at five shocking slaughters. But, like many other reformers, he had deluded himself, in his ferocity, into a belief that he was in life a patriot, and in death a martyr. Bulls driven mad even by the echoes of their own bellowing among the mountains, gallop about with swarthy eyes, seeking something human to toss and trample; and Redmond was just such another, a mad bull-as bloody and as bestial; for though no goad had happened to enter deep into his own flesh, he had learned to bellow; yet were there sounds to madden him besides the echoes of those he himself had made, for the air of all his native region was alive with

curses.

Murders perpetrated by your Redmonds, and other vulgar villains, though sometimes, as in the case of the Sheas, (and is not Wild-gooselodge now a dismal sound?) very comprehensive, belong to the retaildealers in such commodities; but, when "a landlord, writing from London or Paris, directs his agent to eject ten, twenty, or thirty industrious families, from their little farms, on which they and their forefathers were reared," he, beyond all question is, and therefore we call him so your wholesale dealer in murder.

66

We wish Mr Bicheno were with us on the poor's laws; he is with us on most we have said about the "bad relation between landlord and tenant." "The landlords in Ireland do not," he says, " understand their business, which is to cultivate a good understanding with their tenantry." English landlords do this; and their dignity and consequence are upheld by a respectable and numerous tenantry, to whom, when in distress, his generosity remits a portion of rent, and treats with such kindness, that he comes even to command their opinions." True and good; but in Ireland, he says, there are no such feelings, "all the landlord looks to there is the improvement of his income, and the quantity of rent he can abstract." True and bad. In what secret and undisturbed corner of their breasts then, we ask, reside "the charitable dispositions of the rich," which Mr Bicheno fears might be deadened or destroyed by a legal

provision for the poor? Is the landlord at once greedy and generous, callous and pitiful? Does he with the one hand "abstract the greatest quantity of rent," and with the other perform "the virtuous exercise of the social feelings?" His mind between the two must be in a queer puzzlement; and in his quandary he will be apt to violate the Christian injunction, not to let the "right hand know what the left is doing."

Provision by law must therefore be made for the poor in Ireland. Can the absentee Irish landlords utter a syllable against such a provision, on the score of injustice? If they do, they must be hissed and hooted dumb. Will the resident? Many, we solemnly believe, will not; not, if the cause of the Irish poor be taken up, heart and hand, by England. England may have done Ireland wrong; now she seeks to right her; not by Coercive Bills alonenot by Church Spoliation Bills-but by Faith, Hope, and Charity, sent by Justice on a mission of Mercy. She would fain see done for her, what in similar circumstances was done for herself by one of the wisest of her own monarchs, and by the wisest of her own statesmen.

In the net annual produce of the soil there is a fund from which the legislature ought to authorize the Government to levy a tax in the shape of a poor's rate; the application of which to labour would soon change the aspect of things, and in progress of time, by the prodigious impulse that would be given to the whole energies of the people, would "scatter plenty over a smiling land."

We have seen of what materials the pauper population is composed; and how-that is, on what and by whom-at present it is fed. It does not subsist wholly-though in great part-on air; but it devours potatoes and water. Frequently when obliged to "rough it," it eats land and sea refuse-and it is wonderful for how long it can get on uponnothing. At bridals, often is there no richer fare than" potatoes and point;" and at funerals the salt lies untasted on the breast of the corpse. Yet, would you believe it, such maintenance even as this is too expensive for the country's means? Different calculations give different amounts;

but the cost cannot be far short of two millions. Call it one-and you have a grievous and an iniquitous tax. The more it is, the more crying the necessity that it should be removed; the less it is, the easier will it be found to supply its place by such means and modes as may seem to give some indications that we are not living in an utterly barbarous age, and without any government.

It is proposed, then, by means specified, to set all this countless multitude of bodies, legs, and arms, now idle, or worse than idle, to work; and it is hoped, that thereby may be fed, more cheaply and more copiously, all that countless multitude of mouths. Suppose that the tax-the poor's rate-raised double the amount of what is now thus expended on this miserable multitude-say three millions of money-and that the value of the work done was but one-half of that-then are the people employed no worse off, but better, because employed, than before-and there is nowhere any loss. But suppose the labour set a-going by the three million as productive in Ireland, as it would be in Scotland or in England; and what then?

