Infant Burial Grounds in Ireland

After the horrific discovery of the mass grave of 800 infants at the Bon Secours site in Tuam there has been a lot of discussion about how, where and why untold numbers of infant corpses (and others who were not wanted) were so horrifically disposed of.

 There are many "Children's Burial Grounds" or Cillíní in Ireland, dotted throughout the country. They are unconsecrated sites (distinct from normal graveyards) where unbaptized infants were interred. Their age varies. Some are in waste land, many others (most of the "discovered" ones) are on the sites of ancient constructions like raths, cairns and ringforts. Most are unmarked. Some are yet to be uncovered, others have been bulldozed away.

 I have often wondered if the myths of "faeries" and curses surrounding ancient sites were told by adults to children, not wanting to tell them the truth, in order to scare them away from the graves of the infants and other outcasts who were buried there.

 You can find the location of many of these sites by using the National Monuments Service interactive map.

 If you go onto this map and select "Chidren's Burial Ground" in the search window you will find the location of many, but not all, of these grave-sites. You must search by county as there are too many (thousands) results to show if you search the entire country.

Sites marked as "Children's Burial Ground" in County Galway. There is a massive correlation between these grave-sites and ancient historical antiquities. In many cases the excavation of the latter led to the discovery of the former.

 This map, of course, leaves out the grave sites which are not marked on maps. Locals, in rural areas especially, may be able to point out unmarked "Cillín".

 Undoubtedly not all of the grave sites are as particularly horrific as the one in Tuam where infants seem to have died of preventable ailments such malnutrition (in other words sheer bloody murder). No doubt many infants buried in these graves died of entirely natural causes. Others will predate the mass grave in Tuam. Some will have had only a small number of infants buried there.

 Nonetheless, the existence of these hidden grave-sites is very disturbing and further investigation is needed, particularly of ones near former workhouses and "Mother and Baby homes". The site in Tuam is unlikely to be unique.

 Below I have embedded an article entitled "Outside of life: Traditions of Infant Burial in Ireland from Cillín to Cist" by Nyree Finlay. It was published in the World Archaeology journal in 2000. It is a very informing read and explores in considerable detail the practice of infant burial in Ireland, shining a light on a particularly disturbing aspect of Ireland's history.

Outside of life: traditions of infant burial in Ireland from cillin to cist - Nyree Finlay by Saoirse Go Deo

Save Croppies Acre! The Final Letters and Statements of Matthew Tone and Bartholomew Teeling

"Croppies acre" is situated just in front of Collins Barracks (National Museum of Ireland) in Dublin. Hundreds of "croppies" (United Irishmen) were buried here in a mass grave following their execution during the 1798 rising. Up to 300 United Irishmen and sympathizers (suspected or otherwise) are buried here, however we only know the names of a few. The most prominent of these were Bartholomew Teeling and Matthew Tone,  (brother of Theobald Wolfe Tone) who were both hanged at Provost Prison on Arbour Hill before their bodies were dumped into the "Croppy Pit".

Their resting place lay unmarked for hundreds of years and this disgrace finally came to a head in the late nineties when plans were drawn up to turn the site into a carpark for the nearby museum. Following a lengthy and vocal campaign the government capitulated and designated the site as a 1798 Memorial Park. Significant monies were spent developing the site into one worthy of that designation, and the result was very fine indeed.

Some 35,000 Euro was spent rejuvenating the site in 2011 and the displaced Anna Livia statue, formally of O'Connell street, was relocated to Croppies Acre. However since then the site has been disgracefully neglected and has as a result become a haven for anti social activity and drug taking. It is now closed to the public, with the gates permanently padlocked. The Memorial Park has seemingly been given up on and left to rot. 

The Seán Heuston 1916 Society recently took steps to raise awareness about this criminal neglect and their members carried out a clean up of the site. The pictures were shocking.

