IE TCD MS 1728/81-82: Letter, with an assigned date of 10 December 1814: "[Page 1] At Portnasun, somewhat less than half a mile from Ballyshannon commanding a fine view of the Fall, is a neat modern house and an extensive garden, the property of John Allingham, Esq. on the site of which stood a large castle, inhabited about two hundered years ago by a settlement of Dutch merchants; indeed a part of its walls forms at present a very considerable part of the walls of Mr Allingham's office houses. This place, which is on that side of the water which is situated in the parish of [Ennis the Saint?], together with Danby, the seat of James Forbes, Esq. and the grand and venerable-looking castellated mansion of Wardton, which appears to have been built only to be deserted, form the sole objects which the hand of man has rasied for the purpose of ornamenting the harbour of Ballyshannon, where the land on both sides of the water, through an extent of nearly three miles, almost to the very edge of the bar, seems to court his attention every step he takes, or rather to reproach him with the the want of it. But this is not all that we have to complain of; however, after reading the observations we are going to make, let not nature be condemned. Unfortunately, owing to the little encouragement afforded to the occupants of the soil in their vicinity, (the rents being high and the tenure under the College transient,) to counteract the spreading sands by the proper mode of cultivation, which is not calculated to produce an immediate remuneration, a range of sand-hills on each side of the entrance to the harbour of Ballyshannon promises fair to deal devastation far and wide before the lapse of half a century. [Footnote/additional text] 1 [See text of footnote/additional text 1, provided below]. [Main text continued on page 2] Hence, what is calculated to fertilize the soil in most places, is likely to be to us, or to our immediate descendants, the fruitful source of serious mischiefs; a circumstance infinitely more to be regretted than the want of superficial decorations, and which would seem to indicate the experiencing, if no the indisperable necessity of legislative interference, [text continued on page 3] as well with respect to this place, as with respect to many parts of Ireland which are similarly situated. Indeed the community at large are precluded from much solid good, from many incalculable advantages, by the operation of a law which disables or restrains the College, as well as Archbishops and Bishops, from making leases of any tolerable duration; a circumstance which (at least in Ireland, where landlords, in general, are or seem to be ignorant of this salutary truism, that their own happiness and welfare must in a very great degree be dependant upon the happiness and welfare of their tenants,) forms a sine qua non of every sort of laborious or expensive cultivation whatsoever. Not that this disability or restriction, which obstructs the due improvement of probably several hundreds of thousands of acres, should be done away, without the imposition of certain checks, without the appointment of what might be called a sort of board of control, instituted to take care of the property in question, for the benefit of the State, to which it properly belongs; and this for reasons as obvious as they are incontrovertible. [Text continued on page 4] The above observations, so far as they relate to Bishop's lands and to lands of the College, recently occurred to me, on overhearing two or three plain but intelligent farmers lamenting seriously, while smoking a pipe over some good old [ale?], that the protestant church, for which they professed the most disinterested regard, should be a mean of entailing negative evils upon the country from generation to generation; and this, without producing any profit to any human being at present [footnote/additional text] 2 [see text of footnote/additional text 2, provided below], or promising to avert any inconvenience from anyone at a future period which might not, in their humble opinion, without this bar, as well to the increase and diffiusion of the means of human happiness, as to the creation of political advantages, with a little precaution be easily guarded against. - That even without any of the checks alluded to, the country at large would, from the repeal of the prohibitory law, derive every considerable benefit in some respects, is true to a demonstration; it is equally certain, that it would be a different matter to adduce a single rational argument on behalf of a system which tends to prevent the melioration of the soil: it is much to be feared, however, that with some of those checks, its Hierarchy would ere long receive a vital wound, and with it, that religion with which our liberties are interwoven; to say nothing of the probably ruinous consequences that would result thereupon to one of the richest and most learned universities in Europe: avert from us those evils every thing that renders life desirable! Here it will probably be objected, that the repeal of the disabling or restraining statute would in many cases prove utterly unproductive of the great advantages alluded to: for instance, in the case of a young man appointed to a bishoprick, (a thing which very frequently occurs,) in which he may most naturally hope that he shall not be suf [text continued on page 5] fered to remain for any considerable length of time whence, without doing much violence to reason, he may expect to be elevated before the expiration of a twenty one years lease; and who, therefore, would be extremely unwise in refusing the usual tempting fines for the customary renewals. To this it may be answered, that in the present instance, like many other temporal advantages, moral as well as physical, for which the way had been paved, the good would be progressive, For the land thus [unshaped?], as water uninterrupted in its course soon finds its level, the value would shortly be obtained. Here the State, of the individuals exercising the powers of the State, would at all times be able to apply the remedy: nor can it be denied, that the hopes and expectations which in these cases are the most likely to be raised are those which, as they have more rarely genuine merit for their foundation than parliamentary friends and influence at Court, are to the protestant church more destructive, beyond comparison more destructive than the shafts of its most inveterate enemies, and this in every point of view in which the subject can be contemplated. There is no degree of merit which the least valuable bishoprick is not perfectly adequate to reward; and, in the clerical profession, the merit which receives what it is entitled to should be taught that it must not aspire to more. The worldling, the child of earth may be graced by ambition; it may stimulate to mighty deeds the statesman of the soldier, but it spoils the man of God - in him it ought to be nipped in the bud; and let it ever be remembered, that the bishoprick is lost, is worse than lost, which is conferred on any thing buy merit. By these means, or by means such as these, the protestant church would become, what it ought always to have been and always ought to be, pure, unsullied, [?]: