely to 
 succeed, and the brisk competition induces each to bid to his 
 last farthing. Many in their eagerness bid even more than they 
 possess, and endeavour to borrow the deficiency from their 
 friends. The result of this pressure upon the peasantry is to 
 render the occupant of a farm a bankrupt before he takes pos- 
 session. He must have gone through an ordeal, in which he is 
 deprived of those means which, if spared to him, would generally 
 be far too small to admit of his farm being rendered even mo- 
 derately productive. If the tenant however retained some small 
 means upon gaining possession, it would soon be required to 
 meet the arrears, which must quickly arise, his rent being greater 
 than the produce of his farm can pay. He could only hope 
 to retain that which he might be able to conceal, and if he con- 
 ceal his capital, of course it cannot be applied to his farm.
 
 63 
 
 It often happens, that the peasantry possess small hoards 
 of money, although their lands might be rendered far more 
 productive by the application of capital. As to the pea- 
 santry being able to accumulate, it is evidently impossible, as 
 they rarely have sufficient to pay the rent of their farms, though 
 they confine themselves and their families to a barely sufficient 
 quantity of the cheapest food. 
 
 Connnught. Galway F. 132. It is usual for the agent, or the wife, sister, 
 or clerk of the agent, to expect a compliment from the tenant on the signing 
 of the lease. The money is not afterwards allowed in the rent : others receive 
 from one, two, three, four, or five guineas. (Air Birmingham.) 
 
 Leitrim. F. 37- Whatever a man may have he will not be such a fool as 
 to lay it out on his land, unless he has a long lease, or even to let his possess- 
 ing it be generally known. There are landlords who, if they knew that their 
 tenants were making money, would think that they had their land too cheap, 
 and would soon find a way to do themselves justice. ^Rutherford.) 
 
 While things continue so the state of agriculture must necessarily remain 
 depressed, and the produce must be confined to what the spade of the labourer, 
 unassisted by skill, can produce. 
 
 F. 145. On several estates, the agent's fees of one shilling to the pound 
 are paid by the tenant, in addition to his rent. The Rev. Mr Geraghty, p. p. 
 states that the extortions of the agent's drivers are felt more severely ; the 
 tenant fears to refuse the demands which they make, and which are raised 
 according to the circumstances of the farmer. 
 
 Mayo. F. 40. " A cottier tenant who may by any accident possess a little 
 money, may be tempted to bid a higher rent ; but he is more likely to make a 
 present to the agent, in order to obtain a preference as a tenant." (Gibbons, 
 Kearney, and the Rev. Mr Feeny.) Sir S. O' Vlalley says that " all the land- 
 lords of this barony are aware that small tenants cannot accumulate capital." 
 
 Sligo. F. 43. Mr O'Connor says that several persons have told him that 
 they would improve their lands, and build houses, but they could not trust 
 the middle-men, from whom they held. " They hadn't as much fear of the 
 head landlord." So long as the tenants have not capital, or are unwilling to 
 apply it to their land, agriculture must remain in the rudest state, and pro- 
 duction not exceed what mere manual labour can extract from the land. 
 (Mr Dodwell.) 
 
 Leinster. Dublin. F. 44. A year's or half a year's rent is sometimes offer- 
 ed by the tenant, in advance, as an inducement to the landlord to set him the 
 land. It is not, however, the custom to require this as security for the pay- 
 ment of rent, nor is it voluntarily offered, except by small occupiers to mid- 
 dle-men, in order to obtain a preference. The tenant is obliged to erect his 
 house and buildings, make fences, drains, &c., entirely at his own expense ; 
 the cases in which landlords have been known to assist a tenant to build even 
 a house being extremely rare. 
 
 152. Exorbitant charges are sometimes made for leases by way of agent's 
 fees. The sum charged seems lobe extremely various and unsettled. One of the 
 witnesses paid 3. for the lease of 12 acres of land ; another, 5. 5s. for the 
 lease of 15 acres ; a third, 2. for the lease of 10 acres ; and a fourth .6. 10*. 
 for 34 acres. Sometimes the wife, sister, or clerk of the agent requires a 
 compliment on the signing of the lease, but this is not frequent. One witness 
 stated, that he had to pay the agent a guinea to obtain a lease ; others said, 
 they bad to perform gratuitous services for the agent, such as drawing turf, 
 &c. When the agent is a lawyer, he sometimes charges an exorbitant price
 
 64 
 
 for the lease which he draws up. It is almost always usuil for the tenant to 
 pay agents' fees five per cent., in addition to the rent. One instance only is 
 recollected of the proprietor or any of his family requiring a compliment on 
 signing a lease : this was the wife of a proprietor ; she in one case required 
 60. for obtaining a lease; she actually received 50. though the tenant never 
 got the lease or his money back. 
 
 Kilkenny. F. 45. When a small tenant gets money he thinks he can never 
 lay it out quick enough in land ; he not only bids the higher rent for any land 
 that may be vacant, but he is always ready to give money in hand to the 
 landlord by way of fine, or to any other person for his interest. Fines equal 
 to half the fee simple value are commonly given for the good-will of small 
 holdings of a few acres, even where the rent is beyond the real yearly value. 
 (Messrs. J. Kelly, Cahill, and Delany.) 
 
 " Whatever it arises from, the people are certainly very unwilling to dis- 
 cover their real circumstances, and look with suspicion on any one who 
 seeks to enquire into them." (Mr M'Henry.) 
 
 F. 47- " I am afraid that they deem it of importance to them to assume 
 an air of poverty, fearing that a greater portion of the nominal rent would he 
 exacted from them. It is common to see the houses of considerable farmers 
 display as little cleanliness or attention to appearance as the cabins of the 
 poorest labourers, whose means will not allow of better." (Messrs. Splint 
 and M'Henry.) Their being without the hope of ever possessing more than 
 a bare subsistence, undoubtedly operates to produce and continue reckless 
 habits among the peasantry. 
 
 156. It is very common for the agent, or some relation or dependent of 
 his, to require a compliment from the tenant on the signing of his lease. 
 The amount is left to the tenant himself, but he understands that, if he does 
 not give out liberally, he will be looked upon as a suspicious character when 
 
 the rent-day comes round. (Mr M'Henry.) " It is sometimes given to 
 
 the agent, sometimes to some member of his family ; it varies in amount from 
 2 to 10, but it is not near so high as it used to be." (Mr O'Connor.) 
 
 " Pin-money to the lady of the proprietor was always expected in former 
 
 times." (Mr M'Henry.) "And to my knowledge is expected still in some 
 
 cases." (Mr Cronin.) 
 
 Mr. Walker thinks, that if a cottier tenant happened to be possessed of a 
 little money, he would be willing to pay a part of that money as a fine for a 
 small holding, and, besides, pay such a rent as would leave him nothing but 
 a bare subsistance. 
 
 King's. F. 48. It is not common for the landlords to require part of the 
 rent in hand, as security, before he admits a tenant. Mr Gleeson, however, 
 says that he knew an instance this year in Kilcommon parish, where a new 
 tenant had to deposit 100 (half a year's rent) in his landlord's hands, which 
 sum was to be allowed in his rent before he left the farm. Mr Walker says 
 that there are cases in which new tenants lend money bearing interest to the 
 landlord, but this is not considered as a deposit of rent. These two last ob- 
 servations, however, apply to large farmers, and do not affect the case of small 
 farmers. These latter, though they do not pay rent before hand, often pay 
 so much as a fine to get possession of a farm as to straiten them considerably 
 in capital for the management of it, which of course reduces their chances of 
 succeeding. The tenant's capital is also absorbed in buildings, fences, drains, 
 &c. Mr Walker says, that tenants almost universally make and repair all the 
 buildings upon farms ; that he only knows one exception, in the parish of 
 Aucon, where a landlord has built a number of farm houses of a superior 
 description for his tenants.
 
 65 
 
 The high rents, caused by the great competition for land, operate in some 
 degree in preventing the accumulation of capital among the small tenantry ; 
 hut, in many cases, their poverty is increased by their own negligence, for 
 men doing moderately well may be seen on high rented land, where others 
 are in great poverty. 
 
 Leinster, King's Co. F. 158. The fees upon leases of land held under the 
 Courts are high. The tenant pays 10. 10s. to the master for the lease, which 
 payment is not made to private landlords. 
 
 \Vith regard to capital among small tenants, Mr Odium says that when a 
 small farmer has any little money, he always bids the higher for land ; in fact 
 he bids the last farthing, and leaves himself without as much as would stock 
 a rood of land. He likewise stated that, in the case of underletters, a sum of 
 money is often given in hand, but not in the case of the great proprietors ; so 
 that the tenant frequently wants the capital necessary to purchase stock and 
 implements. With regard to the accumulation of capital among the small 
 tenantry, or the possibility of the farmer's making money now, Mr Walsh 
 states that there is not one shilling in the farmer's hands now for every pound 
 formerly, even 10 years ago. 
 
 F. 49. And Mr O'Connor corroborates this opinion by saying, " that 
 the farmers are all losing ; it is in the s landlords' power to put them out on 
 the road in every part of the country." The observation of Mr Odium, as to 
 the possession of capital by the tenantry, was, "The landlords have taken it 
 all with them." With regard to the concealment of money among the ten- 
 antry, lest they may be called on for more rent, Mr Odium observes, "In truth 
 there is no concealment of money, for there is no money to conceal. The 
 nominal rents which have been kept up have done incalculable injury. A 
 heavy arrear hurts industry ; it is a chain round the farmer's neck that prevents 
 him from using his hand." It was everywhere apparent through the barony 
 that the want of sufficient capital caused the cultivation to be kept in the 
 rudest state; and it was stated that the land was exhausted by efforts to 
 make large rents without adequate capital to cultivate the land. 
 
 Louth. F.51. High rents, and putting the erection and repair of buildings 
 and fences, and all improvements on the tenant, are chief causes of the absence 
 of capital. 
 
 Tenants seldom have the means of making adequate improvements, and 
 even when they have they will not improve much, unless they are secured 
 by a lease against a consequent rise in their rent. The consequence of all 
 improvements being thrown upon the pauperized tenantry, unaided by any 
 assistance from the landlords, is that the agriculture of the country is kept in 
 the rudest state, and production is confined to whatever the personal exertions 
 of the tenantry, unaided by skill or capital, can force from the land. 
 
 F. 160. Payments are made to agents, exclusive of rent, only where such 
 has been agreed on, and mentioned in the lease ; tenants are not harassed 
 by law proceedings, but only by exorbitant charges on leases. It is suspected, 
 that the relatives or clerk of the agent require a compliment on the signing of 
 the lease, and it is pretty well known frequently to happen : but it is done 
 with great secrecy; it can seldom be proved. 
 
 Queen's Co. Bur. Maryborough. F. 57- It is common for middle-men to re- 
 quire a year, or half a year's rent in hand, as a security before they admit a ten- 
 ant, but this the head landlords very seldom do. (All.) It is, however, very 
 
 common for landlords to require incoming tenants to pay up the arrears of 
 outgoing ones. Mr Mosse and others knew a case in one of these baronies, 
 where the tenant, having been ejected for arrears of rent on an estate, the in- 
 coming tenant had to pay 300. for arrears of rent before being admitted. 
 Nathaniel Chevers (farmer) knew another instance on the same estate, where 
 
 F
 
 66 
 
 be himself was security, and the incoming tenant had to pay the arrears of 
 the outgoing ons. Whenever this paying in advance occurs, the tenant be- 
 comes to a great extent destitute of the means, already insufficient, of purchas- 
 ing stock, implements, and seed. It is generally impossible for the tenantry 
 either, under such circumstances, (or, if all but a bare subsistence for the 
 tenant and his family be given up to the landlord,) to accumulate capital or 
 retain any little which may accidentally arise to them ; besides which, the 
 practice of throwing the expense of the erection and repairs of buildings and 
 all other improvements upon the impoverished tenant, tends above all things 
 to diminish and absorb his already insufficient capital. (N. Chevers, and all 
 farmers.) 
 
 F. 168. Tenants are harassed, not by " canting' " of land, but by exorbitant 
 
 charges for leases. (Mr John Dillon and Mr Sutheran.) Mr Dillon has 
 
 known 7. 7s. to be charged upon a stamp of from 10*. to 15*., where the 
 charge should not have exceeded 1. 10*. to 2. Mr Martin never heard of 
 such imposition here. Mr Sutheran knew a case where the tenant gave 20. 
 for the lease of 40 or 50 acres of land. Many of the witnesses had heard of 
 such compliments being given to the wives of agents by others, but could not 
 specify particular instances, as those things are always kept secret. 
 
 Bar. Portnahinch. F. 58. The tenent is seldom afraid to expend his capital, 
 if he has any, on the land, unless towards the close of a lease, or when only a 
 tenant at will ; and he fears that his landlord will avail himself of his improve- 
 ments to demand an increased rent, and if he refuses to give it, to eject him 
 and let his land to another. 
 
 F. 1 70. Tenants are harassed by expensive fees on leases. 
 
 Agents, their relatives, or dependants, very seldom require compliments on 
 the signing of leases here ; when such compliments are given they are gene- 
 rally in money, and perhaps about 25 per cent, on the rent. 
 
 County Meat A. Bar. Kells. F. 54. The real causes of the tenant 
 being destitute of capital, or afraid to apply it, are the want of a knowledge 
 of an improved style of farming, and of assistance and encouragement to 
 make improvements by landlords, who, instead of that, generally rack the 
 highest rent they can exact from their tenants : the cultivation of the 
 country is thus kept in the rudest state, and the production confined, in 
 almost every case, to such as can be forced from the land, without the aid of 
 skill or capital. 
 
 F. 164. Tenants here are not harassed by law proceedings, nor by 
 " canting" of the land, but by exhorbitant fees and charges on leases, and 
 other indirect modes of exaction which the tenants dare not complain of. 
 The under-agents sometimes take a compliment to give the tenant a prefe- 
 rence ; this they receive in all ways and to all amounts, chiefly in money, 
 though sometimes in serv ices. 
 
 Bar. Moyfenrragh. F. 164. The tenantry are much harassed by expen- 
 sive leases. The Rev. Mr Tute, p. p., has known a lease of 100 acres to be 
 charged 21/., and Mr Barnwall knew 13/. to be charged for one of /6 acres, 
 and several others proportionably high. 
 
 It is very general for the agent, or some of his family or dependents, to 
 require a compliment on the signing of leases. It is given in money, or in 
 cows, horses, services, &c., and the amount depends on circumstances. 
 
 Wicklow. F. 173. Agents are paid 5 per cent., exclusive of the rent ; 
 this, however, is an understood charge, and specified in the leases, but most 
 exhorbitant sums are frequently charged for leases. The law agent of one 
 proprietor charges 41. 4s. for filling up a lease, exclusive of the stamps. One 
 witness was charged 9/., and another 13/., for the lease of a few acres 
 of land.
 
 67 
 
 On the signing of a lease a compliment is almost always expected 
 either by the agent himself, or by his wife, or by both. Three years ago a 
 tenant on an estate in this barony gave 20 guineas on getting a lease for 15 
 acres, and on another estate 100 guineas were given for a lease of 130 acres. 
 Tenants are also in the habit of grazing the agent's sheep in winter, of cart- 
 ing his turf and hay, and making him other presents. 
 
 Munster, Co. Kerry. Bar. Iveragh. F. 62. Mr James O'Connell says, " If 
 any man who had a good character as a landlord had land to let, he would 
 get almost any money as a fine that the offering tenant possesses. I think, 
 however, that such tenants make a calculation for their own advantage. 
 They think they have bought a sort of claim on the landlord's consideration, 
 and they think he must grant them some advantages which they mean to 
 ask, or he must lower their rent, or remit arrears, instead of turning them 
 out of the land when they cannot pay their rent. I once let some land to a 
 man who had paid me a year and a half's rent in advance, but he managed 
 in such a way that he sometime after owed me more rent than any of his 
 neighbours, and in the end I lost one year's rent more by him than by the 
 others who had land with him. I had a repugnance to turn him off the 
 land because he had paid me at first in advance." 
 
 In many other parts of the county it is common for a landlord to require 
 a year or half a year's rent in hand as security before he admits a tenant ; 
 but it seldom happens in this barony. (Mr Butler, Mr James O'Connell.) 
 
 As to the cause of the poverty and want of capital among holders of land, 
 Mr Mahony says, " I think high rents a reason for the poverty of the 
 farmers." Mr Butler says, " I should account for it by their own bad farm- 
 ing, and by their holdings being so small." 
 
 It sometimes happens that men possessing a little money endeavour to 
 conceal it by affecting an exterior of great poverty. Mr Mahony says, 
 " There are not many instances." However, Mr James O'Connell says, 
 " When runs have come on different hanks, many wretched-looking men 
 have come and demanded gold for 101. or 20/. I have known other 
 cases where farmers would not improve, and when they have obtained leases 
 have immediately found money to make great improvements." Mr Fitz- 
 gerald says, " I have often asked farmers why they did not make certain 
 palpable improvements, and they have answered ' We have no leases, and 
 may have our rent raised, or may lose the land.' But 1 have known very 
 few instances where rent has been raised, or the farmer turned out imme- 
 diately that he has made improvements." 
 
 " The rude state of agricultural cultivation arises chiefly from want of 
 capital." (Mr James O'Connell.) 
 
 Bar. Truckenackwy. F. 63. " If he could get land by paying a fine with, 
 his money, he would certainly do it ; he would not leave himself unable to 
 work the land, but the possession of money would make him both desirous 
 and confident of getting land, and that being nearly the only means of em- 
 ploying it. It would also induce the landowner to take him as a tenant, 
 and probably let him land on moderate terms. It is not common for the 
 landlord to require half-a-year's rent in advance, but a farmer sometimes 
 offers it as an inducement to a proprietor to let him have land." (Mr Sealy.) 
 
 " Tenants having capital do not give such fines as would incapacitate 
 
 them from working the land. Landlords generally build or allow for build- 
 ing farm-houses and sometimes the mearings ; tenants in general build all 
 
 the smaller outhouses." (Messrs Sealy, Powell.) Small farmers never 
 
 have had much capital ; they certainly pay more for their land than those 
 who hold larger farms. Small farmers, like small tradesmen, are, in general t 
 the worst and poorest of their class." (Mr Sealy.)
 
 G8 
 
 " There have been a few instances here, but no more than there are cases 
 of misers among all other classes, of persons possessing capital and striving 
 
 to conceal it." (Messrs Meredith, Fitzgerald.) " Farmers often try to 
 
 appear to their landlords and to their neighbours to be as poor as they can, 
 for the purpose of getting their land low." (Mr Sealy.) 
 
 F. 181. "When proprietors receive their own rent they do not require 
 agents' fees in addition to rent, but on signing leases the agent, or the family 
 of the landlord, often require compliments." (Mr Sealy and Mr Powell.) 
 
 Limerick. Bar. Conello. F. 184. " I never heard of a proprietor receiving 
 agents' fees in addition to rent ; some require compliments on signing 
 leases ; 1 have heard of a landlord receiving 501. on signing a lease." (Mr 
 Brown.) 
 
 Bar. Conello. F. 65. " I have known many instances of small holders 
 taking land and possessing money, and losing it all through the rent being 
 too high, but it cannot be affirmed that there ever was capital amongst the 
 small tenantry as a body." (.Mr Brown.) 
 
 " I think there are a few instances of tenants with an exterior of great 
 poverty possessing property. They would hide their real circumstances, if 
 rich, and without a lease, lest their landlords should think that they had 
 tdo good a bargain in the farms. The same feeling I do not doubt would 
 
 prevent them from improvement." (Mr Brown.) " The want of capital 
 
 is one cause of bad cultivation." 
 
 Bar. Coshlea. F. 66. If a cottager by accident obtained a litile money, 
 he would be very willing to sacrifice it for the purpose of getting possession 
 of land. Mr Coote says, " I have known a man who was anxious to get 
 land pay a person who held an acre and a half as a tenant at will 20/. to 
 transfer the possession of the land to him ; the rent of the land was IV. 8s. 
 per acre, which was at least its full value." In some cases the landlord re- 
 quires half a year's rent in advance before admitting a tenant to a farm, but 
 this is not generally done. A tenant not unfrequently proposes such an 
 arrangement to a proprietor to induce him to let a farm ; when 
 this advance is accepted, the tenant frequently becomes destitute of the 
 means of purchasing the necessary stock, implements, or seed. Some 
 landlords refuse to take fines, knowing that the land must suffer if the 
 tenant's means of cultivating it properly are lessened. Farm-houses and 
 other buildings are in most cases erected by the tenants. The landlord of 
 one large estate is assisting his tenants to erect buildings. 
 
 Some years ago, when farmers had more money than they now have, some 
 were prevented from applying capital to land, by the fear that a larger por- 
 tion of rent would be exacted, but at present the application of capital to 
 land is not prevented by this cause ; the tenants are unable, if they had the 
 will, to lay out money. 
 
 F. 187- The witnesses cannot say whether it often happens that a com- 
 pliment in money is given by a tenant, on the signing of a lease, to some 
 member of the agent's family ; but the general belief is, that doing so would 
 be useful to the interest of the tenant. On the signing of a lease it is very 
 common for a present to be made by the tenant to some member of the 
 proprietor's family. 
 
 Tipperury. F. 69. It is the practice of the landlord to require half a 
 year's rent in advance before admitting a tenant, the amount to be allowed 
 in the last half year. The payment of such advance, in almost all cases, 
 leaves the tenant destitute of whatever insufficient means he might otherwise 
 have of purchasing stock, implements, and seed. Of course, if all but a 
 bare subsistence for the tenant and his family be given up to the landlord, it 
 is impossible for the farmer to accumulate capital.
 
 69 
 
 Instances might be brought forward of tenants possessing property who 
 keep up an exterior of poverty, but they would be very rare. (Hanley, Her- 
 
 rick, and Kennedy.) Such persons have also been afraid to improve 
 
 their farms. The motive to this conduct was an apprehension of being 
 made to pay a larger rent. Mr Roe states that there are instances where 
 tenants are afraid to build offices and make other improvements through the 
 fear of the landlord putting on an extra rent. The same gentleman men- 
 tions a curious circumstance which he heard, that Baron Pennefather, being 
 caught by rain, went to different farm-houses on his own property trying to 
 borrow a great coat, but every farmer denied possessing one. 
 
 F. 190. When proprietors receive their own rents they do not exact any 
 fees in addition. It is stated that they require compliments on signing leases. 
 Mr Phelan says that this practice is not general. 
 
 Waterford Bur. Decies without Dm mm. F. 70. The witnesses think 
 that if a cottier tenant by accident gets a little money, he is willing to offer it 
 as a fine or premium in order to get land. It sometimes happens, although 
 it is not the general practice, that the landlord requires half a year's rent in 
 hand before admitting a tenant ; that sum remains sometimes in the land- 
 lord's hands, until the last half-year, and in other cases a part of it is 
 allowed in the rent of each year until the whole is repaid. The practice is 
 not sufficiently general to reduce materially the amount of capital applied to 
 the cultivation of land. 
 
 Ulster, Armugh. F. 73. " The tenant becomes impoverished and unable 
 to purchase sufficient stock, not by paying rent in advance, but by pur- 
 chasing land at a high rate, and borrowing part, which often leaves him 
 short." (Barney Halley.) " When he has reduced himself to the neces- 
 sity of purchasing on credit, he will have to give 61. 6s. lor a cow, may-be 
 that's not worth more than 4l. 4s , and so on that way." (Paddy Farrell.) 
 
 Cavan. F. 73. In order to get land, which is the only means of pro- 
 curing a livelihood here, a cottier tenant gives any money he possesses, and 
 borrows more if he can get it on credit. It is not common for the landlords 
 in this district to require any portion of the rent in hand as a security pre- 
 vious to the admission of a tenant; hut the established custom is, that the 
 tenant coming into possession must pay up the arrears of the former tenant 
 By this practice the tenant, in many cases, undoubtedly becomes destitute of 
 the^ means, already insufficient, of purchasing stock, &c. Relative to the 
 possession of money acquired by the industry of the tenants, Mr Duggan, a 
 farmer, said, that, as to money, it would be a rich townland in which you 
 would get 10/. upon Christmas-day, after the rents are all paid. Some 
 farmers who have old leases, and who have made money formerly, are thus 
 enabled to give it for the tenant-right of a farm to settle their sons on ; but, 
 after paying two or three rents more, money will be as scarce with them as 
 with other people. (Mr Duggan.) 
 
 F. 198. It is usual on the estates here for the tenant to pay the agent 
 fees in addition to the rent. On the signing of leases it is always usual, 
 besides the price of stamps, to give money by way of compliment to the 
 agent, or some member of his family. 
 
 Down, loengh. F. 75. Very few tenants have good purses. " If I was 
 on my oath, I don't think there is 101. with any man in my townland ; the 
 loss of a cow or two, or of 10/., would either ruin a man, or make a man rich 
 that got it; 'twould make a gentleman of him in a manner." ( [Morgan ) 
 
 Fermanagh. F. 200. The under-letters, however, let at a higher rate 
 than the chief landlords. It is the general practice here for the agent, his 
 wife, his sister, or his clerk, to receive a compliment in money on the signing 
 of the lease. It was publicly stated, that on the estate of one of the two
 
 70 
 
 principal proprietors before alluded to, the rate of this compliment is a year's 
 rent. Mr Charles Summerland, farmer, said, " My father-in-law gave it." 
 
 Tyrone. F. 78. Considerable sums are given in this barony for the tenant- 
 right of small farms ; this was put forward by Mr Auchenleck as a proof that 
 rents were not too high, and that the pressure on the farmers was not too 
 severe ; but to this construction several farmers at once objected, and said 
 that they were obliged to give anything for a holding to get their families 
 into, even though they must anticipate a failure by taking the farm at so 
 high a price ; and in proof, they mentioned cases of men who purchased 
 farms at very high rates, and within five years ran away in debt. " It 
 is not common for the landlord to require a portion of the rent in 
 advance as a security before he admits a tenant ; but sometimes a man likes 
 to make an appearance of solvency, and will offer money in hand though he 
 
 may want it very much to carry on the farming." (Mr Quin.) " The 
 
 tenant who pays in advance often has to borrow a part of the purchase- 
 money, besides borrowing money for stock." (Mr Rogers.) " It is cer- 
 tainly impossible for the tenantry, under such circumstances, to accumulate 
 
 capital." (Rev. Mr M'Sorly, R. c. c.) It was often repeated, " that the 
 
 small tenants make nothing but a mere living." 
 
 Many men are afraid to improve their farms for fear a greater rent would 
 be exacted. (Mr Quin.) The more general cause of keeping the agri- 
 cultural cultivation of the country in the rudest state is that the small tenant 
 has not the capital to apply; but even if he had, he would not be willing to 
 
 do so, for fear of increasing his rent. (Rev. Mr M'Sorly, R. c. c.) In 
 
 this district the production is certainly confined to such as the personal 
 exertions of the tenantry, unaided by skill or capital, can force from the 
 land. 
 
 F. 202. Mr Auchenleck stated that it was usual for agents to receive 
 money on the signing of leases. As well as the Assistant Commissioners 
 could find out, the general sum among the small tenantry is from 51. to 101. 
 for the signing of leases. 
 
 The Rev. Mr Gordon says that he has repeatedly known 30/. or even 50/. 
 to be given for the renewal of a lease. 
 
 As to the landlord accumulating all that the tenant would 
 have accumulated the motive to accumulation in the two 
 classes is very different. The income of the peasant is chiefly 
 dependent upon his skill and industry ; any accident of body 
 or mind might leave him destitute ; his death might leave his 
 wife and children destitute. He is, therefore, naturally anxious 
 to provide against contingencies which, from their proba- 
 bility, he feels to be of great importance. He has a further 
 motive daily urging him ; his exertions would be more pro- 
 ductive if he possessed more capital. The income of the land- 
 lord does not depend upon his skill or industry. If he become 
 suddenly idiotic or paralytic, his income need not necessarily 
 be reduced, nor the present or future comforts of himself or 
 his family. That sum which the peasant would be imprudent 
 in expending, because it should form his reserved fund, 
 might most prudently be expended by the landlord in the 
 shape of rent, because it would form part of his annual in- 
 terest, the land being the capital from which it is derived.
 
 71 
 
 The feeling of avarice is rarely so strong as the fear of penury. 
 The desire to live in a better manner than that to which we have 
 been habituated is very much weaker as a motive than the dread 
 of being compelled to live in a worse manner ; the desire of 
 rising is less strong than the fear of falling. The accumulation of 
 capital in agriculture, therefore, does not take place to any 
 considerable extent. The occupier of the land cannot, and 
 the proprietor of the land will not, accumulate. It is indeed 
 greatly to be feared that a nominal rent-roll has lead many 
 proprietors into difficulty : their expenditure having been regu- 
 lated rather by the rent-roll than by actual, or even probable 
 receipts. 
 
 Galway. F. 36. The evil effects of high nominal rents are not confined to 
 the tenant, who necessarily falls into arrear ; the landlord is tempted (ac- 
 cording to Mr Armstrong) to adopt habits of expenditure which are not 
 authorized by his real income. 
 
 " He is anxious to have a high rent roll," observes Rev. T. Maguire, p. p., 
 " that he may borrow money with greater facility, and to more advantage ; 
 I refer more particularly to one landlord in this country who has been ruined, 
 and who has been obliged gradually to mortgage his entire property, having 
 been unwilling to alter his mode of living or to make abatements in the high 
 war rents, which he found it utterly impossible to collect." Such a man 
 cannot indulge his tenantry ; he sends his driver to distrain for wbat cannot be 
 paid, and if the tenant to wish escape complete ruin, he must bribe the driver, 
 and, perhaps, after a lapse of some time be is distrained by another. I know a 
 landlord who openly allows that his tenants cannot pay more than two-thirds 
 of their nominal rents, but still he cannot open his heart to reduce them to 
 the real value. Several witnesses assented to this statement of Rev. T. 
 Maguire, p. p., adding that they knew the persons to whom he alluded. 
 
 Sligo. F. 42. The system of nominal rents leaves it uncertain as to how 
 much the landlord may collect ; it leads him to hope for more than he is 
 likely to receive, and thus tempts him to greater expenditure than he can 
 afford ; such is the case with the largest proprietor in the county. (Rev. 
 
 Mr Brennan, p.p.) His property is greatly in arrear ; he lives partly on 
 
 what he receives, and partly on what he expects to receive. (Rev. Mr Yates.) 
 
 In answer to the question, whether, when thus driven to distress, the 
 
 landlord is frequently compelled, in self defence, to rack the tenantry ? Sir 
 A. Creighton said, " If your landlord be in debt, he will let you the tenant 
 go to the bad sooner than himself." 
 
 Dublin. F. 44. The landlord himself, by this system of nominal rents, is 
 deluded into the hope of collecting a larger amount of rent than he can pos- 
 sibly realize ; and, being thus tempted into greater expense than he can 
 afford, is driven into distress, and frequently compelled, in self-defence, to 
 rack his tenantry. 
 
