188 



DICKSON ON THE ADVANTAGE Oi" 



could be f permanently improved/ and not 6 his property 

 in Ireland,' and that in my plain but respectful method of 

 addressing noblemen and gentlemen in a higher sphere of life, 

 and I did not even hint at a desire to gain his ' confidence,' 

 more than to find my letter might lead to a civil answer, and 

 desire for more information on the subject, but the exposure of 

 the awful consequences of such an amount of misery on one pro- 

 perty was a sore place to touch, and there is in the reply such a 

 thorough want of Christian feeling for the unfortunate tenants of 

 the marquis, and the 7,300 inmates in the Tralee workhouse, 

 that I cannot but contrast the 'Lansdowne politeness' with 

 the letters I received from the late lamented Lord Cloncurry, 

 which will be found at the end of this book ; also letters from 

 Lord Bernard, the Earl of Gainsborough, and Earl Clan- 

 carty, to whom I had w 7 ritten in the same strain and for a 

 similar purpose. The most charitable view that I can take 

 of the letter is to suppose that he (if he knew the contents) 

 was suffering from an attack of the gout, the pains of which 

 made him irritable, for I feel certain that, if he in more com- 

 posed moments thought of the Downshire estate, and the 

 Bownshire workhouse, and the cause of its few inmates, his 

 letter would not have been so worded ; however, as by such 

 4 local superintendence' there was the thousands I stated to be 

 in starvation, it is now to be hoped that the present marquis 

 will lend a hand to the Flax movement in Tralee, as I observe 

 a Flax company has been started there, with a view to do 

 that which I was the advocate of thirteen years ago, for the 

 mutual benefit of the Marquis of Lansdowne and his tenants, 

 Property has its duties as well as its rights, and if absentee 

 owners of Irish estates will not try to keep up in the march 

 of improvement with those noble owners who live amongst 

 their people, they must be prepared to hear of it, through the 

 public press, if a civil and respectful letter, such as I wrote 

 the marquis, be treated in a rude and offensive manner. 



