ON THE STATE OF THE INDIGENT POOR IN IRELAND, AND THE EXISTING INSTITUTIONS FOR THEIR RELIEF. I HAVE endeavoured to establish, in the work entitled "The Principles of the English Poor Laws defended and illustrated," to which these Observations are intended to form a sequel, the doctrines, That it is the duty of the rich to relieve the poor, and the concurrent right of the poor to be relieved by the rich; and the historical fact, that as nations advance in civilization, those rights and those duties are embodied into practical systems. Unconnected with Ireland, educated as a member of the Established Church of England, and certainly not approving the doctrines and usages of the Roman Catholic Church, I had long deplored the continuance of the remnant of those iniquitous penal laws, which, pressing like an incubus upon that unhappy country, had alienated the minds of a large portion of its inhabitants from the British government, and tended not only to tear asunder the nearest and dearest con B nections, but to dissolve the bonds of civil society itself, I hailed therefore with joy that act of wise but tardy justice which consummated their repeal, and resolved upon visiting that country, to form an opinion from inquiry and observation, whether, the one great evil being removed, its present state was such that a legalized provision for the poor could be superinduced on it. A journey and residence of less than two months of course could not enable me to collect many original facts; but I had read and inquired much on the subject previously to leaving England, and likewise subsequently to my return, there being a large mass of original evidence in authentic documents before the public. There are also innumerable pamphlets for and against the legal provision, many of which I have perused with attention; but the greater part of them presuppose, in their readers, an acquaintance with facts, which does not always exist; and none, which I have seen, condense them so as to form a summary from whence conclusions may be deduced. This I have attempted to do by using, in most instances, the very words of the documents themselves, and thus adding my own testimony to the facts which are detailed in them. My visits were principally confined to the southern counties. I saw much of the province of Munster, comprehending the remote parts of Clare, and passed through not an inconsiderable portion of Leinster. The northern counties of Antrim, Armagh and Down presented to my view a population characteristically differing from that of the south.-In Munster, Leinster, and Connaught, with the exception of the commercial towns, the population is almost entirely Catholic, but in the towns also that religion is predominant. In Ulster, the Protestants are comparatively more numerous; but of those Protestants a very large number are dissenters from the Church of England, and Catholicism has increasing numbers even in that province. By confiscations, oppressions, and legal persecutions, the native and Catholic gentry had been driven from the possession of land*; and a system of policy towards the mass of the people, for the origin of which some slight grounds might be perhaps adduced, was subsequently pursued by the English Government, of which, if its notoriety did not render it impossible to be doubted, we could scarcely have believed the existence. The tendency of wealth, acquired by mercantile exertions, to invest itself in land, was checked by positive laws as far as respected the Roman Catholic; and it is only since the repeal of those *Lawrence in his "Interest of Ireland," published in 1682, says, that of 10,868,949 acres returned by the last survey, the Irish Papists are possessed but of 2,041,108. laws in 1776, that estates have been divided to meet the demands of these investments. The proprietors of land are, however, still for the greater part Protestants of the Establishment. There are large proprietors constantly resident in England, being English noblemen and gentlemen, and virtually English. There are many also, who, though virtually Irish, having little or no property out of Ireland, never reside there; these are the absentees. The large estates are counted by thousands of acres. The demesnes (or the grounds and appendages to the mansion) are on a magnificent scale; but the transition from magnificence in the habitations of the rich to misery in those of the poor, is striking to an English observer. With few exceptions, there is a want of that description of inferior gentry, and of those middle ranks, which form the important link, connecting the lower and upper, and with which we are familiar in England. The state of society among the rich, bears a resemblance to ancient feudalism, with modern luxury and all its refinements superinduced; but the upper ranks alone enjoy the selfish advantage of feudalism. The ancient chief lived among his people, and shared with them, as we have seen in Scotland almost in our own times, their pleasures and their dangers : the enjoyments of the chase or the feast were common; the chief and his people were united |