 Kilkenny, Bar. Galmoy. F. 45. " The system of nominal rents leads the 
 landlord into greater expenditure than he can afford. A landlord lives up to 
 what I promise him, and not to what I pay him ; if he gets 75 per cent, he 
 is very lucky in my opinion, and I believe he would think so himself, too, if 
 the truth were known. Where the landlord has to pay heavy interest on 
 mortgages, he, of course, cannot afford to spare his tenantry, and if the pro- 
 perty be taken out of his hands altogether by his creditors, the ruin of one 
 party is very likely to be followed by the ruin of the other." (Captain 
 Delaney.)
 
 72 
 
 Bar. Goicran. F. 48 The witnesses believe that in this barony, tbe land- 
 lords do not generally suffer from the system of nominal rents ; though 
 elsewhere, by making the amount of their income appear greater than it 
 really is, it tempts them into an expenditure they cannot afford, and involves 
 them in consequent embarrassment. 
 
 Louth. F. 51. In many cases, the system of nominal rents is as injurious 
 to the landlords as to the tenant, leading him to expect an income which he 
 cannot realize, and thus tempting him into a greater expenditure than he can 
 afford. This is especially the case with young proprietors before they are well 
 acquainted with their real income, and have been taught to discriminate be- 
 tween it and the nominal rent-roll. The landlord thus involved, must often 
 harrass his tenantry in self defence. 
 
 Meuth. Kdls. F. 53. The system of nominal rents, constantly leading the 
 landlord to hope for more than he can possibly collect, is no doubt one of the 
 causes that so large a proportion of the landed proprietors live beyond their 
 income, and there is no question that they are thus often compelled, in self- 
 defence, to rack the tenantry ; they will generally rather do so than want 
 themselves. 
 
 Bar. Moyfenragh. F. 54. It was stated by the witnesses that the land- 
 lords themselves are sufferers from the reckless competition for land among 
 the peasantry, that a system of mere nominal rents is thus established, and 
 the landlord, being deluded into the hope of receiving more than he can pos- 
 sibly collect, is tempted into an expenditure greater than his real income can 
 afford. This the Assistant Commissioners found to be a matter of constant 
 occurrence, especially among young, inexperienced, and thoughtless proprie- 
 tors, until sad experience teaches them the real amount of their incomes, and 
 to discriminate between a nominal rent-roll and an actual income. 
 
 Queen's Co. Maryborough. F. 5/. The system of nominal rents does not 
 in these baronies tempt th'e landlord into a greater expenditure than he can 
 afford, but in many others it certainly has the effect. 
 
 Wicldow, F. 60. The system of nominal rents, produced by the reckless 
 competition for land, is very injurious to the landlords themselves, by tempt- 
 ing them to exceed their real income, and thus leading them into embarrass- 
 ments, which frequently compel them in self-defence to rack their tenantry. 
 
 Kerry Tverugh. F. 63. " If a landlord is a distressed man, his tenants cer- 
 tainly feel his necessity to have money." (Mr Butler and Mr James 
 O'Connell.) 
 
 Bar. Trugheneckmy. F. 64. " There are many instances of landlords in dis- 
 tressed circumstances being very indulgent to their tenantry ; but probably 
 in most cases needy landlords try to get the greatest income from their estates 
 that they can." (Mr Powell, &c.) 
 
 Limerick Connello. F. 65. " Undoubtedly when a landlord is driven to 
 distress he is frequently compelled, in self-defence, to rack his tenantry. ATI 
 extravagant landlord might be tempted to spend more than he could afford, 
 from a hope of collecting more rent than was possible ; but thinking men 
 could not be led into such an error; they have now had too much experience 
 of the fallacy of such hopes." (Mr Brown.) 
 
 Tipperary. F. /O. The system of offering very high rents has the effect 
 of leading the landlord to hope for more than he is likely to receive, and 
 sometimes perhaps to expend more than his real resources justify. When- 
 ever a landlord is in this way driven to distress he is compelled in self- 
 defence to rack his tenantry. 
 
 The poverty in which the majority of the occupants are 
 kept, and the. disinclination of those who possess capital to
 
 73 
 
 apply it to the improvement of their farms, cause production 
 in Ireland to be materially crippled. 
 
 The peasantry frequently have recourse to inferior seed, 
 because they possess none other, and are too poor to purchase. 
 They are decided in the choice of a crop, not by the chance 
 of its being the most lucrative, but by the seed which they 
 possess. In seasons of scarcity, they are driven to eat their 
 seed potatoes, and to leave their lands unplanted till the pro- 
 per season has passed, because they are unable to replace the 
 seed which they have consumed. Land is frequently left 
 under inferior cultivation, and crops are left in or on the 
 ground, till the best opportunities for securing them have 
 passed away, because the occupier has not the means of 
 hiring sufficient labour. It is even common amongst the 
 small holders to prepare and send to market one portion of 
 a crop, to obtain funds with which to secure the remainder. 
 With animal manure the peasantry are rarely provided in the 
 quantity required ; as they can neither afford to purchase it, 
 nor the live stock and fodder capable of creating it ; and though 
 limestone is frequently plentiful within a few miles of lands 
 greatly in need of lime, poverty and the nominal rent prevent 
 the necessary outlay. The implements of husbandry possessed 
 by the peasantry are both scanty, and of the most inferior de- 
 scription. Their ploughs are frequently of the rudest sort, made 
 by themselves, sind having a wooden share. Screening and win- 
 nowing is frequently performed in the open air, by which the 
 grain is imperfectly cleaned, and even sometimes mixed with 
 gravel. Land continues to yield inferior crops, and to be limited 
 in its application, on account of defective drainage. Tracts of 
 bog, which from their nature, their situation for drainage, and 
 their proximity to limestone and clay, might be reclaimed, 
 remain useless, because the tenant cannot, and the landlord 
 will not, afford an outlay, which would be amply repaid. The 
 best dairy possessed by one small farmer was a chest containing 
 dirty linen, in which the bowls of milk were put to cream ; the 
 best churning room possessed by another was a smoky cabin ; 
 whilst in many instances the high road, on which a sheet had 
 been placed, formed the most suitable threshing floor. Per- 
 manent improvements, as draining, fencing, and the erection of 
 farm buildings, are not attempted. The peasantry are too poor 
 to undertake them, and those landlords form rare exceptions 
 who either undertake repairs and alterations, or make any allow- 
 ance for them when made by the tenant. In many parts of the 
 country, the peasantry are wholly ignorant of the modern im- 
 provements in agriculture ; for example, of the rotation system 
 and sheep husbandry. But the few who are aware of their
 
 74 
 
 advantages, not having a motive to improve whilst under a 
 nominal rent, nor being able to procure the requisite manure, 
 implements, stock and seed, with which to commence that 
 system, might as well be without the knowledge. Without 
 cattle to eat green crops and to tread fodder into manure, the 
 rotation system cannot be adopted. 
 
 Even if these things were not essential to the improved 
 system of agriculture, the Irish peasantry could not adopt 
 it. The course which will, on the average of two or three 
 seasons, give the largest return, may not in each half year 
 yield the largest rent, upon which the peasant depends to 
 retain possession. Rearing stock supposes the ability to 
 wait during two or three years for returns. Crops which 
 can immediately be converted into money are those to 
 which the peasantry by their poverty are restricted. Hence 
 the universal practice of growing many crops of grain in 
 succession, a practice which has long been discarded in the 
 better practice of agriculture, because it exhausts the land. 
 The only variation from successive grain crops is occa- 
 sionally potatoes or flax, which exhaust equally with 
 grain. Prevented as are the peasantry by their poverty 
 from administering even an ordinary quantity of manure, 
 this scourging practice quickly exhausts the land ; when 
 exhausted, it is, to use the phrase of the peasantry, left 
 " to shift for itself," by which is meant, to throw up a coating 
 of spontaneous grasses or weeds. In this condition it remains 
 wholly unproductive for two or three years, at the end of 
 which time it partially recovers its powers, and is made to 
 undergo another course of scourging. Under this practice a 
 considerable portion of the land is always idle. 
 
 Galway. Kilconnel. On a farm of four acres, it may be said that one 
 half is always in a condition of complete exhaustion. In the first place, the 
 holder, having no green crops to enable him to feed cattle in confinement, 
 has not sufficient manure each year for even one acre ; he therefore continues 
 repeated corn crops, till the land will produce no longer: it is then left for 
 an indeterminate space of time to send up whatever weeds may grow in it, 
 until it acquires a new skin. In this condition it supplies the appearance of 
 food for a cow, and perhaps two acres of the whole is in the state described. 
 
 (Comyn, Donnelan, and Lynch). The real cause of this state of things 
 
 is ignorance of better practices, and want of capital, even if instruction were 
 
 communicated. (Birmingham). Not only are small farmers reluctant to 
 
 employ labourers for those purposes for which they themselves or their fami- 
 lies do not suffice, but, when labouring under high rents, they prefer obtaining 
 the lowest ready money wages, in order to meet rack rents, to bestowing their 
 attention on their own tillage. (Comyn and O'Reilly.) 
 
 Connaught. Galway. F. 204. The fields are very imperfectly cleaned of 
 weeds, some of them not at all, and from the grain being universally sown, 
 and never drilled or dibbled, the use of the hoe is entirely prevented ; the 
 sowing of the crops is attended to at the proper time. (Mr A. Lynch.)
 
 75 
 
 If the small farmers can procure labour in hurried times they will, at any 
 season of the year, neglect their own matters for the sake of it ; and in this 
 
 way often act contrary to their own interest. (Mr Birmingham). The 
 
 peasantry often defer planting their potatoes beyond the proper time, from 
 their anxiety to take advantage of all the employment they can obtain from 
 others in the busy time of spring, and this partly accounts for some of the 
 potatoe crops not yet appearing above the ground. (Mr Birmingham.) 
 
 205. The peasantry have no knowledge whatever of the advantage to be 
 derived from a proper alternation of crops ; any deviation from the course 
 
 before mentioned would be a matter of curiosity. (Mr Comyn). There 
 
 are no artificial grasses cultivated by the small holders ; they generally, after 
 repeated cropping, allow their land to " run to waste," as it is termed, and, 
 on that account, their lands are covered with the worst grasses. 
 
 208. They, with few exceptions, never have any place set apart as a 
 dairy. The house of a considerable farmer was visited; he is the occupier of 
 more than 50 acres, of which 10 are in tillage; he has three milch cows, 
 sometimes so many as 20 heifers, and a horse for which he has refused 50/. 
 He is considered altogether as possessed of a capital of 400/. A request was 
 made to be shown the room where the milk was placed to stand for cream ; 
 after some hesitation a press was opened, where stood a deep dishful of milk, 
 surrounded by a quantity of foul linen. The farmer, when told of the ill 
 effects which this would produce on the milk and butter, replied, " We use it 
 ourselves, and sure we don't fault it." 
 
 The small landholder is seldom able to collect a sufficiency of manure for 
 the land he occupies. A portion of the straw is consumed by the cow, 
 another is used for repairing the thatch, so that little remains to be converted 
 into manure; some are obliged by poverty to sell it. An occupier of fire 
 acres of land, under a middle-man, was last year obliged to sell the straw of 
 an acre of wheat (all he had) to Lord Clonbrock for Is. per cwt., in order to 
 make up the money due on a promissory note given for rent. (Mr Birming- 
 ham). The farmers possess no knowledge whatever of the superior advan- 
 tage of stall-feeding over grazing, as a source of manure. But little attention 
 is paid to the dung yard ; the small farmers collect some bog earth, but they 
 do not mix it with a sufficiency of manure to cause a proper fermentation ; 
 the larger farmers are very careless about it. " It is common practice to sell 
 straw; Mr Connolly frequently used to sell straw, even when extensively 
 engaged in tillage." 
 
 Leitrim, Bar, Dromahair. F. 210. With respect to the course of tillage 
 used in the district, Mr Nixon says, " We have no system; every man tills 
 according to his fancy or convenience; we know nothing of a rotation." The 
 usual course pursued is two successive crops of potatoes, followed by as many 
 crops of oats as will yield any return. In most cases two or three are taken ; 
 but instances were cited where eleven, and, in one case, nineteen were taken 
 in succession. A very small quantity of flax is grown after the second crop of 
 potatoes. On coarse or bog ground frequently three crops of potatoes are 
 taken. " After they have by these means taken the life out of the land, it is 
 suffered to lie waste." 
 
 The peasantry do not neglect cutting their own crops by seeking labour 
 elsewhere, they are too anxious about them to do so ; but it often happens 
 that many of those who live chiefly by labour, have not seed to put into the 
 ground till they have earned it by labour, and on that account the planting is 
 put off to a disadvantageous period, and till the proper time has passed. 
 (Mr C. Fergtisson.) 
 
 F. 211. The peasantry have no knowledge of the advantages to be de- 
 rived from an alternation of crops, as is fully proved by the course pursued ;
 
 they only think of exhausting the land as much as possible, by the frequent 
 recurrence of tlie same sort of grain, and then allowing it partially to recover 
 itself by remaining a few years in grass. There is no stall-feeding of cattle, 
 and artificial manures have not been introduced. Were green crops culti- 
 vated, there can be no doubt but a much larger number of cattle might be 
 reared than under the present system. 
 
 F. 212. Mr Nixon knows of no reason to which he can attribute the 
 superiority of the Dutch to the Irish butter, unless it is caused by cleanlier 
 habits. 
 
 A large quantity of the land wants draining, and this circumstance operates 
 together with the great moisture of the climate in making the land improper 
 for sheep. Mr O'Donnell says he has not had any sheep for the last three 
 years; the last he had were all affected with flukes in the liver, which are the 
 precursors of rot, and on that account he has discontinued keeping them; 
 very few farms in the district are fit for sheep ; the small farmers are incapable 
 of draining from want of capital. 
 
 213. The cows are housed during the winter in close low sheds, very im- 
 perfectly constructed ; but in the small holdings they are very frequently 
 admitted inside the cabin during that season, as being warmer. There are no 
 places set apart as dairies; the milk is generally kept in one of the bed-rooms, 
 where it stands till the period of churning arrives. In the summer season, 
 especially in warm weather, it is sometimes removed to the cowhouse or 
 stable (which are then unoccupied) on account of the greater coolness, and 
 there is nothing to guard it from the dirt falling from the thatched roof, or to 
 prevent the vessels, &c., from being soiled by the damp and earthen floor. 
 These places are generally without any opening, except the door, for the 
 admission of air. 
 
 The farmer makes no provision for agricultural implements, none being 
 used but the cart; the log is used instead of a plough; he looks to the crop 
 of potatoes alone for the maintenance of his family. 
 
 Mayo. F. 215. " The usual course of tillage may be stated as follows: 
 first, potatoes, two crops of which are taken if the soil be very good; second, 
 oats or wheat, if it be good land; third, potatoes, manured with sea-weed, if 
 on the coast, in the inland parts with a mixed compost of mud and clay ; 
 fourth, oafs or barley. A small quantity of land (say from one to two roods) 
 of the best quality on the farm is usually sown with flax, but the former 
 course of tillage is pursued without deviation till the land is worn out, and 
 will not yield sufficient to satisfy the farmer. It is then thrown out of tillage." 
 
 (Mr Toole.) " More than a quarter of the farm is usually in a state of 
 
 waste, affording a miserable pasturage for the cow; the small tenants do not 
 generally keep more than one or two sheep, if so many." (Rev. Mr 
 M'Manus, R. c.c.) 
 
 There is not a roll in the barony, with the exception of those belonging to 
 Lord Sligo. The holdings being so small, and the farmers having so little 
 employment, considerable attention is paid to the weeding of corn and pota- 
 toes ; they do not seem to eradicate them at as early a stage as needful ; the 
 operation is deferred till by their continuance the weeds have considerably 
 injured the growing crop, this is especially the case with the potatoes. " I 
 have known people to neglect their own crops to earn something, through the 
 
 pressure of want." (Rev. MrDwyer, p. p ) " Darby Hester lives at Car- 
 
 rabane ; he was working with me for Mr Mahon, and he allowed his potatoes 
 to go to blossom without having been moulded, to his great loss, rather than 
 
 leave the work." (John Dane, of Westport.) " That is not a solitary 
 
 instance." (Rev. Mr M'Manus, R. c. c.) 
 
 Connavght. Mayo. F. 216. The peasantry have not the slightest know- 
 ledge of the advantages of the alternation of crops.
 
 77 
 
 The small holders don't cultivate artificial grasses ; they do not sow grass- 
 seed the last year when they intend to put their land out to tillage, hut they 
 allow it to run to waste. 
 
 218. The farmers have no knowledge of the benefit of stalling cattle, as a 
 source of manure; but little attention is paid to the dung-heap: the straw is 
 generally eaten by the cattle, which greatly shortens the quantity of manure, 
 and the method of mixing it with large quantities of bog mould, as practised 
 in other districts, is not extensively or systematically adopted here. 
 
 Sligo. F. 220. Some attention is paid to weeding the corn crops during 
 their growth, but the farmers are not aware of the benefit of rolling the land, 
 and there are consequently but few rolls in the barony ; they generally defer 
 cutting the corn till it has become dead ripe, by which delay it becomes thick 
 skinned, and the sample is greatly deteriorated in appearance and in the pro- 
 duce of flour. The Rev. Mr Brennan, p. p., says, " I do not think the pea- 
 santry defer cutting their own crops at the proper season, except when 
 
 prevented by being obliged to do duty-work." Terence M'Gowan says, 
 
 " he had often been obliged to leave his own ground waste till he had earned 
 money to buy seed for it, and the late sowing had proved a great loss to him." 
 
 " Many is the man," answered Robert Greggs, " that in the month of 
 
 June has to go to work to earn the county cess, and neglects his own labour 
 because the cess comes when the potatoes should be planted." 
 
 221. " The small farmers sell all their corn; but few are able to reserve 
 sufficient for seed; when they can do so we consider them well to do in the 
 world." (Rev. Mr Brennan, p.p.) 
 
 On farms of the largest size, the most usual mode of cropping is, potatoss 
 followed by as many crops of oats as will make a profitable return; after the 
 land is exhausted by repetitions of this course, it is allowed to lie waste. On 
 the smaller farms, and where the population is thicker, they cannot allow it 
 to do so, and the alternate course of potatoes and oats is pursued with the aid 
 of sea manure for an indefinite period ; this is said to have prevailed on some 
 lands for 40 or 50 years without intermission. The peasantry have no know- 
 ledge of the advantage of an alternation of crops; when spoken to on the 
 subject, they reply, that they cannot afford to lose a crop. 
 
 222. The inferiority of the butter in this district is most probably 
 owing to the want of cleanliness, and of airy and well-ventilated rooms as 
 dairies, and to the small number of cows, which makes repeated churnings 
 necessary to fill the firkin. 
 
 225. The houses occupied by the dairy farmers differ in no respect 
 from those belonging to other farmers in the district. They usually consist 
 of two, or, at the most, three rooms, the centre being the kitchen, at each 
 end of which there is a bed-room; one of these also serves the purposes of 
 the dairy, it being a rare thing to find a room set apart for that purpose; when 
 it does occur, it is generally detached from the house; in either case there is 
 not a ceiling to the roof, but it is quite open to the scraws and thatch. If 
 there should be a window, which is not always the case, it is generally closed 
 with a shutter, which of course does not admit the free passage of the air; 
 and as the floor is not paved with bricks or stones, but consists of the bare 
 earth, it is impossible that water could be thrown on it for the purpose of 
 cleanliness, or for that of cooling the dairy. 
 
 Leinster. Dublin. F. 228. The English Assistant Commissioner must 
 here observe that this arises from the defective mode of farming pursued 
 here, and not from any necessity, even under such circumstances, for laying 
 land permanently to grass, since as much stock, or more, may be bred or fed, 
 by means of green and root crops, on a farm entirely under tillage, as on a 
 grazing one of the same extent, independently of the excellent crops of grain
 
 78 
 
 which always follow the cultivation of green and root crops, and the manure 
 they produce. 
 
 Kilkenny. Galmoy. 232. It frequently occurs that the peasantry, in their 
 anxiety to earn by labour, defer the cutting of their own corn, and thus incur 
 considerable loss : it is a common practice for small occupiers to leave their 
 wives and children to cut and harvest their own corn, while they go out to 
 work for others. (All.) It often happens that the peasant defers com- 
 mitting the grain to the earth until a disadvantageous time, sometimes owing 
 to the want of seed, sometimes the want of horses, and of a sufficient num- 
 ber of hands to get the work done in a proper time, as well as from the 
 motive of working for others when they can get employment at fair wages. 
 
 233. A given quantity of land would, by the introduction of green crops 
 for feeding, rear a much greater number of cattle than it would under the 
 system of perpetual grass ; besides, there would be an immense advantage 
 derived from that system as a source of manure, and as a means of furnishing 
 employment to the labouring classes, both in cultivating those crops, and in 
 attending upon the cattle which consume them. All these results have been 
 long established by the practice of the best agriculturists in almost every part 
 of the United Kingdom, and still more extensively so by that of all the 
 farmers in Flanders, and most districts in Germany, France, Italy, and other 
 countries on the Continent. 
 
 Much of the land is incapable of rearing sheep, through want of drainage. 
 (Capt. Delany.) A small farmer can very seldom afford to drain. (All.) 
 
 234. Among the poorer farmers the cattle-houses and sheds are in some 
 cases insufficient, both in extent and repair, even for the small number of 
 stock which is found upon those farms, and they would be very much so if 
 the cattle were as numerous as they might and should be. Poverty has, 
 however, greatly reduced the number of live stock among the smaller farmers, 
 and many are obliged to resort to taking in the cattle of others to graze dur- 
 ing summer, and to letting out their land for a " free crop" of potatoes (that 
 is, giving the use of the land rent-free for a crop of potatoes, in consideration 
 of its being manured for that crop), from the want of cattle and other means 
 to manure it, and frequently even to till it themselves. 
 
 234-. The small holder is always greatly deficient in animal manure, from 
 the want of pasture to keep stock, and of straw to make manure, as so much 
 of his straw goes for thatching his house and buildings. (Messrs Murphy 
 and Ryan.) 
 
 No knowledge exists of the advantage of stalling cattle over grazing them, 
 considered as a source of manure, except among the large farmers. 
 
 Kilkenny Gowran. 236. There has more particularly been a large increase 
 in the quantity of every kind of agricultural produce brought to market for 
 export to England, because the increasing poverty of the farmers and 
 labourers obliges them to live more and more upon potatoes, and to sell almost 
 the whole of the meat, corn, butter, &c., which they consumed formerly. 
 (Lord Carrick and Messrs M'Henry, Lanigan, and O'Connor.) 
 
 236. The peasantry are seldom or never induced to defer the cutting of 
 their own crops that they may earn by labour ; and, though they are some- 
 times late in sowing, it is not occasioned by this cause, but by the want of 
 seed, waiting for horses to till their ground, &c. 
 
 239. The small farmers neither drain nor can afford to drain, and this is 
 the case now with most of the larger ones also. (Messrs Robbins, Clifford, 
 Splint, and Ryan.) 
 
 Except among the large farmers there is usually a great deficiency of 
 proper accommodation for the cattle in these sheds and houses. 
 
 King's Co. F. 245. The sheep in this barony are subject to die of the 
 rot, and the small farmers are unable to drain their land.
 
 79 
 
 Louth. 247. The quantity of land now devoted to grass, if used in pro- 
 ducing green and root crops for feeding, would rear or fatten probably four 
 times as much stock as at present, and would furnish employment to ten or 
 perhaps twenty times as many persons in cultivating the crops, and attending 
 to the stock, besides so amazingly increasing the manure as to cause pro- 
 gressive improvement in the fertility and consequent productiveness of the 
 land. 
 
 248. A few small farmers drain, but the majority of them cannot afford it. 
 In one small district of the barony, but only in that, sheep are peculiarly 
 subject to the rot, and in this case it arises from the want of drainage conse- 
 quent on the absence of capital among the small tenantry. 
 
 249. The small landholder is not often able to collect sufficient manure 
 for his own ground, but he has probably as much, in proportion to the extent 
 of his land, as the larger farmer. 
 
 Louth, Dundalk. The soil of the barony is generally dry and sound. There 
 are, nevertheless, many spots which might be drained and reclaimed, or much 
 improved with profit. The farm-houses, out-buildings, fences, and almost 
 everything connected with the business of the farmer are also here, as in 
 other countries, much in need of improvement. But that it should be other- 
 wise, except in a few individual exceptions, is impossible under the system 
 generally pursued in this country. Exorbitant rents are required, usually 
 the highest which unlimited competition and the fear of utter destitution 
 can induce the unfortunate tenant to bid rather than give up his farm, knowing 
 the difficulty of getting another, and that the same competition in every case 
 awaits him. Next the landlord throws upon the tenant the whole of the ex- 
 pense of erecting and repairing the dwelling-house and out-buildings, and of 
 draining, fencing, and all other improvements, however extensive and perma- 
 nent they may be, and without any reference to the length of his term in the 
 farm, instead of doing these things at his own expense, allowing to the tenant 
 the half of the last, furnishing him the materials, or paying him for all per- 
 manent improvements at the end of his term, as is customary in England and 
 Scotland. Such a system, and the ignorance of rural affairs of most lordlands 
 and agents, their want of superintendance and interest, and the pecuniary 
 embarrassments of the former are not only sufficientt to account for the defec- 
 tive state of agriculture in this country, but it is surprising that matters should 
 not be worse, and the Irish farmer deserves much credit for having stood 
 ground, and effected even what he has under such discouraging circumstances. 
 
 This is not only the result of my own observations and inquiries, but it is 
 the decided opinion of the most intelligent and experienced individuals whom 
 I have met with. 
 
 Queen's County, Maryborough. There is also a very large quantity of land, 
 which is rendered comparatively unproductive, by the want of draining, and 
 that would pay well for that improvement. In both cases, however, the 
 poverty of the tenants, and the absence of encouragement, and assistance 
 from their landlords, prevent these great and obvious improvements from being 
 effected. The same may generally be said respecting farm-houses, buildings, 
 fences, private roads, &c., the cost of erecting, making and repairing, which, as 
 well as of all other improvements, is put upon the tenant, without any aid, 
 allowance, or compensation from the landlord, either at the time of making 
 improvements, or whenever the tenant may quit the farm, however expensive 
 and permanent the nature of those improvements may be. 
 
 The natural consequence is, that the generality of farm-houses and out- 
 buildings are extremely defective in proper accommodation, either for the 
 family, or for the business of the farm, very injudiciously and inconveniently 
 arranged, and usually in a bad state of repair, and damp, dirty, and miserable ;
 
 80 
 
 from the want of these accommodations, and the frequent absence of all 
 system and regularity, scramble and comfusion, accompanied by a proportion- 
 ate waste of time and labour, are too often perceptible in the business of the 
 farms. 
 
 Almost the only exceptions to the foregoing descriptions are to be found in 
 the case of large farmers of considerable capital, and who have a long lease of 
 their land at a moderate rent. All the farmers complain bitterly of high rents, 
 especially the smaller ones, who hold under middle-men. There is no doubt 
 that all rents here are much too high, considering the usual want of capital, 
 and defective system of farmers, and particularly under the present depression 
 of prices. 
 
 The system above-mentioned, of throwing all improvements, repairs, &c. 
 upon the tenant, amounts, of course, also to a virtual increase of rent, and that 
 too in the very worst shape, because it diminishes, and often totally absorbs 
 the already very deficient means which he possessed for the cultivation of his 
 farm. 
 
 The want of a proper rotation of crops, and of the cultivation of clover, 
 vetches, rape, turnips, mangel-wurzel, &c., is still more disastrous in the 
 effects upon the cottiers and other occupiers of from one to two acres of land. 
 These poor families are toiling on in hopeless misery, themselves, their land, 
 and their live stock, all exhibiting every symptom of wretched destitution ; 
 while the mere adoption of a proper system would enable them to live in com- 
 parative comfort and happiness. The Assistant-Commissioners found them 
 everywhere buying hay, and putting out a single cow to grass with a neigh- 
 bouring farmer, although with good management their land would have 
 supported three or four. 
 
 Meath. Bar. Kelts. 252. The peasantry often defer till too late the cutting 
 of their own corn, in their anxiety to earn by labour; but this is the case only 
 among the very smallest occupiers of land. The peasantry also often sow much 
 too late, which almost always arises from their having to wait for the farmers' 
 horses to complete the tillage of their ground. Small occupiers can seldom 
 lay their land down to grass for more than one or two years, and often not at 
 all, their chief or sole crops being potatoes and corn. They have little or no 
 knowledge of the advantage of an alternation of crops, and seldom or never 
 cultivate artificial grasses. 
 
 The small holders are frequently deficient in money to procure seed, for 
 which they are then charged a very high price. 
 
 252. The number of labourees employed on a grazing farm varies much 
 according to the state in which the fences are kept, whether the land and 
 hedge-rows are kept clean, &c. If the farm be well kept up, from two to three 
 men may be constantly employed for every hundred acres ; but if these things 
 are neglected (as is generally the case here) the rate of constant employment 
 would only be one man for every hundred acres, or even much less, as several 
 witnesses stated was the case 
 
 253. Where drainage is required, the small farmers cannot afford to drain 
 to any extent, for want of means. Artificial feeding is not general. Po- 
 tatoes and hay are the only food upon which cattle are stall-fed, except the 
 patches of turnips and mangel-wurzel grown by a few proprietors. This kind 
 of artificial feeding is at present on the increase. The small farmer has too 
 little capital to keep stock enough to produce a sufficient quantity of manure 
 for his own ground, but in this respect he is generally on a par with the 
 larger farmer. 
 
 Bar. Moyfenragh. 257. The witnesses were of opinion that it would 
 be much more profitable to feed and convert land to grass. It must, 
 however, be remarked that this is speaking of tillage as it is pursued in
 
 81 
 
 this country, and not as it is carried on in Great Britain, where, by 
 means of turnips, clover, and other root and green crops, the tillage 
 farmer maintains and feeds more cattle than the grazier, and where, con- 
 sequently, his produce being part grain, and part cattle and sheep, prices 
 would not affect him, since he would gain by one description of produce 
 what he lost by the other. If the difference in profit between tilling and 
 grazing went on increasing as it has done of late years, the consequence 
 would be total ruin either to the labourers or to the farmers ; to the labourers 
 if all the land were laid down to grass, and to the farmers if they did not dare 
 to lay the land to grass, forfear of putting an end to employment. 
 
 258. Artificial feeding is not common, though increasing. Hay is com- 
 monly abundant on all farms, but in consequence of the uncertainty of the 
 climate, and the bad system of making it, the quality is very precarious, and 
 often very indifferent. Store cattle during winter are put at night into straw 
 yards, with or without sheds, and generally turned into the fields during the 
 day. From the universal deficiency of out-buildings there is seldom or never 
 good cover for cattle. 
 
 Co. A/eat/i. He was fully convinced of the beneficial effects of sheep husban- 
 dry, both in profit to the farmer and improvement to the land, by means of tur- 
 nips ; and that the soil and climate of this district were well adapted for that 
 system ; but he feared that, independently of national and local prejudices, 
 very few farmers had sufficient capital to adopt it. In such an extent, he 
 added, did this unfortunate want of means prevail, that several extensive 
 farmers in his own neighbourhood were at that moment (1st September), 
 thrashing out their own corn as fast as it could be carried from the field, in 
 order to be enabled to pay for the harvesting of the rest of the crop. 
 
