pass

the control of the Commissioners, aided by an in- support themselves, as the proprietors and farmers spector, who, in testimony of his efficiency, has in the north and east have, there might be some been lately promoted) it is to be concluded that reason in advocating the principle that they should they made the union contribute all it could to the be compelled to do so; but it is as clear to us as support of its pauperism. Westport Union, how-noon day that they have not those means that ever, is not singular in this respect. If the accounts even if they adopted the suggestion of the Times of the neighbouring unions were investigated, it newspaper, and, like the Roman Curtius, cast would be found that they received as much, if not themselves headlong into the yawning chasm, it more in proportion, in the way of grant and loan, would still yawn on as hungrily as ever-a few and contributed as little; and hence (spreading pauperised proprietors (to use the cant of the day) these advances over three years, 1846, 1847, and would go but a short way to satisfy its cravings 1848) it appears that these unions received more the fee of these southern and western unions, sold at than 20s. in the £1, annually, on their valuations the prices they would fetch at present, would not from governmental sources, to aid their local rates be sufficient. Casting on property thus pauperized in the support of their poor. the support of its pauperism, till all its resources were exhausted (a result arrived at before 10s. in the £1 on the valuation were realized), would paralyze all exertion-another spring would idly away, and we should, for the fourth year, wit ness the insane effort to compel pauper landlords to give employment and money wages, without return for the one, or means to supply the other. It is idle to expect that these pauperized dis. tricts will recover, even a feeble strength, speedily; if they recover at all it will be gradually; and they will require, from some source, aid, liberally but judiciously applied for a considerable period of time. Burdening them with excessive taxation, as 10s. in the £1, and chaining the paupers to the soil, would, in our opinion, not only retard their up-hill progress towards prosperity, but would hurry them in the opposite direction. The profitable employment of the pauper labour is their only hope, and this can only be obtained by inducing men with capital and industry to take land and settle in the country. A general rule, placing all Ireland on a level, with respect to taxation, would not only enable the landholders who are not yet ruined, to recover, but would greatly encourage speculation in land in the distressed districts; and, when the transfer of small estates in fee are ren dered simple and cheap, would, by gradually intro ducing a respectable class of farmers and gentry into the distressed districts, eventually raise them from bankruptcy and ruin to independence and wealth.

It is not to be supposed, either, that these unions, in consequence of this enormous outlay, are now better able to support their own poor than they were three years ago: in fact, they are in a much worse condition-the paupers, who numbered about three-fourths of the whole population, having been employed on works studiously selected as being not reproductive, the lands remained untilled, and each succeeding harvest found the same, or rather an increasing destitute population, altogether unself-supporting. Hence the small amount of poorrate which the vice-guardians have been able to collect in the Westport Union; and hence, at least, 20s. in the £1, on the valuation, must be advanced once more-from the consolidated fund, from a rate in aid, or from some other source-to enable the population to live till next harvest, and another 20s. in the £1 to enable them to live till the harvest after; and so on, ad infinitum, if, in the mean time, advantage be not taken of some spring to make a fertile land yield food.

Now, will any one acquainted with the circumstances of the western or south-western unions, seriously assert that proprietors or landholders in these districts could advance 20s. in the £1 on the valuation, or 10s. in the £1-which has been sug gested as the limit to local taxation, and which, as we before observed, is not far from 20s. on the value-even if by advancing this 10s. or 20s. in the £1, they could have the population supported till harvest, and their lands cultivated? We say advance; for it is notorious that western or southern proprietors would look for credit in vain, and their labourers must be fed until next August or September, until when no return could be reaped from the land; and if proprietors could neither advance, nor pay this 10s. in the £1, how would the other parts of the country be benefitted by rendering their properties responsible, even to this limit, for the support of the poor? Or how would the poor be supported, if a rate in aid was not to be drawn on till after the locality had paid 10s., if this could not be collected? It is plain, in that event, the paupers must be supported by the rate in aid, and the local rate must remain due on the properties till better days arrive, if ever; or a better system be contrived; except the expedient of allowing men, women, and children to starve, be deliberately adopted.

If the proprietors and farmers in the west and south had the means of supporting their own poor till the produce of their labour enabled them to

Court Papers.

Chancery.

GENERAL ORDERS.

January 3, 1849.

The Right Honorable Maziere Brady, Lord High Chancellor of Ireland, by and with the advice and assistance of the Right Honorable Thomas Berry Cusack Smith; Master of the Rolls, doth hereby order and direct, in manner following:

or for any tenant, receiver, sequestrator, guardian, or other 1. That no recognizance hereafter to be entered into by person, who, according to the general practice or orders of the Court, or to any special order made in any cause or matter, may be bound to enter into a recognizance, shall be deemed to be completed within the meaning of such practice the due enrolment thereof, the same shall be duly registered or orders, or special order, unless and until, in addition to in the office of the registrar of judgments, in pursuance of and according to the provisions of the act of the seventh

and eighth years of the reign of Her Majesty, intituled an act for the protection of purchasers against judgments, crow debts, lis pendens, and commissions of bankruptcy; and for providing an office for the registry of all judgments 'in Ireland; and for amending the laws in Ireland respecting bankrupts, and the limitation of actions'-and of an act passed in the eleventh and twelfth years of the reign of Her Majesty, intituled an act to facilitate the transfer of landed property in Ireland:' but the non-compliance with this order shall not affect the validity of such recognizance at law or in equity, otherwise than as the said acts, or either of them, may in such case affect the same, as against purchasers, mortgagees, or creditors.

