PRACTICABILITY OF IMPROVING IRELAND. 193 



All we need for tranquillizing Ireland is a control Either moral or 

 physical the latter has too often failed, or has never been steadily 

 adhered to, nor honestly undertaken; causing resistence and 

 reaction. The former the moral control, has been most surely the 

 fosterer of peace and good will. To assert the moral control, we 

 must approach with skill and consideration ; we must know, firstly, 

 the dispositions industrious ; secondly, their requirements secu- 

 rity and encouragement. 



The poor would themselves undertake a great portion of the im- 

 provements, and make them, eventually, without any expense to the 

 remainder of the community ; that is, if they were allotted portions 

 with such facilities as would secure to them the power of carrying on 

 their improvements without molestation or interruption. If it be 

 asked what would support them while so employed? we answer, 

 they would at least have the same means of support that they have at 

 present; they could be no worse; and, after a few months, their im- 

 provements would yield them an adequate maintenance, and an end 

 would be put to their wants and their fears of future distress. But it is 

 quite possible even to support the poor, during their improvements, 

 without leaving them to their usual resource of begging, or emigra- 

 ting to England for work. Place the poor upon the wastes, grant 

 them leases for seven or fourteen years, and they would agree to pay 

 a rent equivalent to the county cess paid for the improved lands 

 in the county. To illustrate this, it has been ascertained that a ' 

 certain bog in the Co. Tipperary, comprising 11,517 acres, could be 

 drained for less than two shillings per acre ; i. e., for 1,016. Now 

 if the county would, in the first instance, advance this l,016. to 

 complete the drainage; when that should be effected, the peasantry 

 would gladly undertake the remainder of the improvements, and 

 pay for the privilege, at least one shilling per acre, equal to 575. 

 17s. per annum; which would pay off the money advanced, with 

 more than legal interest, in two years : and the county would be 

 thereby enabled to lay on, ever after, a cess upon 11,517 acres, in 

 addition to all former cesses ; and thus gain, ivithout any expendi- 

 ture, an income of not less than 575. 17s. per annum. 



Likewise the proprietor would gain a rent, after the expiration of 

 the term, from land hitherto quite unproductive to him. So would 

 the parson obtain an additional-tithe. Yet, with all these immense 

 advantages staring us broadly in the face, we see the drainage, 

 the rivers, and the wastes suffered to remain in statu quo, or rather 

 increasing their nuisances in an almost geometric ratio. 

 VOL. in. 1834. cc 



