f \ t'«<-i;« THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES 1 m k ■O.^-!- iff- *■ r • ^' '-y-?.5 >v» ^V. 'V.' »>^' T ^■•i ;^/>|^ 1 ^ X.5. "NEW VIEWS ON IKELAND." > J J J I ■4 » » » > It • I > J J * * ^ J J i , J 1 » , 1 > 1 J I > 9 1 > * , •• • •• • < < « < *^ , C t t L ^ * « t * • I « I « ( • y^^^' ii NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND.' Cd ^ n nFH 9 B ♦• IRISH LMD: GRIEVANCES: REMEDIES. BT CHAELES (EUSSELL, Q.C., M,P. SECOND EDITION. IMACMILLAN AND CO. Dublin: GILL AND SON. 1880. [All rights reserved.^ LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, STAMFOBD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. Hi) PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. e/> eJj Hardly a week has passed since the First Edition acof this book was piihlished, aad now a Second is £2 called for. This is one proof, of many, that the public mind is keenly alive to the magnitude and urgency of the Irish Land Question, o *^ 22 What all true friends of Ireland desire, is a ^ J thorough and honest consideration of her case — ui then let right be done. Events are moving rapidly. Even since my earlier Letters were publislied, in the beginning of November, the question has passed into a new phase. ^ Ireland to-day is a Nation on strike. All former ^ popular movements, which have perplexed Govern- ments, have been pohtical. This is not political : it is social. Thus it has come to pass that Catholics and Pro- / « vi PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. testants, men of the North and men of the South, Liberals and Conservatives, friends of the Union and its enemies, are now found side by side. Here indeed are signs of a settled resolution to uproot a Land System which, in all its miserable history, has been fruitful only of evil — a resolution from which no appeals to ancient prejudices will divert the people. There have been unhappily, at times, excesses, injustice, hardships. These are perhaps hardly avoidable where great popular social forces are set in motion ; but, it ought to be the endeavour of all who can influence the people, and who have at heart their true interests, to minimize these evils. The principal addition which will be found in this issue is a valuable Letter from the Protestant Eector of Kenmare, which will be found at p. 216. C. E. Temple, December 23, 1880. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. The substance of the following pages has recently- appeared in a series of letters published in the Baily Telegraph, and also in the Freemans Journal, under the first title here prefixed to them, "New Views on Ireland." That rather ambitious title was given by the Editor of the former paper, not by me. It has, however, been preserved for the sake of identity. I ask only that these pages may be regarded as an honest contribution to the discussion of the most difficult, as it is the most pressing, question of our time. I bring to that discussion some practical ex- perience in former years, and an interest which has lasted all my life. Thinking men regard the settlement of the Land System as the foundation-stone of prosperity in Ireland. viii rEEFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. What I have written I have written from a sense of duty. I have striven to be fair. I have written from no standpoint of class, of politics, or of religion. I have sought to discuss the question as one which affects all classes in Ireland, and not Ireland alone, but the Empire. I have given the result of my examination of a portion of Kerry, which is fairly typical of the parts of Ireland, whose condition most urgently calls for improvement. I liave gone into details, where I thought it necessary, to enable the reader to appre- ciate what are the actual lives of large classes of men and women in Ireland in this day. Fo]' the rest, I must allow my sketches of Irish tenant life in the Kingdom of Kerry to tell their own story. It has been a pain to me to be obliged to make statements which could hardly fail, at times, to wound. It seemed to me impossible, honestly, to avoid making them. As might have been expected, the accuracy of my information has been questioned. It will be for the judgment of the reader to determine whether, in any essential part, it has been successfully impeached. I present the full means of judgment. I have PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. IX thought it right to set out in the Appendix every signed Letter brought to my attention, written by any one with authority to speak, which has purported to impugn my statements. I have also there set forth my Letters in reply. After attempting to illustrate the condition of things which seems to require redress, I have ventured to draw in outline a Kemedial Scheme. I have done so with diffidence and distrust. It may need, in its application, many safeguards and qualifications, but, I firmly believe that it lays down the main lines, on which alone can be built, a complete and permanent settlement of the Irish Land Question. 0. E. Temple, December 14, 1880. TABLE OF CONTENTS, CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. Actual State of Ireland — Disturbances alarming but exaggerated — Crime (except Agrarian) rare — White-gloved Assizes — Eecurrence of Famines connected with Land System — Devon Commission — Tardy Legislation since — Land League : the effect, not the cause of Lish discontent — Remedy: give the Tenants a stake in the Country — Aut umn Vialt to the Kingdom of Kerry . Page 1 CHAPTER II. KILLARNEY TO CAHIRCIVEEN. Route in Kerry — Difficulty of obtaining Information — Tenant's dread of Agent and Bailiff — Neglected condition of Lord Ventry's Estate at Killorglin — Food of the People — Catholic Chapel on Mr. Winn's Estate seized by Contractor for Debt — Eent-raisings — Wretched state of Mr. Morrogh Bernard's Tenants at Roads — Excessive EQnts — Norah Goulden's Story as told by Herself 12 CHAPTER III. TRINITY COLLEGE ESTATE. Cahirciveen the Property of the College — Neglected appearance of the Town — Squalid appearance of the agricultural Tenants — Rents very high — Hardships connected ■with Tenants' improvements — Stringent terms when advances made to Tenants for improvements — Land reclaimed by Tenants without aid from Landlords — Story of Re-valuation of Rents — ^^Evil effects of Banking accommodation to the Tenants, especially since 1870 — Excessive number of Public- houses — Ill-effects — Local Water-supply . . . .24 Xll CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. VALENTIA TO KENMARE. Valentia Island owned in part by Trinity College, in part by Knight of Kerry — Tenants miserably poor — Commendable efforts by Landlord — Signs of exterior improvement in Houses — High rents — All Tenants except about twenty in receipt of charity from Relief Committees last winter — Fishermen relieved by grants from Cana- dian Fishing Fund — Humiliating to Landlords— Extent of Re- claimable Land — Route to Waterville — Painful incident on Lans- downe Estate — Widow in dread of eviction — Thinks Sheriff has come to execute ejectment decree — Her Story — Estate of Mr. Hartopp — Gratitude of his Tenants — Estate of Mr. Bland at Sneem — Tenants would have starved but for Relief Funds — Miss Hewson's Estate, formerly Mr. Mahony's — Tenant paying 350 per cent, over Government Valuation . . . Page 33 CHAPTER V. THE LANSDOWNE ESTATE AT KENMARE. Appearance of the Tenants' Houses better — History of Estate interest- ing — Conflicting accounts as to Landlord — Estate managed by Mr. Townsend Trench — Denials by him of the existence of Distress on the Estate — Statement of the Nun of Kenmare — £15,000 col- lected by her for relief of Distress — Lord Lansdowne's Tenants ex- tensively relieved out of these funds, and clothes supplied to cover the Children attending the National Schools on his Estate — Piece of Bacon hanging up in a Tenant's House — Explanation of this phenomenon : Tenant an ex-policeman, and had a pension of £46 a-year .......... 43 CHAPTER VI. THE LANSDOWNE ESTATE AT KENMARE — Continued. Rent-raising on the " silent system '" — Drainage by Public Money — Landlord borrows mocey from the State, repayable by terminable instalments, and lends it to his Tenants — Supposed to charge them a perpetual annuity in the shape of Rent-increase — Lime monopoly — Lime burned by the Marquis and supplied to Tenants — While the CONTENTS. Xlll distress greatest the price seriously raised — Printed agreement for signature of Tenants binding them to pay Id. per barrel for Lime as a permanent ad Jitiun to their rents — Curious institution : The hanging year's rent — Its uses described — " Dublin writs " — Number issued — Arears, excluding "hanging Gale,'' not great Page 53 CHAPTER VII. IVERAGH ESTATE OF LORD LANSDOWNE. The Tenants have rarely seen Landlord, some never — Neither Landlord nor Agent visited the Estate during the Distress — The Estate managed by Bailiffs — Rents higher than at Kenmare — Compara- tive Table of Rents and Government Valuation — Rents raised three times in twenty-five years — Last rise in 1875 was 25 per cent, all round — Story of the Tenants in their own words— The hanging year's rent used as means of extracting illegal costs — Tale of the Rent-raising on the Estate succinctly told — Easy fashion in which it is accomplished — No independent valuation ... 62 CHAPTER VIII. SOME GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. Government or GriflSth's Valuation — Generally its character and inci- dence — Complaints received that pictm-es of Landlordism common- place — More startling stories suggested — Testimony of a Member of the EngUsh Bar as to the Lansdowne Estate in Iveragh — Unques- tionably grievous Faults in Tenants themselves — But is it not the fault of the System ? — Mill's opinion — Dangerous Topics in Pea- sants' mouths — Tipperary remedies — Effect of Correspondence mth and Visits from America — Healthy discontent — Uncertainty as to Rent and possession .paralyses industry and spreads discon- tent — Sir Richard GrenvUle wrote to the English Minister to that effect 300 years ago ....... 72 CHAPTER IX. WHY EXCEPTIONAL LEGISLATION IS NEEDED FOR IRELAND. English Land System not good, but Land in England a matter of secondary consideration — Liberality of English Landlords — Recent xiv CONTENTS. illustration— Effect of public opinion in England — No public opinion controlling Landlords in Ireland — The exceptional con- dition of things in Ireland traced to (1) Legislation directed to hindering Irish Commerce and Manufactures ; (2) Penal Laws, ■which divorce the majority of the People from the Land ; and (3) confiscations — Effect of these continuing to this day — Until years within living memory Government of Ireland on principle of strengthening the small Land-owning Class as if a garrison in a hostUe country — Try Legislation in the Interests of the People. Page 81 CHArXEE X. REMEDIAL SCHEME. Existing Land System broken down — Perennial source of misery and pauperism — Serious changes necessary, but no confiscation advo- cated — Ulster Custom may be dismissed — A practically uncon- trolled right to increase Pent renders right of sale valueless — Objections to periodical Ke-valuations — No automatic plan for regulating Rent practicable — Scheme : (1) Abolition of Settlement ; (2) Extinction by purchase of Mid interests ; (3) For all agricul- tural Tenants fixity of tenure at fair rents fixed once and for all, with provisions against subdividing, &c. ; (4) Abolition of Hang- ing Gale'in certain cases ; (5) Eight in Tenant to buy up his Pent wholly or in part ; (6, 7, and 8) Establishment of a Land Com- mission with power compulsorily to buy all corporate and all mortgaged Estates, all Waste Lands, and all Estates voluntarily offered for sale, paying owners by Land Bonds ; (9) Such Lands to be sold to the Tenants — Payment in annual instalments in dis- charge of principal and interest in (not exceeding) 52 years — These constitute an Occupying Proprietary ... 92 CHAPTEE XI. DISCUSSION OF REMEDIAL SCHEME. Some points common to all Land Eeforms — Fixity of Tenure and cer- tainty as to Pent justified as being necessary and practical— Con- trasted with periodical Ee-valuations and Eents rising and falling with price of produce— Practical effect of this Scheme — While ad- CONTENTS. XV vantageous to the Tenant gives the Landlord greater security — Will not drive better-class residents out of Ireland — Will not stereo- type small lioldinf^s, but probably aid healthy consolidation and Emigration — This explained — Right to redeem their Rent, wholly or in part, the best incentive to habits of Thrift— No real injustice to Landlord — Justification of Scheme as to Lands to be acquired by Commission — Difficiilty as to Absentee Landlords — Importance of dealing with Waste Lands — Mode of payment by Land Commission for Property purchased will involve no present advance of money — Land Bonds probably popular Medium of Investment — Prospect of Loss to the State slight. ..... Page 105 CHAPTER XII. FURTHER DISCUSSION OF REMEDIAL SCHEME — CONCLUSION. The creation of Occupying Proprietors an extension of the principle of the Bright Clauses of the Act of 1870 — Desirability of creating such admitted, if cost not too high — Objections stated and dis- cussed — Danger of subdivision long postponed — Now no tendency toward danger of subdivision — Public opinion, and particularly the opinion of the Tenant-class, would support Commission in insisting on strict contract observance — Loss to the State im- probable — Opportunities to assist Emigration — Changed opinion in Ireland on this subject — Important evidence of feasibility of establishing Occupying Proprietorshii) drawn from experience in relation to Church Lands. Summing up : Anticipated effect of Scheme to give backbone to Irish Society, winning to the side of order and authority forces now adverse — Rights of Property only interfered with where general interests required it — Legislative interference called for to alter a Land System itself exceptional — Even with amended Law much must depend on the People them- selves — Objection answered that nothing short of Revolution will satisfy the Irish People— Comparison of Ireland a quarter of a century since and now — Legislative changes — To whom due — Ireland more united in its demands on the Land Question than it has ever been before 117 xvi CONTENTS. APPENDIX. Pagk Letter of Mrs. Frances O'Mahony 131 Letter of Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice 133 Letter of Mr. Charles Russell 141 Letter of INIr. Morrogh Bernard 142 Letter of Very Eev. Canon Brosnan, P.P., in reply to Mr. E. M. Bernard 144 Letter of Miss IM. F. Cusack (known as the Nun of Kenmare) . 146 Lett«r of Lady Fitzgerald 148 Letter of R. Fitzgerald, Esq 151 Report of the Local Committee of Inquiry into allegations re- lating to the Knight of Kerry's Property (Sir Maurice Fitz- gerald) 155 Letter of the Marquis of Lansdowne ..... 158 Letter of T. T. Trench, Esq 163 Further Letter of the Marquis of Lansdowne . . . • . 164 Further Letter of Very Rev. Canon Brosnan, in reply to the Marquis of Lansdowne ....... 164 Declaration signed by eighty-one Tenants on the Marquis of Lansdowne's Iveragh Estate ...... 171 Remarkable Article from Cork Examiner Newspaper of 22nd November, 1880 171 Letter of Rev. Thomas Lawlor in reference to Trinity College Estate 175 First Letter of Mr. Russell (replying to Mrs. O'Mahony, Mr. Bernard, I\Ir. Bland, and Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice) . . 178 Further Letter of Mr. Russell (replying to the Marquis of Lansdowne) ......... 189 Final Letter of Mr. Russell (replying to the Statement of the Authorities of Trinity College, Dublin) .... 203 Further Letter of Very Rev. Canon Brosnan, in reference to Trinity College Statement 211 Letter of the Protestant Rector of Kenmare, in answer to Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice ....... 216 Postscript : by Mr. Russell 221 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. Actual State of Ireland — Disturbances alarming but exaggerated — Crime (except Agrarian) rare — Wliite-gloved Assizes — Recurrence of Famines connected with Land System — Devon Commission — Tardy Legislation since — Land League the Effect not tlie Cause of Irish discontent — Remedy; give the Tenants a Stake in the Country — Autumn Visit to the Kingdom of Kerry. It cannot be doubted that the state of Ireland is such as to give rise to alarm, and serious alarm. I refuse, how- ever, to believe that life and property are, as is frequently represented, generally insecure there. Speaking from recent personal observation of a great part of Ireland, including portions of the severely dis- tressed districts, I do not believe that insecurity to be widespread. In times like these it is not wise to lend too ready a credence to the tale of the alarmist. All crime in Ireland has at once attributed to it an agrarian character, where that is possible, and this often erro- neously. After taking much pains to inform myself on the matter, I say it is more than doubtful whether two murderous outrages — one quite recent— which, from the rank of the victims, attracted more than ordinary atten- B 2 NEW VIEWS OX IRELAND. tion, are not traceable to causes whollj" diflferent. In connection with the latter of these, too, it -was stated, as proof of the brutalised condition of the people, that admission for the dead body was refused into a neigh- bouring cottage. Very slight inquirj^ would have shown that this was but the expression of a superstitious feeling which exists not only in Ireland, but along portions of the Scotch and English coasts. In point of general crime, Ireland compares favourably with the rest of the kingdom. The assizes for the most part have been white-gloved. Apart from all exaggera- tion, however, the sad truth is that the country has been stained with several grave crimes of an agrarian character — worse still, these crimes meet with a considerable amount of sympathy among the masses. In a people not wanting in general morality, these facts are the more significant. They give rise to serious reflection. They remind Englishmen that, although the fate of the island has been in their hands practically for seven centuries, they have not yet succeeded in winning the heart of Ireland — they have not yet brought content to the country. Nor can it be said that this is due to the perverse character of the people, who are discontented where they ought to be contented. In truth, one finds in Ireland at this day such a condition of things, such a low state of social life widely prevailing, that it would be a matter of reproach to the people if they were contented. If, further, one asks the question whether the condition is the fault of the people themselves in that they are thriftless, INTRODUCTORY. 3 dissolute and lazy, tho answer is that this same people, under different conditions in other lands, are fighting the battle of life as bravely and as creditably as the rest of their kind. It was once said, " In a climate soft as a mother's smile, in a soil fruitful as God's love, the Irish peasant mourns," There is here, indeed, the poet's exaggeration ; but the sober truth remains that in a country whose fruitfulness would suffice to feed and maintain a greatly increased population in decent condition, there exists at this moment, in a population which famine and emigra- tion have diminished from eight millions to about five millions, a more intense degree of wretchedness and poverty, and that more general, than in any known country in the world. After a close survey of a great part of Ireland, I return to England astonished not so much at the outrages that have taken place, horrible and deplorable as thej^ are, as at the patience and even the cheerfulness with which the great mass of the people bear their penury. It is but a short span which separates them from actual star- vation. Nor let it be supposed that this condition of things is exceptional — in the sense that the recent bad harvests have changed a prosperous into a wretched people. Ireland has had a sad recurring experience in famines. The famine of 1822 — not to go further back — partially re- peated in 1831, again with awful intensity recurring in 184G-47, and ending with the acute distress of 1879-80, these show how narrow is the line which divides the mass 4 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. of the people from actual want. They are normally on the verge of famine. If this state of things gravely concerns Ireland and Irishmen, does it not concern England and Englishmen too ? It is not surprising, then, that reflecting men in and out of Ireland should ask themselves the question whether there must not be here something radically wrong — whether, if the destinies of Ireland had been in her own hands, this state of things could or would have happened. It is not surprising that Irishmen should object to have their country paraded amongst the nations with periodical begging-box in hand, praying the world's charity for daily bread. It is not surprising that they should feel a sense of cruel neglect in that their country is left under the influence of unredressed though practically admitted wrongs. The public opinion of to-day points, with a remarkable directness and force, to the state of the land law in Ireland as the great cause of the wretched condition of the people. The Devon Commission of 1845, a landlord commission, had done as much, and yet it required the lapse of a quarter of a century, with its history of wasted lives and wretched existence, before a statesman with even the genius and the resolution of Mr. Gladstone could compel English public opinion to do a tardy and, as I conceive, imperfect act of justice in the Land Act of 1870. I do not underestimate that Act. It was a great effort of resolute statemanship, but it was tried under un- favourable conditions. Several good years had taken INTRODUCTORY. 5 place ; the country was almost prosperous ; commoclities were at tlieir highest. Ilardly, however, had the Act passed till there began that decadence which culminated in the partial famine of last year. The Act had nut contemiilated such a state of things, and did not meet it. In a state of continual rise in prices and prosperity it might possibly have worked ; as it was, it was severely tried. But more ; in many parts of the country the landlord class deliberately set themselves to evade it. Even in Ulster I have been informed of many cases in which the landlords have made the condition of their tenants since the Act less favourable than it was before. I doubt not the evidence taken under the Land Commission will disclose this. Events since 1870 have tended rapidlj^ to ripen public opinion on the land question, and tended also to modify the conditions under which it can be approached. The Encumbered Estates Act having broken up many old estates, they have passed into the hands of owners, who, unaffected by old traditions or high views of the duties of property, have looked mainly to the percentage return which their investment would bring them. Irish tenants have thus often found, that a rich but greedy landlord was worse than a needy one. The question, too, is now freed from what have been called tho antagonistic complications of race and creed. In candour I must say amongst the worst landlords I have known have been Catholics and Irishmen. Neither are bad landlords confined to any one political party. 6 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. But it would require an exalted virtue, to which the landlord class lay no claim, to have prevented them from exercising the powers which the law gave to them. If they were anxious to be exacting, the tenant class themselves gave them the opportunity of being so, by that indecent scramble for land which seemed to offer some justification for the demand of exorbitant and impossible rents. It is the system, then, and not so much the landlord class, I desire to attack. How is this system to be altered ? This being the question of the day, I desire to make my contribution to its discxxssion. I am no agitator. I wish to see my coTintry freed from the reproach of agrarian crime. I wish to see its people contented, and I am persuaded that neither result can be accomplished until there has been a thorough and radical change in the land sj^stem of the country. Do not let Englishmen suppose that the state of things in Ireland is the work of Land Leaguers. I am not their apologist. I regret and condemn much that has been reported as spoken by members of that body. But at the most they are but formulating, and giving articulate expression to, the feelings of black discontent which lie deep down in the breasts of the Irish peasants. They would cut but a sorry figure if they were not the exponents of real grievances. The voice of the agitator would fall idly on the ear of the farmer whose homestead is secured to him, who has anything to lose. The best armour against the shafts of the agitator is the sense of property, but this the bulk of the Irish peasantry have INTRODUCTORY. 7 not. They have littlo to lose. Living under a Consti- tution wliicli probably secures at once the maximum of individual liberty and of public security, the majority of the Irish people have felt little of its benefits. Its impersonation for them has been for the most part the landlord's bailiff, the policeman, or the posse comitatus of the sheriff. I know that at this moment these sentiments will grate upon the public ear in England. I am sorry : I cannot help it. I feel, holding firmly the views that I do, I would fail in my duty if I did not endeavour to mitigate that loud cry for coercion which now rings through the land. Surely this country has had experi- ence enough of the effects of a coercive policy. You may, indeed, dam up for a time the troubled waters of agitation, but, if their living source remain, you are but preparing in the future for a great disaster. In this condition of things, what is the attitude of the Irish landlords? Eecently, in solemn deputation, a number of them wait upon the Lord-Lieutenant, and they ask for protection for life. To this they are entitled. It suggests grave reflections on past and present landlord management that such a demand should be supposed to be necessary. But let that pass. To protection they are entitled. Let them have it. I yield to no one in my desire to see crime put down and punished. Safety is the first condition of all society. But I protest against the crimes of the few being made the ground for coercing the many. I protest, too, against a policy which would releo-ate into a distant future, until the country, held 8 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. tight by tlie throat, was silenced, all consideratiou of remedial legislation. But are the landlords prepared to do more than ask for protection for themselves ? Are they prepared to rise to the height of this great occasion, and, abandoning for ever those absolute notions which the law encouraged, are they prepared to make sacrifices to settle this heart-burning question ? Are they prepared to recognise the fact that they are no longer to be legislated for as a foreign garri- son in a hostile country? With pleasure I noted that that deputation had no representatives of those great estates whose owners' names stand high in the category of what are called good landlords in Ireland. No one has, so far, heard of outrages upon the estates of the families of Devonshire, Powerscourt, Fitzwilliam, Downshire, Ports- mouth, Bessborough, amongst many others. I am loth to write anything that would bear even the semblance of apology for outrage, but truth compels me to say that the scenes of most outrages have been previously associated with harsh and unjust landlord management. "^ ' I do not confound all Irish landlords in one class. I know many have striven to do their duty. But it is hard for the Irish landlord to be honest under the existing system ; the temptations are great ; to Irish landlords the temptations are all the greater, seeing they are, as a rule, men of narrow means. They are suffering — many of them — for the sins of unthrift of those who have gone before them. Nor do I overlook the misery which in recent years the distressful times have brought to many men of this class. Failure in rent meant to these men r INTRODUCTORY. 