tenure, and consequently that he will not labour, when he is not
guaranteed the just remuneration for his toils. Now, it is a curious
circumstance, and ought to show the groundlessness of their complaints
on this head, that at the great popular demonstrations of Holy Cross,
Cashell, Kilmakthomas, or Wexford, not one single case was brought
forward where tenants have been deprived of their land, or despoiled
of the value of their improvements, so long as they honestly met their
engagements. There was abundance of declamation. "The tenant _might_
be turned adrift after improving the condition of his land," but there
was not a single fact adduced to show that he had been so treated. We
have gone fully into this question, for the purpose of disabusing the
minds of the ministry, and of showing them, that if they hope, by the
concession of a landlord-and-tenant bill, (founded on the demands of
its parliamentary advocates), to effect a change for the better in the
conduct and condition of the Irish people, they will find themselves
grievously disappointed. Every step which the present government have
taken to meet the wishes of the popular party in Ireland, has but led
them still deeper into the mire of social disorder. They repealed the
Arms Act, and by that most reprehensible proceeding, mainly produced
the state of anarchy and confusion which now exists; and within one
short year they are themselves compelled to pronounce condemnation
on their own imprudence. They most recklessly squandered the public
money on useless or mischievous works, sooner than expend it on the
improvement of the land, lest by benefiting the Irish proprietor they
should displease their patrons, the priests. They created a spirit of
insubordination and idleness amongst the people, by giving employment
on public works where no return was exacted by their numerous and
overpaid staff for the wages which were given, and where multitudes
were employed who did not require it, on the nomination of the priests,
while many who did were excluded from its benefits; and, to complete
the climax of their blunders, they conceded out-door relief, at a time,
and under circumstances, which must render such a measure not only a
curse to Ireland, but a grievous burden on the other portions of the
British empire. It has been declared by the minister that in twenty-two
unions the rental twice over would not be sufficient to support the
pauper inhabitants; while many of the popular Irish members maintain
that there are three times that number of unions placed in similar
circumstances, and in which the means of subsistence must come from
the Imperial treasury.
But are the Whig ministry sincere in their declarations against Irish
crime, and is incompetency their only fault?--alas! we cannot believe
it. There are amongst them shrewd and sensible men, who must have
perceived that they have been hitherto acting in error, and there can
scarcely be one so besotted or ignorant, as not to see that to the
policy they have pursued is to be attributed the ruin of the country.
But at the same time, they well know that they must obey the dictates
of their task-masters the Irish priests, or surrender their power; and
they yield themselves bound hand and foot, sooner than abandon office
which they have made so many and such shameful sacrifices of principle
to obtain. Thirty-seven Irish members are completely in the hands of
the priests, and this is a political power which Lord John Russell's
cabinet has not the courage or the strength to defy.
While her Majesty's ministers and their supporters draw the most
appalling pictures of the state of society in Ireland, and recount
horrors which are enough to curdle the blood, they one and all abstain
most scrupulously from attributing those evils to the causes which
have really produced them--they studiously avoid touching the sore
spot. It is admitted that priests denounce men from the altars, and
that such persons become immediate victims. "Did you denounce this man
from the altar?" asked a coroner the other day of a reverend gentleman
who was giving evidence at an inquest. "I did." "And he was murdered
immediately after?" "_Yes, he was murdered at five o'clock on the same
day._" Now here is a palpable admission made by a man on his oath. He
does not seek to screen himself from the consequences of his act; he
seems rather to pride himself on the speedy execution of his decree.
Henry the Second exclaimed, "Have I no friends to rid me of such a
torment?" and Becket was sacrificed; a Roscommon priest, from the altar
of God, and on his holy Sabbath, cries to his infuriated auditors,
"_This man is worse than Cromwell, yet he lives_," and Major Mahon is
savagely slaughtered! Is there any notice taken of the conduct of those
men by the law-officers of the Crown?--any condemnation pronounced
upon it by her Majesty's ministers? Not at all: although the crime
of the one is admitted on his oath, and the truth of the accusation
against the other is undenied--both, though in the eyes of God and the
law equally criminal as the wretch who executed their commands, are
"honoured and at large;" and while such things pass before our eyes,
we are told, that "to the wonderful and praiseworthy exertions of the
Roman Catholic priesthood," we are mainly indebted for not having the
country in a worse condition than it really is!
