(14.) Now, in the Report on the State of Ireland, there occurs a description, given by an intelligent witness of the condition of the farmers, not being manufac→ turers, of Downshire (one of the most thickly-peopled counties in the country) who are in possession of about this quantity of land, ten acres1 each, on an average. But they are fairly dealt by, and hold directly from the proprietors; their situation, consequently, is this: they eat animal food3; build slated houses' (a great distinction in Ireland); their furniture is decent and abundant*; and, finally, many of them have saved very considerable sums of money. As to the la bourers, they are represented to be in regular employment, and are paid in money. In the county of Down there are 367 souls on the square milé (English); in Galway, incontestibly the most wretched and least-populated part of Ireland, just one-third that number. It is erroneous, then, to attribute the misery and distress of Ireland to the density of its population: the converse of this notion is true of the country throughout, as will be shown here after. But to return to the farmers. The "potatoe system," therefore, is not chargeable upon marriage, nor population, nor small farms; but upon absenteeism, its desertions, its wholesale lettings, its exorbitant, indeed incredible, rents; and the clearings and drivings it occasions; and yet these last, and emigration, are reckoned the only remedies for the sufferings of the people. 1 Report on the State of Ireland, 1825, First Part; Mr. Hugh Wallace's (banker and solicitor) Evidence, p. 150. Ibid. p. 148. 3 Ibid. p. 150. Ibid. p. 150. Ibid. p. 149. 8 Ibid. Ibid. p. 149. pp. 150, p. 151. 7 Ibid. p. 149. (15.) But the average size of the farms of Ireland, as we have seen, are necessarily far greater than these. To ascribe, therefore, its evils to a redundant population, in the proper sense of the term, is as plain an insult upon truth, as it would be to attribute those felt generations ago, when there were sixty acres of land to every family, to the same act of Divine Providence. These distresses will remain till their prime cause shall cease; till they shall be no longer deserted and oppressed. They have, alas! long been " a people scattered and peeled; meted out and trodden underfoot ;" and it is not by burning their cottages, and driving them into exile, that they are to be relieved. In the instance of the Netherlands has been shown the condition in which Ireland might have been placed, had she been properly treated; the condition to which she may yet attain, if her wrongs are redressed, and she should no longer be the tributary of distant oppression; but see her exactors changed for kind, benevolent, and resident landlords. A lovely picture rises in one's imagination, in contemplating what might be the result; it has been already touched by her own inimitable poet, when treating on the very subject, in his Deserted Village; the secret of the exquisite pathos of which is, simply, its truth; and, alas! it has the inspiration of prophecy as well as of poetry. But our poets have sung, and our moralists pleaded in vain ; even the solemn denunciations of our religion, in all instances the religion of benevolence, and the assertor of the rights of unprotected poverty, have been utterly disregarded. "Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!" was the malediction of the sublimest of the prophets of Israel, a country thrice as densely peopled as Ireland, even on the authority of profane history; and which, nevertheless, enjoyed the greatest abundance in consequence of being guarded against ruinous monopolies by the sacred institutions of its GOD: I say ruinous, for so they still are to thousands upon thousands of poor wretches who have been, and are about to become, their victims. One of the milder of the methods to get rid of the superfluous population of Ireland, is, I perceive, to impose a tax upon cottages: Mr. Malthus is asked whether the legislature would be justified in some distinct measure of that kind; to which he responds in the affirmative'. The man, however, who shall make so nefarious a proposal, will be "distinct" enough; and should it be made and passed, it would require only a single clause to render it palatable to the country at large, namely, that its proposers and abettors should be the sole gatherers of the impost; it would be a disgrace to a civilized country to have to collect an assessment, especially one of so equitable and merciful a nature, at the point of the bayonet. The consequences I do not mean to disguise, and I hope it will be deemed no greater offence to imagine the loss of a thousand political economists for the public good, than it is for Mr. Malthus to pronounce the demise of a thousand labourers in the same cause, as "a gain certainly"." 1 ૧ Emigration Committee, Third Report, p. 321. Report of the Emigration Committee, Rev. T. R. Malthus's Evidence, p. 314. But we are neither of us in earnest: "No, no, we do but jest, murder in jest, no offence i' th' world. (Pours the poison into his ears.")-But, seriously; a principle which can coolly argue, even ex hypothesi, that putting out of existence a thousand labourers, would be "certainly a gain" in any point of view, is one that is not likely to remain a dead letter; it will act as far as it dare: and what sort of a figure does it cut in the eye of philosophy, of philanthropy, of religion? Every one of these thousand is as plainly called to fill the station he holds in creation as the proudest mortal in it; and notwithstanding he is audaciously told to the contrary," he has a right to be where he is;" an infinitely wise Providence, who called him into the world, has visibly assigned him his place in it; and to assert or act upon the contrary notion is unjust in the name of humanity, and false in the name of GOD! Touching all subjects connected with human morals and conduct, we may rest assured of every system, which holds that we may do evil that good may come, that its “damnation is just." We are unfitted by our very nature for the regimen of any such principle, being, on the one hand, too ignorant of future contingencies, and, on the other, too partial in our mode of judging of them, were they known to us, to qualify us for this mode of determining the moral quality of human actions. Hence we are favoured with far surer guides, the feelings of humanity, and the dictates of religion; and happily the experience of the human race has found these to be unerring. The more perfectly they have been obeyed, either by individuals or 1 1 Hamlet. 2 Malthus, Essay on Pop., 4to, p. 531. communities, the more happy and prosperous have all such permanently become. But the rule of political economy is founded on ignorant selfishness: it has been too long applied to Ireland, and we see with what success. Try another: even the golden rule-Do to her as you would be done by. Then would there be a resident gentry, fair and moderate rents, general industry, grateful and gratified feelings, obedience to the laws in a word, a happy and contented country, smiling with universal cultivation. These would assuredly heal the breaches of that unhappy people far better than the creation of a "vacuum," again to use the current phrase of the day, by desolation and destruction. Then, though her sons should still " grow up as young plants, and her daughters as the polished corners of the temple; her garners would be full and plenteous with all manner of store, and her sheep would bring forth by thousands and ten thousands. Then should there be no decay; no breaking in, nor going out; no leading into captivity"-no emigration no complaining in her streets." In contradiction to the doctrine of all the economists upon earth, this has been the case wherever human industry has been duly fostered and cherished, and population has been allowed to proceed with those natural advantages which the Deity evidently intended it should possess in its wonder-working career. Happy are the people that are in such a case!" (16.) In dwelling upon the nefarious project of clearing lands and destroying habitations, perhaps some severity of language has been used, which I take the occasion to say I do not direct personally |