The Express.
London, England, 1855-08-24 00:00:00

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- LONDON, 11W17, AVOW 91.

WHAT a lesson it is. that we have lived to bear
the news of Ireland which now comes by every
mail! The aristocracy have thrown off their
debt by the sacrifice of some of their land.
No fear of arrest, no spectacle of tumble-down man-
sions, acrd land relapsing to waste, and a starving
peasantry—no horror of a shot from the ditch need
now keep the Irish proprietor in foreign countries,
when his heart is at home. Everybody knows
that many of the estates of Ireland have
changed hands within a few years; but most of us
have exaggerated the number of immigrating pro-
prietors, because the introduction of Scotch and
English methods of farming is conspicuous among
the redeeming influences which have changed the
faced the country. Improved agriculture is widely
prevalent ; but the number of Scotch and English
proprietors is insignificant in comparison with Irish
purchasers. The fact seems to be that a very large
amount of Irish capital, which was before invested in
the English funds, has new found a better destination
at home. What must have been the insecurity
of property when millions of Irish money
were fetching the low interest of the funds,
while the lack of capital was depressing every
hope of social improvement ! That is all over now.
The land and the money have accomplished a part-
nership ; and the consequence is an amount of pro-
duction which no prophecy would have made an
ancient Irishman believe in, and a rise of wages
which has sapped the political schemes of the Young
Ireland agitd ton. Men who earned sixpence a day
in O'Cos,tr.t.L's time now get eight/et:pen°, in ordi-
nary seasons, and half-a-crown and three shillings
with their food in this present month of August.
Comtism need to say that when the Irish ceased to
live on " mere roots," rage and wretchedness would
cease; and greatly would he glory in his prophecy if
he were living now. The people still eat and relish
potatoes; but there are very few of them who would
now be satisfied with the potato alone. The steam
mills which are rising up all over the island to meet
the popalu demand for flour and meal tell a most
cheering tale; and one resells for the remarkable
rise of wages is that the men work so much
better than formerly, from being better fed. No
scarcity of labour would induce the farmers to pay
se they do, if the work done were no awe than
formerly. The workhouse return, show a wonderful
change, even from 1853 to 1864; a reduction of the
numbers is the workhouses, side by side with a con-
siderable incluse& in the production of the workhouse
farms, and other kinds of workhouse industry. The
mortality in the gaols is reduced; and yet more strik-
ing is the falling off in the number of criminals. Such
an assize as the last was never known in Ireland
eines courts were established. White gloves made their
appearance at more places than one : and the offences
were, for the most part, of a light character, in the
place of the fearful murders and barbarous outrages
which used to make the Irish circuits the most tra-
gical facts in the empire. Instead of Ribbon lodges
on the one hand, and hedge schools on the
other, we have now extensive industrial enterprises
and schools of a high order, into which hundreds
of thousands of children are pressing, to be trained
for the vinuous citizenship of the next generation.
All the while, new branches of industry are opening
for them; new relations with England are arising ;
•and differences are dissolving from day to day.
Take the following as one instance of the
changes visible. Travellers in Ireland know the
difficulty of getting cheese there, and the absurd
price of it, even in Clare and Kerry, where
the hills are covered with cattle. Cheese has
been imported, so as to sell at ls. 4d. per lb., in the
very districts where butter is made for exportation.
Not a single cheese was made; and nobody had the
spirit to try. Now, a cheese as good as Cheshire is
produced, by the enterprise of English settlers, and
mold at 6d. per lb. This new product will be a source
of wealth in those parts of the country where gazing
has taken the place of arable farming on the one
hand, and mere smote on the other. Thus are new
products one after another introduced, from one end of
the industrial scale to the other: and thence comes
the increased intercourse with England which brings
together meetings at the Mansion-house, and origi-
nates arrangements all along the line, to enable mails
and passengers to be exchanged batmen Dublin and
London, twice a day.