It may be said that government cannot punish priests for such monstrous
conduct--"there is no law which will reach the offenders." Be it so;
but why is not such a law enacted now, with the full knowledge of the
facts which we have stated, and of many equally criminal instances
of priestly aggression which must have been reported to them? The
ministry introduce measures for the repression of crime, without the
slightest allusion to this practice of denunciation, which may be
considered as the very source of it. They propose to punish the peasant
who commits the assassination, "but they grant entire immunity to the
priest who points out the victim and counsels the act." We are told,
however, by an authority which seldom errs, (_The Times_ newspaper,)
that there is actually in existence a law fully competent to deal with
those transgressions. And we are the more inclined to coincide with
the opinion given in _The Times_, when we see, by proceedings lately
taken in the Court of Queen's Bench in Ireland, that there is on the
Statute-Book a law rendering those who conceal a murderer liable to
be indicted as accessories after the fact. Now, perhaps, in the whole
range of legislation, nothing could be hit upon more likely to stem
the torrent of crime than such an enactment; and yet we find that
owing either to the ignorance of the law-officers of the Crown, or the
connivance of the government, it has been allowed to remain a dead
letter, and is only dragged from its hiding-place, when the Viceregal
power has been intrusted to a man of more political honesty than his
predecessors.
But though Lord Clarendon may enforce the law against the peasant,
dare he put that which would punish the priests into operation?--Their
influence in the House forbids the supposition.
Mr O'Connell managed the power which he had created with his well-known
skill and discretion; but since the sceptre has fallen into the hands
of his feeble successor, the real props of agitation have openly
assumed the position which they have long, though secretly filled. To
them every "ruined rascal" who betakes himself to the "last resource"
of patriotism must now address himself. Formerly, the candidate was
expected to pay (say £2000) for his seat; now, it may be secured by
the utter abandonment of principle, and unbounded submission to the
will of the Donors; then, aspirants with some appearance of propriety
and decency of conduct were required; now, both qualifications may be
dispensed with. The more degraded the man, the more fit he will be
considered "to do those acts which the less vile refuse to execute;" he
may be a blackleg, a swindler, or an open adulterer, and it will be no
bar to his advancement in the eyes of the Roman Catholic bishops, who,
while they profess to admire virtue, have no objection, if it secure
their purposes, to patronise vice; and who, while they preach peace and
good-will, tolerate, if they do not approve, the encourager to murder.
In what other country in the world could men have acted as it is
admitted those priests have acted, without being reached by the strong
arm of the law? of what other Christian church than that which is ruled
over by the "bigoted M'Hale," and the "vulgar and vindictive Higgins,"
would they have been allowed to continue members?
The Irish Roman Catholic priests are said to have unbounded influence
over their flocks, and we believe it: yet can a more conclusive
evidence of their unworthiness be adduced than the state in which
we find the people subjected to their spiritual care, and who are
so fatally obedient to their dictates? A dignitary of the church,
Archdeacon Laffan, contrasts the pusillanimous conduct of the cowardly
Saxon, who bears his sufferings with patience because "he can do
nothing like a man," with the gallantry of his true-hearted Tipperary
boys, who remove those who inconvenience them by the bullet! Can we
then be surprised at the criminal conduct of the unfortunate persons
consigned to such teaching? When such men are placed in authority over
those who proclaim God's word, can we be astonished to read the account
given by the priests' own organ, _The Tipperary Vindicator_, of the
posthumous honours paid by the well-instructed and Christian people
of Tipperary to the memory of departed worth? What a testimony do the
facts recorded bear, to the zeal and efficacy with which his doctrines
have been promulgated and enforced by the meek and christian Laffan!