2. That the masters shall not perfect any lease under a letting made to a tenant until, in addition to the certificate of the enrolment of his recognizance, a certificate of the said registrar of judgments, of the lodgment and entry of the memorandum or minute of such recognizance, required by the said first-mentioned act, to be left with him, endorsed on a duplicate of such memorandum or minute, in pursuance of the said act of the eleventh and twelfth years of the reign of Her Majesty, shall be produced.

3. That the production of a like certificate of the registrar of judgments shall be requisite, with the certificate of the enrolment of the recognizance, to entitle a receiver, sequestrator, or guardian to enter the general order that the tenants do pay their rents and arrears to him.

4. That all receivers, sequestrators, and guardians already appointed, shall proceed without delay, and before the first day of February next ensuing, to have the several recognizances heretofore entered into by them, or on their behalf, duly registered, pursuant to the said acts, in the office of the said registrar of judgments, and do produce the like certificate of the said registrar as aforesaid in respect thereto to the master, on the passing of their next accounts respectively, who may therein allow the costs of such registry; and the master shall have power to disallow his poundage on such account to any receiver, sequestrator, or guardian not producing such certificate, dated on or before the said first day of February, unless some satisfactory reason shall be given to him for the delay; and the masters shall not pass any such account without production of the certificate; and in their certificate of the allowance of the account, shall state that the same was produced, and the date thereof.

5. That to the next statement of facts to be laid before the master by any receiver, sequestrator, or guardian, or to his next account, whichever shall be first lodged after the date hereof, there shall be annexed, by way of schedule, a specification of the several tenants by whom recognizances have been entered into, and the amount thereof respectively;

and the master shall examine into the same, and shall be at liberty in all cases, when he shall think fit, to direct the receiver, sequestrator, or guardian, or his solicitor, to effect, within a time to be fixed by the master, the due registration under the said acts, of all or any of the said recognizances, which it may be proper to have so registered, and to allow the costs thereof in the account of such receiver, sequestrator, or guardian, and to suspend the passing of any account until such direction shall have been complied with.

and minute to be lodged with the registrar, and a duplicate thereof; but the masters in allowing any costs, under the fifth foregoing order, for the registration of the recognizances of tenants, may allow a lesser sum for each, in their discretion, having regard to the numbers registered by the same solicitor in the same cause or matter.

8. That where a separate report shall be made by a master under a decree, containing a direction to appoint a receiver, as provided by the 153rd of the general orders of the 27th day of March, 1843, any objection to such separate report shall be taken by notice, and not by way of exception; and no cause shall be set down to be heard on such separate report, or on any objection thereto.

MAZIERE BRADY, C.
T. B. C. SMITH, M. R.

Nisi Prius days after Term.
Commence on Thursday 1st February.

24th January, last day for Serving Notice of Trial for
Sittings after Term.

lodged with the Lord Chief Justice's Registrar, and the Party shall have subsequently given a Plea of Confession or Consent for Judgment, notice shall be immediately given to the Registrar, by the plaintiff's attorney, that such case will not proceed to trial.

In all cases where a Docket for a Record shall have been

6. That any party interested in any cause or matter, or the receiver, sequestrator, or guardian appointed therein, may register under the said acts the recognizance of any deceased or discharged receiver, sequestrator, or guardian, or of any party which shall not have been vacated; and the master may allow in his next account to any such receiver, sequestrator, or guardian, the costs of such registration, where he shall think it was proper that the same should have been effected; and the master also may allow and direct to be paid to the general solicitor for minors, out of any funds properly applicable thereto, the costs of any such registration made by him, in cases where it may be necessary that such registration should be so made. 7. That the fee of 16s. 8d. shall be allowed to the soli- Monday, citors of the Court for attending to register any judgment, decree, order, crown bond, lis pendens, or recognizance under the said acts, and for all duties relating thereto, including the preparation and signing of the memorandum

Exchequer of Pleas.
Nisi Prius days in Term.

15th Jan.

Saturday, 20th
Wednesday, 24th

Monday, 5th February, Serve Notice, Saturday, 27th Jan.

Erish Jurist

JANUARY 20, 1849.