Now the truth is-and in the face of such evidence as has been given, nobody has been found so audacious as directly to deny it-that millions on millions might be employed in Ireland, on labour that would be infinitely more productive than in any other part of the United Kingdom.

We should like to have a look at the man who, with the Parliamentary Reports in his hands, directly denied this; but there are still wiseacres among us who insist that capital-as it is called-always finds employment for itself-and the very best employment too-and that nothing can be done by legislature or government, but 'tis the old story-to let capital alone-and it will work at will its own wonders. This is just saying, that whatever any and every man voluntarily does with his own is the best possible-not only for himself-but for his country-and for the human race. The pleasant Optimists!

ment alone can or will turn capital there-by a compulsory provisionand other means-into productive employment-whereby capital shall create capital-not beyond the uncertain dreams of vain and ignorant imagination-but up to the settled and splendid visions of calmest and wisest reason.

It has been often said, and will, we daresay, be often said again, that whatever is given by the possessors of property to the maintenance of the poor is just so much deducted from a capital that would be otherwise employed in productive labour, and thus is there just so much loss of the country's wealth. The truth of this depends upon many lies— and especially on these two suppositions-that the poor thus maintained do nothing-and secondly, that they are in themselves of less worth than beasts. If they cannot work, it would be somewhat unreasonable to require that they should; and as they are not positively put to death, nor yet generally permitted to perish, they are somehow or other maintained! if they can, it would be equally unreasonable not to make them tackle to; and unless we greatly mistake, such is the object at present in view. But should that object not be fully attained-or rather should such labour not furnish an equiva lent for its support, bave they no such claim on the capital of Christians as that loudly urged, and cheerfully granted, by studs of horses and packs of hounds? The labour of those animals is productive of much pleasure, but of no provender-for the fox, though he is fond of poultry, and likewise of lambs, is supported at less per sonal expense than the hound that kills him, or the hunter that is in at the death. Ali the foxes, however, are supported by the landed interest-besides other items-at the expense of all the horses and all the hounds; and it is not for us, who are no very skilful arithmeticians, to say how many Irishmen might live luxuriously on the best of potatoes, mealy or waxy, at the cost of one old dogfox.

It would be much nearer the truth to say in the case of Ireland-that the rule of action has been just the reverse of all this; and that govern

But supposing we have not put this according to the principles of political economy-Dr Doyle surely has-" if the rich encourage arts and agriculture by useless and luxurious

consumption; if the capital thus expended by them be not withdrawn from productive labour, how can it be said that the food and raiment furnished to the pauper is a draw back from the resources of the country? We may import spices from the East, and extract gems from the depths of the ocean; we may collect, for our amusement, the beasts of the earth, the fowls of the air, and the fishes of the sea; we may gratify all our appetites, whether regular or unruly; we may expend upon the idle, the fractious, and the profane, the fruit of labour, and the products of industry, without trenching upon the capital to be employed in productive labour; but if, from our excesses and fictitious wants, we deduct a mite for the widow, or a crust for the orphan, industry will perish and the state decay!"

The Doctor is here speaking of the poor who do not, because they cannot, work; and his argument is conclusive; but we speak of the poor who can and will work, and for them there is no need of any argument at all. "The poor's rate, it is true," he says, "will not be sown in the ground, and the food and raiment given to the pauper will not increase and multiply" but the shillela is laid aside for fairs and patterns-firearms fall into rusty desuetude-and pickaxes, and spades, and shovels, and gavelocks, and scythes, and sickles are flourishing in all directions, far more beautifully than in any row that ever did honour to wake or funeral.

