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1850.]

tenants and poor law unions, the prices obtained by the Commissioners have given the most ample satisfaction to all the parties interested; and, as instances, we may bring to the recollection of our readers the estates of Mr. D'Arcy in Westmeath, of Mr. Bodkin in Galway, of Lord Portarlington, Mr. Jessop, and portions of Mr. O'Connell's estate in Kerry. Thus, out of the entire estates sold, considerably more than one-fourth has, it is well known, brought high prices.

But there have been three cases adduced by the censurers of this Court, and on which all their general condemnation is, we suspect, attempted to be justified. One, the oft-mentioned property of Mr. M'Loughlin in Mayo; another, a portion of Mr. C. D. Purcell's estate; and another, a farm of Mr. Syme's. The first was eagerly seized on the property had been sold at one and a-half!! years' purchase on the rental. Now the facts of this case, and which, though often exposed in both houses of Parliament, are still relied on as condemnatory of the conduct of the Commissioners, are these: the tract of land sold was a leasehold interest, subject to the rent of £210 per annum; it was situated on a promontory of the County of Mayo, opposite the Island of Achill, and in the line of unions, Ballina, Westport, Clifden, all insolvent; the rental, payable by wretched cottier-tenants, many of them holding, too, in common, was £600 per annum, but this was purely ideal; it had not been paid for years, and the head-rent was in arrear. Under such circumstances few would, we think, like to accept this estate as a present; and accordingly, the hardy purchaser who bought it for £600, or one and a-half years' purchase on the profit-rent, very soon discovered the extent of his bargain, paid the costs of the sale, and got discharged from the purchase. This estate was a second time sold, and then brought £450, and the second purchaser quickly followed the example of the first; and, so far from thinking the purchase a bargain, took advantage of some informality in the rental, and he too was discharged from his purchase. But in each case the proprietor and those interested in having the lands sold to the best advantage, thought the farm sold at a high rate, and wished to retain the pur

325

chaser; and the sympathy lavished in
Parliament on this sacrifice of the
estate by the Commissioners merely
excited the ridicule of those parties.
So, that part of Mr. Purcell's estate
which was sold at about seven and a-
half years' purchase on the rental, was
a leasehold interest in the county of
Cork, subject to a rent of £400 per
annum; the sub-tenants were in arrear,
and an ejectment had been brought for
The owner and
part of the premises.
the creditors thought the estate sold
to advantage. The purchaser soon
found out that his bargain was not de-
sirable, and he, too, notwithstanding
the opposition of the persons having
the carriage of the sale, was discharged
from his purchase on account of mis-
In Mr.
description in the rental.

Syme's case, the farm, which sold at
one year's purchase on the nominal
profit rent, was offered to be sur-
rendered to the landlord, an offer
which he refused; it was deserted by
many of the tenants, and was subject
to a rent of £200 per annum. In truth,
what have been called "sacrifices" of
property under the Commissioners
remind us too strongly of shopkeepers'
advertisements, "selling off at a
ruinous sacrifice." Whoever buys will
find out his error in thinking he has
got a bargain, and he will be convinced
that he would have been a more sub-
stantial gainer by purchasing for a
higher price a less showy article. It
may, indeed, be stated as the result
of all the sales hitherto effected by
the Commissioners, that well-circum-
stanced fee-simple estates sold at a high
rate, and leaseholds indifferently. The
latter are not in request, as the rent to
which the purchaser is subject is cer-
tain, and the profit rent in general is
badly secured and uncertain in amount.

The

There have been complaints, too, that the Commissioners do not readily attend to suggestions for an adjournment, if the price offered is not clearly inadequate; but in this instance, too, we think there can much be said to justify the Commissioners. effect of adjournments is generally to depreciate the sale of the particular lot; it is an advertisement that, however flattering the description may be, there is some reason why it has not been considered an eligible purchase, or a fair price would have been offered when it was first put up; and the prac

