Mr. Tuke, who has done so much for the distressed
popula- tion of the West of Ireland, sent a very interesting letter to the Times of Thursday, on the really magnificent proportions of that part of the Govetament Land Bill which affects what are called the congested districts, and expresses a very legiti- mate wonder that public attention has not been drawn more pointedly than it has to this feature of the Bill, which, as he shows, carries out almost to the letter Sir Robert Peel's suggested proposal to the House of Commons in March, 1849, now forty-two years ago. Congested districts are districts in which the rateable value of the land is less than Ll 68. 8d. for each head of the population. The congested districts portiou
of the Bill appoints a Commission, consisting of the Chief Secretary for Ireland, or in his absence the Under-Secretary, one Land Commissioner, and five unpaid Commissioners, who will have £42,500 a year from the surplus of the Irish Church Temporalities fund, besides considerable additions from other sources, for the purpose of carrying out per- manent improvements in the congested districts of Ireland. They will be empowered to promote the amalgamation of microscopic holdings ; the aiding of migration, emigration, colonisation, under conditions likely to secure the permanent benefit of the population removed from their present hopeless surroundings ; the aiding and development of both agriculture and the fisheries ; and the providing of suitable seed-potatoes for sale to occupiers in any of the congested districts. Such a work as this must necessarily be, as Mr. Take states, a very slow work ; but it will also be a permanent work, and will not only relieve periodic distress, but gradually extinguish the causes which have led to this periodic distress. Mr. Tuke very naturally expresses his astonishment that what Mr. Balfour secures in return for this really large and far-reaching proposal, is a suggestion that his salary shall be reduced by way of punishment for his severity to Ireland. The Irish are really a grateful people, and we doubt if there is a single Parnellite, or Anti-Parnellite either, half as popular in Ireland just now as Mr. Balfour. But they are also a morally timid people, and have not always the courage to show what they feel, especially with so unbroken a prescription of ingratitude towards Irish Secretaries as that which dominates their imaginations.
