Letters from Ireland ... Reprinted from the 'Daily News.'

Preface

. These Letters were communicated to the ' Daily News' during my journey in Ireland this last autumn. A reprint of them, as a volume, has been asked for, and I now obey the call. My readers will take them for what they are — a rapid account of impressions received and thoughts excited from day to day, in the course of a journey of above 1200 miles. I have thought it best not to alter them, either in form or matter. There would be no use in attempting to give anything of the character of a closet-book to letters written sometimes in a coffee-room, sometimes in the crowded single parlour of a country inn, — now to the sound of the harp, and now to the clatter of knives and forks, and scarcely ever within reach of books; therefore have I left untouched what I wrote, even to the no tices of passing incidents as if they were still present, and references to a future already fulfilled.

PREFACE.

. The issue of the Letters in this form enables me to render one acknowledgment which I was rather uneasy not to be able to make at the time — an acknowledg ment of my obligations to the members of the Dublin Statistical Society and of the Belfast Social Inquiry Society, whose tracts, before interesting to me by my own fireside, were of high value in my journey, by di recting my observation and inquiries. They not only taught me much, but put me in the way to learn more. When I had the honour of meeting Professor Hancock in Dublin, and told him how freely I was using his ideas in my interpretation of Irish affairs, he made me heartily welcome to all such materials as might be found in his tracts, saying that all that any of us want is that true views should spread, for the benefit of Ireland.

He can afford to be thus generous ; and I, for my part, must request my readers to ascribe to him, and the other economists of those societies, whatever they may think valuable in my treatment of economical questions in this volume ; the rest is the result of my own observation, inquiry, and reflection, on the way. H.M. The Knoll, Ambleside, December 2.lh, 31852. CONTENTS. Page

Letter I. Lough Foyle And Its Environs

August 10, 1852. Travellers usually enter Ireland by Dublin; and Dublin being a good deal like other large cities, and having the varied population of a capital, there is so little that is distinctive at the first glance, that the stranger exclaims, " I thought I was in Ireland ; but where are the Paddies ?" The Paddies, and the true signs of the times in Ireland, may be better seen by dropping into the island at almost any other point of the coast. Eor some reasons, it may be well to begin by steaming into Lough Foyle, and landing at the famous old Derry, whose prefix of " London" seems rather an impertinence when one is fairly among the Paddies. It is true that, by entering Ireland from this point, the traveller's attention is first given to districts of country which have for centuries been ma naged by Englishmen, and largely peopled by Scotch, — it is true that the lands of the great London B corporations cannot be taken as specimens of Irish tillage and management; but it may be well to see, in the first instance, what the Irish peasantry can be and can clo in a region where the peculiarities of land proprietorship in Ireland are suspended or extin guished.

It may be well to see first some of the most prosperous parts of the country, in order to carry else where the hope that the use of similar means may produce a similar prosperity. There are quite enough of the Catholic peasantry dwelling on the lands of the London Companies to give the stranger a good study of the Paddies, and moreover to show what the relations of the " mere Irish" may be with the residents of English and Scotch descent. After entering Lough Eoyle at Portrush, we w'ere struck by the extent of cultivation on both shores. Fields, green or tinged with the yellow of the harvest month, divided by hedgerows into portions somewhat too small for good economy, stretched over the rising grounds which swell upwards from the Lough. Here and there are labyrinths of salmon-nets, marking the fisheries of the Companies.

Then follows an odd spectacle — a low embankment and railway, apparently through the water, near the south-east shore, enclosing an ugly expanse of mud or shallow water. There was a company established in London a good many years ago for the purpose of reclaiming large extents of land from the bed of Lough Foyle ; " and this is the point which the operations of that company have reached,— or, as we fear we must say, where they have for the present stopped. The undertaking cannot be LOUGH FOYLE AND ITS ENVIRONS. 3 called a failure. By the terms made with the Fish mongers' Company, that corporation was to have 500 acres of the reclaimed land ; and of this 250 acres have been cropped for five years, and have proved fertile to the last degree. This bit of experience has proved useful. Looking towards the Lough from any high ground for miles inland, one sees level tracts of a peculiar yellow or brownish soil.

These are the " slob lands," retrieved from the shallow waters. An tiquarians and naturalists are of opinion that this method of procedure is simply a continuation of what has been done for many ages, by natural or artificial means. The heaps or mounds of gravel, earth, and stones which are found scattered over the bog districts which are stripped of peat are called " derries;" and here, once upon a time, flourished clumps of oaks, rearing their heads over the forests of firs which filled up the intermediate spaces. Below the roots of the bog firs, now dug out for sparkling fuel in the rich man's house, and for torches or candles in the poor man's cabin, are evidences that the waters once covered all the low grounds, and that the habitable portions of the whole district were only the rising grounds and " derries," which were so many islands and promontories stretching out into a world of waters.