The OPW and the Dublin government need to take responsibility, clean up the site and reopen it to the public, subject to monitoring - perhaps CCTV would be ideal - with regular checks and maintenance. Memorials and graves of this nature deserve to be cared for, but this neglect typifies the attitude of the Dublin government to National Monuments the length and breadth of the country. Many, such as Moore Street and the surrounding 1916 battlefield site lie in neglect. They are even currently in the process of selling off commercial licenses and interests at historical sites all across the country - see here. This typifies the attitude of the Fine Gael/Labour government, profit is the bottom line and who cares if tourists are ripped off and historical sites are profit generating vehicles for private businesses? Obviously this needs to be opposed. Local and European elections are imminent and I would urge readers to press candidates on the issues raised in this piece. I would also urge people to raise these issues by contacting their local TD's (contact details here) and the OPW who can be contacted through the following: 

The Office of Public Works.
Head Office, Jonathan Swift Street,
Trim, Co. Meath.
Lo-Call: 1890 213 414
PH: (046) 942 6000
FAX: (046) 948 1793
E-mail: info@opw.ie

General Jean Humbert

Reproduced below are the final letters written by Matthew Tone and the final statement of Bartholomew Teeling. They give an insight into the character of these men, and I publish them here in the hope that they will energize readers, motivate them into taking steps to ensure that their sacrifice is not forgotten and their final resting place is given the care and respect it deserves. 

Both of these patriots lie buried in Croppies Acre along with hundreds more like them. Teeling and Tone were both part of the French landing in Kilcummin led by General Humbert. Tone's first letter gives some account of events.

Donegal Bay,

5 Fructidor (August 22nd),

6 o'clock, morning.

Dear Friends Gagin and Matty,

The day I embarked at Rochelle, I wrote to you, in the letter, I gave you account of our Force, but, as it might have miscarried, I shall repeat its contents. We are nine hundred Infantry, and about one hundred Chasseurs and Cannoniers, with twenty or thirty officers a la suite. We have, besides, three field pieces, six thousand stand of arms, and a very adequate quantity of ammunition. I should also mention a large quantity of helmets and odd clothing of various colours which the General found in the magazines at Rochelle. Pat will look droll in a helmet without any corresponding article of dress.

To come to our actual situation. Yesterday morning we arrived at the mouth of the Bay after a passage of thirteen days without seeing anything. We stood up toward .Killybegs harbour with a light breeze, and got within two hours' sail of our landing place when the wind died away. This is dammed unlucky, and has entirely deprived (us) of the advantage of surprise. The wind springing up contrary in the evening, we stood right across the bay to the County Mayo, where Killala, I believe, affords a place proper to debark. Night, and the want of a pilot obliges us to anchor in the middle of the bay. This morning, we are underway again, endeavouring to get into Killala, the wind not very good. I refer you to the map where you will see that we are both in sight of Killybegs and Killala Bays without the power of entering either - Pause here, my friends, and pay a compliment to my Patience, which suffers me to write in such a situation you cannot expect any coherency.

We are surrounded on all sides by very high mountains. If there is any aristocrat within ten leagues of us with his glass on the top of some hill watching our motions and sending expresses in every direction these are pleasant speculations. I hope the rogues won't have the wit to destroy all the fishing boats round the bay for we are in great need of some to help us to debark. We have not as yet seen a single boat round the bay; on dit that we shall be in Killala in a couple of hours. Our Grenadiers will debark in their own boats, and if there be any fishermen, the rascals shall be made useful. I have no more to add; you shall have a line from me written on the back of my hat, I have seen a print of Bonaparte in that attitude.

1 o'clock in the afternoon.

