A Praitica! Vici^ of ihc Irish Land Question 



329 



to something more. What is Hfe if you can- 

 not enjoy it ? Hence labour is always looked 

 upon as the last shift for existence. It is 

 this getting into harness that our modern 

 condition demands, which is so irksome to 

 the volatile character of the feet. Employ- 

 ment is looked upon as nothing short of 

 slavery, and the employer in the light of an 

 oppressor of his race. 



To imagine for a moment that there is not 

 plenty of capital in the country for the em- 

 ployment of the lower class is simply absurd. 

 The deposits in our banks, the sales in the 

 Encumbered Estates Court, or the amount to 

 be realized any day by the sale of the interest 

 in a good farm, clearly shew a contrary state 

 of things. It is rather that labour has con- 

 trolled capital. A steamboat company, a new 

 bank, or any similar undertaking, readily 

 draws attention and secures investors. Why 

 is not it so with the land ? Some say, and 

 not without reason, that a good Tenant-Right 

 measure would unlock this capital and set us 

 to work developing our agricultural resources. 

 I am not altogether of this opinion. Before 

 capital can be successfully employed, more 

 skill, more industry, and more Jumesty 

 of purpose, will have to be developed 

 amongst our labouring classes. It is through 

 their hands the capital must pass, and if 

 they are not disposed to give a fair day's 

 Avork for a fair day's wage, despite all 

 legislation upon the subject of Tenant-Right, 

 capital will remain unemployed, and instead 

 of Ireland being a home for our people, 

 they will have to seek their fortunes else- 

 where. Any man who has been an em- 

 ployer of labour here is fully alive to the 

 difficulties he has to deal with, and hundreds 

 who, with capital and a knoAvledge of their 

 business, and close personal attention, have 

 attempted the reclamation of land and farm- 

 ing have abandoned it, finding that from 

 neglect, idleness, and want of i)rinciple 

 amongst their labourers, anything like profit 

 or ordinary control is out of the question. 

 Our American connexion has created a spirit 

 of dissatisfaction, and Ireland, instead of being 

 looked upon as a home, is by many regarded 

 merely as a stepping-stone to the land of the 



west. The labourer cares little about his 

 character for skill or industry, expecting, from 

 day to day, either the tide of events to turn 

 in his favour should he remain, or a re- 

 mittance from America. To know his busi- 

 ness, or obtain the good wishes and con- 

 fidence of his master, is a matter of 

 indifference, and instead of instructing his 

 children in obedience, and endeavouring to 

 implant in them a desire to learn and 

 make themselves useful members of society, 

 carelessness and neglect are rather fostered 

 and approved, and the evening's conversation 

 is more frequently devoted to lamenting over 

 the hardships and troubles of the day, than 

 to any identification of their OAvn interest with 

 that of their employers. From all classes of 

 employers I come in contact with, I hear the 

 same complaint : that the labourer is neither 

 disposed to learn nor perform his work. It 

 is this tone amongst the lower classes which 

 has nipped in the bud many attempts at 

 development made by energetic and enter- 

 prizing men, and we see the consequence in 

 the almost universal buttoning up of the 

 pockets of those who have anything to spend. 

 This has done more to check progress in the 

 country than anything else. In no kind of 

 work is an employer so much at the mercy of 

 his labourers as in agriculture. His business 

 being spread over a large area, precludes that 

 amount of supervision afforded in more 

 circumscribed avocations, whilst the sub- 

 stances to be dealt with are generally of 

 a highly perishable nature from the weather 

 and other causes. Therefore, neglect or in- 

 attention by those employed, or the loss of an 

 opportunity, influences the result in a most 

 marked degree. Nor is it to be wondered at 

 that difficulties such as these present them- 

 selves (difficulties of our own making, and 

 from which the country has been suffering 

 for the past ten years), when instead of 

 obedience to the laws and a knowledge of 

 our wants being inculcated, we find that the 

 press and the altar have omitted no occasion 

 to pander to the prejudices of the lowest class, 

 and have succeeded in instilling into them 

 hatred of all law and order. In England 

 there is innate obedience to the law ; here we 



