Charles Trevelyan thus describes the effect:

"The relief works had been crowded with persons who had other means of subsistence, to the exclusion of the really destitute; but a ration of cooked food proved less attractive than full money-wages; and room was thus made for the helpless portion of the community. The famine was stayed. The affecting and heart-rending crowds of destitutes disappeared from the streets; the cadaverous, hunger-stricken countenances of the people gave place to looks of health; deaths from starvation ceased; and cattle-stealing, plundering provisions, and other crimes prompted by want of food, were diminished by half in the course of a single month."

Had this self-evident alteration been made at the commencement of the "public works," how many thousands would have been saved from an awful death; how much human suffering and immorality warded off; how much treasure would the country have econo

mised; how many hundred landed proprietors would have been saved from ruin!

Such was the state of this country at the time the new poor-law was imposed. The people were demoralised, self-reliance was annihilated, and industry was unknown. Free trade had lowered the value of land; a famine had increased its natural effects; a distemper had destroyed a great portion of the stock; the pig had vanished with the potato; and the silly attempt at a rebellion served only to expose us to ridicule, and to banish from the country the little capital that remained; whilst the taxation in many places, particularly where the public works had been most extensive, exceeded the annual value of the property rated. These facts appear more clearly, by referring to the statistics of some of the unions, shortly after the Public Works were abandoned and poor-rate imposed:

183,540

85,200

50,900

46,000

38,800

£316,600

will be seen, amounted to nearly three times the value of the property assessed to the poorTake again the following list:

rate.

Annual Value

of rateable
Property.

£22,420

20,140

10,540

106,400

53,000

57,380

24,600

148,960

59,400

89,680

44,600

186,960

98,200

150,100

86,230

Total of eight unions

"There the expense was more than double

the value of the rateable property. The fol

lowing unions were in nearly as desperate a

Annual Value

of rateable

Property. £31,600

£40,660

131,860

101,200

143,260

100,770

But, as if

"From the Dublin Evening Mail.' "The Baronial Sessions for public works have done their business, and left behind them on the land an impayable burden. that were not enough, the Temporary Relief Act is brought in to hasten the operation; and we accordingly find the poor-law guardians laying on rates which, in most instances, exceed double, in some treble, the value of the property out of which they are to be paid. Thus, as will be seen from the statements we subjoin, the guardians of the Nenagh union are but fresh from the exploit of laying on a rate for the next three months, which, taken as the modus for the year, would, in some electoral divisions, amount to 24s. not in the pound, but to the pound; and in one division to 36s. to the pound!

"The guardians of Schull have rated the union 12s. 6d. in the pound for three months -that is to say, at the ratio of £2 10s. to the pound on the year! The electoral division of Ardmore, in the county of Waterford, is rated at 10s. 10d. for three months, or £2 3s. 4d. to the pound for twelve months!

"In those instances it is obvious that all income from land is anticipated and absorbed from one year up to two years and a-half. How are people to live in the meantime? Is not landed property, under such circumstances, worth much less than nothing? Here we have not only the beginning of the end, but almost the end of the beginning. It is but a few years since many proprietors in England abandoned the land rather than encounter the poor-rates to which it made them liable. What with the accumulation of rates and taxes in Ireland, we may speedily expect to see our farmers and gentry resorting to the same desperate means of escape.

"As the matter stands, we entirely agree in opinion with the Relief Committee of the Kilworth Electoral Division (with whose resolutions we shall wind up our extracts), that as- no act of parliament-no civil or military power can compel men to pay money that they have not:' so, the liens now laid upon land in Ireland in consequence of relief measures, &c., never can and never will be

เ

"From the Tipperary Vindicator.' "FEARFUL TAXATION!!!-At an extraordinary meeting of the Nenagh Board of Guardians, held on Wednesday at the county court house, Nenagh, R. U. Bayly, Esq., in the chair, a rate was struck for the ensuing three months for the support of the union workhouse, and for the temporary relief act. In many of the electoral divisions the rate on the annual valuation will be twenty-four shillings in the pound, and on one electoral division it will amount to thirty-six shillings in the pound. Where this money is to come from is the question.'"

"From the Cork Constitution.' "RELIEF RATING.-In Schull, we understand, a rate of 12s. 6d. in the pound has been struck for three months! It is a good beginning, but where or how is it to end? We have asked elsewhere, how are landlords or occupiers to pay it; we ask here, how are the clergymen to pay it? They pay, not upon valuation, but upon income, and without any deduction for the 25 per cent. It is pretty plain that in the case of Schull, a second rate within the twelve months (should, happily, the first not effect it) will leave the incumbent largely in debt to the poor house; that, in fact, if things go on in this way, must be the ultimate refuge of many who have heretofore been themselves the most active administrators of relief. In the division in which Ardmore, in the county of Waterford, is situated, a rate of 10s. 10d. has been struck, also for three months. The necessity for this rate is said to be occasioned by the number of paupers in some mountain property of Lord Stuart de Decies (we have heard that there is are many as 6,000 of them on Slievegrine). Whatever the cause, we agree with the writer of a letter from this quarter, that the confiscations of Cromwell were nothing to the confiscations of Lord John Russell. Landlord and tenant had better look to it.'"

each....

