Besides the repeal of the protecting and countervailing duties, and the reduction of the custom and excise duties, it would be of the greatest advantage to Ireland were the reduced excise duties collected in such a way as would permit the business of distilling, brewing, malting, tanning, &c. to be conducted on a small scale. Such was the case in Ireland thirty years ago. But the persons who were then intrusted with the management of the Irish revenue, determined, whether from ignorance or corruption has never been clearly ascertained, to place all works subject to excise duties in the hands of large capitalists. To effect this object, laws were passed which regulated the mannner in which duties should be charged, in such a way as rendered it impossible for any one who had not a large capital to continue in the trade. "The smaller class of distillers, brewers, tanners, &c. were, in consequence, driven from their business, and mostly ruined; and many of the remoter districts of the country were thus deprived of a market for their produce, and could not, without great difficulty, obtain supplies of spirits, beer, leather, &c.* A strong temptation was thus created to engage in the trade of illicit distillation-a temptation which the present exorbitant duties, and the system of town-land fines, has rendered altogether irresistible. In 1807, the commissioners appointed to inquire into the fees, emoluments, &c. of public offices in Ireland, in their report on the excise, calculated, that one-third part of the spirits consumed in Ireland was illegally distilled! To put a stop to this illegal traffic, and to check the prevalence of those predatory and lawless habits which always mark the character of the smuggler, the simple and obvious plan was, to have reduced the duty on legally distilled spirits, and to have collected them in such a way as would have broken down the monopoly of the large distillers, and enabled smaller capitalists to set up distilleries in the remote and less frequented districts of the country. But ministers resolved to go to work differently. Instead of attempting to put down illicit distillation by rendering it unprofitable, they resolved to suppress 'it by the strong hand of power—to make the vengeance of the law counteract a crime, all the temptations to indulge in which were left unimpaired! In pursuance of this insensate scheme, they devised a system of unequalled injustice and oppression—a system which involves both the innocent and the guilty in one common ruin. Besides the penalties inflicted on delinquents, including transportation for seven years, the novel expedient was resorted to, of imposing a heavy fine upon every parish, town-land, manor-land, or lordship, in which an unlicensed still, or part of a still, should be found! There is no defence against the fine, unless the defender can prove that the articles were not found, or that they were left for the purpose of subjecting him to the fine. The most perfect good faith is of no avail; and many instances have occurred of magistrates, who had devoted their whole time and energies to the suppression of illicit distillation, being completely ruined by the fines imposed on their estates !

No one can regret that this infamous scheme has totally failed of its object. Instead of illicit distillation and smuggling being suppressed, they are now become almost universal. A large proportion

of the peasantry have been trained to live in a state of open and habitual contempt of the laws, and to brave their utmost vengeance. The tendency of such a state of things to promote secret combinations, outrages, and even rebellion, is too striking and obvious to require to be pointed out. In most parts of Ireland, no excise officer dare venture to seize a still, if he is not supported by a company of soldiers ; and bloody and ferocious contests are, in consequence, daily taking place between the military and smugglers. “The distillery system of Ireland seems, to use the words of a most accurate observer, to have been formed for the perpetuation of smuggling and anarchy. It has culled the evils both of savage and civilized life, and rejected all the advantages which they contain. The calamities of civilized warfare are in general inferior to those produced by the Irish distillery laws; and I doubt whether any nation of modern Europe, which is not in a state of actual revolution, can furnish instances of legal cruelty commensurate to those which I have represented."*

The Earl of Blessington, one of the Irish representative peers, and generally a supporter of ministers, in his letter to the Marquis Wellesley, corroborates all that we have here stated respecting the oppressive and injurious operation of the Irish distillery laws. “I have raised,” says his Lordship,“ my voice again and again in opposition to this system, but hitherto without effect. It is a system as injurious to the morals of the people, both civil and military, as it is tyrannical and unprofitable.” (p. 62.)

We have already demonstrated, that the reduction of the Irish Excise duties on spirits, beer, and other articles, so far from occasioning any diminution of revenue, would be among the most effectual means that could be devised for increasing it. But supposing we were wrong in this conclusion, ought so detestable a system of oppression and abuse-so fruitful a source of crime, outrage, and rebellion-to be maintained, because it puts a few hundred thousand pounds into the coffers of the Treasury?" If Mr. Vansittart declines answering this question in the affirmative, why does he not immediately introduce a bill for the reduction of the duties? He may depend upon it, he will never otherwise be able to relieve the country from the great and constantly increasing evils of illicit distillation and smuggling.

