BOOKS.
THOMAS DRUMMOND.* THis new memoir of Drummond has its origin in the discovery by his widow of a number of interesting letters, throwing fresh light on his work and character. These were placed in the hands of Mr. Barry O'Brien, who has embodied them in an interesting account of Drummond's administration in Ireland, to which is prefixed a brief sketch of his early days, before he had abandoned science for politics. The main out- lines of his life can be given in half-a-dozen lines. He was born in 1797, and entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, in 1813, obtaining a commission in the Engineers in 1815. As a young officer he displayed considerable scientific talent, studied under Faraday, and invented the Drummond Light, better known as the "limelight," or " oxy-hydrogen lamp." In 1820 he was appointed to the Ordnance Survey in Ireland, and remained there for nearly ten years. Before the introduction of the Reform Bill of 1832, he was appointed Chairman of a Boundary Commission to mark out rotten boroughs for destruction, and fix new political areas. In April, 1833, he became private secretary to Lord Althorp, and in 1835, under Lord Melbourne's second Adminis- tration, he became Under-Secretary for Ireland, a post which he held till his death in 1840.
The difficulties in the way of good government in Ireland— if we are to govern her at all—have increased tenfold since the days of Drummond. The great stumbling-block in his time, on the showing of his biographer, was Orangeism, the rampant and offensive excesses of which he restrained with great tact and firmness. But he was never confronted with boycotting or the "Plan of Campaign." In 1833, an Irish tenant wrote to Lord Althorp on the proposed substitution of a land-tax instead of tithe, a forcible and touching appeal, from which one sentence may be quoted :—" God knows if we could pay it, we would do so, and it would be easier and better for us to do so (however unjust), than to be at the trouble and danger we are in refusing it." Herein the writer probably spoke no more than the truth, for the whole letter bears the impress of sincerity. How different from this is the present attitude of the Irish tenant, when his leaders openly boast that he can pay his rent, but will not, in obedience to their teaching ! Again, so far from being thwarted and defamed and vilified at every turn by Irish politicians inside, and agitators out- side Parliament, Drummond enjoyed the confidence and steady support of O'Connell, a circumstance which Lord Mulgrave rightly described, in his reply to the Tory onslaught in 1837, as a great advantage," considering how much he carries with him the hearts and affections of the Irish people." And O'Connell's influence was uniformly exerted to repress crime and outrage by direct and fearless denunciation. Moreover, O'Connell was not ashamed to own his deep personal devotion to the Queen. Another difficulty which has since assumed formidable dimensions was then conspicuously absent. We refer to the Press. There was no United Ireland in the years of Drummond's office. It has been reserved for later Irish Secretaries to realise that in an Irish patriot a "pure soul" can be compatible with a very foul tongue. Again, we do not gather from Mr. Barry O'Brien's pages that Drummond ever went in daily fear of his life. The Orangemen attacked him bitterly in the Press ; but be was at least spared the additional strain of anxiety which has fallen to the lot of
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his successors—equally harassed by overwork—anxiety caused by the consciousness that assassins were constantly on the watch for them. On his death, even the Orange papers bore testimony to the "genius, uprightness, and self-sacri- ficing patriotism of the man,"—we quote Mr. O'Brien's own words. Now, we would ask candid Home-riders, what do they imagine would have been the nature of the post-mortem com- ments in United Ireland on Sir George Trevelyan or Lord Spencer, if either of those statesmen had died of overwork during their term of office ? The plain fact is this, that fifty odd years ago the Irish people had undoubted grievances, to redress which Drummond laboured fearlessly and inde- fatigably, but not more fearlessly or indefatigably than his compatriot Mr. Balfour would have laboured under similar circumstances. Mr. Barry O'Brien's evident contention is that at all times the vigorous enforcement of the ordinary law is sufficient for the maintenance of order and well-being in Ireland. The contention of Unionists, on the other hand, is that special circumstances may demand an alteration in the procedure. But it is remarkable to observe that the criterion of the success of Drummond's administration, as applied by himself before the Roden Committee in 1839, and admitted to be a true test by his biographer, is identical with that which Unionists claim to apply at the present day,—the diminution of crime. Drummond showed that offences had decreased, that security of life and property had improvedi and that trade had expanded. These facts were shown by official statistics, and the result of his examination was the defeat of the objects for which the Roden Committee had been appointed. Similar tests are available nowadays in regard to Mr. Balfour's administration, and similar resulta are forthcoming. There is no ground for assuming that if Drummond had lived fifty years later, he would have joined in the "national protest" against the incarceration of the dema- gogue whose pantaloons have been hoisted as the oriflamme of the Liberal Party. On the contrary, his remarks on the- subject of "geographical clime" afford a sure indication of the attitude he would have taken up :—" The Legislature has declared certain acts to be penal in Ireland which, in other parts of the Empire, are not only not punishable,. but not blameable, because perfectly harmless."
Drummond had no infallible panacea for Irish discontent_ His Railway Commission Report is, in the words of Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, "a cyclopmdia of practical knowledge ;" but the suggestions with which this masterly document concludes are confined to proposals for emigration, the reclamation of waste lands, and the opening-out of new avenues to industry. Above all, he saw the paramount need for continuous employment and adequate remuneration :—" The moral effect upon a people of steady and remunerative employment is an object of public importance, not inferior to its influence upon their physical condition ; for it is invariably found that where industry prevails, order and respect for the laws accompany it. The vice and bane of the people is idleness. They have little to- do ; no useful or profitable occupation to devote their time and thoughts to ; and hence those habits of intemperance and that proneness to outrage and contention which unhappily distinguish them." Steady and remunerative employment,— no one will gainsay the truth of this observation. But are Irishmen likely to get it under Home-rule, the prospect of' which in 1886 caused something approaching to a panic in Irish securities P The commerce of Ireland is solidly opposed to Home-rule. Again, Nationalists of all shades are agreed on this one point—as is evidenced by the conversations reported. in Mr. Pellew's In Castle and Cabin, to the impartiality of which Mr. John Morley has recently borne witness— that Irish industries must be fostered by what Drummond called "the now exploded system of bounties and protecting. duties." On the question of the relations of landlords and_ tenants, Drummond held strong views. He considered that the former were much to blame for not discouraging the multi- plication of small tenures, and commented in severe terms on the injustice and cruelty of evictions. He held that a landed proprietor succeeded to the moral as well as the legal engage- ments of his property. Hence his famous aphorism, in, the much-discussed letter to the Tipperary Magistrates,—" Pro- perty has its duties as well as its rights." But in view of what has been done by legislation to improve the position or the Irish tenantry, we have little doubt that if Drammonct
inverse of his maxim,—" Property has its rights as well as its duties." It only remains for us to express high approval of the temperateness and ability with which Mr. Barry O'Brien has carried out what he describes as "a labour of love." It is a really valuable contribution to the literature of the subject, marked by a spirit of impartiality rare in the present phase of the Irish controversy. Of Drummond the man there is but little account. But that little makes it evident that the man was well-nigh swallowed up in the official. He was devotedly attached to his children ; but his wife tells her mother in the summer of 1838, that for nearly a week he had not seen his baby. He died in harness, of overwork, at the age of forty-two; and his best epitaph is the answer he made just before his death, when his doctor asked where he would wish to be buried, "in Scotland or Ireland !'" He answered quietly, slowly, and firmly,—" I wish to be buried in Ireland, the country of my adoption,—a country which I loved, which I have faithfully served, and for which I believe I have sacri- ficed my life."
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