 There is a considerable extent of land at present either lying entirely waste 
 or yielding an almost nominal produce, which might be profitably reclaimed 
 by means of draining and sewering. 
 
 An extensive farmer, who from his own occupation is intimately acquainted 
 with every part of the barony, told me that he considered there were at 
 least 1000 acres of exhausted bog (from which the turf has been cut for fuel), 
 and other bog land capable of such improvement. Limestone, marl, and cal- 
 carious gravel, or sand, are formed in almost every part of the barony; so 
 that capital and enterprise only are required to bring the land into productive 
 cultivation. This, however, is almost impossible to expect any tenant to do, 
 under the existing system, with rents on the one hand much too high for the 
 present price of grain, especially with their insufficient capital, and imperfect 
 mode of cultivation; and on the other, with the total absence of assistance 
 from their landlords to make permanent or expensive improvements, and with 
 the erection and repairs of all houses and buildings thrown upon them, the 
 resources of the peasantry soon become entirely exhausted. 
 
 Kelh. As elsewhere, there is much need of draining farm-buildings, and 
 other permanent improvements, but it is impossible they can be made by a 
 tenantry so generally poor, as long as the present system continues of 
 throwing the whole expense on the tenant, added too, as this is, to rents, 
 exorbitant in proportion to the capital and mode of farming of this country. 
 
 Kerry, Iverngh Mr Fitzgerald says, a proper quantity of seed is usually 
 sown, where the ground is sown ; but land is sometimes left unsown from 
 inability to buy seed. 
 
 In the Spring of the present year potatoes were dear and scarce, and there 
 are many pieces of ground in the neighbourhood that have been dug and 
 manured and made ready for seed, but where potatoes were not set from the 
 inability of the occupiers to purchase seed. They had been obliged to con- 
 sume the potatoes which they meant to set, and were too poor to buy seed 
 
 G
 
 82 
 
 at the advanced price ; all their money went to buy food. Ground intended 
 for oats is sometimes left unsown, because the small farmers cannot buy seed. 
 
 I think it happens two or three times every ten years that small holders are 
 deficient in money to buy seed. This year, much ground is unsown for want 
 of seed. Small tenants more generally buy their seed at a high price, having 
 but seldom potatoes enough to save seed. 
 
 Cork : Parish Killeagh. The high rents which are paid, cause the farmers, 
 in many cases, to be unable from want of capital to conduct ordinary opera- 
 tions. Mr Davis states that they are frequently obliged to have their potatoes 
 undug for along time, in consequence of being unable to pay their labourers. 
 
 Limerick, Bnr : Connellue. Mr Brown says, I saw this morning a man 
 mowing his hay, and his children employed in making it; the man had a con- 
 siderable quantity of meadow-rounii, and I questioned him why he did not 
 get more assistance to cut his hay and secure it. He said it was very tedious 
 to save it entirely with his own family, and that he ran a great risk of having 
 part of it spoiled by the weather, as it would take him so long to secure it 
 with so few haymakers, and they all children ; also that the grass would be 
 much injured by getting too old and over-crown before he could mow it all, 
 but that he must bear this and run the risk of the weather, because he could 
 not afford to hire labourers to help him, as he had always done in former 
 years. He said in these bad times he must find ways to work his land 
 without hiring labourers with what should he pay his rent ? 
 
 Tipperary. Middlethird. The poverty of the small tenants prevented 
 them both from using good seed, and from manuring sufficiently, and their 
 
 want of skill and system led to the exhaustion of the land. (Mr Sailly). 
 
 There are many instances where the land is inadequately cultivated, because 
 the holder cannot hire sufficient labour. 
 
 After the ejection of small tenantry, the land is left in such a state that it 
 requires an outlay of capital and much labour to put it into proper farming 
 condition. (Mr Stewart). 
 
 Fermanagh. Tyrkennedy, The cultivation is of the worst kind ; the 
 causes are to be found in want of skill, want of capital, and want of encourage- 
 ment. 
 
 The small farmers live miserably, and the produce is not near as great as 
 it might be, there being among the farmers the want both of skill and capital. 
 
 The small farmer preserves little, if any, corn for his own use. The know- 
 ledge of the advantages of stalling over grazing exists with many, but the 
 practice is not adopted in consequence of the depressed state of the tenantry. 
 
 The usual course of crops pursued by the farmers on the old plan is 1st, 
 oats ; 2nd, oats, potatoes manured oats sometimes, and not unfrequently 
 potatoes, are taken as the first crop, and as many crops of oats follow in suc- 
 cession as the land will produce ; 3rd, oats ; 4th, oats flax sometimes follows 
 potatoes, and sometimes the first crop of oats. After the fourth year the 
 land is either manurexl or limed, or they allow it, according to their own 
 expression, to '* lie out to rest ;" if it is manured, it is cropped again for 
 several years as before, or if it is let to rest, it remains in that unproductive 
 and resting state for two or three years, as they say, " shifting for itself," 
 without any grass being sown, and they allow that it affords them scarcely 
 any grass the first year, very little the second, and not much the third. The 
 appearance of the pasture fully confirms this statement. 
 
 The farmers are of opinion that the incapacity of the land to rear sheep is 
 to be attributed to the want of drainage. A small farmer cannot afford to 
 drain his land, and gets no encouragement from the landlord to effect this 
 improvement. 
 
 There is much wet land in this district. Impediments to draining are
 
 83 
 
 occasioned by the want of capital and knowledge, and by the unwillingness of 
 landlords to give assistance. 
 
 The houses of dairy farmers are all in a miserable condition, and the butter 
 is made up in smoky apartments. 
 
 The farmers complain that no reduction has been made in the rents ; they 
 are obliged to pay the last shilling. The rents are kept up in consequence of 
 the great competition for land. Although there is plenty of limestone in the 
 barony, there is scarcely any of it used, owing to the great poverty of the 
 tenants. *" 
 
 The rotation is 1st, potatoes from ley ; 2nd, potatoes repeated 1 , with some 
 manure; 3d, wheat, flax, barley, or oats; 4th, 5th, and 6th, oats; 7th, 
 potatoes manured, and go on again as far as they can. Not much wheat is 
 grown, and is of inferior quality. If they have a field in ley likely to yield a 
 better crop, on which they can exercise the scourge system, they leave the 
 land they have deprived of its productive powers to come round by time for 
 a repetition of their future operations. Very little clover is grown, no rape 
 nor turnips, and no stall-feeding in summer. Their miserable pastures are 
 full of weeds in place of grass, and land is mostly cultivated with the spade. 
 A man with sixteen acres did not plough any of it, having ten or twelve 
 acres in crop. The plough, when used, is frequently a rude instrument, 
 made by the farmer himself. 
 
 The neglected state of these baronies is much to be regretted, having 
 such ample natural means for improvement by fall for drainage, stone, lime, 
 marl, and bog, and a soil, if drained, capable of bearing good wheat, barley, 
 clover, turnips, and other green crops. 
 
 Monaghan. The inferiority of the grain in this district is caused by the 
 number of weeds which grow up in the crops, and the want of proper ma- 
 chinery for winnowing and screening their grain. It is not uncommon to 
 thrash in the field, and winnow in the open air by aid of wind alone, the grain 
 having an admixture of gravel. The wheat cannot be expected of so fine a 
 quality when grown after potatoes as if on naked fallow. 
 
 Tyrone. Omeagh. Many of the farmers are ignorant of the cultivation o f 
 turnips, clover, rape, or mangel-wurzel. Some of them say they are aware 
 of the advantage they would receive by these plants, but they are too poor to 
 get lime, manure, or seed, to begin the system. Their plan is to grow a suc- 
 cession of oat crops (sometimes five) after potatoes, till the land can no 
 longer produce, and in that exhausted state it is left to rest, as they term it, 
 till it is ready for a repetition of this scourging process. The pasture afforded 
 in the interim, left as it is, in many or most cases, to spontaneous production, 
 is poor in the extreme. Some few sow a little white grass (polens lunntus) ; 
 rye grass and timothy grass are sown in a very few instances, and a little 
 clover. 
 
 There is not the slightest improvement of late in the breed of sheep ; the 
 farmers are ignorant of there being any other breed in the world, and 
 even if they were aware of the existence of any otber breed, they are too 
 poor to get them. 
 
 The more general cause of keeping the agricultural cultivation of the 
 country in the rudest state, is, that the small tenant has not the capital to 
 apply ; but, even if he had, he would not be willing to do so, for fear of in- 
 creasing his rent. (Rev. Mr Sorley, R. c. c.) In this district the produc- 
 tion is certainly confined to such as the personal exertions of the tenantry, 
 unaided by skill or capital, can force from the land. 
 
 The chief capital a fanner in this country possesses, is his labour. (Mr 
 Rogers.)
 
 84 
 
 The peasantry of Ireland are however not more destitute of 
 the means, than they are of the desire to improve their lands. 
 They have been taught by a long and painful experience, that 
 with rents always in advance of their means, all they can pro 
 duce they will be compelled to give as rent, and that whether 
 their skill and industry be great or small, their share of the 
 produce will be the same, that is, that they will be allowed to 
 retain only a bare subsistence. They cannot have less, their 
 landlords will not permit them to have more. All spirit of en- 
 terprise is completely crushed, and the very idea of improve- 
 ment becomes hateful, for to improve is to ensure as a reward 
 that they will be harrassed for additional payments. Here then 
 the system of nominal rents becomes a mighty engine for re- 
 pressing the energies of the country. A system for,perpetuating 
 beggary, by making increased production a curse to the pro- 
 ducer. The course generally adopted with the peasantry, located 
 on bog and mountain land, is a striking example of the endless 
 lesson which is taught them upon the uselessness of skill and 
 enterprise. After years of incessant toil and privation they 
 mostly succeed in bringing their little plots jnto tolerable cul- 
 tivation, when they fairly indulge in the expectation of a few 
 additions to their wretched condition, as the reward of hard ex- 
 ertion, privations, and suffering. But vain is the hope; the rent 
 is raised to meet the increased value which they have given to 
 the land, and they must still be content with a bare subsistence, 
 and not expect even a small share of what their own skill and 
 industry has produced. There is no alternative, they must 
 either pay the increased rent or quit the soil which their indus- 
 try has converted from a worthless waste to a state of fertility, 
 taking another portion of bog to undergo the same course of 
 privations, and again to have the reward of their labour snatch- 
 ed from them. Their utmost skill and industry can bring them 
 no reward a bare subsistence is the doom of the Irish peasantry; 
 the industrious man cannot have more, the idle cannot have less. 
 The stimulant to good conduct, industry, and enterprise, is 
 taken away. Apathy first, and then vice succeeds. 
 
 Leitrim. F. 39. " They are afraid to reclaim bog during their idle time , 
 
 lest they should be made to pay rent for it." (Mr Holtan.) " What is the 
 
 use of reclaiming land ? I have known land that was not fit for snipe-walks 
 to be turned into onion-gardens, and at the first opportunity the man that 
 did it had his choice to turn out on the wide world, or pay a rack rent for 
 leave to enjoy the work of his own hands." (Conboy.) 
 
 Mayo. F. 41. "A good many tenants have been deterred from the re- 
 clamation of bog, through the conviction that the moment such lands, im- 
 proved by their own industry exclusively, should fall out of lease, they would 
 be charged the full value for them, without any allowance." (Rev. Mr 
 M'Manus, a. c. c.) The Rev. Mr Dwyer, p. p., mentions " the case of some
 
 85 
 
 tenants, who, after having reclaimed at their own expense a considerable 
 quantity of waste land, which they held under a short lease, near Louisburg, 
 were obliged, at its expiration, to pay a double rent." 
 
 Galtoay. A. 481. The poor manufacture this waste land for themselves, 
 and then the landlords turn them out, add their farms to the estate, and put 
 them into another part of the mountain. I have known them frequently to 
 be told that no other terms would be given to them, unless they choose to 
 pay the full rent for the land they had without any help reclaimed. So many 
 undertake this, for they would sooner go under the rent than under the 
 mountain to rack themselves again and again after the perishing they got 
 
 before. (Fox.) A man named Dowd reclaimed a small portion of land on 
 
 which he was a yearly tenant. When he began, the ground all round him 
 was worth nothing ; but he has now got into the middle of it. He has made 
 many improvements, and put a wall round his garden ; and if he does not pay 
 the rent that they choose to fix, they will pitch him out upon the station they 
 have showed him. He is now a great mote in their eyes, because their busi- 
 ness is done. He will have greens for his dinner, but the landlords must 
 have the advantage, and they are gathering the people like pidgeons to get 
 
 some of the crumbs for themselves. (Fox.) There is little or nothing 
 
 over the rent for the holder. The meat and the marrow go to the land- 
 lord, and there is nothing left to us but the picking of the bones. (Gerraghty.) 
 
 Gnlwity. A. 359. " It is useless to advise people, when others do not em- 
 ploy them, to emp'oy themselves, and thereby improve their lands. The 
 common reply to my suggestions to them on this head is, ' if we showed that 
 we were getting better, so much would be immediately added to the rent.' 
 They will not even help to mend the bye-roads that lead to their own dwel- 
 lings; they say if they did, the agent would drive his gig up to their door 
 and raise the rent." (Dr Kirwan.) 
 
 To prove that the apathy of the peasantry is not the natural 
 result of their character but is produced by nominal rents, it is 
 only necessary to refer to their conduct when engaged as la- 
 bourers to work by the piece, and when the reward, however 
 small, is still in proportion to their exertions. They, 
 their wives, and their children, commence work at the dawn of 
 the day, and cease only at nightfall, and so intense are their 
 exertions that severe illness is frequently the result. 
 
 It seems to be a very general impression that small farms 
 cannot be as highly cultivated as large ones the chief ground 
 of this belief seems to be the wretched tillage of the small 
 farms in Ireland, but sufficient reason has already been given 
 for their condition 
 
 The principal evil attributed to small farms is the sup- 
 posed difficulty of introducing a perfect rotation of crops, 
 but the estates managed by Mr Blacker, in Armagh, by Mr 
 Rose, in Monaghan, and Mr Creighton, in Fermanagh, toge- 
 ther with the small farms in many other parts of the country, 
 have most successfully shown that the alternation system 
 can be as beneficially conducted with stall feeding of cattle 
 on a farm of 10 as on a farm of 100 acres. 
 
 The condition of the tenantry on the estates of .these gentle-
 
 86 
 
 men affords the best standard of the withering nature of the 
 system generally prevailing it proves that excessive rents may 
 gradually destroy themselves, and those who pay them, while 
 rents always proportionate to the means of the peasantry may 
 be gradually increased, and yet admit of a constantly increasing 
 prosperity in the tenantry. It is a very common error to sup- 
 pose that it is knowledge merely that these gentlemen diffuse ; 
 they advance capital to their peasantry in the shape of seed, 
 implements, and live stock, and take no more of the promised 
 rents than the profits of the farm allow. Had they given but 
 the instruction had they omitted the loan of capital and the 
 hope which their conduct created, their estates would have 
 varied nothing from the general picture. 
 
 Monaghnn. Mr Rose gives his tenants lime and seeds of rape, turnips, 
 clover, &c., and lends them cows and pigs on certain conditions, and for 
 which they pay a moderate annual sum, thereby putting it in their power to 
 adopt the most advantageous system of husbandry, and rise from their miser- 
 able and degraded situation to one of comparative comfort, enabling them to 
 pay their rents, and of course to contribute towards the prosperity of the 
 landlords and the country. 
 
 Tyrkennerfy. Fermanagh. Agriculture is much neglected by the generality 
 of farmers and their landlords ; many of the latter are also absentees. Yet there 
 are two or three instances of gentlemen endeavouring to promote a better 
 system, by the introduction of clover, tares, turnips, and rape. Mr Creighton, 
 in a neighbouring barony, has engaged a Scotch agriculturist to instruct his 
 tenants, which has had some good effect, even in this barony, and is likely to 
 be productive of some extensive advantage. The people uniformly speak of 
 Mr Creighton as a most excellent landlord, not only in teaching them to 
 manage their farms to profit, but at the same time refusing to accept more 
 than a fair rent. This humane treatment always ensures a corresponding 
 good feeling on the part of the tenant, and a confidence in his landlord, which 
 induces him to exert himself in improving his farm, the stimulus thus received 
 by the Irish, and their gratitude consequent upon it, cannot be exceeded in 
 any country. 
 
 They who hold above fifty acres of land are the tenants of 
 those who are anxious to abolish small farms, and to encourage 
 a wealthier class of tenantry upon their estates. These pro- 
 prietors, by being particular in the choice of their tenants, 
 create an exclusive class, and thus greatly limit the competi- 
 tion for their lands, which are let at rents which the tenants 
 are able to pay, and yet to retain a fair return for their capital. 
 The amount of capital which the tenants possess, however, 
 would in England be deemed insufficient for the proper culti- 
 vation of their lands. They whose farms do not exceed 100 
 acres are mostly dairy farmers. They whose farms exceed 
 that quantity are generally graziers. Neither the dairy farmers 
 nor the graziers keep more than a few acres of their land in 
 tillage. Their capital principally consists of stock which can
 
 87 
 
 at a moment's notice be removed from the land. It would be 
 imprudent in those who do not possess leases of their farms to 
 improve the lands or the buildings upon them. They might 
 quarrel with their landlords ; their farms might pass to less 
 prudent proprietors by sale or by death, when they might be 
 dispossessed, or their rents might be raised, and in either case 
 they would lose the advantage of the improvements which they 
 had effected. The custom of Ireland with respect to improve- 
 ments is different from that of England. In the latter allowance 
 is made, on the outgoing of a tenant, for all his improvements. 
 The temptation to raise rents is constantly pressing in a coun- 
 try like Ireland, in which the occupation of land extends to the 
 whole of the peasantry ; and in which the number of compe- 
 tetors is consequently so large ; and more particularly in a 
 country in which the possession of land is permitted to be of 
 such vital importance to the peasantry, as to ensure the pro- 
 mise of any rent which might be asked. In England the occu- 
 piers of land might be termed a monopoly class. They are so 
 few compared with the peasantry, that the latter do not enter 
 into competition with them, as they would not be willing to 
 take more land than sufficient for a garden, and certainly 
 would not bid more for land than its fair value. Of this ample 
 proof will be found in the Appendix A. to the Report of the 
 Poor Law Inquiry for England and Wales. In England farms 
 frequently remain untenanted for a length of time, because no 
 one will take them at the terms which are demanded. In Ire- 
 land the whisper of a farm to let would bring a body of competi- 
 tors willing to take it upon any terms. In some few cases leases 
 are granted, and then the farmers of Ireland improve the pro- 
 perty, and adopt a better system of tillage, as far as their limited 
 capital and skill will pennit them ; but as they are mostly only 
 the best of the small tenantry, retained upon the consolidation 
 of a number of small farms, neither their capital nor their 
 knowledge are very great. Many proprietors have endeavoured 
 to entice Scotch and English farmers to settle upon their 
 estates ; but though they offered them farms at fair rents, and 
 with good leases, they have rarely succeeded in their wishes. 
 The nature and extent of agrarian crvme has, in almost every 
 instance, alarmed the Scotch and English, both as to the 
 security of their lives and their properties, and thus the advan- 
 tages which would arise from the example of the most 
 wealthy and skilful agriculturists in the world are lost to Ire- 
 land. The temptation which the half-cultivated, but fertile 
 lands and the cheap labour of Ireland, hold out to the British 
 capitalist, are nullified by the excited and disturbed state in
 
 which through the dread of destitution, the peasantry are con- 
 stantly kept. 
 
 Sl'tgo. F. 42. " I could," said Mr Dodwell, " mention several instances 
 where individuals have been prevented investing capital in the united farms 
 of several ejected tenants through fear of outrages. It has been attempted 
 (but in vain) to introduce experienced farmers, men of money and informa- 
 tion. Scotchmen have applied to me for large farms, and I have accepted 
 their offers with pleasure, but, before takiug possession, they have been 
 frightened at the state of things, and have withdrawn ; they had reason to 
 think that they would not be safe." 
 
 King's County. F. 48. Mr Walker says, there is no doubt but people 
 have been deterred from investing capital in farming and other occupations in 
 this neighbourhood, from the fear of disturbances arising out of their taking 
 land, and joining small farms. No large farmers, taking with them much 
 capital, have withdrawn from the neighbourhood ; but many small farmers 
 have emigrated. 
 
 Kerry. F. 63. " We are perfectly satisfied that strangers will not bring 
 capital to employ on farms in any part of the South of Ireland, from fear of 
 the insecurity of their property. If this barony did not share in the general 
 opinion entertained in England that Ireland is unsafe for person and property, 
 there would be no reason for English capital and farmers keeping away from 
 it." (Messrs Meredith, Sealy, Fitzgerald.) 
 
 For one who has made the attempt to settle in Ireland, thou- 
 sands have abandoned the idea upon reading the accounts of 
 that country which appear in the English newspapers. Persons 
 who have been brought up in a country in which security for 
 person and for property is all but perfect, could not be induced 
 by any prospect of extra gain to settle in a country of which 
 they know nothing but the reports of misery, poverty, and 
 crime. The display of military, and military police, would be 
 sufficient to alarm an English farmer if he visited Ireland 
 particularly if he had lived in a district in England in which a 
 soldier would be looked upon as a curiosity, and had been un- 
 accustomed to any other functionary than the parish con- 
 stable, an office alternately held by himself and each of his 
 neighbours. 
 
 Till I had been some time in Ireland, I had always considered 
 the territorial revenue system of India, under which one-half of 
 the gross produce of the land is taken as a tax, to be the most 
 perfect system for repressing industry, and especially for pre- 
 venting the application of capital to agriculture, which human 
 ingenuity could devise ; but I am now in doubt whether 
 the nominal rent system of Ireland is not more effective to 
 those ends. 
 
 The excessive desire of the peasantry for land, has been even 
 more powerful in its effects upon trade and manufactures than 
 upon agriculture. By perpetuating poverty, that desire has 
 prevented domestic trade, and, by exciting to crime, it has pre- 
 vented the establishment of manufactures.
 
 89 
 
 Domestic trade can scarcely exist in a country like Ireland, 
 in which the working classes are kept in abject poverty, in 
 which there is scarcely any middling class, and in which there 
 is no wealthy class excepting the proprietors of the land. Thus 
 the agricultural villages which in England are to be found in 
 every direction, and only three or four miles apart, do not 
 exist in Ireland. Tea, sugar, bacon, blue, starch, candles, 
 salt, pepper, mustard, and a variety of other articles which 
 have become the necessaries of life to an English labourer's 
 family, are rarely indulged in even by a small farmer in Ire- 
 land perhaps not more than twice or three times in a year. 
 Great endeavours have been made by the legislature, from time 
 to time, to encourage a greater consumption in Ireland of those 
 articles which pay custom and excise duties in England, and 
 with this view duties have been abolished upon some articles, 
 and reduced upon others. But these attempts have been futile, 
 as all future attempts will be, whilst the Irish peasant's con- 
 tract is, the cheapest food, and the smallest quantity of it which 
 will sustain life. 
 
 Galway. D. 93. There are but few labourers that lay out anything at 
 the grocer's shop ; they never have tea, except at Christmas, and some of 
 them do not know the taste of it ; they do not drink milk for more than 
 three months in the year ; in short, they never have " kitchen," except in 
 
 winter and spring, when they buy a few herrings. (Mr Comyn). In lieu 
 
 of candles, rushes are used, after being dipped in melted butter ; others make 
 use of splinters of bog timber, but candles are rare with all. 
 
 Leitrim. D. 94-. A very small quantity of exciseable articles enters into 
 the consumption of a labourer's family. On Christmas day and on Easter 
 Sunday, after forty days' fast, he treats himself and his family to a couple of 
 dozens of eggs and a cup of tea, and then returns to potatoes and milk ; as for 
 tobacco, I should say that ^d. a day is as much as is spent by the majority of 
 them. (Rev. Mr M'Guire, P.P.) 
 
 Mayo. D. 95. Thomas Malley, a tenant of three acres, estimates his own> 
 outlay and that of others like him, at a Id. a-week for soap and a kd. a week 
 for salt. He never buys candles except at Christmas ; he makes use of 
 splinters of bog-deal, like other people : he doesn't know any one in his 
 village that drinks tea or uses sugar, except now and then, perhaps twice 
 a-year. 
 
 Dublin. D. 96. Few of them can ever reach to a herring, butter, dripping, 
 or other seasoning : when in full work, and they can otherwise afford it, they 
 will, for a family of average number, spend about 1*. per week for buttermilk. 
 To a question concerning the consumption of groceries by a labourer's family, 
 the answer given by one of the labourers, and assented to by all, was, ** As for 
 that, we know nothing of it, except on Christmas day or Easter Sunday ; and 
 we are lucky if we get it then." 
 
 Kilkenny. D. 97. "A majority of labourers use for kitchen only salt, and 
 even that they endeavour to economize, by dissolving it in water, in which 
 
 they dip their potatoes." (Mr Coyne). Labourers don't use groceries, 
 
 except on festivals ; " you may see a tea-pot on a cottier's dresser," observes 
 Mr Scully, "but you may be sure that he does not make use of it more than 
 twice a-year."
 
 90 
 
 King's Co. Riddle, a labourer, states that a labourer's family expends 
 
 for soap and caudles and " kitchen" about 6d. a week, and that labourers are 
 too poor to purchase groceries. 
 
 Meat/i. D. 101. To a question concerning groceries, as consumed by 
 labourers and their families, the answer given was, " As for that, they know 
 nothing of it at all." It appears that if, by chance, they taste any on Christmas 
 or Easter day, they think themselves very lucky. 
 
 Limerick. D. 109. The weekly expenditure of alabourer for soap, candles, 
 tobacco, and what is termed "kitchen," is very trifling. We think the fol- 
 lowing a fair average per annum : for soap, 10*. ; for candles, 4s. ; for salt, 1*. ; 
 for milk, 10s. Tobacco cannot be calculated, as it depends on the habits and 
 
 means of the labourer. (Rev. Mr M'Mahon, p. p.) Groceries are not 
 
 consumed by a labourer's family, except a little at Christmas. 
 
 Down. D. 112. Soap, at half a pound a-week, will be 8*. 8d. (4rf. per Ib.) ; 
 tobacco %d a day, 15*. 2d. ; tea and sugar (taken only at Christmas and 
 Easter) 2s in the year; labourers who are Protestants or Presbyterians pay 
 no dues. The Rev. Mr Boland, p. p., stated that a labourer's family paid him, 
 upon an average, 3s. a-year. 
 
 By comparing the number of persons employed in domestic 
 trade in an agricultural county in England, and in an agricul- 
 tural county in Ireland having the same population, the effect 
 of nominal rents will be sufficiently glaring. But such a 
 mode of comparison will not show the actual difference. The 
 general shop of an English village, and the general shop of the 
 several districts of Ireland, are different things under the same 
 term. The stock of a general shop in an English village will 
 be worth from 2,OOOJ. to 20,000/. The stock of a general shop 
 in Ireland might be worth a few hundreds, at a very high esti- 
 mate. The following statements will give some idea of the 
 difference of the extent of domestic trade in an English and an 
 Irish rural district. 
 
 Report of Mr Okeden, late Chairman of Quarter Sessions of 
 Dorsetshire, and Assistant Commissioner to the Poor Law 
 Inquiry for England and Wales. A pp. A. 27. 
 
 In the agricultural districts which I have investigated, (Dorset and Wilts), 
 
 the following may be taken as a fair average calculation of the annual ex- 
 
 penses of a man and his wife in the prime of life and strength : 
 
 House rent, with good garden ... 4 
 
 Fuel - ..... 3 
 
 Bread, two gallon loaves per week - - 618 
 
 Salt '^. J - - - - 4 
 
 Candles and soap - - - - - - 1 
 
 Bacon, 2tbs. per week each, at 4d. - 1 14 
 
 Tea, 7ft>3. per annum, at 6s. - - 22 
 
 Butter and cheese - - - 210 
 
 Clothing of all kinds, shoes, &c. - - 6 
 
 Wear and tear of clothing, of bedding, furniture, 8cc. - 216 
 Extras, viz. tugar, treacle, beer, fyc. - -217 
 
 33 2
 
 91 
 
 The foregoing statement is by no means exaggerated in 
 amount. The returns made from every other agricultural dis- 
 trict in England will give fully as large an expenditure by 
 a labourer's family. 
 
 The following are statements of an Irish labourer's expen- 
 diture : 
 
 . s. d. 
 Leitrim. D. 93. Rent of an acre for potatoes . .400 
 
 Salt 010 
 
 Herrings and other " kitchen " .050 
 
 Skimmed milk, at three quarts for Id. 10 
 
 4 16 
 Balance for contingencies . . 012 
 
 580 
 
 Waterford. D. 111. Herrings in winter 
 Salt, per annum 
 Soap, ditto 
 
 Candles, ditto 
 Tobacco, ditto 
 
 A labourer spends nothing on groceries ; he eats meat generally at Christ- 
 mas and Easter, which may cost him about 3s. (This amount is in addition 
 to the value of his potatoe ground.) 
 
 An English labourer expends for tea, sugar, treacle, and beer 
 alone 51., which is about the value of the total earnings of an 
 Irish labourer. To make an attempt to estimate the annual 
 expenditure of an Irish peasant's family upon clothing would 
 be idle. Whether the condition of the Irish peasantry is im- 
 proved, is a problem which many are endeavouring to solve. 
 I doubt the improvement, because existence could not be pre- 
 served with less than they now have. 
 
 It has been urged as the reason why manufactures are not 
 more extensive in Ireland, that the people of that country can- 
 not successfully compete with the English. The linen manufac- 
 ture of the North of Ireland, which is unrivalled by Great 
 Britain or by any other country, might perhaps be a sufficient 
 answer. But in Dublin there is a very extensive establishment 
 for printing cottons. The proprietor, Mr Henry, a native of 
 Scotland, told me that he bought most of his cloths in Glasgow 
 and Manchester, and that when printed they were returned to 
 Glasgow or Manchester, or sent to London for sale. So that 
 with the disadvantage of two freights, the cheap labour of 
 Ireland enables him to compete with those who print their
 
 92 
 
 cloths in the towns in which they are made. There is also in 
 Dublin a cloth manufactory which was established about twenty 
 years since, by its proprietor, Mr Willans, an English gentle- 
 man, who, I believe, has also an establishment at Leeds. I do 
 not know whether I am right in stating that the cloths of this 
 establishment are frequently sent to the English markets for 
 sale, but 1 think Mr Willans informed me that such was the case. 
 Upon one material point I can speak confidently. His wools are 
 mostly German ; they are landed at Hull, carried across Eng- 
 land, and are reshipped at Liverpool. His cloths, therefore, 
 when sent to the English market, have to contend under the 
 disadvantage of the cost of double carriage, between England 
 and Ireland ; which, upon bulky goods, is considerable. The 
 following is another instance, of lace made in Ireland, being sent 
 for sale to the town in England, in which lace is principally 
 manufactured. 
 
