THE ROOT OF EVIL IN IRELAND.
WHY is it that the Irish, who are so idle and barbarous in Ire- land, so readily become civilized out of their native land ? At home they prefer starvation and murder ; abroad, peace and in- dustry: what makes the difference? It is not for want of plans to better their condition; but then, their favourite target is an improving landlord. The Irishman is truly a " wild " man.
It almost requires personal experience to convey an adequate idea of what is meant by the wildness of the Irish. Those who see them on their own soil are accustomed to the sight, and ac- commodate their ideas to a local standard. Even in England, the Irish form to a great extent an isolated class. But sometimes they are forced into closer association with English, and then one's eyes are opened. We subjoin a complaint which appeared last week in the Times— "In November last, the Government agents advertized for persons of good cha- racter as emigrants by the ship Scotia; and a relative of mine, finding it a hope- less task seeking for employment in his native country, and thinking he might better his condition, applied to the agent, and seeing that every attention was paid to discover the character, capabilities, and state of health of the parties making application, was induced to leave the land of his birth, and try what could be done to gain a livelihood in a strange country ; feeling confident, after the care that had been taken in the selection, that, whatever might befall him after his arrival, he should at least during the voyage enjoy the society of persona who, though poor, were cleanly and well-behaved members of society.
'On the 14th of December, the parties, between two and three hundred, chiefly young married couples, were directed to be on board; and I quote the words of one of the officers in the ship, 'that he never before saw a more respectable body of emigrants'; and having spent a few hours on board myself before the ship sailed, I was filled with painful reflections to think that so many respectable and intelligent mechanics were obliged to resort to such an alternative.
"On the ship arriving at Plymouth, we received a letter, stating that all things had gone on well; when, judge of our astonishment at receiving another, on the day she sailed, stating that they were filled with consternation and alarm at having about sixty of the most deplorably filthy human beings from Ireland placed among them, who were not even conversant with the commonest decen- cies of life, their persons being little better than a mass of vermin. To describe the mode of living and habits of these people would be unfit for publication, as stated in the letter before me."
This picture is far from being highly coloured. We know that the newly-deported Irish are very unfit to associate with decent English emigrants; and that great pains are taken by the Colonization officers to keep them separate, though that is not always practicable. We will not venture to fill up that portion of the sketch which the writer has left unfinished.: suffice it to say, that kittens and puppies, before they have received any training, exhibit about as much notion of bienseance. But total disregard of civilized usages is not incorrigible in the Irish : they violate rules of decorum, not because they are depraved, but be- cause they have never been taught better. Some such teaching is needed, even for human beings, either by example or direct precept, or both. The Irishman, it appears, has neither, until he encounters the rough teaching of an adult school abroad. It is no wonder that a people so wild are shy and perverse even to their own destruction. The simple fact of that untaught con- dition explains a vast deal that has seemed inexplicably perverse.
Nor will it suffice to devise plans for their improvement. To the wild animal the apparatus of civilized life looks like a snare and a trap ; and it must be confessed that the plans put forth often require explanation to remove a sinister aspect. We have before us a scheme attacked by the Celtic organs for its hostile cha- racter: it is promulgated in the following handbill.
" To the Tenants on the Gort Estate.
"The great pressure upon landlords in this district, consequent upon the uni- versal nonpayment of rent by the small tenants, the disinclination on the part of the banks to discount tenants' bills, and the new Poor-law, which comes into ope- ration immediately, render it necessary to inform you of some rules which must be strictly adhered to upon this estate in future. "1. Legal proceedings will be taken against every tenant who owes more than nine months' rent on the 29th of September, unless he shall make some satisfac- tory arrangement on the subject in the office. 2. No bill will be taken from any tenant whose yearly rent is less than 50/.; nor from one whose rent exceeds that snm, except under very peculiar circumstances. 3. Legal proceedings will be taken against any tenant who shall, after this day, subdivide, underlet, or burn any portion of his holding, or build, or suffer to be built, any house or out-house thereon, without leave in writing. 4. No person shall cut turf without a printed permission. 5. No labour will be given at Louglacooter in future to any tenant holding more land than 25 perches, except as steward, overseer, or foreman. 6. No labour will be given on the estate to tenants holding more than 25 perches, except to enable them to clear off arrears now due. 7. No dead gale will be al- lowed on the estate in future: where it now exists, it must be paid off by instal- ments. 8. The utmost punctuality will be required from all tenants whn have under-tenants not living in slated houses; and they cannot be allowed to owe any arrear whatever. 9. Leases for sixteen years, under the new act, will be granted, at a charge, including all fees, &c. of 3s. 6d. each, to all tenants who hold ten Irish acres of land within one fence.
"By order of Viscount Gort, S. PRENDERGAST VEREKER."
The in looks harsh enough, on the first blush of it, inasmuch i
as it s almost entirely penal n its mode of working. It was made the subject of a very personal attack on Lord Gort in the Freeman's Journal, on grounds which are obvious. But, looking more closely into the rules, we find implied in them what in England would be accounted an extraordinary degree of le- niency. Tenants who could not comply with the conditions would not deserve the name of tenants—paying rent in money and living by their crops, but could only encumber the land with the pauper counterfeit of a tenantry ; and their best fate would be a divorce from the land, which would force them to subsist by daily wages. It is made a reproach against landlords like Lord Gort, that they try to keep down the population on their estates; but how else can they begin improvement Lord Gort, we are told, does not eject ; but that the further progress of subdivision ought to be arrested is made evident by the statement, that on one townland of his estate at Loughrea, valued under the Ord- nance survey at 300/., the houses, in 1841, were 83, and the po- pulation 439! This was not a case of forty-shilling freeholders created for political purposes, or of conacre encouraged by the landlord ; but fifty years ago, the landlord's ancestor made a long lease of the whole tract to one individual, and, with truly Irish "liberality," did not bind the tenant under stringent covenant of any kind. Another lease of the same sort was surrendered this year : the farm is valued at I77/.; the population, in 1841, was 179, and has much increased since that year. There can be no rescue for land so circumstanced until it has been relieved of part of a population which burthens it : employment under the Land- improvement Act, to which Lord Gort has resorted largely, might do good, but could not redeem the people from their debased con- dition. "Tenant right" could not avail them. Nothing could amend their condition but to remove a part. Some have emi- grated; but they have been the able, active, and comparatively wealthy men, who have gone to the Colonies in considerable numbers, leaving their wives and families behind them a burthen on the parish and on the estate : yet even from such emigration some advantage has been felt. To check the increase of the po- pulation, to encourage its removal, to encourage the conversion of insolvent " tenants" into labourers at wages, is the very way to redeem these people from their miserable condition, and is the very mode indicated in the rules which we have quoted. But totally untaught Irishmen could not understand such purposes; still less could they divine them from the rules.
It is not, therefore, mere plans for their improvement, but ex- planation of those plans by living word of mouth, that the poor Irish need. Is this supplied ? "Improving landlords" ought not merely to issue edicts, or address their tenantry in the mass, but ought to go among them, and explain to the population in detail, man by man, every plan in detail, rule by rule. It is not the plans and the objects of the landlords which move the savage fear of the people, but it is the figmentary aspect which such schemes must inevitably bear to the rude and untaught. What Ireland most needs is an army of missionaries to teach the sim- plest elements of the social science : such a mission might really pave the way for converting Ireland into a province as comfort- able and happy as some Irish settlements in the Colonies.
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