666 Domestic Notices : — Ireland. 



IRELAND. 



Ilcmcdies for existing Evils, — In the Monthly Magazine for October is 

 a valuable paper on the causes of the distressed and disturbed state of the 

 country. These causes are proved to be various, but the chief of them 

 obviously is the want of some system of providing for the poor. " Every 

 civilised state in the world, except Ireland, has prevented the extortion of 

 the landlords, by institutions, either springing from the nature of society, or 

 established by positive legal enactments." The writer proposes that govern- 

 ment should appoint a civil engineer for public works which may afford 

 productive employment, and that the overseers of parishes be empowered 

 to send any pauper on application, who has no occupation, to these works 

 for employment, and to charge his wages to the township or parish wherein 

 he was born. 



" There is a chain of three lakes in Galway very near one another — 

 Corib, Marsh, and Caira; by cutting a gallery 3,000 yards long through a 

 limestone rock between the first and second of those lakes, an interior na- 

 vigation of 50 miles would be opened up, and 1 7,000 acres of land now under 

 water would be drained. The cost of the gallery is estimated at 30,000/., 

 and the value of the land gained 330,000/. By removing the bar of the 

 Cashen River in Kerry, you open a navigation of 30 miles, and drain 200,000 

 acres of waste land. By removing a small impediment in the River of Lough 

 Gara, a large tract of submerged land would he gained. By removing the 

 bar of the Shannon at Athlone, you could drain a large tract of land at 

 Lough Ree." There are, no doubt, a variety of evils in Ireland, that would 

 probably require a variety of measures for their eradication ; but it is a re- 

 markable fact, as Mr. Nimmo, the celebrated engineer observed in his evidence 

 before the House of Commons, that Ireland is the only country in Europe, 

 where the landlords are not bound by law to take care of the poor. At 

 first sight it appears not a little singular that this seeming want of feeling 

 should exist among a people who are said to be " all heart;" but the fact 

 may be accounted for, from the circumstance of the landlords of Ireland 

 being for the greater part foreigners, residing in other countries. Be the 

 cause what it will, surely the fact of there being no provision for the poor 

 points out the justice of introducing the poor laws of England, with such 

 amendments as they may admit of or require. This is a very simple measure, 

 and we are convinced it would be of great service to the country in various 

 ways. It is the only effectual method of compelling landlords to reside on 

 their estates ; or of employing a very different description of agent from 

 what they are said to do at present. The very meetings of the vestries, 

 that would be necessary two or three times in every year for making assess- 

 ments, would do good, by the discussion it would create on individual and 

 general interests. The Irish peasantry suffer privations greater than those 

 of any peasantry in Europe, with a degrading degree of resignation ; and 

 this is the reason why nothing has hitherto been done for them. As it may 

 be expected, therefore, whatever is done will originate with England in her 

 own defence against the inundation of Irish labourers, and to lessen the 

 expense of keeping the country in subjection. It is clearly for the interest 

 of the Irish landlords to resist the establishment of poor-i-ates, as long as 

 the superfluous population on their estates can find employment in England 

 or elsewhere ; but the moment this ceases, it will be their interest to 

 establish a poor-rate. 



But a poor-rate system established in Ireland, though it will relieve 

 England, will do but little for the former country, unless it be joined to a 

 system of general education. When an Irish peasant knows that himself 

 and his offspring are sure of receiving support from the parish when it be- 

 comes necessary, he will be more regardless as to the number of children 

 which he may bi-ing into the world. In this as in every case, therefore, in 