 Meath. D. 37. With the exception of one establishment, there is no em- 
 ployment for children of either sex worth speaking of. The establishment 
 alluded to is one in Kells, which furnishes employment to a considerable 
 number of girls, and young women of the town and neighbourhood, and the 
 example of which has caused the occupation to be followed by many other 
 girls at home, and to be adopted in other districts, and even distant parts of 
 Ireland. It is the lace manufactory, established some years ago in that town 
 by Messrs Colston. The luce is sent to Nottingham for sale, and it is only the 
 cheapness of labour that enables it to withstand English competition. There 
 are altogether in Kells near 300 girls employed at that work, whose weekly 
 earnings vary, according to their skill and industry, from 2s. to 4s. per week ; 
 some of the girls in the country employ themselves in this way, and pedlars go 
 round to the cabins to buy the lace of them. 
 
 The limited extent of the manufactures in Ireland is entirely 
 owing to the want of capital amongst the Irish, and to the 
 opinion which the English and Scotch entertain of the inse- 
 curity of person and property in that country. 
 
 Kilkenny . F. 47. The obvious consequences of these outrages would be to 
 prevent capitalists from exposing themselves to danger by coming into the 
 country. " I have met with manufacturers in the north of England who have 
 declared to me that they would be delighted to avail themselves of the great 
 water power, and of the cheap labour, of this country, and that nothing but 
 the unsettled state of the country prevented their doing so." (Mr Robbins, 
 of Firgrove.) None of the witnesses are aware of these outrages having 
 forced capital to be withdrawn from the neighbourhood. 
 
 Queen's County. F. 56. One or two years ago it was stated that an English 
 company intended to establish a cotton manufactory at Mountrath, but that 
 the project was abandoned from want of confidence in the tranquillity of the 
 
 country. (Mr Wray.) No persons have been of late years or at all in 
 
 this barony, induced from the fear of disturbances to withdraw their capital 
 and themselves from the neighbourhood. 
 
 Tipperary. F. 69. The fear of disturbance has sometimes deterred persons 
 from investing capital in the neighbourhood. The following instance is 
 given : An Englishman came to take a mill at Bakcrstown, near Holycross ;
 
 93 
 
 he arrived at night at Thurles, and was so alarmed at the disturbance in the 
 town, that he turned back the very next morning, without proceeding to look 
 at the mills. 
 
 A native of Great Britain who possesses a manufactroy in one 
 of the principal towns in Ireland, told me that he had often 
 been asked by English and Scotch manufacturers whether it 
 would be safe for them to establish works in the rural districts 
 of Ireland, and that he had felt compelled to dissuade them 
 from the attempt. He felt that it would be dangerous to have 
 dealings in the relation of capitalist and workman with a people 
 who had by necessity been taught to make and execute laws in 
 defiance of those made by the legislature. 
 
 It is superfluous to dwell upon the advantages which would 
 result to Ireland, if the well-grounded fears of British capitalist 
 manufacturers were removed. The establishments of manufac- 
 tories in Ireland would quickly raise the value of the land. A 
 town containing a few large manufactories with the variety of 
 attendant trades, would pay in ground rents many times more 
 than the same number of acres applied to agricultural purposes. 
 But the increased value which would be given to the land, for 
 many miles around such a town, is. of yet greater importance : 
 such a town would become a market for the produce of the 
 . surrounding country ; for the produce of brickfields, coal pits, 
 and of lime and stone quarries. It would create a demand for 
 land upon which to erect villas for a class of wealthy tradesmen, 
 and for the structure of canals and rail roads. To give a faithful 
 idea of the effects of creating such towns, it would be necessary 
 to give the history of the rise and progress of some of the many 
 which have sprung up within the last twenty years, in the mid- 
 dle and northern counties of England, and in the south of 
 Scotland. 
 
 Recapitulation. 
 
 We find, then, that if the peasantry have not land, they 
 must beg, steal, or starve ; that to obtain land they must en- 
 gage to pay any rent which may be demanded ; that to retain 
 possession when arrears have accumulated, they are compelled 
 to enter into a general combination, in defiance of the laws, 
 and to commit atrocities of the most frightful description ; 
 that to endeavour to pay excessive, or " nominal rents," they 
 are compelled to live on the cheapest food the potatoe, and
 
 94 
 
 thus to subject themselves to annual famine, to disease, and to 
 the committal of theft; that, being unable to provide against 
 the contingencies to which they and their families are by nature 
 liable, in the event of their death their widows and children 
 become wandering beggars, contract idle and dissolute habits, 
 and spread disease and immorality through the country, and 
 cost more to society than those who are living by industry ; 
 that being unable during health and vigour to provide against 
 destitution in old age, and disliking to become vagrants, they 
 contract early and reckless marriages, in the hope that they 
 may have children to protect them when they are unable to 
 work, and thus they greatly increase the population; that 
 being unable to retain or accumulate capital, they cultivate their 
 lands under great disadvantage, by which the produce is limited 
 in quantity, and of inferior quality, the landlord injured by the 
 diminution of his rents, and the labourer by the diminution of 
 the fund for employment ; that, being kept at the lowest 
 state of existence, they cannot become purchasers, and thus 
 trade is materially repressed ; that, being driven to crime to re- 
 tain their lands and their employment, they deter persons of 
 capital from establishing manufactures in the country.
 
 REMEDY FOR THE EVILS OF IRELAND. 
 
 THE anxiety of the peasantry to hold land is, then, in 
 some cases the immediate cause, and, as creating nominal 
 rents, in others the indirect cause of the evils of Ireland. It is 
 most important to bear in mind, when considering what reme- 
 dies can be applied, that this anxiety does not arise from the 
 discontent of the peasantry with their present condition, and a 
 desire to better it, that it does not arise from " poverty," in 
 the strict sense of that word. Inadequate as the subsistence 
 fund is for their comfort, it does support the whole population ; 
 the proof of which is, that death by starvation rarely occurs 
 in Ireland. Scarcely, without exception, the able-bodied have 
 sufficient employment to give them the ordinary, though 
 miserable, subsistence of the country. This must be the case, 
 as they do exist, rarely beg, and do not steal. The small 
 tenantry have their farms, the cottiers have permanent en- 
 gagements, and the casual labourers have full employment 
 during six months of the year ; during other three months 
 they are employed three or four days in each week, and during 
 two other months about two days in the week. Making 
 allowance for lost days, the casual labourers are perhaps out of 
 employment three months of the year. But they are not un- 
 employed three months, or even one month at a time. Nor are 
 one-fourth of the labourers constantly out of employment. To 
 understand this it is only necessary to consider the manner in 
 which they are now hired. On a day favourable to agricultural 
 operations the whole of them are employed ; on an unfavourable 
 day they are all unemployed. Frequently an employer changes 
 his labourers to give an equal share of his work to a larger 
 number of the men of his neighbourhood. He takes one set for 
 three or four days, and then another set till his work is com- 
 plete. (See able-bodied out of work, App. A., and earnings of 
 labourers, App. D. to Irish Poor Report.) That the peasantry 
 of Ireland could do much more work than at present there can 
 be no doubt, particularly if they were better fed. It would be 
 a great mistake, however, to suppose that the agricultural la- 
 bourers or the workmen in any trade in England, are all em- 
 ployed during the whole year, if six days of employment be 
 reckoned as a week. 
 
 Were the evils of Ireland derived from the small ness of 
 the labourers' subsistence fund, it would be far more diffi-
 
 cult, if not impossible, to find a remedy. There are but 
 two ways in which that fund can be increased ; viz. by sub- 
 tracting from some other fund, which in Ireland could only be 
 rent, as there is no other; or by introducing capital from some 
 other country with a view to increasing employment and pro- 
 duction. From rent it could not betaken, as most of the land- 
 owners would be ruined by the subtraction of even a small 
 portion of their present receipts, The only mode, therefore, 
 would be to subtract capital from Great Britain, and this, 
 to the great amount required, to effect wages by increasing 
 employment, the people of Great Britain would not permit. 
 
 The great anxiety of the peasantry for land arises from the 
 dread of prospective destitution. 
 
 The evils of Ireland, therefore, arise from the peculiar cir- 
 cumstances under which the peasantry are compelled to receive 
 their subsistence, viz., from being compelled to rent land at any 
 price which may be asked, to beg, to steal, or to starve. The 
 evils originate in a feeling of insecurity in the minds of the pea- 
 santry as to the continuation of their present subsistence 
 in mere fear for the future. 
 
 If the peasantry could feel secure of a subsistence, equal to 
 that which they at present possess, they would cease to commit 
 crime and to bid excessive rents, and thus the obstacles to 
 their future self-improvement would be removed, and each 
 succeeding day would witness an increase in production and in 
 comfort. 
 
 The remedy for these evils consists in the creation in the 
 minds of the peasantry, of the feeling that they cannot starve, or 
 be driven to beg or steal. In order to create such a feeling, it 
 is not necessary to increase in the slightest degree the fund now 
 appropriated to their subsistence. 
 
 To produce the desired feeling of security, society must en- 
 sure to every man destitute of the means of providing it for 
 himself, a provision at the public expense equal to the present 
 subsistence of the peasantry. The Legislature must confer 
 upon every man the right to demand the provision. It must 
 confer the right ; for if it is in any one's power to refuse the 
 provision, the feeling of security will not be created. By its ad- 
 ministration it must provide against persons embracing it in pre- 
 ference to working for a subsistence, and it must provide against 
 those who hold land, or have employment, obtaining it. The 
 only mode of giving the security to every man, without the 
 danger of creating idleness, and without extending the provision 
 to those who have other means, is by administering it in asylums. 
 
 In order to create the feeling of security, it is not neces-
 
 97 
 
 sary that many should enter the establishments. It is only 
 necessary that every man should feel that he has a legal right to 
 the shelter and food which they afford. 
 
 It has often been stated that the Irish peasantry will not 
 willingly enter an asylum. That they will not enter it if they 
 can live nearly as well by industry I am certain ; but I am also 
 certain that they will greatly prefer entering an asylum to 
 resorting to mendicancy. 
 
 Before reading the evidence obtained by the Irish Poor Com- 
 mission upon this point, it is necessary to consider the cir- 
 cumstances under which it was collected. The statements are 
 in reply to a question as to whether vagrants would be willing 
 to enter a House of Industry. In the first place, the inclination 
 of those who had been forced to surmount the feeling of repug- 
 nance generally entertained by the Irish peasantry to vagrancy, 
 is not a guide to the feelings of those who have escaped degra- 
 dation. It appears by the evidence, that the beggars will 
 generally have great repugnance to enter a house of industry, 
 but that those of the peasantry who have never begged will 
 greatly prefer entering such an asylum to vagrancy. It may 
 easily be imagined that the man who for the first time is driven 
 by misfortune to live upon charity will greatly prefer the 
 shelter of an asylum to wandering from door to door, pro- 
 claiming what he considers his shame to fresh faces every day. 
 In the next place the people of Ireland have no asylums cor- 
 responding to such as I propose. Mendicity Institutions and 
 Houses of Industry are the only places of which they have 
 any idea, and as these institutions only exist in a few large 
 towns, the peasantry know nothing of them but by report, and 
 that report is much against them. The generality of these in- 
 stitutions are a species of vagrant prison-places in which per- 
 sons found begging in towns are sometimes confined ; in fact, 
 a species of Bridewell. The food which is given in them is 
 generally insufficient to allay hunger. The food in the Mendicity 
 Institution in the city of Londonderry is only sufficient for 
 children of 10 or 12 years of age. The managing director of 
 trie Mendicity Institution in another of the principal cities in Ire- 
 land told me, that the food given in it was never sufficient to 
 satisfy the appetites of the inmates, and that they mostly re- 
 mained hungry after each meal. 
 
 Mayo. A. 496. M'Nally says, " I think the generality of beggars would 
 prefer entering a house of industry to wandering about half naked in the 
 cold and rains of winter ; but there are some who, having no charge (children 
 to provide for) that they can easily get enough of food outside, and would 
 prefer remaining out." John Foster, an old beggarman, says, " I would 
 
 H
 
 98 
 
 rather hare the free range outside, and supple my joints by a walk through 
 the country." 
 
 The labourers, both those under examination and several others present, 
 declare that there are many occasions of want of employment on which they 
 would gladly avail themselves of a house of industry, by entering it with 
 their families; they would even be willing to submit to the necessary sepa- 
 ration of the different sexes of the family ; but would not go in if they could 
 get four-pence a day outside. 
 
 A. 499. The beggars say they would gladly enter a house of industry ; 
 that though compelled to work hard and live on coarse food, they would live 
 nauch more easy and comfortable than they do at present. 
 
 A. 503. A question being asked, whether, if there were a house of indus- 
 try in the parish, the farmers would still continue to encourage vagrancy by 
 affording relief? James Jennings, a small farmer, being present, says, " If 
 there were such a house in every village, I would relieve the beggar still, and 
 think it a sin to refuse him." Hynes turned to him, and said, " If you 
 would relieve him, a hundred would refer him to that house ; you could not 
 support them all yourself, and they would soon find begging a bad business." 
 All the other witnesses seemed to agree with Hynes, that in such a case beg- 
 ging would soon cease for want of encouragement. 
 
 A. 606. All the witnesses believe the beggars of this parish would gladly 
 enter a house of industry though it involved a temporary restriction on their 
 personal liberty, provided they were allowed tobacco ; they would rather be 
 restricted in their food than deprived of it, and would gladly forego a meal to 
 procure it. 
 
 Ruscommon. A. 514. There is no house of industry in the parish; as to 
 the feeling about going into a house of industry, the following are the views 
 of the witnesses:" I would rather work all the year through, up to my 
 
 hips in water, than go in." (Kelly.) " I think there would be a strong 
 
 reluctance to a separation of families or confinement, but I think some would 
 
 avoid privation by accepting a public provision." (O'Connor Don ) In 
 
 reply to the question, would the personal confinement or separation of 
 families be an objection ? " The privation of freedom, or the separation of 
 husband and wife, or mother and child, would be a material objection, but 
 I should say, not an insuperable one." (O'Connor Don.) " Quite insu- 
 perable," said a respectable man who was standing near ; " if 1 was dis- 
 tressed, and had no food for my wife and children, I would take the pro- 
 vision, supposing they were as well provided for as myself, but I would not 
 
 like to be divorced." (Gaffney ) " I think, if a provision were made, 
 
 many would refuse alms, and thereby contribute to obviate the necessity of 
 
 enforcing the vagrancy laws." (Dr Blundell.) " Whatever objections the 
 
 conditions annexed to the provision might occasion, in a short time, when 
 they became satisfied that the institution was properly managed, their reluc- 
 tance to enter would give way before the pressure of want and wretchedness 
 that bear on them ; there would be much less reluctance to it if the female 
 children were left with their mothers." (Mr M'Dermott.) 
 
 A. 518. Touching a house of industry, Coniton said, " If I were asked 
 now, I for one would go into it, if I was sure my family would be as well 
 taken care of as myself; and I know that the most of us would rather starve 
 than beg ; would take your provision and be glad to get it ; but I am 
 not sure that a man would do much good when he came out of it, or that 
 many would come out at all ; and if I had work every day in the year that 
 would give me my cabin over my head, and enough of potatoes and milk, 
 and good coarse clothes for myself and my little ones, I would not go into 
 such a house for roast meat all the year round." And Kenny said, " I
 
 99 
 
 would take it, though I would think it hard to be divorced from ray wife and 
 children ; hut the whole country will go in if you give them leaf e, as things 
 go now. I agree with Coniton, that once in, a man is in for life, for he 
 would lose his land ; and when he came out he would have nothing ; for my 
 part, I'll be glad to get it." 
 
 Sligo. A. 528 John Robinson, weaver, says, " A great many would go 
 into a house of industry if it was established ; every man willing to work 
 would readily go in if their liberty was not too much restricted. I myself 
 would readily go in." 
 
 528. There is no house of industry or mendicity nearer than the town of 
 Sligo. Some of those who beg would be willing to go into such a house, if 
 established in the parish, but the great majority would be most unwilling to 
 do so, so much so that Mr Cogan said, " You would have the house full of 
 beggars here to-day, but that a report was spread that they would be all put 
 into a house, and kept from roving about the country ;" and John Davy 
 said, " When I was coming into town just now, I met many of them running 
 away, lest they should be taken up." 
 
 A 530. There is one house of industry at Sligo, but it is not large enough 
 for even half the town beggars. 
 
 Mr P. Fenny, farmer, says, " The beggars would be willing enough to go 
 into a house of industry ; if you feed them well you will soon have large 
 barracks." 
 
 A. 532. The repugnance to an institution for the relief of the destitute 
 would be removed if the funds for its support came in no way from the 
 people themselves, but they dread such an institution very much, lest, what- 
 ever the law may be, the tax for it would in some way be put by the land- 
 lords on the land. There is no house of industry or mendicity nearer than 
 Sligo ; if there was one in the parish, a great many of even the landholders 
 would go in at some seasons of the year, and great numbers would send their 
 families in during the scarce time of summer. 
 
 Carlow. A. 540. There is no house of industry in the parish, nor even 
 if there were would more than one-third be willing to go into it ; many re- 
 fused when a mendicity existed here before. Some beggars were seen, the 
 day it was opened, going away from the town to Naas. 
 
 A. 543. The general feeling is against repressing vagrancy, by severity of 
 any description, but this repugnance would be entirely removed if there was 
 any regular provision made for the poor. 
 
 There is no house of industry in the parish, and even if there was the 
 beggars would not like to go in, unless their food and lodging were better 
 than those of the labourer, both at present being equally as good ; inde- 
 pendent of which, however, they would refuse to give up their liberty. 
 
 Kildnre. Par. Kilcock. 555. There is no house of industry in the parish, 
 nor would the beggars be willing to go into one; because, as Mr Hughes 
 says, " they get more meat and drink, more tea than the labourers, and in 
 every way live better, such is the miserable condition of that class." 
 
 On the labourers being asked, would they go in, Thomas M'Dermott said, 
 " I would not go to be separated from my wife and children ; I would rather 
 have our own mess, supposing it to be a bad one, than go in to eat a bet- 
 ter one." 
 
 Par. Naas. 558. It was supposed, if there were one, that the majority of 
 beggars would take refuge in it j but Andrew Neal (a labourer, 85 years of 
 age, who supports himself by a horse and car) being asked if he would be 
 willing to enter a house of industry, replied, " if a man could get work out of 
 it he would sooner die than go in, because I would have my liberty, and could
 
 100 
 
 dispose of my earnings in any way I liked, and divide them with any relation 
 or friend 1 had a liking for. 
 
 Longford. Pur. dhbeyshrule. Rourke says, " there are some labourers 
 who would be glad to have such a place in a season of distress ; but there are 
 others who would rather starve than expose themselves by going into such a 
 place. If you kept them for life they might go in, but they would be ashamed 
 to show their faces after coming out of it." John Casey, a cottier, says, " for 
 my children's sake I would not go in; it would be a reproach to them for 
 ever that their father had been in the pauper house; even in a season of dis- 
 tress I would rather struggle round than go in, and I believe that is the feel- 
 ing of others as well as mine; the stranger would go in in this country, and 
 if I was in a strange place, where I had no relative that it would scandalize, 
 want might drive me in myself." Michael Cox, a day labourer, whom the 
 witnesses concur in describing as the poorest and most destitute man of his 
 class in the parish, happening to be present, says, " I would never go in, it 
 would be flung in my children's face ever after. Many a day this summer I 
 lived on half a meal of potatoes, and was often glad to have boiled cabbage 
 and salt without a potatoe at all ; I would not have gone even then." On the 
 day after the conversation in which the preceding sentiments had been pub- 
 licly delivered, Michael Rourke came to the Assistant Commissioners and 
 said, " the labourers are beginning to be afraid that they said too much 
 against the poor-house yesterday, they do not think it as bad now as they 
 thought it then ; but 'tis one thing a man will say in a crowd, when his pride is 
 up, and another when he returns and sees the poverty at home." 
 
 Pur. Templehurshatt. 575. The old and infirm would be glad of a place of 
 refuge where the food and lodging would be equal to that of the labouring 
 population, but the great body of the mendicants would prefer their present 
 condition as affording greater personal liberty. 
 
 Westmeath. Pur. Ballincarrig. 579. There would be the greatest re- 
 luctance to enter it. The poor would prefer any sufferings to a restriction 
 on their liberty. 
 
 Par. Benowen. 582. Phiiip Lennon said, " I think, after two or three 
 months in the scarce season of the year, a great number would be glad to 
 have such a place to go to." 
 
 Michael Fenny, beggar, says, " I would be very proud to have such a place 
 to go to, and to spend all my life in it ; I am tired of wandering, and am 
 growing weak and old." 
 
 Par. Killucan. If an institution was established to give in-door support, the 
 general opinion was, that the old and infirm would willingly go into it ; but 
 no other class. 
 
 Town of Moat. 589. Beggars would not like to go into them if there 
 were such institutions. 
 
 Patrick Mullvanny, labourer, says, " I would take all the chances I told 
 told you of, viz. starvation, and, if I died under it, of having my wife and 
 children beggars, rather than go into such a house." 
 
 Twen of Mullingar. With regard to the effect a house of industry would 
 have in suppressing vagrancy, it is said they would be very reluctant to go in, 
 but many of them would for a few months in the scarce season. They would 
 prefer 3d. a day outside. James Dogherty said, " I would rather fast half 
 the day than be confined." 
 
 Robert Walsh, cotton-weaver, said, " I wish to God it was open to us 
 now, I would readily go in. I could bear confinement very well, as my trade 
 is an in-door one." 
 
 Wexfvrd. Par. Horetown, 594. Beggars have been known to refuse to
 
 101 
 
 enter a house of industry, and those who were in have been desirous of 
 leaving, and have done so for the purpose of begging. 
 
 Par. Kilcormack. 597. Captain Owen says, that the people being easily 
 satisfied as to food, clothing, and other necessaries, would be unwilling to go 
 into houses of industry, not from any indisposition on their part to work, but 
 that in their mind the separation of families, or deprivation of freedom, would 
 more than counterbalance the personal comforts enjoyed in such asylums. 
 
 Pur. Monart. 601. There is no house of industry nearer than Wexford, 
 nor in the opinion of witnesses would those who beg be willing under any cir- 
 cumstances to go into such institutions. 
 
 Par. Old /loss 603. The industriously inclined would, in some cases, 
 accept it ; but there would he the greatest reluctance, among the better class 
 of the poor, to accept such a mode of relief; and if it were to be purchased 
 with the loss of individual liberty, or separation of families, they would not 
 accept it at all. Mr Harman says, " that the separation of families and the 
 obligation to work would form the most unpopular conditions of a provision." 
 
 Clare, Par. ALbey. 611. Some of the mendicants, who are old and 
 infirm, express no reluctance to enter into a mendicity asylum ; but middle- 
 aged vagrants to whom the question was put, invariably declared their unwil- 
 lingness, on any account, to part with the power of roaming about freely on- 
 all occasions. 
 
 Par. Ktldysart. 617. There was the most decided unwillingness expressed 
 by the beggars to become inmates of a house, where the food and lodging 
 should be equal to what they usually get. They are all impressed with the 
 idea that severe and harsh measures enter into their ordinary discipline. The 
 Assistant Commissioners represented to many that they would be provided 
 with an abundance of what is now their ordinary food, and that they would 
 have a warm house and a fire to stay by, instead of wandering about as at 
 present. However, as a mendicant is never without enough to eat, they could 
 not find that the additional comforts held out as inducements were sufficient 
 to tempt them to consent to the loss of their liberty. This reluctance has been 
 in some respects produced by the exertions of a dissolute woman who, having 
 been once in the Limerick workhouse, seizes every opportunity of inveighing 
 against the treatment she received there. She had been turned out of it 
 for misconduct. 
 
 Par. Kilfaragh. 628. Several beggars were examined as to whether they 
 would go into a house of industry, and they all expressed the greatest horror 
 at the idea, as they said, of being deprived of their liberty. One of two of 
 them said, " they knew well what it was ; they had 'heard their friends 
 screeching and calling out for help when they were to go to the Mendicity at 
 Limerick; and would such places be recommended to them?" One of them 
 said, he knew he would never hear mass there; in fact, there was no excuse 
 left untouched, and all the cruelties which report has assigned to the manage- 
 ment of mendicities were pictured to their minds in the most exaggerated 
 horrors. 
 
 Among all the different beggars who were asked, would they go into a house 
 of industry, there was a manifest reluctance to enter, and all have assigned 
 very characteristic reasons. 
 
 Pat Doolan, a poor decrepit old man, whose appearance manifested extreme 
 destitution, said, " than his time here was but short, and that he would rather 
 die among the neighbours." 
 
 When pressed for a further reason, he said, " he feared he would never get 
 mass." But there will be a chaplain, " Still I do not like it." 
 Par. Killxloe. 633. The Widow Slattery at first expressed her willing-
 
 102 
 
 ness to enter, but when told it would be necessary to separate her from her 
 children, she answered, " she would rather die than part witli them." 
 
 Judy Moynahan, a sturdy beggar-woman, wlio sometimes works, but more 
 frequently begs, and who is much better off than those just mentioned, says, 
 " that she would go in, if she saw others going." 
 
 John Hare, a travelling beggar, remarked, " that a poorhouse would be much 
 more convenient for his equals than to be travelling about in the wet and 
 cold." 
 
 Par. Ktlmanrtheen. 639. There always appeared to be the greatest reluc- 
 tance to enter any institution at all where they would be deprived of their 
 personal liberty; but though the great body of the mendicants prefer their 
 present condition, yet individuals were frequently met, who, from old age and 
 accident, were so incapacitated, that they readily assured them no greater 
 boon could be conferred on them, than the establishment of some institution 
 for their reception and relief. 
 
 Cork, Par. Innishannon. 651. "Would those who beg go into a house 
 of industry, where of course men and women, children and grown 
 
 persons, would be separated ? " " Old people that had no friends nor any 
 
 one belonging to them, would go in, but people that had families would not ; 
 a poor woman is as fond of her child as if she had 1,000/. a year to give it." 
 (Messrs. M'Carthy, Field, and Leary.) 
 
 Pur. Kilbrogan. 654. If there was a house of industry here, it would pro- 
 bably be the means of causing a good many who come from distant parts 
 begging, to turn themselves to some kind of industry at home. Very few of 
 the beggars would like to go into a house of industry, and if there were such 
 a place for them to go into, it is most probable that the shopkeepers would 
 not continue to give them charity. 
 
 The poor weavers say, " they think it would be very good to have a house 
 of industry to go to for those who have no families; but where a man has 
 a family, they think it better to do with half enough, than to be separated 
 from it." 
 
 Town of ClonakiUy. 657. " It would be very difficult to induce them to 
 go in at first, as there exists a great reluctance to go into any place of the 
 kind, but this antipathy would gradually wear off." (Mr Deasy, Rev. Mr 
 Walsh, Dr Folliott, and others ) 
 
 Par. Killeugh. 658. -The nature of a house of industry having been ex- 
 plained, Anglum said, " I would rather beg about the country than go in 
 there." Butler said at first, " I would sooner put two boys on my back, and 
 get a potatoe at every house ;" he afterwards said, " In July, if 1 was in dis- 
 tress, I would go in there, if I would be let out every Sunday ; because then 
 I might go away whenever I did not like it." The greatest objection would 
 be the separation of families. 
 
 Par. Liscarrol. 660. The labourers agree, that if it were allowed to go 
 in during the months of June, July, and August, and to come out when the 
 potatoes were ripe, great numbers would be glad to have the opportunity. 
 
 Par. Macroom. 663. Being asked whether this would be the case if the 
 rule of the house required that men should be separated from their families, 
 the witnesses (labourers) paused, and then agreed that they would not go in 
 except under the pressure of extreme necessity. Collins said, " If a man was 
 reduced to the last pitch, and could do nothing else, of course he would go 
 in; but I am full sure he would rather have one-third of the victuals, and 
 stay out. Let a man be ever so poor, he would like to see his children 
 morning and evening." 
 
 Cork, Par. Ross Carbery. 666. Thomas Fitzgerald, a labourer out of em-
 
 103 
 
 ployment, at first said, when spoken to on this subject, that he and his family 
 would be very glad to go into a house of industry; but when it was explained 
 to him that he must not expect to be permitted to enjoy without restriction 
 the society of his wife and children, he exclaimed, " I would not go in if I 
 were to be separated from my wife and children; no man that has feelings 
 would do it." 
 
 Par. Skull. 670. Beggars would have great objection to go into a house of 
 industry, but it is thought that they would be compelled by the pressure of 
 hunger. The labourers would not think it so great a disgrace to go in there as 
 to beg, but separation of families and confinement are such evils that they 
 would prefer almost any sort of subsistence outside. 
 
 City of Cork. 672. There was great reluctance formerly to go into the 
 city house of industry, now there is less; they are better treated than for- 
 merly, still the reluctance is very great; they prefer the freedom of begging. 
 The reasons for their reluctance are, that they do not like the confinement, 
 nor the diet ; outside they get occasionally bits of meat. The women are 
 very fond of tea ; they sometimes remain till the middle of the day without 
 food, for the purpose of collecting a few halfpence for tea. In the house of 
 industry they get but potatoes and porridge. 
 
 Par. Templetriiie. 676. Mr Sealy says, " If you take into the house of 
 industry a labourer's wife and children when he is going to England for work, 
 and let them out to him when he comes back, he will be very well pleased, 
 and you will find many of them willing enough to go in. As to able-bodied 
 labourers, if when they were in they would be obliged to remain in for a year, 
 the system would not work. Although there is a much greater number of 
 labourers in summer than we can find employment for, it often happens that 
 at harvest we cannot get as many as we want." John M'Kennedy, labourer, 
 says, " he thinks they ought to go in, though it would be hard with some of 
 them to part from their wives and children ;" but, he added, " I would go 
 into it myself to-morrow if it was near." And Crowly said, " Some would 
 go into it, to be sure, but I would suffer a great deal before I would go, and 
 be separated from my wife and children ; it would be sweeter to have one 
 meal of potatoes together, just as much as would keep the life in us, than to 
 part and have what we liked." 
 
 Par. Tracton. 676. If there was one properly managed, the poor people 
 would be glad and delighted to go into it ; they would have a clean place to 
 live in ; they would have a bed and regular meals, and certainly would be ten 
 times better off than at present. 
 
 Tipperary, Par. Roscrea. 699. When it was first opened, there were not 
 more than a dozen persons sought to be admitted; but as soon as it was dis- 
 covered how comfortable were the interior arrangements of the place, the 
 number increased rapidly. 
 
 r lown of Clonmel. 702. Those who adopt mendicancy as a mode of 
 living would not go into the Mendicity. The people object to being con- 
 fined to the institution ; token they could get icork, they would go out. At 
 first they disliked hospitals, but now they enter them. Beggars dislike the Men- 
 dicity on account of the fare, which is stir-about twice a day. 
 
 Antrim, Par. Antrim. 705. It was proposed to have a house of industry 
 established in this town, in which the lodging and food would be equal to 
 that commonly possessed by the labouring classes, but the poor showed a 
 reluctance to go in, if established, and consequently the design was 
 abandoned. 
 
 Par. Ballymoney. 707. The most deserving objects of charity would be glad 
 to go into a house f industry, in which the food and lodging would be only 
 equal to that usually possessed by the labouring class; it is doubted, however,
 
 whether the offer would prove generally acceptable to the majority of 
 paupers. 
 
 Par. Billy. 709. If there were such, well managed, eventually the really 
 deserving would have recourse to them. 
 