My Dear Friends,

I ask pardon of the Gods for having repined; we are clear in with Killala and have taken a little brig, a thing absolutely necesssary as our Frigates are too large to run close in. We have also some fishing boats. The pilot, who is up* [A United Irishman] gives us the best intelligence in the world. Scarcely any troops to oppose us and Jemmy Plunket is at the head of the insurgents who are up in the County of Roscommon ; we have also taken a Lieutenant in the Prince of Wales' Regiment of Fencibles, going from Sligo to Killala, to take the command, or rather to join a company of Infants there, ditto a gentleman of Sligo, with him, a yeoman. They, I believe, are aristocrats. I offered to lay a guinea that if we please, we will be masters of Sligo tomorrow, without firing a shot at six. God bless you. Postscript shall be dated from Killala ; en attendant I apprize you that we hear nothing of any other squadron having arrived. Burke considers this letter as from himself.

Killala. 6 Fructidor.

Yesterday evening we landed, and drove sixty yeomen and regulars like sheep before us, a few of our Grenadiers only were landed and engaged. We killed twenty and made a dozen prisoners. The people will join us in myriads, they throw themselves on their knees as we pass along and extend their arms for our success; we will be masters of Connaught in a few days. Erin go bragh.

M. TONE.

Alas this optimism was misplaced and their enterprise was met with disaster when they were defeated at the Battle of Ballinamuck. Matthew Tone and Bartholomew Teeling (a prominent United Irishman and Captain in the French Army, noted for, among other things, his heroism and bravery in the Battle of Collooney where he single-handedly disabled and captured a Britsh gunner post when he broke ranks, galloped towards it on his horse and shot the soldiers manning it.) along with hundreds of French soldiers were captured. The French were treated as prisoners of war but the Irish were tried for treason, in courts-martial, and executed. 

Here follows Matthew Tone's final letter, written after he found out that he was to be executed the following day, addressed to his legal counsel. Also a statement Teeling intended to read from the scaffold but was ultimately prevented from doing so:

28th September, 1798.

Dear Sir,

As I know from experience that suspense is the worst of all states, I hasten to relieve my friends from it ; the business is determined on - tomorrow is the day fixt.

I request that no friend may come near me - sorrow is contagious, and I would not willingly betray any weakness on the occasion.

Accept a thousand thanks for the interest you have taken in my affairs.  Farewell.

MATTHEW TONE.

Bartholomew Teeling

Teeling's statement;

"Fellow-citizens, I have been condemned by a military tribunal to suffer what they call an ignominious death, but what appears, from the number of its illustrious victims, to be glorious in the highest degree. It is not in the power of men to abase virtue nor the man who dies for it. His death must be glorious in the field of battle or on the scaffold.

The same Tribunal which has condemned me —Citizens, I do not speak to you here of the constitutional right of such a Tribunal, —has stamped me a traitor. If to have been active in endeavouring to put a stop to the blood-thirsty policy of an oppressive Government has been treason, I am guilty. If to have endeavoured to give my native country a place among the nations of the earth was treason, then I am guilty indeed. If to have been active in endeavouring to remove the fangs of oppression from the head of the devoted Irish peasant was treason, I am guilty.

Finally, if to have striven to make my fellow-men love each other was guilt, then I am guilty. You, my countrymen, may perhaps one day be able to tell whether these were the acts of a traitor or deserved death. My own heart tells me they were not and, conscious of my innocence, I would not change my present situation for that of the highest of my enemies.

Fellow-citizens, I leave you with the heartfelt satisfaction of having kept my oath as a United Irishman, and also with the glorious prospect of the success of the cause in which we have been engaged. Persevere, my beloved countrymen. Your cause is the cause of Truth. It must and will ultimately triumph."

Jack Bennett's introductory essay to "Freedom The Wolfe Tone Way"

Jack Bennett's introductory essay to the book "Freedom The Wolfe Tone Way", written in 1972 by Seán Cronin and Richard Roche, is generally regarded as a classic example of republican literature. In it, in forceful style, he applies the basic principles of Wolfe Tone and the United Irishmen to modern Ireland and convincingly tackles a number of issues such as the "two nations" concept, the "principle of consent", protestant identity, sectarianism and the root causes of Ireland's problems. (See the contents page reproduced below for a better overview of topics discussed).

