The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-19 00:00:00

THERMOMETER.

This day at Two o'clock 4B
Barometer-30.40.
Wind—S.-W. ; light, and fine.

4
(4,43 P/ AUL

LONDON, SATURDAY, DEC. 19, 1863.

have A very few weeks longer, and Parliament will
reassembled. We are rapidly drawing to the
de" of December, and the Lords and Commons, at
the latest,
will resume their legislative labours in
February. Session after session, latterly, we have had
a mere tidimy.over somehow, almost anyhow, of
whatever,-
laiMculties or anxieties stood in the way.
In effect, ever since the inauguration of the present
Coalition Gaverntee
ntiTthe grand, energetic, en-
lightened,
advanced,cfaiberal Administration, that
was inducted into
(who can forget it ?) for
the express and avow:
purpose of reforming all
sorts of things, Pra arlia,
ut itself included, the whole
system of popular representiv
°tobegin with—ever
since Lord JOHN Ressma.,3
Resolutions were
carried by
a narrow majority,
e:ter since Lord
DERBY and his Conservativell,4lcolleagues
the
occupiediii e Lord
Y were ousted
from power in consequence, ever sntc
PALMERSTON and his colleagues
vacated post of office thereupon—the
il ~7carried
out systematically and most assiduously by
i3olo.ur
been has en precisely the very
Mr. DICKENS so delightfully defined as that policy
How Not To Do It! From June, 1859, until
now, it has been thus with regard to the 'whole
purpose, aim, and effort of the Coalition
Government, of the Great Liberal Reforming Go-
vernment, Almost, as one may say, quite as a
matter of course and as a direct consequence of this
—while the Coalition Government and the Conser-
vative Oppcsition havebeen" tiding-over" both time
and circumstances, in this deliberate manner, post-
poning and evading even their own antagonism—
the small Ministerial majority with which the
PALMERSTON Cabinet started upon its adventurous
career, has rapidly dwindled and dwindled down'
until the time eventually arrived when it might
be spi)ken of pretty confidently as a thing of
the Past, as a something really and truly no
100,, .
ousbrihetnsz oten;, Since that turning-point in
parties, was reached and passed
for r,a,,hed
and
titionably_thear pasEed it has been unques-
onyly
doubt has been first of all,
ire regd to the extent of the opposition gain,
and secondly, as to
the point upon which, as to the
question in regard to
which,
that gain of the Con
servatives could b, Effectively applied. Particu-
larly (luring the very iwit
fii -of Parliament, it
was perfectly well understood that—Found
507.110 good pretext for a great
division,
fight,
followed by a great party
fusion, and
the " powers that be" ,ere
lost vs a Government. 'There certain
he
Was a etroov
suspicioJ that it was so, even the year before,
even
-
in 1862; but then, as the nation rernembelestill very
poignantly, the recent death of H.R.H. the Prince
Consort set it aside altogether, and by postponed

The question of emigration is one that has occu-
pied a large space in the consideration of the States-
men and political economists of modern days. The
size and extent of our dependencies, the rapidity
and ease of transit, and the strong spirit of enter-
prise and adventure, which has rendered English-
men pre-eminent as colonists, have all combined to
raise the rate of emigration to a height which
renders it a matter of national importance. It is
natural that when work is hard to get and food
dear the working classes should readily take their
departure for lands where the necessaries of life are
as plentiful as labour is scarce. It needs no great
and overwhelming catastrophe, no potato famine or
cotton distress to render such a prospect attractive
enough in the sight of thousands of our lower
classes to induce them to break old ties and associa-
tions and risk their all in a new start in life. The
difficulty is in regulating this constant stream, in
affording to the needy that assistance which may
convert them from parochial burdens into thriving
members of an industrial community, without un-
duly stimulating the exodus, and costing the State
in men more than is saved in money. It is a good
many years since GOLDSMITH drew his picture of
"Sweet Auburn" deserted by her children, and
mourned over the certain decadence of that land—
" Where wealth accumulate and men decay."
Political economy has advanced a little further since
his days, and the official returns happily prove,
without exaggeration, that the population of Eng-
land has largely increased, notwithstanding the
rapid extension of

