FORBES'S MEMORANDUMS MADE IN IRELAND. *

IN the autumn of 1852, Dr. Forbes took a " physician's holy- day" in Ireland; travelling pretty nearly round the Emerald Isle, with deviations in search of the picturesque. From Dub- lin to Galway, from the Giant's Causeway to close upon Cape Clear, the indefatigable Doctor and a friend progressed by steamer, by rail, by car, by post, wherever hopes of information or of na- tural beauty called them ; though in such a running journey some places were omitted they would rather have seen. The "Memorandums" are useful, and not without interest, as exhibiting the conclusions of a shrewd, observing, well-informed man of the world, on some of the still vexed questions of Ireland. There is, however, an undue amount of type in proportion to the new or living knowledge conveyed to the reader. Dr. Forbes has drawn too much of his matter from blue-books and similar reper- tories. The subjects to which the tourist turned his attention were seven in number. 1. The actual condition, conduct, and sentiments of the people. 2. The appearance of the country eco- nomically speaking,—that is, in respect to cultivation, crops, en- closures, and the buildings which indicate the material circum- stances of the agricultural population. 3. Description in a pic- turesque sense. 4. Workhouses, their inhabitants and statistics. 5. Religious feeling, and education with its statistics. 6. Temper- ance and its statistics too. 7. Miscellaneous topics of a general cast, including archaeology, and the Round Towers. To which may be added the common occurrences of a tour.

Of these subjects, not above a half—embracing the condition of the people, the economical appearance of the country, and actual observations drawn from life in some of the other heads—have that freshness which results from a transcript of nature, whether the thing be intrinsically new or not. A large portion of the work has the heaviness which arises from discussion on worn-out topics, enforced by common if not stale statistios, rendered still more Un- attractive by being out of place. It was not worth while to make a tour in Ireland for the sake of publishing the statistics of par- ticular poor-houses, or of the schools of second-rate and third-rate towns. The origin and purpose of the Round Towers is a subject that might have been spared in a tour to portray Ireland and its people. The Temperance movement and its statistics have more

hness, for writers have not paid so much attention to it as to the Poor-laws and Education, because less political capital could be made out of it; yet even here the matter is statistically over- done.

The fact is, conclusions are what is wanted from a book of obser- vation ; and, independently of the frequent uselessness of isolated tabular facts to prove general results, their operose character and the proverbial uncertainty of statistics tell against them. For ex- ample, when we find the proportion of Protestants in a workhouse only one-half per cent, it may certainly indicate the respective re- ligious populations of the district, but it just as likely proves the superior industry and providence of the Protestants, or it may be only their greater wealth and station. Conclusions drawn from a rapid survey of very large questions amount, it is true, to no more than opinion ; but statistics themselves reach to little more ; such as they are we must take them in either case. According to the opinion of Dr. Forbes, the Temperance movement has declined. The famine and the fever drove people to drink ; though the good which Father Mathew has done is incalculable. Perhaps as re- gards the absolute number of members, some allowance should be made for the dead and the emigrated. The management of the poor-houses which Dr. Forbes saw—and he visited a great many —is very praiseworthy as regards arrangement and cleanliness. The scale of diet he thinks low. There are only two meals a day for adults, without any meat as a general rule, and the meal and vegetables not too much. Yet the people looked healthy, though sometimes their spare diet could be traced in their countenance. It must be remembered, however, that the Irish peasant rarely eats meat when at home. Of the poverty of the people at large, at least in the South and West, Dr. Forbes speaks as others do ; his conclusion being proved by particular facts—as the absence of furniture ; some of his instances indi- cate improvidence, perhaps exceptional. The clearing pro- cess was well over in such of the ejecting districts as the tourist passed through. Its traces were visible in the absence of population, or the remains of hovels. Dr. Forbes agrees with general opinion in thinking that the depopulation from famine, fever, and emigration, coupled with the settlement of Scotch and English farmers, will improve the country—enable her to turn over a new leaf. On the differences between Catholics and Pro-

• Memorandums made in Ireland in the Autumn of 1852. By John Forbes, M.D.. F.R.S., ,c.. Physician to her Majesty's Household; Author of A Physician's

Holyday.. with a Map and Illustrations. In two volumes. Published by Smith and Elder. testants Dr. Forbes is in.favour of the Catholics, especially on the question of the National Schools. The Catholics use them exten- sively ; the Protestant clergy interfere to keep their flocks away, and this very successfully. On the religious establishment he speaks out plainly enough for a Court physician : he maintains there will be no satisfaction in the Catholic mind till the Esta- blishment be curtailed and the Romish clergy paid by the -State:- He also makes a charge which sounds strangely—that the bigotry of Ireland is on the side of the Protestants.