Bennett was writing from a very interesting perspective; a protestant from Belfast and the son of a senior RUC officer. A journalist by profession he was also involved in the Wolfe Tone Societies and in setting up the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association. He had a long association with left wing politics and was very critical of much of the Irish left who often sought to hide from the national question or support the status quo by scorning the national issue as being "sectarian" and something below them. Correctly, he viewed this position as adopting - unconsciously or otherwise - a pro-imperialist stance, one incompatible with the fundamentals of socialism. Although written in 1972 his essay is just as relevant today, perhaps even more so given the political developments and the amount of traction many of the concepts he criticizes have gained. 

Jack Bennett passed away in 2000. 

"Freedom The Wolfe Tone Way" is itself an excellent read with an extensive selection of Wolfe Tone's own writings as well as contemporary analysis. It certainly lives up to the claim on it's rear cover; 

"The complete book about Wolfe Tone for the times, This is a book FOR these turbulent times. It brings slap-up-to-date the enduring message of brotherhood which Tone bequeathed us, and relates that message to the problems of Ireland in the seventies.

And it lets Wolfe Tone himself do most of the talking"

Unfortunately the book is long out of print and is hard to come by. However I feel that Bennett's essay is very incisive, thought provoking and worth reading, especially in today's context, so I have scanned it and embedded it below. You can download a searchable PDF file of Bennett's essay from the Scribd website at this link. If anyone would like it in a different format (EPUB, text etc) just leave a comment below. 

Wolfe Tone's Speech From The Dock

This week (19th November) marks the 215th anniversary of Theobald Wolfe Tone's death. To mark this occasion here is the speech he made from the dock during his trial by court martial in which he defends his actions and explains his motives.

Proclamation of the Irish Republic, 1867

Fenian Flag, 1867. Note the American influence.

The Irish People of the World;

 We have suffered centuries of outrage, enforced poverty, and bitter misery. Our rights and liberties have been trampled on by an alien aristocracy, who treating us as foes, usurped our lands, and drew away from our unfortunate country all material riches. The real owners of the soil were removed to make room for cattle, and driven across the ocean to seek the means of living, and the political rights denied to them at home, while our men of thought and action were condemned to loss of life and liberty. But we never lost the memory and hope of a national existence. We appealed in vain to the reason and sense of justice of the dominant powers.

 Our mildest remonstrance's were met with sneers and contempt. Our appeals to arms were always unsuccessful.

 Today, having no honourable alternative left, we again appeal to force as our last resource. We accept the conditions of appeal, manfully deeming it better to die in the struggle for freedom than to continue an existence of utter serfdom.

 All men are born with equal rights, and in associating to protect one another and share public burdens, justice demands that such associations should rest upon a basis which maintains equality instead of destroying it.

 We therefore declare that, unable longer to endure the curse of Monarchical Government, we aim at founding a Republic based on universal suffrage, which shall secure to all the intrinsic value of their labour.

 The soil of Ireland, at present in the possession of an oligarchy, belongs to us, the Irish people, and to us it must be restored.

 We declare, also, in favour of absolute liberty of conscience, and complete separation of Church and State.

 We appeal to the Highest Tribunal for evidence of the justness of our cause. History bears testimony to the integrity of our sufferings, and we declare, in the face of our brethren, that we intend no war against the people of England – our war is against the aristocratic locusts, whether English or Irish, who have eaten the verdure of our fields – against the aristocratic leeches who drain alike our fields and theirs.

 Republicans of the entire world, our cause is your cause. Our enemy is your enemy. Let your hearts be with us. As for you, workmen of England, it is not only your hearts we wish, but your arms. Remember the starvation and degradation brought to your firesides by the oppression of labour. Remember the past, look well to the future, and avenge yourselves by giving liberty to your children in the coming struggle for human liberty.

 Herewith we proclaim the Irish Republic.

 The Provisional Government.

