Page:The Irish Emigrants Guide.djvu/23

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a hope of her regeneration. The question of political amelioration is one completely subservient at the present time to the problem of the material subsistence of the people. How long it may continue so, we profess ourselves totally unable to conjecture. For our part, we believe that the transfer of the encumbered estates, and the prospect of a renewed and equitable arrangement in the relations of landlord and tenant, will be more immediately instrumental in advancing the industrial vigour of the country than any other measure likely to be submitted to the consideration of parliament. Political remedies will be of little avail to Ireland until her social wounds are healed. We should like to see the encumbered estates, in all instances, disposed of in small farm lots, that a resident and an industrious proprietory might be established in the country, and measures taken to prevent speculators from grasping landed property to such an extent as to renew and continue the old state of affairs. We are also of opinion, that persons able to command from one to three thousand pounds in Ireland could not better employ it than in securing a snug little estate, especially if they are practical agriculturists. The present low figures at which these lands sell, furnish opportunities for profitable investment. We believe, indeed, that even making allowances for county taxes, tithes, poor rates, &c., (rent being removed) an estate already improved, and at the rates of purchase given in the Irish papers, will be preferable to land obtained in any of the Eastern States of the Union for a corresponding sum. Besides, with an independent yeomanry resident in the country, and therefore identi-