Thus the changes going on are not new, though proceeding more rapidly continually. The reclamation is not only from the Lough. The bog is incessantly lessening. Two thousand acres have been brought under tillage on the estates of one of the London Companies. There is plenty of lime in the b district, and the Lough furnishes any amount of sea shells for the carriage. As the peat is cleared off, the subsoil is fertilized by these means, and presently repays cultivation. To the farmers whose lands lie along rivers and railways it must answer well to im port coal, and spare for more profitable works the labour hitherto spent on cutting and drying peat ; but the people who live in the mountains, away from means of transport, will doubtless burn peat, and nothing else, till the bogs are wholly exhausted, — a period which seems already within sight.

After passing the salmon-nets we came upon a fine tract of woodland, on the north-west shore of the Lough, where it stretches down from the ridge of the low hills to the very seaweeds which the tide washes up. Some good houses peep out from among the trees. It was not till we had travelled some distance inland that we learned to appreciate that tract of woodland. The woods have shrunk and disappeared over whole districts where formerly they were che rished for the sake of the large exportation of staves, and use of timber which took place under the old timber duties. When the demand for staves died off, and even the Companies found that their own car penters could put down floors for them as cheaply by buying foreign timber as by employing labour in fell ing and seasoning their own trees, there was, for a time, a somewhat reckless consumption of wood.

But now the process of planting is going on vigorouslv ; and the last ten years have made a visible change. In the moist lands the alder flourishes, attaining a size LOUGH FOYLE AND ITS ENVIRONS. 5 which we never before saw. Larch and fir abound, and great pains are taken with oak plantations. Huge stacks of bark for the tanners may be seen here and there ; and the wood is readily sold as it is felled. The changes in the productions and exports are worth notice. Formerly there was much linen ma nufacture here ; but that is over : Belfast seems to have absorbed it. A good deal of flax is grown, and sold to Belfast ; but the clack of the loom is scarcely heard. Again, there was a great exportation of pigs and pork prior to 1846 ; but the potato-rot has almost put an end to pig-keeping. Scarcely any cured pork is sent out.

Live cattle are an article of increasing export, — the fat to Liverpool, and the lean to various parts for fattening. Almost all the oats and other grain raised are now exported, the people finding it answer to sell their oats, and eat Indian meal, which they import from America. One consequence of this is a marked improvement in their health. The dis gusting diseases which attended upon an almost ex clusive oaten diet have disappeared; and certainly a more healthy-looking population than that about Newtown-Limavady we do not remember to have seen. There is a large export of butter, eggs, and fowls. On the whole, the change is visible enough from the old manufacturing to the modern agricultural population; and it is very interesting to the observation of an Enghsh visitor. From the site ofthe new Cathohc chapel on the estates of the Fishmongers' Company a wide view is obtained, extending from the high lands of Donegal on the other shore of the Lough to the Coleraine mountains.

Within this space the divisions of the soil indicate pretty accurately the classes of its inhabitants. After the Rebellion, the victors drove the Catholics into the mountains, and the alluvial lands — all that was fertile and valuable — were taken possession of by the English and the Scotch Presbyterians. The arrangement was so marked and decisive that the mountain eers are called "Irish" to this day. For a long time past the " Irish" have been creeping down into the low grounds. At first, the Protestants emigrated in a much greater proportion than the Catholics ; and a Protestant farmer often left a Catholic substitute in his farm. Now, the Catholics are beginning to emi grate in much greater numbers ; but, as the Protes tants go on emigrating also, so that the total population is in course of reduction, there is more and more room left in the low country for the mountaineers, who find themselves able to come down, and hold their ground among the thriving Presbyterians.

We find here httle or nothing of the feuds which divide the two classes in too many places. We find, on the Fishmongers' property, schools where children of all faiths sit side by side on their benches, as their respec tive pastors do in their committee-room. The priest, the clergyman, and the Presbyterian minister act to gether, on the National system, in perfect harmony. Some zealous young priests awhile ago insisted that the Cathohc children should read the Douay version of the Scriptures. The clergyman and agent wisely consented, stipulating only that it should be the LOUGH FOYLE AND ITS ENVIRONS. 7 Douay version, without note or comment. It was presently found inconvenient to use it; the priests declared that really the difference to the children was so small as not to compensate for the inconvenience, and they themselves proposed to return to the use of the accustomed books.