9 inability to dischargo estate charges — dower— younger children's portions— interest on mortgages, to say nothing of that crippling in domestic life which genteel poverty acutely feels. Much allowance is to be made for them. I cannot, however, acquit them of want of judgment and of consideration in recent years. They did not recognise the fact, as they might early have done, that their tenants and themselves were alike suffering from a common dis- aster. They missed a great opportunity. If, early in the trouble, they had met their tenants by timely allowance, much ill-blood would have been spared, and the rent receipts would have been at least as great as they are. They did not do this. The attempt to extract the whole rent was general ; and it was only when agitation had, as the people think, compelled concession, that any abate- ment was made. But worse still. Landlords of ample means were found extracting rents from miserable tenants without abatement— aye, from tenants living by charity — and Avero found to justify their conduct on the ground that to abate the rent would, forsooth, weaken the tenants' sense of the obligation of contract ! But out of evil good comes. The miseries of the last few years have attracted — have compelled — public attention to this question. Opinion has ripened upon it as opinion has rarely ripened before. I believe that, with such help as the State may properly give, this question can in the main be settled on perfectly just principles, involving, indeed, some sacrifice on the part of the landlord class, but no sacrifice of any just right which they now possess. The time is ripe for this settle- ment. In conversation with many landlords in Ireland 10 NEW VIEWS ON lEELAND. recently I was glad to find that this view generally pre- vailed. It exists universally among the peasant farmers from north to south. A'ariations of opinion as to the remedy undoubtedly exist ; but, when you find the Orange meetings in L'lster called to denounce the agitation of Mr. Parnell, not less strong in their condemnation of the existing land law, nor less emphatic as to the necessity for thorough reme- dial legislation, it is plain enough that Ulsterman and Munsterman, Catholic and Protestant alike, recognise the necessity for prompt legislation on the subject. It is, too, a fact worthy of note, that at the recent elections in Ireland the necessity for land law reform was put in the foreground of almost every candidate's address, Liberal and Conservative alike. I have recently made a careful examination of a portion of Ireland not much frequented by travellers — namely, its south-west corner, and I should be glad to be allowed to give the result of my observations in what is called the Kingdom of Kerry. It contains estates where one would expect to find the best examples of good land- lordism — I mean the estates of exalted persons whose ample means would at least render unnecessary severe exactions from their tenants. It contains also one illus- tration of the management of corporate estates in Ireland — that of Trinity College, Dublin. In its economic con- ditions, also, Kerry differs from most other parts of Ireland, and it illustrates the proposition which I shall hereafter take leave to submit — namely, that no one plan will meet the case of Irish tenants, but that the INTRODUCTORY. li true solution of tho question will be fimnd in the ap- plication of different plans to differing conditions of things. It is worth adding that Kerry, when I visited it, was free from all Land League influence : there was no branch of that body in the county. I h-hall ask to be allowed to preface my remedial suffo'estions with the statement of some considerations (not always present to the English mind) why Ireland's condition calls for legislation, special and exceptional. Not alone its general historj', but direct legislation in the past have helped to make its case exceptional. Ex- ceptional legislation is now called for to undo the errors of the past. 12 NEW VIEWS ON IKELAND. CHAPTER II. KILLARNEY TO CAHIRCIVEEN. Eoute in Kerry — Difficulty of obtaining information— Tenants' dread of Agent and Bailiff— Neglected condition of Lord Ventry's Estate at Killorglin— Food of the People— Catholic Chapel on Mr. Winn's Estate seized by Contractor for Debt— Kent Raisings- Wretched state of Mr. IMorrogh Bernard's Tenants at Roads- Excessive Rents— Norah Golden's Story as told by herself. The route wliicli I followed was from Killarney to Cahirciveen, via Killorglin, keeping the shore line thence to Valentia, Waterville, Loher, and through the gap of Coom-a-kesta to Derrynane, thence along the Kenmare river, via Sneem, to Kenmare, and thence hack again to Killarney hy the well-known tourist road. Along this route we entered many houses and conversed with many of the tenant class. I had hoped to have been able to reproduce the par ticulars, with names of each case, which I thought exemplified the existing unsound condition of things, but I early became painfully impressed with the fact that to do so might work cruel wrong. I found the greatest dread prevailing amongst the tenants of having their names disclosed. At first I had difficulty in even getting them to converse, until they became assured KILLAKXEY TO CAIIIRCIVEEN. 13 that our feelings were friendly towards them, hut even then, Avith hardly an exception, they spoke protesting that it would ho ruin to them if it was known that they had communicated any facts to us. I do not doubt that this dread was to some extent, uncalled for, hut it was assuredly real. Nothing im- pressed me more than the state of terror in which, speaking as a rule, they seemed to live. One man, apparently well to do, was mentioning a circumstance of some significance in the agent's management; but upon perceiving that the shorthand writer who accom- panied me was taking a note of his observation, he became alarmed, and said it would be ruin to him if he were known to have said anything about the agent, and requested us on no account to mention his name. On another occasion, and on the same estate, a remark- able incident occurred. A man who was a high-class ty^xi of the Keriy peasant, commanding in figure, with an intelligent and even refined face, upon our meeting him on the threshold of his door (we had been told that his case was a hard one), drew himself to his full height, and, raising his hands earnestly, cried out, " For God's sake, gentlemen, pass me by — pass me by!" We were startled. We afterwards learned that years ago he had o-iven information as to the management of the estate to the representative of a southern paper in Ireland, and it had been noticed that ho had, since this time, been made to feel the weight of the agent's ill-will. For these reasons I reluctantly abstain from giving the names of the tenants whose cases I investigated, but 14 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. I can assure my readers that I Tised every precaution to arrive at the truth in each instance. Occasionally lightheartedness and cheerfulness appeared amongst the tenantry, but these were rare; and the humour with which the Irish peasant is frequently credited has, if it ever existed, been stamped out of Kerry by the sad realities of their lives of want. With all this they have managed to preserve a certain dignity and grace of manner, and they are very intelligent. Their dwellings, as a rule, are wretched in the extreme, and, as a rule, too, order and cleanliness are wanting there, and yet in their persons they are not uncleanly. Their children, of whom I saw great numbers on their way to and from school, ex- hibited in the circumstances wonderful neatness and cleanliness. Nothing could exceed the simple courtesy with which we were made welcome in their wretched dwellings. Our first close examination and inquiry were at and in the neighbourhood of Killorglin, upon the propertj- of Lord Ventry, whose Irish rental amounts to some £30,000 per annum. Even in this town — the most con- siderable between Killarney and Cahirciveen — hovels of the most wretched kind existed, in what was called by the parish priest of the place. Father O'Sullivan, with grim humour, *' the west-end of the town." There were mud cabins, without windows, sometimes without doors, the smoke making its escape as best it could from the door or through a hole in the roof, for they had no chimneys, and frequently only one room KIT.LAr.NEY TO CAIIIRCIVEf:X. 15 for living and sleeping, although the families consisted of numbers varying from three to six or seven. Some corn mills afforded the only industrial occupation. Leaving the mail-coach road to Kossbegh we proceeded by the lower road, by Doeux, along the shore of Castlc- maiuc Bay. The holdings are small, the condition of the people miserable, as shown not merely in the character of their dwellings, but in their mean and scant apparel and in their gaunt appearance. The quality of the land is poor, and no inconsiderable part of it bore signs of recent reclamation. I saw one, and only one, decent house along this road, between Killorglin and Eossbegh, and upon inquiry, it turned out to be the house of one of Lord Ventry's bailifis. lie had not only a good farm, but a salary, " to say nothing of his perquisites," as my informant significantly added. The rents, as compared with Griffith's valuation, Avere certainly not high. The tenants made but few com- plaints of harsh treatment. Lord Ventry does not, to his credit bo it said, seem to have availed himself of the recent distress to eject his tenants. But everywhere was written in unmistakable characters, "Neglect, neglect, neglect." One drain, which might be called arterial, appeared in the course of execution, made with money borrowed from the Board of Works ; but except this, and two pumps by the roadside, built recently by the Union authorities, (to supply the people with better water than the bog drainings which they had previously been in the habit of iisiug,) there was no sign of any attempt at improvement — except in the patchy kind of reclamation 16 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. effected by the tenants tliemselves. Almost on every side, however, was Ipng land which seemed to be capable of reclamation, and which I cannot doubt, if in the hands of tenants with security of fixed possession and fixed Eent, would be found to be worth reclaiming. I have spoken of the scant clothing of the people. Potatoes, while they last, are their habitual food, with, now and then, fish. Flesh meat is practically unknown amongst them. When the potatoes fail, their food is Indian, or, as they call it, red meal, and occasionally flour. The character of the farming here is peculiar. So far as tillage is concerned, the spade, and not the plough, is used. Indeed, along this district hardly a plough is to be seen. Nor do the tenants devote themselves principally to tillage. They rely for the payment of their rent mainly upon butter and occasionally the rearing of young stock. They know nothing of the acreage of their farms ; these are measured by their grazing capacity, as grass for two cows, three cows, and so on. They till enough for a supply of potatoes and also of oats for the winter feeding of their cattle, but rarely for sale. It is not surprising, looking at the character of their dwellings, that the butter they produce does not command the best price. For manure, they rely largely upon seaweed and upon the seasand, which, in the boggy land which here abounds, serves as a poor substitute for lime. One often hears the laziness of this class spoken of, and I doubt not that in some, it may be many instances, this imputation is just, but I was struck with the sight of men, women, KILLAENEY TO CAIimCIVEEN. 17 and children carrying, piled up in creels or baskets on their backs for long distances, seaweed for manure. Indeed, it was painfully noticeable how the comeliness and grace of youth soon disappeared under tlic hard life of exertion to which both sexes were exposed, and how speedily the lithe, supple figure of the girl of ten was transformed into the hard, set, and stunted figure of the woman of twenty. I asked where all the comely girls went to, for they did not appear tu be represented in the womanhood of the district. This was my answer. Some idea of the condition of these people may be gathered from the fact that there were about 4000 persons on the relief lists of the district. I was informed that though Lord Ventry and his agent had not con- tributed anything to these relief funds, some rent abate- ment was authorised. I could not discover any single case in which the tenants had been helped to improve their miserable dwellings. In several instances I did notice recently- built houses, but in every case these had been erected by the tenants themselves. For all such buildings they have not alone to pay the cost of erection, but they are, in addition, taxed for the improved yearly value by an amended rating valuation. On this estate a curious contrivance was for the first time brought to my notice. The landlord, where the valuation is under £4, by law bears, or ought to bear, the whole poor rate ; where above £4 he bears only half, the tenant paying the other half. In this district the 18 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. rents, or many of them, are very small ; bnt it seems to be the custom to group together in one receipt for rent several persons who are not connected by relationship, and thi;s the landlord gets, as security for the entire rent, the guarantee of each of the tenants, and thus the entire instead of half the poor rate is levied from the tenants. Moreover, any default in payment by one of the group is the default of all, and by this means the power over each is greatly increased, since he is made liable for defaults other than his own. Near Eossbegh, the property of a Mr. ^Yinn, there was pointed out to us a striking proof of the poverty of the people. A Catholic chapel stands there, newly built, roofed and glazed, the possession of which is sorely needed for the humble worshippers of the district ; but the con- tractor holds possession as security for his debt, which the poverty of the people is unequal to discharging. From this point, following the coast line, the road runs at an elevation of from 300 to 400 feet above the sea, and along the hillside are magnificent views of Dingle Bay, from the Bar of Inch in the eastern extremity of the bay, to the Blasquet Islands in the west. The land is of the poorest kind, and capable at the most, without extensive drainage, of only a patchy cultivation. At Kells we passed the property of Mr. Blennerhasset, one of the members for the county. I did not examine it with sufficient fulness to pronounce a safe opinion on its management, but I am in candour obliged to say that I could not make any favourable comparison between it and the wretched properties which surround it. KILLARNEY TO CAlllUCiN KKN. I'J Between Kells and Culiirciveon yoii pass, on the .side next the coast, the property of Mr. Morrogli Bernard, and on the other side the Iveragh estate of Ijord Lans- downe. ]My observations on the latter I reserve. Mr. Bernard's property consists of the mountain of Knockatuhber, with a few townlands lying at its base. A bleaker or less inviting spot it would be difficult to imagine, and only hard necessity, one would think, could drive people to its unfriendly bosom in the hope ut my furniture on the side of the road. " Last November fair my son John offered htlf a year's rent, and it was refused, unless I paid £2 10s. for costf. My son went in again to see if he would take it, but it was reiused. My son, out of heart, went to America, and the rent we offered, and £'3 10s, which I borrowed, went to pay his passage to America. His wife and six children are in Cahirciveen with me. The eldest of his children is only nine years, and the youngest two months. My son has sent me over since he went £6 from America. I paw the landlord myself. It was in his new married time. I laid £10 before his honour, but he re- fused, saying I was ejected, and he could not make a 22 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. tenant of lue for six months. I went to him the next day, and he gave me the same answer. I followed him in the street, and I had a mind to curse him, as he would not give me the land for my son and long family. I made up the £10 by selling a young springer, and I borrowed 30s. from a shopkeeper in this town, John Dennehy, and I 8old a new milch cow for £7 10s.. The sheriff's expenses, with £2 13s. Ad. for the rent, made up the mosey to £15 7s. To-day (18th September) thr^e weeks I sent a bank draft for £15 7s. to Morrogh Bernard, at Ki Harney, and it came back to me by his driver, Morris Collins, the next Wednesday. When I opened the letter the draft was in it. Charley Clifford read the letter for me, and said that it told me to go to Downing, Tralee (Morrogh Bernard's solicitor), and if I settled with him I would get possession again. " I walked the next day to Tralee, every step of the way, forty miles, until I made out Downing's office. I reached him my letter, and he said it was no value to him. He asked me had I money, and I said I had the redeeming of the land with me. He said ' I can do nothing for you, my poor woman.' I did not get a letter from Morrogh Bernard this length of time. I began to cry to think they vvould make an ape of me sending me so far. I went again last Thursday fortnight to Tralee and remained there five days. I went then to Mr. Broderick, an attorney, who bears the best name for doing good for the poor of the country. I told him when my son got married I got his name put down for the rent. Mr. Broderick said he had no other case but mine in Killarney, and tliat he could not go down for my case, unless I paid him £3 10s., but I had only £1. I do not think Mr. Bernard will put me back into the land. My son drained and fenced the land, and put a road on it. He made more improvements on it than his father did before him. My son said to Morrogh Bernard, when he brought him the rent, that he improved every inch of KILLARNEY TO C'AIIIRCIVEEN. 23 the laud himself. There was a field on it eighty spades long aud fifty spades in bi'eadth (a spado is 5i feet) that man never worked till my son drained it, and now it is covered with oats. In the old time water would have got in on it over a man's knee boots. There is another field thirty-two spades long, and n\j son drained it, and now it is in tillage. " The oats taken out of my garden now is worth Is. 4d. a bartli (a barth means twenty sheaves). My potato seed was long in the ground when we were put out. The landlord was here on the 8th August last, and he took a foreign road so that he might not meet me the way I could not redeem my land. He knew I was in the town. He said when I offered him the £10 I was not the tenant at all ; that the land was in my son's name. He never gave a lease on the property, nor his father before him. Nearly all his tenants got relief from the parish priest during last winter. The rent, I believe, was raised on all the other tenants, same as when it was raised on me." I leave this story to speak for itself. 24 NEW VIEWS ON lEELAND. CHAPTEE III. TEIXITY COLLEGE ESTATE. Cahirciveen the property of tlie College— Neglected appearance of the town — Squalid appearance of the Agricultural tenants — Eents very high— Hardahips connected with tenants' improvements — Stringent terms when advances made to tenants for improve- ments — Land reclaimed by tenants without aid from landlords — Story of revaluation of rents — Evil effects of Banking accom- modation to the tenants — Especially since 1870 — Excessive number of public houses— 111 effects — Local Water supply. Thp: property of Trinity College in Kerry includes the town of Cahirciveen, some townlands lying to the south of Cahirciveen, and a jDortion of the island of Yalentia. I was anxious to see how a corporation's estate of this kind is managed. The knowledge I acquired is not reassuring. The town itself comprises some 2000 inhabitants, and although situate within a mile or so of the slate quarries of Valentia, is so hadly paved and flagged that for safety, in the night at least, almost every one walks in the middle of the streets instead of on the pathways. The sewerage arrangements are incomplete, and altogether the town shows less signs of intelligent supervision than any other of similar size which I know of. TRIXITY COLLEGE ESTATE. 25 Yet I am informed by Captain Ncedhani, their agent, that the College have expended upon tlie estate some £11,000 since 1867. Further, thoy have taken advantage of the easy terms upon wliich rarliamcnt has recently advanced money to landlords in Ireland by borrowing a sum of £5000. Of the £11,000, part seems to have gone in some town sewers, part in the erection of a market house, a fish market, aud a small riverside quay. The three last are investments which may not have proved satisfactory. In a few instances there has been some outlay on the farms of the tenants, in the straightening of fences and boundaries, on which I believe no interest was charged to the tenants. But in other cases whore they have sought and obtained assistance to improve they have had to pay, and pay dearly for it. I shall specify some of these. Speaking of the condition of things generally, a more squalid tenantry than that of this rich corporation it is hardly possible to conceive. As a rule their dwellings are miserable ; their food such as I have previously described in the case of Lord Youtry's tenants ; their clothes all too scant for comfort, sometimes even for decency. Yet although I shall show their rents are very high — far higher than they can pay — they are, as a rule, uncomplain- ing, and certainly I did not find amongst them tliat bitter- ness towards the agent which I frequently encountered in other parts of my excursion. This seems to be prin- cipally owing to the fact that, where satisfied of the inability of the tenant to pay, he does not harshly pro- 26 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. ceed to eject. I subjoin a number of instances showing side by side the rent and Griffith's valuation : Hont. Valuation. £ s. d. £ s. d. 11 6 15 12 10 5 5 3 15 3 5 13 8 5 12 15 5 10 9 15 1 19 6 5 3 9 15 15 8 4 8 5 13 5 15 6 3 6 5 3 15 14 8 1 18 1 8 17 4 5 15 6 10 29 2 11 8 26 6 9 16 17 15 6 10 These instances are given as they come. In many of them the rent has been raised, and raised more than once, and in no case, which I have given, has there been expen- diture by the college, so far as I could ascertain. In a good many instances I found that the tenants had reclaimed land from bog, and in some they had in recent years rebuilt their houses. One gentleman in the neigh- bourhood informed us, he believed that within the last forty years at least one-thiid of the land now in tillage had been reclaimed and made arable without allowance lleiit. £ s. 22 10 d. Va £ 9 [uation. s. d. 15 5 15 15 10 5 10 5 5 15 10 10 10 11 15 13 10 5 4 4 1 9 5 3 15 6 9 10 12 12 ..... .... 4 .... 5 9 4 16 10 8 24 .... 11 30 .... 14 16 16 6 16 16 16 16 .... 6 7 13 .... 2 ''6 10 .... .... 15 11 18 .... 7 5 4 .... 1 10 .... 5 11 15 .... 6 7 15 .... 4 TRINITY COLLEGE ESTATE. 27 from tlie landlord. IIo added that the land was of such a nature that it would, if neglected, speedily relapse into wildness. A tenant some seven years ago built his house and got £40 7s. from the college towards the cost, of which, how- evei', £35 only were given to him in cash, the diflerence being (£5 7s.) charged for a piece of timber. The tenant produced the stringent agreement under which this ad- vance was made, of which I had a copy taken, by which he boTxnd himself to repay the advance by forty half- yearly instalments of £1 12s. each, with the proviso that, if he failed in payment of any one instalment, the whole should forthwith be recoverable. This hardly sounds very liberal treatment on the part of a great corporation. The man assured me that his house had cost him £120, and he added with sume bitterness, " I wish I had my mono}' clear out of the place, and I would leave it to them altogether." He complained that he had been promised the money as a gift towards building the house, but faith had not been kept with him. This was probably a mis- understanding. Another man who had been tenant for tliirty years, and whose father-in-law, through whom he got the land, had been tenant for sixty years, told mc that the rent had been raised in his time from £8 to £26 10s. One of these rises was in 1869, when some kind of general valuation was made by valuers fiom Dublin, Messrs. Brassington and Gale, who in some cases reduced, but in a greater number considerably increased, the rents. The total increase was trifling. 28 NEW VIEWS ON lEELAND. It is significaut of the rela'ions between landlord and tenant in Ireland liow these rises take place. It throws a strong light upon that cherished principle, " freedom of contract." Later on I shall have one or two striking examples to quote on another estate. But the mode is simple ; the tenants are informed that for the future their rent shall be so much. Indeed, instances werfe quoted to us in which the increase of rent was retrospective. So much for freedom of contract between the Irish landlord and his tenant ! Another of the tenants of the college told me that, having laid out some money in drainage, and having a wish to lay out more, he applied to Captain Keedham, the agent, for an allowance, and, finally in October, 1879, memorialised the Board, The following is the answer of the Board : " The Bursar of Trinity College has received A. B.'s memorial of the 23rd inst., respecting the advance from the Board of Trinity College for the improvements of his farm. If A. B. will place in Captain Needham's hands the written agreement consenting to pay the increased rent at the rate of Is. Id. in the pound for any advance of money which he may require, the bursar will lay his application before the Board." Thus, not only would the tenant have to pay nearly 8 per cent yearly for the money expended in the improvement of landlords' property, but, according to the existing law, expose him- self to have his rent increased by his then or subsequent landlord, and increased upon the basis of the improvements which he himself had made, and for which he himself had dearly paid ! TKINITY COLLEGE ESTATE. 29 This is no fancy tsketch, for be it borne in mind that when an increase of rent takes place, even where the form of a valuation is gone through, no account is taken how far the improved value may have been created by the labour and the capital of the tenant. It was so in the case of the valuation of Messrs. Brassington and Gale. I was anxiotis to have some authentic infurmation as to the more remote portions of this property, which I did not myvself visit, including that at Port Magee ; and a gentleman— a member of the English Bar — who knows the locality well, writing to me generally of the condition of the estate, uses this emphatic language : — " As to the College Estate, it is simply a disgrace to the country. It would be impossible to describe the filth or misery of the dwellings. I could not find out that the agent had ever taken any trouble about them. I was told everywhere that he had never been inside the houses." I wished also to learn something of the general habits of the neighbourhood, especially as to drink, for I was painfully struck with the fact that in the town of Cahir- civeen itself there were some thirty -four public houses or more. How the magistrates have been parties to this state of things I know not. it is not merely the with- drawal of so many persons and the capital of so many persons from other industries, but it is impossible tliat all these public houses could pay if honest drink were supplied to the people. The explanation given me was that the licence was o-enerally carried on in connection with t^ome other business, and that from Killorglin on the one side to 30 NEW VIEWS OX IRELAND. AVaterville on Ihe other along the coast-line, and for a great distance inland, there were no public-houses, and that they were supported in Cahirciveen by the trade done on fair and market days, when from 5000 to 10,000 people come in from the surrounding districts. But on these days that drink is taken to excess cannc^t be doubted — generally bad drink, which, taken by an underfed population, tells with all the greater mischief upon them. That time and money are wasted thns, and wasted to a large extent, cannot be doubted ; but I was assured that in the country districts anything like habitual drinking or tippling was unknown, and even in Cahirciveen itself it is only right to say that although I was there for three days I did not see an intoxicated person during that time. In Cahirciveen, also, are two banks, branches of the National Bank and of the Munster Bank, and from my examination in this district I have come to the conclusion, that banking accommodation upon a jDernicious system, and to a pernicious extent, has been given — principally since 1870. The banks seem soon to have appreciated the fact that the law had then given the tenant a property which, what, ever it might have been in equity, was not legally his before, in his improvements in the land, and they seem to have been willing to allow this interest of the tenant to be dealt with, to say the least, to its full extent. The mode adopted was to give loans on bills at three, six, nine or twelve months, usually for small sums ; generally backed by two, thiee, or more of the borrower's neighbours, TRINITY COLLEGE ESTATE. 