4 o LABOURING POOR. 



OPPRESSION. 



Before I conclude this article of the common labouring poor 

 in Ireland, I muft obferve, that their happinefs depends not 

 merely upon the payment of their labour, their cloaths, or 

 their food ; the fubordination of the lower claffes, degene- 

 rating into oppreffion, is not to be overlooked. The poor in 

 all countries, and under all governments, are both paid 

 and fed, yet is there an infinite difference between them in 

 different ones. This enquiry will by no means turn out fo fa- 

 vourable as the preceding articles. It muft be very apparent 

 to every traveller, through that country, that the labouring 

 poor are treated with har/hnefs, and are in all refpefts fo little 

 confidered, that their want of importarce feems a perfedt 

 centraft to their fituation in England, of which country, com- 

 paratively fpeaking, they reign the fovereigns. The age has 

 improved fo touch in humanity, that even the poor Irifh have 

 experienced its influence, and are every day treated better and 

 better ; but ftill the remnant of the old manners, the abomi- 

 nable diftinc\ion of religion, united with the oppreflive conduct 

 of the little country gentlemen, or rather vermin of the king- 

 dom, who never were out of it, altogether bear ftiil very hea- 

 vy on the poor people, and fubjeft them to fituationsmore mor- 

 tifying than we ever behold in England. The landlord of an 

 Irifh tttate, inhabited by Roman catholics, is a fort of defpot 

 who yields obedience in whatever concerns the poor, to no law 

 but that of his will. To difcover what the liberty of a peo- 

 ple is, we muft live among them, and not look for it in the 

 ftatutes of the realm : the language of written law may be that 

 of liberty, but the fituation of the poor may fpeak no language 

 but that of flavery j there is too much of this contradiction 

 in Ireland ; a long feries of oppreflions, aided by many very 

 ill judged laws, have brought landlords into a habit of ex- 

 erting a very lofty fuperiority, and their vaflals into that of an 

 Imoft unlimited fubmiffion : fpeaking a language that is delpif- 

 td, profeffing a religion that is abhorred, and being difarmed, 

 the poor find themielves in many cafes flaves even in the boiom 

 of written liberty. Landlords that have refided much abroad, 

 are ufually humane in their ideas, but the habit of tyranny 

 naturally contracts the mind, fo that even in this polifhed age, 

 there are inftances of a levere carriage towards the poor, which 

 is quite unknown in England. 



A landlord in Ireland can icarcely invent an order which a 

 fervant, labourer, or cottar dares to refufe to execute. Nothing 

 Satisfies him but an unlimited iubmiffion. Difreipedl or any 

 thing tending towards faucinefs he may punifh witk his cane 

 or his horfewhip with the moft perfect fecurity, a poor nan 

 would have his bones broke if he offered to lift his hand in his 



own 