Above: Fenian bond issued in America to fund the Fenian Rising of 1867; "redeemable six months after the ackowledgement of the Independence of the Irish Nation". The rising ultimately failed but an Irish Republic was declared.

John Mitchel: Extract from 'The Last Conquest of Ireland (Perhaps)' pertaining to the Famine

The following is an extract from John Mitchel's work "The Last Conquest of Ireland (Perhaps)" (1876). It deals with the policies and actions of the British in the decades leading up to the Famine - and how the mass starvation was a culmination of British policy. 

______________________________________________________________________

In 1843, the Government sent forth one of their endless "Commissions" the famous "Landlord and Tenant Commission" to travel through Ireland, collect evidence, and report on the relations of landlord and tenant in Ireland. In '44 it travelled and investigated; and the next year its report came out in four great volumes. The true function and object of this Commission was to devise the best means of getting rid of what Englishmen called "the surplus population" of Ireland. Ever since the year 1829, the year of Catholic Emancipation, British policy had been directing itself to this end. We shall see how it worked.

As a condition of Catholic Emancipation, the "forty shilling franchise" had been abolished, so that the privilege of voting for members of Parliament should be taken away from the great mass of the Catholic peasantry. This low franchise had theretofore induced landlords (for the sake of securing political power), to subdivide farms and create voters. The franchise abolished, there was no longer any political use for the people; and it happened about the same time that new theories of farming became fashionable. "High farming" was the word. There was to be more grazing, more green cropping; there were to be larger farms; and more labour was to be done by horses and by steam. But consolidation of many small farms into one large one could not be effected without clearing off the "surplus population;" and then, as there would be fewer mouths to be fed, so there would be more produce for export to England. The clearance system, then, had begun in 1829, and had proceeded with great activity ever since; and as the tenants were almost all tenants-at-will, there was no difficulty in this, except the expense.

The Code of Cheap Ejectment was therefore improved for the use of Irish landlords. As the laws of England and of Ireland are extremely different in regard to franchise and to land-tenure; and as the Ejectment-laws were invented exclusively for Ireland, to clear off the "surplus population," I shall give a short account of them.

There had been an Act of George the Third (1815) providing that in all cases of holdings, the rent of which was under £20 - this included the whole class of small farms - the Assistant Barrister at Sessions (the County Judge) could make a decree at the cost of a few shillings to eject any man from house and farm. Two years after, the proceedings in ejectment were still further simplified and facilitated, by an Act making the sole evidence of a landlord or his agent sufficient testimony to ascertain the amount of rent due.

By another Act of the first year of George the Fourth, it was declared that the provisions of the cheap Ejectment Act "had been found highly beneficial" (that is to say, thousands of farms had been cleared off) -"and it was desirable that same should be extended." 

Thereupon it was enacted that the power of summary ejectment at Quarter Sessions should apply to all holdings at less than £50 rent; and, by the same statute, the cost of procuring ejectments was still farther reduced. In the reigns of George the Fourth and Victoria, other Acts were made for the same purpose, so that the cost and trouble of laying waste a townland and levelling all its houses, had come to be very trifling. It must be admitted that there is cheap justice in Ireland, at least for some people.

In many parts of the island extermination of the people had been sweeping. At every Quarter Sessions, in every county, there were always many ejectments; and I have seen them signed by Assistant-Barristers by hundreds in one sheaf. They were then placed in the hands of bailiffs and police, and came down upon some devoted townland with more terrible destruction than an enemy's sword and torch. Whole neighbourhoods were often thrown out upon the highways in winter, and the homeless creatures lived for a while upon the charity of neighbours; but this was dangerous, for the neighbours were often themselves ejected for harbouring them. Some landlords contracted with emigration companies to carry them to America "for a lump sum," according to the advertisements I cited before. Others did not care what became of them; and hundreds and thousands perished every year, of mere hardship.

All this seems a tale of incredible horror. But there are in these United States, this moment, at least one million of persons, each of whom knows the truth of every word I have written, and could add to my general statement, circumstances of horror and atrocity, that might make one tremble with rage as he reads.