31 whose bills he in turn was expected to back ; and gene- rally at a rate of interest from 10 per cent, upwards. When the loss of a day upon the original transaction and upon the renewal transactions, together with the expendi- ture in eating and in drinking which the obliged borrower feels bound to make, are taken into account, it will be seen how speedily a debt so contracted runs up, and upon what imfavourablo terms the loan is transacted. At the same time I am bound to add that, although I have heard of cases where the banks have acted with great harsh- ness, none such came under my personal observation. They appear, speaking generally at least, to have shown a greater degree of consideration than the landlords. Upon this estate of the college, as everywhere, large tracts of land, apparently reclaimable, were to be seen ; certainly as reclaimable as the patches which the tenants had broiight into some kind of cultivation, but tracts which to be profitably dealt with would require drainage on a large scale, such as could not be attempted by indi- vidual tenants, however willing they might be to make the experiment. Many of the tenants on this property received relief in meal and in seed potatoes from the charitable funds sub- scribed and distributed through the agency of the Duchess of Marlborougrh's Committee, the Mansion House Com- mittee, and the Committee of the Land League in Dublin. The arrears of rent are considerable. A large number of processes were, T was informed, served upon the tenants of the college for the Juno Quarter Sessions at Killarney, but apparently the agent was satisfied that the people 32 NEW VIEWS OX IRELAND. were not able to pay, and accordingly one decree onl}', as I am informed, was obtained. In connection with this matter I may add that the bailiff is paid 2s. 6d. for the service of each process, thus giving him a direct interest in making them as numerous as possible, and indeed the tenants whom I encountered seemed to regard him as a much more formidable person than the agent, Captain Needham. I am informed that the practice of the estate is to oblige the tenant to pay this 2s. 6d. charge over and above the legal costs endorsed on the writ. I could not ascertain that the college had subscribed to the local funds for the relief of the poor, but they have within the last few weeks announced their intention of making an allowance of 20 per cent, of the rent to those who pay up to March last. One other matter I must mention : it is a subject of bitterness at Cahirciveen. This town has now^ very defective water siipply ; but lying at the base of a range of hills, there is ample water-shed easily available, and at the small cost of about £700, capable of supplying the town at a high pressure. The town was willing to bear one-half the interest on this expenditure of capital, but the college would not bear the remainder. The total rental of the college from the Cahirciveen proj)erty is stated to be between £4000 and £5000 per annum. ( 33 ) CHAPTER IV. VALEXTIA TO KENMARE. Valcntia Island owned in part by Trinity College — In part by Knight of Kerry — Tenants miserably poor — Commendable efforts by Landlord — Signs of exterior improvement in Houses — High rents — All Tenants, except about twenty, in receipt of charity from Kelief Committees last winter — Fishermen relieved by grants from Canadian Fishing Fund — Humiliating to Landlords — Extent of Eeclaimablc Land — Eoute to Waterville — Painful incident on Lansdowno Estate — Widow in dread of eviction — Thinks Sheriff has come to execute ejectment decree — Her Story — Estate of Mr. Hartopp — Gratitude of his Tenants — Estate of Mr. Bland at Sneem — Tenants would have starved but for l\elief Funds— Miss Hcwson's Estate, formerly Mr. Mahony's — Tenant paying 350 per cent, over Government valuation. The portion of the Island of Valentia which is not owned by Trinity College, and that the greatex* part, is the pro- perty of Sir Maurice Fitzgerald, better known by his historic title of the Knight of Kerry. Of this property I desire to speak with some reserve. I have not examined it with the fulness I should desire before pronouncing a decided opinion upon it. It has but recently descended to its present owner, and of the management and action of his late father in relation to his tenants I would for the present prefer not to speak fully. ; Generally, however, it may be said that this cstnto presents the same features as that of Trinity College. 1) 34 NEW VIEWS ON IKELAND. With few exceptions the tenants are miserably poor, and although commendable efforts seem to have been made by the late Knight of Kerry to improve their dwellings, his efforts have not always been successful. Here and there may be observed a marked improvement exteriorly, but I did not find a corresponding increase of comfort within. Speaking generally also, the rents are largely in excess of Griffith's valuation, and I should think little, if any- thing, short of double that valuation. The late Knight certainly borrowed from the Board of Works with a view to the improvement of his property, but the tenants have had to pay where they availed themselves of these funds, and they have had to pay in the shape of a high and, as they conceive, a permanent increase in their rents. I hope and believe that theie is some misapprehension in the minds of the Kerry tenants on this subject, and that the landlords are not doing in Ireland, what un- doubtedly was done by a few English landlords in the cotton famine here, namely, making a profit from their tenants out of the public funds lent for laud improve- ment. When tc)ld the interest they are paying, and which ought to represent the repayment of principal and interest in thirty-five years in some cases, and in twenty-two years in others — and does so represent it as between the Board of Works and the landlord — I have asked, " How long is it to last ? " The answer has always been in effect the same. One man said, "I am to pay as long as water runs." Another man t-aid, " Oh, it is just as the landlord fixes it, but I supi^ose it will go on always with the rent." VALENTIA TO KENMARE. 35 Another man answered, " Alwaj-s, to be sure ; when onco it goes on to the rent, it never comes oflf again." I am not speaking here only of the Valentia tenants. This language is significant of the helplessness of the tenants to bargain for themselves. About £1200 passed through the hands of the Relief Committee in Valentia, which sum went to assist the tenants of Trinity College and of the Knight of Kerry, and I am informed that there were not twenty of these tenants who did not receive relief. So far as I could learn the landlords contributed nothing to the charitable funds, but the Knight of Kerry did supply seed potatoes to some of his tenants, in som^ in- stances at market price, and in other cases below market price. I was assured that many of the tenants must have starved but for this charitable relief, and yet these crea- tures are making a wonderful struggle for existence and a wonderful effort to pay their rent. Some of them have shares in seine nets, but these nets had not of late years been kept up efficiently. Last year and this, however, assistance was given them fiom the Canadian Fishing Fund. It cannot but be humiliating to a landlord, not alone to have his tenants fed by the hands of strangers, but to have one branch of their industry upheld by the contributions of charity. I was satisfied that, with rare exceptions, there was no habitual drinking on the island. One thing I must mention. Everywhere there was great bitterness at certain exactions, in addition to their rent, which formed D 2 :-^6 NEW VIEWS OX IRELAND. an increase to the "burdens, already sufficiently great, on their generally miserable holdings. These were, first, the charge for grubbing stuff from the hillsides — gorse, furze, and matter of that kind— Is. for as much as one man can carry on his back, and 2s. 6d. for access to the shore for sand, and 2s. 6d. for seaweed. All these charges are of recent growth. The rents had been raised of late years, principally upon changes of tenancy. Meanwhile, so far as I could learn, no improvements have been made by the landlord at his own cost, and it was the unanimous testimony of all from whom I enquired upon the subject that the reclaimed portion of the island wa& the work of the existing tenants and their predecessors. The late and the present Knight of Kerry have given considerable employ- ment upon the island. I ought to add that the Knight seems personally popular. Of him sanguine expectations are formed. Certainly his is not a thriving tenantry, or such as a landlord can look upon with pride or satisfaction. Here, too, as elsewhere, are lying unreclaimed large quantities of land apparently of the same quality, and in great part similarly situated with that which has already been brought into cultivation. The establishment of the telegraph station there has tended to improve the condition of the island. Following the coast line from Cahirciveen, leaving Port Magee on the right and passing along the head of Ballinskelligs Bay, we reached Spunkane, where we again came in contact with a portion of the Lansdowne estates. VALENTIA TO KEN:\IARE. 37 Here two incidents occurred which it is right to mention. The first was of a gratifying kind. It was the testimony of a tenant on the estate in favour of its management. His commendation was certainly not very strono-, but it was rem:irkable, inasmuch as it was the only instance out of some hundreds of inquiries in which the Lansdowne management was spoken of even with qualified praise. He said that if a man was sober and industrious he could manage very well to live on the Lanbdowne property, I was struck with tho fact that ho seemed not un- willino- to abuse some of his neighbours, and I was anxious fo learn how far the testimony was reliable, and from two independent sources I have received information to the same efi"ect — that he is a special pet and protege of the Lansdowne bailiff at Waterville, and that he had shown some anxiety to " grab up," as the phrase was, the land from which his less favoured neigh- bours had been ejected. The other incident was of a painful description. It was the case of a widow, whose name I forbear to mention. It appears that her husband held first one small farm, and afterwards another, and that, after his acquirement of the second farm, a joint receipt was given for both holdings by the agent. At his death one of the farms was taken over by his son, the widow continuing to hold the other. The rent fell in arrear in the hito distress, and the sry of the Down Survey ' and of the ' Political Anatomy.' This was the founder of the Lans'lowne Estates. The management of these largo estates is in the hands of Mr. Townsend Trench, son of the late Mr. W. Steuart Trench, to whom he succeeded. It is difiScult to say how far the judgment of the community over whom their powers as land agents were and are exercised is just or reliable. Unquestionably father and son were spoken of almost universally with fear and dislike — to use no stronger language. It was painful to notice the mortal dread of agent and bailiff in which many of these tenants live. I noticed nothing like it elsewhere in Kerry. Their conduct may be misjudged, but assuredly no kinelly recollection of the late Mr. Trench seems to survive, and no kindly feeling towards his son, the present agent, exists. Lord Lansdowne, although he resides a portion of the year at Derreen, near Kenmare, does not seem to be 46 NEW VIEWS ON IKELAND. generally known to Lis tenants. Those on the Iveragh portion of his property have hardly seen him since his visit there on the occasion of his attaining his majority. More than once, when — some harsh case being cited to me — I suggested to the tenants to appeal to Lord Lans- downe, the answer was always the same, " Oh, he leaves it all to the agent," or, " It's no use — it all rests with Trench." Even plans conceived — and, I helieve, kindly conceived — by landlord or agent — of emigration, for instance — are looked upon with distrust. Nor is this remarkable, for in the years of the Great Famine this estate was not only the scene of some of the most awful miseries of that awful time, but it was also the place from which a large emigration took place under the auspices of the late Mr. Trench which has left to this day bitter memories behind i^ In his so-called 'Eealities of Irish Life,' Mr. Steuart Trench describes, in a painfully graphic way, the state of things in Kenmare tTnion. He writes : — " At least 5000 people must have died of starvation within the Union of Kenmare. They died on the roads, and they died in the fields ; they- died on the mountains, and they died in the glens ; they died at the relief works, and they died in their houses. So that whole streets or villages were left almost without an inhabitant, and at last some few, despairing of help from the country-, crawled into tlie town, and died at the doors of the resi- dents, and outside the Union walls." It was at this time that the author, then succeedinsr to THE LANSDOWNE ESTATE AT KEN:MARE. 47 the manafremont of these estates, set on foot liis scheme of emigration ; and, as he pithily puts it — "In little more than a year 3500 pani^ors bad left Ken- mare fof America, all fico emio;rants, without any eject- ments having to be brought against them to enforce it, or the slightest pressure put upon them to go. Matters now began to right themselves. Only some fifty or sixty paupers remained in the House, chargeable to th(^ pro- perty of which I had the care, and Lord Lansdowne's estates at length breathed freely."' lie adds, in another place, that the rate of transporta- tion of these emigrants amounttd to a sum less than it would cost to support them in the workhouse for a single year. This I believe means, or then meant, less than £4 per human being. That is one point of view of the question. I do not doubt that this was a scheme approved of by the then Lord Lansdowne from humane motives. But its execu- tion seems to have been grossly faulty. Its history is still told on the hillsides of Kerry, and the traditions of the place keep alive the story of the Lansdowne \\'ard in New York Hospital, where many of these ill-starred emigrants fell victims to disease and death. It is curious that the present agent seems to have denied strenuou^^ly the existence of distress on the Lans- downe estate in 1879-80, and to have refused to act upon any of the several relief committees established in the neighbourhood. To Mr. J. A. Fox, the Government inspector, to Mr. Fletcher, a member of the Duchess of Marlborough's Eolief Committee, and to the IJev. Canon Bagot, representing the Mansion House Committee, ho is 48 , NEW VIEWS OX IRELAND. reported to have given emphatic denials of the existence of any distress in the district. Indeed, so far as I have been able to ascertain, the first occasion on which he admitted its existence was in April, 1880, when he applied to the Mansion House Committee for funds to promote a new emigration scheme. I mention with pain one fact. Miss M. F. Cusack, known as the Nun of Kenmare, one of the sisters in the Convent of Poor Clares, in Kenmare (a lady not less known for her active benevolence than for her literary work), in her printed expression of thanks to America for the funds entrusted to her fur relieving the distressed tenantry, says, under the date of Easter Week, 1880 : " One land agent said to me that when he saw the distress coming he told his noble master that it would be the best thing that had ever happened for the landlords — they would have their tenants at their mercy." She adds, " These same land agents were the principal cause of the distiess being denied, for clearly if the distress were admitted, to demand rents, and rack rents, from the starving people, would have been too gross an act of inhumanity." It can hardly be doubted to whom this language refers. I hope it may be shown to be the result of some grave misapprehension.* This lady, by her public appeals, collected a sum of about £15,000, which was in great part expended in South Kerry. She assured me that many tenants of Lord * This is denied by Mr. Trench, see post, p. 163. THE LANSDOWNE ESTATE AT KEXMARE. -ii) Lansdowno had been recipients of blankets, of meal, of seed potatoes ; and that, as to three National Schools, attended principally by the children on Lord Lansdowne's estate, namely, those of Laragh, Lehud, and Copperas (one of them being situate outside the entrance-gate of Derreen House), she had to supply clothes to cover the children. She had done so, she told me, in consequence of statements made to her by the schoolmistresses, that for the sake of decency they could not otherwise allow the children to attend the schools, even if their parents were willing to permit them to do so. A gentleman conversant with the action of the Eeliet' Committees in the town informed us that fully half of the relief which passed through his hands had been given to Lord Lansdowne's tenants. He said : " The people came crying to me for it ; in fact, on his estate there were tenants who called on mc personally between the dates of the meetings of the committee, asking mo, for God's sake, to give them supplemental orders for meal." He added that of these tenants many were living upon the produce of the seed potatoes supplied by charity. He added, further, that Lord Lansdowno had brought some forty tons of potatoes to Kenmare which had been sold by him for cash at something below the market price ; that these were wholly insufficient to sow the land ; and he finally added : " My belief is, that were it not for the relief given by our committees, a great number of the Lansdowno tenants would have died." 50 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. » This empTiatic testimony received corroboration in several other quarters. Compared with other estates which I visited, the rents, tested by Griffith's valuation, are not the highest. Indeed, taking some dozen cases or more, I found that the rent did not generally exceed the valuation by more than about 50 per cent. — not always so much — and yet I believe the cases to be exceedingly few in which the tenants could, out of the land, pay the existing rent if they reserved to themselves a sufficiency of food and of clothing for decent maintenance. The normal food of the tenants is as I have described it to be elsewhere. The fact that the tenants of Lord Lansdowne in this neighbourhood have many of them (sometimes but not always), assisted b}" loan from the landlord, built new houses or added to their office buildings, causes the rent to approximate more closely to the valuation. This I will hereafter explain. It is a noticeable fact that in one house, and one house only, and that on this estate, did I see a piece of bacon hanging up in the kitchen. I was struck with this, and with the otherwise greater comfort of the dwelling. I complimented the tenant upon what I presumed was his greater industry or his better management. His answer was pithy and to the point. He said, " I never could afford that, or to live anyway decent, out of the land." " How, then, do j^ou afford it ? " I asked. His answer was satis- factory. He was an ex-policeman, with a pension of some £4G a-year. In one case, and that of a tenant who seemed much THE LAXSDOWXE ESTATE AT KEX.MAKE. ol better off than the rest, we took the trouble of ascertain- ing, as accurately as we could, a profit-aml-loss account. This was the case of a widow, whose story illustrated another subject much complained of by the tenants — namely, rent-raisings on the occasion of the tenants marrying. Her son wanted to get married, and thereupon, with her consent, to get the land transferred into his own name. He went to the office for permission, which was promised conditionally upon the rent being raised. This he declined, and married without permission, his mother's name remaining on the books as tenant. The rent was about £23 ; the valuation about £17. The holding contained grass for ten cows. He estimated the profits thus: Twelve firkins of butter, which would fetch about £40. Owing, he said, to the bareness of the land, he would not get the highest price. His profits from rearing and selling 3'oung stock would be about £6, and from the keeping of a few sheep about £5. He grew enough potatoes and oats for home consumption, none for sale. In addition to the potatoes raised he reckoned that he expended on Indian meal close on £17, on flour, clothes, groceries, and like luxuries about £25, and in wages of servants, indoor and out, about £18, showing, after the support of his family, a loss of some £30 a-year. Pressed to explain this, and how, notwithstanding, he managed to live, he said ho married a fortune of £100, all of which was gone, and he owed beside in the town nearly £100 more. He said that he liad been getting oxit of debt in the good years, but was now sunk again, and another bad year would ruin him altogether. E 2 52 NEW VIEWS ON lEELAND. His family consisted of eight persons in all, including servants. This case illustrates a state of things I fear very common in recent years, namely, where the tenant would, after the support of his family, be out of pocket even if he had the land rent-free. ( 53 ) CHAPTEK VI. THE LANSDOWNE ESTATE AT KENMARE — Continued. Kent-raising on the " silent S5'stera " — Drainage by public money — Landlord borrows money from tlie State repayable by terminable instalments and lends it to his Tenants — Supposed to charge them a perpetual annuity in the .shai)e of rent increase — Lime mono- poly — Lime burned by the Marquis and supplied to Tenants — While the distress greatest the price seriously raised — Printed agreement for signature of Tenants, binding them to pay 1(Z. per barrel for Lime as a pennaneut addition to their rents — Curious institution — The hanging year's rent — Its uses described — "Dublin writs'' — Number issued — Arrears, excluding lianging gale, not great. There has been no general rise of rents on the Kenmare Estate of Lord Lansdowne for nearly twenty years. At that time there was the serious general rise of 25 per cent., since which time the rent lias in uo case been lowered, though frequently, in individual cases, increased. The increases of rent latterly are carried out by Mr. Trench upon what was significantly called by my informant .the "silent system," which was explained to mean that whenever a tenancy was changed, as when a new tenant came in, or the sou was substituted for the father or for the mother, the rule is that an increase then takes place. As to the amount of such increase, the tenant has little to say ; it is fixed by the agent, and 54 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. generally, almost invariably, without any independent skilled re-valuation. The tenant may either agree to pay, or go. I find that in the end of 1879 Lord Lansdowne offered to his tenants drainage work on their signing an agree- ment to pay a perpetual addition to their rent — Is. for every £1 given by him for such work, such addition to commence at the end of three years.* In reference to this charge for the repayment of public money advanced by the State on exceptional terms for the purpose, not, I presume, of benefiting the landlords, but of aiding an impoverished country to surmount distress, it will be well shortly to recall the circumstances tinder which the advances for drainage work have been made to Irish landlords. Under Acts (jf Parliament passed in 1847 and 1872 the Board of Works are authorised whenever called upon so to do, to assess the increase which should be added to any tenant's rent in consequence of money borrowed by the lanilord from the State having been employed in draining the tenant's holding. By the 9th section of Act 43 Vict. c. 4 (which received the Royal assent on March 15th, 1880) it is provided as follovvs : " Provided I always that in any award for increase of rent to be made Iby the Commissioners of Public Works (Ireland), under the said Land Improvement Act, the increase, if any, so Warded shall not exceed the yearly rent-charge payable the owner for such loan. The reader is asked to suspend his judgment until Lord Lans- ine's explanation and my reply have been read. THE LANSDOWNE ESTATE AT KENMARE. 55 On January 12, 1880, a public notice was iHSued by the Board of Works stating that drainage loans would be granted to landlords in certain distressed districts on the following terms : 1st. No interest to bo charged for the first two years, and thereafter the interest to be at the rate of 1 per cent. 2nd. The time for repayment to be extended to thirty-seven years; and by the notice it is pointed out that by an annual payment of £3 8s. 6d. per cent, for thirty-five years, beginning at the expiration of two years from the date of the loan, both principal and interest would be extinguished. In this notice it is also stated that these terms would refer to loans which had been applied for subsequent to November 22, 1879. Kenmare and Cahirciveen are men- tioned as distressed distiicts in the schedule to this notice. On December 27, 1879, an order was made by the Board of Works, authorising a loan of £5000 (which, although prior to the above notice, was on the above terms) to Lord Lansdowne, and on June 12, 1880, a further order for £1000 was made for him on the like terms. Thus Lord Lansdowne obtained from the State £6000, which ho will repay by a terminable assessment of £3 8«. 6~h people in improving their condition to a peculiar indolence and recklessness in tho Celtic race. It is indeed the most vulgar mode of esca])ing from the consideration of the effect of moral and social influences on the human mind to attribute the diversities of conduct and character to inherent natural differences. " What race," ho exclaims, " would not bo indolent and insouciant when things are so arranged that they derive no advan- tage from forethought or from exertion." Of the Irish system it may, as a whole, be truly said that it seems to have been contrived, as if by malevolent genius, to develop the worst qualities in the national character, and to repress the best — contrived to encourage idleness, thriftlessness, insincerity, and untruthfulness. To mo the wonder is, not that the faults of the Irish people exist as they are, but that they have managed to retain so much that is estimable, so much that is kindly in their nature, so much befitting the natural dignity of men. When in conversation I have pointed out the tumble- down condition of the house, or the weedy field, or the broken fences, the setting of all of which in decent order would not involve much outlay in money or in labotir, I have remonstrated, the tenor of the answer has generally 78 NEW VIEWS OX IRELAND. been the same : " Oh, it will last my time, it will do very well for me ; " and when, at times, I have tinmed to the son standing by, he has said, " Troth, and it's not here I'd be if I could get the money to take me to America. Sure there is no heart in us to do anything in this country." Dangerous topics, too, will crop up in conversation if the tenant can be induced to speak to you in confidence. It is well that the English public should know these things. It is idle to ignore what is passing in the minds of the people. It is indeed a dangerous thing to society where you find the lower classes expressing distrust of Parliament to help them, and looking to other agencies than the law to protect them. At Cahirciveen I had a remarkable conversation with a man some fifty years of age, and apparently peaceable and decent. After being informed of my object in visiting the place, he said he had heard that Government was going to try and do something for them, and he added, " I believe Mr. Gladstone is a very good man ; but what can he do against a whole House full of landlords ? No, sir, the Tipperary boys did more for themselves in a very short time than any Government has done in my time." I well guessed what he meant, but affected not to under- stand. "Oh, indeed, you know well enough, sir, what I mean. When I was a boy Tipperary had the worst name for landlords in all Ireland, and some of them got badly hurt, God help them ; and now they tell me there is no better landlords in Ireland than there." At times I saw signs of an awakening amongst the SOME GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 79 people to a higher sense of what is duo to themselves. Their correspondence with their friends in America and the visits of thet-e friends more than any other canse seemed to account for this. It helps to make them feel that their condition is not what it ought to be. I regard this as a healthy discontent. It seems to show that they would respond to efforts of the Legislature to improve their condition. I nowhere came upon any evidence of an expectation, or even desire, that any change was to be wrought by violent or unjust means. Their highest aspiration seemed to be for security. When asked were they willing to pay to get security, the answer was, " anything that was fair." When asked what they could do for themselves, if they were helped to purchase their holdings, the answer was, " I would slave for it," and many added that friends in America would help them. One man quaintly remarked, when asked how he would be better oflf if the place was his own. " Sure, wouldn't the days be twice as long, and the nights twice as short, if the place was my own to work on." It is in truth this uncertainty as to possession, this enforced sowing the seed without the security that you shall reap, which paralyses industry and spreads dis- content throughout the land. To-day it may be written, as it was written in 1588 by Sir Eichard Grenville, writing from this very county of Kerry to the English minister of the day : " Inconveniences grow, by the uncertain course that the lords and captains hold in letting their lands to their 80 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. tenants, who hold the same not above four years, and so wander from one place to another, which course being redressed, and they commanded to sell their lands as the undertakers must do, would do much good to breed civility generally in the country. For whereas, now the poor man is never certain to enjoy the fruits of his own labour, and knoweth not, in certainty, what his lord will have of him. For fear he must depend on him and follow all his actions, be they good or bad, whereas otherwise, if the poor tenant held his land by lease for his life or for twenty-one years at a ceitain rent, then were he sure of his charge, and that the overplus were his own, so would he depend on her Majesty and her laws to be defended against the oppressions which now too commonly every lord useth." Is it creditable to English statesmanship that this plaint, uttered three hundred years ago, should seem almost as if written for to-day ? { 81 ) CHAPTER IX. WHY EXCEPTIONAL LEGISLATION IS NEEDED FOR IRELAND. Englisli Land System uot good, but Laud in England a matter ot secondary consideration — Literality of English Landlords — Recent illustration — Effect of public opinion in England — No public opinion controlling Landlords in Ireland — The exceptional con- dition of things in Ireland traced to (1) Legislation directed to hindering Irish commerce and manufactures (2) Penal Laws wliich divorced tlie majority of the people from the land, and (3) Con- fiscations — Eti'ect of these continuing to this day — LTiitil years within living memory government of Ireland on principle of strcngtliening tlie small Land-owning class as if a garrison in a hostile country — Try Legislation in tlie interests of tiie people. I NOW proceed to point out why, in my opinion, excep- tional legislation is needed for Ireland. The question is frequently put thus : " The land-law in Ireland is at least as favourable to the tenant as in England. The English law serves in England; why does not the same, or a more favourable law, serve in Ireland ?" The answer is to be found in the exceptional condition of things in Ireland, and that, in its turn, cannot be fully understood or appreciated without tracing the caiises which have led to it, and noting tlie manner in Avliicli those causes have operated. 