A few months ago, we read the following description of the proceedings
which took place at the funerals of Fogarty, Rice, and Hayes, the
executed murderers of the late Mr Clarke. There was no doubt of their
guilt, no declaration of their innocence, and no grounds whatever to
question the justice of the verdict which condemned them to die. They
were not men roused by oppression to execute "the wild justice of
revenge." No; they were regular matter-of-fact men of business; hired
bravos, ready to perpetrate any murder they were paid for committing,
and who had never been injured by the person they deprived of life.
In other countries, the carcasses of such wretches would have been
shunned; contact with them would have been considered a pollution;
and assisting at their obsequies as little better than participation
in their crimes: but not so in "virtuous and moral Tipperary," the
vineyard consigned to the spiritual labours of the venerable and
apostolic Laffan. "The bodies of the _unfortunate_ men," says _The
Vindicator_, "were conveyed in funeral procession to the homes of their
respective relatives.... They were laid out and waked as if they had
not been strangled by the rope of the hangman. _They were surrounded
by those who mourned for them with as keen a sympathy, and as tender
an affection, as if they had died each on his humble pallet of straw_;
hundreds flocked around the corpse-houses from all directions; and we
shall leave others to conjecture whether the sight was calculated,
in the present alleged state of the country, by the advocates of a
Coercion Bill, to induce tranquillity, or to rake up the fires of
desperation and revenge. They had funerals. The funeral of Fogarty took
place on Saturday. It was attended, we understand, by some thousands,
who followed his remains to the grave _in crowds more numerous, with
feelings more interested, than if he had otherwise gone out of the
world_.... Hayes and Rice were buried on Sunday. _There were forty
cars, a strong body of equestrians_, and a vast crowd of pedestrians
accompanying the former. The latter was attended by one of the largest
funeral processions remembered for a long time in the district through
which the remains were conveyed." What a lesson are we taught by those
revelations! "Funeral honours paid to convicted murderers!" and the
demoralisation so wide-spread, as to induce the attendance of even the
more respectable class of farmers, whose presence was attested by the
"forty jaunting cars and the large body of equestrians," who swelled
the ranks of the admirers of assassination. Some say that the Irish
criminals are few, others, that the mass of the population is tainted
with the fatal leprosy: in either case the conduct of government should
be to repress crime with a strong hand, and with a celerity which
would strike terror into the hearts of the malefactors. The government
have to deal with a revolutionary priesthood and a demoralised people,
and it is not by such paltry expedients as their present measures,
that the one can be checked in their career, or the other awed into
submission; and to enact remedial measures while all laws are openly
set at defiance, would be but a ridiculous farce. The ministry must
be aware, although they have dishonestly concealed the fact, that
the same spirit of outrage which is evinced by acts of assassination
in the five counties they have alluded to, _is prevalent in all the
other midland and western counties_, and is rapidly extending itself
towards the north. Neither are those outrages now perpetrated solely
against those who transgress the agrarian code in respect to the
management of their estates. Assassination is found a safe, ready, and
efficient remedy for every violation of the popular will. Mr Baily
was shot, because, as chairman of a board of guardians, he refused
indiscriminate out-door relief. Mr Hassard, because he prosecuted a
steward for theft; a widow had her brains beaten out because she was
about to marry another husband; and a man named Burns was murdered at
Belturbet, merely because he thought fit to change his religion. There
is a spirit of anarchy abroad, which nothing but strong and decisive
measures can arrest, and which nothing short of martial law will enable
the executive to cope with.