tice of adjourning the sale of estates has also a most injurious effect on sales generally. A recent sale in Chancery fully illustrates the probable effect of an adjournment on the future sale of an estate. In the year 1846 the sum of £30,500 was offered at a public sale in the Master's office for a portion of Lord Blessington's estate, and the sale was adjourned on some allegation that the price was insufficient. It was sold in the early part of last month in the same office for £23,000. In the Court of Exchequer a property was offered for sale in a cause of Haines v. Powell, in the year 1846, and £8,000 was bid for it; some puisne creditors, whom such a price would not pay, demanded an adjournment, and succeeded in procuring it. The estate has since been offered for sale, but without bidders. This depreciation is generally the effect of adjournments, and we could give many more instances of such consequences. We believe that not the least evil attending sales in Chancery was the facility with which an adjournment of the sale was permitted, thus certainly injuring creditors whose demands should be paid by the produce of the sale, in any event, for the sake of a possible service to puisne creditors, whose neglect it was to accept securities which could not be paid except the estate sold at some imaginary value. Adjournments of sales are so well known to be prejudicial, that the words, " To be sold without reserve," are notoriously adopted to secure spirited competition, and have that effect. As a mere question of right, no puisne creditor or inheritor can, with justice, peremptorily demand an adjournment, because he is dissatisfied. As well might a person who had pledged a horse or bale of wool, insist that the creditor should adjourn the sale, because the borrower disliked the sum offered. All that in justice can ever be required is, that the sale be public, honestly conducted, after due notice and sufficient advertisement, aud all these requisites are secured by the Commissioners; the carriage of the sale is intrusted to those most interested, they have peculiar means of knowing how far the price offered is clearly inadequate-if it be so, the sale is adjourned; but they do not accede to applications for

adjournment without some security that a higher price will be procured on a re-sale of the estate. The facility with which purchasers can pay their money and get into possession of the lands, the security of title, and the great economy hence attending sales in the Incumbered Estates Courtas the purchaser has not to incur any expense in investigating title, and knows he gets one under the authority of Parliament, and which will always be readily marketable-have a most beneficial effect on bidders, and we are unwilling to see those effects counteracted by adopting the bad practice of the Equity Courts in permitting adjournments on trivial suggestions.

It was also stated as a complaint against the Commissioners, that they would not distribute the purchasemoney of the estates sold by them, and would pay it into the Court of Chancery, and that thus all parties would be again involved in litigation in that Court which it was the object of the legislature to supersede by establishing the Incumbered Estates Court. On this head we must allow the Commissioners to justify themselves. We have before given a statement of the sums distributed by them, and we shall add their return to the House of Commons, bearing date July 25, 1850:

"INCUMBERED ESTATES (IRELAND). "Return to an Order of the Honorable the House of Commons, dated July 25, 1850,

for

Copy of any observations of the Commissioners upon the subject of their distribution of the Funds arising from the Sale of Incumbered Estates in Ireland, and the transfer of any part thereof into the Court of Chancery.'

"As to the transfer of money into the Court of Chancery, the matter stands thus:

"Under the 41st section of their Act the Commissioners have power, whenever they think fit, to order any money to be paid into a Court of Equity in any suit or matter there pending.

"But as the Accountant-General of the Court of Chancery cannot receive any money without the order of that Court, the Commissioners recommended that a general rule of the Court of Chancery should be made, to enable them to lodge money in the Court of Chancery without the expense of a separate order in each case. The Chancellor agreed to this suggestion, but the Master of the Rolls (without whose consent no general order of the Court of Chancery is made) re

fused his consent, apprehending that the Commissioners would lodge so much money in the Court of Chancery as to load the Masters and other officers there with more business than they could perform.

"But in fact the practice of the Commissioners is not to lodge money in the Court of Chancery in any case in which it can be avoided. They have sold more than half a million's worth of property, and of that sum they hope to distribute the entire in their Court, with the exception of about £25,000, or five per cent. on the whole, which they may possibly have occasion to transfer to the Court of Chancery. About £100,000 has been already distributed; only two sums have been lodged as yet in the Court of Chancery; one in the case of W. R. Munce, where the rights of the parties had been so much affected by the proceedings already had in the Court of Chancery, that it appeared more convenient to have the money, about £5,200, distributed there. The other case was a sum of £4,230, which the Commissioners were about to pay to an executor; but a bill was filed, in the case of Irvine v. Dorey, to have the accounts of that executor taken; and by the executor's consent, on a suggestion made by the Master of the Rolls, without any requisition by the Commissioners, the money, instead of being paid to the executor, was ordered to be lodged to the credit of the cause in which he was a defendant, and in which (if he had received the money himself) he could have been compelled to lodge it. The Commissioners hope, without any assistance from any other Court, to distribute £200,000 before vacation, and £200,000 more in the month of October. There is no part of their practice which gives the public such satisfaction as the readiness with which payments are made when the rights of the parties are correctly ascertained.