 Town of Carrickfergus. 711. The home beggars who are deserving objects 
 would accept of relief in a house of industry , where the food and lodging would 
 be only equal to that commonly possessed by the working classes; but the 
 strange beggars would refuse it. 
 
 Randalstoicn. 713. Many would be glad to go into a house of industry 
 where the food and lodging would be only equal to that commonly possessed 
 by the labouring classes. 
 
 Par. Layds. 722. Those who have no children would gladly go into a 
 house of industry where the food and lodging would be only equal to that pos- 
 sessed by the labouring classes ; but those who have children would in some 
 cases be kept out by a feeling of pride on the part of their children, and in 
 other cases through a desire to enjoy their society. 
 
 Antrim, Par. Lisburn. 725. The poor who are destitute are anxious for 
 lodging in the poorhouses of the charitable society; but we do not find that 
 those who can live elsewhere are anxious to enter it; however, no beggars 
 have been known to refuse to enter the house of industry, or when in have 
 been anxious to leave it. 
 
 Par. Resharkin. 728. It seems to be feared that, if there was a house of 
 industry, too many would go into it; but all think that the able-bodied 
 strangers would require force to compel them to cease begging. 
 
 Town of Glennrm. 730. The home beggars, if they had an opportunity, 
 would go into a house of industry where the food and lodging would be only 
 equal to that usually possessed by the labouring classes. 
 
 Donegal, Town of Dunfanaghy. 733. The beggars appear to dislike 
 most particularly going into institutions of this kind, and prefer the wandering 
 life. // was thought some of the labourers (when out of employment} would go 
 into them, and mime, would not. 
 
 Par. Conwull. 738. It is believed that the greatest objection to avail of 
 them would be experienced. The Right Rev. Dr M'Gittigan, Roman Catholic 
 bishop, says, " Half the number of beggars have not appeared at my door this 
 morning, though this is the helping day, in consequence of its being reported 
 that there are gentlemen in town who are to put them into a poorhouse." 
 
 Town of Donegal. 742. M'Diarmid, the labourer, observed, " I am quite 
 sure that there are a great many who would not go into a workhouse at all, 
 who are now going about." 
 
 Town of Buncrana. 745. The infirm and aged might avail themselves of 
 such an institution did it exist ; they are fond, however, of their liberty, and 
 a disinclination to enter such a place would operate with many. 
 
 Toten of Ballyshannon. 751. Mr Irwin, clerk to the Mendicity of Bally- 
 shannon, observed, that it was thought that the greatest objection existed 
 against such places generally. The mendicants love their liberty, and even 
 superior living would not induce them to avail themselves of such relief, if 
 they were not still permitted to wander about. 
 
 Par. Mwille. 756. It was the opinion of the Rev. Mr M'Leer, that the 
 destitute, the aged, and infirm, would avail themselves of such resources ; 
 and the disposition of the people to refuse aid to wandering mendicants would, 
 under such circumstances, be so much diminished as probably to extinguish men- 
 dicancy. 
 
 Town of Stranelan. 759. The poor would not be willing to avail them- 
 selves of such relief; they like their liberty very much, and all who could 
 otherwise maintain themselves would generally prefer doing so, and would
 
 105 
 
 probably use a greater exertion for the purpose than they do at present to 
 avoid mendicancy ; but it is supposed that the very destitute poor, who really 
 find difficulty in moving about, would be glad to avail themselves of it. 
 
 Londonderry, Par. Coleraine. 764-. It is thought that deserving objects 
 only would be willing of their own accord to enter a poorhouse, where the 
 food and lodging was equal to that of the labouring classes, liut it would require 
 compulsion to make the lazy and drunken enter a poorhouse. Some beggars 
 have refused to go into, and some have left the poorhouse in Coleraine. 
 
 Par. Upper Cumber. 767. The poor would rather have insufficient comfort 
 and their liberty, than be confined in an institution. They dislike entering 
 Derry, because of the Mendicity established in that city. 
 
 Newtown Limavaddy. 770. None of the undeserving, and very few even 
 of the deserving, would enter an institution, though the food, &c., might be 
 equal to that of the labouring classes. O'Neill said " they would lie at the 
 back of a ditch first." 
 
 Par. Dungiven. 774 Beggars would be very unwilling to enter any such 
 institution, at least if any work was required from them. 
 
 2 own of Magherra. 784. Public opinion would induce all to have recourse 
 to it, and many would now willingly accept of such a shelter. 
 
 City of Londonderry. 793. There is a Mendicity. Mr Anderson said, 
 " the allowance was not sufficient for any lut a boy ten or twelve years old. " I 
 never applied," said Brown, " to the Mendicity here ; the allowance is too 
 little. Many would wish to get in who could not, and who are obliged to 
 beg in the country, but at least half of those might refuse to go in. The 
 confinement and not getting enough to eat are the chief objections." Mr 
 Anderson thought that the regular hours and the cleanliness insisted 
 on (the punishment for dirt being low diet), induced many to 
 dislike entering the institution ; but of twenty who were receiving exterior 
 relief, and who were offered a residence in the institution, only five accepted 
 the offer, though the recusants were struck off the list. " I would rather live 
 on half elsewhere than enter it; they would make me work and sweep the 
 streets, and I am not able for it ; besides, I would not like to be shut up," 
 said Brown. "There is a great objection," said Mr A , "to be em- 
 ployed sweeping the streets ; it is considered a degradation. Many leave the 
 institution discontented with, it. They principally dislike the regularity and 
 cleanliness enforced." 
 
 The effect of establishing houses of refuge generally through- 
 out Ireland would be a very rapid diminution of agrarian 
 crimes. 
 
 To conceive the effect, it is necessary to compare the con- 
 dition of the ejected tenant now, and his condition with such 
 an asylum ready to receive him. At present he knows not 
 whither to turn to the north, the south, the east, or the west. 
 He is without the means to purchase food and shelter for his 
 wife and helpless family, and as he has no immediate prospect 
 of obtaining employment or another farm, they must wander 
 about the country in cold and in misery, begging food and 
 shelter. Would he not be more than human if he could 
 witness the misery resulting in the sickness, and perhaps in the 
 death, of those he loves, and not be urged by exasperation to 
 crimes of violence? But his feelings would be very different if
 
 106 
 
 he knew that, within a few miles of him, in the immediate 
 neighbourhood of his friends and neighbours, there was a good 
 house ready for the reception of his family, in which they 
 could obtain food and clothing equal to what they had always 
 been accustomed, and in which they may remain till he can 
 procure employment or obtain another holding : that he need 
 not seek admission into the asylum as a degraded man, but 
 may demand it as his right: that it is a refuge intended for 
 the unfortunate, and that every one who cannot obtain equal 
 food, clothing, and shelter, to that which is provided in it, is 
 considered unfortunate ; and that the restrictions to which he 
 and his family will be subjected, are only such as are necessary 
 to prevent the idle and the dissolute from preferring the pro- 
 vision it affords to a life of industry. 
 
 Three months rarely pass without two or three families in 
 each district being ejected from their holdings. One or two of 
 them entering- the establishments, and reporting upon their com- 
 fort and the kindness of the treatment in them, would be sufficient 
 to give a feeling of security to the Peasantry, that their situation 
 will not be much more painful than at present, if they are dis- 
 possessed of their land. When this feeling has been generated, 
 the peasantry will no longer deem ejectment from land deserv- 
 ing of the cruelties which they now inflict upon those who 
 cause their ejectment. 
 
 But, supposing that the peasantry could not be appeased 
 by a provision in a house of refuge only equal to that which 
 they are now allowed to retain out of the produce of their lands, 
 it will only be necessary to relax the rules of the house, and 
 to improve the diet till it becomes a matter of indifference to 
 them whether they accept the public provision or retain their 
 lands, but certainly until the preference for holding land shall 
 be incapable of exciting them to acts of violence. In order to 
 produce this state of mind in the peasantry, it is not necessary 
 for any of them to enter the house of refuge, but only for afl 
 to be careless whether they enter it or retain their lands. 
 
 It is this state of indifference which it is requisite to pro- 
 duce in order to suppress agrarian crime. The peasant should 
 only be allowed to feel that if he has a preference, he would 
 rather keep his land, but his feeling in favour of keeping the 
 land should not be much stronger. If crime occurs, it is a 
 proof that the system adopted in the house of refuge is too 
 rigid. If a large number ent^r the house it is evident that 
 the system is too lax. The controul which the workhouse 
 system affords is both perfect and simple. In the degree that 
 you relax the rules and increase the internal comforts, you
 
 107 
 
 entice the working classes, and in the degree that you 
 make the rules strict and lessen the internal comforts, you 
 repel them. 
 
 The similarity in the state of society in the rural districts of 
 England, immediately preceding the passing of the 43rd of 
 Elizabeth, to the state of society in the rural districts in Ireland 
 at the present time, is very remarkable. 
 
 The peasantry of England at that period appear to have 
 possessed the same extreme desire to obtain land, and, conse- 
 quently, the same willingness to submit to exorbitant rents 
 which now characterize the Irish peasantry. The practice of 
 ejecting the peasantry from their dwellings, of destroying them 
 and joining the small tillage farms, and laying them down in 
 grass, seems then to have been as common in England as it is 
 now in Ireland. The great profits arising from rearing sheep 
 was in England the apparent inducement, as the great profit 
 arising from grazing cattle appears to be in Ireland at the 
 present time. 
 
 So extensive was the distress which had been produced in 
 England by these means in the commencement of the sixteenth 
 century, as to cause the act of 25th of Henry VIII, cap. 13, 
 which having set forth the circumstances, proceeds to say that 
 they have 
 
 " Pulled down churches and towns, and enhanced the old rates of rents, or 
 else brought them to such excessive fines, that no poor man is able to meddle 
 with them. One of the greatest occasions why those greedy and covetous 
 people do keep such great quantities of land in their hands, from the occu- 
 pying of the poor husbandman, and do use it in pasture and not in tillage, is 
 only the great profit that cometh of sheep, now got into few persons hands, 
 in respect of the whole number of the King's subjects, that some have 
 24,000, some 20,000, some 10,000 to 50,000 sheep." 
 
 The conclusion of the act forbad any person to hold more 
 than two farms, or to possess more than 2,500 sheep. The 
 remedy, however, seems to have failed to produce the intended 
 effect, as about twenty years later, in 1549, the junction of 
 arable farms in England for the purpose of forming them into 
 sheep-walks, appears to have proceeded to such an extent as 
 to have alarmed the peasantry, and to have excited them to in- 
 surrection in several counties. 
 
 The following very interesting account is taken from Mac- 
 pherson's " Annals of Commerce," vol. i, p. 104 : 
 
 " The humours of enclosing the lands of England for pasture, instead of 
 arable, had made the common people, at different times, very uneasy, insomuch 
 that they had now begun violently to lay them open by insurrections in many 
 counties, without having patience for their being laid open by a proclamation 
 from the King already issued, because the proprietors were not so quick in
 
 108 
 
 obeying it as the mob expected. And of all others that in Norfolk in this 
 year was the most remarkable and furious, headed by Ket, a tanner in 
 Windham, and Flowerdew, who, by finny; beacons and ringing bells, drew 
 many thousands of the lower paople of Norfolk and Suffolk to join them, 
 and committed many grievous and shocking outrages. They did infinite 
 damage and mischief to the city of Norwich, which they almost laid desolate, 
 by either driving industrious and wealthy inhabitants out of it, or else 
 miserably butchering them. This insurrection occasioned the slaughter of 
 about 5,000 of the rioters, Ket, their leader, being hanged on the top of 
 Norwich Castle. 
 
 " There had been many enclosures lately made out of waste, marshy, and 
 other kinds of barren and common grounds, whereby great improvements 
 were effected. But as the poorer sort were thereby deprived of the benefit 
 of such grounds for feeding their cattle and for fuel, it is not much to be won- 
 dered at that great clamours were thereby raised, which at length burst out 
 into open riots, first in Kent, and afterwards in the counties of Essex, 
 Buckingham, Northampton, Somerset, Lincoln, Norfolk, and Suffolk." 
 
 When reading the foregoing statements it is difficult to pre- 
 vent the impression that they refer to the outrages committed 
 a few years since by the Terry Alts in the county Clare. The 
 nature of the outrages, and the causes of them, are so very 
 similar. 
 
 The preambles to the acts of Elizabeth which were passed 
 a few years later, for the relief of the poor, show that England 
 was at that period as Ireland is now, infested by hordes of 
 wandering beggars. 
 
 After the passing of the 43rd of Elizabeth, which gave 
 to the destitute able-bodied a right to relief, I find no further 
 mention of agrarian outrages, of extensive misery among the pea- 
 santry, or of the nuisance caused by large bodies of vagrants. 
 
 The effect of a public provision upon nominal rents will not 
 be so rapid as upon crime. The effect will not, to any great 
 extent, be produced directly, it will chiefly be produced through 
 the effect upon wages. 
 
 But few of those who hold from five to twelve acres of land 
 will throw up their holdings to enter an asylum, even though 
 the food, clothing, and lodging, given in it may be greatly 
 superior to their own. The cottier tenants will not generally 
 give up their engagements ; some, perhaps, those who have 
 only cabins from their employers, may, as they are scarcely 
 in a better position than the casual labourers. The casual 
 labourers are the class upon whom the system will first act, 
 and through whom the rents and wages of the first and 
 second class will be affected. This class undergo such 
 extensive and repeated privations, that there are frequently 
 times when their wretchedness would drive many of them 
 to seek the shelter of a house of industry, viz. during sick- 
 ness and in the winter, owing to the wretched state of their
 
 cabins. It is this class who, during the months of June, July, 
 and August, suffer severely from the exhaustion of their potatoe 
 store, as many of them have not more con-acre than yields 
 potatoes for the three or four winter months, whilst the 
 wives and children of the poorest of them, of those who are 
 without even con-acre, scarcely get through those months 
 without begging, by which, from April till October, they usually 
 support themselves. Upon the establishment of houses of 
 refuge these will be refused alms, and will thereby be driven to 
 seek shelter in the public asylum. The Irish labourer might 
 go into the house of refuge for a week at any time, as his 
 cabin could not be injured by his absence. It contains 
 nothing which could be stolen or injured. He needs scarcely 
 to close the door when he leaves it. 
 
 After a few had been in the house of refuge and had felt the 
 comfort which it afforded, and had ascertained that they could 
 return to it with their families whenever work should fail to 
 give them an equal subsistence, the whole class would become 
 less solicitous to obtain land. It would cease to be of vital im- 
 portance. The present eagerness of the casual labourer to 
 supplant the small tenant and the cottier would abate, as those 
 classes would no longer possess greater security for a subsistence 
 than themselves. When, therefore, a small farm became dis- 
 tenanted, or a cottier dismissed or dead, the casual labourers 
 would not, as now, make rash promises to obtain the land, but 
 pause to consider the advantage. It would be useless for them 
 to change their situation but for a better; and unless it was 
 evident to them that a small farm would give greater comfort 
 than they already possessed, they would abstain from bidding. 
 Thus, jvhilst the small tenantry would be less anxious to retain 
 their farms, the labourers would be rather careless about obtain- 
 ing them ; nominal rents would therefore be quickly at an end. 
 It is the constant pressure of the casual labourers which causes 
 the excessive bidding for land. 
 
 As the competition for land decreased, the chance of eject- 
 ment would also decrease. When the peasantry had no longer 
 an inducement to bid more than the value of the land, it might 
 not be easy for a landlord who had obtained a bad name to 
 replace those whom he had dispossessed. At present the power 
 of a landlord in Ireland is almost omnipotent. He may be said 
 to hold the power of life and death. The moment the alterna- 
 tive of a public provision exists to the labouring classes, this 
 dangerous power will cease, and Ireland will no longer be a 
 land of lords and serfs. The same power cannot exist with 
 capitalist occupiers. The capitalist and the owner of land are
 
 110 
 
 on an equal footing when arranging the rent of a farm. It is 
 not a question of life and death to a capitalist farmer whether 
 he obtains a farm to day or six months hence. He will lose 
 the profits of his capital during that period ; but the landlord 
 will lose the rent of his farm, and will suffer severely in the 
 injury done to it whilst unoccupied. Every proprietor in Eng- 
 land knows that a large share of the future rent will be absorbed 
 in making tenan table a farm which has been six or twelve 
 months unoccupied. 
 
 It is the general opinion in Ireland, that the condition of 
 the peasantry cannot be improved until they cease to bid 
 excessive rents for land ; and that they will continue to bid 
 those rents so long as the possession of land affords the only 
 security against vagrancy or starvation. 
 
 Galicay. F. 36. Their condition can never be raised until they refrain from 
 offering rents which will not leave to themselves a comfortable subsistence. 
 (Mr Birmingham.) 
 
 Lei trim, Dromahair. F. 38. Mr Armstrong, himself a landlord, declares that 
 " no improvement can be expected in the condition of the small occupiers until 
 the competition for land becomes less among them, or until landlords cease to 
 tempt them to pay more than the land is worth ; but no landlord will be wil- 
 ling to relinquish the gain to himself arising from competition ; to expect it 
 would be to expect something contrary to human nature. The minds of all 
 are so completely, and, in the present state of things, so justly occupied with 
 the idea that the possession of some land is necessary to insure food, that 
 some men would always be found willing to bid more than the real value." 
 
 Bur. Alohill. F. 39. Circumstances alone have created their inordinate 
 desire to become possessors of land. (Mr Norris.) 
 
 Stigo. F. 42. Their condition certainly cannot be raised until they abstain 
 from offering too high rents. (Rev. Mr Brennan, p.p.) 
 
 Dublin. F. 44. While the small occupiers depend entirely, or nearly so, 
 on the produce of a small piece of land, their condition cannot be raised 
 until they refrain from bidding such high rents. 
 
 Kilkenny. Bar. Galmoy. F. 45. The condition of the peasantry never can 
 be raised until they abstain from offering such high rents. (All.) 
 
 Bar. Cowran. F. 47. All the witnesses are agreed that, while the pea- 
 santry offer the present rents, their condition can scarcely be bettered. 
 
 Louth. F. 51. The condition of the peasantry can scarcely be bettered, 
 unless they abstain from offering the present high rents, or landlords have 
 forbearance enough not to avail themselves of their reckless competition 
 for land. 
 
 Bar. Moyfenragh. F. 54. As long as the peasantry bid rents so high as the 
 present, their condition can scarcely be raised ; and such is their habitual de- 
 sire of holding land, that the competition for it would not be very readily 
 reduced. 
 
 Queen's Co., Maryborough. F. 57. The condition of the peasantry cannot be 
 raised until they abstain from offering rents which will not leave to themselves 
 a comfortable subsistence ; but this they are obliged to do, from the absence 
 of manufactures and other employment, which renders land their only means 
 of existence. (William Gray, David Healey, and other farmers.) 
 
 fPicklow. F. 60. The condition of the peasantry certainly cannot be
 
 Ill 
 
 raised while they bid rents, as at present, which do not leave them a com- 
 fortable subsistence; but until they can get good employment, or some other 
 means of subsistence, land is their only resource, and competition will be 
 likely to keep rents up to their present exorbitant amount. 
 
 Kerry, Bar. Iveagh. F. 63. Mr Butler answers, " I am satisfied that they have 
 all so great a determination to get land, that they would sacrifice any means 
 they might possess to obtain it." Mr Mahoney says, " I employ several 
 labourers regularly, and I see no anxiety in them to obtain land, and leave 
 my employment." 
 
 Limerick, Bar. Connello. F. 65. " I employ many men regularly, and no 
 man has ever left me for the sake of taking a few acres of land ; they stay with 
 me because they do not think they would do themselves any good by leaving 
 me and trying to get land." (Mr Brown.) 
 
 Tipperary. F. 70. The condition of the cottier tenantry cannot be raised 
 until they abstain from offering rents which leave them but a bare sub- 
 sistence. 
 
 Wuterford. F. 72. It is said, " There is no doubt that the high rents that 
 are paid for small holdings are a cause of the poverty of the peasantry." 
 
 The following extracts from the Appendix A to the Report 
 of the Commissioners for Inquiring into the operation of the 
 Poor-Laws in England and Wales, show that it is even possible 
 by a public provision to make the peasantry refuse to hold land 
 when given to them rent free, together with implements and 
 seeds for its cultivation. Such was the result of the vicious 
 system of out-door relief adopted in England during the last 
 thirty years. The peasantry refused to hold land from an im- 
 pression that, by holding it, they would weaken their claim to 
 parish support. 
 
 East Sussex. A. 198. Attempts have been made to introduce cottage 
 allotments, but they have been ineffectual. The labourers show a decided 
 reluctance to hire them ; they think it might diminish their claim to relief. 
 
 Sussex, Etchurst. 203. The rector, from benevolent motives, has offered 
 small allotments to the labourers, at a low rent : he has been able to let 
 three acres only, and his offer of nine acres more has been rejected. 
 
 Kent, Tenterden, 211. A small farm of twenty-seven acres has been 
 hired for the purpose of letting out small allotments to the labourers, the 
 parish advancing I/., and not proposing a reduction in alloirancea, and fixing 
 the rent at I/, per acre for meadow, and 15*. for arable, free of all charges; 
 the men, however, refuse to take land ; those who have been long on the 
 parish prefer that resource to the exercise of industry ; all have declined, 
 except four. 
 
 Essex, Dunmow. 228. About twenty acres of land have been let in 
 cottage allotments, the occupation of which is much sought after by the indus- 
 trious labourers ; some of the idle do not care for land, because their pay is 
 made up by the scale. 
 
 Staffordshire. 268. There are, in different parts of Staffordshire, in- 
 stances of labourers having been allowed to build cottages, subject to a 
 nominal rent to the lord of the manor. But the acquisition of property in 
 this way interferes with a resource which they begin now to rely on with 
 greater confidence, their claim to parochial relief. 
 
 Northamptonshire. 406. At Eydon, where one of the conditions of 
 rating the land was, that no head-money should be paid to those who took it.
 
 112 
 
 some few refused to have anything to do with it, and one man having had the 
 land a year, gave it up. At Glapthorne, a parish belonging to Lord Cardigan, 
 the choice of place and soil was so bad, that the people found it did not 
 answer, and many of them ceased to have anything to do with their 
 allotments. 
 
 Surrey, Stttines, 576. Many of them have ceased to apply to the vestry, 
 and in consequence the applications there are much less numerous. 
 Many of them have said, "But for the land, we should have been nearly 
 starved." The committee say to them, " If you are troublesome to the 
 parish the land shall be taken away." The applications to the vestry last 
 year were fewer than for many previous years. 
 
 Surrey, Bucklund. 577. The instances are very rare in which land is 
 given for the purpose of enabling paupers to take themselves off the parish. 
 
 I find that in the parish of Buckland, in Surrey, however, in 1829 and 
 1830, three experiments of this nature were made, and the success has been 
 complete; I add the result in the words of the Rev. W. Keene, the rector : 
 
 "In the year 1829, two labourers were selected on account of their large 
 families, one of which was then in the weekly receipt of an allowance from 
 the parish ; the other had received assistance, and was likely to become per- 
 manently chargeable. The proposal was made to them to take half an acre of 
 land ut a nominal rent,* on condition of their making no further application 
 to the parish, and to hold it only so long as they complied with this stipula- 
 tion. Another labourer accepted the same quantity of land on the same 
 terms in 1830. In none of these cases has there since been any disposition 
 to be dependant on the parish for aid." 
 
 In the parish of Midhurst, land has been given at the rate of \L an acre to 
 several persons who had been a constant burthen to the parish ; these have in 
 five instances taken themselves nearly off the parish, and it is considered that 
 their excessive families (of from six to eight children each) alone prevented 
 them doing so entirely; with more land they would support themselves. At 
 first there was a reluctance to take it, as they said, for fear of losing their 
 parish pay. 
 
 West Riding of York. 739. There is no selection made of the occupiers, 
 nor conditions imposed as to abstinence from parish relief, or on their conduct. 
 
 Huntingdonshire. 677. At Great Staugltton, near Kimbolton, forty-six 
 allotments have been let, at the average farmer's rent, in quantities varying 
 from a rood to half an acre; the tenants were stated to be all doing well, and 
 that only one had applied for parish relief since he had been in possession of 
 the land. 
 
 . 678. In Bury and Orton Longville, it was stated that the 
 
 labourers were not anxious for the possession of land. At the latter place 
 an instance was mentioned by the overseer, of a man to whom he had offered 
 a piece of land rent free, and had further offered to purchase seed potatoes 
 to sow the land, for which he was to be repaid at the occupier's convenience ; 
 the man declined to take the land, saying that his day's work was enough for 
 him, and that he did not want the potatoes, because he knew that if he was 
 in want the parish must support him. Cases similar to the above, however, 
 are not common in this district. Except in the case at Elton, of the occu- 
 piers of two acres, there appeared to be no restraint on the tenants of the 
 allotments in the different parishes against applying, in case of necessity, for 
 relief from the parish. 
 
 Cambridgeshire. 678. It was stated to me, however, by the overseer, 
 
 * Nominal rent, in England, means " rent free."
 
 113 
 
 that several of the tenants of these allotments received relief from the parish 
 in winter. 
 
 Somersetshire. 440. No stipulation is made against the receipt of pa- 
 rochial relief, but the result has heen to the same effect, as only three of the 
 number actually receive such relief; two of whom are infirm persons who 
 would otherwise be in the workhouse, and the third, also infirm, belongs to 
 Bristol ; twenty-nine names were pointed out of persons who formerly had 
 received relief, but had discontinued it since they had got land. 
 
 Warminster. 441. Twenty acres have been many years let to the poor, 
 in lots from twenty to fifty poles, at 4^d. the pole, on condition solely of the 
 rent being punctually paid. But this is never considered at the pay table. 
 Many have held their lots for several years. Twenty acres in addition 
 were recently taken by the parish, and offered, rent free, on condition that all 
 claim to parochial relief should be forfeited ; but no one icottld take it on these 
 terms. 
 
 Frame. 441. The letting of gardens to the poor was an experiment on 
 a small scale. In 1820, the Marquis of Bath granted about six acres of 
 excellent pasture land in Frome. It was divided into small portions to the 
 poor, seed being given them, on the condition of their relinquishing some 
 a part, and in some cases all parish pay. Industrious persons were selected, 
 and neither rent, poor rates, or tithes were paid. The letting was for 
 one year. 
 
 442. No manure was wanted. All went on pretty well the first year, 
 under careful management. In the second year various complaints were 
 heard. It was said the poor robbed each other. Some of them demanded 
 their pay as before. Some refused to cultivate the ground, alleging that the 
 very small portion of time at their command would be consumed in going to 
 and from the gardens. Finally, it was relinquished as of no advantage to the 
 parish or the paupers. 
 
 Wiltshire, IVestbury. 442. Labourers have also received land from the 
 parish, but when they conceive that they have worked out their rent by 
 abstaining from the parochial allowance to the same extent, they consider 
 themselves entitled to full relief again. 
 
 Bradford. 442. Forty acres in four portions, situated in different parts 
 of the parish, were taken by the parish, and let in lots for spade husbandry, 
 at from a half to a quarter of an acre. In three cases they were cultivated 
 on account of the parish, the fourth was given up to occupants ; but they 
 have been abandoned with the exception of one portion, which is about to be 
 given up. 
 
 The failure here is attributed to the want of an overlooker. No effect was 
 produced upon the poor-rates. 
 
 Shepton Mallet. 442. Portions have been hitherto taken by persons of a 
 superior class, but only twelve acres are at present let. No effect has been 
 produced upon the poor-rate, so that it is in contemplation to give the whole 
 up, when the term for which it was taken expires. 
 
 Trovcbndge. 442. Seven acres of land were hired by the parish three 
 years ago, and were given out in lots from thirty to forty perches, or more, if 
 required, free of rent, tools being found ; no conditions were made. The 
 people appeared very indifferent about it, and did not take much trouble to 
 cultivate it. They sold the crops, and then came, as before, to the pay 
 table. 
 
 The experiment is considered a total failure, and is about to be abandoned. 
 
 In the cases of Bradford, Frome, Westbury, Shepton Mallet, and Trow- 
 bridge, the character and previous habits of the poor, and probably the cer- 
 tainty of receiving parochial relief, appear to have caused the failure of the 
 
 I
 
 experiment. The circumstance of the land being granted by the parish was 
 in itself a source of suspicion and entrust on the part of the poor, who look 
 with a jealous eye upon any interference, even for their good. 
 
 The following statement, taken from a report made by Dr 
 John Smith in 1798, to the Scotch Agricultural Society on the 
 state of Argylshire, shows that assessments were not at that 
 period adopted in that county that the poor depended upon the 
 miserable collections made at the places of worship, which were 
 much to the extent of those now made in Ireland. The statement 
 also shows that the holdings were small, the rents exorbitant, 
 and vagrancy extensive. In fact, it shows a state of society 
 very like to that of Ireland, and to that of every country 
 before it possesses a legal provision for the destitute. 
 
 P. 47 In this country there are, as yet, no poor-rates or assessments. 
 The poor are supported by begging, by the collections iwade at the church 
 doors, a few mortifications or bequeathments, and other casualties. Such as 
 are able to beg make a tolerable shift to live, as the people in general are 
 disposed to be charitable. But all the relief that can be given to those who 
 are unable to go about, is scanty and inadequate. The poor, it may be said, 
 are, for the most part, supported by the poor. Some of our heritors have no 
 residence in the county; and many of our gentlemen, who think themselves 
 wiser than their fathers, are not always where they ought to be on Sunday to 
 give to the poor their offering. In the meantime, if some of our gentlemen 
 will have no religion they should have some charity, and at least send their 
 collection for the poor. By the laws of God and our country the poor have a 
 right to be maintained, and the withholding that from them to which they 
 have a just and legal title, is an injury so much the greater, as they have the 
 less ability to enforce their claim. Assessments would make the burden alight, 
 as it ought, equally upon all, whether they attend church or not, whether they 
 reside on their estates or elsewhere. Charity, justice, and even policy, re- 
 quire that this should be done without delay. The poor have increased, the 
 weekly collection in many places diminished, and the price of all the necessa- 
 ries of life is greatly raised. The arguments commonly used against assess- 
 ments are but the suggestions of iniquity and avarice. Assessments have 
 became common in the south of Scotland, and (as the exercise of justice and 
 charity always must be) have been productive of good and not of evil. They 
 have enabled the poor to live with more comfort, and made the trifling rate 
 fall on those who are liable to pay it, in a just and equitable proportion. The 
 non-resident, the graceless, and the sectary, are obliged to contribute their 
 share ; an J the labouring poor, the mo.st numerous class of the people, are 
 attached to a happy constitution, which makes a legal provision for their sup- 
 port when they can no longer support themselves. By assessments, the beg- 
 ging poor would not only be more comfortably maintained at home, but also 
 at less expense to the public, as their labour at home would go a considerable 
 length to support them ; whereas, in travelling about, their time and labour 
 turns to no account. Besides, the blind and the lame require one or two to 
 attend them every day that they are going about. By assessments, the burden 
 on the tenants would be less heavy and more equal ; and the small difference 
 to the rich would easily be made up by retrenching, now and then, a super- 
 fluous dish or bottle, an useless trinket or a game at cards. 
 
