cured the "pipe," they will not, surely, object to pay the piper. As for us, the day of our Destiny, or rather of our Deputy, is over; our Lord Lieutenant will be a Lord Left-tenant; our General Governor will be a General Gone-over; the Shamrock of Ireland must pale before the Tube-Rose of West Britain. It is a great bore, certainly, our being in future to be governed in this manner, and the manner of our being governed in future is a great bore!

Like Pyramus and Thisbe, the brother and sister countries, Mr. Bull and the Fair Hibernia will interchange their amorous endearments through a hole in the wall. ROBERT, the Son of STEPHEN, doth enact the part of Wall.

"In this same interlude it doth befal,

That I, one Stephenson, present a wall;
And such a wall, as I would have you
think,

That had in it a crannied hole or chink,
Through which the lovers, TAURUS and
HIBERNI-A,

Did whisper often very secretly.
This strong-cast iron and these rivets
show

That I am that same wall-the truth is
So,

And this the cranny is, right and sinister,
Through which the fearful lovers are to
whisper."

It is to be hoped, sir, that the whisperings of the great Mr. Bull and the fair Hibernia will be of the nature of the communications of Mr. JOSEPH ADY-"something to their advantage,” but not to the same No-purpose.

If this latest-found, though by no means best-beloved, measure of centralization, based upon the splendid "spread" of Stephenson-not that which we swallow, but that which swallows us-and the enigmatical numerals of Bradshaw, should be persisted inif Stephenson the Great, Bradshaw the Oracular, and John, the reverse of Great the triumvirate of centralize

union-" trios junctos in uno❞—should work out their apparent determination to carry our Lady to London," the effect will be this. This will be the effect. We have seen what iron, cast and malleable, can do; we shall see what iron, malleable and cast, cannot do. We shall see that hours of themselves neither unite nations nor separate them; Bradshaw, or any other enemy of mine, may write a book, but the truth will not be in him; John, or any other Minister of mine, may expound Bradshaw, but the truth will not be in John.

"We measure distance by the heart,"

as the charming HELEN FAUCIT_I mean the ingenuous MR. MARSTON, speaking through the heaven's gate of those charming lips, expresses himself. It is not in a baker's dozen of hours of intercommunication that union consists, nor in any dozen or half-dozen of hours, nor in "piperly" contrivances of whatever magnitude. If this were true, everybody that sits next to everybody must be in love with everybody!

When this tubular constitution breaks down, which I foresee, if attempted, it will, though the tube itself may last till doomsday; when Lord John, this second TUBAL CAIN, finds out, as find out he will, that his metallic conductors, however they may shock our nerves, have no power to affect our hearts, I would venture, however humbly, to intimate my new invention. This, I confess, has never been tried, but I should hope its startling novelty may not be received as conclusive evidence against its utility.

It is only this if you want to UNITE the countries of Ireland and England, "JUST CONSULT THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND."

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

J. F.

From the "Hole in the Wall," Phoenix Park.

In a back street in this city, where the footfall of the pedestrian is seldom heard, or the bustling barrister seldom seen, and far removed from the ordi nary courts of law, stands an unostentatious house, differing in nought from its fellows, as far as external appearance is concerned. Should the visiter's curiosity prompt him to enter, after pushing open the door that swings freely upon its hinges, and following a narrow passage, he will find himself in a moderately sized room, fitted up like a county court-house. There three judges, sitting upon elevated seats, preside; and from twenty to thirty professional persons-a few of them barristers, the rest attorneys-occupy the almost empty benches. The observations addressed to the court are short and pertinent-for they brook not long speeches and their final decision is immediately pronounced in language equally explicit. This, at least, is generally the case. Impressed, perhaps, with an idea that these are puisne matters of no public importance, he is about to retire to some more interesting spectacle, when he suddenly discovers that this is the INCUMBERED ESTATES COURT.

Of all the measures that have ever been passed for the improvement and regeneration of Ireland, none are likely to prove of so bold or so comprehensive a scope as the Act to facilitate the sale of Incumbered Estates. A superficial legislation had often directed other enactments against the eye-sores that emanated from the diseased condition of the country; but this act strikes deeply at their origin; it is co-extensive with the evils it is intended to remedy, and boldly grapples with them at their source. dispossess the hereditary owners of the

VOL. XXXVII.-NO. CCXIX.

