THOUGHTS, &c.

THE state of Ireland is at present such as muststrike alarm into all who are not utterly regardless of the interests of the Empire. Some time since it might have been a matter of curiosity and speculation to inquire into the causes which have continued to retard this unhappy country in the progress of civilisation, while surrounding nations have proceeded, some of them rapidly, most of them, if slowly, yet steadily on their way. Strange it must have appeared, and well worth the examination of persons fond of studying the history of mankind, that a country, closely contiguous and subject to England, that is, to a nation more remarkable for its rapid advancement from barbarism to the very height of refinement, than perhaps any other in ancient or modern days, should have remained, for centuries, stationary or retrograde, with such an example and such a ruler. Unfortunately for Ireland, and for England too, these enquiries have occupied more the attention of the student and the antiquary, than of the politician and the statesman. But time, which is usually the dispenser of justice as well as the teller of truth, has produced events, that demand of every plain, practical man, who desires to see the British Empire freed from a perpetual internal distemper, to turn his most serious reflection to the condition of this country. I have thought it may be not wholly without use, to offer to the public some observations on its present state, which I have had frequent opportunities of making, and which may lead to an acquaintance with the causes of the present disturbances. It is not my design to revert to past times. This would be wholly inconsistent with the scope and the length

of this performance. A full, accurate, and comprehensive view of the subject cannot, indeed, be obtained without an acquaintance with the history of those times; but persons who have not taste or leisure for such a study, may learn enough without it, to form a notion, not quite inadequate, of the nature and origin of these shocking transactions, which we cannot read or think of without horror and dismay.

Many of the causes which have concurred to produce this state of things, are as obvious as they are lamentable. Every one speaks of the Irish tithe-proctor and middleman; of the poverty of the peasant, and the rapacity of the landlord; of the absentees who drain the country of its wealth; of the agent's oppression, and his employer's apathy. All the tourists who have visited the country, and written on what they have or have not seen; all the writers who have affected to give the most scanty information respecting its condition, unite in urging these topics. My purpose is to state what I have myself known and witnessed. In doing so, I may repeat what has been said, and said often, before; but in political inquiries plagiary is not always a fault. On the contrary, a coincidence of what we advance with the statements and opinions of others, serves, if these be well founded, to fortify and establish our

own.

Before examining the condition of the lower orders in the Southern Districts, (the main object in these pages,) it will not be amiss to take a view of the general state of society in those quarters, and of the different classes of which it is composed.

1. The great landed proprietors, it is well known, do not form a large proportion of the Irish resident gentry. Yet it is a mistake to suppose, that all, or much the greater number, are altogether absentees. Many live entirely upon their estates, and many return to their country seats, as in England, after an occasional absence. True it is, that they return only to collect funds which may enable them again to absent themselves from the country. Still their appearance might diffuse some of those benefits, however inferior in extent, which attend the country residence, even for a season, of the great proprietors in England. But wide is the difference between this class in Ireland and the same rank of persons in the sister country. There the landed proprietor enters actively into all the public business of the district which surrounds him. Its local relations, its wants, its capacities; the impediments that may repress, and the means that may develop and advance them, are known to him. He is a magistrate, and not an idle one. He is inquisitive to learn what breaches of the laws take place, what loose and disorderly spirits may be abroad. He mixes, he con

verses with all from whom these valuable but by no means obvious points of information can be derived. In short, living in private, in the bosom of his family and tenantry, he is still a public man. The result of all this is a knowledge as complete as it is possible for a person to obtain, who does not sacrifice his whole time to such a pursuit, of the condition, temper, real and pressing, or factious and imaginary grievances of the lower classes of his neighbors. It is a truth, to be lamented indeed, but not to be doubted, that, speaking generally, not of course universally, in most, if not in all these points, it is the reverse in Ireland. Exceptions there are undoubtedly; but I speak here of the general character of the large landed proprietors, and I affirm that, for the most part, they are not acquainted with the real situation of their peasantry. And why is it, that in the midst of a dense population, they should be in a great measure ignorant of its temper, habits, and condition? What is the secret spell, that opens to the English country-gentleman the mysterious movements of society? The desire to know them. He is not satisfied with a hearsay tale, invented or exaggerated; neither does he take up certain general dogmas, which he is afterwards too proud or too indolent to examine. He does not consider it offensive to his dignity to hear his opinion disputed or canvassed, because he wishes to inquire, and not to dictate; because he knows that the first means of obtaining information from others, is to appear, at least, as if we acknowledged that their information may be of use to us. When he goes amongst his friends, or meets individuals of any class, the state of his own neighborhood, by a sort of tacit convention grown up in most companies out of town, forms a chief and interesting topic of conversation. In his morning rides or walks, the same subject is attractive from the lips of the humblest; he listens, he compares, he reflects. There is no haughty check, no cold indifferent remark, no careless disregard in demeanor. The landlord-the magistrate-in short, the English country-gentleman is alive to all his duties; and they give him no trouble, bceause they form his occupation and his enjoyment. In the Irish proprietor, however, it is not always an indifference to the situation of the peasantry; nor a supercilious dislike to an irksome subject; nor a proud confidence in an opinion hastily adopted and obstinately cherished; nor a spirit of indolent repose, satisfied with the profits of a large estate, and careless of the duties attached to it, that prevents his attaining the knowledge by which alone those duties can be adequately discharged. Something must be ascribed to the general state of Irish society as it affects this subject. To whatever cause it may be owing, there is, in every class but his own, and sometimes too