"absorbed," and generously made a present in perpetuity of themselves in land worth 30s. per acre rent to their benefactors thus enriched by their judicious kindness to the poor. There is gratitude. Rivers? Nature has made them magnificent-let art make them useful, and then poet and political economist and patriot may all equally rejoice in the beautiful country from source to sea. Sea? Of what other island have the coasts, iron-bound or emeraldcased, been indented by the sleepless and scientific surges, into such calm and capacious bays and harbours, where all the navies of the world might ride ? And shall such rivers, but" for want of a shallow here and there being deepened, or a pier built," still flow through" districts poor and barbarous," "cut off from all means of communication with markets and civilisation," while a million of men are crying-" give us work or we die?" Shall such seas in vain thunder or whisper in our ears to turn to blessing "the respiration of the tides," in vain stretch out their arms to bear all our floating industry out upon the broad bosom of the bountiful deep?

All this of which we have been speaking is now-waste. Could capital, then, be got-and to get it, it is not necessary to be able to say what it is-there is labour enough and to spare, ready to execute, and work to do which, when done, would be wealth. "I consider," says Mr Wiggins, "that in no part of these islands can capital be so profitably employed as in Ireland, under its present circumstances-certainly not in England or Wales." "I scarcely know any place in Ireland," says Mr Hardy, "where the investment of capital, judiciously laid out, would not produce a profit far beyond the interest of the money expended." "I am decidedly of opinion," says Dr Doyle, "that a quantity of capital, such as I would hesitate to name, might be profitably expended, both in the improvement of the lands now enclosed, and in the reclaiming lands now waste." "There is," says Mr Ensor, "scarcely any field that is cultivated as it ought to be." "In consequence," says Mr Williams, "of the sum of L.167,000, being expended by Mr Nimmo, in Connaught

Employment for capital and labour! What-must we at this time of day paint a Picture of Ireland? We humbly decline doing so; but may mention the millions of fertile acres lying yet uncleared-through which, were solid and liquid roads to go straight as arrows or sinuous as serpents, we should soon see a new world of wealth. Bogs, in which whole armies might sink; why are they not firm plains of green pasJurage or yellow corn? They would pay. They have promised-they have sworn to do so-and hitherto have always kept their oaths. In a very few years all those that under cultivation pledged their faith to repay its cost, have redeemed it; they justly returned the capital they had

alone, in seven years, the increase of the annual revenue to Government has since been equal to the whole of that expenditure. In the Cork district, Mr Griffiths, the Government engineer, expended L.60,000 in seven years; and the increase of Government revenue in customs and excise has been L.50,000 a-year," and all this chiefly from increasing facilities for a profitable interchange of producecoal, turf, manure of all sorts, slates, bricks, lime, building-stone, timber, potatoes, and other provisions. The whole of this produce, observes Mr Scrope, which must be presumed to bear the proportion of at least ten to one in annual value to the revenue collected upon it, must be considered in the light of a new creation, called into existence on these spots in a few years by the judicious outlay of a comparatively insignificant capital.

We have seen that the present annual provision for the poor in Ireland is estimated by Dr Doyle at a million and a half-by Mr Wilmot Horton at three millions. Were by far the greater part of that vast sum employed under a poor's law-on ablebodied men, each tearing away like tigers at such productive work as we have been speaking of, instead of being given to them merely to keep them alive in idle indigence, would it not be for the benefit of Ireland? Could you count the capital that would be thereby created in fifty years?

in the best way possible, it would be absurd to tax them as proposed; but you cannot believe that, without disbelieving all you have ever seen, heard, or read of Ireland, and declaring yourself a universal sceptic. You must, in other words, be a goose, and in rainy weather ought always to stand on one leg.

Suppose that no relief at all were given to the landholders-to those who at present suffer-but that they continued to pay, as they now do, the whole; under regulation they would at least get something for their money; but it is proposed that the half should be paid by the landowners. Noman in his senses holds Mr M'Culloch's doctrine about absenteeism. Now, these gentry spend all their income, and some of them contrive to spend a good deal more, out of Ireland-to the amount-it is believed-of some three millions. A poor's rate sends back, or keeps part of it, to be employed as capitaland were they taxed double, it could hardly be called unjust. But perhaps that could not be effected. If you believe that the resident landowners now spend all their incomes