1 would begin, however, by saying tliat I do not admit the land laws or system of England to be good. I think 82 ' NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. if there were a serious interruption of long duration in the manufacturing, mining, and commercial enterprise of the country, they would he unequal to hearing the strain which would come upon them. In other words, these great fields of investment and enterprise have made the land, in England, a matter of secondary consideration. In Ireland it represents the staple — almost the only industry of the country. Theo- retically open to grave objection, English Land Laws have been found in practice to answer in the main the needs of the time, because English landlords have, speak- ing generally, in their dealing with their tenants, shown a marked degree of liberality. They have often stopped far short, particularly in times of difficulty, of insistance upon their full legal rights. Their conduct in the late years of agricultural depres- sion is a strong illustration of this. They voluntarily reduced rents. In Ireland, on the contrary, there was no such voluntary movement. It is a regrettable fact that the first movement towards reduction of rentt> followed after, and is regarded by the people as the consequence of, the land agitation in the country. In England, too, a strong, healthy, public opinion, controlling the exercise of exact legal rights, and soften- ing down and modifying them, has existed. This is a factor of safety almost unknown in Ireland. It is but too true that public opinion in Ireland has little weight with Irish landlords. I have been, more than once, struck with the fact that often 'they do not even strive to conciliate public opinion by explaining their AVIIY EXCEPTIOXAL LEGISLATIUN IS NEEDED. 83 conduct wlicn impngnod in Ireland. But let there be the chance of complaint reaching the car of England and you will find attempts made to prevent even a hearing. This, liko other phenomena in the condition of Ireland, is to be explained only by reference to its history. The actual conditions of the relation of landlord and tenant in England in many respects differ from those in Ireland. The Land Tenure Committee in their pre- liminary Report, p. 4, put this clearly. They say : " In England the landlord generally lets to the tenant a farm in perfect working order — an agricultural machine equipped with all the requisites of produc- tion ; in Ireland the tenant often acquired merely a certain area of land upon which he was required to spend the capital, if ho had any, and in any case the labour, requisite to bring it into working order. Under these circumstances the uncertain tenure from year to year, and the absence of any security for the tenant's expenditure on imiDrovcments, could not have continued until the present had not many landlords abstained from taking advantage of the rights which the law allowed them." To understand the Irish land question of to-day it is necessary to look back. I have no desire needlessly to rake up bygone wrongs. I wish to Heaven the Irish people could forget the past ! For them it is in the main a melancholy retrospect. But England ought not to forgot the past — until, at least, a great act of reparation has been done. Even amongst men of some education in England remarkable ignorance of the evil wrought in past times G 2 84 NEW VIEW ON IRELAND. by England towards Ireland prevails. There is, indeed, a vague general impression that in very remote times England, when engaged in the endeavour to conquer Ireland, was guilty of cruelties, as most conquering nations are ; but those things have done very little harm, their effects have ceased to tell, and the only purpose served, by keeping alive their memory, is to irritate the temper of the Irish people, and prompt them to look back rather than look forward. Emphatically, I say this is not so. The effects have not ceased. It is not too much to say that Ireland and Irishmen of to-day are such as English government has made them. It is impossible to do more than glance at the main agencies employed by England which have left enduring evil marks upon Ireland. They may be reduced to three principal heads. These are: 1. The direct legisla- tion avowedly contrived to hinder the development of Irish commerce and manufactures ; 2. The penal laws, which aimed at the suppression of the religious belief of the people \>y preventing education amongst them, by dejDriving them of civil rights, and — most imijortant of all — by divorcing them from the land ; and 3. The confiscations, which affected practically the whole of Ireland and parts of Ireland more than once. (1.) As to the commercial laws. In 16G0 Ireland's jiroximity to America and the good quality of its natural harbours had caused a considerable Irish colonial trade to spring up, but by legislation in 1663 the importation of any European article into an English colony except from England, and in English ships built and manned WHY EXCEFnONAL LEGISLATION IS NEEDED. 85 V)y Englishmen, was prohibited. This was capped in 1696 by an express provision that no goods of any kind shoukl lie imported direct from the colonies into Ireland. About the same period the exportation of Irisli cattle was becoming a source of wealth to tlio country, but upon the complaint of English landowners that thereby their rents were being aflfected, laws were enacted in 1665 and 1680 prohibiting the importation from Ireland, not only of cattle, l)ut also of butter and cheese. Upon this Ireland, striving to accommodate itself to this harsh legislation, ttirned to extensive sheep farming. In a few years a flourishing trade in woollen manufactures existed. Again English jealousy was aroused. Export duties were imposed. But even these failing utterly to crush the trade, the Irish were in 1699 prohibited from exporting their woollen goods to any country whatsoever. This was a sad blow. Between twenty and thirty thousand operatives had been employed in this branch of trade alone. The linen trade had existed in some small degree as early as the fifteenth century, but by 1700 it had risen to great importance. In 1705 the Irish were first allowed to export their white and brown linen to British colonies, but they were forbidden to bring back any colonial goods in return. In this linen trade England was no competitor, but it was feared that the Irish would supersede the Dutch linen, and so cause jealousy in Hollaml. Accordingly attempts were made to restrict the manufacture to the coarsest kinds. But these at- tempts ultimately proved unavailing. 86 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. Even as to the fisheries, it is almost amusing to read read that about the beginning of the eighteenth century petitions from Folkestone and Aldborough were con- sidered in Parliament, complaining of the injury done to the fisheries of these towns "by the Irish catching- herrings at Waterford and "Wexford, and sending them to the straits, thereby forestalling and ruining your petitioners' markets." There was even a party in England desirous of prohibiting all fisheries on the Irish shore except by boats built and manned by Englishmen ! (2.) The penal legislation of Elizabeth's reign adds to antagonism of race that of creed, I do not dwell on that part of the legislation which touched freedom of worship, but it is essential to notice the law affecting the status and civil rights of Catholics. However freedom of worship had been restricted, the permanent effects on civil society would not have been great had Catholics been left free to compete with the favoured minority in the acquirement of wealth and property in land. In the reign of "William and Anne the culminating point in this atrocious legislation was reached. It is difficult even now to read it in cold blood. It is no wonder that it has burnt deeply into the memory of the Irish people. Catholics were forbidden to sit in Parliament; they were deprived of the elective suffrage, excluded from corpora- tions, the magistracy, the bench, the bar, grand juries, vestries, and the shrievalty. They could not be solicitors, or gamekeepers, or constables. They could not carry arms, and were subject to have their houses searched at WHY EXCEPTIONAL LEGISLATION IS NEEDED. .^7 any time ; tlicy were excluded from the army and navy ; they could not possess a horse of greater value than £5, and for that sum any Protestant, on tender, could a]i]»r()- priate his neighbour's hunter. Wfll ma}' Mr. Lecky say that in his own country the Catholic was recognised by the law only for repression and punishment. Education, too, was denied them. The object was to reduce them to a condition of gross ignorance. They were excluded from the university, could not keep a school, or act as usher or tutor, or send their children abroad for education ; there was, in fact, no alternative between complete ignorance and an education subversive of their faith. Restrictions were placed upon them, too, as to the carry- ing on of trade, as to the taking of apprentices, while, on the other hand, they were made subject; to special and exceptional impositions. But, for the point under discussion, it remains to show the most important object and effect of the penal code, namely, the exclusion of Catholics from the freehold of the soil. No Catholic could buy land or inherit it, or lease it for more than thirty-one years, and if a lease- holder increased his profits so as to exceed a certain proportion to the rent without a corresponding rent increase, his farm passed to the first Protestant discoverer. They were deprived of testamentary power, and any interests they had were divided equally on death amongst their sons, unless one became a Protestant, in which case he took all. 88 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. Eewards for alDandonment of their faith were held out to the children against their father, to the wife against her husband, to the brother against his brother. "Well might Edmund Burke exclaim that this was a system well adapted, admirably adjusted in all its parts, for the degradation of a nation. By the middle of the eighteenth century these laws were virtually obsolete ; their breach was connived at. But it may startle some to know that, as late as 1759, a judge of the land could from the bench of justice traly say that "the laws did not suppose any such person as a papist to exist in the kingdom, nor could he breathe without the connivance of the government." (3.) The history of the confiscations plays an almost more important part. I am not going to give a disser- tation upon the early history of Irish land tenure. For my purpose it is enough to say that the superior lord or head of the clan or tribe filled a representative character. He was, in a sense, trustee for his clan, and, though his powers were great, the tribesmen or clansmen were looked upon as having special rights in the land. From Elizabeth's reign Acts were passed by which surrenders to the Crown from the heads or chiefs of the clans were brought about, such chiefs taking re-grants from the Crown, but commonly without provision for the protection of the subrights of the cultivators, who were the clansmen or tribesmen. In this way the cupidity of the chief was gratified at the cost of the members of the clan, whose rights were thus sacrificed. These re-grants made, it was easy in WHY EXCEPTIONAL LEGISLATION IS NEEDED. 81) troublous times to got up accusations against grantees, and the work of procuring confiscations was a husincss of profit. Ilorotlie English undertakers soon learned to turn their power to account. Sir William Herbert, writing from Kerry to Burghley (or Burleigh), in 1588, says : " Our pretext in the enterprise of plantation was to establish in these parts piety, justice, inhabitation, and civility, with comfort and good example to the parts adjacent. Our drift now is, being here possessed of land, to extort and make the state of things turbulent, and to live by prey and by pay." In another place, in the same year, he speaks of these undertakers " as men who measure their conscience with their commodity." They searched into the titles of men's lands for the purpose of confiscation. They had probably bribed heavily to get re-grants to themselves, and they felt justified in making the most of their bargains. The rights of the cultivators of the soil were dis- regarded, and when the people, feeling the yoke, loudly uttered their complaints of insecurity and of uncertain exactions, failing redress, they broke into outrage and lawlessness. Sir Edward Denny, writing from Kerry in 1589, says : " The inhabitants of Irish birth and nation should not be left populous, wealthy, or weaponed, till they are first brousht to a knowledge of God and obedience to the laws. As no person will ever bring the Irish to God or her Majesty, justice without mercy must first tame and command them." Does not this remind one of utterances heard of late ? 90 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. Are these utterances but tlie echo of a cry three centuries old ? Has English statemanship no better panacea now for Irish tenants than that justice without mercy must fii'st tame and command them ? This process of confiscation went on steadily from one reign to another, until in the end there were but few parts of Ireland which escaped. I wish particularly to emphasise the point already mentioned — namely, the con- fiscation not only of the lord's rights as lord, but of the rights which had been acquired under the lord. This is all-important on the point we are considering. Let me illustrate what I mean. Let us suppose it possible that, say, the Duke of "Westminster's estates were confiscated to the Crown. This would indeed be hard on the Duke, and a shock to the sense of the security of property ; but, so long as the rights of those who held under the Duke were respected, comparatively little mischief would be done. Is it needed to point to the effects of this policy of Government, seen even in this day ? ^Vhile it has, by stifling other industries, made the land a greater necessity for the people, it has hindered the bulk of the people in their acquirement of rights in it. It has interrupted that slow but steady growth of rights of property which form the strongest bonds of society. It has kept society divided into the small land- owning class, whose rights in the soil were absolute, and the large land-tilling class, who could hardly be said to have any rights. It created that small land-owning class from a small minority, whose religion, established in the WHY EXCEPTIONAL LEGISLATION IS NEEDED. 91 country, was, through long centuries, a badge of conquest and oppression. Thus was rendered impossible any sympathy between these two antagonistic divisions of society. Thus was rendered impossible the creation of a coherent united public opinion. The interest, the religions, and, to a great extent, the races composing Irish society, became antagonistic. It is not too much to say that, until years within living memory, the government of Ireland has been on the principle of defending and strengthening this small land- owning class as if they were a garrison in a hostile country. It is certainly not too soon to try the effects of legisla- tion in the interests of the people. I hope it may not be too late. I shall next proceed to indicate the character of the remedial lescislatiou which, I think, is urgently called for. 92 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. CHAPTER X. REMEDIAL SCHEME. Existing Laud System broken down— Perennial source of misery and pauperism — Serious changes necessary but no confiscatioa advo- cated—Ulster Custom may be dismissed— A practically uncon- trolled right to increase Kent renders Right of Sale valueless — Objections to Periodical Re-valuations — No automatic plan for regulating Rent practicable — Scheme : (1) Abolition of Settlement tying up land; (2) Extinction, by pm-chase, of mid-interests; (3) For all agricultural tenants, fixity of tenure at fair rents fixed once and for all, with provisions against subdividing, &c. ; (4) Abolition of Hanging Gale in certain cases ; (5) Right in Tenant to buy up his Rent wholly or in part ; (6, 7 and 8) Establish- ment of a Land Commission with power compulsorily to buy all Corporate and all mortgaged Estates, all waste lands, and all Es- tates voluntarily offered for sale, paying owners by Land Bonds ; (0) Such Lands to be sold to the Tenants, paymeut in annual in- stalments in discharge of principal and interest in (not exceeding) fifty-two years. These to constitute an occupying proprietary. Having now described the condition of the district in Ireland which I examined this autumn, with the desire of arriving at the truth, I may reasonably be asked, Have I any remedies to propose as a cure for ihe state of things disclosed ? One thing, at least, seems clear— the existing system has utterly broken down ; prosperity, and with prosperity content, have not grown up under it ; a great part of the country is in sad distress — in none can the system be said KEMEDIAL SCHEME. 93 to have proclnccd satisfuctioB. On tbo contrary, it has proved a perennial suurco of misery and j)anperisin, and of ill-will between classes. It has Leen long tried and been found wanting. I assume without argument that it is not alono the right, but the duty, of the State to order its land system with a view to the welfare of the people, and this even altliough serious injury to particular interests were to result — a fortiori if that welfare can be secured without such injury. The maxim '■'■Solus })opuli suprema lex" still holds good. I admit it is upon those who invoke Parliament to interfere with the operation of natural laws to justify that interference. I claim, however, that I have esta- blished the existence of an exceptional and unsound condi- tion of things, artificially produced by bad law s and evil policy, and now calling for exceptional legislative redress. I shall therefore discuss the question, assuming that serious changes are necessary, and that they are within the competence and the duty of the State to effect. Serious changes I shall certainly advocate, but none which will in my opinion work injustice. A fresh confiscation in the nineteenth century would not undo the evils wrought by those past confiscations which have played so ill a part in Irish history. Neither can a secure settlement be hoped fur by giving rights of property to any class without a just price being paid for them. In any judicious land reform the aim of the statesman should, I submit, bo to set advantages before the tenants to be earned by thrift, self-denial, and exertion. I ofier 94 NEW VIEWS ON lEELAND. my suggestions with diffidence. I know how much easier it is to criticise existing systems than construct new ones. I can, however, state with more confidence what will not answer the needs of the time. I say emphatically that no patching-up, no extension, no modification of the so- called Ulster custom, will avail. The action of the landlords themselves in Ulster, especially since 1870, has shattered the confidence of the people in the efficacy of that custom. Since that Act, the position of many tenants in Ulster has been injured. The landlords have treated that Act as if it was an insult to them ; they have in effect said, " Make the most of your statutory protection ; you need expect nothing from our good-will." It needs little consideration to see that a right in the tenant to sell his interest in his holding cannot long have a health}'' existence side by side with a power practically uncontrolled in the landlord to raise the rent. That power, exercised by small gradual increments of rent, stealthily but surely eats into the very vitals of the custom. Two illustrations are as good as a hundred. I use the first because the facts are almost within my own knowledge. It occurred in a locality with which I am well acquainted, and with a landlord who, as he thought, recot^nised the Ulster custom, and it is a case of recent date. By the shore of Carlingford Lough this landlord had let to a tenant at the rent of about £7 a-year, some fifteen acres on the hillside which until then spade had never entered. The tenant built his homestead upon it. REMEDIAL SCHEME. 95 he foMCcd it, tlid Kuch drainage as was needed, and after years of toil brought it into a slate of decent cultivation. He died last year. His family, with the exception of his wife and one daughter, had gone to America. His widow, finding herself unahle, a;^ she thought, to work the land, desired to sell Inn- interest. She lately consulted her landlord ; he approved of her plan, and kindly (for she was illiterate) undertook the preparation of the notice advertising the t^ale ; but when prepared there appeared at the foot of it the ominous announcement that, for the incoming tenant, the rent in future would be £15 a yearl Remember, the landlord had not directly or indirectly expended one single penny on the widow's holding. This case occurred but a few months ago. The other illustration occurred a few weeks ago, and in the heart of Antrim, in Ballymena. The sale of the tenant's interest, according to the much -belauded but little understood, Ulster custom, was about to take place. The auctioneer was in his rostrum. Enter the bailiff, who grimly announces that 75 per cent, will be put on to the rent to the incoming tenant ! In the first of these cases the landlord was a Catholic ; in the last a Pro- testant. Both professed — one of them loudly— Liberal politics. Further, I feel confident, that no system which contem- plates a future periodical re-valuation of rents will be found effective, or satisfactory, either to landlord or tenant. If, therefore, the plan known as the " three F's " contem- plates, not a rent fixed once and for all, but periodical 96 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. re-valuation, I believe it would prove an endle&s source of ill-will and discontent. I know no sound automatic arrangement hj which rent may equitably be made to rise and fall. If the only alternative between periodical readjustments of rent and its jDermanent fixture at what the tenant would consider too high a point, I think he would, in many cases, prefer the latter because of its certainty. What is now to be done ought to be done with a view to a permanent settlement — as far as there can be permanence in the shifting conditions of human society. I may therefore at once say that in my opinion the main direction which the settlement of this question should take is, so far as it can be done, to turn the oc- cupiers of agricultural holdings in Ireland into, as I prefer to call them, not peasant but occiq)ylng proprietors, securing them in the meanwhile in the possession of their holdings, at rents justly ascertained and fixed now, once and for ever. In cases, however, which lie outside the scheme which I propound, I recognise the utility of having some authority to which to appeal as to rent. It must be obvious, from what I have already written, that, in many instances in Ireland, to stereotype the ex- isting condition of things in the case of small and poor holdings would not be to secure comfort to the tenant- A reduction to what even the tenants would consider a fair rent would not mean the difierence between want an(i plenty. In very few of the instances given do the rent- increases amount to much. It is the accompanying un- REMEDIAL SCHEME. U, certainty whicli canKcs the mischief. The moKt in not made of the land. The tenant is content to live from hand to month. But even what to us Beams an incon- siderable rent-increase does sensibly affect the small Irish tenant. It is wonderful upon how little some Irish tenants can live, and what a change a small accession of means can effect. Even in the case of the very small and poor holdings (which I should hope to see gradually disappear), I have no doubt, that perfect security, prompting the tenant to unstinted exertion, would enable him to take much more out of the land than he does at present, and thus better his condition. It could not make it worse. Still it is clear that there will yet remain cases — pro- bably many — in Ireland which no scheme of finally fixing a fair rent, or of converting the tenant into a proprietor, will fully meet, and in reference to which the remedy must either be migration or emigration. The clearances effected in the famine years, and since, have devoted to sheep and cattle large tracts of fertile land capable of sutstaining many families in decent condi- tion ; but it does not seem possible to formulate any plan by which Parliament can undo the work so effected. The desired change must be brought about by the gradual action of time and progre.-^s. But these famine clearances suggi.-st sad reflections. I do not speak of tlie weight of misery they must have occasioned. But they have led in many parts to this result : — that where the land has most people-sustaining power the population is thinnest — where it has least people- II 98 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. sustaining power the population is thickest. See to what this points. That according to existing law whole country- sides — the best and richest lands — may be cleared if three or four landlords will it. and that these are restrained mainly by motives of self-interest, at times, in part, by motives of humanity. Is this a power good for the state ? I have pointed to vast tracts of waste land capable of reclamation which lie side by side with that which the tenants have already reclaimed. I believe that the waste but reclaima^ le lands in Ireland have been estimated at some millions of acres, exclusive of the enclosed lands, the productive capacity of which could readily be doubled. If these were properly dealt with, and, where advisable, added to the existing holdings, the cases would be com- paratively few in which there would not be land sufficient (under the new energy which the sense of security would give) to support the existing tenants and their families in at least rude comfort. But to carry out such a plan as I suggest the necessity is clear for the creation of a strong and permanent Land Commission, which shall have functions of a judicial, an executive, and of a ministerial character. At these I shall presently glance. With this preface I state in outline my remedial sugges- tions. 1. I would, as far as practicable, abolish every system of settlement or entail which can interfere with the sale 01- dealing with land absolutely at any given moment. In other words, I would require that there shall always be a person with absolute dominion over the land able to REMEDIAL SCUKMi:. 