"The great obstacles the Commissioners [of the National Schools] have had to contend with from the beginning, have been the prejudices engendered by the different forms of religion prevalent in Ireland. Most carefully and wisely were the plans of the Government framed, with the view of meeting the difficulties arising from this cause; and nothing could exceed the tender' care evinced by the Commissioners towards all objectors in putting these, plans in execution. But no courtesies, no concessions, no modification's con- sistent with the grand fundamental principle on which the system was founded, have been found adequate to meet the narrow views which have, unfortunately, been adopted by the clergy of the Established Church in Ire- land. The consequence has been, that though the great massed the children of the lower classes of the Catholic population have obtained nearly all the benefits the schools are calculated to bestow, the children of the same classes belonging to the Protestant Establishment hare derived very little advan- tage from them. For this great andlrreparable loss to the poor, the minis- ters and gentry of the Established Church in Ireland are entirely responsible; and although sectarian prejudice may for a time make them blind to the evil they have done, impartial are still doing, there can be but one opinion among en- lightened and mpartial men as to their conduct. From a spirit of hard sectarianism not unmixed, it is to be feared, with feelings of even a lower kind, they have sacrificed the highest interests of those who have a claim on them for direction in the right way, and have so far done what in them lay to check the progress of their country in the career of improvement and happiness.

" In making this general charge against the clergy of the Established Church in Ireland, I believe myself warranted by their conduct generally. It would, however, be unjust not to admit that there have been some brilliant exceptions,—few in number, it is true, but sufficient to show how delightfully different would have been the result had such conduct been general and not exceptional. It is hardly necessary to name Archbishop Whately as the noble leader of this liberal band. [This was written before the late events.]

" It would have much less surprised most men in this country had the opposition arisen on the other side. But it is undoubtedly true that, on this great occasion, it is the members of the Catholic Church who have exhibited the liberality of views, and the members of the Protestant Church who have shown the narrow-mindedness and bigotry."

Another topic handled by Dr. Forbes, with reports of various conversations held upon the subject, is Tenant-right. However this question may be staved off for the present, it is one that will eventually have to be dealt with, and more extensively perhaps than as regards agricultural improvements. The public mind in England is as yet asleep upon the subject, though the tenants of this country have spent much more upon the land, whether in town or country, than the tenants of Ireland.

"As might be expected from their political bias, the Presbyterians, whether tenants or not, are strong advocates for tenant-right, and are pre- pared to join any sect or party that will cooperate with them in iwocuring its legal enactment. The more sober-minded, however, gono further on this point than what seems reasonably the tenant's due, viz. compensation, in some form, for considerable improvements of an undoubted kind which they themselves or their fathers have efibeted, or for which they have, with the sanction of the landlords, paid money to their predecessors. I spoke with several farmers on the subject of this tenant-right, and found most of them, though certainly not all, rational and sober in their views. A small farmer I met in Coleraine market told me that he and his father and grandfather had lived on the farm now occupied by him for nearly a hundred years, during which time they had, among them, not only reckimed it from a mere bog to be a fertile soil, but had built all the houses now upon it at their own expense. He considered himself as not only liable to be removed, but as likely to be so at any time, and believed that he was fully entitled to com- pensation if this should be the case. I began by reasoning with him, on the ground that he and his predecessors, during the long course of time they had possessed the land, must have derived advantages from their own impreve- ment of the soil sufficient to cover the outlay on the houses : but he met this argument by the fact, that the landlord had deprived them, in a great measure, of these advantages, by increasing the rent in proportion to the improvement. The case of another farmer was harder still, as he had actually paid out of his own pocket a considerable sum to his predecessor on the farm for his improvements, and this with the cognizance and sanction of the landlord, who, he had good grounds for fearing, was at this moment meditating his removal, without compensation, in order to consolidate his property into larger farms."