"Trade's proud empire."
There are a good many persons, however, who,
without sharing in their extremity the poet's views,
are inclined to regard with anxiety and suspicion
the very large emigration that is constantly going
on from the sister country. Ever since the terrible
1847 the Irish have been steadily taking flight from
the country that had proved unequal under existing
circumstances to their support. Those who were
the first to venture into untried lands were for the
most part so well pleased with the experiment that
they despatched their first spare funds to the friends
and relations left behind them in order to facilitate
their passage out. Mr. MICHAEL BARRY, barrister-
at-law, tells us En a brief pamphlet* recently issued
on this subject that in the ten years and a half from
May, 1851, to December, 1861, the number of the
Irish emigrants was 1,240,575; and that during
that time the remittances from those who had emi-
grated to their friends in the United Kingdom was
£9,041,370, of which amount a very large propor-
tion was contributed by the Irish. At the com-
mencement of his little treatise, which is entirely
in favour of emigration, Mr. BARRY draws some
comparisons between the acreage and population as
well as the annual value of property and income in
the three countries. The great reason why Ireland
fails to support her population is he considers to be
found in the excess of her agricultural population
and the deficiency of her sources of industrial occu-
pation. Only 26 per cent., according to Mr. BARRY'S
statistics, of the Scotch people are connected with
agricultural pursuits, while 60 per cent. of the
Irish depend upon them. "So that corn
pared with Scotland her agricultural popu•

- .
lation is over two millions in excess. The extra
capital of Scotland devoted to other industrial
pursuits alone enables her to support the number of
people that she does." Coming to the statistics of
industrial occupations, Mr. BARRY restricts himself
tO two sources of wealth and employment common
, to au Cierreaalts Britain and Ireland. The total value of
x34,3,0,i27. England, in the year 1861, was
employed sa , in Ireland, £235,629. The persons
same
year were
in Great Britain during the
737,662 in number •; in Ireland
37,872. In thee ,
e
then, We find
a
account for a large
population.
Mr. BARRY, " directly
enllia3lof Great Britain," says
oy n early twenty times
as many persons as those
or this country, and the
occupations connected with
minithii
Ss c amr ac
en 1);
'
merit to nearly one hundred aedatntg give employ-
while the population of that
etmithis that
e37°Qietn: retys n
exceeds ours by three•fourths." Add
nearly all the machinery used in Ireland
England, and that a vast number of industrialfrom
occupations of all sorts exist in Great Britain
which are unknown in Ireland, and we shall arrive

at some idea of the pressing need that exists of sonl,

vent being found for the enorgies of her people, rib
well as some means for the support of tho unem-

ployed. The easiest and most natural remedy for
this state of things is no doubt to be found in emi-
gration. Men and women of all ages may depart

at little more than the cost of their passage to an-
other sphere of labour, and be at once and for ever

proveatod from adding to the care and respeu-

* Irish Emigration Considered. By Michael Joseph
BaiBaITY, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, Nash, Princes-street,
Cork,

with universal consent the slightest notion of
anything like party strife. Daring the session
of this present year the political situa-
tion was altogether different. There was
still a sort of a truce between Govern-
ment and Opposition ; bat, on the part of
the latter, it was maintained, as one may say
involuntarily. The strength of the Government
all along lay principally in the popularity of
Lord PALMERSTON. That popularity, however,
showed to view very significant signs of decay
this last twelvemontb. Two parliamentary indi-
cations of it, will be yet in popular remembrance.
Mr. COBDEN'S slashing onslaught was one of
them. The other was the total failure of the Prime
Minister to save from an ignominious rejection his
own proposition for the purchase, by the nations
and for the nation, of the hideous International
Exhibition Building at South Kensington. Hence
it can create no surprise whatever, it can admit
of no contradiction whatever, when we here
assert that the maintenance of the Ministry in
power this list year was not chiefly attributable,
as it had been theretofore, to the popularity of our
veteran Premier. On the contrary, it was chiefly
owing to the purely accidental circumstance that
the strengthened and serried Opposition could
find no valid pretext or plea upon which to
bring about a great party division, and so
put their antagonists in a minority. That, we
take it, is a fact:altogether undeniable. And equally
undeniable, we cannot but think, is the assertion
that since Parliament was prorogued, the Ministry
have gained nothing whatever in prestige, that on
the contrary their policy is more than even un-
popular, that their reputation is more seriously
damaged than it was previously, that their position
in various directions has been manifestly weakened.
Under existing circumstances, we believe, therefore,
that, in the coming session, there will be an
end put at last to this long tolerated system of
feebly tiding over things. The country is getting
sick to death of so very flagrant a persistence in
the policy of How Not To Do It. There are
plenty of pleas now for a party fight at the choice of
the powerful Conservative Opposition. If Ministers
were really and actually the energetic Liberals,
the ardent and enterprizing reformers they affected
to be when they took office, we should regret the
parliamentary prospect before them. As it is, we
don't:the least in the world.