To

soil, to break up gigantic estates, to apportion them among a different class of persons, to pay off the incumbrances that hang like millstones round the necks of the inheritors, to introduce new strength, capital, and life-blood into Ireland, to create a yeomanry class—a peasant proprietary, to sweep away the Chancery suits that have been accumulating in a multiplying ratio for years, to unfetter land and throw it into the market, to diminish absenteeism, to place the landlord and lessee in a more wholesome position, with new arrangements for the tenant, and a new system for the people: these, to a certain extent, are among the results likely to follow from this act. vital importance of the measure was, however, but little understood, even by its framers. It was looked upon more as a temporary expedient to meet a temporary emergency, than as a great and comprehensive plan destined to work a social revolution unexampled in the history of this country.

The

When we reflect upon the amount of land about to pass through the ordeal of the Incumbered Estates Court, its territorial extent, its pecuniary value; and when we consider the short time that has elapsed since the commission was first constituted, and the rapidity with which so large a proportion of the Irish soil has been brought into the court, it is natural that we should feel a desire to examine the social condition of Ireland at the time, in order, if possible, to ascertain by what agency so great and so sudden a change has been brought about, and how it has come to pass that the landed proprietors of this country, once wealthy and powerful, have been reduced in so short a time to helpless poverty.

In order to examine these matters

U

fully, it would be necessary to review the social condition of Ireland for many years past. But as this paper cannot extend beyond prescribed limits, we propose to trace as shortly as possible the steps by which this consummation has been brought about.

The evils which we have seen in our days are the results of many causes, all tending to the same point. It is not to the embarrassed condition of the landlords, nor to the potato failure, nor the poor-rate, nor the "Public Works "it is not to any one of these alone that the fall of the ancient proprietors of the soil can be traced. It is to a series of circumstances, extending over many years, and closely connected with the social condition of the country; with the statutes by which we are governed; with the executive administration of the laws; with the religion, the morals, and the habits of the people.

For several years preceding the famine the condition of this country was steadily improving. Farms were consolidated, substantial houses were built for the tenants, an improved system of agriculture, better descriptions of stock and farm implements were introduced, flax was receiving the greatest attention, and extensive works of drainage and

reclamation were undertaken. Such was the condition of Ireland in the year 1846, when the potato, the sole support of seven-eighths of the people, suddenly disappeared, and put an end to these progressive movements.

The principal obstacle to the progress and improvement of Ireland has invariably been attributed to the subdivision and subletting of farms; and the great outcry always raised against the landlords for adopting what was called "the clearance system," is a sufficient evidence that they, at any rate, were not participes criminis. It is difficult for persons not acquainted with the south and west of Ireland to believe that a gentleman's estate could ever be partitioned not only without his permission, but against his positive will, among persons little removed from the condition of paupers, and not even possessed of "a commodity of a good name." Yet such was constantly the practice in this country. A hut was raised in a night upon some remote portion of his estate; at first it resembled a thatched hay or turf rick; after a few days it was elevated into the re

semblance of a cart-shed, and gradually assumed the appearance of the neighbouring cabins. It was a point of honour with the surrounding tenants to conceal the fact from their landlord, and as soon as he discovered it he generally found that he had to undergo all the difficulties and expenses of a regular ejectment before he could dispossess the intruder. The fee-simple of the land, in many cases, would not have been worth the expense; and the odium that attached to his conduct in the neighbourhood was generally sufficient to deter him. All sorts of expedients were resorted to in order to assist the pauper in this praiseworthy crusade against the landlord. A patient ill of typhus fever was often placed by the road-side in a ditch; a few branches and a little straw formed a kind of shelter, and in process of time a small mud hut bid defiance alike to the weather and the landlord. Another expedient was often adopted, previous to the potato failure, by a tenant, holding perhaps a hundred acres or more, whose lease was within a year or two of its expiration. Such a person would often subdivide his farm, receiving large fines from the poor ignorant people, sometimes equivalent to five or even ten years' rent. And such was their intense desire to become the owners of a small lot of ground, that no friendly caution was sufficient to deter them from so absurd and ruinous a bargain. If there were no covenant in the tenant's lease against underletting, the landlord had no remedy; and even if such a covenant existed, a suit instituted shortly before the determination of the tenancy, against a party who had probably left the country, would, even if possible, have been worse than useless. The landlord had therefore, no option. He was obliged, at the conclusion of the lease, to bring his ejectment against the premises, and, though a just and generous landlord, to incur all the odium that should have been heaped upon another. Such were among the expedients sometimes resorted to where the landlord resided upon his property, or where an active agent filled his place. In the absence of both, or often with the connivance of the latter, affairs were managed in a more open manner. It was no extraordinary thing for a person who had gone abroad for his health or amusement to find his