RELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT. CRIME IN IRELAND. (From the "Times")

New Zealander, Volume 6, Issue 484, 4 December 1850, Page 3

RELATION OF LANDLORD AND TENANT. CRIME IN IRELAND. (From the " Times ")

A murder committed in England is evidence only of individual depravity, — exciting mete horror in the minds ol Die public as they rcud the details of the crime. But, in Ireland, murder is but too often a proof of some great social disease — of 60inc terrible and wide spread mischief, which is undermining the sliength of society itself — portending anarchy and all the terror anJ misery willi which anarchy h inevitably attended; and thui not only exciting honor at the crime itself, hut also raising most painful emotions of alarm for the luiutc safety of the social and poliiicil institutions undei which we live. The murder of Mr. Miule« verer is ac.ime ol t'.is description. It was the hideous ous result of some most fearful wrong. Such an event is inched a warning that we " should put our house in order." In broad day, almost within sight and hearing of u village consisting of sixteen cottages, on the public highway, mid m the presence of his car drivci, Mr. Mauli'Veicr wag set upon and niuidered. "When the body of the deceased was brought into Crossmnglen l/ic peojrte showed no sympathy. On the following day information readied the town tint a mun hud been Killed at the lailwuy by the train passing over him, and in his case strong feeling whs manifested. The con* trast was marked, and is not without signification." Sucli is the language used by the repoiter on the spotNo one enn for a moment mistake the signification of this dreadful scone. Two classes in Ireland stand nnayed in deadly hostility against each other— the proprietors of land on the one bide, the holders and tillers of it on the other. Sympathy for the miseries of each other seems eiititcly to have left the breasts ol both parlies. The law indeed looks with different eyes upon the acts ol the two butuls carrying on this deadly strife. But what says that oven iding and pi edominant luw which makes the preservation of our liven the strongest impulse ol our nature? and what are our demotions instinctively lcsulting from these great necessities of our very being when this tale of mutual wrong and vengence is related ? Let the tale be told fuirly, and then let us ask in what way cun society icrncdy the wrong. On the one bide U the present proprictorof the land. That laud he receives with all (he eucumbianccs upon it — all the incidents connected with it — and out of whirl) nrise duly as well as profit. For the enounous difficulties of his position, the present proprietor of land m Irelund is not to blame. When, however, he accepts the property he accepts it with all its, difficulties, whether pecuniary or moral; and if ho takes the advantage resulting from it, he becomes bound to the performance ol the dv ies, however onerous, attaching also to it. If he declares hirmelf unable to pcrfoim these, society ought then to step in, and by the fiat of its will cut the knot which the unlucky proprietor is unable to solve. One fact connected with this purticulur estate is attested by heart-rending evidence ; a fad which is nit peculiar to this estate. The land ib parcelled out amang a miserable pens.intry in morsels so small m to render utterly impossib'e the attainment of the com - moncbt necessaries of life for the people who till it. A document lies bcfoic us of most painful significance it will be found eh-ewlnre — a lu»al document, clothed with the aulhonty and /ouns of law— by which widow Lai kin is decreed to pay two shillings, a whole year's rent due to her landlord, the Rev. Edward Hamilton. Of fcucli precious documents as these we are told the following stoiy : — The estate on which Widow Larkin has the misfortune to live it the joint property ol thrt-e proprietors,, and each proprietor kvie3 his own third of the rent, Six shillings we ihcrefoie uippose to be ihe veurly rent of the widow. All throe proprietor proceed sepnrutely against her, so that three bets of costs aie creuted, Ibis proceeding is not an isolute I case, lot, s.iyg ihe Coroner, who-e letter we print in im< thcr column, "each of luce (three) gi'iitletih-n col'ected the third of the rent scpman ly, and in doing so resorted to the proceedwgs usual in stall cases ; and at ihe quatter sessions it hm been customary for tins a^ent and attorney of the Ilev. Mi. Hamilton to obtum GO or 8 ( ) decrees for his third of the lent, lor thu attorney of Mr. Jones a hko number, and lor the attorney of Mr. Tippmsj the same, (or one and tho same year's rent. Thus the costs were multiplied threefold." In the days of loily shilling votcifl the multiplication of binall voters was supposed to be a political advantage, and rents in an car wero useful as incum of coeicion. The political necessity has eeuscil, but the crowded tenantry rcmaii s. The result of this londition ol things, combined with the ordinary habits of Iriijh yromictors, bungs be o c us a