"JOHN RICHARDS. "M. LONGFIELD. "C. J. HARGREAVE.

"Incumbered Estates Commission,

July 17, 1850."

Their promise to distribute the produce of sales has been more than realised.

There are, however, some defects connected with the Court which must be noticed; one is, its very inconvenient situation. We presume that there was no great choice of localities, and that the exorbitant demands made on the Government, and the necessity for promptly procuring some place to hold the Court in, led to its being placed in Henrietta street; but some exertions should be made by the Government to remove the Court and offices to some more central situation,

and nearer to the other Courts. The other defect is, in the number of the subordinate officers, which is now becoming inadequate to discharge the multiplied duties imposed on them, notwithstanding the courtesy and diligence which they exhibit in their various departments. At the institution of the Court, when it could not be known how great would be the extent of business, it was right not to appoint too many officers, who might be wholly unnecessary, or who might be dismissed after a short service; but now that the Court has received such an influx of business, the Government are bound to take care that, from motives of economy or other ill-judged reasons, the machinery of the Court should not be clogged for want of hands to work it.

We have thus given a history, and, but for its importance, we would almost fear a tedious one, of the origin and working of this Court, and contrasted its procedure with that of the long-condemned Court of Chancery. We have stated the complaints made, and examined and expressed at least our disbelief in their justice; the public confidence in a tribunal, where new and arbitrary power might have aroused their jealousy, is expressed by the number of persons who have presented petitions to the Court, and the vast amount of property and of interests already brought within its jurisdiction. At first we are not surprised that creditors should have resorted eagerly to its powers-anything was preferable to the evils of Chancery; they continue to trust in the Commissioners, and the embarrassed proprietors of estates now, too, feel how great are the benefits likely to result to them from the powers vested in this new Court, and are generally availing themselves of its machinery to extricate themselves from hopeless though deferred ruin.

But much interest is felt as to the social and political consequences which may result from the operation of the Commission. It is apprehended that the scattering of the large properties which must shortly be offered for sale will lead to a re-plantation of Irelandone fatal to the Conservative cause and to Protestantism, while it will not conduce to the improvement of the kingdom; but we are inclined to think, and assuredly we hope, that no such dis

astrous effects will flow from a necessary measure of justice, the only object of which was, that, in the spirit of the great Charter, justice should not be longer denied, nor deferred, nor sold, and at a most exorbitant price, too, as in Chancery. We believe, on the contrary, that the advancement and prosperity of Ireland will be greatly assisted by the operations of the Incumbered Estates Court. Adam Smith remarks, that mercantile men and purchasers of estates are generally improvers. We do not, indeed, expect that all the new proprietors will resemble Mr. Mechi, but we do anticipate that men, who by steady habits of business, by energy, and perseverance or prudence, have been enabled to become purchasers of estates, will also be improvers of them; and, at the least, there is a far greater probability of this, than that embarrassed proprietors, involved in debt or litigation, could be judicious or useful managers of property.

It is often said, too, that there will no longer be vast estates and large proprietors; but the advantages of both have been greatly overrated. Ireland long had both classes; and we cannot perceive of what advantage this has been to her; while in the south and west of Ireland, where estates were the most extensive, we recognise the most destitution and slowest improvement, and greatest priestly despotism over ignorance. We confidently expect that not only the nation, but the causes of enlightened Conservatism and Protestantism, will be gainers. Already, while the sales have not been confined to the estates of Protestants, the purchases made by Protestants have shown that the preponderance of property will still continue on their side, while it will be more equally and usefully divided among a greater number of Protestant owners; and if some few Roman Catholics, laity, priests and bishops, have become purchasers, they have also become landlords; and this will be no small gain to the peace of the kingdom. Heretofore the landlords were few, and were Protestants, not having the influence of numbers, and so embarrassed as to lack the influence generally annexed to rank and the proprietorship of the soil. The tenants were principally Roman Catholics;

and there was a constant unchecked aggressive movement, partaking also of a religious enmity, of the tenants against the landlords, which the latter, being few in number and weak in influence, could not repel; and which, it is notorious from their speeches and attendance at public meetings, was, if not fostered, at least not distasteful to the Romish priesthood. Now that