The Names of the Gentlemen who favour THE IRISH JURIST with Reports in the several Courts of Law and Equity in Ireland, are as follows:

reached in 1846 the sum of £678 12s. 6d., and in
1848, upwards of £900. The costs incurred for
this excellent and efficient management amounted to
the moderate sum of £309 6s. 9d, to which is to
be added the poundage retained by the officer of
the Court, for his meritorious services. Nor is
this the worst. In Trinity Term, 1848, two appli-
cations were made to the Court; one by the head-
landlord for permission to bring an ejectment, the
head-rent having fallen into arrear; and a second
by the Incumbent of the parish, whose tithe-rent
charge, amounting to the small annual sum of
£16 4s. 2d., was allowed to remain unpaid.
Nor had the inheritor the satisfaction of knowing,
that whilst landlord, clergyman, and creditor re-
mained unpaid, his tenantry were improved. For
thirteen years his property was under the do-
minion of the Court; during that interval, he was
deprived of all control over his tenantry, unable to
assist them or improve their condition, and not a
shilling was expended on the property for its per-
manent improvement. When, at length, he was
restored to his proprietorship, he found his tenantry
generally unable to pay rent, and many of them
reduced to the necessity of seeking relief under the
Poor-law. The condition in which this estate was
restored to its owner, evidences strongly the defec-
tive management of the Court of Chancery-a
management which acts with a peculiarly fearful
effect on properties occupied by a numerous and
small class of tenantry.

What is the peculiar vice of this system?
It deprives the proprietor of the power, of aiding
his tenantry, of exercising any control in prevent-
ing sub-letting, the ingress of pauper tenants, the
over-cropping and mismanagement of land-and it
confers that power on nobody. While the control of
the Court of Chancery continues, such power is vir-
tually extinct; the Receiver, as we have observed in
a former article, requires no qualification but to find
sufficient securities; he is required to discharge no
duties, save to collect rents. It is the worst species
of absenteeism, thus managing estates through non-
resident agents who have no discretion committed
to them, who cannot interfere to prevent the sub-
division of a farm, to aid a tenant whom a little
assistance would enable to become independent, or
to exercise any of the thousand privileges of a land-
lord, except at an expense to the estate which
might cost more than the advantage gained was
worth, or after a delay which would render his in-
terference useless.

Why should not the Court itself perform those peculiar duties, which it takes from the landlord. and transfers to nobody?-why should it devote its entire attention to the interests of a mortgagee or incumbrancers, to the exclusion of the proprietor and the tenantry? And this consideration acquires much more importance when it is recollected that in 1847 there were over 1000 estates, covering a fifteenth part of the whole rental,-and, in all likelikelihood more than a fifteenth part of the whole surface of Ireland, under the dominion of our Courts of Equity; and whilst we now write, the number has increased and is increasing. The Chancellor's list for the present term contains 171

causes, nine-tenths of which relate to land. The
business transacted in the Rolls Court is rapidly
and progressively increasing; the fees received in
the Court of
the various offices connected with
Chancery are swelled to nearly double their ordi-
nary amount; the ordinary revenue hitherto de-
rived from one, averaged £6000 per annum ; last
year it exceeded £11,000. Recent legislation also
will still further extend the control of the Court of
Chancery over land.

More attractive and dazzling subjects may pre-
sent themselves to the attention of a legislator, but
he could not serve his country more effectually
than by devising a practical remedy for the evils
we have attempted to describe. The calamities of
Ireland do not spring from a single source, and
they can be best combatted in detail. The pro-
prietors of Ireland are told, that if they will exert
themselves, prosperity is within their grasp; if
they prefer idleness and inattention, they must in-
evitably sink. Should not the same reasoning be
Is there any.
applied to the Court of Chancery?
thing in the property under its control, to exempt
it from the common lot of Irish estates?

Let the Receivers under the Court of Chancery be more assimilated to agents on well-managed pri vate estates, and if it be considered dangerous to give Receivers an independent discretion, at least let the instructions of the Court be conveyed with the rapidity of directions from landlords to their agents. The cumbrous and expensive machinery of statements of facts, affidavits, reports, &c., neither suit the circumstances nor exigencies of distressed estates. Surely a system can be devised which would accomplish these objects, and without any increase of expense to the country. The costs allowed to Receivers during the four years comprised in the return to which we have primarily alluded, averaged above £30,000 per annum. Add to this the 5 per cent poundage on near a million sterling, and there will be a total of nearly £80,000 a-year, shewing an expence of 8 per cent on the rental, a greater per centage than is required for the management and improvement of the most flourishing private estates.

This expense, however great, is not all that is lost under this system, large sums are annually permitted to lie unproductive in the hands of Receivers, which should, the moment they were received, be invested to the credit of the different causes, and be made to accumulate for the benefit of the parties interested. Receivers, in this respect, should be placed on a level with private agents. The country might be divided into districts, and all the properties under the courts in each district confided to a resident receiver. By a well-managed system, we feel satisfied half the present expense of managing estates would be saved, the business of the Court of Chancery would be materially lightened, and the properties under its care would be improved during their transition through it, and cease to be the speaking reproach they are now.