IRELAND.
County of Roscommon, December 18.
As the Poor-law question, in its various ramifications, is now universally recognized as the paramount question of the time, I have taken advantage of a 'little leisure in order to make an examination, with my own eyes, into the state of affairs in a district which should be generally admitted to afford a fall oppor- tunity of judging of all the difficulties incident to that disorganization of society now occupying public attention under the name of "the condition of Ireland." With this object in view, I turned my face, of course, to the West; and, crossing the Shannon, took up a position sufficiently distant from the English Pale to insure true Connaught characteristics in soil and people, and yet not so notorious for destitution and helpnessness as the parts more closely adjoining the coast-line of the province. I chose a sort of average field for my inquiries; in which some vi- tality still remains, although struggling at great odds against the consequences of former mismanagement, against recent visitations of Providence, and against hu- man attempts to remedy the one and to escape from the other. I am now writing from the centre of a poor-law union, containing in round num- bers an area of 240,000 acres and a population of 93,000 souls; and I will en- deavour to relate in a candid spirit a few particulars of what I have seen and heard in reference to the actual state of property, poverty, and industry. During the last few days, I have gone to and fro through the estates of two noble lords, which with the smaller properties of two or three other proprietors form three large elec- toral divisions of the union. One of these estates consists of about 42,000 acres; of which 12,000 are under red bog, varying in depth from four to twelve feet. The population upon this estate is somewhat above 10,000; the Poor-law and Ord- nance valuations agree in being a little more than 16,0001.; and the rental is a few pounds less than either of the valuations. The noble owner, like most other Con- naught proprietors, is suffering for the sins of his fathers, both of omission and commission: they omitted to make any provision for restraining an infini- tesimal division of the productive lands on the estate; and they committed the errors of granting long and improvident leases, and of loading the rental with en- cumbrances which now amount to more than one third of the total revenue. When I last visited this district, (exactly three years since,) I saw farms, originally let to single tenants, upon which as many as seventy-two cottier families were lo- cated; the middleman holders receiving profit-rents to as high a figure as 7001. a year.
This was an unpromising state of affairs, in the face of which to make an at- tempt to meet the calamities of 1846, 1847, and 1848; but the attempt was made with courage and energy; and although the time has not yet arrived when it can be said that it has succeeded, it will yet be instructive to examine into what has been done, into the manner of doing it, and into its effect so far as that can yet bejudged of. It was seen at once, that the only chance open for escape from the numerous difficulties of the case lay in the productive employment of the population with which the estate was burdened; and accordingly, an application was made, in the course of last year, for loans, under the Land Improvement Act, to the amount of about 20,0001. After a good deal of official difficulty and delay, the application was "(Idiom(' to the extent of about 8,0001.; and last week I drove through and care- lilly examined the wastes upon which nearly seven-eighths of that sum have been already expended. The bog, as I have said, varies from four to twelve feet, and there is below it a substratum of limestone gravel, which here and there rises in small islands above the general surface. The district, like other limestone forma- tions, is underlaid with caverns, into which the water in many place disappears, though what the peasants call " swallow holes," and runs for considerable distances underground, until it again passes out into the winter lakes,, termed, in the lam. gnage of these parts, " turloughs."
From this description it will be seen, that some considerable facilities favour the reclamation of these wastes; and yet the coat of the pro.psa amounts to about 6/. per acre. The operations consist in the cutting of arterial canals in convenient directions through the bogs and to the nearest outfall; in the forming of minor drains, intended to be covered at a future time; and in covering the surface with gravel, dug from the substratum or taken from the islands to which I have al- luded. One of the canals, which debouches in the river Suck, is two miles and a half in length and twenty-five feet wide at the top; and there are several others of considerable though not altogether so imposing dimensions. In making the cuttings and carrying the gravel there has been about 1,000 people of all ages and sexes employed during the year; and even in the bad weather of last week I saw children of nine or ten years oldmerrily running along the heather-paths and discharging their little creelfals of gravel upon the drained surface. The work is done by task ; and it has been carried on under the supervision of overseers, with such interruptions as suited the convenience of the people, and allowed them time to attend to their own farms. The area of bog in process of reclamation (in- dependent of bottoms which will be dried and rendered valuable) is about 1,300 acres; and it is expected that in two years the reclaimed parts will be worth 10s. an acre.
Having mentioned these facts, I find that I must draw my present communica- tion to a close; hoping to follow up the subject in future letters. M.
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