VI. Population. The late extraordinary increase of population in Ireland has, by bringing an excessive supply of labour into the market, contributed equally with the increase of taxation to depress the condition of the peasantry, and to prevent their acquiring a taste for the comforts and conveniences of civilized life. Seventy years ago, Ireland was one of the thinnest peopled countries in Europe, and now she is one of the most densely peopled. Sir William Petty, who surveyed a large proportion of the kingdom, and who had the best means of acquiring correct information, estimated the population of Ireland in 1672, at 1,100,000. It would appear, from a computation of Captain South's, that the population had declined, in 1695, to 1,034,000. By a poll-tax return of 1731, of the accuracy of which, however, conbeen committed to prison in the course of the preceding six years for illicit distillation, of whom nearly 4000 were convicted.

The Reverend Mr. Chichester's Letter to a British Member of Parliament, pp. 92–107. † Political Anatomy of Ireland, p. 17. edit. 1719.

siderable doubts are entertained, the population amounted to 2,010,221.
According to the returns of the hearth-money collectors, the number
of houses in Ireland in
1754, was 395,4397

2,372,634
1767, 424,646
Which, allowing six inha-

2,544,276
1777, 448,426

2,690,556
bitants to each house,
1785, 474,322

2,845,932
1788, 650,000
gives a population of

3,900,000
1791, 701,102

4,206,612* In 1813, a census was taken in several of the Irish counties; but, for some reason or other, it was not taken in others. In 1821, however, a census was taken in them all; and, according to the official returns, it appears that Ireland contains a population of 6,846,949; viz. Leinster

1,785,702 Munster

2,005,363 Ulster

2,001,966 Connaught

1,053,918

Total

6,846,949 Doubts may very reasonably be entertained of the correctness of the estimates of the population here given in the earlier part of last century. But these inaccuracies do not affect the general conclusion respecting its late unprecedented increase. Sir William Petty, Sir William Temple, Primate Boulter, Bishop Berkeley, and Dean Swift, all well informed and accurate observers, who wrote prior to 1740, join in representing Ireland as exceedingly destitute of inhabitants, and as being essentially a grazing country. To such an extent, indeed, was the pasturage system carried, that in 1727, a bill was introduced into Parliament, under the auspices of Primate Boulter, and passed into a law, to compel every occupier of 100 acres of land to cultivate at least five acres, under a penalty of forty shillings! As might be supposed, this statute had no effect. Cultivation was not extended, nor did the population begin to increase, until the relaxation of the penal laws affecting the Catholics in 1782, and the abolition of the restraints on the commerce of Ireland in 1784. A powerful, but injudiciously contrived effort was then made to stimulate the dormant energies of the peasantry. The Irish legislators thought themselves bound, by holding out factitious encouragements, to make amends for the partial and unjust regulations by which the Parliament of England had oppressed and fettered the industry of their countrymen. Their intentions were unquestionably liberal and patriotic; but the result has shown, that the best intentions, when not under the control and guidance of sound political science, may be as injurious as the worst. In vain was it urged, that, however advantageous in the mean time, wherever measures intended to promote the industry of any country, exceed the mere removal of such obstacles as prevent the accumulation of capital and the freedom of competition, they are

Newenham on the Population of Ireland, p. 94. Wakefield, vol. ii. p. 684. † Stat. 23 and 24 Geo. III. cap. 19. Vol. I. No. 4.-Museum.

2 S

sure to be ultimately prejudicial. All the machinery of the mercantile system was set in motion; and, in imitation of the policy of England, very high bounties were granted on the exportation of corn, and other raw produce. An extraordinary extension of tillage was the immediate consequence of this unnatural enhancement of prices. But the want of capital, and the consequent impossibility of finding tenants capable of taking large farms, obliged the proprietors to divide their estates into comparatively small portions. Large tracts of pasture land were broken up, and let in farms of from ten to twenty, and fifty acres; and thus the stimulus intended to act exclusively on agriculture, has had a much more powerful effect in causing the subdivision of farms, and in increasing the merely agricultural population of the country.

"Large farms," says Mr. Newenham, "of from 500 to 1500 and 2000 acres, once so common in Ireland, hold actually no sort of proportion to farms of from 10 to 30 or 40 acres. In the county of Down, Mr. Dubordieu says, that farms run from 20 to 40, 50, and, in some instances, as far as 100 acres. Such is the case in most other parts of Ireland. For several years past, the landlords of that country have been much in the habit of letting their lands in small divisions. Besides this, the cottier system, or the giving of a certain quantity of land as an equivalent for wages, prevails throughout most parts of Ireland. In fact, upwards of four-fifths of the Irish people are subsisted directly on the produce of the land which they hold."Inquiry into the Population of Ireland, p. 270.