91) sell and nialve8 it. Notwithstanding the attempts made to divide them by base appeals to sectarian animosity — notwithstanding excesses which have repelled many from active co-opera- tiou — Ireland — north and south, east and west, Protestant, Presbyterian, and Catholic, is united upon this land question, as Ireland n«ver has been united before. The removal of that Church-badge of conquest and oppression Ireland owes mainly to one man — to him who now directs the policy of the State. lie has done a giant's work, and yet it beems his mission to take in hand now, when he might have hoped to rest after his labours, a task which needs even all liis genius and resolution. It is to him, with, I trust, the aid of honest and earnest men of every creed and party, that the people loL»k to accomplish this. May the work be thorough and just, to the content- ment of Ireland and the guod of the Kingdom I APPENDIX. The following Letters appeared aliout the dates they respectively bear, and piincipally in the columns of the Daily Telegraph and of the Freeman's Journal. LETTER OF MRS. FRANCES O'MAHOXY. [See ante, p. 41, and for Mr. Russell's reply, ]post, p. 179.] Sir, — Having just read in your paper of the 12th inst. a letter, entitled "New Views on L-eland," signed by "Charles Russell, Temple, Nov. 11," I beg the indulgence of space for a few remarks in justification of one now nearly seventeen years dead, who has been attacked by Mr. Russell with a flippancy which is only surpassed by the absence of truth in the greater part of his statement regarding Mr. Mahony. Speaking of Mi.ss lIewson'.s property near Keumare, he says : " The property formerly belonged to one Mahony, of Cork, who, intending to sell it, raised the rents. AVith this the po(ir tenants had little to say; they could but submit. And having so by a word, as one may sjiy, increa.scd the apparent fee-simple value of his property, Mr. Mahony sold it to Miss Jlewiion." Permit me to state facts, premising that " one Mahony, of Cork," although then residing in that city, was a member of one of the oldest families in the County 132 NEW YIEAVS ON lEELAND. — APPENDIX. Kerry, his son being now in possession of a fee-simple estate which has descended to Lim through a long line of ancestors. A year or two before the famine of 1845-46 Mr. Mahony bought the Kenmave property alluded to in Mr. Russell's letter, for £18,000, a price then deemed excessive by good judges of property. The land was in so bad a condition from want of draining, &c,, that Mr. Mahony took advantage of the loans proffered b}' the Board of ^^ orks and laid out several thousand pounds on an extensive and perfect system of drainage. So great was the employment this gave during the famine years that tlie poor-rate in that barony was considerably less than in the surrounding districts. For a very long time Mr. MahoTiy neither asked nor leceived the rents the poor people would have found it so difficult to pay, but after several prt sperous years a rent was put on each farm proportioned to hut not exceeding the value of the improve- ments made hy the landlord. I asked one of the tenants if he thought the increase of £6 or £7 a-year too much ; be unhesitatingly answered "No," and that lie could Lave paid it for the previous six years. At that time there was no idea of selling the property. When my late husband, Mr. Mahony's, health became precarious it was thought prudent to do so. The property was put up to public auct'on and sold in separate portions, fcome of them being bought by the tenants on the estate. In this way Miss Hewson has become the possessor of a farm or farms. The property brought between £5000 and £6000 more than the pi ice (a fancy one) paid for it twelve or fifteen LETTEPi OF T.OTID E. FITZMATMUCE. in.'] years previously, in consequence of the landlord's im- provemcnte. — Regretting the exuberance of Mr. IhisscU's imagination, particularly when it maligns the dead, I am, i\lr. Editor, your obedient servant, Nov. 13. Frances CMahgny. LETTER OF LORD EDMOND FITZ3LVURICE. [See ante, p. 43, and for Mr. Kussell's reply, post, p. 182.] Sir, — In your columns of the last few daj^s there have appeared a series of letters from the pen of Mr. Charles Russell, Q.C., in which several statements are contained injurious to the management of the estate in Kerry belonging to my brother. Lord Lansdowne. I have not the slightest wish to impugn the perfect good foith of j\Ir. Charles Russell, but so great a propor- tion of the facts alleged by him are kno\\Ti by me — though I am myself unconnected with the management — to be inaccurate, misleading, and incorrect, that I feel myself fullj' justified in asking the public to regard his letters, so far as they relate to my brother's property, as being a yiurely ex parte statement, unsifted in the slightest degree, and, therefore, as a whole, unworthy of credence. One point — that in regard to the drainage loans — I have elsewhere already explained. As Mr. Charles Russell takes no notice of my explanation, I presume he has not seen it. It is not, however, in any manner my intention to enter into a controversy witli him upon the various small details of liis long indict- 134 NEW VIEWS OX IRELAND. — APPENDIX. ment, not only because, if it were necessary, I am not the right person to do so, but also because the Standard of Nov. 11, 14, and 18 contained letters from its Special Correspondent in regard to the same estate giving a totally different account from that of Mr. Charles Eussell. There is another reason. My brother has been examined before the Eoyal Agricultural Commission in regard to his Irish estate, and the landlords, agents, and tenants of Kerry, and all who have grievances, have had a full 'opportunity of stating their respective views, and the facts supporting them, before the Commission presided over by Lord Bessborough. Those, therefore, who desire to hear both sides and form an impartial judgment will soon have the best evidence before them. Meanwhile, I protest against ex parte statements, whether favourable or not, being accepted as unquestioned truth. The gravamen of Mr. Charles Eussell's letters is the inhumanity and harshness of the general management, and he calls as his principal witnesses the " Nun" of Kenmare and the Home Eule Protestant rector, Mr. M'Cutchan.* Archdeacon Higgins, however, whose evidence was con- firmed from many other sources, told your contemporary's correspondent that the estate was low-rented, and " that Lord Lansdowne was one of the best landlords in Kerry, of whom it suited some people to talk disparagingly for personal purposes." I do not know if the Archdeacon meant this shaft for the " Nun " or the Eector, or for both. In either case, far be it from me to contradict him. The successive owners of the Lansdowne property have * See the Rector's reply, post, p. 216. LETTER OF LORD E. FITZMAURICE. 135 been always perfectly aware that no agent can be in- fallible, and no system of estate management can be perfect. They have therefore never sought to avoid the eye of observers, and have been invariably ready to give every information in their power to those seeking it. They would gladly have afforded it to Mr. Charles Kussell, and would have welcomed the impartial criticism of so distinguished a public man, especially at a difficult moment like the present. Unfortunately, as a matter of fact, Mr. Charles Eussell not only heard one side only, but also chose as his principal informants those very persons who, to use Archdeacon Iliggins' phrase, " had personal purposes ;" and they sought him out all the more eagerly, because a foolish report had got about in the neighbourhood that he had come down with special instructions from some mysterious quarter to make a case against Lord Lansdowne, in order to pay him off for his vote and speech on the Disturbance Bill, This report was of course unfounded ; but if I am not justified in believing the idle gossip of Kenmare about Mr. Charles Russell, neither is he justified in believing it about Lord Lansdowne and Mr. Trench. If I am to refuse to believe that the leader of the Northern Circuit coidd for a moment condescend to sink to the level of a common informer, on the same principle I am entitled to ask Mr. Charles Kussell at least tu hesitate before accepting all the wild talk and exaggerations of his friends as being the realities of Irish life. Truth is often not more easy to get at along the shores of Kerry tlmii along those of the Bosphoi-us ; and the same unreasonableness which 136 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. — APPENDIX. now causes Irish patriots, so called, to denounce Mr, Gladstone and Mr. Forster, is simply another symptom of that same reckless frame of mind of which the indis- criminate abuse and misrepresentation of the landlords is the habitual sign. I, therefore, regret that Mr. Charles Eussell should not have thought fit to use his great abilities in sifting the evidence, after hearing both sides, instead of putting his conscience into the keeping of the " Nun," of the Eector, and Mr. JMichael Cronin, the well-known Fenian agent, whose name Mr. Charles Eussell, with true skill, entirely suppresses in his letters. Mr. Michael Cronin, I may mention, could have given Mr. Charles Eussell far more accurate infonnation as to the interior of Mountjoy Prison than of the office rules of the Lansdowne estate. Perhaps, however, it is unfair to complain that an eminent lawyer on his autumn trip should, if only out of mere weariness, leave the rules of evidence behind him for domestic consumption, and, like Mr. Wemmick in ' Great Expectations,' have two characters— a Westminster or business character, and a Walworth or holiday charac- ter, with different modes of procedure adapted to each. The consequences, however, to those whom Mr. Charles Eussell falls upon, when he has donned his Walworth character, are likely, as it would seem, to prove dis- agreeable. In regard to the observation alleged by him to have been made to him by the " Nun,"' to the effect that Mr. Trench had told her that "when he saw the distress coming he told his noble master that it would be the best LETTER OF LORD E. FITZ5LVURICE. 137 thing that had ever happened to the landlords — they would have their tenants at their mercy," I need hardly perhaps point out to any of your readers the prima facie improba- bility of the story, and the still greater improbability of Mr. Trench having made such a statement to the noto- riously hostile " Nun." In any case, I venture to stigma- tise the assertion of the " Nun," if it really was made, as a cruel and wicked slander ; but I cannot still help hoping that Mr. Charles Eussell misunderstood Miss Cusack's words. One other statement I wish to notice, because it reflects on the memory of my late grandfather. Mr. Charles Russell repeats, as unquestioned truth, the old calumny that tlie emigration after the great famine Avas carried out in a barbarous fashion, and that a very largo pro- portion of the emigrants from his property died in " New York Hospital," where a ward in consequence came to be known as the " Lansdowne Ward." I, on the contrary, assert that the emigration was can-ied out with the utmost eflSciency of which the terrible circumstances of the period and the various difficulties of time and place admitted, and that it saved 3,000 people from a miserable end in Ireland. Not one of these, I may mention, had been evicted. They flocked into the already overcrowded workhouse of their own accord, as they were dying of starvation on their miserable holdings, where it was practically impossible to relieve them. As regards tlie " Lansdowne Ward," I not long ago asked a friend of mine, who had been connected with the relief of the famine, and since then with emigration and 138 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. — APPENDIX. Poor Law work in England, to inquire carefully while in New York where the hospital was, and whether any such ward existed or had existed in it. He told me on his return that he believed the whole story was an impudent invention got up by Irish politicians for their own purposes. I observe that Mr. Charles Eussell, throughout his letters, takes Griffith's valuation as a fair standard for rent. The absurdity of this has been so often and so thoroughly exposed in your columns that I need not allude to it further, beyond noticing that Mr. Charles Eussell is obliged to admit, though grudgingly, that, even near Cahirciveen, the estate is not highly rented. Your contemporary correspondent says it is low rented. Mr. Charles Eussell says, inter alia, that he found the Kerry peasantry dull and deficient in humour, and his soul was consequently filled with patriotic anguish. Now, a friend of mine tells me that Mr. Charles Eussell, though an Irish M.P., is in reality a Scotchman. There is a well- known saying that to make a Scotchman understand a joke you must first perform a surgical operation upon him. I should be sorry if, the next time Mr. Charles Eussell visits Kerry, the playful inhabitants should consider it their duty to perform upon him any of the surgical opera- tions now fashionable in Ireland, with a view to making him understand the humour of the country. If they do I feel sure Mr. Trench will do his best to protect him. One of your contemporaries, I may observe, pointed out the other day that perhaps the only redeeming feature in the present gloomy situation in Ireland was that nothing LETTER OF LOUD K. FITZ^IAlUICi:. 139 seemed able 1o suppress the wit and humour of tho people, to whatever class they belonged. My friend Professor Fawcett not long ago made some stay at Ken- mare ; Mr. Charles Kussell can, if ho chooses, ask him if he thought the population such very dull people, or con- sidered that they were all groaning and downtrodden under a horrible tyranny. Mr. Charles Russell further declares that his poorer witnesses exhibited signs of the most abject terror. Small blame to them, I venture to say. What must have been the feelings of these unfortunate people when they found themselves suddenly confronted with the formidable leader of the Northern Circuit, armed with his " note-book," accompanied by an active " shorthand writer," and followed by friends of tho "Nun," fresh from her presence, Mr. Michael Cronin, fresh from Mountjoy Prison, and the Home Rule Eector still groan- ing from the consequences of disestablishment! Who shall blame the Kerry peasant if he shrunk back and at first showed no greater valour than the ancient hero when he saw advancing upon him an equally dire con- junction, " Gorgones, Harpj-ioeque et forma tricorporis umbrse ?" In one thing I agree with Mr. Charles Russell, viz., that tho peasantry of Kerry are poor, though perhaps not so poor as he thinks. I attribute this mainly to the poverty of the soil, the remote character of the district, tho bad methods of cultivation, and, near Cahirciveen, to habitual drunkenness. The laws relating to land, no doubt, have also, especially in the past, had something 140 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND.— APPENDIX. to do with it, but I think less there than elsewhere, because Lord Lansdowne's property is one of the few in the South of Ireland where the Ulster custom exists, a fact which Mr. Charles Eussell slurs over, in the same way that he suppresses the large sums spent on the estate in improvements of a permanent character, and upon schools, since 1845, and upon relief works. Mr. Charles Eussell, however, is of opinion that the poverty is all the fault of the landlords, and in this he is not peculiar, for I see in the Irish papers every day that the landlords are to be exterminated. Be it so. When the hour of confiscation arrives I intend to propose that the Barony of Iveragh, about which Mr. Eussell is so very eloquent, but whither it does not appear that he went in person, shall, with the corresponding title, be conferred on him for his eminent public services. When he has been in occupation of the Barony a few years, I, Sir, shall ask you to appoint me your Special Correspondent, and if I find that the new law-lord has not made the peasantry of Ireland as rich as Henry IV. wished that of France to be, if he has not caused the boulder-stones of the mountains to grow turnips, and has not turned every sow's ear in Kerry into a silk purse, I shall hold him up to public hatred as a rack -renter, a tyrant, and an exterminator. — I am, Sir, yours obediently, EdMOND F1TZSLA.URICE. November 18. P,S. — I may add that Mr. Charles Eussell's assertion that no branches of the Land League exist in Kerry is as accurate as most of his other statements. LETTER OF MR. RUSSELL. 141 LETTER OF MR. RUSSELL. [Ante, pages 131, ISi?.] Sir, — I cannot think of asking de die in diem for space in your columns to answer the criticisms or the strictures upon my letters of your correspondents. I propose, there- fore, to finish the series, as originaUv sketched by me, withoixt noticing these. Pressure upon my time just now renders necessary a break of a few days. When the series is finished I shall ask your permission to make such answer as is called for, once for all. I beg, however, to say I shall notice no anonymous letter. The fact that a number of these have lately been permitted to appear in the English press, full of the most serious — not to say calumnious — statements against the Irish people, seems to me to be in the highest degree re- grettable. Anonymous letters of all sorts are out of place at this time, whether they contain menaces to landlords and agents, or sweeping, unproved charges against whole classes. Many of those that have appeared unsigned are eminently calculated to excite a rancorous and dangerous feeling in the English mind at a time when more than ever calmness of judgment is needed. Only two signed letters pxirporting to challenge the accuracy of any of my statements have up to this time appeared in your columns — I include that in to-day's issue from Lord Edmond Fitzmauricc. I hope I am not doing that noblo Lord injustice in treating this letter as authentic. I should certainly have expected, instead of 142 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. — APPENDIX. the laboured levity which marks his communication, to find him exhibiting a spirit of thoughtful seriousness more befitting the occasion.— I am, Sir, your obedient servant, Charles Kussell. Temple, November 19. LETTER OF ME. E. MOEROGH BERNARD. [See ante, p. 19, and post, p. 144; and for Mr. Russell's reply, J308<, p. 181.] Sir, — Mr. C. Russell having thought proper to hold up my name to public odium, w^ithout first having the courtesy of ascertaining if the " stories " he was about publishing were true, I will tbank you to insert a few remarks concerning my dealings with the Iveragh tenants. I conclude the place he visited was " Roads," where I never raised the rents, and where the tenants, on various occasions, have experienced acts of kindness from me, since I became the purchaser a few years ago. The widow Goulden has not been a tenant for the last eleven years, and her son, who was tenant, ran away to America, not to escape his "landlord," but his other creditors. It may surprise Mr. C. Russell to hear, that instead of cursing me she publicly called down blessings upon me and mine in the town of Cahirciveen no later than last month. The improvements on this farm were made, not by the tenant, but by my father, who got the money from the Board of Works. The rental of the Knocknatubber property is very LETTER OF MR. E. :^IOKR()r;iI BERNARD. 143 mucli tho samo now as in the early part of the forties. Instead of the rents being raised difiercnt times, there has been only one small rise in my time (since 18G6), and every one knows the great increase in the value of farm stock. The charity money Canon Brosnan, the good P.P. of Cahirciveeu, applied to the " Roads " mountain farm, could not have been better used, as it kept some miserable under-tenants (not mine) from the workhouse. At one time I tried to get my neighbour to join in putting that road in order, but he refused, and the undcrfciking was too expensive for me to do alone. Perhaps if Mr. Kussell had an Irish property with heavy charges that must be paid he would be glad to get rid of a bad tenant, and he would also become aware of tho fact that Griffith's valuation is not the guide for many parts of the country. He may also like to know that leases were offered of thirty-one years, but the tenants refused, with one exception, saying they preferred the old way always best, and would remain yearly tenants. Mr, C. Russell's letters having got wide circulation, I hope the various papers which copied his statements will do me the justice to insert this also. Ed. Morrogh Bernard. KiLLARMEY, November 19. 144: NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND.— APPENDIX. LETTER OF VERY REV. CANON BROSNAN, P.P., IN Answer to Mr. Morrogh Bernard. [See ante, pages 19, and 142, and post, page 181.] Sir, — The reference made to me by Mr. Moirogb Bernard in his letter published in the Daily Telegraph of the 20th inst. obliges me, however reluctantly, to trespass on your space. I would have preferred to continue quietly trying in my own humble way to promote the cause of justice and good- will between landlords and their tenants in my parish. But in times of such intense excitement the public have, I think, special claims to be fully and accurately informed on all issues raised in reference to the Land Question. Mr. Bernard states that the charity money applied by me to the Roads mountain farm road kept some miserable under-tenants " not his " from the workhouse, I beg to say that most of this money went to his own tenants, who of all the other people in the parish were the most miserable, and nearly all of whom, but for this and all the other charities given to them, would, beyond all doubt, have perished. The neighbouring gentleman of whom he complains gave me £10 towards making this road, while he did not subscribe a shilling towards it, nor in any other way towards the relief of the appalling distress. • Mr. Bernard says he did not raise the rents on this farm of Roads, but he omits to mention that they had been enormously raised — aye, actually to more than double their value — by the former unhappy owner. Mr. Bernard T.KTTKR OF CAN'OX TMJOSXAX. IM'. 11.") states tliat these tenants experienced various aets of kindness from liini. \\ liat will poor Jolni L^iieh siiy to tliis, who with his hirgo helpless family was cast upon llio world hecatiso in addition to an inipossiblo rent ho could not pay crushing law costs ? The sad and honest truth is that hut for the public charities extended to them, not tivo of Mr. Bernard's twenty or twenty-five tenants at Roads could have paid any rent at all. A\'ith regard to the KnocknatuLber rents, Mr. Bernard states the}^ were raised only ouce in his time, and that by a small increase. Some of them were raised at least twenty-five per cent, by him, and his father lia'l con- siderably raised them all previously, promising then there should be no further rise. As for the widow Goulden, who, Mr. Bernard states, called down blessings upon him and his, recently he gave her £3, but, she demanding £3 more for having " made a fool of her " in sending her to Tralee, he promised he would give it to her the next time ho came to Cahirciveen. She then said "Safe journey to you, but T will not take my curse off you till I get the other £3." This is the blessing ]Mr. Bernard boasts of. I am in a position furthtT to state that her son did not fly the country because of his creditors, as alleged by Mr. Bernard, but 9U account of the excessive law costs imposed uyion him, the poor man having in vain made a tendi-r of his full rent the day before he left. — 1 am, A'c, T. Canon Buosnan. CAninciVEEN, November 21, 1880. L 146 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND.— APrENDIX. LETTER OF MISS M. F. CUSACK, Ix Answer to Lord E, Fitzmaurice. [Known as the Nun of Kenmare — a Member of the Sisterhood of the Convent of Poor Clares, Kenmare.] Sir, — I do not know why Lord Fitzmaurice is so anxious to bring me into the controversy between him- self and Mr. Eussell ; I was not even aware that he pro- posed visiting me until he called at the convent. I could not, therefore, be his principal witness. Facts are his principal witnesses, and Mr. Eus&ell will, no doubt, defend his facts. As no one was present on the occasion of my interview with Mr. Trench, mentioned in Lord Fitz- maurice's letter in your issue of November 19th, I am at a loss to know how any one can be called on to deny the words used except the persons concerned. I am not " hostile " to Mr. Trench, as Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice states. He does both Mr. Trench and mj'self injustice in saying so. But I am hostile, and shall always be hostile, to a system which treats the people as serfs, and nses them solely as rent-producing machines. I was not aware that I had any differences with Mr. Trench ; he has always treated me with marked personal courtesy, and, if I needed an act of personal kindness to-morrow, I would ask it from him as readily as from any one in Ireland. Eecriinination and personalities are not argument, and can only be used when there is a bad case. It is quite true that Mr. Trench and I differed very widely on the subject of the distress in Kerry. Mr. Trench denied LETTER OF NUN OF KENMARE. 117 the distress, aiul, if lie could luivo prevented it, would not have allowed any relief committee to be formed here. But I have yet to learn that Mr. Trench is personally infallible ; he was the only gentleman in or around the Marquis of Lansdowne's estate who denied the distress. His personal friend, and one who also, I believe, shares his peculiar religious views, Mr. Mahoney, J. P., of Dro- moro, asked to join the relief committee here. As it was through the eflForts I made that this committee was enabled to assist the poor here so largely, I wrote to him asking how he could wish to avail himself of the funds I had collected when his friend Mr. Trench so persistently denied the distress. Ilis reply is before me as I write. lie said he had not asked to join the com- mittee until he had impoverished himself by assisting his tenants. I repeat again, this letter is addressed to myr^elf, and is in my possession, and I know that in many places landlords and land agents have denied the distress point blank, though their tenants have been fed and clothed by relief committees and saved from starvation. Further, I received a letter of thanks from Mr. O'Connell, J. P., of Denynane Abbey. Also, I was so pressed by tlio relief committee here for help that I was almost worn out with correspondence ; but when I received earnest appeals from them, there was no more to be said but to try and gave the people. I sent also largo sums of money to Canon Brosnan, of Cahirciveen, where ]\Ir. Trench is also agent, and received from him the following letter ; " There are upwards of 800 destitute familits here. How wo are to struggle through the next five or si.x L 2 148 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. — APPENDIX. months I know not; as for clothing;, £800 would not supply the barely necessary want, whilst some 600 chil- dren are unfit to appear in school through this want. Dear sister, do all you can to help me in this great work of need and charity. — Praying God to send yoit more and more, I am yours most truly, " J. Canon Brosnan." Iribh landlords lost a golden opportunity of securing the affections and devotion of their tenants ia the famine year, and I deeply regret that a nobleman like the Marquis of Lansdowne, whose rents are not excessive and whose heart is good — if he will pardon me for saying so — should have missed such an opportunity. How feed- ing and clothing the poor could increase the distress I am at a loss to imagine. I have no wish for newspaper or any controversy, or I could give details of what was done in that way here and the dire necessity for it. — Your obedient servant, Sister Mary Francis Clare, (M. F. CUSACK.) Kenmare, Co. Kerry, November 21, 1S80. LETTEE OF LADY FITZGEEALD. [See ante, p. 33, and jpost, p. 151, and for Mr. PkUssell's reply, fost, p. 188.] Sir, — I have read a letter signed " C. Eussell," im- pugning the character as a landlord of my husband, the late Knight of Kerry. Had this letter come from one of the ordinary agitators I should have passed it by in LETTER OF I.ADY FITZGEUAT.D. 1 10 scornful silence, biit coming as it clocs from a man of such eminence in liis profession, I beg you will allow me to make a ftw remarks upon it. ]\Ir. Russell visited this island, announcing that ho did so to satisfy himself as to the exact facts of the Irish land question for the purpose of legislation. He says he " desires to speak with reserve," for he adds, " I have not examined it with that fulness I should desire before pronouncing an opinion." He also says that of the management and actions of my husband he would prefer for the present not to speak fully. Never- theless, though he did not give moio than a few hours of one single afternoon to the investigation of such a con- fessedly difficult subject as the management of a thickly- populated estate (a description of property quite new to him, as he told us), he proceeds to imblish a number of half-formed opinions and insinuations of peculation of a most unfounded character, in which I fail to see the " reserve." I regret that his time was so limited that he could not remain longer on the island when invited to do 60, for every facility for cxamiuation into my husband's plans of management would have been gladly given to him, and by so doing ho would have been able in a veiy short time to correct the first impression produced by a scene so new to him, and to have arrived at the exact facts which it was the avowed object of his visit to obtain. I must leave it to one of my younger sons, who now acts as agent for the estate, to reply in detail to the charges Mr. liussell has published ; but with regard to 150 NEW YIEWS OX IRELAND.