700

500

With rations.

Supervisor of Reliev. Officers 80 Town Serjt., at 10s. per week 26 Total.... -£2,506 "The beef rations allowed to the above nine persons now is 7lbs. per week, at a cost of 23. 11d. each-£1 6s. 3d., or £68 5s. per year for beef alone-which, added to £2,506, amounts to £2,574 5s., exclusive of groceries, bread, fuel, candle-light, rations to nursetenders, &c. It must be also recollected, some of the relieving officers are paid £60 per annum. With all this well paid staff, the poor are famishing for lack of food."

In the preceding observations we have endeavoured to place before the

reader a correct view of the social condition of this country previous to the failure of the potato, of the laws which encouraged the incumbrance of property, and which, by fettering its transfer, took from the owner the power of disembarrassing himself.— We have also traced the unprecedented and extraordinary measures devised by the Government to alleviate the unparalleled miseries endured by the starving people, remedies not based upon economic principles, nor hallowed by the prestige of former success, but extorted by faction, and yielded to ignorance. The natural effects of these experiments immediately developed themselves; the poor failed to be relieved, the country was plunged into helpless poverty; and we have no doubt but that were the same system introduced into any portion of England, the same results would immediately follow; the labourers would fly to the "public works," the farmers would be annihilated, the landowners ruined. Owing to the failure of the payment of rents, and the heavy poorrates, the mortgagors were unable to pay the interest upon their debts, and, of course, bills were at once filed to call them in; and land fell in value, partly owing to the depreciation in every species of property in consequence of "the bad times," and partly in consequence of the enormous quantity of real property brought at the same time into the market.

Such was the condition of the country at the time the Act for the Sale of Incumbered Estates in Ireland was passed. It was a bold and comprehensive measure, and almost imperatively called for by the circumstances of the country at the time. The practical working of this act having been already considered at some length in a former article, it is not necessary now to traverse the same ground; it will, however, be advisable to supply some information to the public upon points not generally understood, and to explain some mistakes into which many appear to have fallen.

The great difference that exists between the Act for the Sale of Incumbered Estates, and the old regime under the Court of Chancery, may be briefly stated as follows:-The Court of Chancery commenced by ascertaining the rights of the parties, and concluded by selling the property; the Commission

ers commence by selling the property, and conclude by ascertaining the rights of the parties. The enormous length of time over which a Chancery suit extended was wholly irrespective of the sale of the land. The sale in the Master's Office was regulated by nearly the same principles as those which regulate the sales by the Commissioners; and in many respects we must plead guilty to a decided preference for the old method. There was no crowd of idle lookers-on, no haste, no fuss, everything was conducted with regularity in one of the Masters' Offices (of which there are now five), and the highest bidder was generally declared the purchaser; but liberty was reserved to any one, within a limited period, on undertaking to pay the purchaser his costs and expenses, and on making a substantial advance on the sum offered, to re-open the sale, in which case the property was set up a second time, and the public were again permitted to become bidders. This system was beneficial to all; for whilst it gave any one who might, by unavoidable circumstances, have been kept away from the sale, the power of giving a larger sum for the property; and whilst, by imposing upon him the obligation of paying the costs and expenses, and of making a substantial advance on the bidding, it prevented such an application being unnecessarily made, or being made by any one but a bona fide purchaser, it secured to the owner the full sum already bid, which could by no possibility be diminished. This excellent system, sanctioned by long experience in this country, has been abandoned by the Commissioners, and it therefore frequently happens, that an estate for which an inadequate sum has been offered, and the sale of which is postponed to a future day, fails to realise an equal amount upon the next occa sion, which could not possibly happen, were the sales conducted upon the same principles as the sales under the Court of Chancery.

Another difference, also, between the proceedings of the two courts, was decidedly in favour of the Court of Chancery. There the land was sold, together with the arrears of rent due by the tenants. Under the Incumbered Estates Court the arrears of rent are not sold, but after the lands have passed into the hands of a new purchaser, his tenants are liable to be harassed with

endless litigation, for monstrous accumulations of arrears, at the suit of the former owner, who has no longer, of course, any interest in their welfare. The last important distinction we shall enumerate is the parliamentary title the Commissioners are empowered to give. But an act of Parliament, consisting of twenty lines, might at any time have given, and should still give, the same powers to the Court of Chancery.

