The Press. — London, England, 1855-02-10 00:00:00

littraturt. Thom's Irish Almanac and Official Directory for 1850. Dublin : Thom and Sons. THIS portly volume, besides furnishing a com plete directory to the county and city of Dublin, and to the various Irish establish ments, contains the information given in our best almanacs, with a copious peerage and haronetage, army and navy lists, and a vast amount of statistics of general utility. The statistics of Ireland furnish a complete view of tho material condition of that country as compared with its state in times past ; and some of the details aro so important as to suggest a few remarks on the great changes which Ireland has lately undergone. Never perhaps did any country pass through so great a social revolution in so short a space of time as Ireland passed through in the ).ears between 1847 and 1851. Forming part of the wealthiest, most cultivated, and most civilised kingdom of the world, it was sud denly stricken with a famine of so grievous a character as scarcely to find any parallel in history. By the failure of the potato crop many districts were reduced to total destitu tion, and were partially depopulated before aid could reach the starving inhabitants. Whole families died in lonely cottages, with none to help them—men, women, and children going abroad with the hope of obtaining food expired by the wayside—the last rites of hn inanity were neglected, and the dead were left unburied for rats to gnaw or to putrefy in the air. The wail of anguish from the green island resounded through Europe, and evens moved the Sultan of Turkey to compassion. No efforts of benevolence were sufficient to relieve the distress. The entire people seemed changed to a nation of paupers, and the heavy duty was thrown on the Government of having to feed starving millions. Distressing as the accounts were which reached us, the full ex tent of the calamity was not known until the population returns of 1851 were published. Since the earliest authentic returns, the people had been rapidly increasing. In 1652, in the time of Cromwell, the population was supposed to be only 850,000. In 1726, under the reign of the first George, it had risen to 2,309,106. In 1792, previous to the war consequent on the French revolution, it amounted to 4,088,226, and neither the blood shed in the Irish rebel lion nor the recruits drawn fur the war checked its increase. After the Union, in particular, it rose rapidly. At the census in 1811 it amounted to 5,937,850 ; in 1821 it was 0,801,827 ; in 1831, 7,767,401 ; in 1841, 8,175,124 ; and had the increase gone fairly on to 1851 the number would have approached nine millions. But the census returns of 1851 showed only 0 1 551,070, or a positive decrease on the pre vious return of 1,623,114 souls. The growth iu population of more than forty years was thus lost in the season of famine and in the rush of emigration which followed. The small occupiers and peasants who had power to leave their native land tied from it, as if it were stricken by an irremovable curse. The total loss to the population between 1847 and 1851 cannot be estimated at less than two millions ; and a considerable majority of these souls must certainly have perished frpin starvation. Each of the four provinces suffered a great decline ; in Connaught it was most marked, and in Ulster the least so. The decline in the former province between 1841 and 1851 was from 1,418,859 to 1,010,211, and in the latter from 2,386,373 to 2,011,756. It is very remarkable—and further illustrative of the extreme severity of distress in the country districts—that eoinci dent with this general decline, the numbers of the people in every principal city and town of Ireland increased. Thus in Dublin city the 4utnbem rose from 232,720 in 1841 to 258,361 in 1851; in Cork front 80,720 to 85,745 ; in Bel last from 9,308 to 100,300; and in Galway from 17,276 to 23,695. The increase in the houses of these towns has also been considerable. From • the rate nt which emigration has kepi proccedipg since 1 8 51, it is ce rtain th a t the . population must have suffered a still further decrease to the present time. The. THE PRESS. natural increase in the people calculated at one per cent. would not exceed 65,000 yearly; while the number of emigrants from Ireland in 1851 was 254,587 ; in 1852, 224,997 ; in 1853, 199,392. As the emigrants include a large portion of the youngest and most vigorous of the adult population, from whom the excess of births over deaths mainly depends, it is pro bable that the real decline in the numbers of the people is proceeding more rapidly than the emigration returns alone would indicate. The present population of Ireland must cer tainly be below 6,000,000, and probably does not much exceed 5,500,000, or about whit:, it was half a century ago. Since 1847 the emigra tion from Ireland has been chiefly carried on by the remittances sent home from persons who had previously emigrated. In 1848 the money thus remitted amounted to 480,000/., and in 1853 it had risen to 1,439,000/. One result of this emigration is, that the hands employed in the sea fisheries of Ireland have declined from 93,073 iu 1845 to 38,2747 in 1853; the vessels engaged have sunk from 19,683 to 11,079. _ _ _ The seventy of distress caused by the fear ful year of famine is indicated by other facts. The deposits in savings-banks in 1845 reached 2,921,551/., the largest amount ever lodged since the first establishment of these institu tions; but in consequence of the famine the amount dropped in 1848 to 1,334,2961., and the depositors fell from 96,422 to 48,512. This test of the impoverishment of the people is perhaps the most decisive that could be belec ted. The decline was only very partially re covered in 1863, when the depositors were 65,630, and the total amount 1,586,0101. Other tests leal to the same conclusion of the vast distress caused by the famine. In 1845 the number of paupers relieved was 114,205, at an expense of 316,0251. ; and in 1848 the paupers had risen to 2,043,505, and the expenditure to 1,835,634. In the following year there was a further increase, the number relieved being 2,142,766, and the cost 2,177,6511. But there has since been a gradual diminu tion, the number in 183 having been only 409,668, and the expense