The Irish are peculiarly attached to their homesteads; and, like all people of poetic temperament, surround their homes and hearths with more tender associations than a race of duller perception could understand. Take, from a volume published in '44, one ejectment tableau;

"Having swept from every corner towards the door, she now took the gatherings by handfuls, and flung them high into the air, to be scattered by the winds. Having next procured some salt upon a plate, she went again through every part of the dwelling, turning the salt over and over with her fingers as she went. This lustral visit finished, she divided the salt into separate parcels, which she handed to those without, with directions for its farther distribution."She now wrenched from the threshold the horse shoe which the Irish peasantry generally nail upon it, imputing to it some mystic influence; after which, standing erect, with one foot within the house and the other outside, she signed the sign of the Cross on her brow and on her breast. This strange ceremony was concluded by a sweeping motion of the hand towards the open air, and a similar one in the contrary direction, attended by a rapid movement of the lips, as though she muttered some conjuration. A reverent inclination of her body followed, and again she made the holy sign; then, drawing herself up to her full stature, she took her place among the children, and, without casting a look upon the desecrated cabin, she departed from the place."

It is but fair to tell, that sometimes an ejecting landlord or agent was shot by desperate, houseless men. What wonder? There were not half enough of them shot. If the people had not been too gentle, forgiving, and submissive, their island could never have become a horror and scandal to the earth.

There was a "Poor Law" in Ireland since 1842 - a law which had been forced on the country against its will, on the recommendation of an English tourist (one Nichols); and workhouses, erected under that law, received many of the exterminated people. But it is a strangely significant fact, that the deaths by starvation increased rapidly from the first year of the poor law. The Report of the Census Commissioners, for 1851, declares that, while in 1842 the deaths registered as deaths by famine amounted to 187, they increased every year, until the registered deaths in 1845 were 516. The "registered" deaths were, perhaps, one-tenth of the unregistered deaths by mere hunger.

Such, then, was the condition of Ireland in 1844-5; and all this before the "Famine."

Now, the "Landlord and Tenant Commission" began its labours in '44. The people were told to expect great benefits from it. The Commissioners, it was diligently given out, would inquire into the various acknowledged evils that were becoming proverbial throughout Europe and America; and there were to be parliamentary "ameliorations." This Commission looked like a deliberate fraud from the first. It was composed entirely of landlords; the chairman (Lord Devon) being one of the Irish absentee landlords. It was at all times quite certain that they would see no evidence of any evils to be redressed on the part of the tenants; and that, if they recommended any measures, those measures would be such as should promote and make more sweeping the depopulation of the country. "You might as well," said O'Connell, "consult butchers about keeping Lent, as consult these men about the rights of farmers."

The Report of this set of Commissioners would deserve no more especial notice than any of the other Reports of innumerable Commissions which the British Parliament was in the habit of issuing, when they pretended to inquire into any Irish "grievance" - and which were usually printed in vast volumes, bound in blue paper, and never read by any human eye, - but that the Report of this particular "Devon Commission" has become the very creed and gospel of British statesmen with regard to the Irish people from that day to this. It is the programme and scheme upon which the Last Conquest of Ireland was undertaken in a business-like manner years ago; and the completeness of that conquest is due to the exactitude with which the programme was observed.

The problem to be solved was, how to get rid of the people. There was a "surplus population" in Ireland - this had long been admitted in political circles - and the alarming masses of powerful men who had trooped to the summons of O'Connell, and had been by him paraded "in their moral might," as he said, at so many points of the island, brought home to the bosoms of Englishmen a stern conviction of the absolute necessity that existed to thin out these multitudinous Celts.