The true principle seems to be, that a landlord should be charged with all tangible improvements according to their value at the expiration of the term, if made with his consent. Buildings of all kinds would of course come under this head, and perhaps per- manent drainage ; but not alleged improvements in the soil, or, we conceive, hedges or even timber, unless by special agreement. The best way of improving land is by a cultivation adapted to its nature, of which the tenant reaps the annual benefit; and trees grow without any cost on his part beyond the first cost of plant- ing. The Italian system, where a full tenant-right is really esta- blished, is to value the permanent property on the tenant's coming in and on his going out. Many of the Irish do not seem to be satisfied with this, but claim a sort of good-will, which really arises from economical "rent," to which they can have no more title than anybody else.

Besides the graver subjects of the tour, there are many pictures of the people, and incidents by the way, with some hints for ex- cursionists. Here is one.

"Immediately on leaving Cushendall, we entered upon that famous road, lauded by all travellers, which runs from hence to Larne4 a distance of twenty Irish miles, close upon the sea-beach, and at the base of some of the most magnificent cliffs in the world. This _road was constructed about twenty years since, by that admirable department to which Ireland is so indebted, ndebted, the Board of Public Works, as was also the excellent road we had travelled from Ballycastle hitherward. I have already had occasion to remark on the singular excellence of the roads generally in Ireland; but here they have reached their culminating point, whether we regard the en- gineering difficulties surmounted, the greatness of the pecuniary outlay in overcoming them, or the admirable result. By opening up this new path, the Board has not only substituted, for purposes of traffic, a smooth solid road, almost as level as a railway, for one of the most impracticable mountain tracts in the island, but has at the same time laid open to the traveller scenes of such magnificence and beauty as would almost of themselves have justified the expense of formation. "Travelling the road as we did, in the finest weather, with the sea al- most as tranquil and blue as the sky above it, and with the advantage of contemplating the various scenes both in their morning and evening as- pects, the charm seemed sufficient to authorize and justify a journey having no other object than simply to travel over it. How much more justifiable, then—or rather how much more irresistibly attractive—must such a road be, when we know that it is to be regarded only as ushering the traveller to the greater things beyond—to Glendun—to Fairhead—to Pleaskin and the Giant's Causeway ! Whatever other attractive scenery Ireland may possess, I think there is no spot in the island that combines such attractions fbr the hurried holydaymaker of London as this very road, and what it leads to. And the journey is so easily accomplished : rail to Liverpool—steam to Belfast or Carrickfergus—car to Larne, Glenarm, Cushendall, Fairhead, Giant's Causeway, Portrush, and Coleraine—coach to Ballymena—sail to Belfast—and back again to London within the eight days ! What clerk, what shopkeeper, what busy doctor, lawyer, or curate, but could command BO short a space of time as this to pick up a stock of health and delight, to last him for months ?"

We will close with first impressions—national characteristics from small things.

"We took up our abode at Rathbone's Hotel ; a large and on the whole an excellent establishment, yet constantly reminding us, by sundry little in- timations, that we had got into a less nice and more careless country than we had left on the Eastern side of the Irish Channel. In a very good bed- room, for example, the bell-rope had been broken and was not yet repaired ; the window-blind was crippled and would not work ; the swing-mirror could not be steadied for want of a fitting screw ; and the sole resource against being stifled in a hot night was to keep the window up by the poker, there being no pullies to the large and handsome sashes. Writer was occasionally found wanting where it was most wanted ; and there seemed, every now and then, to be a lingering doubt among the servants whose special duty it was to attend to the particular bell that happened to be ringing. Yet, for all this, the hotel was by no means a bad one, as to accommodation, attendance, or living ; and it is but doing justice to it individually to say, that its de- fects as well as excellences were more or less shared with it by all the hotels we visited in Ireland."