the Church; had the conditions imposed by the victor been righteous? Love, home, happiness, her husband and her child-these had been the forfeits claimed, the tribute cast into the treasury of the Lord under whom she had elected to serve. Had it been a holy sacrifice of the baser human affections to the nobler spiritual aspirations? or had it been the cruelty of superstition—the inhuman blindness of fanaticism?

(The End.)

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A

THE WANTS OF IRELAND

T the present moment Ireland occupies much of the thoughts, but rarely the lips, of English Statesmen. With that which seems to me imprudence, they leave the public expression of the wants of Ireland, in this time of deep and increasing distress, mainly to Mr. Parnell. I will not hesitate to express my conviction that there is a lack of courage in this silence which is to be regretted. The only positive statement concerning Ireland from the mouth of a responsible Statesman has been that made by Mr. Bright at Manchester, to the effect that further legislation is needed with reference to agricultural land. I shall show that the state of Ireland calls for serious attention, and for the earnest application of legislative remedies; that to leave Ireland alone at this moment to seethe in discontent and disaffection is unjust and impolitic. No triumph can be more facile than that lately achieved by Mr. Fawcett. Yet, perhaps nothing could be more unfortunate than that the issue suggested by Mr. Fawcett should obscure the more generally accepted claims of Ireland. Nothing would tend more surely to forward the separatist movement than that English politicians should proclaim that the question of Home Rule is the only question between England and Ireland. Before putting the matter in the most disadvantageous and irritating form, Mr. Fawcett would do well to have regard to some of the grievances of Ireland, especially to those which are due to neglect, indifference, or injustice at Westminster. Surely the most evident dictates of prudence demand that we should first see what can be fairly alleged against the Imperial Parliament as regards its work for Ireland, before we enter upon the question of separate Legislatures.

It is this task which I propose to undertake. I shall not, within the necessary limits of an article, be able to make a complete statement, but I shall not fail to show that the material interests of order and of production, as well as the higher concerns of justice and equity, have been neglected in regard to Ireland, and that one of the most imperative obligations of Parliament is to undertake without delay the consideration of certain matters which I shall indicate in very imperfect detail. It may give me some claim to attention if I

am permitted to say that this is no new consideration with myself. From 1868 to 1874, when I conducted a daily journal having a very large circulation in London, I made some small efforts to obtain fair consideration for the wants of Ireland, and for this I was abundantly rewarded by the words of an Irishman who was but little known in England outside the House of Commons, but who, as a member of that House, won the respect of men of all parties, and was acknowledged, by those who regarded his strongest opinions as mistaken, to be admirable for the elevation of his sentiments and for the selfrespect which dignified his conduct-I allude to the late John Martin, member for the County Westmeath. Mr. Martin did me the honour to address a letter to me in which he acknowledged that my journal had been distinguished by a spirit of courtesy and fairness in dealing with Irish questions. I believe that spirit is active in the minds of a large number of those Englishmen who have taken thought concerning the immense importance to us all of the prosperity and contentment of Ireland.

Much has appeared lately with reference to the political action of the Irish in Great Britain; and when we consider what is their numerical strength in this island, I fancy that not only those who are just but those who are prudent will listen to their complaints. I have obtained from Dr. Neilson Hancock, of Dublin, trustworthy statistics which show that in the census of 1871, the persons of Irish birth in Scotland were 207,770 in number, those in England and Wales 566,540; making together a total of 774,310. This large factor in our population was, however, very peculiar as to age. Of the whole number of persons of Irish birth in England and Wales, only 67,616 were under 20 years of age; 498,733 were of 20 years of age and upwards. If the 207,770 of Irish birth in Scotland were in a similar position in regard to age, which it is reasonable to suppose was the case, there would be more than 184,000 of 20 years and upwards— making in Great Britain a total of more than 682,000 of Irish birth of 20 years and upwards. At the same time there were of that age in Ireland only 2,900,000 persons of Irish birth. The result, therefore, of Dr. Hancock's calculations is that of Irish in the United Kingdom, of the age of 20 years and upwards, considerably more than one-fifth reside in Great Britain. That is a fact which I think does not receive sufficient attention at the hands of some English and Scotch politicians.

