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TJic Conniry Gcntlanaiis Magazine 



country must be measured by its own rule, 

 and it is, I contend, on this account, that 

 English opinions upon Ireland require time 

 to season, that an intimate knowledge of the 

 character and habits of the people, and the 

 peculiarities of the country cannot be ac- 

 quired without something more than a casual 

 run by rail, and that larger and more pro- 

 found experience is necessary before one can 

 venture to speak positively on the vexed 

 problem of the Irish Land Question. 



It is impossible to understand the present 

 without reference to the past, and it is on 

 this account I propose to consider the subject 

 from the time of the French war. At that 

 period the price of all kinds of cereals was 

 very high, and the system that was initiated 

 then has not been without its effects up to 

 the present time. The artificial price of corn 

 raised the value of land much beyond its 

 intrinsic worth ; cultivation received an im- 

 petus before unknown ; and a large popula- 

 tion, living on the potato, with few wants, 

 gave facihties for securing the crops at little 

 cost, and with considerable certainty in so 

 uncertain a climate. Home manufactures, 

 too, were not without their effects in giving 

 employment and promoting the general well- 

 being. The landowners, alive to the pros- 

 perity around them, in many instances 

 availed themselves of so favourable an 

 opportunity to let their estates, and large 

 tracts of country were leased away, often 

 without any or few restrictive clauses ; a sum 

 of money not unusually being paid down by 

 the lessee as a fine for the lease, or as a re- 

 duction upon the rent, the landlord wishing 

 to forestall his interest by obtaining the imme- 

 diate considera,tion. 



The occupiers of these tracts, from the 

 steady rise in produce and the cheapness of 

 labour, rapidly created interests under their 

 leases, and commenced a system of sub- 

 letting, competition forcing up rents to almost 

 fabulous prices ; holders of land had no diffi- 

 culty in picking up all the spare money in 

 their neighbourhood, and were able to com- 

 mand almost any price for the acre. I know 

 of land now let at 14s. per acre which then 

 payed 50s. Even tr^icts of mountain and bog. 



before almost worthless, were let to cottiers at 

 high rents to grow potatoes, and such was the 

 luxurious growth of this esculent that it was 

 not uncommon to see heaps of it rotting by 

 the ditches from sheer abundance. So long, 

 then, as prices continued high, and the 

 potato grew, " all went merry as a marriage 

 bell." But this extraordinary prosperity fos- 

 t ired a spirit of recklessness and extravagance 

 amongst the owners in fee, who, having trans- 

 ferred the responsibilities and control of their 

 estates to others, neglected to perform the 

 duties their position entailed — many became 

 absentees, and many encumbered their pro- 

 perty by extravagance. The middlemen 

 copied the example of their betters, and sup- 

 ported their dignity not so much by their in- 

 dustry as by screwing the uttermost farthing 

 out of their dependents. There appears at 

 this time to have been an utter disregard of 

 all management of property, sub-division, 

 rack-rents, and a rapidly increasing popula- 

 tion, unskilled and only partially employed : 

 no development of the inert portions of the 

 land, but rather a steady deterioration from a 

 vicious system of agriculture ; in short, a 

 combination of circumstances all tending to 

 prepare the country for that terrible calamity 

 which overtook it in 1846. 



The failure of the potato crop unhinged 

 the whole system of land-tenure. So long as 

 the potato grew, and that almost spontane- 

 ously, it remained unchallenged as the staple 

 of the country, it enabled the peasantry to 

 eke out a miserable existence, because the 

 yield of a very small proportion of inferior land 

 produced a sufficiency of food, and they were 

 satisfied with this, inasmuch as that with a little 

 skill and appliances of the most inferior kind, 

 they could rear their families and live in a 

 state of indolence and freedom suited to their 

 nature and training. The one pillar upon 

 which the whole land system rested was 

 knocked away by the potato disease, which 

 destroyed the chief food of the people. 

 Famine, Avith all its attendant horrors, dried 

 up all minor resources, and put the payment 

 of rent by the labourers and farmers to the 

 middlemen out of the question ; the latter 

 were in turn unable to meet their engage- 



