[TO TUE EMOR OV TUB "SPROTATOR.1 Sin,—A paragraph from Mr.
William O'Brien's paper, the Irish People, is reproduced in a letter in last week's Spectator charging the Estates Commissioners with scandalous conduct in their distribution of untenanted lands in Co. Limerick, and with having forfeited public confidence. It is hardly fair to a great public Department to give prominence to such charges without some inquiry as to their justification. So long as these accusations are confined to the obscure columns of a partisan paper little heed need be paid to them, but it is otherwise when they appear in a powerful and widely read journal such as the Spectator. As regards Style Park, it would appear from inquiry that no action has so far been taken by the Commissioners, as is asserted ; and as regards the De Saba estate, the Commissioners apparently have ample reasons for making the arrangement in question, thereby getting possession of some land badly needed—owing to its position—in exchange for other land not suitable for their purposes. The Commissioners cannot mix themselves up in partisan squabbles between contending factions in Ireland, and consequently are from time to time attacked with the usual display of feeling, sometimes by the adherents of Mr. William O'Brien, sometimes by Mr. Ginnell, sometimes by Mr. Farrell, sometimes by Mr. William Moore, and so on. In Ireland this does not much matter. In England and among the readers of the Spectator, who cannot be expected to disconnt these criticisms, it is different. I have consider- able acquaintance with the way in which the Estates Commissioners do their work, and having regard to the extraordinarily difficult and controversial questions with which they have to deal, and the responsibility which is imposed on them, I think it only fair that some attempt should be made to investigate charges that are blindly launched against them, as against every other Government Department in Ireland, by both sides in politics indie-
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