YATES ON IRELAND.
LETTER IL TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.
IlorrisOkane, 5th October 1830. SIR—On My arrival here yesterday from a town on the Western coast of Ire- land, I found your last number, containing some comments on my letter to you in defence of my conduct as an Irish Member, which require an answer from me, as they are not only slashing and severe, but abound in misrepresentation and unfairness.
This letter is written at a small town, where, under the old Tory regime of 1829, the peasants, when gathered together at a fair or funeral, were shot like dogs (with impunity) on the slightest pretext : they could get no justice in those days. I have attended the l'etty Sessions this morning, and witnessed the happy effects of the change of system which has taken place under the new order of things ; producing content and satisfaction as regards the execution of the laws and a fair administration of justice. The faction fights also are in a great measure put an end to ; and those drunken broils which disgraced the fairs all through the country are prevented, by the vigilance of a police which is no longer composed of Orangemen, as well as by the opportunity which the weekly Petty Sessions afford of punishing promptly and in open court all persons who break the peace. The Stipendiary Magistrates attend all theee Sessions ; and the people generally have increasing confidence in them, as well as in the Unpaid Justices, who are controlled and assisted by them. Every month im- proves the character and constitution of these courts, as well as of the Magis- tracy in general ; and I consider it no small gain to this country to mature a system which is making the people submissive to and satisfied with the laws. This town is situated in the county of Tipperary; which my Radical friends generally, I believe, regard pretty much in the same light that they do New Zealand,—a country of bar banana who would eat up alive any Englishman who should trust himself amongst them alone. I wish, them efore, to apprize them, that my friends, whom I am visiting here, generally sleep with the doors un- barred ; and I would feel more easy in doing the name (if I had a residence in this part of the country) than I would in many parts of England. I am per. suaded, that if English gentlemen of fortune, who are employing their money in wild schemes and adventures at home, would visit these parts of Ireland, and make themselves acquainted with the real state of the country and the character of the people, they would see the wisdom of purchasing land and coming to settle upon and improve it ; in doing which, they would be splendidly remune- rated, and at the same time enjoy the pleasure of being served by the most grateful peasantry, who will do any thing for those who are kind to them, and of residing in the midst of the finest scenery of nature, on the most productive soil, and with all the advantages of excellent roads, good inns, and improving towns all around. But I will not longer digress from the purpose of this letter, as I am sure my friends in England and Scotland will prefer employing their thoughts and their money upon missions to Otaheite, or speculations with the Canadian Indians, to any adventure in land amongst the savages of Ireland. It is true that, in this county of Tipperary, there is still a considerable excite- ment kept up, by the severity and extent to which ejectments are carried on in some parts: every week farmers are turnd out of their holdings on account of baying voted for the Liberal Members; and the wonder is, not that the agrarian outrages are so frequent as they are, but that they are not carried into open rebellion and a regular servile war. An attempt has indeed been made to deny or to palliate these cruel proceedings; but the broad fact put forth by the Government, (in the temperate but firm remonstrance addressed to the Magis- traces in Mr. DRENIMON letter,) remains unshaken, that the conduct of the owners of the land is the great cause of the disturbances in this as in the other counties of Ireland. Oh ! that Englishmen would come and examine the working of this system themselves ; they would then feel why it is that the
Liberal Irish 'Members dread a restoration of the old Orange system of govern- ment.
