IRISH OPINIONS ON IRISH AFFAIRS.
TO THE EDITOR OF TUE SPECTATOR.
Sad., ille Street, 19th May 1843.
SIR—I have seen in your very instructive journal of the lath, a paragraph entitled " corrected report of the speech of the Archbishop of Dublin on the Irish Poor-law." I consider that there must be some mistake in this statement in thus publishing these opinions as a Parliamentary speech ; and therefore I consider myself privileged to make a remark upon them ; the more so as I reside in his Grace's diocese—sine of his .flock, and as I was the person who first proposed Poor-laws for Ireland in Parliament in 1825, and who strenuously supported the present bill when going through the House of Commons. It was perhaps the first time the British Parliament had shown feeling or sympathy for the people of that country, their former acts having been almost all for purposes of taxation or coercion—this being the first for relief; and it grieves me to see an Archbishop second the motion of one who seeks to destroy it.
I continue of the opinion I formerly held, that the act was based on Christian and charitable motives, intended and calculated to relieve a state of things un- parelleled in any other country—a frightful state of mendicancy, vagrancy, and destitution, which was contaminating the whole society, rendering the country almost uninhabitable, and legislation while it existed almost superfluous.
I consider that the operation of the act is to tax the rich Protestant ab- sentee for the relief of the resident and destitute Catholic peasant—a sort of drawback upon and contrast to that act which takes the tithe from the Catholic poor and gives it to the Protestant clergy—an absentee-tax of the best kind; that its operation is to introduce order, cleanliness, and a taste for a better con- dition of life, among the poor and among the rich throughout the unions— habits of business and order, a knowledge of and care and concern for the poorer classes: and I say that that exists at present in the Archbishop's own diocese, in the city of Dublin and its vicinity, where it did not exist before, and that he should be the last person to refuse to give the law a fair trial, and to join those who, from a dislike to the tax, wish to do away with the enactment. He says it is unpopular with all classes, and that mendicancy is increased by it. I must in truth and justice, but with all courtesy, deny both statements, and as- sert that the act is not unpopular with all classes, though endeavoured to be made so by all parties ; and that mendicancy has not increased from this act, which goes to relieve it, but from the late fall in prices, the want of employ- ment, and other ills consequent on those measures adopted by the present Go- vernment, and on the mode of carrying out those Free-trade principles of which I believe the Archbishop is an advocate, and thus author of that state of things of which he accuses the act : and the consequence is, inability to pay tax, rate, or rent—rent-charge the Archbishop knows they must pay. But he says the Repeal agitation was dying away and that this had revived it. I think, how- ever, that he will find on further inquiry, that it is not the tax for the desti- tute peasant, but rather the tax for the Protestant clergy, that really keeps alive the question of Repeal in that unfortunate country. It is my hope that this act may not be damaged in consequence of the as- saults made upon it in and out of Parliament, by parties who only make a use and a handle of it for other objects ; and that the powers of these Boards and of the Commissioners may be considerably increased ; that they may be charged with many of those duties now committed to Grand Juries, and with the control, inspection, and management of all our medical institutions, which have been so long and so shamefully neglected. Thus will they become in time useful local Boards for local objects; composed of men who are to be found, I verily believe, in most of the unions, well fitted for and quite competent to the manag,ment of all local affairs; good schools for the introduction of better habits and feelings among all classes, asylums for the aged, infirm, orphan, widow, and sick— some of them are at present in the Archbishop's own diocese. In expressing my satisfaction at what we have gotten, I may be allowed to congratulate my country on what we have escaped ; and I must say of the Report and recom- mendations of that Commission of which the Archbishop was a member, that I believe many of its statements were erroneous and extravagant, and most of its remedial measures tardy and impracticable.
His Grace says he has travelled over a great part of the country. When he next travels through his own diocese, though he may not be a friend to the rights of the poor, I beg of him to be one to the rights of the Church, and to assert those rights in a certain parish in his own diocese, to which I now, for a second time, take the liberty of calling his attention. In visiting the parish alluded to, he may find that the Poor-law does not work so ill as he describes.
In conclusion, I am ready to admit that no new law can be expected to work well during the present confusion and crisis existing in Ireland ; that the Irish, like other people, dislike to pay taxes, though it be for the relief of their own poor, and that they would willingly shake off both the tax for the Catholic poor and for the Protestant clergy. That they may not get rid of the former with- out the latter, is the sincere wish of your obedient servant, J. GRATTAR.
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