there is likely to be an increase in the number of Roman Catholic proprietors, and that Bishops Mac Hale, Cantwell and O'Donnell, with some priests, have become purchasers, we incline to the hope that the denunciations of landlords as exterminators will be less frequent in their dioceses and parishes, and that they will set useful examples of improvement, and not confine their influence to fierce censures or denunciations; they will practically experience the difficulties to be contended with in the judicious management of property, and will be inclined to make some allowance for the errors and failings of neighbouring proprietors, while interest and policy will alike suggest that it may not be prudent to excite a storm, in the violence of which they too might be overwhelmed. There will be fewer jealousies, also, from the proprietorship of the soil not being, as heretofore, confined to a few large and embarrassed nominal owners, and almost inaccessible to others; and what will be lost in rank and seeming vastness to the Protestant owners of estates, will be more than gained to them in their numbers, intelligence, and useful energies. cannot, indeed, be sanguine of immediate beneficial results from the operation of the Incumbered Estates Act. The improvement of a nation and of a people, not dull, but obstinate, irritable, and easily led astray, is not the work of months, but of years-nay, almost of generations; but we still confidently anticipate, that while we cannot refuse to sympathise with the sufferings of all classes, owners and creditors, not caused, or even increased, but only exhibited, concentrated and mitigated, by the necessary institution of the Incumbered Estates Court, it will, by its working, contribute, it may be gradually, but decisively, to the advancement in prosperity and the stability of all the valued institutions of the kingdom.

We

THE NEW POEM BY WORDSWORTH.*

THE domain of poetry is boundless. From the thunder-cloud that frowns and mutters in the heavens, oversha dowing the earth with sensations of awe and terror, to the lowliest flower that blossoms in the most hidden nooks of solitary glens, the wing of the poet ranges. Nor is he less conversant with the affairs of men, their business and their pleasures. Incident and adventure are by some thought to be the only path in which the poet can walk with that buoyant delight which enables him to give delight to others. Love, fear, hope, joy, such as they are made by the intricate circumstances of man's various and many-coloured life are thought to be the only proper theme of the poet's song, and from the minstrel, it is said, we want not philosophy but a story and a tune. But this were to set limits to the domain of the poet, which we have said is boundless. Beyond the utmost range of external nature, and above the circumstances of man's various life, and all the thrilling interests connected with them, is the sovereign mind of man, revolving all things; and there too the poet is privileged to range, to discover what a poet alone can see, to tell what a poet alone can utter. Who has given us so sublime a view of this province of the poet, as he whose latest published work we are now about to review? In that wonderful extract from the conclusion of the first book of the Recluse, which he gives in the preface to the Excursion, he says:—

"All strength-all terror, single or in bands, That ever was put forth in personal formJehovah with his thunder, and the choir Of shouting angels, and the empyreal

thrones-

I pass them unalarmed. Not Chaos, not The darkest pit of lowest Erebus,

Nor aught of blinder vacancy, scooped out By help of dreams-can breed such fear and awe

As fall upon us often when we look
Into our minds, into the mind of man-
My haunt, and the main region of my song."

From the time he first began to write, until this day, the poetry of Wordsworth has been slowly, but steadily, and of late years with accelerated pace, advancing to the highest point of public respect. And wherefore this slowness and hesitation? Why had so much reluctance of taste, as it were, to be overcome? Why had so much of the light rubbish of ridicule to be cleared away, before the name and fame of Wordsworth could stand confessed upon the loftiest pinnacle of the temple of poetic fame? The reasons are manifold, and we shall attempt to indicate a few of them. In the first place, it was because he deliberately chose for the haunt and main region of his song a height of serious contemplation, up to which the many and the hasty cannot attain; and as he led the minds of his readers rather into habits of religious reverence of an abstract kind, than into those positive religious truths which Cowper was wont to insist upon, the devout for a long time regarded his works rather with suspicion than with favour. Again, he set at nought all the habits of association which had been formed in literature. He was the founder of a new school; and though much good has no doubt resulted from his irregularities, yet he suffered the common fate of those who will not go with the stream, and who have not the power to compel the stream to go with them. He set out with the theory not only that common words were the best for the expression of excited or poetic feeling, but that in people of common and low condition the loftiest thoughts might be found; and that in association with the circumstances of their lives, might be brought forward all that is touching and terrifying, all that is sublime and beautiful, in the world around us, or in the intellect of man! He says:

"Of Truth, of Grandeur, Beauty, Love, and Hope,

And melancholy Fear, subdued by faith;

"The Prelude, or Growth of a Poet's Mind, an Autobiographical Poem." By William Wordsworth. London. 1850.

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