We have heard it seriously recommended, as the only way to improve the condition of the Irish people, to cultivate and encourage in them a taste for better living-that is, board and lodging, and dress. It seems to us that it would be injudicious to do so-nay, inhumane. They would be very unhappy, were they to lose their taste for potatoes, and acquire one for animal food, without being able to gratify it but by killing their only pig, perhaps enceinte; their hovels have been long little better than styes, but many thousands of them have been swept away, and the poor creatures think that they were little palaces, now that they know not where to lay their heads; in their "loop'd and window'd raggedness" they are not ripe for the pride of apparel. It seems to us far from paradoxical to say, that if there had been for the last half-century few absentees-and if the landowners-the nobility and gentry-had acted on something like the same principles as those of England-it would have been, in the nature of things, impossible that cattle and corn could have been annually exported to the value of not a few millions of money-while not a few millions of human mouths remained unacquainted with flesh-meat and meal, and conversant but with one subterraneous root. The nobility and gentry would not have allowed it; and there would in all such matters have been a very respectable standard of taste. Nay, whether they would have been willing to allow it or not, it could not have been; for when society is in a natural state, there cannot be one law for the rich and another law for the poor. An enlightened and resident nobility and gentry, and a dark and destitute tenantry, were never, we venture to say, seen even in Dream-land. The population of Ireland would, in our opinion, have been far greater than it now is; it would have been prosperous; and yet the resources of the

country seen inexhaustibly opening out for an increase of happier and happier numbers.

But the nobility and gentry of Ireland have not done their duty. They must be compelled to do it; they must be taxed, that the character and condition of the people they have unnaturally neglected may be raised from pitiable and shameful degradation-or rather, that the people may be enabled by their own labour to raise their character and condition for themselves.

There would soon be plenty of capital; it would then be borrowed in all the stock-markets of Europe, on security of the cultivated soil of one of the richest islands in the world, then enjoying the strange visitation of peace. Ay-all blessing and all power are in that one word-peace. A few millions are all that is wanted to begin with--and they are to be had for a word. There are the men-there are the wastes-if wastes they may be called-which we know can in a few years defray the cost of cultivation-and endless other employment for productive labour beside. So far from being Utopian, the plan proposed is one of pounds, shillings, and pence, proved by experience to be practicable, and to be carried into execution by the selfsame machinery that has every where else in the civilized world been employed to improve the condition of

man.

We have been told by some that this is purely an Irish question. But that is not true. It is a question affecting all the British dominions-it is a question of humanity. But, view ed in the simplest light, how does it directly affect England? A population of eight millions, afflicted by direst poverty, sends annually across many bridges numerous starving bands to assist in her agriculture. In her present condition, we cannot believe that such an influx of labour

ers, whose wages at home, when they have any, are, on the average of a year, not more than fourpence a-day, can be for good. But wiser persons than we pretend to be, think it may be so-so let that pass. All agree, however, that the permanent settlement in England, of an immense number of Irish immigrants, is a sore national calamity; and most now believe that the evil can be stopt only by the establishment of a poor's law in Ireland. Some, indeed, think -and there will always be a few fools to think any thing-that the better off the Irish are in their own country, the readier will they be to leave it. Certain it is, that the amount of the poor's rates in England is

raised by this one cause-operating directly and indirectly-nearly two millions; so that England and Ireland together now pay four millions at least on account of Irish poor-a far greater sum than what any body has ever dreamt would be required, (except those who talk about the absorption of the whole rental,) were there a poor's law for Ireland to set to work at home, and in the beneficial way described, all her unemployed population.

Long as this article is, we have but opened the question. We know that it is one of great difficulty, and that it will need all the wisdom of the legislature to bring it to a satisfactory settlement. We shall hear something, we suppose, of the opinions of Ministers, when Mr Richards brings it before the House. They have told us indeed that they do not intend to propose any measures respecting it this session; and it would perhaps be unreasonable to expect they should; but surely they must be preparingmaturing-some in their mighty minds; and after they have disposed of the Church of England in Ireland, and in England, they will be more at leisure to legislate for the poor of both countries.