But you say in your notes on my letter, that such views as these "prceluce
disgust rather than inspire sympathy ! as if Irishmen were destitute of every thing like manliness, self-reliance, mai even physical strength," &e. gce. lIy confidence in these qualities it is which would make me dread the consequences of a crisis such as I am contemplating. I have been appealed to when treading the mountain heath in company with these despised bogtrotters, whether they bad not better be shot at once or hanged out of hand, than submit to such treatment. I have been shown by the clergyman, the poor farmer who was on his way to shoot his unfeeling landlord, because he had no redress by ; but who gave up to his priest the deadly instrument, in order to retrace his steps to the cabin where his children found shelter from the pitiless oppressor in the bearts.of his neighbours, who are ever ready to share with the sufferer as long as any thing is left to divide. I have travelled the side of the barren hills, and seen numbers of these persecuted fellow.creatures scooping out an abode like beavers, with only the sand to lie on and the sods of heath to form the covering. Such is their sespect for the laws, that the poor peasants submit in the way I describe. I love and reverence them for so doing ; and I would do all vvithin my poor ability to extricate them. But it is not by open resistance that I will ever advise the poor oppressed peasants of Ireland to seek redress. They were goaded on to rebellion in 1798, in order to accomplish the Union ; and I be. lieve there are now many (of various shades of political opinion) who would be not displeased to see them try the experiment of physical force, in order to accomplish other selfish ends. If the Irish are forced into another civil war by the injustice of England, they will not be less courageous than they were in the last; but they will probably be more cautious, and by the aid of hush. fighting and ambuscade protract the dreadful strife to an indefinite period. having been unintentionally led away from the immediate subject in dispute, I request your kind insertion of this letter, as a prelude to what I have to say in answer to your remarks, and to reserve room for that reply next week. But I will in this letter divest the subject of a character which ought not to belong to it, in consequence of your insinuating that I became connected with the county of Carlow by virtue of some negotiations with Mr. O'CONNELL, which hound me to support his views and the measures of the Ministry. I accepted the invitation to stand as the Liberal candidate, without any other understanding or intimation or expectation, than that I should pay the neces- sary lawful expenses. Mr. O'CONNELL was no party, and did not know of it until it was settled ; nor has he ever had any ground to look for my support, other than the general knowledge he must have possessed of my great admire. tion of and respect for him as the political leader and adviser of his degraded and insulted country. You say I made professions, when I was a candidate at Bolton, of stern independence and strict purity, on which you say I have ceased to act. I beg to say, that I made no professions at Bolton or elsewhere which are in any way at variance with my practise at Carlow. I never professed to be a purist ; but I solemnly deny that there is any foundation for your sus. picions of corruption, either before or at the election ; and I assure you I am • in every sense as free and independent of Mr. O'Cos NELL, Or of the present Ministry, as I was in 1832, when you say I made those professions of putity and independence. I think I did not make any such professions, because I had not forgotten my repeated subscriptions to elections in Liverpool and elsewhere, where much money was spent improperly ; and I know bow difficult it is to prevent an improper expenditure in the heat of a contested election. But this
I will say, that a purer election never took place than that of the county of Carlow ; and if the freeholders of the English counties were as independent, honest, and incorruptible as they, we should not now be in the critical state in which we are. Yours respectfully,
J. A. YATES.
[The first portion of Mr. YATES'S letter requires no especial notice from us. He ought to prove—first, that the restoration of the Orange system of govern. went in Ireland is possible, in the present state of public opinion—and secondly, that the policy he supports is calculated to prevent the restoration of old Orangeism, which he assumes that the Tories in power would effect—before lie is entitled, in this controversy, to take for granted that a change in the policy of the Irish Members would have the wuful consequences lie points out. Mr. YATES represents us as saying that the philanthropic views with respect to the improvement of the Irish people, by the influx of English capital and in other ways, produce disgust rather than sympathy. It would really seem that, in touching these Irish subjects, every Ministerialist makes it a rule to misrepre. sent his opponent in argument—that a Minieterialiens capacity to distinguish between truth and falsehood is destroyed. What we did say was—" Some of the arguments ad misericordiam, urged in behalf of the seven millions by those who profess to represent them, are of a kind to provoke disgust rather than inspire sympathy," And the context left no doubt that we alluded to the slavish clinging to men rather than principles, for which the molten Irish patriots are distinguished. At the same time, we expressly disclaimed the application of such a censure to the Irish people. Mr. YATES denies that he obtained his seat for Carlow in virtue of any arrangement with Mr. O'Connell. Of course, we cannot dispute the correct- ness of Mr. YATES'S statement : he must know the truth. But we dal not infer the contrary without reason. Mr. O'Coare ELL was certainly, till within a very short period antecedent to Mr. YATES'S election, the person whose opinion with respect to Parliamentary candidates the Carlow Liberals made it a rule to obtain, and to which they yielded implicit deference. Moreover, we have a very distinct impression of reading the report of a speech delivered by Mr. O'CONNELL at Carlow, in which Mr. Yarns was announced as the future Member, in some such terms as these—" send Ashton Yates, is rich Eng. Lehman, to fight Bruen and the Orangemen." We also can confidently state, that, up to the present time, Mr. YATES has generally been considered "Mr. O'CONNELL'S MeMber for Carlow."
The "lawful expenses" were all that Mr. Yarns paid towards his election. It would have been more satisfactory if Mr. Yares had stated the sum he con- tributed. The lawful expenses sometimes are made to amount to thousands: anybody who has had experience in a contested election, knows how this may happen, without direct bribery. Mr. YATES repudiates the high character he certainly did hold, as candidate for Bolton and Beverley. We did not mean to calumniate him with the impu- tation of purism; and shall in future not expect any thing wore sublimated than common Whiggiem from Mr. YATES.—ED.]
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