Now when we hear that the bill for the sale of the property In re Waldron, was filed in 1784, or In re Williams in 1802, and that the property comprised under those titles was at last brought into the court in Henrietta-street, and sold in a few months, we are apt to ask no more; but the person who thought that litigation in those cases was at an end, would rest under an egregious error. It is only the first step. The land is changed into money, and that is all. Every trust, every settlement, every complicated dealing, every accusation of fraud or covin, every right of minors, or idiots, or married women, all remain ; they are only transferred from the land to the money. It is, of course, a great advantage to the country that land should at once be released from litigation and transferred to new parties, free and unfettered; but it would be ridiculous to expect that complicated facts and rights of parties which it took a Sugden or a Plunket an entire month to master could be disposed of in as satisfactory a manner in a shorter period. It is the sale of property that engages at present the greater portion of the Commissioners' time. It was to the apportionment of the funds and to the investigation of the rights of the parties, that the Court of Chancery principally directed its attention.

Having taken a retrospective glance at the darkness of the past, let us now look forward to the hopes that seem to beam in the future. Sorrow may endure for a night, but joy returneth in the morning. Hitherto all has been sadness and gloom; a dark cloud appeared to hang over our country with dreary portent, and our right arm was as it were deprived of its force. Now-permanent good seems to rise out of tran sient evil; vitality takes the place of apathy, activity of inertness, energy of despondency, industry of idleness, hope of despair. Let us examine some of these things.

However painful it may be for us individually to see so many once wealthy landed proprietors reduced to poverty, and some even-for we have seen itdying in the union workhouses in utter destitution; and to see others, like the ill-fated heiress of Connemara, obliged to fly from the land of her fathers, and to seek a livelihood in remote regions; yet when we look upon the matter in a broader view, we are forced to admit that Ireland, as a country, will be greatly benefited by the change, and that a few must sometimes suffer in order that the many may benefit. How great and many are the advantages likely to result from the breaking up of the great estates, and their division among a large number of proprietors? Absenteeism, which has always been the great curse of Ireland, will be greatly diminished, and by the sale of estates, not only the non-resident proprietor, but the non-resident mortgagee, will be shaken off. The new proprietor will be in general a more thrifty and economical person, more a man of business, and more likely to manage his property beneficially; for a person whose industry has enabled him to save enough to purchase an estate, will carry with him the same habits of business by which he was originally enabled to become a landed proprietor. He will bring foresight, and new blood and vigour into the neighbourhood, and introduce all the advantages that a particular locality ever receives from the acquisition of strangers. will not only have no incumbrances to cramp his energies, but in all probability a large sum of ready money his hands. New purchasers always lay out large sums in fancied or real improvements, sometimes to gratify themselves, oftener to give employment to the people, and purchase a welcome in the neighbourhood. Such a practice adopted upon many contiguous properties will have the effect of lightening the poor-rate considerably. The number of landlords being so much increased, each person will be judged of not as "a landlord," but according to the merit or demerit of his own individual acts. The difficulty of getting agents over small estates, which is always very great, will be a discouragement to parties to leave the coun

He

in

try; for where the estate is large, and the agent's income no mean competence, of course there is no difficulty in getting persons of talent and integrity to act: but with a small estate it is almost impossible. And lastly, a large proportion of the estates being purchased by farmers, a kind of shield will be extended between the proprietor and the reverend or the irreverend agitator. Where the Protestant landlord stands alone he is like the orphan at school-"Hit him hard; he has no friend," is the order of the day. But where a number of proprietors, differing in state, station, rank, and religion, exist, they stand together, and draw, each from different sources, assistance for the whole.

A small but very interesting book now lies before us." The matter contained in the work was originally communicated to the Daily News, in letters in the "Times Commissioner's" style, and is now republished in a neat little volume. The author has examined many of the most important estates throughout the south and west of Ireland that appeared likely to be sold under the Incumbered Estates Court, and has dotted down the facts relating to cach, in an agreeable and light manner. His remarks are principally directed to the value of these estates as investments for capital, particularly for English capital. The remarks he makes upon our social condition and prospects are extremely clear, and pertinent, and full of hope. In relation to the matter we have been considering, he says:

"That outrages of every kind in Ireland have latterly been materially checked, is satisfactorily attested by the criminal records of the country. This is attributable to these causes; to the famine, which, by levelling all classes, has prevented the exercise of arbitrary power by one over another; to the poorlaw, which has afforded food and shelter to many that otherwise must have died wretchedly; to emigration, which has included in its tide many of the most reckless and desperate characters in the country; and to the improved administration of the law, which, by the action of stipendiary magistrates, who are respected, and of a police who are held in apprehension, leaves little ground to a criminal for hoping that his crime will not be discovered and punished. Less, however, from any of these measures, than from the opera

U