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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Gentlemen , I will tell you what those absentees ought particularly to do they ought to promote the establishment of houses of refuge , houses of industry , school houses , and set the example upon their own estates , of build _ Ing decent cottages , so that the Irish peasant may have , at least , the comforts of an c * English sow ; " for an English farmer would refuse to eat the flesh of
a hog , so lodged and fed as an Irish peasant is . Are the farms of an English landholder out of lease , or his cottages in a state of dilapidation ? he rebuilds every one of them for his tenants ,
or he covenants to supply them with materials for the purpose * But how are matters conducted in this country ? "Why , if there is a house likely to fall into ruins , upon an expiring lease , the new rack-rent tenant muse rebuild it
himself : and can you wonder if your plantations are visited for the purpose , or if your young trees are turned into p ' ough handles , spade handles , or roofs for their cabins ? They are more than Egyptian task-masters , who call for bricks without furnishing a supply of
straw . Again , I say , that those occasional absentees ought to come home , and not remain abroad , resting upon the local manager , a species of * c locum tejiens ' upon the Grand Jury . They should reside upon their estates , and come forward with every possible improvement for the country .
I do not propose that you should expect any immediate amendment or public benefit from the plans suggested for the education of the poor . It is in vain to flatter yourselves that you can improve their minds if you neglect their bodies . Where have you ever heard of a people desirous of education , who had not clothes to cover them , or bread
to eat ? I have never known that any people , under such circumstances , had any appetite for moral instruction . So much , gentlemen , for landlords , permanent and occasional absentees . You should begin the necessary reformat ion . You now enjoy comforts and tranquillity , after seasons of storms
and fever , and disturbance . The comparative blessings of this contrast should make you anxious to keep your county tranquil . If your farms fall out of lease , set them not up to be let by public auction—encourage your tenantry to build comfortable dwellings for tliemB « lr « B—give them a property
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in their farms , and ean interest huh ? peace of the county . These are the remedies for the discontents of the people—they will be found mucb better than the cord and the gibbet . There may be other causes of discontent in other counties . Those I
have mentioned may not apply x 0 your county . If they did apply , \ would not shrink from exposing them-I would not now , when advanced in life , and uninfluenced by any hopes or fears ; for , whilst I was young , I was equally careless of the smiles and frowns of men in power .
Gentlemen , I had an opportunity of urging some of these topics npoa the attention of a distinguished personage—1 mean Lord Redesdale , who filled the high office © f Lord Chaneel lor here some years ago . I was then at the bar . His lordship did me the honour of a visii , after I had returned from circuit—at a time when
raaay alarms , of one kind or another , floated in this country . He was pleased to require my opinion of th « state of the country ; I averred , that I thought it was as tranquil as ever it had been ; but I did ask his
permission to suggest certain measures ) which , in my opinion , would go very far towards allaying the discontents of the people . One of those measurei was , a reform of the magistracy in Ireland—another was , a commutation of tythes , if it could be satisfactorily effected—a third was , the suppression of the home consumption of whisky , and the institution of a wholesome
malt liquor in its stead . I requested his lordship to recollect , that Hogarth ' s print of " Gin- Alley" is an unerring witness to testify what the English people would now be , if they had nothing but a pernicious spirituous liquor to drink . A man who drinks to excess of a malt liquor , becomes only stupified , and he sleeps it off ; but he whose intoxication arises from
those spirituous ( which , we know , arc too often adulterated by the most poisonous ingredients ) , adds only fever to his strength . Thus the unfortunale peasant in Ireland ig maddened , in *
stead of being invigorated ; and he starts out into acts of riot and disturbance , like a furious wild beast , let loose upon the community . —I t 0 ^ the freedom to add , " Reform t " magistracy of Ireland , my X-ord . Yo *
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654 Judge Fletcher ' s Charge .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1814, page 654, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2445/page/66/
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