 P. 39. That high rents are a spur to improvement and exertion, is a com- 
 n:on and, to a certain extent, a just maxim. No doubt there may be somo
 
 115 
 
 who, if they had the land for nothing, would be ruined by their indolence ; 
 but the more common case is, that when a tenant sees that all his exertions will 
 not do, he becomes dispirited and desperate, and allows himself to be carried 
 along by the stream which he cannot stem. The land suffers, the tenant fails, 
 the farm gets a bad name, and the rent must be lowered; thus the landlord 
 as well as the tenant suffers by raising the rent higher or faster than the 
 improvement of the land will bear. A substantial tenant is generally cautious 
 of engaging to pay a rent that is exorbitant ; he sees the success of those who 
 invest their money in other branches of business, and he follows their exam- 
 ple if he has not the prospect of a farm's yielding him full interest for his 
 money, and an adequate return for his diligence and labour; whereas, he who 
 has least to lose is often the most forward to offer, and the landlord is often 
 tempted to accept the offer, without considering that a sufficient capital is 
 necessary for paying the rent and improving the land. Instances of ruin to 
 the tenant and loss to the landlord, from too high rents, are not unfrequent, 
 especially on some of the smaller estates. Most of the farmers toil hard, live 
 poorly; and for one who has a trifle for his pains, perhaps two give their pains 
 for nothing. Many who have old leases, obtained before the late rise in land 
 and in its produce took place, are very well ; as are also many of those who 
 have sheep stocks, as their possessions are managed with less expense, and 
 the value of some of them was not well known till the)' were tried under the 
 sheep system. 
 
 The reduction of rents, which will follow a Poor Law in Ireland, 
 will not be an injury to the landlord. The only advantage to the 
 landlord is the amount of rent which he actually receives. It 
 matters to him but little whether the tenant promises to pay 51. 
 or 100/. an acre, if he can and does only pay '21. or 3/. But that 
 portion of the rent which is nominal to the landlord, is destructive 
 of all hope and, consequently, of all energy in the tenant. It is 
 not the amount of rent which is now taken from the tenant which 
 constitutes the injury, but the manner in which it is taken. 
 The amount which the labourers were paid in the pauperized 
 districts of England, in relief and in wages combined, did not 
 constitute the evil of the allowance system, but the manner in 
 which the labourers received the amount. Under the improved 
 system, the labourers frequently obtain more in wages than they 
 had previously received in wages and allowance combined ; and 
 yet, so much greater is their industry, that their employers are 
 benefitted though they pay a larger amount. The labourers of 
 the pauper districts of England were, by the allowance system, 
 made to feel that industry was incapable of improving their 
 condition, and they became idle and listless. The peasantry, 
 or pauper tenantry, of Ireland are under a similar disadvantage. 
 They, too, are made to feel by the nominal rent system that 
 industry and enterprize can be of no advantage to them, and 
 they become listless and apathetic. 
 
 The rent which the peasantry will bid, after the establish- 
 ment of houses of refuge, will be regulated by the probability 
 of its leaving: to themselves and their families a subsistence as
 
 116 
 
 good, or nearly as good, as the public provision. If the public 
 provision be only equal to that which they have hitherto been 
 allowed to retain out of the produce of their farms, then they will 
 bid a rent about equal to the amount which they have in most 
 years paid. Making the fullest allowance for the absence of 
 capital and skill on the part of the Irish tenantry, they would 
 easily meet their payments, were they fixed at the amount an- 
 nually paid by them on an average of the last five years. 
 
 Though the check given to the competition for land by a 
 public provision for the destitute, will not diminish in the 
 slightest degree the payments hitherto made by the peasantry, 
 it will cause their future payments to be greatly increased. 
 The superior interest which they will possess in the production, 
 when they feel that all beyond a fair sum will remain to them, 
 will quickly lead them to ascertain how their crops may be 
 increased, and will stimulate them to personal exertion in aid 
 of their increased knowledge. The hardy manner in which 
 they have been reared will enable them, out of comparatively 
 small means, to accumulate, and thus gradually to obtain im- 
 proved stock and implements of agriculture, in aid of a further 
 increase in production. These expectations are not chimerical ; 
 they have been realised in those cases in which, by lowering 
 the nominal rent, hope has been created in the peasantry, even 
 when leases have not been granted, provided the peasantry 
 have felt to depend upon the good faith of their landlords. 
 With every increase of capital and skill, and their attendant 
 increase of production, the landlord will not merely have an 
 increased security for the rent which his tenant has contracted 
 to pay, but a fairer prospect that those rents which are now but 
 nominal will one day be realised. His tenantry will then find 
 those rents comparatively light, which they now deem, and 
 which really are beyond their power to pay, and from which 
 they now shrink in despair. 
 
 No better proof, perhaps, can be adduced of the actual rent 
 being in the inverse ratio to the nominal rent, than a contrast 
 of the rents bid and paid for large and for small farms. On an 
 average of years the large farms yield greater returns to the pro- 
 prietor than the small farms, although the latter are in all cases 
 let much higher. The lower rents of the large farms are always 
 paid, and with punctuality ; whilst the rents of small farms are 
 always in arrear. 
 
 Though a public provision in Ireland will prevent wages from 
 falling below the amount required to subsist the labourer and 
 his family, as it will at the same time destroy vagrancy, the 
 employer will not be injured.
 
 117 
 
 The families which are now occasionally supported by: 
 vagrancy are supported by the farmers, and will, under the 
 change of system, still be supported by them. The only 
 difference will be, that the farmers will give wholly in wages 
 what they now give partly in alms. The change will be in the 
 distribution, and not in the amount of the fund for the support 
 of the labourers. It cannot be an injury to the employers to 
 require them to give in wages what they now give in alms, to 
 maintain the wives and children of their own labourers, instead 
 of assisting to maintain the families of labourers who are not 
 employed by them. The change which will be effected, will 
 be similar to that lately accomplished in England. The 
 English labourer received wages for his own support, and 
 charity for the support of his wife and children. Vagrancy is 
 to the Irish labourer, what the scale system was to the English. 
 The same perversion of the wages-fund, which arose in the 
 pauper districts of England, is the characteristic of the vagrancy 
 system of Ireland. All are supported, only A supports the 
 wives and children of the labourers employed by B, and 
 vise versa. 
 
 We have seen that the first step towards improvement in 
 Ireland must be the suppression of the present excessive 
 desire in the peasantry to possess land, and that the right to 
 a provision in a house of refuge is the means by which the 
 dangerous extent of the desire can be safely prevented. The 
 improvement in the physical condition of the labouring classes 
 of Ireland can only be ensured by the same means. 
 
 The capitalist can generally lower wages in any part of 
 Europe to a mere subsistence. He can at most times delay 
 his work, whether in agriculture or manufactures, a week or a 
 fortnight without great inconvenience, but the labourer's 
 stomach cannot be kept without food two days. It is very 
 common to talk of wages being regulated by the proportion 
 which the supply of labour bears to the demand for it. Labour 
 is treated as a marketable commodity, and as if the workman 
 was as able to withhold his labour as the employer is to delay 
 his work. The fact is, however, that the labourer and the 
 employer are in the same position towards each other when 
 making a bargain for wages as would be two dealers, the one 
 holding a cargo of corn and wanting a cargo of oranges, the 
 other holding- a cargo of oranges and wanting a cargo of corn. 
 The oranges will be rotten in a fortnight, the corn will keep 
 two or three years. The only times at which the workman is 
 on a par with his employer in making a bargain for wages, is at 
 harvest time with the farmers, and during an extraordinary
 
 period of demand with the manufacturers. Such periods 
 occur with the manufacturers once in three or four years. On 
 thesfe occasions time becomes equally important to both the 
 employer and the workman. The harvest will be injured if it 
 is not collected within a few days, and the great profits offered 
 will be lost to the manufacturer if his goods be later in the 
 market than those of his neighbours. The favourable point to 
 the workman at these periods is, that delay is impossible. With 
 such exceptions, in almost all the endeavours of the farmers, 
 master weavers, and spinners in England, to reduce the wages 
 of their workmen, they have been successful. " Farmers turned 
 off their men or refused to employ them at fair wages, thereby 
 causing a surplus fraudulently ; they then took the men from 
 the parish at reduced wages paid out of the poor rates."- 
 Appendix A to Report of Poor Law Inquiry in England, p. 203. 
 But though the employers reduced wages, fortunately they 
 could not reduce the subsistence of the working people below 
 that recognised by the parish, as what they did not pay in 
 wages they were forced to pay in poor-rates. The same sup- 
 port to the funds of the labourers has existed in all countries 
 in which the right to a public provision is recognised, and thus 
 it is that the people of those countries are in a superior condi- 
 tion to the people in countries in which a public provision 
 does not exist. The labour-rates in England snowed the conse- 
 quence of removing the right to relief. By labour-rates the 
 right to relief was virtually withdrawn. The rate-payers, who 
 are the employers, decided upon the wages to be paid to the 
 labourers, and classed them according to the size of their 
 families. In most parishes single men were valued at '5s., but 
 in many parishes they were valued as low as 4s. a week, and if 
 the system had lasted it is probable that they would have been 
 valued at 3s., and perhaps even at 2s. when England, like 
 Ireland, would have had a potatoe-fed peasantry having suffi- 
 cient to sustain life, but not to prevent premature decay. For- 
 tunately it was impossible to plan a labour-rate which would 
 bear equally upon all the rate-payers, and consequently every 
 labour-rate carried the principles of its own destruction. (See 
 Appendix D English Poor Law Inquiry). 
 
 If employment in Ireland could be suddenly increased one 
 third, which would be required to occupy their leisure time, the 
 peasantry would not derive any benefit their wages would not 
 be increased. Each employer would make more cottier tenants, 
 in other words, would take more permanent labourers. He would 
 get the extra fourth of the labourer's time in return for the relief 
 of mind, or security as to subsistence, which the labourer
 
 1)9 
 
 Would feel from being made a cottier. The casual labourer is 
 in constant anxiety lest he should be unable to earn sufficient 
 to pay the rent of his con-acre, as, in default of payment, he 
 will be deprived of food for the succeeding year. The cottier 
 tenant is relieved from this anxiety ; he is permanently employed 
 by his landlord, and the payment of the rent of his potatoe land 
 is certain, because the use of the land is the reward of his 
 labour. The desire to secure the rent of his potatoe land 
 causes the anxiety of the casual labourer to become a cottier 
 tenant. The cottier does not get better or more food than the 
 casual labourer, and he works one fourth harder. His only 
 advantage is being relieved from anxiety as to the payment of 
 the rent. If the number of casual labourers could be instantly 
 reduced one third, which would be equivalent to increasing 
 employment one fourth, the effect, if there were any, upon wages, 
 would be but temporary. During the last seven years, the average 
 annual number of emigrants which have reached the United 
 States and Canada, from the United Kingdom, has not been 
 less than 60,000 ; of this number, half, or 30,000, were Irish. 
 Thus, in this way alone, has Ireland been relieved of 210,000 
 persons during the last seven years. From every parish in 
 Ireland, some of the labourers have emigrated during the last 
 few years, and yet those who remain say that the emigration has 
 not produced the slightest effect upon rents or upon wages. 
 
 Galtcay F. 133. The number of those who have left has not had the 
 
 slightest effect either in reducing rents or in increasing wages. (All.} 
 
 " I think that competition for employment has been rather on the increase. 
 It would be necessary that from two-thirds to one-half the actual population 
 should be removed before wages could naturally rise to lOrf. per day." 
 (Mr Connolly.) 
 
 Kilkenny. F. 135. Emigration has not been sufficiently extensive to re- 
 duce the competition for labour and for small holdings. It is estimated by 
 the majority of the witnesses that it would require the removal of at least 
 one-fourth of the able-bodied male population to give constant employment 
 to the remainder at 10^. a-day. 
 
 King's County. F. 136 The emigration that has as yet taken place has 
 not had any effect on either wages or rents. The witnesses find it difficult to 
 say what number should be taken from the able-bodied population to afford 
 the labourer steady wages at a moderate rate. They think that though 20 
 per cent, were removed, it would have but little effect upon wages; they do 
 not think it would raise them \d. per day. 
 
 County Lo'.iih. F. 135. Many of the witnesses thought it would be ne- 
 cessary to take away nearly one-half from the present population to reduce 
 the competition for land and wages so as to allow a subsistence to the labourer 
 equal to steady wages at 10</. a-day. 
 
 Meuth. F. 136 Except in busy seasons, it would require perhaps one- 
 third of the population to be withdrawn to secure the remainder steady 
 employment at Wei. a-day. 
 
 Clnre. F. 137. There has not been sufficient emigration in any way to
 
 120 
 
 affect the price of labour. In order to raise the price of labour, it would be 
 necessary to remove nearly one-half the labourers. 
 
 Kerry. F. 138. " We think that before wages are raised to lOrf. a-day 
 throughout the year, one-third of the present labouring population must be 
 removed." (Messrs Powell, Roche, Chute, Peel, and O'Leary.) 
 
 Limerick, Bur. Conellu. F. 138. The emigration which has taken place 
 has not been sufficient to reduce the competition for labour, or for holdings, 
 so as to raise wages or lower rents. " I think one-half of the labourers of 
 the barony must be sent away before work at 10</. per day would be found for 
 the remainder regularly through the year." (Messrs Brown and Ruckle.) 
 
 Bar. Cos/i lea. From 100 to 200 persons per annum have emigrated from 
 this barony. The number has been fewer during the past few years. (Rev. 
 Mr Mornan, p.p., and Mr Russell.) 
 
 With respect to the effect produced on the wages of labour and the rent of 
 land by the withdrawal of so many competitors, it is said " Ttiey are scarcely 
 missed." (Mr Bennett, &c.) 
 
 Down. Bar. Ineagh. F. 140. Emigration has not had any effect on 
 wages or rents. " It' all the labourers in the parish were to go away, we 
 
 could do the work ourselves." (Morgan.) "Oh, no; sometimes there 
 
 would be a few wanting." (M'Loughlin.) " Well, maybe a few would be 
 
 wanting by the shopkeepers and large farmers, but the small farmers can do 
 their own work." (Morgan.) 
 
 Bar. Lecale. Mr Seed, a most intelligent farmer, said, " There are parti- 
 cular times at which all the labourers are employed, such as harvest and sowing 
 time, and also there are times at which far fewer could do the work." This 
 period of the year (end of July and beginning of August) seems to be the 
 worst season for the day-labourer in this part of the country, because the 
 course of agriculture is of that nature as not to afford him employment in 
 summer. In most places in England it is quite the contrary, for the labourer 
 finds employment then in haymaking, in the hoeing and cultivation of turnips, in 
 preparing fallow for wheat, and in mixing and in carting compost manures. 
 
 Tyrone. F. 141. " The emigration has been by no means sufficient to re- 
 duce the competition for labour; it should be great and constant to produce 
 
 that effect" (Rev. Mr. Stack.) 1 think, if one out of every four were 
 
 taken out of the labourers, the rest would have tolerable employment, but I 
 cannot rely on this calculation, for sometimes they are all wanted, and some- 
 times very few. (Rev. Mr Stack.) 
 
 One fourth of the population of Ireland might be withdrawn, 
 and yet wages not be raised. To emigrate 1,500,000 or 
 2,000,000 of people in one year would be impossible. To 
 spread the emigration over a number of years would not have 
 the desired effect upon wages. The natural increase of the 
 population would supply nearly as many as the emigration 
 would subtract. 
 
 The system lately adopted in England, under the Poor Law 
 Amendment Act, will prove to be a most efficient institution 
 in support of the earnings of the working classes. The 
 system which it has displaced only supplied the deficiency in 
 wages by substituting; charity, and thus much evil was produced. 
 The evil was not in the amount expended, however, but in the 
 way in which it was expended. Under the amended system
 
 121 
 
 as great a sura, or perhaps a greater, is given to the lahouring 
 classes, than they received under the old system, but it is so 
 given as to encourage, whilst under the old system it dis- 
 couraged industry. 
 
 The workhouse system, though perfect in its effect on wages, 
 cannot create any countervailing evils. 
 
 No one can take relief who is employed, and no one will accept 
 employment at a rate much below the subsistence provided in 
 the workhouse. The workhouse provision constitutes a certain 
 as well as a safe minimum to earnings. At a certain point it 
 brings the whole capital of the nation to compete for the work- 
 man against the individual capitalist. Although the practical 
 working of such a measure is the creation of a minimum to 
 earnings, it must not be confounded with the attempts formerly 
 made by the legislature and more recently by Trades Unions. 
 The practical working of a workhouse provision is only to fix a 
 rate of wages below which it will not be worth the while of any 
 individual, no matter what his calling, age, or skill, to accept 
 employment. The legislature formerly attempted, and so also 
 did the Trades Unions attempt, to fix or prevent comparative 
 rates between trades or between workmen in the same trade, and 
 of course their objects have invariably been evaded. 
 
 Most nations have considered a public provision principally, 
 to use the words of Sir F. Morton Eden, as a " measure of 
 police," as a means of repressing vagrancy, though in no slight 
 degree, unquestionably, Poor Laws were created from feelings of 
 benevolence towards those who were destitute. The view 
 taken of the effects of a public provision by modern writers 
 differs but little from that taken by our ancestors. It seems 
 to have escaped all, that the same institution which rescues 
 from misery and crime those who have become destitute, may 
 by its indirect influence prevent the great mass of society from 
 requiring its aid, and that those who are far removed from 
 seeking- its charity may be sustained in their prosperity by 
 its influence. 
 
 Those who proposed to institute Poor Laws in England 
 could scarcely have foreseen the evils which have ensued from 
 their late maladministration, any more than they could have 
 foreseen those beneficial effects which were produced in 
 addition to the contemplated suppression of mendicancy and 
 the reduction of crime. Nothing is more difficult than to 
 discern, amongst a number of co-existing events, the precise 
 connection which each bears to the other in the relation 
 of cause and effect. Our ancestors established laws for the 
 relief of the poor as a means of suppressing mendicancy, which
 
 122 
 
 they considered to be the original source of a variety of evils. 
 The institution had the effect of suppressing mendicancy, and 
 many other co-existing evils disappeared at the same time, and 
 the country rose into prosperity. This simultaneous disappear- 
 ance of a variety of evils naturally strengthened the impression 
 as to the extensive and baneful influence of mendicancy. It 
 was not perceived that the remedy for vagrancy was at 
 the same time the remedy for the other evils that all 
 emanated from one common source. We have long lost sight 
 of the advantages which have been derived by England from 
 her poor laws; and lately stood aghast at the evils which 
 the mal-ad ministration of them during thirty years had pro- 
 duced. The late inquiry in Ireland has shown us the evils 
 which they have remedied, compared with which those of 
 the late mal-administration shrink into insignificance. 
 
 The same motive which led to the introduction of 
 poor laws into England and Scotland the desire of repres- 
 sing the immense mass of vagrancy, with the accompanying 
 crime and misery seems to have induced most of the countries 
 of Europe in which they exist to adopt them. And not only has 
 the object sought been attained, but a general increase of pros- 
 perity has ensued. Denmark appears to be the last country in 
 Europe into which poor laws have been introduced, and 
 although the system in that country, as in most others, nearly 
 approaches to the vicious system of out-door relief, lately 
 abolished in England, yet the general benefit to society is un- 
 questionable. (See Appendix F. to the English Poor Law 
 Inquiry.} 
 
 For the public provision to place a minimum to wages, it is not 
 necessary for many labourers to enter the houses of refuge, any 
 more than it will be necessary for many to enter them to create a 
 feeling of security as to subsistence, and thus a decrease of 
 crime. It is only necessary that the diet and rules in the work- 
 houses should be such, that the labourers will not feel much re- 
 luctance to enter them, though they will prefer to remain out if 
 their labour or their land will produce them nearly an equal degree 
 of comfort. When this feeling is created, it will be vain for any 
 employer to dismiss his workmen with a view to driving them 
 to accept lower wages, or to dismiss his small tenantry with a 
 view to extorting higher rents. The workmen will not as for- 
 merly in England under the vicious out-door allowance system, 
 get assistance in aid of wages from the public provision, and 
 they must wholly abstain from private service, and from the 
 occupation of land, if they avail themselves of the provision in 
 the house of refuge, in fact, withdraw from the labour market.
 
 123 
 
 If the employers of a county combined, they could not drive 
 the labourers to accept wages much below the provision in the 
 house. The answer of the labourers to their employers would 
 be " We had better, Sir, go into the house of refuge than 
 accept such wages." The public provision will have removed 
 the power of the employer to starve the labourer into 
 compliance. Whilst the out-door system in England gave 
 in relief what the labourer yielded in wages, the endeavour of 
 the employer to reduce wages was as successful as if there had 
 been no provision. If there is no provision the labourer is 
 starved into compliance. If there is an out-door provision, from 
 which the deficiency in wages will be supplied, it is immaterial 
 to him whether he has high or low wages. The certainty that 
 working-men will not accept less than a certain sum as 
 labourers, nor consent to retain less than that sum as small 
 tenants, will deter those under whom they hold land, or for 
 who.ii they work, from offering less, and thus the struggle will 
 rarely if ever be attempted. The farmers in England often say, 
 " We give the wages which the magistrates allow," meaning 
 the parish allowance. 
 
 In the confined view of poor laws which now prevails, 
 in which they are seen only as a measure of police or of bene- 
 volence, many dreading the evils which have lately resulted 
 in England from the out-door system adopted since 1796, 
 think that the public provision should be confined to those who 
 by age or by accident are permanently disabled ; or, at furthest, 
 that it should only be extended to the sick and to orphan 
 children. Viewing a public provision as placing a minimum to 
 earnings, and thus as preventing the various evils which have 
 been shown now to affect Ireland, I am convinced of the pro- 
 priety of granting a right to the able-bodied to demand it. It 
 has, however, been a question to which 1 have given much con- 
 sideration, whether it is well to give the right to any other 
 class. If the right is not given to the able-bodied man, his 
 earnings will be reduced to the bare support of himself and 
 family, even during his youth and vigour, and consequently he 
 cannot provide against sickness, want of work, old age, and, 
 in the event of his premature decease, against the destitution 
 of those who are dependent upon him. It would be a cruel 
 mockery to bid the Irish peasant to save against those contin- 
 gencies. If the able-bodied man has the right to relief, his 
 earnings are supported during the long period of his vigour, and 
 he is enabled to provide against the contingencies to which he and 
 his family are liable ; he therefore ought to save, and then to give 
 relief in any of those contingencies is to encourage improvidence.
 
 124 
 
 It is a very common error to suppose, that to prevent the 
 labouring classes quitting their employments and seeking to 
 enter the houses of refuge, the diet in them must be much in- 
 ferior to that generally possessed by the labouring classes, and 
 the work much harder than that which labourers must perform 
 to earn their subsistence, and that as wages fall the diet in the 
 houses must be reduced. The direct reverse of this is the truth. 
 The labouring classes will not enter houses of refuge in which 
 the diet is only equal to that which they can obtain by inde- 
 pendent industry, particularly if the work in them is as severe 
 as that to which they must submit when earning their sub- 
 sistence. It must be self-evident that no one in his senses 
 would enter under such circumstances. 
 
 I lately inspected, with the assistant Commissioner for that 
 district, several workhouses in Nottinghamshire, with the diet 
 in one of them I was particularly struck. 
 
 Upon questioning the master of the workhouse, we 
 found that the breakfast consisted of bread and milk. The 
 dinner of meat and vegetables three or four days in the week, 
 on the other days of soup and vegetables and plum dumplings. 
 The supper of bread and milk, and bread and cheese and beer on 
 alternate nights. The quantity is unlimited, and every inmate 
 is allowed as much as he chuses to eat. For the quality of 
 the food I can vouch, as I carefully inspected the provisions. 
 The bread was made of the best wheaten flour, and better could 
 not be found at the table of any person in the county. The 
 milk was excellent, the cheese was as good as Derbyshire can 
 produce, and such as a magistrate octhe neighbourhood, who 
 was present, stated to be that commonly used by the gentry. 
 The meat was of prime quality ; and to the old people mixed 
 tea at eight shillings the pound was given. In fine, I believe 
 that few persons whose incomes do not exceed 500/. a-year 
 fare better than the inmates of that workhouse, with the 
 exception of having meat every day for dinner. The master 
 informed us that feather beds only are used in that house. 
 Although superfluous, my friend asked the master if he 
 thought the labourers earning their subsistence in the district 
 fared equally well with the inmates of his house. He 
 answered, certainly not, their fare is many degrees worse. I 
 then asked him whether able-bodied persons often applied for 
 admission. He said, very rarely. I asked him if he imposed 
 hard work. He told me that he had no means of setting the 
 people to work. Besides the good fare, and the freedom from 
 work, the sexes are not separated by day or by night. Smok- 
 ing is allowed, and I have no doubt that even spirits can be
 
 125 
 
 procured, and without very great difficulty. I asked the master 
 how he accounted for the able-bodied labourers not applying 
 for admission to such a comfortable asylum. " Oh ! Sir," said 
 he, " I keep the key of the door, and I very seldom allow the 
 " able-bodied people to go out, which they don't like. So, if 
 " they can possibly live out, they won't come in." He told us 
 that this house belonged to fifteen parishes, that he had rarely 
 known it to be full, and that it would only hold eighty people. 
 
 The Reverend Charles Clarke,* who had for many years been 
 a Guardian of the Poor in the incorporation of Mudford and 
 Lothingland, in Suffolk, told me during the Poor Law Inquiry, 
 that the practice in that hundred had for many years been to 
 refuse relief to the able-bodied out of the workhouse ; and that 
 the able-bodied would never enter when they could procure 
 the ordinary wages of the country, though with those wages 
 they could only obtain a subsistence many degrees inferior to 
 that given in the workhouse. The fare of Mudford and Lothing- 
 land was in every respect equal to that in Nottinghamshire, with, 
 I think, the addition of meat every day in the week. The 
 inmates were not required to work smoking and beer were 
 allowed, and there was no separation of sexes; but freedom of 
 egress and ingress to the able-bodied was strictly prohibited. 
 
 This restriction is the check which can with success be op- 
 posed to idleness, and without the slightest danger of evil. 
 Restriction, order, and regularity are peculiarly irksome to the 
 idle and dissolute. Restriction is requisite to prevent those 
 who take the relief from interfering with the employment of 
 those who are living by industry, and to draw the line between 
 those who accept the public provision, and those who are living 
 by their own exertions. Such a line must be drawn to keep the 
 number of applicants for the public provision at the lowest point 
 consistent with producing the desired effect upon earnings. 
 
 Many tales are told of the anxiety of persons to enter the 
 workhouse, and the difficulty of getting them out when once 
 they get in. These tales mostly relate to places which exist 
 before the amended laws are put in force, and should rather be 
 termed parish lodging-houses, in which persons can live rent-free, 
 than workhouses. In most of them restriction as to ingress 
 and egress is extremely slight, whilst to others there is 
 neither master, matron, nor door porter. Such were the majo- 
 rity of the workhouses in Sussex and Kent before the amend- 
 ment of the Poor Laws. I do not believe it would be possible 
 to draw the labourers of the East Riding of Yorkshire into 
 
 * See his report on the incorporated hundreds. Appendix C to English 
 Inquiry.
 
 workhouses, so long as the least restraint is put on freedom of 
 action. The labourer in the East Riding, mostly receive 
 throughout the year from 7s. to 8s. a week in money, and are 
 fed by their employers, Sunday included. The feeding is as 
 much beef, bacon, and good wheaten bread, twice a day, as they 
 chuse to eat, and with strong beer to drink. With such pay, 
 DO amount of luxury could reconcile the labourer to restraint. 
 
 The impression that the working classes are very desirous to 
 obtain the public provision has been chiefly generated by the 
 large number who, in the Southern counties of England, have, 
 from the commencement of this century till the amendment 
 of the Poor Laws, received relief from the rates. This impres- 
 sion is erroneous. The working classes did not seek the parish 
 aid, it was forced upon them by their employers, who seem to 
 have used every eftbrt to pauperize them. The evils of the 
 Poor Law system commenced about 1796, during the rise in 
 the price of corn, which lasted with little intermission till 1812. 
 It did not commence, be it remembered, by the desire of the 
 labourers, but by a general combination of their employers, 
 who resorted to the scale system to avoid raising wages in pro- 
 portion to the increased price of corn ; and from that time to 
 the present a constant war has been kept up by the employers 
 in many parts of England against those labourers who struggled 
 against receiving pay from the Poors Rates. If one employer 
 in a parish drove his labourers in part upon the rates, the others 
 were compelled to resort to the practice in self defence. I 
 do not impute any bad design to those who have thus acted. 
 I believe they were ignorant of the extensive evils they were 
 about to produce. They did the mischief as mischief is com- 
 monly done, by adopting momentary expedients without having 
 considered more than one probable effect. 
 
 The appendices to the Report of the Poor Law Inquiry Com- 
 missioners abounds with evidence of the systematic manner 
 in which the labouring classes were pauperized by their em- 
 ployers, since the close of the last century. 
 
 West Sussex. A. 546. (Appendix A, Poor Law Inquiry for England and 
 Wales). I found great difficulty in ascertaining accurately the period at 
 which the system of relieving able-bodied men, on account of their families, 
 originated ; but this difficulty, as relates to the western part of the county of 
 Sussex, was removed by the kindness of Mr Woods, who stated to me, that 
 as well as he could recollect after so distant a time, the system of parochial 
 relief, on account of the dearness of bread, commenced after the high prices 
 of 1795. It was then only occasional till the still higher prices of 1800 and 
 1801, when the magistrates of the bench of Chichester recommended (instead 
 of advancing wages in proportion to the times) the various parishes to make 
 certain allowances, in consideration of the higher prices of corn. This mode 
 was very generally acted upon ; but being attended with some difficulties, a 
 paper was drawn up and calculated by one of the influential magistrates of
 
 127 
 
 the day, and having been approved of by others, was circulated and recom- 
 mended to the parish officers for their guidance. (Report of Mr Maclean.") 
 
 Warwickshire. A. In obedience to the instructions, I made inquiry into 
 the origin, in these counties, of the system of applying the parish rates in aid 
 of wages ; and 1 found the period usually referred to was during the years of 
 scarcity towards the close of the last century. In Warwickshire, the year 
 1797 was mentioned as the date of its commencement in that county, arid 
 the scales of relief giving it authority were published in each of these counties 
 previously to the year 1800. // teas apprehended by many at that time, that 
 either the wages of labour iroitld rise to a hrightfrom trftic/i it iron Id lie difficult 
 to reduce them when the cause for it had ceased, or that during the high 
 prices the labourers might have had to undergo privations to which it would 
 be unsafe to expose them. To meet the emergency of the time, various 
 schemes are said to have been adopted, such as weekly distributions of flour, 
 providing families with clothes, or maintaining entirely a portion of their 
 families, until at length the practice became general. (Report of Mr f^illierg.) 
 
 To be successful in putting a minimum to earnings, it is 
 evident that the public provision offered to the working classes 
 must be at least equal to that which their earnings, as 
 labourers or tenants, should yield them. But to surmount the 
 great objection, which the labouring classes entertain to the 
 restriction of a house of refuge, as to ingress and egress, a 
 restriction which is essential to the working of such an insti- 
 tution, the diet and other comforts must be much superior to 
 those to which the labourers are accustomed. 
 