No Ribbon Society exists among the Catholics in this neighbourhood ; and nothing seems to be needed in the way of precaution but a little watchfulness against infection brought by navvies and other strangers, and a careful impartiality between Catholics and Protestants in matters of business, and moderation in spirit and language on political matters, on the part of official men and magistrates. We find a Company building a handsome Cathohc chapel, and their agent presenting its painted window; we find the gentry testifying that, while the Protestants are certainly the more industrious people, the Catholics are more honest and the women more chaste, — facts which are attributed to the practice of confession by those who are best aware of the evils belonging to that practice. On the whole, Catholic servants are preferred as far as the mere domestic work is concerned ; that is, the female servants are Cathohcs.

But it is not denied that the very safest — those who are hving, and have lived for thirty years, on good terms with all their neighbours— do feel safer for having Protestant men-servants. There is enough of distrust — not of individual neighbours, but of the tyranny of secret organization — to make even the securest prefer for men-servants persons who are out of the reach of such organization. s

Letter II. West Of

ULSTER— WEEDS— LONDON COMPANIES— TEMPLEMOYLE AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL. August 11, 1852 By the time we had left Londonderry two miles behind us, we thought we had seen more weeds in a (juarter of an hour than in any whole day of our lives before. In every little field of oats — thin, scattered, stunted oats — there were long rows and wide parterres of wild marigold ; a pretty flower enough, but out of place in a corn-field. As for the turnips, they were as modest as the violet, hiding themselves under the shadow of bolder growths of weeds. The wretched potatoes, black, withering, and offensive, seemed to have poisoned and annihilated every growth within their boundaries; but in every enclosed pasture the weeds had their revenge. This is a proud country for the ragwort. In every pasture, as far as we could see, it grew knee-high, presenting that golden harvest which may please the eye of an infant, but which saddens the heart of a well-wisher to Ireland.

The stranger is assured, as to the marigold, that it is not a sign of the worst state of the land ; that, when the ESTATES OF THE LONDON COMPANIES. 9 land is getting exhausted, the marigold comes first, and after it the poppy. He is told, as to the ragwort, that it is a sign of the land being good, — that bad land will not grow it : no great consolation, where it usurps every other growth. It takes up all the potash in the soil, one is told ; and on it goes, taking up the potash, for anything that anybody seems to care. In one case alone we saw pains taken about it : from a corner of a field two men had removed a heavy cart-load, which they were going to add to a manure heap. At a distance of five miles from Derry there is a settlement which looks, from a little way off, neat and prosperous.

That is the beginning of the Grocers' estates. A few miles further, there is an enclosure which challenges observation at once. It contains a plantation, chiefly of fir and larch, drained in a style which makes one ask whom it belongs to. It is the beginning of the Fishmongers' property. These Lon don Companies remember that Westminster Abbey and Westminster Hall were built with oak from this county ; and they are disposed to enable a future generation to build immortal edifices of oak from this district. The outlying fir plantations are only a token of the interest taken by the Companies in restoring the woods of Ulster. For some miles forward the marigold scarcely appears, only peeping out humbly, low down in the corn; and the ragwort is nearly confined to the fences, — till, once more, both burst upon us again in full glory, in the neighbourhood of cottages whose thatch is sinking in or dropping off, B and of puddles covered with green slime.

We are now on an estate which lies between the lands of two of the Companies. What we have said of it is enough. What we saw shows that the influence of the Compa nies, great though it be, is not all-powerful in im proving the cultivation of the land in their neigh bourhood. The people who live under that rotten thatch, and beside those green ponds, dwell in sight of the slated cottages and the heaps of draining-tiles of the Fishmongers. The agent of the Fishmongers hopes to live to see every cottage on their estates slated ; and then, as now, we suppose, men will be botching their thatch on that wretched intermediate land, just as if there was no slate-quarry within an easy walk. Seeing these things, certain anecdotes about Irish tillage recurred to our minds. We remembered hav ing heard of the delighted surprise of a farmer who had scribbled or shovelled his field four inches deep, and thought he had dug it, at being shown that a rich loamy soil lay six inches deeper, — a mine of wealth which he had never opened.

We remembered having heard of the reviving spirits of some despairing peasants when shown how easily they might raise cabbages in the place of their perishing potatoes. We remembered how some who had agreed to try turnips, and had duly sown their seed, actually cried when their instructor began thinning the rows, and said he was robbing them ; and how they got no turnips bigger than radishes. Remembering and seeing these things, we inquired about the state and prospects of TEMPLEMOYLE AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL. 11 agricultural instruction, and particularly about the Templemoyle School. The Templemoyle School was within reach, and we went to see it. We wish that everybody who cares for Ireland would do the same. This Agricultural Training School was instituted in 1826 by the North-West of Ireland Agricultural Society.

