Present Irish Questions

by William O'Connor Morris

[143] ‘Democracy and Liberty,’ vol. i. pp. 202, 203.

[144] Letters to the Manchester Guardian, written in 1890, and since republished. This little work was much noticed at the time; attempts to answer it were made to no purpose. The facts now speak for themselves.

[145] Swift’s ‘Works,’ vol. ii. p. 82, ed. 1870.

[146] ‘Reflections on the Revolution in France,’ vol. i. p. 440.

[147] The Manchester Guardian, 1890. I quote this passage, for I think its substance was referred to by the late Mr. Rathbone, member for Liverpool.

[148] Mr. Lecky, ‘Democracy and Liberty,’ vol. ii. pp. 487-489, rather favours the policy of creating and extending peasant ownership in Ireland, and, to a certain extent, approves of the so-called ‘Land Purchase’ Acts, but only as a doubtful experiment, to endeavour to escape from a hopelessly bad land system. The distinguished historian and thinker, in my opinion, is not sufficiently alive to the iniquity of these measures as they affect landlords who wish to retain their estates, or, rather, what remains of them; but he clearly perceives some of the objections to this vicious legislation. I quote his remarks at some length: ‘In Ireland, as is well known, great efforts are made to create such a proprietary; but the conditions of Ireland are unlike those of any other part of the civilised globe. It has been the deliberate policy of the Government to break down, by almost annual Acts, the obligation of contracts, and the existing ownership of land has been rendered so insecure, the political power attached to it has been so effectually destroyed, and the influences tending to anarchy and confiscation have been made so powerful, that most good judges have come to the conclusion that it is necessary to force into existence by strong legislative measures a new social type, which may, perhaps, possess some elements of stability and conservatism. In order to effect this object, the national credit has been made use of in such a way that a tenant is enabled to purchase his farm without making the smallest sacrifice for that object, the whole sum being advanced by the Government, and advanced on such terms that the tenant is only obliged to pay for a limited number of years a sum from 20 to 30 per cent. less than his present rent. In other words, a man whose rent has been fixed by the Land Court at £100 a year, can purchase his farm by paying, instead of that sum, £70 or £80 a year for forty-nine years. The arrangement sounds more like burlesque than serious legislation; but the belief that political pressure can obtain still better terms for the tenant, and that further confiscatory legislation may still more depreciate the value of land to the owner who has inherited it, or purchased it in the open market, has taken such deep root in Ireland that the tenants have shown little alacrity to avail themselves of their new privilege. What may be the ultimate issue of the attempt to govern a country in complete defiance of all received economical principles remains to be seen. The future must show whether a large peasant proprietary can be not only called into existence, but permanently maintained, under these conditions, and whether it will prove the loyal and conservative element that English politicians believe. According to all past experience, peasant proprietors rarely succeed, except when they possess something more than an average measure of industrial qualities, and the Irish purchase laws give no preference to the energetic, the industrious, and the thrifty. On the contrary, it is very often the farmer who is on the verge of bankruptcy who is most eager to buy, in order to reduce his annual charge. The tendency of the new proprietors to mortgage, to sublet, and to subdivide, is already manifest, and some of the best judges of Irish affairs, who look beyond the present generation, are very despondent about the future. They believe that a peasant proprietary, called into existence suddenly and artificially, with no discrimination in favour of the better class, in a country where industrial qualities are very low, and where the strongest wish of the farmer is either to divide his farm among his children, or to burden it with equal mortgages for their benefit, must eventually lead to economic ruin, to fatal subdivision, to crushing charges on land. The new policy must also, they contend, almost wholly withdraw from the country life, where it is peculiarly needed, the civilising and guiding influence of a resident gentry. Whether or not these apprehensions are exaggerated time only can show. Two predictions may, I think, with some confidence be made. The one is, that the transformation is likely to be most successful if it is gradually effected. The other is, that a great part of the influence once possessed by the landlord will, under the new conditions, pass to the money-lender.’

[149] I quote these remarks of Burke, a striking instance of his political wisdom (‘Tracts on the Popery Laws,’ vol. ii. p. 446): ‘It is on this principle (to get rid of short and unprofitable tenures) that the Romans established their emphyteusis, or fee-farm. For though they extended the ordinary term of their creation to nine years only, yet they encouraged a more permanent letting to farm, with the condition of improvement, as well as of annual payment where the land had lain rough and neglected.’ So John Stuart Mill (‘Irish Land Question,’ p. 31, ed. 1870): ‘The idea of property does not, however, necessarily imply that there should be no rent, any more than that there should be no taxes. It merely implies that the rent should be a fixed charge, not liable to be raised against the farmer by his own improvements, or by the will of a landlord. A tenant at a quit rent is, to all intents and purposes, a proprietor; a copyholder is not less so than a freeholder. What is wanted is permanent possession on fixed terms.’ Mr. Morley said not long ago, in his place in Parliament, that, as things now stand in Ireland, the landlord must become a rent-charger and the tenant a copyholder, a true utterance.

[150] ‘Principles of Political Economy,’ book ii. chap. ii. p. 6. I may refer, too, to these pregnant remarks of Bentham (‘Theory of Legislation,’ chap, xv.): ‘The principle of security requires that reform should be attended with complete indemnity.... I cannot yet quit the subject, for the establishment of the principle of security demands that error should be pursued in all its retreats.... The interest of individuals, it is said, ought to yield to the public interest; but what does that mean? Is not one individual as much a part of the public as another? The public interest which you introduce as a person is only an abstract term; it represents nothing but the mass of individual interests.... Individual interests are the only real interests. Take care of the individuals; never molest them, never suffer any one to molest them, and you will have done enough for the public.... I shall conclude by a general observation of great importance. The more the principle of property is respected, the stronger hold it takes on the popular mind. Slight attacks on this principle prepare the way for heavier ones. A long time has been necessary to carry property to the point where we now see it in civilised societies; but a fatal experience has shown with what facility it may be shaken, and how easily the savage instinct of plunder gets the better of the laws.’

[151] For the constitutional position of the British and Irish Parliaments before the Union, see Hallam’s ‘Constitutional History,’ vol. iii., chapter on Ireland, and Ball’s ‘Legislative Irish System,’ chaps. v., xv. See also Lecky’s ‘History of England in the Eighteenth Century,’ vol. ii. chap. vii.; vol. iv. chaps. xvi., xvii. As to the financial position of the two countries, see the opening pages of each of the Reports of the Childers Commission.

[152] Grattan described this vicious state of things in his inimitable style (‘Speeches,’ p. 258, ed. published by Duffy): ‘The Union is not an identification of the two nations; it is merely a merger of the parliament of one nation in that of another.... There is no identification in anything save in legislature, in which there is complete and absolute absorption. It follows that the two nations are not identified, though the Irish legislature be absorbed, and by that act of absorption the feeling of one of the nations is not identified, but alienated. The petitions on our table bespeak that alienation.’