 The course adopted in the highly pauperized districts of 
 England, in reducing the diet in the houses below that possessed 
 by the labourers living by industry, is warranted by the pecu- 
 liar state of the population. The whole body of the labourers 
 having become demoralized by the vicious system of outdoor 
 relief, are now making every endeavour to resist the improved 
 system, and consequently extraordinary measures are required 
 to frustrate their attempts. 
 
 At present it will not be well to give in Ireland such a diet 
 as will induce the peasantry to throw up land and employment, 
 unless, as small tenants, they are allowed to retain more of the 
 produce of their farms, or as labourers they are paid higher 
 wages. To increase the earnings of the labourers out of the 
 present production the receipts of the landlords must be dimi- 
 nished, and a reduction would ruin a large number of them. 
 I have already shown that it will not be necessary to raise 
 earnings to suppress agrarian outrages and to destroy the evil 
 genius of Ireland nominal rents. As the country begins to 
 prosper and wealth to increase, the provision in the houses of 
 industry may be raised in order to force an improved rate of 
 earnings, until the condition of the Irish peasantry is raised to 
 the condition of the labourers in such counties as Northumber- 
 land, Durham, and the East Riding of Yorkshire.
 
 128 
 
 Having described the system by which the evils of Ireland 
 can be removed, I feel that it is imperative upon me to show 
 that the means of giving effect to the system can be provided. 
 I shall, therefore, point out what amount of money I believe to 
 be required in the present state of that country; what I con- 
 sider to be the best mode of obtaining the required funds; and 
 the nature of the local management which is required and can 
 be supplied. 
 
 The expenditure will consist of the cost of erecting and 
 fitting up houses for the reception of the destitute, and the 
 expense of maintaining the buildings, the establishments, and 
 the inmates. 
 
 The expense of erecting houses will, of course, be a single 
 and final charge, the expense of maintaining them and their esta- 
 blishments will be a fixed annual charge, and the expense 
 of maintaining the inmates a fluctuating annual charge. 
 
 With respect to the cost of erecting houses, if one is placed 
 in the centre of each district of 100 square miles, they will be 
 ten miles apart and sufficiently numerous. As the radius of 
 the circle is five miles, no person will be more than five miles 
 from an asylum. The area of Ireland will give about 500 such 
 districts, and consequently about 500 establishments will be 
 required. I do not think it will be wise to place the establish- 
 ments more distant from each other than ten miles. The 
 excuse for vagrancy will not be destroyed if they are much fur- 
 ther apart. A person feigning great fatigue, sickness, or personal 
 infirmity, or a woman having young children with her, will 
 certainly obtain alms if they are more than five miles from a 
 house of refuge ; as it would be cruel to refuse relief when 
 those who seek it are evidently incapable of reaching an asylum. 
 Moreover, the important effects to be produced upon crime, rents, 
 and wages, might be endangered if the establishment were much 
 more distant. The peasantry would not become accustomed 
 to them, and in going to them they would be leaving the neigh- 
 bourhood of their friends. These risks would not be com- 
 pensated by any saving which could possibly arise from the 
 reduction in the number of the establishments. It is even pro- 
 bable that the increased size of the districts might more than 
 proportionately increase the expense of providing the establish- 
 ments. In many districts, buildings already exist capable of 
 being converted into asylums for the destitute, and sufficiently 
 large for districts of 100 square miles each; such buildings 
 might frequently be obtained at one fourth the cost of erecting 
 them. A house capable of holding 200 persons would be quite 
 sufficient for the demands of each district of 100 square miles.
 
 129 
 
 excepting when the district includes a town over 16,000 or 
 20,000 inhabitants, of which size there are not twenty towns in 
 Ireland. Unless some extraordinary circumstance arose in a dis- 
 trict, I do not think 200 persons would often be driven to 
 accept the shelter of the house of refuge. The effects upon 
 crime, rents and wages, will arise from the peasantry knowing that 
 they have the power to enter whenever they may please ; and 
 if half-a-dozen able-bodied men in the district do enter, the 
 knowledge will be as effectually promulgated as if every 
 able-bodied man had entered. If the food given in the houses 
 of refuge be not far better than that which is ordinarily pos- 
 sessed by the peasantry, the whole of the houses in the counties 
 forming the East Coast, from Antrim to Waterford, will, during 
 the greater portion of the year, contain only widows, orphans, 
 aged people, and now and then a few ejected tenants or labourers, 
 who cannot obtain employment. The numbers, without other 
 means than vagrancy, are supposed by many to be very great. 
 I again express my disbelief on the point. There is no subject 
 upon which it is more difficult to gain evidence on which 
 any reliance can be placed. Knowing the manner in which 
 it was gained by the Irish poor inquiry, I do not place the 
 slightest faith in their statements. Though no one more highly 
 appreciates the zeal, industry, and intelligence with which the 
 majority of the assistant commissioners on that inquiry per- 
 formed their duties than I, or have a higher opinion of the 
 general excellence and trust-worthiness of the evidence collected 
 by them, which I believe to be the best collected body of 
 evidence in existence, I am so well aware of the peculiar 
 difficulties which are opposed to a successful inquiry on the 
 subject at issue, and the perfect inadequacy of the means 
 which they possessed, that I cannot but feel a total absence of 
 faith in their statements in this respect. A machinery as ex- 
 tensive as that for ascertaining the number of persons of each 
 religious persuasion might possibly, if well applied, approach 
 sufficiently near for practical purposes ; I believe, however, that 
 there is but one sure test, and that is a workhouse open to all 
 who find it worth while to enter. 
 
 However, if I should prove to be wrong as to the numbers who 
 would require relief, it is scarcely possible that I can be wrong in 
 stating that houses for each district, capable of holding 200 per- 
 sons, will be sufficient. In giving relief, the great object is to 
 guard against those receiving it who have other means of living 
 save vagrancy or crime. The earnings of the members of a 
 labourer's family in Ireland, with the exception of thoseof the able- 
 bodied men, are not worthy of consideration; if, therefore, the able-
 
 130 
 
 bodied men were received into institutions, relief might be given 
 in food to their wives and children at their homes, without any 
 danger of relief being mixed with wages, or of persons living 
 upon the public provision instead of by industry. The head 
 of the family would always be anxious to leave the house, and 
 would do so as soon as he could get employment, and the 
 moment that he left the house, the relief given to his wife and 
 children might be withheld. 
 
 As 500 houses capable of containing 200 each would be 
 capable of holding 100,000 persons, if able-bodied men only 
 were received into them, estimating each family at 5, a father, 
 mother, and 3 children, the house-room would be sufficient with 
 which safely to administer relief, both out and in-door, to 500,000 
 persons. To which number may be added 200,000 or 300,000 
 infirm through age or accident, who might, in case of emergency, 
 safely be relieved at their houses. Thus, with such establish- 
 ments, relief might be safely administered to 800,000 persons, or 
 to l-10th of the whole of the population of Ireland. I have made 
 this calculation merely to show the efficiency of the establish- 
 ments I propose, and not from a belief that l-10th of that number 
 will at any season seek the relief. The outlay for building 
 houses of refuge in Ireland ought not to exceed one million. 
 The estimate for building and finishing a workhouse in Eng- 
 land, capable of holding 200 persons, is something less than 
 2,OOOJ. In Ireland, stones fit for such buildings are to be 
 found every where in abundance, labour is much cheaper 
 than in England ; and, from the rude nature of their habitations, 
 accommodation for the peasantry need not be so costly as 
 for English labourers. The plan adopted in England of pur- 
 chasing existing premises, which may frequently be bought for 
 a fourth of the cost of erecting, and made suitable at a trifling 
 expense, might constantly be adopted in Ireland. By such a course 
 the supply of houses might be greatly reduced below one million. 
 The expense of maintaining the inmates would of course de- 
 pend upon their numbers. The cost per head, however, will not 
 exceed 6d. per week each, or 26s. a year ; it is easy to arrive at 
 this calculation. The instances are very rare of the family of 
 an Irish peasant earning more than 2s. a week money wages all 
 the year round. A peasant's family may be averaged at five 
 persons. It is quite unnecessary to prove that a number of 
 individuals can be fed at a cheaper rate, per head, than a single 
 family. If further proof be required, it is only necessary to 
 consider the cost of feeding the inmates of an English work- 
 house. Wheaten bread, with meat once or twice a week, and
 
 131 
 
 soup or porridge on other days, can be supplied, fit for an 
 English labourer, both in quantity and quality, for a fraction 
 more than Is. a week per head. It must be unnecessary to 
 make any further remarks as to the rate. At 6d. per head, 
 500,000/. a year will maintain a permanent body of 400,000 
 persons, as well as the most comfortable of the Irish peasantry 
 are now maintained. To estimate the annual expenditure at 
 500, 0001. will, I think, be a great exaggeration. 
 
 The following statements, extracted from the evidence col- 
 lected by the English Poor Law Inquiry, show the nature and 
 extent of the demand upon the poor's rates in England, about 
 fifty years after their establishment. The first parish is in 
 Sussex, the second in Essex. 
 
 Moushall Quarter The accompte of Hugh Luck, one of the Overseers 
 
 1615. of the poore of the Parish of Mayfield, for the yeare 
 
 of our Lord 1615. 
 
 e. d. 
 
 Item payd to Mother Evans at several tymes . .086 
 
 Item payd to William Moone for house rent for one yeare .068 
 Item payd unto Gregory Sawyer for half one corde of wood for 
 
 her . . . . . ..039 
 
 Item payd for the burieng of Mother Evans and for canvas to 
 
 her in and for watching with her and other charges . 10 9 
 
 Item payd to Gregory Rolfe the 22d of January . .068 
 
 Item payd to John Weston for one yeare's house rent for Mother 
 
 Wilmshurst . 14 
 
 Item payd to Thomas Austen for one payre of cards for Mar- 
 garet Penkhurst . . . ..020 
 Item payd to John Weston for house rent for Loval . 10 
 Item payd unto Thomas Maryan for one hundred of fagots for 
 
 Mother Whitly . . . ..050 
 
 Item payd to Thomas Ligh for 3 ells and a half of canvas, at 
 
 16d. the ell for her '.' . .';'* , .048 
 
 Item payd for a wast-cote and a peticote for her '> J' .019 
 
 Item payd more for other things for her . . .060 
 
 Item payd more for one hundred of fagots for her . .050 
 
 Item payd to Mr Penkhurst for 4 yeares' rent for An Mephum's 
 
 house ended at Michaelmas last . . . 26 8 
 
 Item payd to John Savage for writing out my three bookes to 
 
 gather by . . . . . 12 
 
 Item payd to Idon . . . . .0012 
 
 Item payd to Beatrice Bolt for keeping of Tompkins* girl .018 
 Item for writing of his Accompte . . . 12 
 
 The whole sum layd out is . . . 6 13 4 
 
 s. d. 
 
 The sum of his Bookes cometh to .13111 
 
 Resting in his hands in the gather all . ,687 
 Appendix A 1 78.
 
 132 
 
 Easter Monday, 1614, 1 find the following entries : 
 
 t. d. 
 
 Collected by the Overseers of this last year, viz. Jno. Marshe, 
 Samuel Winter Floode, and Joshua Draper, as appeareth by 
 the rate given in by them . . . . 50 15 10 
 
 Payd out . . . . . . 47 6 10 
 
 Remaining due . . . . ..393 
 
 History of Poor Laws in Braintree. English Poof Inquiry, 4pp. C.p. 199. 
 
 These are the only two instances which I can find ; they 
 average 271. estimating 15,000 parishes at that sum, the total 
 expenditure in England then amounted to 400,000/. a year. It 
 would not, however, be safe to rely upon a calculation made 
 only from two instances, still I think it probable that the 
 poor's rates were not over that sum at that period, because I 
 find that about fifty years later, in the year 1680, or little more 
 than a century after the passing of the 43rd of Elizabeth, that 
 the poor's rates of England were estimated at 600, OOO/. a year. 
 The population of England was then seven or eight millions, 
 much the same as it is now in Ireland. The poor's rates had at 
 that time pretty well reached their greatest height, if we deduct 
 the payment of wages through the poor's rates since 1796, and 
 allow for the difference of population, and of the prices of corn, 
 for the improved condition of the labouring classes, which made 
 it necessary as well as safe to give to those who become unable 
 to provide for themselves, a much better provision than in 
 former times, and also for the many heavy expenses which 
 have during the last century been charged to the poor's rate, 
 of which the following are the principal. 
 
 12 Geo. II. c. 29, &c. . . County rate. 
 
 5 & 6 Wm. IV. c. 76, s. 92 (Corpo- ? Borough rate in the nature of a county 
 ration Reform Act) . . ) rate. 
 
 7 Xr ft r on TV /. QI IK ( Compensation by the hundred in places 
 
 / C O vTCO. IV* C* ol 8* IO \ 'i , 
 
 ( not contributing to the county rate. 
 7 Geo IV c 64 I Costs and compensations in the prose- 
 
 * cution of felony in such places. 
 
 25 Geo. II. c. 36, s. 5 ; 58 Geo. III. ? Costs of prosecuting persons keeping 
 c. 70, s. 7 & 8 . . . ) disorderly houses. 
 
 C Sums expended by constables in doing 
 18 Geo. III. c. 19, &c. . . ? actual business in the parish, in the 
 
 ( relief or removal of vagrants, &c. 
 1 1 Geo. IV. 1 Wm. IV. c. 30, s. 10. Making population returns. 
 
 6 Geo. IV. c. 50, s. 9 . . Printing a sufficient number of jury lists. 
 
 These charges are allowed by law, but being in the daily 
 habit of examining parish accounts, I know that the poor's rates
 
 have, during the last fifty or sixty years, been considered as the 
 fund applicable to all parish purposes receiving the general 
 sanction. It will immediately be seen that a just conclusion 
 cannot be drawn as to the increase of pauperism in England, 
 without making extensive deductions. I am myself strongly of 
 opinion that the proportion of the population receiving parish 
 relief had not increased during the century ended in 1790. 
 
 At the time of the establishment of poor laws in England, it 
 has been shown that the state of the peasantry of England was 
 very similar to the present state of the peasantry of Ireland. 
 The foregoing expenditure would, therefore, show that the 
 good effected was by some indirect influence of these laws, and 
 not by the expenditure of money. 
 
 The mode of supplying the fund for building houses of refuge 
 in Ireland, and for maintaining them and their inmates, is a 
 point of some difficulty. 
 
 It would not be wise to risk the failure of funds upon which 
 so much will depend, and Ireland affords ample evidence of the 
 probability of the failure of the voluntary principle. The amount 
 of the congregational collections is perhaps a fair criterion of 
 the probable amount of success. More than 3/. or 41. a year 
 are rarely collected from any congregation, unless in some of 
 the large towns; and even in the large towns it is with the 
 greatest difficulty that the funds for the support of the mendi- 
 city institutions can be collected. The subscriptions to the 
 Dublin mendicity have decreased one half in a few years. The 
 dispensaries, which partly depend upon donations, are fre- 
 quently discontinued, owing to the impossibility of collecting 
 funds for their support ; in the immense county of Mayo, 
 private charity is only able to maintain three dispensaries. 
 
 As the dispensary system of Ireland is likely to be brought 
 forward as the example of the efficiency of voluntary contribu- 
 tions, I will show the working of that system. 
 
 The dispensaries of Ireland are supported by funds, half of 
 which are professedly voluntary, and half compulsory. The 
 grand jury of Ireland are by law compelled to give, out of the 
 grand jury cess or county rate, a sum not exceeding that 
 subscribed for a dispensary in any place. The practical 
 effect of this scheme is, that the whole is paid from the grand 
 jury cess, which is a compulsory fund, and that the county 
 who are taxed for it lose all control over its expenditure, which 
 passes to a few irresponsible individuals. I have no hesitation 
 in saying, that the scheme is an extensive fraud. The follow- 
 ing is a fair account of the mode of raising the funds for nine 
 out of ten dispensaries in Ireland.
 
 134 
 
 A medical man is anxious to be appointed the attendant of 
 a dispensary, and is willing to perform the duty, and supply 
 medicines for 100/. a year; he goes to a few friends and asks 
 them to subscribe to that amount, which they do, upon the 
 promise that he will repay them; the money must be sub- 
 scribed, as an oath to that effect is required before the grand 
 jury can act. Upon the oath being made, the grand jury add 
 100/. from the county rate. The treasurer of the dispensary 
 fund is generally a friend of the medical attendant ; he permits 
 the medical attendant to draw 150/. for his services, and 50/. 
 for medicine ; in other words, to take the 200/. : 100/. of which 
 the medical attendant returns to his friends, as the amount of 
 their subscriptions. The 100/. given from the county rates is 
 the amount which he really receives, and for which he is willing 
 to find medicines and to attend. At one place, in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Dublin, the principal subscribers to the fund were 
 the medical man, his wife, and each of seven children; in 
 another, the medical attendant having ascertained the average 
 cost of medicines, and attendance to his patients, during a few- 
 years, proposed to them to subscribe to his dispensary to that 
 amount, upon the condition that he should not make any other 
 charge for attending upon them. I was present at both of 
 these discoveries. It may easily be perceived how much volun- 
 tary charity has to do with the support of dispensaries in 
 Ireland ; but if we suppose it possible to free this half-and-half 
 principle from liability to fraud, there is an absurdity in its 
 working, especially when intended to supply the exigencies 
 of poverty, because in the poorest district the smallest sum will 
 be raised, whilst in the poorest district the largest sum is 
 required. If the object for which funds are to be raised is of 
 national importance, then the legislature should place it beyond 
 chance, and then the voluntary half of the principle is absurd ; if 
 the object be unimportant, then the legislature ought not to inter- 
 fere, and the compulsory half is improper ; and if the object be 
 mischievous, it is the duty of the legislature to prevent even the 
 voluntary fund. Both the support of the destitute, and the 
 education of the poorer classes, is of too much importance to 
 society to be consigned to the mercy of this fantastic principle, 
 a principle in favour of which 1 have never heard even a plau- 
 sible reason. What would he said of any man who should 
 propose to place the judicial establishments of the country, the 
 army or the navy, upon such a tenure? what would a large 
 portion of this country say to subjecting the church establish- 
 ment to this mode of support ? yet the support of the destitute, 
 and the education of the poor, is in every respect of as great 
 national importance as the establishments I have named.
 
 135 
 
 The grand argument of the advocates of the voluntary system 
 is, that compulsory assessment diminishes private charity. How 
 they arrive at this conclusion I am at a loss to conceive ; I 
 have heard the assertion, usque ad nauseam, but I have never 
 heard the grounds upon which it is based. Is it based upon the 
 absence of private charity in England ? Is it based upon the 
 boundless private charity in Ireland? Those who make the 
 assertion must surely have forgotten that the largest compul- 
 sory assessment in the world is in England, or must have 
 overlooked the endless number of institutions supported by volun- 
 tary contributions in this country. Have they never heard of 
 soup kitchens, of distributions of coals, of blankets, &c. 8tc. &c.? 
 if not, let them read Mr Chadwick's " Report on the Charities 
 in Spitalfields." They must have forgotten, too, that England's 
 charity has not staid at home; they must have forgotten that 
 her charity has reached the suffering Greek, the suffering Pole, 
 and the suffering of every other nation ; and that, hardened as the 
 heart of England is by assessment, it has even felt for those 
 whom Ireland, not hardened by assessment, was unable to 
 relieve. Has any one forgotten the great subscription in Lon- 
 don, some years since, when more than 100,000/. were sub- 
 scribed for the starving population on the west coast of Ireland ? 
 One-seventh of the whole of the poor's rates of England, viz. 
 of eight millions, was expended in London and its immediate 
 neighbourhood, and yet there is scarcely a principal street in 
 that city in which there is not a palace dedicated to charity, and 
 supported by voluntary contributions. I only wish that those 
 who talk of compulsory payments destroying private charity 
 could witness the energetic pleading for the poor which, as an 
 assistant poor-law commissioner, I constantly witness in those 
 rate-payers who have not been disabused of the erroneous 
 reports which have been spread relative to the objects of the 
 new system. When the deserving poor are concerned, I never 
 meet with a man willing to curtail their comforts, though I fre- 
 quently meet with those whose benevolent feelings would lead 
 them to give charity where it is not required, and consequently 
 where it will do mischief. 
 
 I may, perhaps, be told by those who object to assessment, 
 that by private charity they do not mean almsgiving, but the 
 kindly feelings which it creates, the sympathy which it pro- 
 duces between individuals and between classes, the general 
 softening of the national character. This explanation will do 
 nothing for their argument. Are the people of England worse 
 parents, children, friends, or neighbours, than the people of any 
 other country ? Are^they more brutal in their habits ? Do they
 
 136 
 
 exhibit a general carelessness about the sufferings of others? 
 Perhaps a very fair test is the comparative extent and atrocity 
 of crimes of violence on the person ; if so, I think the moral 
 statistics of England will bear comparison with those of any 
 country in the world. 
 
 I am convinced that, to leave the destitute to voluntary cha- 
 rity, so far from encouraging, tends to destroy the finer feel- 
 ings. When I first arrived in Dublin I suffered the greatest 
 pain from the constant sight of half-naked and squalid human 
 beings. I at first attempted to relieve them, but soon found 
 that it was quite beyond my individual means to make the 
 slightest impression upon the mass of misery, and gave up the 
 attempt as hopeles's. Each person is actuated by the same 
 feeling, and thus charity ceases. By degrees I became accus- 
 tomed to much of the misery which, on my arrival in Dublin, 
 twelvemonths previously, had caused me to shudder. Many of 
 the Englishmen who were on the Irish Poor Commission with 
 me, admitted, that constantly witnessing scenes of misery had 
 considerably blunted their feelings. The only scenes to which 
 I did not become callous are those which may commonly be 
 witnessed in Dublin after nightfall. On a winter's evening, 
 about seven o'clock, wretched creatures, without any other 
 covering than a blanket or an old ragged cloak, may be seen 
 stretched by the railings of the kitchen windows, watching with 
 intense eagerness for the potato peelings and for the scrapings 
 of the plates, after the wealthier classes have dined the tribe 
 of Lazarus waiting for the crumbs. As these persons were a 
 different set from those who appeared during the day, I suspect 
 they had known better days, and had, through reverses which 
 may overtake the wealthiest in this life of chances, fallen into 
 penury. But their feelings having survived their prosperity, 
 they were ashamed of the state to which they were reduced. 
 
 These scenes always made me rejoice in the comparatively 
 happy lot of the working classes in my own country, who never 
 can be reduced to utter destitution whilst the best institution 
 which the wisdom and benevolence of man ever framed the Poor 
 Laws exists. And yet, I had just left the Inquiry into the 
 " Administration and Operation of the Poor Laws in England 
 and Wales," filled to overflowing with horror at the condition of 
 our well-fed, well-clothed, well-housed, happy and independent 
 paupers. 
 
 1 have often smiled at ourEnglish horrors when witnessing Irish 
 scenes, and hoped that our own might never bear a worse cha- 
 racter than at present. It is not surprising that the Irish think 
 us a strange chimerical sort of people, upon learning that our 
 greatest grievance is a fourpenny stamp on newspapers.
 
 137 
 
 The knowledge of England in Ireland is not much better than 
 the knowledge which Englishmen possess of Ireland. I was 
 asked one day by an Irishman with whom I was talking about 
 poor laws, whether I would reduce the Irish labourer to the 
 level of the English pauper. I scarcely need say that he had 
 never been in England. When I had described to him the 
 food, clothing, habitation, &c. &c. of an English pauper, he 
 soon perceived that no English pauper in his senses would 
 change places with a farmer holding 20 acres in Ireland. I had 
 just then returned from a visit to the most pauperised county in 
 England Kent, and had been delighted with the comfortable, 
 roomy, substantial, neat, pretty, well-furnished cottages, with 
 the good clothing, and the healthy, cheerful, independent coun- 
 tenances of the inmates. I must say, that if there were no 
 choice but the squalid wretchedness and the crime of Ireland, 
 or the out-door allowance system of England, vicious as I ad- 
 mit that system to be, I should not hesitate to embrace it, as a 
 very minor evil. 
 
 The Scotch system is always adduced as an instance of the 
 advantages of the voluntary over the compulsory system. Those 
 who are so loud in their praises of the Scotch system, seem to 
 have forgotten that the advantages are more likely in the mode 
 of administering than in the mode of raising the fund. It does 
 not appear to me, however, that any one knows much about the 
 Scotch system ; many pretend to the knowledge, but I sus- 
 pect its worth. I have seen how completely the facts were at 
 variance with the assertions made relative to England and 
 Ireland, previously to the searching inquiries undertaken by the 
 government; but even admitting all that is claimed for the admi- 
 nistration in Scotland, and that the administration depends upon 
 the mode of collection, I can only say that the collection is, to 
 all intents and purposes, a compulsory collection. The law says, 
 if you do not give sufficient, you shall be assessed. This is 
 much of the sort of request which a civil highwayman makes 
 when he lets you see that, if civility won't do, force will be ap- 
 plied. This voluntary system is the English system, if the 
 English please to adopt it. The law only directs the overseer 
 to raise by assessment whatever is required for the poor, it does 
 not direct him to refuse voluntary contributions. If, therefore, 
 a few foolish people in a parish choose to relieve their neigh- 
 bours from their fair share of the contribution, they may in- 
 dulge their kindly propensities without any risk of interference 
 from the law. Our northern neighbours, who are not the least 
 shrewd people of the three kingdoms, are beginning to discover 
 that their voluntary system is excellent for relieving the un-
 
 138 
 
 charitable at the expense of the charitable a mere illustration 
 of working the willing horse to death ; and they are, conse- 
 quently, very generally adopting assessment. 
 
 It must be evident that voluntary contributions should not 
 be relied upon for the support of so important an institution 
 as a provision for the destitute. The mode of raising a com- 
 pulsory fund is, therefore, to be considered. A compulsory 
 fund may be local or general. In England the tax is local ; 
 each parish is compelled to provide a sum equal to its expen- 
 diture. Local taxation is peculiarly unfitted to the purpose 
 of supporting the destitute, because the power to supply is 
 always in the inverse ratio to the demand. In those districts 
 in which there are the greatest number of poor there are fewest 
 persons to assess; whilst in those districts in which there is 
 the greatest proportion of rich persons the smallest amount is 
 required. The parishes of Spitalfields and Cornhill, in London, 
 are exemplifications of local taxation, for the purpose of 
 supporting the poor. In the first, all are poor ; in the second, 
 all are rich. This objection does not necessarily apply to local 
 taxation. For police, lighting, draining, the greatest demand may 
 be where there are the largest means. The practical working of 
 a local tax in Ireland would be to relieve Ulster and Leinster to 
 the ruin of Connaught and Munster. The people of Ulster 
 have always fed the beggars of Connaught. There is more 
 vagrancy in Ulster than in any part of Ireland, because it is the 
 richest, and there is less vagrancy in Connaught, because it is 
 the poorest; to use a homely phrase, " the crows follow the 
 carion." Connaught produces the beggars, but does not feed 
 them. To such an extent is this the case, that the Assistant 
 Commissioners who visited Connaught could not there gain 
 any information relative to vagrancy ; there were no vagrants. 
 The best information was obtained in Ulster, in which they 
 abound. 
 
 The same state exists between two neighbouring properties ; 
 vagrancy is the most extensive on the estate of the proprietor 
 who charges a moderate rent, and gives good wages ; it scarcely 
 exists on the rack-rented estate, as the people have nothing to 
 give. The beggars of the latter live upon the comfortable 
 peasantry of the former. The rich have always maintained the 
 poor either directly or indirectly. Another objection to local 
 taxation for the support of the poor is, that whether it is 
 accompanied with settlement laws or not, practices demoralizing 
 both to the poor and to the rate-payers will arise. If settle- 
 ment does not co-exist with local taxation, cruelty to the poor, 
 and ill-will and fraud amongst the rate-payers will arise, from
 
 139 
 
 the constant endeavour, by intimidation, persuasion, and bri- 
 bery, to induce persons to transfer their claims for relief from 
 one district to another; if it does, then extensive and expen- 
 sive litigation between districts may result ; a very large pro- 
 portion of the poor's-rates of England have been expended in 
 disputing settlements. Besides these evils, there is an unfair- 
 ness in local taxation ; much property thereby wholly escapes 
 paying towards the support of the poor. The fixed property, 
 land and buildings, bear nearly the whole burthen. There is a 
 sentimental expression, that every man has a claim upon the 
 land for support, in which there is as much reason as there 
 would be in the assertion that every man has a claim upon the 
 cotton factories for support. The support of the poor is as 
 much the duty of every individual as the support of the 
 judicial establishments, of the army and of the nary. The 
 only mode by which the burthen can be made to fall equally upon 
 all is, by placing it upon the same fund as those establishments, 
 viz., upon the general exchequer, which directly or indirectly 
 reaches every individual. 
 
 It will be impossible, in the present state of Ireland, to raise 
 the requisite sum for the support of the poor ; and I believe 
 that, if it is attempted, a successful opposition will be made to 
 the introduction of relief for the destitute in that country, and 
 consequently Irish alliance will continue a disgrace and a 
 needless expense to Great Britain. Ireland, in her present 
 state, does not cost Great Britain less than a million and a half 
 annually for military and police. It would be well to try 
 whether 600,000/. a year, employed to prevent the fear of destitu- 
 tion, which is the ground of inquietude, would not be more effec- 
 tive then 1,500,000 expended to coerce those who will not starve 
 quietly. I cannot believe that the people who gave twenty 
 millions without a murmur, to sever the chains of the negro, 
 will not give half the annual interest of that sum to assist those 
 whom their money has been so lavishly expended to degrade. 
 But I have one word more to say to the English and Scotch, 
 as men of business. If they do not in a direct manner under- 
 take the expense of relieving the poor of Ireland, expedients in 
 the shape of government loans (which will never be repaid) 
 will take ten times the amount from their pockets, and they 
 will have the discomfiture of finding that their money has been 
 lavishly expended to the benefit of a few private individuals, 
 whilst the miseries of the poor remain without mitigation. 
 There are many hands ready to grasp such loans ; and many 
 jobs are preparing in the shape of reclaiming waste lands, and 
 employing the poor in constructing public works. Of the money
 
 140 
 
 so granted, 99/. will go to increase rent-rolls for every II. 
 which benefits the poorer classes. It should not be forgotten 
 that Ireland has ever been the land of jobs. 
 