of relief 785,718/. Even the pupils in the national schools de clined from 456,410 in 1846 to 402,682 in 1847. The revenue suffered less than might have been expected, to the extent of two or three hundred thousand pounds only, but the amount remitted front the British Exchequer to make good the deficiency in the annual charge for Ireland rose from 2,466,0001. in 1846 to 8,798,0001. in 1847. Notwithstanding, however, the diminution in the numbers of the people, there has been no decline of cultivation, and the amount of property in Ireland has largely increased. The value of live stock in 1841 was assumed to be 19,399,8431„ and in 1863 was estimated at 31,458,785, presenting a striking contrast to the decline of the people. In the numbers of poultry, pigs, and sheep, a great decline was caused b) the black year of famine. The pigs, which had numbered 1,412,813 iu 1841, sank to 795,463 in 1849; sheep fell from 2,106,189 in 1841 to 1,777,111 in 1849 ; and the number of poultry, in the same interval declined from 8,450,517 to 8,328,001. The number of cattle have, however, steadily increased from 1,863,116 in 1841 to 3,383,309 in 1858, and the numbers of sheep have nearly doubled since 1849, being in 1863 3,142,656. In 1848 the sheep at Ballinasloe Fair amounted to 67,045 ; in 1834 they were 79,899 ; the cattle at the former date were 8,162, and at the latter 18,409. These figures alone would show, what is evident indeed from all the statistics con sulted, that nearly the whole weight of the famine fell upon the poorer classes of the Irish, and chiefly on the small occupiers and the peasantry. The acres under tillage have increased, thus showing that no want of labour is experienced. The land under crops was in 1849 5,548,748 acres, and in 1853 6,696,951 acres. Cereal culture has slightly declined, and the growth of flax largely increased. In 1849 60,314 acres were devoted to this crop, and in 1854 150,972 acres, The increase, however, has been chiefly 0014110 to Ulster, where, by the last return, 139,000 sores were under cultivation feu• flax. The revenue, mouldering the diminution in the numberwof the people, must be regarded SATURDAY, as satisfactory. In 1853 the net produce was 4,621,8701., beings mere trifle below the amount in 1846 ; the amount provided by the British Exchequer to make good the deficiencies of the annual charge has lately been declining. The amount required for the last thirty years has been from two to three millions annually, but in (853 was only 1,228,342/. Harshly as the provisions of the Incumbered Estates Act seemed to press on involved pro prietors, yet the result has been unquestion ably beneficial, and perhaps no legislative measure ever more completely fulfilled its ob ject than did this one, as an immense extent of land has passed from the hands of bank rupt owners into those of persons willing and able to employ it to the best advantage. The total amount realised by the sale of property under this act from 21st February, 1850, to 21st October, 1854, amounted to the enormous sum of 13,509,3031., and the change, it cannot be doubted, has, on the whole, been beneficial to every class concerned. Taking whatever test we may (except the numbers of the population), Ireland appears to be a steadily-improving country. Crime is diminishing—education is on the increase— trade and commerce are advancing—the capital of the land is in course of augmenta tion—the revenue is healthy—agitation has nearly become extinct—and all kinds of local rates are on the decline. We cannot view that emigration which conduces to such results as an evil, and we may expect that it will cease as the condition of the people improves. At no time did Ireland contain a greater number of souls than it might profitably have em ployed, but their labour was to a great extent directed into over-crowded channels, and for that reason to unprofitable employments. The proof of this is the fact that a subtraction of two millions of people has been unattended with any diminution of industrial produce, or, so far as we can judge, of the commodities consumed. We may congratulate ourselves that the worst part of the transition-state is over, and should our Government, by atten tion to the social condition and prospects of Ireland, prevent, as far as the Government of a free country can, the growth of those evils from which such tremendous consequences have arisen, that country may hereafter cease to be the "great difficulty" of British states manship. This volume is in itself a proof of the com mercial importance of the capital of Ireland. It is in every way creditable to the enterprise of the publishers, and we are satisfied only re quires to be known on this side the Irish Channel to command considerable patronage from its many merits and large utility. Mountains and Molehills ; or, Recollections of a Burnt Journal. By Frank Marryat. Lon don : Longman'. MR. MARRYAT Will be favourably remembered as the author of " Borneo and the Eastern Archipelago, " and this present volume of his recollections of California is written in the lively, entertaining, rumbling, truthful style of the previous work. The journal in which these recollections were originally collected was accidentally destroyed in one of the great fires at San Francisco, and also a valuable collection of drawings and sketches of the country and people; but nevertheless we are glad to receive their " ashes." Mr. Marryat, in 1850, started for California, with his servant and dogs, and travelled through the country like a gentle man, in contradistinction to a " digger." He passed through Chagres and Panama, and stopped some little time at San Francisco ; saw everything that was to be seen in that city, went thence to Benicia, a little town on the bay, stopping en route at a ranche,' became thoroughly initiated into Mexican country life, and for that winter determined to " squat" in a delicious valley in the moun tains, which was recommended as being in a district abounding in game, and there to enjoy a free life and the pleasures of the chase. After some months of such agreeable times-- hunting deer, shooting wild bulls and bears, and chasing tiger-eats—the rainy season commenced and Mr. Uarryst returned to San Etaucisco, leav ing his servant in his log hut; but when he AimA