and there will inevitably arise in England a struggle between Poverty and Property, which must end either in a military despotism, or in revolution and anarchy.

"To render the English Poor Law endurable in Ireland, it must be accompanied by some general measure to enable the poor to procure employment. Until this shall be done, the Poor House, as a test of destitution, is but a vile subterfuge to withhold relief altogether. It is a mean and contemptible equivocation-a trick of low cunning, pretending to give relief to those who are in distress, but making the conditions of its acceptance so odious, that its refusal becomes a matter of certainty. The middle classes in England, instead of deriving benefit from crushing the poor, are now involved in the same ruin with those whom they assisted in oppressing. Short-sighted, do they not know that the fall of nations commences from below-that the process of national decay proceeds from beneath upwards? Like the massive fabric, the structure of ancient days, that for ages has resisted the ravages of time and the fury of the storm; so long as its foundations remain secure, it continues a proud memorial of the power and ingenuity of man; but let the basis on which it rests be disturbed, and it soon discloses fearful rents, and yields, and sinks, and falls.

Convinced that this must be the case in Ireland also, and that in Ireland we should endeavour to anticipate and provide against those evils, I called the attention of the Board of Guardians to the necessity of providing employment for the poor; and with this view I brought under their notice the plan referred to. I also applied to the Poor Law Commissioners, but in vain. The Commissioners informed me that as the plan contemplated did not come within the scope of the Irish Poor Relief Act, they were not prepared to take any steps in reference thereto. And is truth therefore to be extinguished and are the people to starve? Out, out upon it-it must not, it cannot be. He is at heart a servile recreant who can even whisper to himself that the thing is possible. Where is the mighty mass of British mind? Where is the hourly increasing intelligence of the industrious classes? Peradventure it sleepeth! Believe me, this is not the case. The steampress, rail

road intercourse, and the facilities now afforded for the rapid interchange of opinion-all new elements in the creation and diffusion of knowledge-have imparted to mind the velocity of the lightning's flash, and given to it the strength and power of the thunderbolt. Nations the most remote, opposed though they may be to each other, and though, like maniacs, furiously plunging into war; and worse than wolves, tearing and destroying their fellow-men, are nevertheless banded together by the progress of science, and form one commonwealth of intellect, each country imparting its knowledge to the rest, and receiving in return such information as they have themselves acquired.

But I speak not of nations alone. It should be a cause of honest pride and of great personal gratification to every one of us, that each in his proper place can contribute something to the power and influence of this gigantic movement. And surely it is the duty of every individual to whom the Creator has imparted the ability to be of use, to endeavour to benefit society, and leave behind him the traces of some well-intended effort. Fractions compose units, and units added together will number as many grains of sand as can be contained within the space of the largest imaginable sphere. Let no man therefore undervalue his own exertions in the cause of truth. Let truth be the subject of his daily thoughts; let him converse about it in his domestic circle; let him speak of it to his neighbour; and, when the truth shall be clearly and distinctly perceived, let the many then cooperate, aud there is nothing that reason aud justice shall sanction which they will not ultimately succeed in accomplishing.

The heads of the Bill to provide employment for the poor of Ireland will be found in the appendix. Is there any chance of its being adopted by the English Parliament? I fear there is none. When I first brought it forward at a great aggregate meeting of the County of Kildare, specially convened for the purpose, it was adopted by acclamation, and cries of "That is what we want! All we want is employment and fair wages," proceeded from every part of the crowd. A single voice, after these exclamations had ceased, was heard to say, "Doctor Grattan, you are giving yourself a great deal of useless trouble!"'

"Why, my friend, why do you say so?"

"Because your plan is too good for Ireland, for an English Parliament ever to agree to it."

Then came three groans for England, and three ringing cheers for A PARLIAMENT IN IRELAND.