The land belongs to the Grocers' Company ; and that and other companies, and a few of the neigh bouring gentry, supported the school till it could maintain itself. It is now self-supporting; but great good would arise from its being more generally noticed — more abundantly visited — and its merits be ing more generously acknowledged. A strong inter est about it was excited in England by Mr. Thack eray's report of it in his 'Irish Sketch-book;' and there have been more recent notices of it in reviews of that book^and elsewhere ; but it appears to us to deserve a more steady interest and observation than it has met with. One asks what Lord Clarendon was about, that he never honoured Templemoyle with the slightest notice, while in every other way promoting the great cause of agricultural instruction in Ireland.

He never came, nor sent, nor was known to make the slightest inquiry about the institution, during the whole course of his government, while exerting him self in the most excellent manner to send out instructors from the National Board and through private efforts. Perhaps he and others thus paid their com pliment to the great companies of Ulster, leaving it to be supposed that whatever was under the care of the corporations must necessarily flourish. But there is no kind of effort which is not stimulated by sympathy — no cause which is not the stronger for appreciation ; and it might be a benefit to the whole country if its due place of honour were given to Templemoyle. Public attention seems to be almost entirely absorbed by the plan of sending out instructors from the Na tional Board. That plan is good, and the service rendered has been very great ; but the Board farms are of a much smaller extent than that of Temple moyle, which comprehends seventy-two acres ; and the Templemoyle course of training must be the more enlarged of the two, in proportion to the superiority of its field of experiment.

The institution has sent out men who have written valuable agricultural books. It has sent out surveyors and civil engineers of merit, masters of agricultural schools, an editor of an agricultural newspaper, and land-stewards and agents, besides all its farmers and instructors in agriculture. The ' Quarterly Review' has complained of this as a practical failure, insisting that all the pupils shall be agricultural instructors, and nothing else, except by some rare accident. But, whatever may be thought of this, we have here a proof of the extent and depth of the education given, — an education which enables the pupils to be not mere common farmers, but scien tific managers of the land. By inquiry, we found the state of the case to be this, in regard to the missionary view of the institution.

There are beds for seventy pupils; and the place was overflowing before the famine reduced the means of the whole farming class. The number now TEMPLEMOYLE AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL. 13 is fifty-eight. Since the occupation of a large part of the missionary field by Lord Clarendon's instructors, there has been an increased tendency in the Temple moyle students to emigrate. No one can wonder at this, for they must feel themselves better qualified to succeed as emigrants than most of their neighbours who go out; and they do not like the prospect — so common for the last few years — of sinking at home. Now, therefore, during the present rush of emigra tion, about one-third of the pupils go with the stream. Natural as this is, it is a pity. The institution is not intended for the training of emigrants ; but we own we do not see how it is to be helped, while every class of the population yields up a large proportion of its numbers to the colonies or to the United States.

Of the remaining two-thirds, about half are believed to go home to their fathers' farms, or to settle on one of their own, or to follow other occupations, while the rest become, under one name or another, agricultural missionaries. In 1850 there were three hundred and two who were cultivating their own or their parents' farms. To us it appears that these young men are missionaries of a secondary order. To us it appears that the scientific cultivation of three hundred farms throughout the length and breadth of Ireland must be nearly as efficacious in the improvement of agri culture as any amount of instruction that could be given by lectures and itinerant practice, by the same number of men. We must remember how the influence of a resident improver spreads through his neigh bourhood, and how it is deepened and expanded by the circumstance of residence.

If, therefore, taking the number of students at sixty-three on the average, and the course at three years (though it is sometimes four, and even five), and allowing one-third of those who leave each year to emigrate,, we have, as the result of the Templemoyle training, seven in a year who go forth through the country as agricultural missionaries, and seven more to settle down as scientific farmers, or managers of the land iu one way or another. If this is not approved, or if vexation is felt at a small sprinkling of shopkeepers aud clerks coming out of the institution, those who recommend the pupils must take more care to ensure the devotion of their candi dates to agricultural pursuits. The pay, too, is very low — only £10 a year; and it may easily happen that a place is occasionally given as a charity, or to some hopeless youth who has never succeeded elsewhere.

But the very small amount of misconduct — the ex treme rarity of expulsion — proves that there cannot be much of this kind of abuse. The situation of the establishment is beautiful. The house stands near to the top of a steep hill, looking down upon a wooded glen, and abroad over the rich levels stretching to the Lough, and over the Lough to the mountains of Donegal and the grand Coleraine rocks. The path to the front door rises through gar den, nursery-ground, and orchard; and behind the house and offices the land still rises till it overlooks the whole adjacent country. The soil and aspect are unfavourable. To the young men it is certainly the pursuit of farming under difficulties ; but this is TEMPLEMOYLE AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL. 15 better for them than success coming too easily. The price given for the land was 10*. the statute acre, and the value is now at least doubled.