Our space will not permit us to comment as fully as the importance of
the subject would require, on the other remedial measures suggested for
the benefit of Ireland by men who argue that, because such would be
beneficial in other countries, therefore they must be well adapted for
that apparently incomprehensible island. We will merely say that it is
an error to suppose that the waste lands of Ireland can be cultivated
with success by the state, or with any degree of advantage as regards
the location of the superabundant population. The expense of their
reclamation would amount to much more than the price at which the
very best ground can be purchased; and it would be manifestly absurd
to undertake, at the public expense, such an immense and profitless
work, while three-fourths of the richest soils in the country are in
a state of semi-cultivation; and where, by judicious advances, which
are sure to be repaid, an equal amount of employment may be afforded
by the landlords without any loss to the state. Neither do we conceive
that the location of the peasantry on properties under the control of
the government is at all judicious; experience teaches us the reverse.
On the estates of the Crown in Roscommon, agrarian outrages in that
county had their origin. From mismanagement or other causes which we
have not heard explained, the tenants on the Crown lands were permitted
to run many years in arrear; and now they refuse to pay any rents
whatsoever, on the ludicrous pretence "That Queen Victoria never took
out administration to King William the Fourth!" And thus they have been
allowed, by their successful resistance to the Crown, to encourage
others in a similar course of conduct towards her Majesty's lieges, who
are, in their eyes, but the subordinate owners of the soil.
The difficulty of dealing with the subject of emigration, when the
task is undertaken by men who are not practically acquainted with the
state of Ireland, and the feelings and habits of the Irish people, is
made manifest by the speeches delivered on the scheme in parliament.
Mr Hawes, when the question was brought forward last session, refused
to sanction any government system, on the grounds that voluntary
emigration was proceeding at too rapid a rate already; and that it
would be much better to keep the people at home. Now, while we advocate
a measure which would remove a certain portion of the population,
who can have no permanent occupation afforded them on account of the
numbers congregated in particular localities, and who consequently
must become a charge upon the resources of the country, we quite
agree with the under-secretary of the colonies, that nothing can be
more lamentable or more ruinous to the prosperity of Ireland than
the removal of those persons who emigrate at their own expense. But,
paradoxical as it may appear to the honourable gentleman, the system
which we consider absolutely necessary, would act as a most effectual
check to the abandonment of their country by the industrious and
comparatively wealthy, which he so justly laments. Those industrious
and well-conducted men ought to be the "thews and sinews" of the land;
but they are driven from their homes by the insecurity of life and
property in their wretched country. They cannot extend their operations
in proportion as they acquire wealth. They dare not venture to enlarge
the size of their farms, although they see the land uncultivated and
lying waste around them. Death is the penalty they are certain to
pay, if they take the ground from which others have been removed, no
matter what may have been the cause of their expulsion. They therefore
realise their property, and carry their capital and their industry to
other countries, where they can freely use the one, and fearlessly
enjoy the fruits of the other; while the idle and profligate ruffian
who is the means of driving them from the land of their birth, revels
in his crimes with impunity, and derives a legal support from the
community which he oppresses--_he_ either cannot, or he will not
emigrate. Now, it is clear, that if a system were adopted by which men
who become a charge on the public should have the option of leaving
the country at the public expense--of course we mean exclusively at
the expense of Ireland--and that at the same time the laws were so
vigorously administered, as to prevent the possibility of their earning
a livelihood by the commission of crime at home; the country would
get rid of the worst and most irreclaimable culprits, and society be
relieved from the crimes and the oppressions which they practise;
industry would be protected, and prosperity would advance. Lord
Clarendon may seek, by his well-intended advice and his remonstrances,
to stay the march of crime; but his efforts will only evince his
ignorance of the habits and prejudices of the people he has to govern.