One of the strongest demands and most urgent needs of these people, had always been permanence of tenure in their lands; - O'Connell called it "fixity of tenure," and presented it prominently in his speeches, as one of the greatest benefits to be gained by repealing the Union. It was indeed the grand necessity of the nation - that men should have some security -that they who sowed should reap - that labour and capital expended in improving farms should, in part, at least, profit those who expended it. This would at once prevent pauperism, put an end to the necessity of emigration, supersede poor-laws, and prevent the periodical famines which had desolated the island ever since the Union. It is a measure which would have been sure to be recommended as the first, or indeed, the only measure for Ireland, by any other Commission than a Commission of Irish landlords.

In the northern province of Ulster, there was, as before mentioned, a kind of unwritten law, or established custom, which, in some counties, gave the tenant such needful security The "Tenant-Right of Ulster" was the name of it. By virtue of that Tenant-Right, a farmer, though his tenure might be nominally "at will," could not be ejected so long as he paid his rent; and if he desired to move to another part of the country, he could sell his "good will" in the farm to an incoming tenant. Of course the greater had been his improvements, the larger price would his Tenant-Right command; in other words, the improvements created by his own or his father's industry were his. The same custom prevented rents from being arbitrarily raised in proportion to the improved value; so that in many eases which came within my own knowledge, in my profession, lands held "at will" in Ulster, and subject to an ample rent, were sold by one tenant-at-will to another tenant-at-will at full half the fee-simple value of the land. Conveyances were made of it. It was a valuable property, and any violent invasion of it, as a witness told Lord Devon's Commission, would have "made Down another Tipperary."

The custom was almost confined to Ulster. It was by no means (though this has often been stated), created or commenced by the terms of the Plantation of Ulster in the time of King James the First; but was a relic of the ancient free social polity of the nation, and had continued in Ulster longer than in the other three provinces, simply because Ulster had been the last part of the island brought under British dominion, and forced to exchange the ancient system of tribe-lands for feudal tenures. Neither is the custom peculiar to Ireland. It prevails in Italy, in Spain, in Hungary, in all Austria. In France and Prussia it has ripened into full peasant proprietorship; and nowhere, perhaps, in all Europe, is it denied or disallowed to the tillers of the soil, except in Galicia (the Austrian part of Poland), and in the three Southern provinces of Ireland.

Surely it was fair, it was not unnatural, that Tipperary should seek to become another Down; and if, throughout all Munster, Leinster, and Connaught, there was idleness and indifference to improvement of farms, who could expect it to be otherwise, seeing that if a man was so insane as to improve, to drain, to fence, to build a better cabin, his landlord was quite sure to serve him with a "notice to quit." In fact, on many estates those notices were always served regularly from six months to six months - so that at every Quarter Sessions the whole population of such estates was liable to instant extermination.

The people of Ireland are not idle.

They anxiously sought opportunities of exertion on fields where their landlords could not sweep off all their earnings; and many thousands of small farmers annually went to England and Scotland to reap the harvest, lived all the time on food that would sustain no other working men, and hoarded their earnings for their wives and children. If they had had Tenant-Right they would have laboured for themselves, and Tipperary would have been a peaceful and blooming garden.

Is the American mind able to conceive it possible that noble lords and gentlemen, the landlords and legislators of an ancient and noble people, should deliberately conspire to slay one out of every four - men, women, and little children - to strip the remainder barer than they were - to uproot them from the soil where their mothers bore them - to force them to flee to all the ends of the earth - to destroy that Tenant-Right of Ulster where it was, and to cut off all hope and chance of it where it was not? No; I can hardly suppose that an American is able to grasp the idea; his education has not fitted him for it; and I hesitate to make the assertion of this deliberate conspiracy. Take the facts and documents, and draw such inferences as they will bear.

