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CHAPTER XI.

CROMLECHS.

CHANGES IN IRELAND. -ENCUMBERED ESTATES ACT. NEW PROPRIETARY.- ULSTER ESCHEATED ESTATES.IRISH

CONSTABULARY.-JAMES'S

IN

PROPOSED PLANTATION CONNAUGHT.-MEAN CONDUCT OF JAMES II.-MR. MARTIN'S ACT UNNECESSARY.-ADVANTAGES OF PRESENT PROPRIETORS.

On the left of the road, beyond Oughterard, numerous irregular groups of cromlechs extend over two miles of desolate country towards Lough Corrib: looming through the mist and rain, they seemed in accord with the traditionary gloom of Druidical mystery; but where are the sacred groves? Scathed trunks may be buried deep beneath the sod, which their decay may ha veraised to the very apex of some of the cromlechs; but it would now be difficult to find oaken boughs to encircle

the altars or leaves to weave chaplets for the priest. If the Archæological Society visit the far west, this would be a fitting point of meeting.

What changes have passed over this country, since under the kings, the judges styled Brehons, held their courts in the open air: often on hills, or in retired recesses, seated on chairs rudely shaped out of the rock! Or when the revenue of the crown and the judicial fines were collected in cattle, apparel, and iron; and in iron from the Danes. Or when, in the seventeenth century, the 6000 forges, employing thousands, were fed by the forests-now extinct.

A glance at the policy by which property changed hands, and the conditions and circumstances attending the establishment of the settlements in past reigns, will show that any comparison with that actually in progress is most favourable to the in-comers under the sales of the Encumbered Estates

Act. If purchasers have only made shrewd estimates of the improvable value of the article they speculate in; and have duly proportioned investments to capital, they will not find themselves much out in their calculation.

First, as regards terms; and in this, the delicate position of the vendor claims to be considered first. Although a vendor, under the Act, can scarcely be termed a willing (it is hard parting to break off hereditary connexion with land), still he is a consenting party; and gets, as far as his anomalous position admits, fair play in the transaction. If he has any nobleness of mind, it must be a source of some satisfaction, to see acts of justice done, which by any other course, it would have been hoping against hope, to expect to have performed himself.

And here, an appeal may be fairly made to the good feeling of the new proprietary. It should be their pride that such painful

sacrifices on the part of their predecessors should not be without proportionately good results. Let it not be said that the change has produced little or no improvement. It would be too disheartening to the national prospects: too disgraceful to those who start fair in the race of improvement, having the way cleared for them at such a cost, if ever the mean round of under-letting and jobbing be suffered to acquire a fresh momentum.

The vendor under the Act has, at least, an approximate estimate delivered to him, of the acreage and value of his estate. No blind bargain binds him, as in the assignments to the soldiers under the Protectorate, when whatever lands the undertaker chose to call unprofitable, were to be thrown in for nothing.*

* Allnutt's Monthly Summary of Proceedings in the Incumbered Estates Court, Ireland, from the filing of the first petition, Oct. 21, 1849, to July 31, 1852, inclusive.

The following analysis may interest, and attention to the "General Observations" will assist, bidders in estimating the

Again, the terms on which the half a million of acres escheated in Ulster after the rebellion of Tyrone were assigned, are

actual rentals, and may obviate disappointments from misapprehension of the printed statements.

TABLE I.-Shows the number of petitions lodged to have been 2339, on an average monthly of 70.

TABLE II.-Gives the total produce of the 32 counties collectively, 7,215,083l. 10s. 1d., of which Galway produced the eighth, viz., 920,335l. 11s. 8d., an amount exceeding Cork, the county the next largest in amount, by 50,0002.

TABLE III.-General Summary.

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No. 16.-Amount of the estimated rental of the land com

prised in the petitions for sale presented up to the 31st July, inclusive, 1,342,3471. 10s. 3d.

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