Next to the employment of the labourer, the question of Tenant Right is that which most urgently forces itself on our consideration. I cannot do better, or express myself more to the purpose, than by giving the following extracts from the report of the County of Kildare Independent Club. This club consisted of almost all the Catholic clergy, and most of the farming class then resident in the county. All the documents which I prepared, and the report itself, were carefully considered, and agreed to without a dissentient voice. This was in the year 1847, just twenty-three years ago. At that time the tenant farmers would have gladly accepted, as a final settlement, the arrangement then proposed. Perhaps the "plan is too good for Ireland, for an English Parliament to agree to it." We shall see in the coming session what England will do. For my part, I have faint hopes that Ireland will obtain more than a scant share of that measure of justice which an Irish House of Assembly would at once legalize. I give the passages from the report, though what I then proposed, as the best solution of a subject so complicated and embarrassing, and which will try to the utmost all the sagacity of our English rulers-and their piece-bypiece and bit-by-bit legislation for Ireland-will no longer answer. The time for this has passed away. Ireland feels her strength, and thoroughly understands in what England's weakness consists. What the English Parliament of Commons and Lords may do, it is impossible to say, but of this I am persuaded, that if Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Bright shall not be thwarted by a stupid and factious opposition, they are the men to settle this question upon the principle of strict justice to all parties. Bnt let them not forget that outside the Tenant Right party there is another more numerous and more powerful. I mean the LABOURING CLASSES. If their claims should be disregarded or postponed to a future day, instead of being adjusted pari passu with the tenant question, the future will bring

to Ireland and to England more trouble than either country seems to anticipate. The Labour Question will then start into existence, and give rise to an agitation more formidable than that of Tenant Right. It will assume the character of an agrarian insurrection against the farmers and graziers. The graziers will be called upon to divide their large tracts of pasturage, so that men and not oxen shall live upon them, and the farmers will be threatened unless they consent to employ more workmen, and pay them higher wages. If my suggestions had been acted upon during the last twenty years, none of these difficulties would have now existed. Perhaps it my not yet be too late to give peace to Ireland. The issue rests with Eng

land.

I gave

Let her listen and be advised. This is the advice in 1847. I now repeat it :

"The law of Landlord and Tenant has been the occasion of injury to all classes. Like the withering influence of the former Tithe system, it destroys the industrious energy of the Irish people, producing the poverty and destitution so long the bane of our country, and the shame and disgrace of our rulers.

Our English rulers endeavour to transfer the responsibility of their own misgovernment from themselves to others. The small gentry of Ireland, who possess from £500 to £1500 per annum, (and we have few other resident proprietors,) are accused by the English press with habitual indifference to the well-being of their tenants. They are probably to blame, although there are many noble exceptions; but still they are not altogether without excuse, for they are precisely what the English law has made them. Men are the creatures of times and circumstances. The English law gives the elective franchise virtually to the landlord, regarding the tenant as nothing more than a passive instrument in his hands. It gives to the landlord dominion over the industry and the property of the tenant. It brings the tenant and the landlord into constant collision. Angry and vindictive feelings are excited. Power is abused. The landlord, or more frequently his agent, deals oppressively and unjustly by the tenant. The tenant is distrained, ejected, victimised; and the farm, improved by his labour, and the rent of which

he could easily have paid had he been considerately and kindly treated, is transferred to some more complying and obsequious occupant, on whose vote the landlord can at all times reckon.

"The ejectment of an industrious and improving tenant is in any case a severe proceeding; but this, so long as it was a mere question of property, and a transaction confined to the parties themselves, would have been acquiesced in as not unusual or essentially unjust. However, when half the tenantry of an entire county came to be threatened with expulsion, because they exercised that right of voting which the law denied, but which the constitution guaranteed to them, the Tenant Persecution assumed a new character. Self-defence, and not a base submission, obviously became the duty of the tenant, and hence Fixity of Tenure, or Tenant Right, was put forward, and publicly discussed, as the natural and proper antidote to Tenant Persecution. The landlords of Ireland, therefore, may thank English laws and their own culpable and short-sighted conduct for this. They are themselves the originators of the agitation in favour of the Tenant Right.

"But this is not a question which concerns landlord and tenant only. PUBLIC UTILITY modifies, controls, and even supersedes all PRIVATE RIGHTS. The possession of property does not in any case give an absolute and unconditional right to it. If it shall appear that the tenure of land throughout Ireland is opposed to the general good, and tends to prevent the profitable employment of the LABOURING CLASSES, and the full development of the resources of the country, this tenure must be interfered with, and properly adjusted. Industry must be encouraged and protected as well as property. Property and industry are inseparably connected, for without industry property would be of no value, and to acquire property is the great object of industry. Whatever, therefore, thwarts or opposes industry is detrimental to property. But the tenure of land, and the usual covenants in leases, instead of promoting industry, and leading to the acquisition of property by the tenant, are found to discourage industrious exertion, and thereby to act injuriously with regard to the public at large.