reality which no ideal story ever equalled in the misery and crime belonging to i. In 111 is rage an agent i* employed (o deal with the tenants nud rule llio estule. The propiietors, living at a distance, carefully uvoiil witnebsiug (lie misery which is the hciilugc of Hie tenants.' They count upon a ccrtmn income from theestate. They pay a man to undergo the pain of coll lecting it, shutting their own cy« and cars to cveiytlnng but his representations. The agent is bmiid to produce 80 much, and this necessity of ins condition in time hardens the nalure of him who uiulci takes the employment. The tenantry cannot excite hiu Hyinp.ithy, no mutter what may be the tale of Borrow and suffering they relate. Ilis own foitiuies depend upon his shutting up his heart as reguids them. Towurds others he is often gentle* Immune, uud even actively beneficent. The consequences are often terrible. Tho murder of Mr. Mauleverer naturally excites in cv cry mnn'jmind horror, alarm, and indignation. But thul valley beheld not long before a still deeper tiugcdy — woe unutterable ; and yet for the aeti which led to this more extensive BufJermg the law has provided no punishment, and even the voice of society is mute. The tenantry, long in nrrear, were to be evicted. They were no longer useful at political tools, but were the wretched, profitless descendants of those who hud figured probubly as voters, but whose childien Only encumber the land. Mr. Mauleverer, who was evidently an active agent, pursued with unilev luting sternness tin: old couisc of distraint and e\ iction against these tenant!. One of the witnesses before the Coroner stated, ' there were a great many ejectments and notices to quit scived by the deceased on the hinds over which the deceased was the agent. As near as 1 can compute, there were ol ejectments and notices to quit 200 in itll. These were ejectments brought to evict the interests of a in ddle man whoso lease was dropped." Of the consequences that fol owed this lubt proceeding, the Coroner himself gives the history. One house wjs pulled down ; but when the burdened instruments ot this reckless pumuit of a sordid interest came to the second doomed dwelling, the sight of nine helpless, and most unhappy babes met their eyes — they, oven they, felt some touch of humanity, and turned from their horrid tusk appalled, if not softened, by the unspeakable woe which that scene disclosed. The plain statement of the bheiiff suggests, by its picguaiH brevity, a volume ol preceding cruelty. Thu scone w.is such as to unman not only the Mi cull', but the oldest and most unfeeling of li is ofliceis. A baldened sheriff's officer, seeing actually belore him the miseiy he was bade to inflict, shrunk iti honor from the deed, which the present proprietor permitted, if he did not in fact command it to be performed. The Coioner is evidently stai tied by this unwonted exhibition of feeling — bo petrifying is the ordiuury course of duty tj which these men ure accustomed. JJut " The deepest ice that ever ho/.e Cm only o'er the sin lace close Xliv living spring lies <|inek below, Still /lows, .uul ne'ei will cease to How." The Coroner, who tells the lale of Mr. Maulcverer'-s conduct to the poor widow who asked to be allowed the right to cut turf, brings it forward to prove the kind nature of the deceased. But lo our mind it appears in a very different light. The course of Mr. Maulevercr's life hud plainly deadened all his sympathy with any person who came to him in the cluir.iclcr of a tenant. With rcspurt to them a stern inflexible necessity — the necessity of furnishing so much rent to his employer—checked, subdued, and, at length, eradicated all human sympathy; and that which, because it might do good to a poor afflicted tenant, he with a " malediction" lefused her, he flung with recklesß indifference into the hands of the hotMkecper, Ml) nmell. Tho. whole scene, as it octually occurred, is sad and awful and will not easily be foigotlcn in Unit neighbourhood. Twenty minutes ufter he had cuitcil the wretched widow, who offered him her last penny for the boon •he sought, he was a corpse. A conpunclious visiting indeed, seems to have immediately followed his biuti»lity, and there was shame iti his heart when he threw the handful of bog tickets to the hotelkeeper, saying, ' Give these to whom you like; it you get money for them so much the bettei — if not, it is no matter/ If we turn now to those who suffer under this system, our wonder at this dreadful tale will cense, but our horror and our shame will be but the more intense. The judgment of evictions to a tenantry ol thin description ii, in muny cases, « judgment of donlh. By liis hold* ing the peasunt lives ; Im potato plot maintains him. and his fumily — wretchedly indued ; but miseiable an the pittance is on which he lives, it i» dciiircd Irom hid holding, To that holding he clings wilh desperate tenacity, and lest ho should be evicted, ho will piomisu anything. The uufortunute man oati find no farm' v near in want of hands and ready to give wages. The grave or the woikhousc is new his only alternative and this alternative has only of late yearn been offered him. What, we »Bk, aio likely to be tho feelings of u »<f»n ta t into tho road with his wife and wailing childien around him, without sheltei, without food, without hope? Burning indignation ib in his heart— ignorant and mad with despeiute iecklcssnc't, he turns in his anger upon the dnect instrument of Ins miseiy. It thut instrument by the manner in which he |.cr!onrs the duties oflus harsh office adds bitter insult to the injuiy, which by itstll istoj much for poor human nature 10 bear— it' rude euises attend deadly wion»,can we wonder ut the wild tortent of vengeance and of bate which bears uvta) bufoie. it all thoughts of duty »ttd obed ence ?— ou^ht nc to bu startled if before it lie prostrate a 1 fear of doing evil, nil thoughts of ihe temble fuluie, and the consequence that must incvitibly fol'ow the bicioh of that law which bid? us do no murdei ? Revenge weuves for it-elf a futal web of Bophistry, and eagerly listens to any suggestion which gives to the gratification of its piißSion and hate tho chiracler of ihat wild juilicu which was long since declared to be the slave's sold protection. Such are the facts which this awful deed has brought clearly before us. And is not society called upon under such circumstances to step in and consider the abuse of those rights of property which society has cieated for the benefit of all? Are we to stand by wilh folded hands, looking on in mute despim as if these events weie an inevitable necessity— un evil beyond the leacKof law or of pu'ihe opinion? Surely we arc no. justified in adopting any tuuh lisllejs course. If ihe piopnetors of tho soil, in maintaining the rights which the law his given them, thus reck kbs'y inflict mifcciy without stint up»n the helpless and unfortu» nate peasantry— il thi-y Bay that without the perpeliatiou of barbarities that would disgrace a Tuikioh Pauhl tlieir renlH cunno be collected— if they ate lo biiug in tho attorney multiplying process and with piocess multiplying coslH, and reducing the peasantry lo a hopeless slavery — and il they ure thus to couveit tho tountiy into a battle field for the landlords and piocesisevers, and sheiiffi und uhenflV olhueis, on thu one side, mid the luuouh peasantry and banded assasbhu on the other, then v.c hay it is tho bouuden duty of the Logisliiluie bolilly to interfere, and either to enforce 1 upon the present landloiun the duties, while it maintains Ihe riffhlfl, ol piope.rty, or lo create a new landed pioprietaiy, whose lnttllii^cnce mid wealih will enable them to secuie the peace of society, and thus lay tho bure foundations of tmtiotuil prosperity.