— APPENDIX. his assertion that " no improvement had been made hy the landlord at his own cost," I would wish to say that he would have found on examination that in point of fact the whole rental of the estate for many years past has been spent in labour on the island, and that during the last general distress, in preference to giving free food, he offered and gave employment to every man on his estate who applied for it. Mr. Russell takes occasion to say, " I ought to add that the present Knight seems personally jDopular — of him sanguine expectations are formed." I am glad that my son, now in India with his regiment, is spared for a few weeks the pain of reading this reserved slur on his father. I am thankful to say that his highest ambition is to follow in his steps, and all true friends of Ireland who knew him will agree that he could not have a brighter example. Mr. Eussell further remarks " his is not a thriving tenantry, or such as a landlord can look upon with pride or satisfaction." My husband may have been more easily pleased than Mr. Russell, for he certainly did feel a considerable amount of pride and satisfaction in very many of his tenants, whom he had watched and encou- raged from their boyhood up, and whom he looked on as personal friends, and who always came to him for advice and help in their difficulties. The only way to arrive at a just conclusion as to improvement is by comparing the present with the past, and to those who remember this country forty years ago, the change for the better is obvious enough. I fear I am intruding too much on your space, but LETTER OF Mlt. K. FITZCiERALD. 151 I cannot but be intensely movod, knowing, as I Jo, how for forty years my husband's earnest and ceaseless effort was to promote in every way tlie interest of Ireland, to see how such efforts can be so misrepresented by a flying visitor. — I am, Sir, your obedient servant, Julia M. Fitzgerald. LETTER OF MR. R. FITZGERALD. [See ante, p. 33, and post, p. 155, and for Mr. Russell's reply post, p. 188.] Sir,— Mr. Russell, in his letter, " New Views on Ire- land," which appeared in your issue of the 12th inst., commences by stating that he " wishes to speak with reserve of my brother's property, not having examined it with that fulness it deserves," and goes on to make cer- tain statements which, with your permission, I will correct. Perhaps Mr. Russell will bo surprised to hear (I am sure the readers of his letter will) that if rents were now fixed on the basis of Griffith's valuation in accordance iciih the rise in prices since the valuation icas made, •with a moderate allowance of per-centage on improve- ments, the rental of my brother's property would exceed the present rental by more than fifty per cent. As it i.", after deducting interest oti improvements effected by my father, partly out of his income and partly by money borrowed from the Board of Works on the security of his estate, and not taking any account of the rise in prices, 152 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. — ArPENDIX. the rental of Yalentia does not in the aggregate exceed the valuation by 25 per cent. Mr. Russell says, " hero and there" may be seen marked improvements. Does this convey (what is the fact) that since my father purchased this property, new houses have been built on about one-fourth of the farms, and a still larger proportion of farmhouses and cottages repaired in a substantial manner, and re-roofed with slate, and also that he spent a large proportion of his income in various other improvements, contraiy to Mr. Eussell's assertion that he made no improvements at his own cost? Has Mr. Eus- sell's experience taught him that landlords in England, Scotland, or any other country, when they lay out money, for which, however obtained, they must give the security of their estates, exact, either dii'ectly or indirectly, no increased rent for their land ? Do the}' make this expen- diture a perfectly free gift, and take no account of it in calculating the letting value of their farms ? Mr. Eussell alleges that my father contributed nothing to the relief funds. Such a statement was made before and withdrawn, and I am much mistaken if one of those who accompanied Mr. Russell was not well aware of this fact. My father, it is true, d'd not send a contribution of money to the relief committee ; but, what was far better, he under- took to give, and did give, employment to every man on his j)ioperty Avho was willing to work. Mr. Eussell states that my father " did supply seed po- tatoes to some of his tenants at market price, and in some instances below market price," the fact being that he had procured an amply supply of champion potatoes direct LETTER OF INIR. R. FITZGERALD. 153 from Scotland, wkicli lie oifercd to llioso of liis larger tenants who had not already supplied Ihomselvcs, at two- thirds of market price, and to his smaller tenants (and that by far the greater number) at one-third, half, and two- thirds of cost price, not " at market prices," as Mr. Eussell says. The relief committee undoubtedly did their work well, but I will leave it to your readers to judge how far £1200 could have gone towards supporting during the winter the inhabitants of Valentia, considerably over 2000 in number, even after deducting (according to Mr. Russell) the twenty self-supporting tenants and their families. Mr. Eussell says that "everywhere on the property there was great bitterness at certain exactions which had latterly been imposed on the tenants in addition to their rent, and which formed no inconsiderable increase to the burdens already sufficiently great on their miserable hold- ings." Perhaps you wuU allow me to explain. Many years ago there were endless disputes in the obtaining of sand and seaweed on two small strands on the northern side of the island, which could not bo well allotted to particular farms, as is the case with the remainder, by far the largest part of the foreshore. Finding that in the general struggle which ensued, the weaker tenants did not get their fair share, and that strangers were encroaching on these privileges, my father, whose right to do so had been duly recognised by Govern- ment, for police purposes directed that any tenant desi- rous of obtaining seaweed at these particular strands should pay for a ticket enabling him at any time during the current year to take the greatest available quantity of 154 NEW VIEWS OX IRELAND. — APPENDIX. seaweed for the sum of 2s. 6cZ. per annum, and a like rate for sand, and that the amount realised by the proceeds of these tickets, about £12 per annum, should go to defray the expenses incurred, and that the balance, if any, should be devoted to charitable purposes. Mr. Eussell received a full explanation of this when on the spot, and should have remembered it. We must plead guilty to having, for the protection of the property, imposed a charge of Is. for the right of obtaining as much heather, &c. (used as litter for cattle), as one man could with a scylho cut in a day, not " carry on his back," according to Mr. Eussell. The increase of income realised thereby has for the last four years been on an average 12s. per annum, not a very serious " exaction," I should say. The unreclaimed land that was let to tenants could have been more profitably used for grazing, but in order to ease the overcrowded districts a large portion of land was fenced, drained, and, with stated cottages built thereon, was let to tenants at a nominal rent for a certain number of years (seven and upwards), when it was calculated they would have pro- cured a liberal return for their labour, after which, accord- ing to previous arrangement, there was to be a moderate rise of rent during the remainder of the term of generally 31 years. It might have been more satisfactory for the landlord if (as doing in some cases) he had let the land at a high rent and paid the tenants for their improvements, but the result would have been the same. I have in the above endeavoured simply to lay before the public, in justice to the memory of my father, the true state of the case, and, unwilling to trespass on your indul- LOCAL RErORT ON KNIGHT OF KERRY'S TROrERTY. 155 geuce, have abslaiucd from expressing an opiuiun on the tone of Mr. Russell's letter. — I am, Sir, your obedient servant, R. Fitzgerald. Valentia, Novemher 23. RErOET OF A LOCAL COMMITTEE appointed to ENQUIRE INTO THE TRUTH OF Mr. RuSSELL's ALLEGA- TIONS RELATING TO THE KnIGHT OF KeRRY's PRO- PERTY IN Valentia. This Report is copied from the Freemans Journal, Dublin. Its substance appeared also in the Daily Tele- graph, and in other papers : " A large and representative meeting of the Iveragh branch of the Land League was held here to-day, Canon Brosnan, P.P., President, in the chair. The others pre- sent were — Rev. Thomas Lawlor, P.P., Valencia, Vice- President; Mr. P. Roche, Hon. Sec, neighbouiing clergy- men, representatives of the League from each of the sur- rounding parishes, together with many tenant-farmers and shopkeepers. " The Very Rev. Chairman commenced by saying how much the farmers of Ireland, and especially those of Iveragh, were indebted to Mr. Russell, whose able letters let such a flood of light into the dealings of landlords with their tenantry, and had the effect of enlightening English public opinion. Some of the landlords, as was natural, strove to impugn the accuracy of Mr. Russell's statements, and it was their duty to defend him as far as truth and 15G NEW VIEWS OX IRELAND.— APPENDIX. justice permitted. He (the Canon) Lad not waited for this meeting to rebut the false statements made by the landlords in his own parish, but had written himself to the papers. He understood that Mr. E. Fitzgerald's letter which aj^peared a few days ago was one which required an immediate answer. He considered the best plan wonld be if the representatives from the island and a few men from the town who knew all the facts consulted together, and then he should lay their answer before this meeting, and send it forth stamped with its approval. The follow- ing is the Report : — ' We find the statements of Mr. C. Eussell regarding the Knight of Kerrj-'s property to be substantially correct, and the letter of Mr. R. Fitzgerald in reply to be inaccurate and misleading. ' 1. Mr. Fitzgerald says his father undertook to give, and did give, employment to every man on his property who was willing to work. No ; he ofifered employment to labourers on his property, but excluded small tenant- farmers who wanted it as much, and who up to that year were accustomed to earn their rents by labour. The weather was so severe, people were so badly fed and clad, and prices given for contract work were so low, that not many availed of the emj)lo3'ment. The tenants for whom the work was done are charged at the rate of £5 per cent, with no promise of its being ever taken off, while Govern- ment Ljans were to be had at the same time at more favourable and terminable terms of £3 8s. 6cZ. ' 2. Mr. Fitzgerald states that his father offered cham- pion seed potatoes to his larger tenants at two-thirds of market price. No ; he offered them at Is. 6d. at weight li stone, the price paid by himself, and which was then the market price at this neighbouring town of Cahir- civeen. 3Iany of those larger tenants, through inability LOCAL RErOIlT ON KNIGHT OF KERRY'S TROrKRTY. 157 to pay, tliough knowing the value of cliami)ions for seed purposes, or dthor causes, did not purchase any. " 3. Mr. Fitzgerald would lead the public to infer tbut his father's tenants were Imldiiig their lands at 25 per cent, only over Griffith's valuation, for ho (-a^-s the rental of Valeutia does not in ihe aggregate exceed ihe valua- tion by 25 per cent. Whatever his process of reasoning may l)e, the broad fact as stated by Mr. Eussell remains that the tenants on the estate as a rule pay nearly twice Griffith's valuation. Wo subjoin a typical case. The tenants on the townland of Ballyherney were paying the late Sir James O'Connell, who held as middleman from the Knight of Kerry, one and a half Griffith's valuation. Can jMr. Fitzgerald deny that when the farms on this townland were readjusted, his father did raise the rent, exchisive of percentage on buildings and drainage, &c., to nearly twice Griffith's valuation? The tenants on the other townlands state the same rule holds in thi ir regard. ' 4. The most curious part of Mr. E. Fitzgerahl's letter is his explanation of a tax of 2s. Gd. for seaweed and 2s. Gd. for sand, which the people were accustomed to take from the public strand, and which you should suppose an im- proving landlord would be anxious to see his tenants take in large quantities. The majority now go to the main- land by boat for seaweed and i-and, which they get with- out any payment. Mr. Fitzgerald's statement gnes to t^ay that his fatlier placed two gates on the public liighway for police pur[iose8, and that the proceeds of the tjix are given for charitj'. The people assert there was never any need of police, nor did they ever hear of any squab- bles (except on one occasion with the Knight's steward when these rules came into (.jieration) on any of the strands claimed as his own by the Knight, and they much prefer to live like men and net to be yeaily objects of charity. ' The fact is, when the College lands wtie taken oif his hands the Knight charged each of the Trinity College 158 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND.— APPENDIX. tenants 30s. for their right to the strand, and when this did not pay he reduced it to 10s. and finally to 4s. This looks like financial and not police business, and it is not surprising, as Mr. Russell truly states, that the poor tenants, whoso burdens are already sufficiently great, should bitterly complain.' " LETTEE OF THE MAEQUIS OF LANSDOWNE. [See ante, pp. 43 et seq., and for Mr. Russell's reply, pod, p. 189. See also "Declaration of the Marquis of Lansdowne's Tenants in Iveragh," post, p. 171. See also important article from the Cork Examiner, p. 172, post.^ SiR^ — Evidence with regard to the management of my Kerry estate was yesterday given before the Eoyal Com- mission by Mr. Trench and by myself. Some time, however, must necessarily elapse before that evidence is in the hands of the public ; and there are, in the meanwhile, one or two points in Mr. Eussell's letters which require a few words of explanation from me. Mr. Eussell expresses a fear that the landlords of Ireland may be making " a profit from their tenants out of the public funds lent for land improvement." He ap- parently believes that he has found on my estate the solitary instance upon which he relies for the establish- ment of this proposition. I hear Mr. Eussell has been told I obtained from the State £6000, on which I shall Lave to pay a rent-charge of £3 8s. 6d. per cent., while I have charged my tenants £5 per cent, for the use of the money. The facts of the case are as follows : During the year 1879 1 obtained from the Board of LKTTKR OF TIIK IMAIIQI'IS OF T.AN'SDOWN'i;. 151) Works two loans, oiio of £1525, the other of £5000. Applietl for in the luontlis of January and September, respectively, each of these loans was made upon tlio then usual terms, and was repayable by a rent-charge of 0^ per cent. I offered tin's money to my tenants at 5 per cent., and undertook to charge them no interest for the first three years. Many of them applied for work upon these terms, and during the winter months several hundred men were thus employed. Every tenant before commencing work signed a printed form of agreement, binding himself to pay 5 per cent, upon the sums paid to him from time to tiine as the work progressed. On Jan. 12, 1880, a notice was issued by the Board of Wojks, stating that drainage loans would be offered to landlords, repayable by a rent-charge of £3 Ss. dd. per cent., no interest to be chargeable for the first two years, and it was explained that these terms would refer to loans applied for subsequent to Nov. 22, 1879. Both of my loans had been applied for jirior to that date, and, there- fore, did not come within the scope of the circular. I was, however, infonned by the Board towards the end of the month that the loan of £5000, which had been approved by the Commihsioners on Dec. 27, should have the advan- tage of the new terms, and almost immediately afterwards further loans of £3000 and £5000 were ai)plied for by me to be expended upon the same townlands as the earlier loans. Tlic total expenditure under these four loans has been £5424. The bargain Ijetweon the State and the landlord having been amended, a corresponding revision of that between 160 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND.— APPENDIX. the landlord and the tenants became necessary ; hut that revision, however, was called for, not only in respect of future advances, but in respect of those which had been already made; for out of a total of 290 agreements 263 had been signed by the tenants before the end of Feb- ruary. Some of the tenants, moreover, had commenced work under the old terms, and were finishing it under the new, and much of the work taken in hand was not yet completed, or passed by the inspector. It appeared to me, under these circumstances, that the adjustment of the account must necessarily be deferred until the work had been fiuished and certified by the inspector of the Board (no charge was in any case to be made to the tenants for three years). "When I have received from the Commis- sioners a statement of the rent-charge due by me it will be apportioned in accordance with that statement among the tenants. Upon money advanced to me at 6^ per cent., the tenants will pay me 5 per cent. Upon that advanced at £3 8s. Gd., ihey will not pay more than £3 8s. 6d. Some of Mr. Eussell's informants appear to have laid stress upon the fact that no engagement was given to the tenants to the effect that the rent-charge payable by them should terminate with that payable by the landlord. Upon this point I will only observe that it is impossible to determine beforehand the length of time during which the land will be benefited by drainage, and that, as the rent-charge payable by me, or my successors, will not terminate until the year 1917 a.d., the amount of rent which, when that time comes, will be payable by the tenants, and which must depend upon the then circum- LETTER OF THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE. l«ll stances of thoir holdings, is scarcely a matter for present consideration. With regard to the sale of lime to the tenants, I have to make the following observations. It is untrue to state that they have boon obliged to buy their lime at my kiln. Tlu-y found that they could obtain it there cheaper and better than they could from their own kilns-, and they ceased using the latter of their own accord. The price charged per barrel has varied from time to time. That recently charged is, it must be borne in mind, uniform over the entire estate, to parts of which the lime has to be conveyed by water at considerable ri.^k and expense. The only other point which I will notice in this letter is Mr. liussell's statement that upon the Iveragh portion of the estate the " rents have been increased three times within the past twenty-five years." This statement is absolutely misleading. Mr. liussell supports it by quoting several anonymous cases, in whicli lie was told by the tenants that their rents had been repeatedly increased. 1 have identified most of these, and sati.«-fied myself as to the incorrectness of Mr. Russell's conclusions. The un- trustworthiness of the figures upon which he has founded them has been well illustrated by your correspondent, Mr. T. Cuoke Trench, in his letter of the 20th inst. I may observe that the Iveragh rental was in 1850, £3103; in 18G0, £2908; in 1870, £20oG; in 1880 (allowing for half the county cess, now paid by the lundlord), £3377. The increase of rent which took place in 1875 was, I believe, a perfectly reasonable one. u 162 NEW VIEWS ON IlIELAND.— APPENDIX. I note with satisfaction Mr. Kussell's admission that the appearance of the tenant's dwellings "presents a marked improvement upon those on neighbouring estates," and that the rents "are not the highest." They do not, he says, generally " exceed the valuntion by more than 50 per cent. — not always so much." As a matter of fact, the Kenmare estate, to which the above quotation refers, is let, on an average, at 27 per cent., and the Iveragh estate, to which reference has ju-t been made, at 44 per cent., over Griffith's valuation. Tlie rental of the whole estate was, ia 1859, £10,035, and iu 1878, £11,800. £28,000 have been spent by me or my predecessors on permanent improvements between the two dates. I hope Mr. Eussell will excuse me if I decline to accept his couclu.>-ion that " everywhere the feeling is that the rent is more than they (the tenants) can pay, living in the barest fashion," nor can I accept the statement of ways and means submitted to him by an informant, whose name he does not give, and published by him without question in his letter of the 12th. His witness has, I venture to think, proved a little too much. His valuation is £17, his rent £23, and he farms at an annual loss of £30. It is obvious that should this man's statements be worthy of credence he Would 1 se £24 a-year if he held his farm at Griffith's valuation (the terms proposed by the Land League), and that he would be out of pocket to the extent of £13 even if his farm were held-rent free. If this is a fair specimen of the solvency of an Irish tenant, who is described by Mr. Eussell as " seeming much better off than the rest " on an estate where the rents are " not LETTER OF MR. T. TOWNSEND TRENCH. 103 the highest," wo may iudeed despair of a satifei'actuiy solution of the Irish problem. Yoxir readeis will no doubt observe that this witness explained his ability to "live " by the fact that he "married a fortune of £100." It is not the least puzzling circumstance connected wiih this question that such fortunes are frequently given to their daughters by men who will demonstrate to any un- suspecting interrogator that their farming operations cannot result otherwise than in an annual loss. For the facts with regard to the " hanging year " and other matters dwelt upon by Mr. Eus.»ell, I must refer him and your readers to my evidence and Mr. Trench's. I t-liould perhaps add that when Mr. Russell visited my estate he did not visit that portion of it, a district of some 30,000 acres, upon which I reside. I append to this letter a copy of one which I have received from Mr. Trench, and I have the h' nour to be, Sir, your" obedient servant, Laxsdowne. LETTEK OF MR. TRENCH, referred to by thi: Marquis of Lansdowne in the preceding Lettek. My Lord, — In Mr. Russell's letter of the r2th in-titnt ho saj 8 that " the Nun of Kenmare, in her printed expres- hion of thanks to America for the funds entrusted to her for relieving the distressed tenantry, says, under the date of Easter week, 1880: "One land-agent said to mo tlmt when ho mw the distress coming ho told his noblo master that it would be the best thing that had ever happened to the landlords ; they would have the tenants at their 164 XEAV VIEWS ON IRELAND. — APPENDIX. mercy." To this Mr. Russell adds : " It can hardly be doubted to whom this language refers." As the above statements are obviously intended to refer to me, I beg to state that in conversation with Miss Cusack or any other person I never used the words attributed to me, or any words capable of such an interpretation. — I have the honour to remain, your Lordship's obedient servant, T. TowNSEND Trench. To the Marquis of Laxsdowse. FUKTHEE LETTEE OF THE MAEQUIS OF LANSDOWNE. Sir, — In tlie third paragraph of my letter published in Saturday's Daily Telegrapli, it is stated that "out of a total of 290 agreements 263 had been signed by the tenants before the end of Februar}-." I should have said that out q£ a total of 290 agreements 242 had been signed before the end of January. — I am. Sir, your obedient servant, Lansdowne. Eakons Court, Ireland, Nov. 28. LETTEE OF VEEY EEV. CAXON BEOSNAN, P.P., IX ANSWER TO TKE MaRQUIS OF LaNDSDOWNE. It APPEARED IN THE Freeman's Journal. It was origin- ally ADDRESSED TO THE Daily Telegraph, but that JOURNAL WAS UNABLE TO MAKE ROOM FOR ITS INSERTION. Sir, — Having from a painful tense of duty animad- verted on some replies made in j'our colunms to Mr. rURTHER LETTER OF CANON BROSNAN, 1*1'. H)-") Charles Russell's letters, it would be scarcely fair to pass over others, though I woxilcl willingly have done kg but for pressing necessities of the hour. The Marquis of Lausilowne, in his letter published in List Saturday's Telegraph, states tliat the rental shows that his Iveragli estate is let on an average of 44 per cent, over Griffith's valuation. His lordship does not here add whether this is exclu- sive of one-half of the county cess, which had been paid by him since 1875, but it seems inferrable from a previous paragraph in his letter. Assuming it is so, I beg fo submit a full Schedule of the rents and valuation respec- tively of all his lordship's Iveragh tenantry in myparit Daniel Cournaiio M 21 U John Sullivan 25 42 10 PtU'rGarvoy 5 2 8 14 John Sullivan 4 17 8 15 John Foley 7 12 13 2 JohnDucy 5 2 8 14 Daniel (iol.len 4 1(J 8 IG Ellon Golden 7 9 13 2 Daniel Shea 2 9 4 Daniel Sullivan 4 12 8 John D. Shea 3 8 GOO Cornelius Coffey 3 11 GOO John Shea 1 1 2 JohnGarvey 6 2 10 5 Connell O'Connell 8 15 12 10 Catherine Coffey IG 10 30 12 William Pofts 10 1 17 10 Maurice IMoriarty 9 5 16 5 Thoma:s Sullivan 12 3 20 Denis Sullivan 5 IS 10 Daniel Corcoran 7 12 14 Patrick Corcoran , 4 17 10 Denis Currane 4 12 8 2 John Fitzgerald 2 1 3 14 John Herlehy 1 14 3 Daniel Garvey 2 13 3 4 Timothy Sugrue 8 8 14 5 John Coffey 10 15 17 4 n Elizabeth Kelly 4 12 7 10 Michael O'Connell 10 16 14 Jeremiah Courtynane 6 1.") (t 10 Timothy D. O'Shca 11 5 18 10 Denis B. O'Sullivan 7 10 12 10 Patrick Daly 9 5 17 Carried forward £268 5 £736 8 170 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. — APPENDIX. Tenants. Gov. Value. Yearly Rent. £ s. d. £ s. d. Brought forward 268 5 736 8 Jeremiah Keating 12 18 6 Thomas Shea 10 5 16 10 Timothy J. Shea 9 15 14 4 John T. Shea 8 10 14 6 Denis O'SuUivan 8 13 2 Maiu-ice Eegan 10 5 16 4 JohnMahony 1115 13 2 Patrick Shea 12 5 18 Jeremiah Connor 7 5 12 John Buckley 7 5 12 Deborali Shea (widow) 7 5 12 Daniel Mangan 17 15 27 Denis Foley 8 13 4 JohnSheehan 7 11 4 Cornelius Shea 12 15 20 John Mangan 14 5 18 18 Daniel Shea 15 10 27 JohnShehan 1115 19 15 Patrick Keating 11 15 20 Jeremiah Keating 17 28 10 Ellen Shea (widow) 14 15 24 14 Patrick Sullivan 8 14 Daniel Golden 13 12 21 8 James Shea 4 1 6 16 Humphrey O'Connor 8 10 13 Patrick Sullivan 6 10 4 Michael Murphy 6 10 4 James Griffin 10 10 17 4 £731 £1199 3 Deduct Is. 7d. in the pound county cess on valuation 57 17 5 Net Rental £1141 5 7 Being 56 per cent, above Government valuation, after deducting half county cess payable by landlord, or 64 per cent, without such valuation. LORD LAXSDOWNE'S IVERAGII TENANTS. 171 DECLARATION signed by 81 of the Marquis of Lans- downe's Tenants in Iveragh. The fact of this declaration having been signed was mentioned in the Daili/ Telegraph and many other Papers : — " "We, the undersigned tenants of the Iveragh estate of the Marquis of Lansdowne, having seen a letter of his lordship's in the Daily Telegraph, in vv^hich he states that the descri]iti(iu given by Charles Eussell, Q.C., M.P., of the increase of rent imposed on the tenants of this estate is absolutely misleading, do hereby declare that Mr. Rus- sell's statement is accurate, and docs tiuly represent the history of this estate for the past 30 years." Here follow the signatures of 81 tenants. Saturday, Dec. 4. ARTICLE FROM COBK EXAMINER Newspaper of Nov. 22, 1880, relating to the Lansdowne Estates IN Kerry. Mr. Russell begs attention to this article, not for its ability — though that is remarkable— but because it shows that twenty years ago the same grievances existed on this estate which now find voice in his Letters, and that although care was taken that they should be brought to the notice of the then Marquis, they remain to this day unredressed. The writer is the gentleman who, twenty j'ears ago, personally enqiiired into the condition of Lord Lansdowne's tenants. At that time Mr, J. F. Maguire, M.P. — many years in the House of Commons — was the pro- 172 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND.— APPENDIX. piietor of the Examiner. Few readers will require to Toe told that the Cork Examiner is the leading paper in the South of Ireland. [Article.] A brother of the Marquis of Lansdowne has rushed into print to defend the management of the Kerry estates of his lordship againt-sell gives now. The papers containing these statements were duly sent to the noble owner, the then Marquis, in order that he might be fully cognizant of what was feaid about the condition of the property from which he condescended to receive a vast income. But no reply, either by his lordship or any one else, was vouchsafed. The voice of complaint was passed by in silent contempt. We are fallen itpon different times. The present Marquis does not repl}', but his brother does. He finds it neces- sary to appear before the bar of public opinion, and answer something, whether right or wrong, for the way in which control is exercised over the destinies of the thousands who are so abjectly dependent on the way in which his estate is managed. That is a change, indeed, auguring, we hope, of the good time coming, when the Irish tenant shall be not only a prosperous but a free man. We are bound to say that our knowledge of the Lans- LETTER OF KEY. T. EAWLOK, IM'. 