Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 July 1885 — Some of Ireland’s Wrongs. [ARTICLE]

Some of Ireland’s Wrongs.

Ireland has an area of twenty million acres. It is about three-fifths the size of lowa. It present population is about five millions. The country being entirely devoid of manufactures, the population must live by the land. The land must feed them, house them, educate them. The secret of their trouble is that they do not own the land. They are simply a nation of tenant farmers. At the close of the seventeenth century the lands under cultivation covered an area of less than twelve million acres. The confiscations for refusal to adopt the creed of the state church, for attempted insurrection, and for a multitude of other faults imputed to the people, were as follows: Acres. During the reign of James 1 8,885,837 At the restoration. 7,800,000 During 1688 1,000,792 Total 11,697,629 The whole island, with the exception of the estates of a few English families, was boldly taken away from its natural and rightful owners, anjJ not a shilling was granted them in payment for it. These lands were disposed of by the English crown by these methods: It was given in large estates to favorites of the reigning monarch; it was sold to English or Scotch colonists and the proceeds went into the royal purse, and it was offered gratuitously to other colonists from foreign countries upon condition that they should not suffer any of the natural owners to recover any portion of it as remuneration for service, in return for labor or the payment of money. This was the foundation of the present system of Irish landlordism. The new landlords refused to reside upon their Irish estates, but lived, and still live in England or on the continent. They draw enormous rents from the estates and invest or spend the money abroad. None of it returns to Ireland. These absentee landlords intrust the management of their estates to agents, and hence the obnoxious system of absentee landlords and ever present grasping bailiffs. It is needless to say that the landlord and tenant system which has so long prevailed in would not be tolerated in this or any other country a single day. To prevent any insurrection against this tyranny, the British Government keeps in Ireland a standing army of from 120,000 men a hundred years ago to 50,000 at the present time—3s,ooo regulars and 15,000 military and constabulary; and in addition to paying exorbitant rents to the landlords, the Irish people have to pay taxes to support this annual occupancy. What wonder then that the Irish people are poor, that they have been without education, that they have no more manufactures or commerce, or that they hate the British Government? —Dubuque Times. In this world there’s a vast multitude of well-meaning folk to whom, money is* no object until it ceases to be plenty with them. They pave the hell of Poverty with the good intentions of Heedlessness.— Barbers' Gazette.