First, then, for the Report of the Devon Commission. As first printed, it fills four stupendous "Blue Books." But it contained too much valuable matter to be buried, like other Reports, in the catacombs which yawn for that species of literature. The Secretary of the Commission, therefore, was employed to abstract and condense, and present the cream of it in two or three octavo volumes. This had the advantage, not only of condensation, but of selection; the Commissioners could then give the pieces of evidence which they liked the best, together with their own recommendations. Now, those volumes have been the Bible of British legislators and Irish landlords; the death-warrant of one million and a half of human beings, and the sentence of pauper banishment against full a million and a half more. It is worth while to examine so portentous a volume. It is called a "Digest of the Evidence," &c., is published by authority, and has a preface signed "Devon."

Much of the volume is occupied with dissertations and evidence respecting "Tenant-Right," which the North had, and the South demanded. The Commissioners are clearly against it in every shape. They term it "unphilosophical;" and in the preface they state that the Ulster landlords and tenants look upon it in the light of a life-insurance - that is, the landlord allows the sale of Tenant-Right, and the incoming tenant buys it, lest they should both be murdered by the outgoing tenant. The following passage treats this Tenant-Right as injurious to the tenant himself:

"It is even questionable whether this growing practice of Tenant-Right, which would at the first view appear to be a valuable assumption on the part of the tenant, be so in reality; as it gives to him without any exertion on his own part an apparent property or security, by means of, which he is enabled to incur future incumbrance in order to avoid present inconvenience - a practice which frequently terminates in the utter destitution of his family, and in the sale of his farm, when the debts thus created at usurious interest amount to what its sale would produce."

It appears, then, that it is injurious to the tenant to let him have anything on the security of which he can borrow money; a theory which the landlords would not relish if applied to themselves. Further, the Commissioners declare that this Tenant-Right is enjoyed without any exertion on the part of tenants. Yet they have, in all cases, either created the whole value of it in the sweat of their brows, or bought it from those who did so create it.

The Commissioners "foresee some danger to the just rights of property, from the unlimited allowance of this Tenant-Right.'' But they suggest a substitute: "Compensation for future improvements;" surrounding, however, that suggestion with difficulties which have prevented it from ever being realized.

Speaking of the consolidation of farms, they say:

"When it is seen in the evidence, and in the return of the size of the farms, how small those holdings are, it cannot be denied that such a step is absolutely necessary."

And then, as to the people whom it is thus "necessary" to eject, they say:

"Emigration is considered by the committee to be peculiarly applicable as a remedial measure."

They refer to one of their Tables (No. 95, p. 564), where;

"The calculation is put forward, showing that the consolidation of the small holdings up to eight acres [An Irish acre is to an English one in the proportion of eight to five, nearly.] would require the removal of about one hundred and ninety-two thousand three hundred and sixty-eight families."

That is, the removal of about one million of persons.

Such was the Devon programme: Tenant-Right to be disallowed; one million of people to be removed, that is, swept out on the highways, where their choice would be America, the poor-house, or the grave. We shall see with what accuracy the details were carried out in practice.

The "Integrity of the Empire" was to be menaced no more by half-million Tara meetings: those ordered masses of the "Irish Enemy," with their growing enthusiasm, their rising spirit, and their yet more dangerous discipline, were to be thinned, to be cleared off: but all in the way of "amelioration." They were to be ameliorated out of their lives: there was to be a battue of benevolence. Both government and landlords had been thoroughly frightened by that vast parade of a nation: and they knew they had only been saved by O'Connell and his Peace-principle: and O'Connell was not immortal.

When I say there was a conspiracy of landlords and legislators to destroy the people, it would be unjust, as it is unnecessary, to charge all members of the Queen's Government, or all or any of the Devon Commissioners, with a privity to that design. Sir Robert Peel knew how Irish landlords would inquire, and what report they would make, just as well as he knew what verdict a jury of Dublin Orangemen would give. Sir Robert Peel had been Irish Secretary. He knew Ireland well; he had been Prime Minister at the time of Catholic Emancipation; and he had taken care to accompany that measure with another, disfranchising all the small farmers in Ireland. This disfranchisement, as before explained, had given a stimulus and impetus to the clearance system. He had helped it by cheap Ejectment Acts. But it had not worked fast enough.