He may subscribe his money to communicate agricultural knowledge to
those, whose poverty and misery lead him to suppose that they only
require instruction to become industrious and happy; but he should
know, that those persons to whom he so praiseworthily wishes to impart
information, _are in fact the best skilled agriculturists the country
can produce_. They compose the migratory hordes who annually proceed
to Scotland and England. There is not a man amongst them above sixteen
years of age, who has not practical experience in the very best systems
pursued in those countries to which they resort; and we would "wager
a ducat," that scores of boys may be found in Ennis and in Galway,
who could instruct his paid lecturers in the performance of the nicest
operations of agriculture. The Irish Viceroy feelingly deplored the
disappointment of his hopes with regard to the Irish Fisheries, when
giving audience to the Clare deputation. "When I came to this country,"
said his lordship, "I indulged in the hope of promoting the prosperity
of the Irish Fisheries; but I have been grievously disappointed. When
the nets and gear were redeemed from the pawn-office, the men would not
use them, or go to sea, unless they were fed; and when they were fed,
they caught no fish." The same spirit which actuated the fisherman in
this instance, actuates the agricultural peasant. He will not till his
land, not because he is ignorant of the best method of doing so with
success, but because he prefers idleness to industry, and gratuitous
support to honest independence.
We respect Lord Clarendon's talents, and admire the honesty with which
he has set about discharging the high and arduous duties of his office;
but we tell him that the pacification of Ireland can never be effected
by the powers now at his disposal, nor yet by the emasculated measures
proposed by the ministry for the adoption of parliament. Neither need
he calculate on any assistance in his efforts from the diplomatic
devices of her Majesty's advisers. Lord Minto may earwig the Pope; but
the Pope's influence is set at defiance by the Irish bishops, when it
happens not to be exerted in the furtherance of their own particular
views. The present pontiff's predecessor issued his commands, that both
priests and prelates should abstain from agitation, and avoid those
political festivals where some of their body had covered themselves
with such well-merited disgrace; but his encyclical letter was treated
as so much waste paper, and had only the effect of increasing the
custom it was intended to abolish. The Viceroy can have no hope or
expect no succour but from the efficiency of the laws, and their
uncompromising administration. Military tribunals must be substituted
for civil ones. No juror in the present state of the country will
hazard his personal safety by the due discharge of his duties, when he
sees no chance of obtaining adequate protection. Summary justice must
supersede the ordinary law's delay; immediate punishment must follow
upon conviction; agitation of every kind must be suppressed; and the
disturbers of the public peace must be dragged forth and made amenable
for their crimes, whether they be found beneath the smock frock of the
peasant, or the cassock of the priest.
BLACKWOOD AND COPYRIGHT IN AMERICA.
In connexion with an article in this Number from our able American
contributor, it may be interesting to the readers of Maga to be
informed of her precise position at present on the other side of the
Atlantic, where she is figuring as the champion of the rights of
authors, and the leader of an important revolution in literature.
Whether we consider the claims of literary men to the property of
their works as founded on inherent right, to be controlled only by
the superior good of the community,--or as supported by a mixture
of moral and equitable considerations, having reference to the
reward and encouragement of learning and talent, it is undeniable
that, without some protection of this kind, the fairer and better
productions of literature will fail, and their place be occupied by
a rank and unwholesome growth, offensive to the senses and noxious
to social life. Even the selfish and short-sighted policy of our
American brethren, which, in extending the privilege of copyright to
their own countrymen, has denied it to foreigners, is found to operate
in the most prejudicial manner upon their native literature; as no
American publisher is likely to pay its due price for any composition
of domestic genius, when he can please his customers and fill his
pocket by reprinting, without any remuneration to the author, the most
successful productions of the British press. The repression of such a
system of piracy in America, would benefit alike the foreigner, whose
copyright is thus pilfered, and the American man of letters whose
talent is borne down by so disadvantageous a competition.
The publishers of the Magazine had for many years been aware that a
cheap American reprint of the work was in regular circulation to a very
large extent and they were naturally desirous to put an end to such an
injustice.[56] While they were turning their attention to the subject,
they received in the early part of the past year, a communication from
an American gentleman, suggesting as an effectual means of redress,
the insertion in the Magazine, from time to time, of an article from
a native or naturalised citizen of the United States, who should
establish a copyright in his own person, or that of an assignee, and
thus either protect the whole work or compel the publishers of the
pirated edition to reprint it in an imperfect form, such as would
materially check their success, and, in either way, break up the system.