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The Civil engineer & [and] architect's journal
- Bandzählung
- 7.1844
- Erscheinungsdatum
- 1844
- Sprache
- Englisch
- Signatur
- A128
- Vorlage
- Universitätsbibliothek Chemnitz
- Digitalisat
- Universitätsbibliothek Chemnitz
- Digitalisat
- SLUB Dresden
- Lizenz-/Rechtehinweis
- Public Domain Mark 1.0
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- urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-db-id375634746-184400006
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- http://digital.slub-dresden.de/id375634746-18440000
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- Projekt: Bestände der Universitätsbibliothek Chemnitz
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Zeitschrift
The Civil engineer & [and] architect's journal
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Band
Band 7.1844
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- Titelblatt Titelblatt -
- Register Index I
- Register List of illustrations VI
- Sonstiges Directions to binder VI
- Ausgabe No. 77 - January, 1844 1
- Ausgabe [No. 78 - February, 1844] 49
- Ausgabe No. 79 - March, 1844 97
- Ausgabe No. 80 - April, 1844 137
- Ausgabe No. 81 - May, 1844 177
- Ausgabe No. 82 - June, 1844 213
- Ausgabe No. 83 - July, 1844 253
- Ausgabe No. 84 - August, 1844 293
- Ausgabe No. 85 - September, 1844 333
- Ausgabe No. 86 - October, 1844 381
- Ausgabe No. 87 - November, 1844 421
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- Abbildung Plate. XIV -
- Abbildung Plate. XV -
- Abbildung Plate. XVI -
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Band 7.1844
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- The Civil engineer & [and] architect's journal
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102 THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT’S JOURNAL. [March, more than two months of the year, and then have nothing but coarse semi-aquatic grasses to feed on ; these are produced on a fine alluvial soil, twelve inches deep, incumbent on lime stone gravel, but saturated with water. Still this has not been done. Why? Because only one of the proprietors agrees to assist in defraying the- expenses of the work. In another case, an intelligent Scotch proprietor had 20 acres incapable of being drained, from the shallowness of the river, and consequently uncultivated; five acres are fit, to use his own terms, “ as pasture for a flock of geese only,” the cost of this work is £140 ; it is in progress of execution at his sole expense, and the increased value will be 8s. per acre by his estimate, by mine 12s.; however take iiis, and you will see the interest of 5 per cent, can be paid, even in the latter case. How much more in the former ? I think I have shown there is room for the profitable employment of the people, in the regulation of rivers, and that to a very consider able extent. But how is it to be done ? Not by Government volun teering to assist proprietors for the purpose of inducing them to improve their estates; not by offering loans to the estates requiring them ; nor by a drainage bill empowering two to force one, alone. If these steps are relied upon, they will be found miserably insufficient. Government if they wish to improve the condition of the landowners and peasantry, must act on Napoleon’s plan. Give the proprietor a choice of borrowing from them the money required, and executing the work himself, under the direction of district engineers, appointed by a board of intelligent agricultural gentlemen, assisted by expe rienced civil engineers, sitting in Dublin; and then say if you do not do this me will, and will then apportion the share of expense according to the benefit derived, for which vour estates must pay the interest. The law of the land recognises this principle. In 1732 the Barren Land Act was passed by the Irish Parliament, which empowered the Court of Chancery to enquire into the interests of persons claiming waste lands, and to oblige them to contribute to the drainage thereof in proportion to such their interest. Common sense points out, that where a dense and starving population require employment, and that means for providing them therewith can be usefully applied, not only for their benefit, but also for the benefit of the country at large, that where private objections, or narrow minded niggardliness, obstruct the good, that they should be disregarded; and even if it were allowed that the rights of property would be interfered with, still, is the public good to be sacrificed by the neglect and incompetence of landed proprietors? Should they not be compelled to see their own interests and benefit mankind? It is only such persons that could complain ; the improving man of intelligence would rejoice; for the good he intended doing could no longer be nullified by the neglect of his neighbour. Another means of giving employment and improving the condition of the people, is by the reclamation of wastelands; I do not mean the bogs: there is enough to do without them, and our successors in some centuries to come may find it to be then perhaps to their ad vantage to undertake this. The Waste Land Society, of which the Earl of Devon is chairman, have begun in the right way; but the limited means at their command, compared to the demand for their assistance, enable them to be a model only to Government. I at tended the last annual inspection made by his Lordship on the lands of Ballinakill. Three years before that I visited it; then it was a wild, dreary, desolate mountain; now how does it look? Seventy or eighty families are living in comfort on it, the cottages are clean, neat and comfortable, the crops equalling, if not excelling, those grown in the demesne of the neighbouring Baronet; good roads have been formed, fences erected, draining executed, turnips and clovers feed their stctck, and all appears improving and satisfactory. A neigh bouring gentleman, Mr. Featherstone, has purchased a tract of the same mountain, his tenants surpassed, if possible, in improvement, the Society’s. He has built a handsome residence for himself and family, young plantations have sprung up, and in as sheltered and comfortable a spot as the most fastidious could wish for, where a few years since a solitary bird could not be seen, so desolate appeared