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The Country Gentleman s Magazine 



landlords or injustice to Ireland, but simply to 

 the fact that it will not now pay to reclaim. 

 The amount required to be expended in many 

 cases would be more than would purchase 

 the fee of land of medium quality, whilst the 

 other, after all, would be only indifferent 

 when reclaimed. Money will improve and 

 develop, but it cannot alter the staple of the 

 soil. We are told by theoretical enthusiasts 

 (enthusiasts because they are theorists) of the 

 untold wealth lying neglected in our deep 

 bogs, and upon our mountain sides, and that 

 whilst our people are being driven from their 

 country, millions of acres that only require 

 development under a good system of Land 

 Laws, lie waste and unprofitable. Are we 

 to understand that none of these things 

 have been attempted ? that in this vast area 

 there ar*e none who have not tried their hand 

 and endeavoured to make themselves pos- 

 sessors of some of those riches in pro- 

 spect? Such assertions only prove to my 

 mind the ignorance of those who advance 

 tliem. Reclamation upon every kind of land 

 has been tried, and with very little success 

 upon the second class. It has been tried not 

 merely by tenants, but by owners in fee, who 

 were not fettered by landlords or bad govern- 

 ment, or a want of capital, and to whom success 

 would have proved a fortune, had the anticipa- 

 tions of theorists given good results in practice. 

 Success to them must have been complete as 

 owTiers and occupiers — they had all to gain ; 

 yet this waste land of inferior quality and 

 those deep bogs still remain. The fact of 

 their abandonment tests their real value. 

 Individuals have been bold enough to 

 commence, but found no encouragement to 

 proceed, and in many instances instead of 

 subduing nature, nature subdued them. Such 

 as strove to exist upon their labours waited 

 in hope until hope ended in despair, and the 

 wastes of Ireland were, I think, wisely aban- 

 doned for the alluvial plains of America. 

 The true system to work upon — that of 

 thorough drainage, subsoiling, &c., and all 

 the facilities which the introduction of horse 

 labour and machinery afford — is only of very 

 recent origin. The old attempts which were 

 made v\'ere on a small scale, and possessed 



none of that permanency of character that 

 would entitle them to our consideration. We 

 might as well ask ourselves why there was 

 not a telegraph to America fifty years ago, as 

 inquire why the bogs of Ireland were not 

 drained at the same period. Although our 

 agricultural development is not so brisk and 

 systematic as could be wished, still I am 

 persuaded there is much doing ; thousands of 

 acres, now called waste, are annually being 

 converted upon sound principles into arable 

 and pasture land. 



From my remarks it is easy to perceive 

 that the landlords, since 1846, have held a 

 very altered position from the one they occu- 

 pied previous to that period. Such as re- 

 tained possession of their estates had now to 

 identify themselves with their property — 

 many through incumbrances, recent and re- 

 mote, being unable to meet the demands 

 made on them, were swept away by 

 the Encumbered Estates Court, and helped 

 to swell the tide of emigration. One of the 

 greatest evils, to my mind, that the country 

 has to complain of is absenteeism. The 

 upper class who ought to initiate and develop, 

 foster and encourage all that is good and pro- 

 gressive, would by their countenance and 

 expenditure be of the utmost service to the 

 country ; but all this is lost by their absence. 

 The very life blood — money — is drawn out of 

 the country ; it has no chance of circulation, 

 and the method of extraction often employed 

 by the landlord's representative, is of the 

 worst possible description. Much of the ill 

 temper and discontent of the agricultural 

 classes may be traced to this source — the 

 want of direct intercourse with those really 

 interested in their welfare, who would enter 

 into their wants, and understand their diffi- 

 culties, and whose connexion with them 

 would be something more genial. than the 

 icy grasp of an agent calculating on his 

 per centage. The large Irish proprietors find, 

 however, a more, to their taste, congenial 

 atmosphere in England and on the Continent 

 than at home. Fashion, too, may not have 

 been without its influence, or it may be that 

 out of Ireland more comfort and luxury 

 could be obtained for the same money for the 



