TJic Comitry Gcntlcmaiis Magazine 



322 



culties under which they laboured arose from 

 bad laws and bad government. The force of 

 circumstances, the real cause, at the time be- 

 yond all human control, was never alluded 

 to. That instances of great hardship, and 

 even of injustice, did sometimes occur is well 

 known, but they were exceptional, and on 

 both sides there were thousands of cases, 

 where a better understanding might have 

 been come to, but for the perverted notions 

 which were inculcated and acted upon. The 

 labourer too idle, unskilled, and ill disposed 

 to work from the very training he had re- 

 ceived, and the social atmosphere sur- 

 rounding him — taught to believe that he was 

 the worst housed, worst clothed, and worst 

 fed man in the universe, was imbued with a 

 sense of injustice and oppression from his 

 earliest childhood. The systematic labour of 

 ten hours was too much for his volatile cha- 

 racter, and irksome in the last degree. It was, 

 therefore, easy with such a one to supply a 

 reason for his condition outside himself; and it 

 was this state of mind which has borne fruit 

 in what is now known as the Irish difficulty. 

 Let it not be understood from the foregoing 

 that there were, and are still many things 

 in the voluntary treatment of land under 

 the law which are to be condemned. 

 AV'hat I wish to indicate is, that the great 

 facts connected with the state of Ireland are 

 due to unforeseen, and, on the part of those 

 in power, inevitable circumstances, and that 

 instead of throwing the blame on this party 

 or that, instead of looking solely to govern- 

 ment and new laws to set things right, we 

 must put trust in ourselves, in the individual 

 application of our capital, skill, and industry, 

 Avhich alone can resuscitate and vitalise the 

 country. The present condition of the land 

 must be considered before we can ascertain 

 our immediate requirements. A poor people 

 cannot be expected to hold enriched fanns. 

 Tlie ordeal the country has undergone has 

 left a distinct mark upon the acre, and I 

 may say, as a rule, that the bulk of the tillage 

 land of the country is reduced by absolute 

 poverty, over cropping, and a bad system of 

 agriculture, from five to ten years purchase in 

 value. I am fully satisfied, from my own ex- 



perience and observation, that to bring the 

 present cultivated area into full bearing it 

 would take, with skill and capital at the com- 

 mand of the tenant, fully ten years — for the- 

 reclamation of waste or uncultivated por- 

 tions even a much longer period. Hence 

 the present condition of the soil would not 

 admit of the profitable outlay of capital by 

 the tenant to bring it from a state of ex- 

 haustion to a full state of fertility, unless 

 he is secured by time for his outlay, and 

 placed in a position to reap its benefit. In 

 this there is no parallel between Ireland and 

 England. There the improvements have 

 been effected ; the farms are in a workable 

 condition, and a good state of fertility ; the 

 tenant has nothing to do but maintain the 

 standard. Here, if he would succeed, he must 

 create fertility by an outlay of capital upon the 

 staple of the land ; if he does not, either from 

 want of security or any other cause, he will be 

 doing what the great bulk of the tenants of the 

 country are doing — producing very little over 

 half a crop. I am of opinion that the natural 

 fertility of Ireland, as a whole, has been very 

 much over-rated. There is an almost universal 

 absence of clay; thisand the e.xcessive moisture 

 of the climate preclude anypossibilityof a great 

 yield from cereals, to say nothing of the in- 

 creased cost and difficulties, arising from the- 

 continued downpour or mugginess of the 

 atmosphere, in cultivating and securing the 

 crops. From 1859 to 1861, three years 

 consecutively, a large proportion of the crops, 

 was never gathered, and such as was secured 

 was so inferior in condition that it returned 

 little over the harvesting and thrashing ex- 

 penses. Many landlords during these years 

 had to make reductions of from 10 to 20 per 

 cent, in their rentals, to enable tenants to 

 tide over their difficulties, but with such as 

 were depending chiefly on tillage, the losses 

 were so heavy that they had to abandon their 

 farms. This happened through no act of 

 oppression or injustice, through no mis- 

 management, but simply from climatical 

 causes and neglect in adapting a system of 

 agriculture to the peculiarities of the country. 

 The emigration of 1861-64 was mainly due 

 to the great blow which tillage received. 