by these means, or by means such as these, it would be rendered likely through the instrumentality of its lowest as well as its most exalted teachers to produce those effects and bring forth those fruits, in virtue of which it might calculate upon the countenance and protection of the Most High. under the due regulations, while the country at large would derive advantages the most important from the improved cultication of numerous extensive tracts, the State supporting the Church, and the Church, pre-eminent as it ought to be, supporting the State, [text continued on page 6] the bona ecclesiae would flow in their proper channels; nor is it at all necessary that any bishop should become too opulent. For its surplus wealth it would have abundant occasion, which would show itself every day in a thousand different forms; for instance, it might be charitably and suitably disposed of in the erection and endowment of hospitals, dispensaries, schools, &c. &c. &c. or it might, in all probability, be judiciously appropriated towards exonerating the numerous indigent from the necessity of paying tythes, and thus removing an highly influential casue of their dislike of their aversion to the established religiong, and to all who would support it; an object for the attainment of which hardly any sacrifice should be deemed too great, and more, infinitely more to be wished for by Irishmen of all religious persuasions, than what compared with it might be called the [tinsel?] acquisitions of a rich treasury and a flourishing commerce! If it be said that is is erroneous to assert, that, by the disabling or restraining statute, under which Bishops are precluded from making the most of the lands which belong to them as such, no human being is at all advantaged - that, on the contrary, it is essentially beneficial to their [?] in general - it may be replied, that this is not and cannot be the case in any instanve wherein, between the fine paid and the rent to be paid, the land is disposed of at its full value. Nor is it to be imagined that any man would be less inclined to pay the value for a long than for a short lease, without questioning his prudence or his wordly wisdom - qualities against which few can endure with patience the slight of insinuation. Willm. Shaw Mason, Esq." [2] Text of footnote/additional text 1: [begins on page 1] 1. The deplorable effects produced by these sand-hills are most strikingly perceptible in the lands of Wardton, on the North side of the entrance to the harbour of Ballyshannon, where several walls which when erected, about fifty or sixty years ago, were six or seven feet high, measure now scarcely as many inches. And here the writer of this will probably be thought excusable for transmitting a few observations from others, chiefly for the pur [text continued on page 2] pose of pointing out the most effectual process for counteracting the mischief. The Complete Farmer, or General Dictionary of Agriculture and Husbandry, in the treating of the article "Land Flood" observes, "It has been suggested that the best way of stopping its progress is by hedges of furze, [planted?] one over the other; as they become levelled these, when well kept up, will by degrees stop or divert the progress; and some who have tried it with resolution, after they had the sand raised twenty feet high, have found it stop its increase, and then, having manured this adventitious soil with dung, found it as good ground as that which made the surface before." In the Encyclopaedia Britannica (see the article "Sand Flood") are the following remarks, The flowing of sand, though far from being so tremendous and hurtful as in Arabia, is of very bad consequences in this country, as many valuable pieces of land have been entirely lost; of which we give the following instances from Mr. [Pennant?], together with a probable means of preventing them in future. "I have more than once," says he, "on the eastern coats of Scotland, observed the calamitous state of several extensive tracts, formerly in amost flourishing condition, at present covered with sands, unstable as those of the deserts of Arabia. The parish of Turrie, in the County of Aberdeen, is now reduced to two farms and above £500 a year lost to the Errol family, as appears by the oath of the [factor?] in 1600, made before the court of the Session, to ascertain the minister's salary. Not a vestige is to be seen of any buildings, unless a fragment of the church. "The estate of [Caubin?], near Forres, is another melancholy instance, This tract was once worth £300 a year, at this time overwhelmed with sand. This strange inundation was still in motion in 1769, chiefly when a strong wind prevailed. Its motion is so rapid, that I have been assured, that an apple tree has been so covered with it in one season, that only the very summit appeared. This distress was brought on about ninety years ago, and was occasioned by the cutting down some trees, and pulling up the bent or star which grew on the sand-hills; which at last gave rise to the act of 15 Georges II c.33. to prohibit the destruction of this useful plant. "I beg leave to suggest to the public a possible means of putting stop to [text continued on page 3] to these destructive savages. Providence hath kindly formed this plant to grow only in pure sand. Mankind was left to make, in after times, an application of it suitable to their wants. The sand-hill, on a portion of the Flintshire shores, in the parish of Llanasa, are covered with it naturally, and kept firm in their place. The Dutch perhaps owe the existence of part at least of their country to the sowing of it on the mobile [?], their sand banks. "My [humane?] and amiable friend, the late Benjamin Stillingfleet, Esq. recommended the sowing of this plant on the sandy wilds of Norfolk, that its matted roots might prevent the deluges of sand which that country experiences. It has been already remarked, that wheresoever this plant grows the salutary effects are observed soon to follow. A single plant will [?] the sand, and gather it into a hillock; these hillocks, by the increase of vegetation, are formed into larger, till by degree a barrier is made often against the encroachment of the sea; and might as often prove preventative of the calamity in question. I cannot, therefore, but recommend the trial to the inhabitants of many parts of North Britain. The plant grows in most places near the sea, and is known to the highlanders by the name of murap; to the English by that of bent-star, mat-grass, or [?] [?] calls it arundo arenaria. The Dutch call it helm. This plant hath stiff and sharp-pointed leaves, growing like a rush, a foot and a half long: the roots both creep and penetrate deeply into their sandy bed; the stalk bears and ear five or six inches long, not [?]; the seeds are small, brown, and roundish. By [text continued on page 4] "By good fortune, as old Gerard observes, no cattle will eat or touch this vegetable, allotted for other purposes, subserviant to the use of mankind." [3] Text of footnote/additional text 2: [begins on page 4]: 2. Sir William Blackstone speaks of the disabling or restraining Statute as having been made entirely for the benefit of the successor. Blackstone's Commentaries.