Mr. Wakefield's great work contains much valuable information respecting the disastrous effects produced by this minute division of landed property, and the consequent rapid increase of population. But the length to which this article has already extended, will not allow us to make any extracts from his work. We cannot, however, resist laying the following quotations from the lately published works of Mr. Curwen and Dr. Rogan, before our readers. They set the evils of the cottage, or small farming system, and the necessity of counteracting them, in the most striking point of view.

"The size of farms," says Mr. Curwen, whose travels in Ireland were published in 1818, "from 15 to 30 acres, would give an average of about 22 or 23 acres to each. Portions of these are again sublet to cottiers, whose rents are paid by labour done for their tenants, from whom they sometimes receive milk, and some other ne. cessaries. These running accounts are an endless source of dissatisfaction, of disputes, and of contention at the quarter-sessions. In some of the most populous parts of Ireland, there is supposed to be an inhabitant for every acre, while the cultivation of the soil, as now practised, does not afford employment for a third of that population. The rents of the small sublet portions of land become so high to the actual cultivators, as to preclude all profitable returns from their labours. The population of the country is increased far beyond the capital of the husbandry em ployed in husbandry, and the supernumerary individuals are compelled to subsist on the produce of other's labour, to which they have no power of contributing." Dr. Rogan's excellent work on the Fever in the North of Ireland, was published in 1819.

"Throughout the extensive counties of Tyrone, Donegall and Derry," says he, "the population is only limited by the difficulty of procuring food. Owing to the universal adoption of the cottier system, and to the custom of dividing farms among the sons, on the death of the father, the labouring classes are infinitely more numerous than are required for the purposes of industry. Under these circumstances, they are engaged in a constant struggle for the bare necessaries of life, and never enjoy its comforts." p. 8.

In another part of his work Dr. Rogan observes

“Throughout this province (Ulster), the division of land is extremely minute, so much so as in some instances to appear almost incredible. I have been assured by a gentleman who possesses an estate on the northern coast of Donegall, that many of his tenants hold a portion of land, only capable of producing as much oats as fur. nish one-half, or even one-fourth of the straw required for fodder to a milch-cow during the winter, and that by this scale his rents are paid. The inhabitants live throughout the year almost entirely on potatoes, which they plant on the bog, and manure with the sea weed thrown on their shores; oatmeal being considered more as a luxury, than as a regular article of diet. The division of land fitted for cultiva. tion throughout the mountains of the interior, is not upon a much larger scale; so that the food of the inhabitants, even in times of plenty, is of the poorest kind which human beings can subsist upon; and, in seasons of scarcity, no substitute can be procured.” p. 93.

It is unnecessary to adduce any further evidence of the evils to which Ireland is subject from the too great division of landed property, and the redundancy of population. They are too notorious to be denied, and too serious and alarming to be any longer disregarded. It has been proposed, with the view of checking the present excessive increase of population, to prohibit, by law, the further splitting of farms. But so violent an encroachment on the right of property could not be submitted to. The same desirable object may, however, be attained by less exceptionable means. The high bounties on the exportation of corn, which were the first great cause of the subdivision of farms, have long since ceased to operate. But the abuses in the system of creating freeholds in Ireland, have had a similar, and still more powerful influence.

“ The qualification of freeholders is the same in Ireland as in England, a clear forty shillings interest for life; but as it is customary in Ireland to insert lives in all Teases, freeholders are created without the actual possession of property being considered as necessary, and their votes are considered as the right of the landlord.”Wakefield, vol. ii. p. 300.

So long as Catholics were excluded from the exercise of the elective franchise, this liability to abuse was of less consequence. But since 1792, when this privilege was restored to them, the system of creating votes, and of manufacturing freeholders, has been carried to an extent, of which people in England can have no idea.

“ The passion for acquiring political influence prevails,” says Mr. Wakefield, " throughout the whole country; and it has an overwhelming influence upon the people; to divide, and subdivide, for the purpose of making freeholders, is the great object of every owner of land; and I consider it one of the most pernicious practices that has ever been introduced into the operations of political machinery. It reduces the elective franchise nearly to universal suffrage, to a population who, by the very instrument by which they are made free, are reduced to the most abject state of personal bondage. I have known freeholders registered among moun. tain tenantry, whose yearly head rent did not exceed 2s.6d.; but, living upon this half-crown tenure, were obliged to swear to a derivative interest of 40s. per an. num. This right, instead of being an advantage to the freeholder, is an excessive burden, as he is obliged to attend elections at the command of the agent, often with great inconvenience; and is ordered to vote for the object of his landlord's choice, with as little ceremony as the Jamaica planter would direct his slave to the per. formance of the meanest offices."-Vol. ii. p. 301.

Mr. Wakefield has given several striking examples of the effects of this system. Down county, he tells us, contains THIRTY THOUSANB freeholders, who elect the friends of the Marquis of Downshire with out a contest.