17') downo estate since has presented us with some items per contra wliich show more pleasantly tlian those that we were first compelled to publish in reference to it. Under its auspices there was the encouragement given to good cultivation which is afforded by cattle and root shows; there were prizes bestowed for supt^rior cultivation and management of farms ; there was an attempt to establish a butter market in the town of Kenmare ; there was, we believe, assistance given in some instances towards the erection of a better class of dwellings. But all these things were only varni.shing a rotten suiface. What use is it to attempt to stimulate improvement if by-and-bye the man who improves feels that he will be compelled to part with all he may gain by it, and perhaps more for the benefit of the landlord? What, in short, is the chance of infi'sing cnergv and thrift into a p ipulation held in a con- dition of absolute dependence, and who are reminded, even though at cimsiderable intervals, by a rise of rent, ho^', like the objects cited by Viriiil, they toil, but not for their own advantage ? Despite the superficial amendment of matters, it seems to us evident ho\\\ the letters of Mr. Kussell that now, as in the daj's when the piesetit writer traversed the Lansdowne estates from Bonane to Tuosist, and from Cahirciveen to Ballinskelligs, the tenantry are left in that condition of strvile dependence which all experience has shown is fatal to pro^perity. LETTER OF REV. THOMAS LAWLOR, P.R, IN REFERENCE TO TRINITY COLLEGE ESTATE. \^Ante, p. 24, and 'post, p. 203.] Sir, — The Provost and Fellows of Trinity College have endeavoured to answer the caustic strictures of Mr. Charles Russell, Q.C., M.P., in a bulky pamphlet of twenty-three pages. Being well acquainted with the 176 NEW VIEWS ON lEELAND. — APPENDIX. deplorable state of things on the portion of their property- situate in this island, I can fearlessly affirm that their answer as regards this island misleads the public, and is grossly unjust to the people. At p. 5 they say : " When the middleman's lease expired in 1865, it became the duty of the College to attempt a complete reform. This, how- ever, could only be done either by the eviction of nearly the entire j)opulation, or by an effort to induce an im- provement in their condition, and in their inveterate habits of indolence and improvidence." To show how unjust this charge of indolence and im- providence is, we have only to consider the history of the College property for a considerable period of the past. Trinity College sub-let their lands in this island to a middleman, and he in turn sub-let to some large tenants, who in a short time assumed the airs of gentlemen, and let their lands to cottiers and small farmers at extravagant rents. It was not to be expected that those needy sub- middlemen would effect improvements, neither could the tenants, who were so heavily weighted ; and who might at any moment have their improvements confiscated. Some, however, in the midst of every discouragement, built fair houses, and fenced and reclaimed their lands. The lease expired in 1865, and what, your readers will ask, was the action of the Provost and Fellows of Trinity College? Did they endeavour to improve the condition of things indirectly created by their own action ? Did they remove the weight from off the shoulders of the tenants, as other landlords did, when the middleman's lease dropped ? Far from it. They condemned and repudiated the action of the middlemen, as they do in this pamphlet, but they LETTER OF REV. T. LAWLOR, P.P. 177 profited by their extortions by pocketing their rack-rents. Some of the tenants having loudly complained and called for redress, what next was the action of the Provost and Fellows of Trinity C"llege? They send down from Dublin a Mr. Gale, who travelled tlirongh the place for a few days without asking for or taking into account the improvements eifected by the tenants, and who, seeing some lands cheaper than otliers, remedies the inequality by increasing the rent on the improving tenant, and reducing it on the non-improving and thriftless tenant. The new rental, which the tenants fondly hoped would lessen their burdens, is higher than the old, according to the College authorities, by £26 18s. 4:cl. "What have they done since 1869 ? To some tenants willing to improve they have refused to lend, and to some others they have lent money at nearly 8 per cent., repayable in half-yearly instalments, with the galling clause that on the non-payment of any single instal- ment the Provost, Fellows, &c., will be at liberty to proceed at once for the recovei-y of the entire amount. Within the last few years they have occasionally given bags of Indian meal to some of the tenants, thereby acknowledging the existing distress, though all declare it to be the most demoralising system of tenant im- provement. How much better would it not be to let their lands at a fair rent, and allow the tenants to live in 8ome kind of independence, and not like beggars on a system of out-door relief. But the Provost and Fellows buldly assert that GrifiSth's valuation is acknow- ledged to be too low in this district. People who know 118 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. — APPENDIX. more about it tban the Fellows of Trinity College assert, on the contrary, that taking into account the quality of the soil and the remoteness from markets, Griffith's valuation is as mi;ch as should be paid; and if they have been hitherto paid their high rents, they have to thank the slate quarries which have given employment to nine- tenths of their people. Last year I made application to the Board of Trinity College to allow a small grant to clothe the poorer class of theii' tenants' children, who attend the National Schools of the island. Those children used to form 70 per cent, of the average attendance at one of the schools when prosperous times prevailed ; but latterly, owing to their want of clothing, some not having sufficient for the re- quirements of decency, they have been in great part kept away by their parents. Not wishing to see them brutalised by ignorance, I asked for help from the College to enable their parents to tend them to school. I even suggested to them to select otbers to be associated with me in its dis- tribution. The answer was a polite but plain refusal.— I am, your obedient servant, ThomxVS Lawlor, P.p. FIEST LETTEPt OF ME. EtSSELL IN EEPLY. Siu, — I now, with your permission, j^roceed to notice?, as briefly as possible, the signed letters which have appeared in your columns questioning the accuracy of my statements. I would first, however, desire to say a word upon a point more than once alluded to. It eeems to be LETTER OF MU. RUSSELL IN REPLY. \1'.) suggested by some of my critics that before publishing the result of my observation and inquiry I ought to have sent my letters to the landlord or agent in each case for correction and revision. It only needs a moment's con- sideration to sliow that this is both unreasonable and impracticable. The most that one can do is to take reasonable pains to satisfy oneself of the truth of the statements made. I proceed to show that the result of the criticism bestowed on my letters goes far to make apparent the pains which I did take to test the accuracy of the information given to me. 1. The first complaining correspondent is Mrs. O'Mahony. I alluded in my letter published on Nov. 12, to Mrs. Frances the case of a tenant on the property of a Miss O^^-'^o'^y- Hevvson, situated near Kenmare, and whose rent was €45, as compared with the Government valuation of £12 10s., and who had been obliged, under threat of eviction three or four years since, to pay an increase of 50 per cent. Incidentally the former owner was alluded to as "one Mahony, of Cork," of whom it was stated that, before he sold the land to Miss Hewson, he raised the rent in order to sell it at a higher price. The main or principal statement has not been questioned, but Mrs. OMahony writes to complain. I fear I must plead guilty to what I think is Mrs. O'Mahony's principal complaint, I was wrong in describing Mr. O'Mahony, belonging as he did " to one of the oldest families in the county of Kerry, and owning an estate which had desceuded througli a loiig line of ancestors," as "one Mahony, of Cork." I beg to apologise for having done so. N 2 ISO NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. — APPENDIX. But I fear I cannot retract my ol)servations on the subject of Mr. O'Mahony's dealings with the property. On reading Mrs. O'Mahony's spirited letter I thought it right to have inquiry made on the spot by a trust- worthy person. I now have before me his report, of which, if Mrs. O'Mahony will be good enough to let me know her address, I shall gladly send her a copy in case she desires to investigate further my statements. In his report my informant states : " I visited almost every house on the property held by the late Mr. John Mahony, and to no single fact put forward by Mr. Eussell could Mrs. Mahony or any other person give a contradiction." He further states : " I have before me one of the ' Final Notices ' to the tenants, giving notice of the sale of the property by Mr. Mahony, or his trustees, Florence Mahony and Francis Sugrue. The notice bears date March 9, 1859. Previous to this sale Mr. Mahony simply doubled the rental on the Greenane property, which Avas sold by him to one Colonel Goif. It is not true that he collected no rents, as Mrs. Mahony states. Every penny which was made on these farms went to him. They are all grazing farms, pro- ducing nothing but butter as an agricultural produce, and he, being a butter merchant, got all tlie butter which was made on them. If the full rent, therefore, M-as not paid, the reason simply was the produce of the farms in those years was not sufficient to pay the rent." Affain, he adds : " There is no disputing the fact that the rental was increased with a view to sale, for the increase was put on only one gale previous to the sale of the property. Mr. Mahony did not charge the increase himself, but accepted LETTER OF MR. RUSSELL IN REPLY. 181 ono penny from each tenant, and gave a receipt in full for the rent, including the increase. The tenants agreed to the arrangement on the understanding that Mr. Mahony would not charge the increase. One tenant named Kearden, however, objected, and was in consequence evicted by Mr. Mahony. The property was sold, and the tenants have been obliged to pay the increase ever since." Of the portion of the estate sold by Mr. O'Mahony to Miss Hewson my informant reports : " The rental of this place when Mr. Mahony bought it was £100. At the time of the sale he increased it to £145, though none of the Board of Works money had been borrowed for this place or expended on it." He adds the following remarkable statement : " I should state, however, that the people entertain the kindliest feelings for Mr. Mahony, and they believe had he retained the property himself, he would never have increased the rental in the same manner as he did at the time of the sale." This does not appear to bo a very hard-hearted or unkindly tenantry. 2. In my second letter, published on Nov. 9, I referred to the miserable tenantry of Mr. E. Morrogh ^^ E.Morrogh Bernard, at Roads, near Kells, Cahirciveen, Bernard. which I myself visited, and I gave the story of one of the tenants from her own lips. What evil genius tempted Mr. Bernard to write I know not. He must, I should think, by this time, deeply regret it. I refer your readers to Canon Brosnan's letter of the 21st inst., published. Sir, in your columns, and ask them to say whether the letter does not show that I have, with studious moderation, 1S2 NEW VIEWS OX IRELAND. — APPENDIX. understated the case. Mr. Bernard's only rejoinder to Canon Brosnan's crushing statement is that it is a fac- simile of my own. If this means anything it means that I got my information from Canon Brosnan, and that, therefore, his corroboration counts for nothing. In this Mr. Morrogh Bernard is entirely incorrect. I never wrote to or saw Canon Brosnan in my life, and I never had a communication from him until within the last few days. The fact that his statement agrees with the in- formation given to me on inquiry on the spot, from the tenants themselves, is the strongest proof of the substan- tial truth of the story I have told. 3. To Mr. Bland's moderate letter I have little to say. I referred to his property as being rented at Mr. Bland. about double Griffith's valuation. He says it is not so, but admits it is rented more than 50 per cent. higher than that valuation. The information was given to me (as I stated in my letter) by one connected with the agency, but, of course, it may have been incorrect. I am inclined, however, to think that, if Mr. Bland will examine the figures again, and consider the question apart from cases in which additions have been made to Griffith's valuation, owing to new house or other building, the statement made to me, and which I have put forward, will not be found to be substantially incorrect. This is a point which I must exjilain later in reference to Lord Lansdowne's rental, and which is not generally understood. 4. What am I to say as to Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice's Lord Edmond smartly- worded epistle ? If it were not that Fitzmaurice. J miglit seem wanting in respect to him, I LETTER OF MR. RUSSELL IN REPLY. 1S3 should pass it by. In tnith, in his two cohimns of chaffy criticism, there is hardly a grain of real contradiction in fact. I nuist make this good hy an examination of the letter itself. As to the drainage loan question, I reserve that nntil I come to the Marquis of Lansdo'\\nie's letter. Lord Edmond speaks of the testimony of one priest whom he names— cited hy one of your contemporaries— the qualified testimony I shall call it — to Lord Lansdownc's character as a landlord. I wish to say that I agree with Lord Edmond; tlie pi-iests are hy no means unfriendly to Lord Lansdowne personally, a fact which makes their criticism all tlie stronger. Indeed, Lord Lansdowne has been exceedingly kind to many priests on his property, in conferring upon them, on easy, if not nominal, terms, glebe farms, and it would be strange, indeed, if they did not appre- ciate his consideration. Lord Edmond resents my calling the Protestant rector as a witness, apparently only for the reason that he tliinks Ireland's internal affairs might be better managed in Ireland than in the overworked Parliament at St. Stephen's. Of the rector I must, on my part, say I should not desire to meet a more candid-minded or manly gentleman. He seems deservedly held in high estimation. I learned with pleasure from some of Lord Lansdownc's Tuosists tenants how in their time of trial last year a large number of them waited upon Mr. M'Cutchan to get his assistance in forming a local relief committee, and how he stood by them like a man. I only wish there 184 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. — ArrENDIX. were more rectors like him. Lord Edmond also seems to resent my having called upon the Nun of Kenmare, as she is called. If I am not misinformed, Lord Lans- downe frequently does her the honour of calling upon her, and has done so both before and since my visit to the kingdom of Kerry. Why should not I? Sbe was the means of raising a large sum for the relief of the poor, while landlords, whose estates were princely, raised nothing. Who better could inform me of the circumstances of the late distressful time ? Lord Edmond says a foolish report got about that I had come from some mysterious quarter — meaning some Government quarter — to make out a case against Lord Lansdowne. He adds : " This report, of course, was unfounded." This is hardly candid. I never heard the report. Who set it going? But, as Lord Edmond now gives it currency, I wish, in the clearest and most emphatic way, to say that there is no particle of foundation for it. I went at the instance of no one connected with Government, nor, so far as I know, to the knowledge of any one so connected. I went for the reasons stated in my letters. Lord Edmond states — what I for the first time learn from his letter — that one man who gave me information in Kenmare was connected with Fenianism. It happens, oddly enough, that the respectable people of the principal town on Lord Lansdowne's estate, and who formed them- selves into a relief committee, entrusted this person Avith the important post of secretary. He was thus the LETTER OF MK. RUSSELL IN llEPLY. 185 repository of information as to the distress and its relief most vahiable. His statements 1o me Avere confined to matters known to him in his official capacity. But Lord Edmond's reference to gaol in connection with his name is not only ungenerous Init unjust. Michael Cronin's was not an uncommon case. On inquiry I learn that in 1806, when ordinary safeguards of liberty were suspended, he w^as arrested as a suspected Fenian. IIo was never brought to trial or charged with any legal oflfence. Lord Edmond is inaccurate in saying that I quoted an observation made to me by the Nun of Kenmare, imputing to Mr. Trench an inhuman sentiment in reference to tho impending distress. I (quoted from a printed paper which I knew had been widely circulated, and which I had never heard was contradicted. This is a matter which rests between the lady and Mr. Trench. I said, and I said sincerely, I hoped that it would turn out to be the result of misunderstanding. Lord Edmond's denial of the existence of a ward known as the Lansdowne Ward, in New York Hospital, is singu- larly unfortunate. He says he " not long ago " asked a friend to inquire where the hospital was, and whether any such ward existed, or had existed, and that ho was informed the story was an impudent invention. I would call Lord Edmond's attention to a very satisfactory explanation why his friend was unablo " not long ago " to discover the hospital. It is to bo found in tho following letter, published in the Freeman's Journal, of November 22, and runs thus : 186 NEW VIEWS OX IRELAND.— APPENDIX. "'33, CiRZON Street, South Ciecclar Eoad, " November 20, 1880. " Dear Sirs, — The information that Lord Edmond Fitz- maurice received from his charitable ' friend ' as to the non-existence of the Lansdowne Ward in New York Hospital is quite correct. The New York Hospital stood in Duane Street, and was pulled down to make room for an extensive dry goods house twelve years ago. But this much I can assert, from personal knowledge, that there was a ward known by the name of The Lansdowne in the hospital, and was as well known then to New Yorkers as Lansdowne Eoad is to Dubliners to day. If you think the communication of an}'- value, you may publish it. " Eugene O'Connell. " P.S.— I may add that I am a New Yorker by birth, and any old resident of there can bear out my statement." Lord Edmond will see that the writer gives his name and address. Lord Edmond is not just in saying that I made an attack upon his grandfather in reference to the Famine emigration from Kerry. I refer the candid reader to what I have said upon this point, which Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice gives me no reason in any way to qualify. I cited the father of the present agent of Lord Lansdowne as the historian of that sad event. I pass by Lord Edmond's pleasantries at my expense. I do not take them as unkindly meant. I make no com- plaint. As to the observation that the boulder-stones of the Kerrj' mountains do not grow turnips, I may observe that, whether they do or do not grow turnips, for the LETTER OF MR. RUSSELL fX nEl'LY, 187 tenants, they do, in the aggregate, pioduco a very im- posing amoiint of rent for the landlords. I utterly deny that my account of the Murqiiis of Lans- downe as a landlord deserves to be characterised as Lord Edmond, at the conclusion of his letter, has done. His statement is as inaccurate a description of what I Lave said as it is gi'ossly misleading to describe Lord Lansdowne "as a landlord whose liberality and justice have succeeded in producing what may be called English comfort on Irish soil." Finall}', Lord Edmond winds up with a postscript hardly courteous and wholly erroneous. lie says that my assertion that no branches of the Land League exist in Kerry is as inaccurate as most of my other statements. To begin with, this was not my asser- tion ; my assertion was that when I visitbd Keriy there was no branch of that body in the county. This was one of my reasons for selecting Kerry. I desired to see the condition of things for myself in a district in which discontent had had no public voice. I wished to judge for myself whether the suggestion commonly made was true, that Irish discontent was principally the fabri- cation of the Land Leaguers. I have been at considerable pains to ascertain the exact truth, and I find my state- ment was strictly accurate. In October the first Land League branch in Kerry was established in Tralee, North Kerry. My visit to South Kerry was in September. I feel I have given too much attention to this letter ; certainly more than its matter deserves. I have done so out of respect to Lord Edmond Eitzmaurice. 188 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. — APPENDIX. 5. I read with pain the letter of Lady Fitzgerald. If Lady Fitz- I may respectfully say so, iu is impossible -, '. not to sympathise with the feelings which gerald. prompted it. J. desire to say I would gladly have omitted all reference to the management of the Knight of Kerry's property, if I thought I could honestly do so. I came to the conclusion I could not. I think a perusal of my letter will show I desired to touch as lightly as possible upon it. Mr. Fitzgerald's letter was signally rash. In my own vindication 1 cannot do better than refer to the Keport of the meeting held at Cahirciveen, and briefly noticed in your issue of Friday, the 3rd inst., thus : " A large and representative meeting has been held at Cahirciveen of the Iveragb Land League, Canon Brosnan in the chair, to receive the report Oj" a sub-committee appointed to make a personal investigation into the statements put forward by Mr. Fitzgerald on behalf of the Knight of Kerry in contradiction to Mr. Charles Eussell's letters in the Daily Telegraph. The report went minutely into each case, disproving the allegations of Mr. Fitzgerald, and substantiating the statements of Mr. Russell, who, by a unanimous resolution, was warmly thanked for bringing the liglit of public opinion to bear on the condition of the tenantry in and around Cahirciveen." The details are gone into in the Freeman's Journal* which gives the report of the Committee of Inquiry fully. I cannot ask for space for this. I wish, however, to say- — as it is just to do — that Mr. Fitzgerald speaks of a large labour expenditure by his family yearly. This is not, however, in contradiction of any assertion of mine. * See p. 155 ante. FURTHER REPLY OF MR. RUSSELL. 189 I think it duo also to the family of the Knight of Kerry to make one statement. They are certainly not to be confoundeil with owners who, living at a distance and drawing their rents, do nothing to share or to relieve the trials of their tenants. ^Vhile I can retract nothing which I have stated as to the general condition of the Knight's tenants; while ) think the management is a paternal despotism of an injurious kind : while T think the estate illustrates the vices of the system which I am attacking — it is due to the ladies of ihe Knight's family to say they have done what Is in the power of kind-hearted and intelligent ladies to do in order to make the poor around them feel that they are not w their afflictions wholly Triendless. Itx my next, and concluding letter, I shall deal with the printed statement of the authorities of Trinity College, and with the letters of the Marquis of Lansdowne. — T am, Sir, your obedient servant, Charles Kussell. Temple, December 7. FURTHEE EErLY OF ME. EUSSELL. Sir, — I now proceed to reply to the Marquis of Lans- downe's letters. Allow me to say in limine I j^^j.^ have not now, noi have I over had, any desire lansdowne. to single out Lord Lansdowne as an instance of bad land- lordism. I have beard him spoken of by many persons for whose judgment I have respect, as not alone a high- 190 NEW VIEWS OX IRELAND.— APPENDIX. minded, but a considerate, nian. I most willingly believe this. All the same, I cannot avoid the conclusion which I have stated in these letters, that the management of his estates is a despotism of a bad and injurious kind, which does little to soften the harshness of the land system which it is my object to attack. I shall endeavour to meet Lord Lansdowne's statements point by point. The matters as to which the Marquis challenges my accuracy are these: First — As to the suggestion of his making profit by borrowing money from Government for drainage purposes; Secondly — As to charging to his tenants exorbitant prices for the lime which he supplies to them ; Thirdly — As to the rent increases imposed on the Iveragh tenants. o 1. Government or Board of Works Loans. — It is to be observed that I was not the first person to Govennaent ^ or Board of call public attention to the complaints made Works Loans. ^^ ^^^.^^ Lansdowne's tenants. My letter alluding to them was not published until Xov. 15, 1880. On Xov. 12 there appeared in the columns of the Standard a letter written by a special commissioner of that journal, who mentions these and several other matters as grievances alleged by the tenants against Lord Lansdowne and his agent, Mr. Trench. He says that the charge of making a profit out of the Board of Works Belief Loans was " an accusation more loudly urged than an}' of the others ;" and adds, " I pointed out to Mr. Trench that while Lord Lansdowne would have FURTHER REPLY OF MR. RUSSELL. 191 paid off the loan, both pi incipal and interest, in tbirty- five years, there was nothing to prevent the tenant con- tinning to pay for ever the addition of 5 per cent, to his rent." Mr. Trench's reply is important. Ttie cones- pondent proceeds, " Mr. Trench said he had no instruc- tions on this point, but as it was usual to revise rents every twenty-one years, he had no doubt Lord Lansdowne would act fairly by his tenants." On the evening of the publication of this letter a reply w;is addressed by Lord Edniond Fitzmaurice to the paper containing it, in which, having quoted the passage relat- ing to the drainage money, he says, " In regard to the above matter I shall be obliged if you will kindly allow me to state that the proper course to be ultimately pursued towards the Kerry tenantry in regard to the loans has already received Lord Lansdowne's consideration." I find from a letter of Lord Lansdowne, which is before me, that, in the summer of 1879, he offered drainage employment with the Board of Works moneys (repayable by him in twenty-two years at £6 10s. i:)er cent, per annum principal and interest), for which he proposed to charge his tenants a perpetual rent increase of 5 per cent. per annum. Later in that year, in November, 1 find from another letter of Lord Lansdowne, which also is before me, that he amended that ofter by relieving the tenants from any interest fur three years, but after that date the perpetual rent increase was to be £5 per centum. I shall presently show the profit from the public moneys which the carrying out by the tenants of either of those 192 NEW VIEWS OX IRELAND.— APPENDIX, offers would have secured to Lord Lansdowne. The figures are startling. At the latter date, when the distress had declared itself, the same question was addressed to Lord Lansdowne as was addressed to his agent by the corre- spondent mentioned a year later. Wo liave seen Mr. Tiench's reply. Lord Lansdowne, at that earlier date, said, "You are perfectly right in assuming that, after three years, the 5 per cent, will be a permanent addition to the rent. I see no reason for departing from the usual practice of the estate in regard to this point." By his lordship's letters which appeared in the Daily Telegraph of Nov. 27 and 30, 1880, he admits he was in- formed by the Board of Works towards the end of January that he was to pay only 1 per cent, on the £5000 drainage loan sanctioned for him on Dec. 27 ; he admits that every tenant, before commencing work, was required to sign a printed agreement, binding himself to pay as a perpetual rent-increase 5 per cent, upon the sums paid to him, and that of these agreements forty-eight were signed subse- quent to the end of January, 1880. In fact, the matter stands thus — that, whether the money advanced to the tenants was money borrowed from the State at 5 per cent., but repayable, principal and interest, at £6 10s. per cent., in 22 years, or whether it was money borrowed at 1 per cent, per annum interest, to begin after two years, and re- payable, principal and interest, at £3 8s. 6d. per cent, in thirty-five years — in each case the tenant was called upon to bind himself to pay as a perpetual addition to his rent £5 per annum for each £100 borrowed. If, therefore, in November, 1879, the Marquis wrote FURTHER REPLY OF MR. RUlSSKLL. 1iid in previous letters it is clear that Griffith's valuation is no necessary test of what a fair rent should be. It may either be too low a figure for a fair rent, or it may be, as I pointed out, though not so fiequently, too high for a fair rent. But there is one other matter to be considered, which has a disturbing influence upon the valuation as a rent test. It is this. Practically no alteration has been made since 1852 in Griffith's valuation except in the case of new houses or buildings. In that case there is a new valuation. In other words the old valuation is increased by the amount which the valuator thinks light to put on the entire holding is respect of such new buildings. It is clear that every such addition brings the valuation closer to the actual rent. In all cases, therefore, in which the tenant has built new buildings the valuation is altered and raised ; but I aeed hardly point out that although thereby the Govern- ment valuation is brought closer to the figure of the rent, it does not follow that the latter may not be an excessive rent. That is to say, the addition to the valuation has taken place by reason of the improvements in buildings, which in many cases the tenant himself has effected, and for which in practically all cases he pays, while no such improvements affect the productive character of the soil. It would, iherefoe, follow that in all cases in which the FINAL LETTER OF KEPLY OF MR. RUSSELL. 