eir
condition, or their comforts, which the Irish tenantry desire, if those
are to be acquired at the cost of labour and exertion; what they wish
for are low rents, which they can easily discharge, without restricting
their pleasures or their amusements; _and the fact is, that from the
exertions lately made by the landlords to better the condition of their
estates, arises all the outcry_ which has been _raised against them_.
Had the old system been persevered in, it would have been much more
agreeable to the people. In their operations the proprietors were
necessarily compelled to dispossess some, because the ground they had to
dispose of could not possibly, if even given rent-free, support the
numbers of inhabitants upon it; but this distressing task has been
performed in almost all cases with the most extraordinary kindness; and
we venture to assert, that in the whole of the evidence laid before Lord
Devon's committee, _five_ well substantiated instances cannot be adduced
in the rural districts, in which rent-paying and well-conducted tenantry
were evicted; and _not one_ in which any tenant has been removed without
receiving some compensation--while what is pompously denounced as
consolidation of farms, amounts to having increased the holdings of the
occupants, in many cases, from a rood to two acres, "and in others to
the enormous extent of eight." But was not this change unavoidable?
Could the old system have been longer persevered in? Let us see the
opinion of the late Dr Doyle, Roman Catholic Bishop of Carlow, a man of
extraordinary talents, and perfect knowledge of the situation of
Ireland. Speaking of the necessity of preventing subdivision, and of
increasing the holdings to such a size as would afford employment and
adequate support to the occupiers, Dr Doyle says--"Had the evil gone
much further, the misery would of necessity have increased. It was,
indeed, essentially necessary to the good of the country that the system
should be corrected, and every wise man applauds those measures which
were taken for the correction of it."

As regards the humanity of the affair, sure we are that it is more to
the interest of the dispossessed to be afforded the means of going to
countries where land is plenty, and labour well remunerated, than to be
allowed to remain at home in squalid misery and idleness. Advantage was
taken of the dispossession of the people _under any circumstances_ by
the agitators--it was found to be a