among them, a dislike or a fear, to offer to a great man any thing in the shape of dispute, or even of advice. Persons of respectability and independence in point of fortune will study the character of a superior; will adjust their deportment and accommodate their language to what they conceive to be his humors and opinions, in a manner scarcely to be believed in persons of their station; and this often without interested views, but merely to acquire, or to preserve, the honor of the great man's acquaintance. From such individuals he is not likely to learn much information. If his opinions, whether on general subjects, or on those relating to his immediate vicinity, or even as to particular and indifferent facts, are once known, these opinions, instead of being corrected if they are wrong, will be confirmed. The conversation he hears will tend to a coincidence with his views, because that is deemed most pleasing. In fact, the cause of this temper of society, and it pervades all ranks in some degree down to the very lowest, in their behavior towards those above them, is deep laid and of long standing. In no country on earth has there been such an awe of power on the one hand, and on the other such a disposition to abuse it. I speak with reference to individuals, not to bodies when they act in concert, for it is the nature of association to banish fear. These two principles are indeed necessarily united; great power, accompanied by an excessive use of it, if it does not rouse resistance, naturally produces servility in those who do not possess it. From the earliest time power in this country has been excessive, and has been abused. It was so before the English set their feet upon the Island; and the disposition, certainly, has not been since diminished. In a nation where competence is wealth, great property must give great power, and that servile respect to it diffused into the habits and modes of thinking and feeling in society, exists, even where the disgraceful spirit and conduct may be absent which were originally instrumental in producing it. Hence it is, that a person of high rank will seldom learn the truth, unless (and surely in any country that is not a frequent case) he be one of those who can guard against the complaisance of flattery, and wrest truth from the disguise in which artful servility would clothe it.

But though the possession of property may not be attended by an abuse of the power which it confers, yet the principle to which I have referred operates in creating that aristocratic pride, arising from conscious power, and heightened by all those circumstances which give it such peculiar force in Ireland, and more perhaps than any other, by that very awe which it inspires. In no case are men more averse to any mode of behavior or course of conduct than when they consider it a descent from their station. The selflove of the individual is here abetted by the esprit de corps. The

circumstances, therefore, which render the great Irish landed proprietor one of an exclusive and an exalted class, forbid and deter from that familiar intercourse with those beneath him, without which the real state of the lowest and most numerous orders cannot possibly be known. It is a remark, apparently inconsistent, but undeniably true, that one person may pass a whole life in a country, more ignorant of it than another who has seen it but for a few weeks. Such must be the case, where there is neither inquiry nor reflection. The observation of men, their institutions, habits, tempers, condition, and sometimes even of the actual events that take place openly among them, cannot be made if the mind be passive. The Irish gentleman or nobleman may reside from year to year on his estates; he may be on friendly terms with those of his own class, and even with some who are in a rank below him; he may contribute largely to agricultural societies, and other institutions of public benefit, and sometimes, perhaps, attend their meetings; he may be occasionally on the grand jury, and go so far as to be sheriff of the county: yet, if he does not in his private circle inquire, compare, and consider, he may know little more of his own country, and particularly of the lower orders, than what he or any one else can learn from the newspapers. In fact, such a person never comes in contact with the people. His rents are collected by his agent, often a resident in Dublin or some other town, performing the same services for several others, and acting as general land-agent. His estates lie scattered in different quarters of the country, distant from his residence, and some of them he never sees. When new leases are granted, the business is done by his agent. If application for land happens to be made to himself in person, he refers to his agent. If persons on his estate are about to establish a dispensary for the poor, or engage in any other public scheme, and apply to the lord of the soil for patronage or assistance, still the agent is referred to. In short, whatever be the subject, public or private, relating to his property and those over whom it gives him influence or control, he can seldom determine it without consulting an individual, often as ignorant as he is himself of the matter on which he presumes to advise; sometimes an interested and a prejudiced party. Can it be a subject of surprise, that such a landlord, who is afraid to trust his own judgment as to the wants and feelings of his own tenantry, and dislikes or disdains to examine them, should be ignorant of the condition of the peasantry at large? or is it strange, that when violent commotions agitate his district, he should be lost and bewildered in imagining the cause? Can we wonder, that when tumults arise among a fierce and crowded population, whose character he does not understand, he should try to shift from himself the management of