203 landlords have — as L(jrd Lansdowno has proi^erly done — tried to improve the character of tlicir tenants' dwellings, that the difference between the rent and the valuation will be less than where no such improvements have been effected, although from the considerations I have presented above, it is obvious that the latter may be the less highly rented, the former the more highly rented holdings. I hope I have treated Lord Lansdowne's letters with the consideration they deserve. I have meant to do so. I now leave them ; but I feel justified in asking the atten- tion of those who have followed this correspondence to the story of that last rent-increase of 25 per cent, all round, on the Iveragh tenants, which I have told ; and I would ask them to say, Does Lord Lansdowne really meet it ? Once more — and I trust for the last time — I shall have to trouble you with some obsei-vations upon the state- ment issued by the authorities of Trinity College. — I am. Sir, your obedient servant, Charles Eussell. Temple, Deceniber 10, 18S0. FINAL LETTER OF ME. EUSSELL IN EEFEE- ENCE TO TEINITY COLLEGE ESTATE. Sin, — I now address myself to the printed reply of the authorities of Trinity College. It would seem from this that many injurious reports affecting their character as landlords at Cahirciveen have been during the present 204 NEW VIEWS ON lEELAXD. — APrEXDIX. year in circulation. Accordingly, in a pamphlet of some twenty-three pages they defend themselves. As in great part this statement does not concern asser- tions of mine, I propose to deal with it briefly, confining my attention to the parts impugning my statements. The C!ollege call as their principal witness to character an anonymous correspondent of the Freeman's Journal, who gives his evidence under the vague designation of a " Trinity College Tenant." My information as to this correspondent is that at the time he wrote he not only was not a tenant of the College, but was acting as drainage steward under Captain Xeedham, the agent. The College can easily meet this assertion by disclosing the name of the tenant. I distrust anonymous corespondents, whether they are landlords or tenants. I hope the English public do so also. The College proceed to show their dealing with this property, and mention the fact that only since 1865, when a middleman's lease came to an end, have they been able to deal as owners with the property. This case is, indeed, a striking illustration of the evils of the middleman or mid-interest system. The descrip- tion of the actual condition of things on this estate which I have given is not in any single point controverted. Their case is that since 1865 they have not had time to do much. Indeed, the description of Cahirciveen which they cite from Mr. Foster's Letters, written as far back as 1845 — when the late Mr.Daniel O'Connell was the middle- man — might be w-ell read with but little alteration as a description in this day. The College say there has been FINAL LETTER OF MK. KUSSELL. 205 improvement. I accept their statement, although it is difficult to realise a state of things much more miserable than that now existing. I gave the College credit in my letter for the outlay which had been made, and I said that Captain Needham had shown a certain amount of consideration in the di^^ tressful time. But I cannot say there is much to show for their outlay, or that any considerable part of it has been in the interest of the agricultural tenants. Its major part was in Cahirciveeu, expended on a market- house and a fish-market, investments in respect of the use of which the College derive tolls. They ought also to have credit for the erection of a well-built Protestant school. This fact shows they are not unmindful of the great original object of their insti- tution. I am informed this school is attended by as many as fifteen children. But of what avail in defence of the College is the statement that only in 1865 did the lease to their middle- man come to an end? Why let to the middleman? Is not the answer that the former governing body of the College, wholly regardless of the interests of the actual tillers of the soil and of their own obligations as landlords, let to middlemen at fixed rents, leaving such middlemen unrestrained, careless how the property was hacked and carved, how it was sublet and subdivided, how the tenants were harassed ? But more ; the College well know the history of pro- perties in the hands of middlemen. They well know that their only interest is to get as much as possible out of the 206 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. — ArPENDIX. land, aucl tlmt as a rule the worst-treated and highest- rented tenants in Ireland are those under middlemen. Was it not their duty when, in 1865, the mid-interest ceased, to guard themselves against the temptation of pocketing the fruits of a system which they themselves denounce as pernicious? The College do not state the rent which they were paid by the middleman, or what proportion it bears to the amount of rent extracted from these miserable creatures, the existing tenants. These figures would be interesting. They do indeed get some kind of re- valuation made by Mr. Gale, which so far from lessening the rents paid, in the result increases the rent, though in a trifling degree. I have called attention to the character of that valua- tion. The important facts I have stated have not been contradicted. I said that within forty years one-third, at least, of the land now in tillage had been reclaimed and made arable without allowance from the landlord. I pointed out that in the cases of these re-valuations no representative of the tenant is called in. More important still, I pointed out that these re-valuations are valuations of the holdings as they are, improved by the sweat and labour and small expenditure of money of, it may be, generations of the struggling tillers of the soil. None of these facts do the College deny. Nay, I find I did not do full justice to one point. I learn fiom the evidence before Lord Bessborough's Commission that the tenants requested to be allowed to name a valuer on their side. This the College refused. There are some corrections by the College of statements FINAL LETTER OF MR. RUSSELL. 207 made by me on minor points. I would bo glad, however, to give them the benefit iu your eolumns of these cor- rections, Aa to the broken pavements in the streets of Cahirci- veen, they say no contractor would propose for the work at the price named in the presentment. I understand the county surveyor does not admit this reason; but, assuming it to be correct, why did not the College supplement the presentment ? They say they are unable to verify the figures given in my letter. The figures of rent were generally taken from the rent pass-books (for which, by the way, the tenants are charged by the office sixpence each !), and the figures of valuation were generally veri- fied by reference to the rate receipts. So far from agreeing with the statement of the College, that Griffith's valuation is in this district very low, my iuquiry leads me to the opinion that it is very much nearer a fair rent than the rent charged. They admit, excluding Cahircivcen, that the valuation is £1900, as against £3500 rent paid. Bearing in mind the observations made in my last letter as to the increase in Government valuation where buildings are made, and excluding such cases, I think the rent will be found to be more than double tlie valuation. They say that in the case of the tenant who received an advance f r his house- buil ing, repayable by forty yearlj' instalments, l;e omiited mention of a cash payment of £24 10s., for which he was charged no interest. I at once, without inquiry, accept this correction. But the College apparently fail to see that the point in that case was the harsh 208 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. — APPENDIX. agreement bj wliich, if the tenant failed in any one in- stalment, he might at once be sued for the entire amount. I said, and I repeat, that this was not very liberal treat- ment on the part of a great corporation. As to the man the rent of whose land had been raised from £8 to £26 10s., they say their valuers did not so raise it. I quite agree ; ^ut I never said they did. I only said that one of such rises of rent had been made by their valuer. They deny that any retrospective increase of rent was made by them. I accept their statement. I admit it might be supposed from the context I was referring to the College. The statement was not, however, intended to apply to them. In reference to the answer of the Bursar in 1879 to the request of the tenant for drainage money, and requiring him to sign an agreement to pay the increased rent of Is. Id. in the pound for each pound advanced, the College say that such payment would repay principal and interest in twenty-one years. I willingly accept their statement that this is what they intend. It is a pity that their Bursar did not say so. It is no wonder th;>t the tenants should look on the increase as permanent, as unquestionably they did in the casps cited to me. No doubt the College intended one thing, but the written terms stipulated for a different thing. I accept the statement of the College, that Captain Needham, the College agent, in his character of magistrate, opposed the increase of spirit licences in Cahiroiveen, but I did not convey the contrary. The College do, I think, give some reasons to show that, although anxious to effect FINAL LETTER OF MR. RUSSELL. 209 drainage on a large scale, there were practical difliculties in their way. The College are entitled to credit for their statement that they distributed £500 worth of meal at cost price — no part of which has yet been repaid — and also that they supplied potatoes at half-price, at a loss to the college of £260. They say in correction of my statement, that instead of 200 processes against their tenants there were not 100. I do not stop to observe that in such times as these this is no small matter. I do not quite understand their denial as to the two-and-sixpenny charge to the bailifif on every process. One main point was that this charge gave the bailifif, who was, I said, regarded by the tenants as a much more formidable person than the agent, a direct interest in making the number of processes as large as possible. I accept the statement that the impression existing that the bailiff's charge of 2s. 6d. each process was in excess of the legal charge, was not well-founded. Indeed, I understand the College to say they charge less than the full costs. As to the water supply at Cahirciveen, the information given to me does not agree with the statement of the College. But assuming it to be strictly accurate, as I am sure they believe it to be, the yearly interest on the half of £700 ought hardly to have stood in the way of carrying out a water scheme which could not fail to have an impor- tant effect upon the cleanly habits of the people, and iH)on the cleanliness and health of the town itself. I have the honour of knowing some of the governing body of the College, men whom I deeply respect, men of p 210 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. — APPENDIX. large and liberal views. I wish they could be induced to judge this question for themselves, on the spot. I feel con- fident they could not come to the conclusion that the system existing on this estate and on the neighbouring estates is one conducive to the good of the tenants or of the country. They point to the indolence and uuthrift of the people. Let them recollect that, in the language of John Stuart Mill, the Irish tenant is of all persons living the one who has the least motive offered him to induce industry and thrift. Sir, I cannot close this correspondence without grate- fully acknowledging the sacrifices of valuable space which you have made for its admission intp your columns. On my part, I wish to declare it has been no pleasure to me to say many things which it seemed to me I ought to say. I would ask no one to accept my facts, my reasoning, or my conclusions, but to test each for himself. I shall have Bome reward for a good deal of labour if I succeed in getting the people of England a-thinking for themselves upon this question. If they once set themselves to its candid consideration, I cannot doubt they will soon con- clude that the existing land system of Ireland cannot longer be allowed to stand. Worse than the tree which bears no fruit, it yearly pro- duces widespread pauperism and discontent — discontent all the more dangerous because it springs from real grievances. — I am. Sir, your obedient servant, Charles Eussell. Temple, Dec. 13. FURTHER LETTKR OF CANON BROSNAN, P.P. 211 FURTHER LETTER OF VERY REV. CANON BROSNAN IN REFERENCE TO TRINITY COLLEGE ESTATE. Sir, — Tho Provost and Senior Fellows of Trinity College, in their pamphlet in reply to Mr. Russell's statements, commence characteristically by an attack ou the memory of the Liberator, and retail for this purpose the slanders of the Times " Gutter Commission " of 1845, conveniently forgetting how fully tho charges of that most prejudiced writer were refuted by the late Sir John Gray and others. It is well known here that O'Connell was the kindest of landlords ; and if his public labours left him but little time for personal supervision of his estate, he took good care that the tenantry should be treated at all times with kindness and consideration. His character as a landlord has outlived the calumnies of Mr. Foster and the Times, and is not likely to be dimmed by the sneers of Trinity College. When the College came into possession of the Iveragh estate in 1865, a complete reform, if we are to believe the pamphlet, could only be effected " by the eviction of the entire population, or by an effort to induce an improve- ment in their inveterate habits of indolence and improvi- dence." This is the character the Fellows of Trinity College deliberately give of their Cahirciveen tenantry, than whom a more industrious and thrifty people it would be difficult to find. It will indeed astonish the merchants of Cork and Dublin, of Manchester and Glasgow, having commercial relations with the town, no r 2 212 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. — APPENDIX. less than all whom chance or business, or travel has made acquainted with the industrioun and laborious habits of the rural population. Whether by " the eviction of nearly the entire population " the pamphlet means the town, the country, or both, is not very clear ; but, incredible as it may appear, it is nevertheless a fact that the " Provost and Senior Fellows " did contemplate evicting such of the house-owners in Cahirciveen a.s had let their premises, and recognising the immediate occupiers as direct tenants, at a rent equal to the full valuation. In other words the wealthy Corporation of Trinity College had actually under consideration the expediency of confiscating to their benefit houses built at the sole cost of those indolent and improvi- dent Cahirciveen people. The late Dr. Barry, when this alarming fact became known, was sent as a deputation to the College, and succeeded in inducing the Board, as a compromise, to accept the house-owners as tenants at one shilling and sixpence per frontage in Main Street, and one shilling in the other parts of the town. O'Connell's rent was only nine and threepence per fifty feet, so that the "Provost and Senior Fellows," who, as head landlords, might be expected to act more liberally than the middle- man who had held under them, in one part of the town exacted nearly five and a-half times and in the other fully eight times the rent charged by O'Connell. Nay, more, as if repenting of their liberality, they have within the past three or four years raised the rent to three or four shillings on new building lots, or to sixteen times the amount charged by O'Connell ! And this is what the College calls "a moderate ground." FURTHER LETTER OF CANON BROSNAN, IM'. 21:3 " Tho first stop," says the pamphlet, " towards the civi- lization of tho people was tho construction by tho College of a complete system of sewers." What will ho the thought of the candour of tho writers when it is stated that the main sewerage of tho town, as it exists to-day, was constructed long before they came into possession, and that their work merely supplemented it in a very in- efficient manner. The sower which serves as the principal outlet, and which runs from the Post Office across to the Old Quay, was made in 1837, at O'ConneU's sole expense; and the sower at right angles to it by presentment as a relief work in 1847. Trinity College has lately extended the latter eastward, and constructed some sewers to the back of the houses at the north side of Main Street, which are but little used on account of their faulty construction and not as tho " Provost and Senior Fellows " so politely state, because " a majority of the tenants prefer their old habits of indolence and filth." This grossly offensive and outrageous language used by the grave and learned Board of Trinity College towards the people of Cahirciveen, from whom they exact a rental greater than O'Connell paid for his entire portion of tho estate, town included, may be taken as a fair index of their contempt and utter absence of sympathy for their tenantry, and the strong necessity for their expropriation. As connected with tho question of sewerage it may be mentioned that the town, situated at tho foot of a hill of considerable elevation, suffers frequently from floods. O'Connell, so far back as 1830, took effective steps to pro- tect the town. He had a large watercourse cut along the 214 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. — APPENDIX. base of the hill to intercept the floods, and paid an annual salary to three caretakers charged with keeping this course in order. On his death the work was neglected, and nothing has been done by the College for its restora- tion. The consequence is that after a heavy rainfall the condition of the town is simply disgraceful. Torrents course down the street, the space in front of the butter market is converted into a lake, houses are flooded, and some of the inhabitants in the centre of the town have to watch with the vigilance of Dutchmen the advent of the dreaded flood. Since 1865, the College, we are told, has expended on the improvement of this property about £11,000. This will, no doubt, be startling news to the tenants, who will seek in vain for evidences of so large an expenditure. But accepting the statement as correct, which in courtesy we are bound to do, what does it amount to ? Why this, that on a rental in fifteen years of £60,000 in round numbers 18 per cent, has been expended on the improvement of the property. As most of the expenditure was made shortly after the College came into possession, and for works of a permanent character, and as the "Provost and Senior Fellows" have since shown little inclination to expend money on the estate, it is obvious that unless they greatly change for the better, the percentage of expenditure on the gross rental will, year by year, " become small by degrees and beautifully less." But it would be fallacious in appraising the liberality of the learned landlords of Cahirciveen to credit them Avith even a percentage thus reduced. The portion of the expenditure which brings FURTHER LETTER OF CANON BROSNAN, IM' lil5 thorn an adequate roturu should be first deducted ; will they kindly state the amount, that we may be enabled tu solve the problem of their liberality ? £1000, for instance, has been expended oti the butter market ; but with a toll of 2(1. per firkin, this should bring some 7 per cent, after paying expenses. The Fairfield Cottages, the Coast-guard Station, the National Bank, the premises connected with the College office, and the stores lately built for the Clyde Shipping Company are, doubtless, remunerative invest- ments. A sum of £1500 was probably expended in erecting a school for a score of little Protestant children. This can scarcely be regarded as a benefit to the gener&l tenantry. The National School, conducted by the nuns, in which the great bulk of the female children, and the infants, male and female, on the property about Cahirciveen are taught gratuitously, and whose efficiency attracts the grown-up Protestant girls, is completely ignored by the College. The people have on two occasions memorialised the board for a remission of the ground-rent of £10 imposed on these schools and the residence of the ladies who teach them, which were held free under O'Connell, but in vain. Trinity College, which has been so generous to the Pro- testant little ones of Cahirciveen, will give no aid what- ever to these valuable schools. The Christian Brothers' School and the Boys' National School, which all the grown Protestant boys attend — the latter just outside the College bounds, the former in the town, and both chiefly attended by pupils from the College estate — receive no encourage- ment from this learned body. Neither is it correct to say the Portmagee National Schools " are in great measure 216 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. — APPENDIX. supported by the College," while seven-eighths of the school income is siapiilied by the National Board and the pupils' school fees. The pamphlet makes great capital of a letter signed " A Trinity College Tenant," published in the Freeman^s Journal last August, and a leading article commenting upon it. It is not likely the editorial "would have been written if the editor were aware that his correspondent is neither a tenant of Trinity College nor of anybody else. At the lime he wrote the letter he was temporarily employed as drainage steward by the College, and in lauding the management of the estate, was, as is well known here, simply fishing for future favours. As he promptly revealed his identity to Captain Needham and the College, it is far from candid of the latter to speak of him as " one of the tenants." His testimony in view of the object for which it was given is utterly unreliable, and the case of the College must be indeed weak when they assign it such prominence. — I am, Sir, your obedient servant, T. Canon Brosnan. CAmRCiTEEN, Dccnmher II. LETTER OF THE PEOTESTAXT EECTOR OF KEXMAPtE. [This letter appeared in the FreemarCs Journal. It was sent to, but was not inserted in the Daily Telerjrajjh.'] SiP^^ — I regret that owing to my absence from home, and an accident arising from it, I did not see the letter of Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice when it was published in your LETTER OF PliOTESTAN'l' UECTOli (iK Ki:\:\I.\lMv 217 colunins ; and I have been unable at an earlier time to ask your permission t<> make a very brief reply. I wish to say that I am not a member of the Land League, and until the present moment I have taken no part in the land agitation. The account which Lord Edmond Fitz- maurice gives of Mr. (/harles Russell's visit to Kenmare has not, so far as I am concerned, and so far as I know of others, any element of truth. I am not a " rector groan- ing from the consequences of disestablishment." The day uii which the Irish Church Act came into force I described to my parishioners as a day of release, and I have never thought or spoken of it otherwise. I have not " talked disparagingly " of Lord Lansdowne, and could have no " personal purpose " to serve in doing t>o. Both to Mr. Russell and to the Royal Commissioners in Dublin I have declared that if it were possible for Lord Lansdowne personally to conduct the management of his own estate, free from office rules, I believe he would be cordially welcomed by his tenantry ; and I have also said that, compared with other estates, the rents are not high. Mr. Russell was not " sought" out by me, as Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice alleges. I did not know of Mr. Russell's intention to visit Kenmare, or his purpose in doing so, until he did me the honour of calling on me. On the same day I saw him for half an hour at his hotel, where I could not observe any sign of secrecy in liis proceedings. IMr. Russell was not " accompanied by " me in his visit to any tenant's holding. The object of his coming, when it became known, excited general interest, becmise it was believed he would have the 218 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. — APPENDIX. courage to speak the trntli, and tlie intelligence to speak it with moderation. In both regards, so far as con- cerns the general picture he has drawn, I am bound to declare he seems to me to have succeeded ; and I say this the more readily because, never, before Mr. Eussell's visit to Kenmare, and never since, have I had any communi- cation with him. The arrival of newspaper correspondents, who had jjreviously come to make inquiries, had always been the cause of some merriment. Their visits were made so agreeable at one or two comfortable homes, that they speedily overcame the inclination to seek out dis- agreeable facts, and were unwilling to exchange the pleasures of a lawn-tennis party for a solitary expedition among tenants' holdings. The excuse of Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice for his mis- takes is that, not having been in Kenmare, he could have no personal knowledge of the facts, and was led into error by those who instructed him. But in one particular this excuse cannot avail. He seems to have forgotten the obligation of his rank when he speaks with insolence of the Secretary of the late Kenmare Eelief Committee, one who during all the time I have known him, for ten years and more, has borne an excellent character. Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice ought to have been informed, before he attached his name to a letter in which were assailed the most active persons in seeking the relief of distress last winter, that the assistance given at that time enabled some tenants to hold their ground then, and has put many more in a position this year to pay their rents. The intelligence of your readers is hardly consulted when, to LKTTEIi OF PROTESTANT RECTOR OF KENMARK. 219 tho circumstantial statements of Mr. Kussell, the only reply given is olaLorato abuse of all who are named as giving him information. Tho main facts which he states are so well known in Kenmare that one cannot hut wonder at the success of those dexterous precautions whereby their publicity had been so long evaded. If any one holds the opinion that a clergyman of the Church of Ireland, when asked to speak the truth on a subject within his knowledge, ought to assist in conceal- ing it, my only reply is that I cannot agree with him. But I must decline any future discussion of a topic which " has never been a welcome one. The duty lies on those who have undertaken the representation of the people of Ireland in Parliament to see that a remedy is provided Avhich shall prevent the possibility of such discussions as arise from Mr. Eussell's statements. I believe that much wrono; has been done and is done to landlords; and I trust that no measure shall be supported which will deprive them of one particle of property without adequate compensation. But I know also that great wrong is done to the tenantry, and the wrong done them has been not merely to their purse. There are many landlords, and by far the larger number, who have acted as honourable men, who, especially during the distress of last winter and spring, showed unexpected kindness to their tenantry at great personal expense, and who are now cruelly wronged by a loss of income, amidst the general outcry which the management of some estates has provoked. ]5ut the fact is beyond all doubt that the laws regulating the tenure of land in Ireland permit the people to be 220 NEW VIEWS ON IRELAND. — APPENDIX. degraded into a position little raised above actual serfdom, where every family relation may be harassed by the interference of estate rules ; where freedom of contract is unknown, and the self-respect of the great bulk of the community is degraded into craven fear of offending those who have the power to make or mar the tenant's fortune. — I am, sir, your faithful servant, George M'Cutchan, Eector of Kenmare. December 21, 1880. ( 221 ) POSTSCRIPT. I HAVE found that I could not set out the Statement of the authorities of Trinity College without occupying an amount of space altogether disproportionate to the matters really in controversy between me and them. In answer to a request that they should furnish me with a summary of their Statement, they have returned me that Statement with only some four pages and a-half (of the twenty-three, of which it originally consisted), excised. There was some delay in obtaining their answer, and the manuscript was in the printers' hands when it was received. They will, I think, fiDd that I have in my final letter dealt with each disputed allegation. In conclusion I would ask the reader carefully to weigh what has been alleged by me in each case, and what has been traverj;ed. To his impartial judgment I now commend these pages, C. E. LONDON : PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. 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