To the circumstances of the present time in Ireland, arising in great part from the prevalent agricultural distress, I must make some allusion before passing on to deal with the general relations of land

lord and tenant in Ireland. The agricultural distress is enlarging, but indications of distress have been observed during the last three years. From the latest statistics relative to savings and poor-law relief in Ireland, we learn that the deposits and cash balances in jointstock banks show a falling-off of £1,554,000: from £31,745,000 at Midsummer 1878, to £30,191,000 at Midsummer 1879. The last preceding year when there was a falling-off in bank deposits at all comparable to this, was the very unfavourable year of 1863. The falling-off then was £1,422,000. The Trustee Savings Banks show a decrease in deposits for the first six months of 1879, of £92,000: from £2,208,000 in 1878, to £2,116,000 in 1879; indicating that the pressure which had affected bank deposits has reached the artisan and servant class in the 36 chief towns where these banks are situate. At Midsummer 1879 the number in receipt of poor relief, in workhouses and outdoor, was 6,156 above the number in the preceding year. The statistics of crime in Ireland continue to exhibit the well-known features. Serious crimes committed against property are much fewer in Ireland than in England, and very much fewer than in Scotland. The Scotch offences against morals are double the number of the Irish-281 as compared with 142. "In the most serious punishments," says Dr. Hancock, "the comparison of Irish with French, English, and Scotch proportional figures is as follows:

"(a) Those sentenced to imprisonment for one year and upwards were, for the same population in Ireland, 87; in France, 220; in Scotland, 241; in England, 266.

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(b) The Irish figure of sentences to penal servitude was 170; the Scotch, 198; the French, 284; and the English, 364.

"(c) In sentences of death, the Scotch figure was o, the Irish 2, the French 3, and the English 8."

With regard to the agitating question of reduction of rent, that cannot be treated as invariable, because agricultural rents are very unequal, and in no part of the United Kingdom so much so as in Ireland. The rent in Ireland is, unquestionably, in many cases largely composed of the value of tenants' improvements. I know of no part of Europe in which landlords have obtained so large a share of the fruits of the soil, and have done so little to promote and to increase the best cultivation and the produce, as in Ireland. In this respect Irish agriculture differs widely from that of England and Scotland. I do not wish to see the small farmers disturbed in their holdings: I would rather see their number increased. Ireland, with reformed and rational land laws, would be all the better for another million of agricultural population. I should like to see some of her

sons and daughters returning to retake possession of their fatherland, and I will presently quote evidence of the very highest authority, showing how and why this increase of population is desirable and would be advantageous from an economic point of view. But before going into that matter, which is connected with the general relations of landlord and tenant, it is desirable that there should be a clear understanding as to what it is, together with the immediate pressure of cruelly hard times, which almost disturbs the reason of the Irish farmer, and I will state it very briefly. In Ulster, if a tenant cannot pay his rent, he does not lose that which is equivalent to compensation upon ejectment. But over all the rest of Ireland, if a tenant cannot in these severe times pay his rent, he may be ejected, with loss of the compensation which Mr. Gladstone's Land Act awards for disturbance. Now, it is a fact, which may be read upon the face of that Act, that Irish landlords have a patent and plain interest in clearing their lands of the smaller tenants, while there can be no doubt that to these tenants eviction may imply a sentence to pauperism; and if they are evicted without compensation, the proceeding probably involves the confiscation of much of the work of their lives. The scale of compensation for disturbance to be given by landlords to tenants under the provisions of the Land Act decreases as the rent becomes larger; and while a landlord must give seven years' rent upon ejectment, except for non-payment of rent, to a tenant paying £10 and under, he gives only one year's rent to a tenant paying £100.

This condition of security in one province, and of insecurity in the other three provinces of Ireland, may be well illustrated by the case of Lord Headfort, who, I believe, is a good landlord, and who has lately, together with his agent, received threatening letters. That nobleman has two estates, separated only by the imaginary line which divides the counties of Meath and Cavan. A tenant upon his lordship's Cavan estate can sell the tenant-right of his farm; he cannot be ejected for non-payment of rent without such an amount of compensation as would enable him to emigrate, or, in any case, would secure him from destitution. But upon Lord Headfort's Meath estate, in case of inability to pay rent, the tenants may be ejected with loss of that compensation which the Land Act is supposed by some people in this country to have secured to them under any circumstances of disturbance. It will appear strange, no doubt, to many English readers, that the word "compensation" should be used in connection with the ejectment of a tenant who cannot pay rent. But the peculiar circumstances of Irish agriculture, to which I shall presently make fuller reference, will more clearly explain the