Besides feeding the whole establishment, the produce brings in a yearly increasing profit. We have said how low is the payment by the pupils. Yet, within ten years, there have beeu additions of new dormitories, an in firmary, washing-rooms, a museum of models of farming implements, an improved cow-house, and an ex cellent house for sheep, the introduction of which, with all modern improvements in the management of them, is an important new feature in the education given. The land is divided into nine portions, five of which are regularly tilled on the five-shift rotation, and the other on the four-shift. Every part of the work is, sooner or later, done by the hands of each pupil, the only help hired being for the drudgery, which would be mere waste of time when once learned. From the first attempt to plough a furrow or set a fence, to the highest skill in judging of stock at fairs and markets, the pupils are exercised in the whole of their art.

The art being pursued during one half of the day, the other half is given to the science. The mathe matical master is superintending the studies in school and class-rooms, while the agricultural master is. in the fields and yards with the other half of the pupils. Tlie cows and pigs are fine, and the sheep a source of both pride and profit. Lectures on agricultural chemistry are given, of course ; and some members of the establishment visit the great agricultural shows in all parts of the kingdom, to keep up with the world in the knowledge and use of all discoveries and imple ments. There seems to be nothing wanting, as far as the visitor can see, but the presence of a matron, or the occasional visits of ladies, to see to the opening and cleaning of windows, and some domestic niceties; and we emphatically declare the encouragement of a wider notice and appreciation of this highly important institution a matter of national concern.

It would be renovated and cheered for ever if Prince Albert, with his interest in agricultural improvement, would pay it a visit. And why not ? In some one of her healthful and pleasant cruises, the Queen will surely, sooner or later, visit the famous old Derry, to whose stout heroic loyalty once upon a time she owes her crown. May she come soon ! and then Prince Albert, and perhaps the Queen herself, will remember that Templemoyle is only six miles from Derry, and will go over and see the crops, and the maps, and the mu seum, and the joyful students, and will leave certain prosperity behind them.

Letter III. The Derry And Coleraine

RAILWAY— PRODUCE AND TRAFFIC OF THE DISTRICT— BEAUTIFUL SCENERY— WHAT CAN PUBLIC WORKS DO FOR IRELAND ? August 13, 1852. The impression which every day's observation strengthens in the traveller's mind is, that till the agriculture of Ireland is improved, little benefit can arise from the large grants which have been, and still are, made for public works. If public works which are designed to open up markets for produce should stimulate the people to the improvement of production, it will be a capital thing ; but, till some evidence of this appears, there is something melancholy in the spectacle of a great apparatus which does not seem to be the result of any natural demand. We saw yes terday nearly the whole line of the intended railway from Coleraine to Derry. If we had looked no further than the line, it would have been an imposing and beautiful spectacle ; but we saw other things which sadly marred the beauty of it.

Much of the benefit of this railway will depend on whether the Bann river can be made navigable from Lough Neagh to the ocean. Lough Neagh supplies a vast body of water to the beautiful river Bann ; and its shores ought to supply a great amount of produce. With railways from Belfast and Carrickfergus meeting at Antrim, and running round to where the Bann issues from the Lough, large districts will be put into communication with the sea at the north, if only the difficulty of the bar at the mouth of the Bann can be got over. Money is granted for building two piers. Some wise men assure us that they will be effectual ; while other wise men consider the opening of the navigation to be a hopeless matter. A small harbour has been made secure for little vessels at Portrush; and those who despair of the mouth of the Bann, wish that something more extended and effectual had been done at Portrush.

Whoever may be right, and whoever wrong about this, there is to be a railway from Coleraine to Londonderry : and, as there is one in progress between Londonderry and Ennis killen, the circuit will, by the help of existing rail ways, be almost complete. This Coleraine railway was originated, with sanguine expectations, by a company, a few years ago. Not only was the traffic expected to be great, but a grand scheme of reclaiming 20,000 acres of land from Lough Foyle was connected with it. These 20,000 acres, at a rent of £3 per acre, were to yield a revenue of £60,000, on the security of which money to any extent might be raised. Already however there has been a Go vernment grant of £70,000, and the proprietors are THE DERRY AND COLERAINE RAILWAY. 19 believed to have spent £200,000 of their own, while there is, of course, no prospect of money coming in at present, however well the project may answer here after.