 The principal objection brought against a national fund for 
 the support of the destitute is, that the people of each district 
 will be lavish in its expenditure, because they have to contri- 
 bute so small a proportion of what they expend. This might 
 be true if they were not restricted as to the mode of giving ; 
 but if they are restricted to a form in which only those who 
 ought to receive will accept, how can they be lavish ? Lavish 
 expenditure requires acceptors as well as donors. If a surgeon 
 was to offer to amputate legs gratis, there would not be any 
 danger of his time being absorbed, only those who found ampu- 
 tation requisite to save their lives would accept his offer. Su- 
 perintendence is the next point which it is necessary to con- 
 sider. The opponents of Irish poor laws state that the non- 
 existence of a middle class to form local boards of superintend- 
 ence is fatal to every plan. I do not believe that any district 
 exists in Ireland of 100 square miles, in which four or five per- 
 sons cannot be found fit to superintend the administration of 
 relief* But I have to propose a plan which will not require 
 local superintendence a plan which was most successfully 
 adopted for many years at the workhouse at Oswestry, in Shrop- 
 shire. It was the custom of the parish of Oswestry to contract 
 for the feeding of all the parishioners who might avail them- 
 selves of the workhouse during the year. They paid a fixed sum, 
 and the contractor took the risk of numbers, and had neither 
 more nor less, whether the numbers chanced to be 10 or 10,000. 
 The first year the contract was taken at 2,000/. ; the second 
 at 1,400/. ; the third at 900*. ; and the fourth year at 400/. 
 The price decreased as people became accustomed to the sys- 
 tem, and consequently anxious to obtain the contract. In Ire- 
 land it will soon be perceived that the risk is not greater than 
 is incurred by those who farm the tolls of roads, bridges, canals, 
 or fees of any description, that there is an average number, 
 above or below which the applicants do not materially vary, 
 and that upon an average of the whole year the inmates each 
 week will not greatly vary. With districts containing 100 
 square miles each, one contractor might easily supply nine work- 
 houses, as there will be that number within a circle of ten miles 
 round each centre. Fifty contractors might therefore supply the 
 workhouses of the whole of Ireland. Under such a system there 
 could not be any loss to the country by peculation ; and it would 
 be the duty of the master of the house to see that the contractor 
 gave the quality of provisions, and in such rations as were spe- 
 cified in his contract. A board of guardians might be created in
 
 141 
 
 each district, to receive and inquire into the complaints of the 
 inmates, and to see that the contractor fulfilled his agreement. 
 Upon this system of contracting not only the trouble and risk 
 of purchasing and preserving provisions, but also the trouble of 
 keeping and auditing accounts will be saved. The contractor 
 should not have the slightest controul over the labour of the 
 inmates or their general management. 
 
 As a central superintendence will be indispensable to any 
 system of relief for Ireland, I cannot see any evil to arise 
 from that superintendence vesting in the Poor Law Commis- 
 sion in London, but I can see very great advantage. Political 
 religion so completely divides society in Ireland that it is 
 scarcely possible for Commissioners, if placed in Dublin, to 
 avoid private intercourse exclusively with one party, when, even if 
 they do not imbibe the leanings and prejudices of that party, 
 their impartiality will be suspected ; and thus considerable 
 difficulty will impede them in the execution of their office, and 
 their acts will generally be liable to cause discontent. I do 
 not, however, believe it possible for human beings to avoid, in 
 some degree, being influenced by the feelings of those by 
 whom they are continually surrounded. Party feeling in 
 Ireland is very different from party feeling in England. It is 
 the difference between water and spirit. To one accustomed 
 to the excitement of Ireland, England becomes a dull mono- 
 tony. A Tory and a Radical in England will meet in society, 
 and each will admit of the other that he is an excellent, clever, 
 well-intentioned man, but under mistake. The feeling in Eng- 
 gland is towards the theory, not towards the individual : in 
 Ireland it generally takes a personal turn ; and those who 
 differ in religious persuasion, or on theories of government, 
 will not allow that each other possess a single virtue. The 
 party feelings of Ireland could not exist with Englishmen 
 residing in London. In a town in which the people and the 
 concerns, not only of the United Kingdom, but of the whole 
 world are mingled, and become of common interest, narrow 
 party spirit is destroyed. Ireland has long shown that local 
 central government becomes a nucleus for the narrowest party 
 feelings. It frequently happens in Ireland that a dispute exists 
 between the parties in a parish or district, about which it is 
 necessary for the Central Government to send an officer to 
 inquire. The religio-political party in opposition to which the 
 officer or his relations or friends belong are certain to be dis- 
 contented, and to feel that partiality has governed his conduct. 
 If the Central Control is in London, this evil will be avoided ; 
 an Englishman, a Scotchman, or Welshman, will be aent, and
 
 to neither will partiality be imputed, unless he has long 
 resided in Ireland. A further advantage will arise from having 
 the administration of relief to the poor of both countries under 
 the same Board ; the experience of the one country will 
 be carried into the other. A periodical transfer of Assistant- 
 Commissioners from one to the other can be made. The 
 English can be sent into Ireland, and the Irish Assistant- 
 Commissioners can be brought into England ; from such ex- 
 changes much information will be obtained as to the most rapid 
 mode of assimilating the people of the two countries in con- 
 dition, in feelings, and in habits. 
 
 A measure requiring so much prudence as the administration 
 of relief in Ireland could not be better entrusted than to the 
 present Board in London, who have already gained public con- 
 fidence by the manner in which they have conducted the 
 amendment of the administration of relief in England, and who 
 have avoided alike the crotchets of those who would deprive 
 the destitute of relief, and of those who would demoralize the 
 labouring classes by the mode of administering it. It may 
 perhaps be well to add one or two Irish gentlemen to the 
 Board. 
 
 As many persons object to confining the public provision 
 for the able-bodied to a workhouse, and as the scheme of public 
 works, or out-door employment, has many able supporters, and 
 many specious arguments in its favour, I feel bound to show 
 why the Legislature ought not to adopt it. Every system of 
 public provision must include the right, on the part of every 
 member of society, to demand it. If the right be not granted, 
 the feeling of security will not be created, and the power to 
 raise the earnings of the labouring classes will not exist; thus 
 the two principal objects of a public provision will be defeated. 
 If out-door employment with the right is adopted, the following 
 difficulties will arise : 
 
 1st. The difficulty of providing employment in each of 
 several hundred districts, which will not interfere with existing 
 employments, will be available at all times, and will have the 
 semblance of utility. 
 
 2ndly. The great difficulty, and the great expense of su- 
 perintending those employed, even if suitable work can be 
 devised. 
 
 3rdly. The great difficulty of preventing the applicants from 
 being more numerous than is requisite for producing the desired 
 effect ; and consequently the difficulty of keeping the expense 
 to the public at the lowest cost, consistent with that object.
 
 143 
 
 In providing employment, the first object is to avoid curtail- 
 ing the ordinary occupations of the district. If great care be 
 not taken in this respect, the system would destroy the existing 
 demand for labour in the degree that it provided employment, 
 and thus the whole of the working population would by degrees 
 be thrown upon the public provision. All plans for forcing 
 those who seek employment into the service of individuals, 
 whether in agriculture or in trade, will be attended with the 
 same pernicious results, as arose out of labour rates, roundsmen, 
 ticket and billet systems in England. Every man forced into 
 the occupation of a farmer or a manufacturer, will exclude one 
 already voluntarily employed, and thus every workman will in 
 time have been dismissed from independent labour, and forced 
 to work under the public provision. The good workman and 
 the bad workman, the idler and the industrious man, will be 
 provided with an equally agreeable subsistence, and under such 
 discouragement industry and skill will rapidly vanish. Of this 
 the late Administration of the Poor Laws in England furnishes 
 ample proof. Similar evils will follow the adoption of every plan 
 for making the public provision repay its necessary expenditure, 
 such, for instance, as by the creation of roads, bridges, &c. 
 If the employment created be in manufactures, capital alone ; 
 if in agriculture, then both capital and land must be taken from 
 those individuals who already employ workmen. The with- 
 drawal of capital from the manufacturer, or of capital and land 
 from the farmer, will necessarily diminish the power of the 
 possessors to employ, and consequently will force them to dis- 
 miss some of their workmen. Those who are dismissed will of 
 course apply for the public provision, and cause for their em- 
 ployment a further abstraction of the means of employing from 
 individual farmers and manufacturers, when again a further 
 number of those employed by individuals must be dismissed. 
 Thus every attempt to employ will be followed alternately by 
 an absorption of capital and a dismissal of workmen, until the 
 whole of the workmen and the entire land and capital shall 
 have become subservient to this species of public provision. 
 At Loughborough the establishment of stocking manufactures in 
 the workhouses did serious injury to the private manufacturers, 
 and threw many workmen out of employment, who, in conse- 
 quence, were compelled to resort to the parish manufactory. 
 In the several districts of England, digging gravel, and break- 
 ing stones for the repair of the roads, is commonly resorted to 
 as an occupation for those who seek the public provision. As 
 neither of these works can with advantage be performed by 
 machinery, every pauper employed upon them displaces an in-
 
 144 
 
 dependent labourer, and makes him a pauper; they are im- 
 proper occupations for a public provision. Occupations which 
 introduce hand labour in the place of machinery can scarcely be 
 said to interfere with existing employment. The withdrawal 
 of capital from private individuals, and the extent of produc- 
 tion, is so very small in proportion* to the number of persons 
 employed. In agriculture, the spade in the place of the plough, 
 the flail in the place of the threshing machine, the hand-mill 
 in the place of the wind, water, or steam-mill ; in manufac- 
 tures, the distaff for the mule and jenny, the hand for the 
 power-loom, and the knitting-needles for the stocking-frame. 
 Simple obsolete machinery will not, for the employment of 
 dozens of individuals, require as great an outlay of capital as 
 will the machinery of modern and scientific construction for 
 the employment of a single individual. Neither will the capi- 
 tal for procuring the raw material, to keep dozens of individuals 
 in employment, when working with such rude machinery, be 
 as great as will be required for the occupation of a single indi- 
 vidual working with improved machinery. Hamburgh is the 
 only place in which an attempt is made to prevent the employment 
 under the public provision from interfering with private occu- 
 pations. In most other places the mischievous idea of making 
 the occupation profitable prevails. The following is extracted 
 from the report of the Poor Society in Hamburgh, p. 402, 
 App< F, to Poor Law Inquiry in England. 
 
 We were continually endeavouring to find out some employment for our 
 poor, the exercise of which required no great skill, but at the same time 
 without prejudicing those who had hitherto, without becoming 1 a burden to their 
 fellow -citizens, with difficulty supported themselves by their own hands. The 
 consideration of these two indispensable conditions, particularly necessary 
 with us, where the pressure on all kinds of easier gains is so great, especially 
 as our institution cannot employ the capital intrusted to it in extensive com- 
 mercial speculations, has hitherto placed insuperable difficulties in our way. 
 
 How much the more pleasing, therefore, must be the offer made us in the 
 course of last year by the respectable commercial house of Emanuel and Son, 
 by which both conditions were answered as much as possible. This house 
 agreed, upon condition of delivering the necessary materials and payment of 
 moderate wages, to have woollen stockings and socks knitted by our poor 
 for exportation. We did not hesitate to agree to this immediately, and ac- 
 cordingly a contract was made with this house ; in pursuance of which it 
 delivers for a year in advance the necessary quantity of knitting yarn for 2,000 
 dozen pair of socks, and engages to send socks knitted by our poor beyond 
 sea, or at all events not to sell them at any place within ten miles (German) 
 of Hamburgh, and also, as much as it depends upon them, to take care that 
 none of the articles come afterwards to this market. 
 
 Some of the parishes in England created employment for 
 those who could not find it in the ordinary avocations. This
 
 145 
 
 employment usually had the merit of not abstracting much capi- 
 tal from private individuals, and of not interfering with private 
 employment, but it was devoid of the semblance of utility. 
 The employment created was carrying bags of sand and wheel- 
 ing barrows of gravel to and from stated spots, and continually 
 re-digging the same piece of land. The moral effect of these 
 employments, however, was of the worst description. Those 
 who were employed could not perceive that the toil which they 
 were made to endure served any good end, and consequently it 
 became vexatious, and malice was attributed as the motive of 
 those who enforced it. 
 
 With such an impression, it is not strange that the paupers 
 should have endeavoured to give as much vexation to their 
 superintendents as possible. The result of such employment 
 has usually been the complete demoralization of those who were 
 employed, and the generation of bad feelings towards the 
 working classes in those who had to superintend them, and also 
 in those who witnessed their conduct. 
 
 It is extremely probable that work could be found in a great 
 many parts of Ireland, which would possess the requisites of 
 not interfering with existing employment, and of having the 
 semblance of utility. The reclamation of bog does not neces- 
 sarily require expensive machinery, and would not interfere 
 with existing employment ; but any system of public employ- 
 ment must ensure work at all times, and within a reasonable 
 distance of every labourer, or it will fail to operate as a minimum 
 to wages and a maximum to rents. Each work-station, there- 
 fore, could not well serve for a more extended radius than 
 three miles, because a labourer could scarcely go to and from 
 his work at a greater distance. It may be said, that he could 
 remove to the neighbourhood of the station ; if so, the public 
 must either provide cabins at the station, or those who require 
 work must hire them. That proprietors in the neighbourhood 
 of the station would willingly centralize all the worst charac- 
 ters and worst workmen of a large district, without some 
 countervailing advantage, is very improbable. Perhaps the 
 countervailing advantage might be monopoly of cabin rents, in 
 the payment of which the principal portion of the earnings of 
 those in public employment would be absorbed ; and thus 
 the advantage of the public employment would be so much 
 reduced as to frustrate its principal object to support 
 wages and to check rents. Perhaps an attempt would be 
 made to meet this evil by giving an additional sum to pay 
 the rent, and then a door will be opened to evils similar 
 to those which were produced in England from the parish 
 paying the rents of labourers' cottages. The working classes 
 
 L
 
 146 
 
 are attached to the neighbourhood in which they have long 
 resided, and in which their relatives and friends reside, and 
 consequently they will there submit to much lower wages than 
 are offered at the public works, rather than remove to a great 
 distance ; the same feeling will induce those who have become 
 located at the public works to continue there unless very much 
 higher wages, with permanent work, were guaranteed them in 
 that part of the country in which they were required. Thus, 
 distant public works would have a different tendency to that 
 required; the distance would prevent those who are tempo- 
 rarily unemployed from resorting to them rather than compete 
 for private work at low wages, or otherwise it will render a 
 permanant pauper of every labourer who went to them. 
 
 If public employment be substituted for the workhouse 
 system, a station must be established within a convenient dis- 
 tance, say within three miles, of every labourer. This will 
 require at least a station for every twenty-four square miles, 
 and about 700 stations for Ireland. It is almost needless to 
 say that it will be nearly, if not quite impossible, to find in each 
 of so many districts work which will at all times be avail- 
 able, have the semblance of utility, and yet not interfere with 
 existing labour. Reclamation of bog cannot be conducted at 
 all seasons ; neither can digging land. Many weeks inter- 
 vene when no land within a convenient distance requires 
 ploughing. 
 
 If it were possible to find eligible employment in every dis- 
 trict, at least 700 superintendents would be required. If the 
 only work to be found be digging land, which would otherwise 
 be ploughed, and such only could be found in many districts, 
 portions of the labourers in public employment would often be 
 engaged at several different parts of a district, and then a single 
 superintendent for each district would not be sufficient. It would 
 not be merely necessary to require a proper share of work from 
 those in public employment, but to guard against their being 
 bribed to do work which would otherwise be done by private 
 labourers. If care was not taken to prevent that species of fraud, 
 the system of displacing private labourers would be introduced. 
 It is needless to say that the expense of superintending out- 
 door employment must be immense. 
 
 The great difficulty of preventing the applicants for public 
 employment being more numerous than is requisite to produce 
 the desired effect on wages and rents, and consequently the 
 difficulty of keeping the expense to the public at the lowest 
 cost consistent with those objects, are great objections to out- 
 door employment. 
 
 It is essential to these ends that public employment should
 
 147 
 
 be furnished to those only who have neither land nor private 
 employment. 
 
 Any scheme for giving employment must include some 
 standard of occupation. Either piece-work or time-work must 
 be resorted to. Piece-work must, of course, be regulated by 
 reference to the quantity which an average workman can com- 
 plete, working a reasonable number of hours daily. The 
 strongest and best will complete their task early, and then 
 undertake private employment, or rent land, upon which to ex- 
 pend their remaining energy. Time-work, when possible, is 
 preferable, because it can be made to occupy the usual work- 
 ing hours of the day, and thus render it more difficult for a 
 public labourer to interfere with those who are in private em 
 ployment. If time-work, however, was resorted to, those who 
 were employed would fatigue themselves as little as possible, 
 in order that they might reserve their strength for performing 
 work in after hours. Agricultural labourers would hire ground 
 to till, and workmen generally would accept employment. 
 Every twelve hours of private employment obtained by a 
 public labourer will displace a private labourer, and drive 
 another to accept public employment, and thus increase 
 the number of paupers, and the demand upon the public 
 purse. As the right to relief is necessary to produce tran- 
 quillity and better wages in Ireland, and as it is impossible 
 to determine whether a man has performed the largest quantity 
 of work, and in the best manner he is able, there is every 
 chance that labourers would rarely trouble themselves to seek 
 employment, but would invariably go to the public occupations, 
 upon which they would be able, without much exertion, to 
 obtain as much as they could in private employment by per- 
 forming a hard-day's work. It was common for labourers in 
 England to go to the overseer, and tell him that he must find 
 them work ; and when he bid them apply to the employers in 
 their own and in neighbouring parishes, they refused, and de- 
 manded work or allowance. Where a well-managed workhouse 
 existed, however, this never occured. The labourers will only 
 enter that when every endeavour to procure work has failed 
 them that is, only on those occasions when it is desirable they 
 should receive public support. The following extracts will 
 give some idea of the effect of public employment as a system 
 of charity : I cannot conceive any mode of giving the legal right 
 to relief, which I have shown to be essential, and yet to avoid 
 similar evils resulting from out-door employment. 
 
 Dorset. P. 13. In the parish of Sturminster Newton, in the district of 
 that name, the overseers who employed the single men to get gravel from the
 
 148 
 
 pits, for road-mending, and who paid them by the piece, would not permit 
 them to earn more than three shillings per week, though they could have 
 earned ten or twelve shillings. 
 
 If these three shillings were earned in two days, the man had four days 
 which were either unemployed, or which he might employ where,ver he could 
 find work. I have not met with any instance in Dorsetshire, of the rounds- 
 men, or billet-system ; nor of the relief of paupers without demanding some 
 work in return ; that work, however, is in general a mere superfluity, lazily 
 executed, and maybe termed an excuse for labour, rather than labour itself. 
 
 Hampshire. 306. The farm is situated in a cold district ; the soil a stiff 
 clay. It is looked after by a bailiff; his salary 30/. The winter before last 
 there were 240 men at one time sent to be employed upon it, at the same 
 wages then generally given by the farmers, viz. 9s. per week: these men 
 scarcely did any work, and the bailiff had not the power to make them. There 
 was no efficient control, and nearly in all cases it will be the worst workmen 
 and worst characters who come for parish work ; the greater therefore the 
 necessity for a rigid superintendence, which, whilst treating them fairly, will 
 insist on a due return of labour. The rural police is inadequate to enforce 
 obedience, and the authorities, from the property they have at stake, and 
 the risks they incur, are often found not to act with the requisite decision 
 and firmness. 
 
 This was shown during the period when so many labourers were sent to the 
 farm, which they twice left in a body, proceeding to and threatening the 
 Directors. 
 
 Sussex. 202. These men at one time were required to bring up bags of 
 beach on their shoulders for mending the roads, and were shut up in the 
 workhouse yard; the object of which was to prevent imposition on the parish, 
 by their receiving parish pay as unemployed, when they were, in fact, getting 
 work from farmers. This degrading mode having attracted public notice, has 
 been discontinued, and the present plan is to require them to attend a roll- 
 call at nine in the morning and three in the afternoon, at the workhouse, and 
 no work whatever is required of them. 
 
 Kent. 899. No young man seems anxious to fit himself for becoming 
 either a thatcher, hedger, or ditcher ; they prefer lingering" on the parish farm, 
 and trusting to the pay they can wring from the parish, with scarcely any 
 return of labour. We learned from one of the farmers, who happened to be 
 present at the vestry held at the poor-house during the period of our visit, 
 the following then recent facts : During the interval between hay-making and 
 harvest, he wanted to have some roots of trees grubbed up ; he went to the 
 parish farm, on which, at this period, 30 labourers were employed, and 
 tendered the job, at which the labourers might have earned 2s. 6d. a day, or 
 perhaps more, to any individual there ; not a single person would undertake 
 it. He went on and found two men at a distance, still, however, at work on 
 the parish farm ; he offered the job to them ; under a variety of pretexts 
 they declined it ; it was at last accepted by two others, after considerable 
 hesitation, and a number of frivolous excuses. 
 
 Essex. 228. They are set to work on the roads and in a gravel pit, where 
 they idle away their time, so that the stubbing gravel, which might be done 
 for Is. per load, has cost 20*. The labourers are become very unmanageable. 
 Suffolk. 346. Parishes frequently hire land for the purpose of setting to 
 work those who are without employment, which often turns out as bad as 
 well as unprofitable an expedient as setting them to work on the roads. In 
 one parish, in which, seven years ago, there were about 47 men and boys on the 
 roads during winter, it was considered to be a mode of disposing of them so 
 hurtful to their character, that a field of nine acres was hired by the
 
 149 
 
 parishioners for the purpose of keeping them profitably employed. The extent 
 was not sufficient to allow of its being given out in task-work, so they were 
 set to dig it at day's wages, and although it was considered better than keeping 
 them on the roads, yet in truth they were as disorderly and idle in the field 
 as on the road. When a demand for labour arose, the digging of the land was 
 often entirely stopped, and it was found necessary to use horses, in order that 
 the cultivation might be carried on. After fighting on in this way for some 
 four years, the parish was forced to give it up, and an agreement to distribute 
 the labour over the land was entered into with effect. In another parish, 
 where 20 acres of land were hired for the same purpose, it was let out by 
 piecework, but no man was allowed more than would bring in 1*. 6d. a day, 
 or less to single men. It thus happened that the task was either completed 
 by two or three o'clock, and the rest of the day was spent in idleness, or they 
 worked so lazily that the whole day was consumed at it. The men, besides, 
 were so unruly, that it required a man of courage to keep them under control, 
 a quality in which some of the overseers were deficient. 
 
 Northampton. 397. In very many instances, a single man is paid nearly as 
 much, and a man with a large family quite as much, for lounging a few hours 
 away in nominal work on the roads (in some cases even for standing idle in 
 the street), as he would be if he were employed from sunrise to sunset by the 
 farmer. 
 
 400. The overseer, about two years ago, obtained the consent of the 
 vestry to try a plan of his own with them. He told them the parish would 
 give them nothing without having the benefit of their whole labour, and 
 accordingly set them to work, to which they were not accustomed, in getting 
 stone out of a stone-pit by the grate at a low rate. In one day a great number, 
 and in two the rest went off, swearing at the overseer and damning the parish, 
 and they did not apply again. I inquired whether, as this had been found to 
 answer so well in this instance, it had been tried again, and I found that in 
 winter it teas not considered possible to use the pits, and the people were allowed 
 to idle about the roads ; but in spring it was occasionally made use of with 
 great effect, both upon manufacturers and upon farm labourers ; and while it 
 was in action, the people were more cautious in leaving their employers upon 
 trivial pretences. At Oundle, the same sort of thing was carried into effect 
 much more systematically upon the parish farm, as I shall have occasion to 
 Btate hereafter. 
 
 In the towns (I allude particularly to the parish of All Saints, Northampton, 
 Kettering and Peterborough) the paupers are employed in sweeping the 
 .streets and keeping them clean ; and, as a specimen of the mode in which this 
 is done, a clergyman at Kettering told me that he had seen three men that 
 day taking charge of one wheelbarrow. The overseer there gave me an anec- 
 dote of one of their paupers, named William Makers, who was allowed 11s. 
 a week for sweeping the streets, and working occasionally on some land which 
 the parish hire, but which is not enough to give all their men employment. 
 A job was found for him in clearing a pond, which he considered to be too 
 dirty work to soil his fingers with, and accordingly excused himself. 
 
 At Peterborough, a place where the rates were very high, and the com- 
 plaints of the insolence of the paupers very great, the same mode of mock 
 employment by sweeping the streets had been tried, as a kind of punishment 
 for some of the paupers who had hooted the overseer to his house a little 
 before. Some of them turned their brooms up, and amused themselves with 
 scraping the streets with the poles; others set to work with such vehemence 
 as to wear out their new brooms in a very little time. 
 
 p. 401. In some cases I found the roundsmen system combined with 
 working on the road, some men being sent round to the farmers, and those
 
 150 
 
 for whom no work could be discovered being sent on the roads. This was 
 the case at Bozeat, and the value of the labour in both cases was nearly equal ; 
 they did as little as they could, whether they were in the service of the farmer 
 or on the road. 
 
 Oxford. 901. There is no parish work of any kind. The pampers, at one 
 time, were set to stone-breaking; but it was found that they destroyed their 
 tools, and that their earnings were insufficient to pay for the repairs. {.Appen- 
 dix A to the Report of the Poor Law Inquiry Commission.} 
 
 The arguments which I have urged against public employ- 
 ment are only directed against it as a system of out-door relief. 
 If the discretion of refusing relief is given to any one, the desired 
 effects upon crime, wages, andrentswillnotbeproduced; andif the 
 rightto out-door relief be granted in any shape, it will be impossible 
 to prevent abuse. The workhouse cannot be abused. He who 
 can live out of the institution nearly as well by labour will never 
 enter it. The fact, therefore, of a person entering the institu- 
 tion is proof that he is deserving of its shelter. If with food not 
 better than the present bare subsistence of the Irish peasantry, 
 and work as hard as they now perform, a number of able-bodied 
 persons are found to remain in the workhouses for months 
 together, it will be evident that there is a surplus of labourers 
 in the neighbourhood, and it will then become the duty of the 
 Legislature to provide for its disposal, either by emigration or 
 by some other means. Workhouses must be built for the aged, 
 for orphans, for widows with young children, as district hospi- 
 tals, and may as well therefore be employed as a shelter for 
 those of the able-bodied who are temporarily destitute, and for 
 the purpose of ascertaining the actual surplus, if there is any, 
 of which it will be requisite to dispose; for no one, of course, 
 would contemplate retaining a large number of able-bodied 
 men permanently in a workhouse. 
 
 I now beg to guard myself against the imputation of being 
 inimical to giving to the Irish people any assistance which it 
 is in the power of Great Britain to give. The people of Eng- 
 land have, against their will, paid large sums of money for the 
 oppression of Ireland, and I am sure will now cheerfully give 
 whatever will conduce to her prosperity. But they know the 
 difference between generosity and extravagance. My object is 
 to show at how trifling an expense the regeneration of Ireland 
 may be ensured. I am anxious that no misconception of the 
 cost should lead any to despair, and that my fellow-countrymen 
 who are anxious to assist Ireland should not be misled and 
 foster private interests, whilst they imagine they are aiding in 
 the public good. If the moral incubus the feeling of insecu- 
 rity as to the continuation of their subsistence be removed 
 from the minds of the working classes of Ireland, that country
 
 151 
 
 will rapidly improve. Her people are clever, frugal, and 
 industrious. They want but the same assistance that the people 
 of Great Britain possess, and under which they have flou- 
 rished beyond any country of Europe, to become the " Sister 
 Isle" in the best sense of the term sister in peace and pros- 
 perity sister in a happy and flourishing population. 
 
 Every attempt at forcing capital into Ireland must fail. Re- 
 move the impediment to its introduction insecurity of person 
 and property and it will enter in the best shape; it will enter 
 with its possessors, each with his skill and methodical habits, 
 with which only can labour be productive. It is almost impos- 
 sible for a Government to manage the outlay of capital with 
 success. This no people understand better than the English ; 
 and of this impossibility Ireland has given ample proof. For 
 the improvement of that country much money has been ex- 
 pended, and what is the result? Let us turn, however, to Eng- 
 land. For the canals, rail-roads, bridges, docks, harbours, and 
 other works of a stupendous character, how much money has 
 been voted by the Legislature ? Constructing rail-roads and 
 canals will not lead to the rise of large manufacturing towns 
 constructing harbours and docks will not bring shipping into 
 them. The Bridgewater canal was not the cause of the trade of 
 Manchester, but the consequence. The fine docks at Liver- 
 pool did not cause the shipping to frequent that port, but the 
 number of ships required for the trade caused the creation of 
 the docks. One would imagine that the Irish would be the 
 first to exclaim against the fallacy of public works being the 
 source of prosperity. They ought to know, by sad experience, 
 that they are but the indications of prosperity. If they are the 
 source of prosperity, why is the sole commerce on the two 
 beautiful canals which run west from Dublin confined to half 
 a dozen boat loads of turf in a week ? Those canals are finer 
 than any in England, and each is as commodious as a canal 
 from Portsmouth to London need be, for the passage of all the 
 shipping which now comes to the latter port by the British 
 Channel. The Custom-house and the Post-oflBce in Dublin 
 were, till lately, as large as the combined buildings of London, 
 Liverpool, and Glasgow. The Bank of Ireland is much larger 
 than the Bank of England, though the money transactions of 
 the foreign commerce of the whole world are done in London. 
 In fact, similar exemplifications of the adage of the " Cart be- 
 fore the horse" are every where to be seen in Ireland. If 
 England were to expend her whole capital upon public works in 
 Ireland, a few contractors might be enriched ; and if the waste 
 lands were reclaimed, the rent-rolls of the wealthy might be
 
 152 
 
 increased, but the labouring classes would not be benefitted 
 thereby they would then, as now, be confined to a bare sub- 
 sistence of potatoes. 
 
 Besides what has been said, every plan for the expenditure of 
 public money for the improvements of Ireland, with which I 
 am acquainted, is open to the most profligate jobbing, in spite 
 of the utmost precaution which it is in the power of any 
 Government to- take. 
 
 During the last ten years measure after measure has been 
 passed for the improvement of Ireland, acts against subletting, 
 for emancipation, for coercion, for peace-preserving, for grand 
 jury improvements, and for a variety of other purposes ; but 
 the people of Ireland are nevertheless just as wretched and 
 just as turbulent as they were twenty or fifty years back, 
 although of each measure in succession the tranquillity of 
 Ireland has been prophesied. The same degree of wretched- 
 ness, the same degree of turbulence will exist a century hence, 
 for any thing which any measure I have ever heard proposed 
 for Ireland will do in the absence of a Poor Law. A people 
 ever on the brink of starvation will ever be irritable, ever anxi- 
 ous for change, under the impression that change may improve 
 their condition, but cannot injure them. Some assert that the 
 constant excitement in that country is the cause of the poverty, 
 but sufficient has been said to show it is not the cause, but the 
 consequence. A Poor Law must be the ground of improvement 
 in Ireland. Until a provision shall be created for the destitute, 
 legislating for that country is like building upon the sands. 
 The Standard newspaper of the 24th May last, designates a 
 Poor Law for Ireland as " that real and substantial equiliza- 
 tion of the Irish with the British people, that must supply the 
 basis of all sound schemes of uniformity." With this remark 
 I perfectly concur, and a little reflection will show its truth. 
 The reason daily assigned for legislating differently for Ireland, 
 is the difference in the social state of that country, which 
 difference consists in the existence of a wealthy and intelli- 
 gent middle class in England, and the almost total absence of 
 such a class in Ireland. We have already seen that, in the 
 absence of a public provision for the destitute, the introduction 
 and the accumulation of capital in Ireland are almost impos- 
 sible, and hence the impossibilityof a middle class to excite and 
 direct the energies of the people, and develope the resources of 
 the sister kingdom. 
 
 {!. & W. RF.V.NKI.I., PRINTERS, 16, LITTLE PULTENEY ST11EET, HAYMARKET.
 
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