the place; there he told me all he did had paid him, he had created an estate, and that many of his tenants having reclaimed, with some little as sistance from him, portions of land, had sold their interest in them to others for large sums, and taking a new spot, had begun again in the same mountain; and were in better circumstances than the lowland men bolding the same sized farms. But how was this? The answer is worthy of particular attention. On the Society’s and Mr. Feather- stone’s tracts the tenants were not allowed to waste their time in la borious unprofitableness; they were instructed what to do, in reclaim ing, draining, and cropping, by experienced agriculturists, employed by the proprietors to do so; and in this only lies the secret. The educated man’s duty was to think, advise, instruct: the labouring man’s to act, and well has the system answered. There are a million and a half acres of such mountain wastes in Ireland, which if im. proved, would support 3000 families, or 180,000 persons. Without alluding to the advantage bringing this into cultivation would be to England, in the increased supply of provisions to your markets, without looking to the great national improvement this would be, but merely viewing it as a charitable act, how immeasurably does it surpass the poor relief acts, the emancipation and other political measures. How can this be done ? Easily. Large sums are annually voted to the Dublin Society, and expended in their botanic gardens, &c. Let Government grant £10,000. per annum to assist the Waste Land Society. Colonel Robinson knows well what to do with it; and if with so much money he should at all hesitate how to apply it, the Earl of Devon can assist him. Associated with them, let there be Cap tain Larcom, Captain Kennedy, or perhaps Mr. Stewart French, would be better, as he knows where, and how to begin; let him be the repre sentative of Government; and I venture to say that with such men, with an efficient staff of practical men, and backed with the £10,000; more would be done for the improvement of this country, in an in credibly short space of time, than 100,000 soldiers could ever accom plish. There are said to be 300,000 acres of land covered by the expan sion of lakes and rivers, to which may be added 600,000 acres that are saturated with water, rendered unprofitable, but uncovered ; £10,000,000 per annum of agricultural produce is said to be lost to the kingdom by unreclaimed land; and yet nearly three millions of the inhabitants are destitute from the want of employment. Now if such statements are true, and they have been reported by Government officers, if England pays for agricultural produce £10,000,000 per annum to foreign nations, which could be provided her by this country, and if in addition to this a dense and starving population are discon tented, almost disaffected, and that this is occasioned by the want of employment, surely it is the interest of the British Government to try the. experiment I most humbly have recommended, and the result, there can be no doubt, will fully equal that obtained by the Waste Land Society. But these plans only relieve the persons without land ; what is to be done for those occupying it? Before I state my opinion, allow ine to put you right as to the landlords of Ireland. As a class, they are the most abused, but I am happy to say, it is by those who know least about them. Their worst fault is, I believe, that they do not see their own interests sufficiently, that they view their estates with local eyes, instead of doing so with eyes enlightened by a study of other coun tries, by viewing what has been done in other places through judi cious improvements. It is really very difficult to convince many that their incomes can be at all increased by improvements; and when we see men who are presumed to be educated, still lingering in the old beaten track of dubiousness, unwilling to try for the improvement of their condition, because their fathers did not do, as we would, it is not a matter of surprise that those under them, the uneducated, should follow and persevere in the systems practised of old, which they have been taught almost to revere, certainly to follow, changes from which, their superiors have characterised as theoretic nonsense, wild specula tions, mad schemes, &c. But to return to the calumnies heaped on landlords; many have ejected, in some cases I believe with unnecessary cruelty, but it is not general; I know many inheriting fine estates, and large debts, good men, incapable of assisting their tenants, and unable to allow time for payment of rent from the pressure of their creditors. These men, if they are not paid, are compelled to seek tenants ca pable of doing so. Then comes the difficulty of obtaining possession ; the occupier knowing the impossibility of obtaining subsistence if he leaves, endeavours to retain possession in spite of law, and the land lord is compelled to obtain an habere—scenes of distress follow. But what is the cause of them? Want of labour. In fact, I believe if constant employment could be obtained, many of the small farmers would give up their holdings, and that farms might be consolidated, which, with improvement in the system of agriculture, would be a vast advantage to the country; but whilst the deficiency of employ ment continues, I consider it cannot be done without causing so much misery that no advantage to a fpw could justify. Had Irish landlords, English tenants, or tenants with the same capital, same education, and same intelligence, you would hear nothing of the disagreements of landlord and tenant. The Irish would not be a whit behind the Eng lish landlords, and Ireland would be prosperous; but to do this, you must raise the character of the Irish tenant, and this brings me to the subject of the improvement of the small Irish farmer. All you re quire to do, is to instruct him in the practice of agriculture. I look upon it to be as absurd to put a good piece of land into the hands of small farmers, uneducated, understanding nothing of the proper sys tems of farming, such as the Irish small farmer, and direct him to manage it, as it would be to give, one who never learned to write, a good pen, and order him to do so. They must be taught. Agriculture is
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