The Land-War in Ireland: A History for the TimesGodkin, James
History
The Land-War in Ireland: A History for the Times
Godkin, James
Ireland -- Economic conditions; Land tenure -- Ireland
recollection of the oldest member of the congregation no rent had been
paid. Kent, however, was now demanded, and the parish priest agreed
to pay a nominal amount, which places the congregation at the mercy
of the office. Ground was asked some time ago to build a Presbyterian
Church, but it was absolutely refused. A sum of money was subscribed
to build a literary institute, but, though a sort of promise was given
for ground to build it on, it was never granted, and the project fell
through. Lord Hertfort spends no portion of his vast income where it
is earned. His estate is like a farm to which the produce is never
returned in the shape of manure, but is all carted off and applied to
the enrichment of a farm elsewhere. One might suppose that where such
an exhausting process has been going on for so long a time an effort
would be made at some sort of compensation, especially at periods of
calamity. Yet, when the weavers on his estate were starving, owing to
the cotton famine during the American war, his lordship never replied
to the repeated applications made to him for help to save alive those
honest producers of his wealth. The noble example of Lord Derby and
other proprietors in Lancashire failed to kindle in his heart a spark
of humanity, not to speak of generous emulation. The sum of 3,000 l.
was raised in Lisburn, and by friends in Great Britain and America,
which was expended in saving the people from going _en masse_ to
the workhouse. Behold a contrast! While the great peer, whose family
inherited a vast estate for which they never paid a shilling, was deaf
to the cries of famishing Christians, whom he was bound by every tie
to commiserate and relieve, an American citizen, who owed nothing
to Ireland but his birth--Mr. A.T. Stewart, of New York--sent a ship
loaded with provisions, which cost him 5,000 l. of his own money, to
be distributed amongst Lord Hertfort's starving tenants, and on
the return of the ship he took out as many emigrants as he could
accommodate, free of charge. The tourist in Ireland is charmed with
the appearance of Lisburn--the rich and nicely cultivated town parks,
the fields white as snow with linen of the finest quality, the busy
mills, the old trees, the clean streets, the look of comfort in the
population, the pretty villas in the country about. Mrs. S.C. Hall
says that there is, probably, no town in Ireland where the happy
effects of English taste and industry are more conspicuous than at
Lisburn. 'From Drumbridge and the banks of the Lagan on one side,
to the shores of Lough Neagh on the other, the people are almost
exclusively the descendants of English settlers. Those in the
immediate neighbourhood of the town were mostly Welsh, but great
numbers arrived from the northern English shires, and from the
neighbourhood of the Bristol Channel. The English language is perhaps
spoken more purely by the populace of this district than by the same
class in any other part of Ireland. The neatness of the cottages, and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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