The Land-War in Ireland: A History for the Times

by James Godkin

	£	s.	d.
Amount of the present increased income	11,091	17	5
	______	___	___
Incidental expenses as per general agents' account for 1865	114	3	0-1/2
Law expenses	492	7	11
Salaries to general agent, deputy, vice-admiral, surveyor,
and others	926	16	6
Pension to general agent	250	0	0
Visitation expenses, 1865	539	19	6
Surveying expenses	50	0	0
Salary of clerk and porter's wages	197	10	0
Coal, gas, printing, stationery, advertisements	449	11	5
Salary to secretary and assistant governor, and 'assistants'
for attendance at 51 meetings	549	1	6
	______	___	___
	4,094	1	6

Here, then, is a trust fund amounting to about 12,000l. a year, and the trustees actually spend one-third in its management! And what is its management? What do they do with the money? Mr. Pitt Skipton, D.L., a landed proprietor, who has nothing to gain or lose by the Irish Society, asks, 'Where is our money laid out now? Not on the estate of the Irish Society, but on the estates of the church and private individuals—on those of owners like myself who give their tenants perpetuity, because it is their interest to do so. We should wish to see the funds of the society so expended that we could see some memorial of them. But where is there in Derry any monument wholly erected by the society which they were not specially forced to put up by charter, with the exception of a paltry piece of freestone within one of the bastions bearing their own arms.'

Let us only imagine what the corporation of Derry could do in local improvements with this 12,000l. a year, which is really their own property, or even with the 4,000l. a-year squandered upon themselves by the trustees! Some of these worthy London merchants, it seems, play the rôle of Irish landlords when travelling on the Continent, on the strength of this Derry estate, or their assistantship in its management. 'I object,' says Mr. J.P. Hamilton, 'if I take a little run in the summer vacation to Paris or Brussels, to meet a greasy-looking gentleman from Whitechapel or the Minories, turned out sleek and shining from Moses', and to be told by him that he has a large property in Hireland, in a place called Derry, and that his tenantry are an industrious, thriving set of fellows, quite remarkable for their intelligence, but that it is all owing to his excellent management of his property and his liberality.'

Mr. Hazlett presented a still funnier picture of the Irish 'visitations' of the members of the society, with their wives and daughters every summer. Gentlemen in London regard it as a fine lark to get elected to serve in the Irish Society, as that includes a summer trip to Ireland free of expense, with the jolliest entertainment. One gentleman, being asked by another whether he was ever in Ireland, answered—'No, but I intend to get on the Irish Society next year and then I'll have a trip. What kind of people are they over there? Do they all speak Irish?'

'Oh, no; they are a very decent, civilised people.'

'Oh, I'm glad they don't speak Irish; for none of us do, of course; but my daughter can speak French.'

'They had a great siege one time over there?'

'Oh, yes; the Derry people are proud of the siege.'

'Ah, yes, I see; happened in the reign of King John, I believe.'