CLEARANCES ON THE DERBY ESTATES, IRELAND.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XII, Issue 744, 24 December 1859, Page 3

CLEARANCES ON THE DERBY ESTATES, IRELAND.

Dublin, Friday, Sept. 16.

The 'Londonderry Standard/ an influential organ of the northern Presbyterian body, has the following severe comments upon the uncontradicted report of Lord Derby's intention to effect'a wholesale clearance of the Tenantry on the Doon estates in Tipperary:—

" This manifesto of lord Derby is just an embodiment of one of the worst and most iniquitous of the famous Downshire resolutions, which, during Ihe.late Tory ascendancy in the direction of State affairs, were to have been carried at the great hndiord meeting appointed to be held in the Dublin Uotundo. Public opinion, and the indignant reaction got up by the Liberal landed proprietors Uiroughout Ireland, dafeatfd this insolent conspiracy ; but its authors publicly boasted that all their leading positions had received the hanction of the Derbyite authorities at the Castle of Dublin. We hesitated to receive this assertion, deeming it incredible that men of intelligence, of humanity, and especially of Christian education—however extreme their political Toryism—could put forth propositions so utterly monstrous as those contained in Lord Downshire's programme. If the Earl of Derby shall not in some" form or other officially contradict the enormity attributed to him by the ' Clonmel Chronicle,' the public will be forced to believe that, after all, the Downshire conspirators were playing no mere game of ' brag' when they boasted about the sympathetic help of the Derbyite Government in the establishment of a landlord (reign of terror' in Ireland, placing the whole country under curfew and military law, at the fiat of a central club of squireens, rent-collectors, and crowbar drivers. If Lord Derby really intends to act upon the notice which his Clonmel organ says has been served upon the people, of Doon, it cannot be difficult to conjecture the sort of Tenant Eight Bill which he and his colleagues, had they remained in power, would have bestowed upon the cultivators of the soil! It is a precious kind of tenant protection which daringly proclaims its right to sweep 500 innocent individuals off the face of their native land, merely because one, or two, or possibly three villains, who can keep their own secrets, may be resident within certain boundaries. British law lays it down as a maxim that 10 guilty wretches should rather escape unpunished than that one innocent man should wrongfully suffer. The direct contrary is Lord Derby's interpretation of British justice—in Ireland. But now what have the Ultramontane ' Independent Opposition ' patriots, not k only in Tipperary been doing? Surely, when a whole "community are to be rooted but, for no crime except that of not having been companions of murderers, unacquainted therefore with the secrets of the latter, and consequently unable to win blood money otherwise than by committing perjury, the Ultramontane ' Independent Opposition' patriots, not only in Tipperary, but also throughout the south, will be up in oratorical battle array for the purpose of saving the people's lives, and of denouncing the Tory premier before the civilised world? Not a bit of it? with the exception of a short paragraph in the ' Nation,' expressing astonishment at the transaction, and directing attention to it, the organs of that party have been tranquil, and the party itself has been at least meditating upon the chances of a new Tory alliance. Mr. McGuire, M.P., has deemed it necessary to assure the public that no Tory capital for the next session is to be made out of his projected meeting of Irish representatives on the sectarian education question, though some of the English Tories appear to hold another opinion; and, even in Ireland, Mr. McGuire may tell his story to the ' marines/if he pleases. Still, as we have said, all is quiet in the south—not a single ' indignation' meeting is hinted, and for a very sufficient reason too: were Lord Derby's threatened proceedings duly 'shown up,' certain noted 'patriots' must 'show' themselves up at the same time, for the desperate fidelity with which they have been laboring for the establishment of a Derby-Tory ascendancy in the administrative councils of the British empire! It is marvellous, too, that this same disinterested faction should so long have permitted Lord Derby's Tipperary landlordism to pass without animadversion."

The Deny paper then proceeds to give the annexed information with regard to the management of the estimates in question :— "It is, we believe, a fact that ever since the famine years not a single lease which has expired upon the noble earl's Tipperary estate has been renewed to an Irish tenant, the lapsed holdings having been invariably given to tenants from England, with one exception, to be presently noticed. This exception occurred in the case of the late Dr. Heflernan, who, it is understood, obtained from Lord 1 erby a renewed lease, while every other Irish tenant, whether Protestant or Komaii Catholic, Liberal or Tory, has been steadily refused that privilege during the period mentioned. This is our information respecting the management of Lord Derby's property in Tipporary, and it may bo reasonably conjectured that the intended clearance is a plan contrived to accomplish other objects besides the expression of ' utter displeasure ' at the people for their ignonmee of the plots and secrets of murderers. Notwithstanding the fiery zeal of our Ultramontano declaimers, whenever they want to bring popular gullibility to a good market, not a syllable have they ever whispered about this landlordism of tho great Tory premier, in the very centre of the ' golden' inheritance consocrated by destiny as the promissed possession of the Clanna Mileadh. How is this ominous act to bo interpreted ? What is its significance to the people of Ireland ? What aro the considerations, rewards or inducements to a Toi'y Priino Minister, in virtue- of such considerations, rewards, «&e., the said Priino Minister is expected to exterminate- as many ' poor Colts' as he pleases, filling up their places with lusty, beef-eating Saxons P These aro questions which tho Irish pooplo will surely begin to ask themselves very soon, and it might bo wiso on tho part of tho Ultramontane brigade to anticipate tins reckoning day by stating what it is that they have been getting or expecting from Derbymn, 'in return for this oxpungemont of tho native tenantry from the plains of Minister? Thoro must exist behind tho scenes somo countor-intorcst, stronger than love of tho Irish pooplo, mightier far than all patriotic sympathy, with their hard endurances; mid what theu. wthwmysteioufleqqivßlgutf"