The Evening Star SATURDAY, MARCH 12, 1870

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2137, 12 March 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star SATURDAY, MARCH 12, 1870

The state of Ireland question at Home has caused a far more searching inquiry into the causes of discontent than has ever taken place before. This inquiry has not been set on foot by the Government. Commission after commission has been appointed for that purpose, just as each outcrop of discontent rendered government of the country somewhat difficult and perplexing; and it is a singular illustration of the futility of Government inquiries when not supplemented by general diffusion of the information gathered, that they

failed, as a rule, to effect change for the better. In order that real benefit may accrue through investigation, the information obtained must not be shut out from the people in unreadable Blue Books, surrounded with all the form and dryness of Parliamentary phraseology, but must be diffused in a popular and readable form, so that when measures founded upon it are proposed for adoption, they may bo supported by an intelligent popular approval. For ages past, perhaps evei since society was formed, until within the last twenty or thirty years, there has been an endeavor on the part of certain classes to monopolise information, in order that they may enjoy a monopoly of power. To this mistaken idea must be attributed the slow growth of political reforms. By degrees this reticence has been broken through, chiefly by the efforts of the Press, and what the Government cannot do, has been done for the people by the well-sup-ported newspapers of Great Britain. The Times, through its special commissioner, is doing more for the pacification of Ireland than the Government at Horae has been able to do since the Union. Almost every move, however good the intention, has until lately been made without that full comprehension of the rights conferred by custom that ought to have preceded legislation. In fact it is only since cessation from meddling with foreign politics has given statesmen the opportunity of turning attention to Home requirements, that the causes of popular discontent have been, investigated, under the conviction that those, who by resistance, gave evidence of been oppressed, really had a grievance to complain about. As is common in politics, every way but the right one was tried. Fifty years ago the British Constitution was looked upon as the height of perfection—a model on which to base every other, and it was with some surprise that it was found, on attempting to reproduce it, in some of its most boasted features in some of the Continental States, it would not work. On the same principle, in Ireland, it was sought to introduce those customs and practices which were found to work well in Great Britain. Under the Encumbered Estates Act, a vast amount of property came into the possession of English landlords. Having purchased the land, they assumed the right to deal with the estates in the same manner as landed estates are conducted in England. But they were met with opposition they had not calculated upon. The tenants there claimed a vested interest in the soil as well as the landlords, and when they were evicted asserted their rights by agrarian outrage and assassinations. Landlords and their stewards have since that time been engaged in a contest for the mastery, and murder and reprisals are the mournful evidence of the folly of legislation preceding inquiry. Through the efforts of the Times' Commissioner the truth is now made public, and however Fenianism, Whiteboyism, and the other isms which designate the organisations of Irishmen in opposition to the law, may be condemned, when the value of the tenant-right is considered, there is no wonder that the tenantry are not willing to relinquish it. In the twenty-third article of the Times' Commissioner he thus describes the value of it in Londonderry : Londonderry is eminently a tenant-right county, and the custom, in a greater or less degree, affects probably nearly all estates in it. The value, moreover, of the right, is decidedly higher than in Fermanagh, either because it was once more thoroughly recognised, or because, as I suspect, the Londonderry farmers, being wealthier th n their Fermanagh brethren, raise the price by a keener competition ; and it ranges here, I think, on an average of from five to twenty years’ rent, say from £6 to £24 the Irish acre Viewed as an existing fact of society, tenant-right really all but assures security of tenure to its possessor; and, whatever landlords may think to tho contrary, it gives a tenant, according to its value, an indefinite partnership in the soil, or at least an indefinite charge on it. When the custom of a district declares that an occupier of land has an interest in it which, even though it fluctuates in amount, is substantial and can be bought and sold, and when it condemns every breach of this usage, it is evident that a tenant will be seldom disturbed, that he has a positive hold on his farm, and that, practically, he has a share of some kind beyond his tenure in the fee-simple. The Irish land question would form a useful study to members of the House of Representatives and Provincial Council. If they could divest themselves of those foregone conclusions arrived at after very imperfect investigation, and very limited experience and with unbiassed minds examine the principles on which land should be occupied to the advantage of a community, they '.’ould be better prepared than they are to legislate upon a matter of such importance.