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

(1 with universal consent the s'ightest notion of
8 ,n7thing like party strife. During the session
C f this present year the political situa-
; jail was altogether different. There was
s t',ll a sort of a truce between Govern-
n lent and Opposition ; but, on the part of

t he latter, it was maintained, as one may say
it :voluntarily, The strength of the Government
a 11 along lay principally in the popularity of
I ,ord PALMERSTON. That popularity, however,
i howed to view very significant signs of decay
~.. his last twelvemontb. Two parliamentary indi-
ations of it, will be yet in popular remembrance.
3 Ir. COBDEN'S slashing onslaught was one of
hem. The other was the total failure of the Prime
Minister to save from an ignominious rejection bis
own :,'.proposition for the purchase, by the nation'
and for the nation, of the hideous International
Exhibition Building at South Kensington. Hence
i.t can create no surprise whatever, it can admit
: f no contradiction whatever, when we here
a ssert that the maintenance of the Ministry in
power this last 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.

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 in 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 com-
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
t
two
sources of wealth and employment common
to Great Britain and Ireland. The total value of
minerals in England, in the year 1861, was
£34,397,247.
employed ;
3 in Ireland, £235,629. The persons
_
4u factories in Great Britain during the
same year mere
737,662 in number; in Ireland,
37,872. In these
two great sources of employment,
then, we find a
dia'erence sufficiently great to
account for a large part
Therfar_t.
ootri the poverty of the Irish
g, directly
ea of Great Britain," says
employ nearly twenty t:lwrvyee,neatmyndptilmotyhees.
jlpiorp. üBl aAt
ti onn
tunes as
y persons as those of this
oacscmulamntions connected with
many,
population of that
meat to nearly one hundred and fifty
while the
att.—
ex-needs ours by thiee.fourths." Ad scarcely
d..
tO this that
,r• • used in ireland
nearly all the maehic c conies from
England, and that a vast number or ;
occupations of all sorts exist in Great 13 •
which are unknown in Ireland, and we shall arrive
at some idea of the pressing need
that exists of sona,,
vent being found for the energies of her people, us
well as some means for the support of the 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
prevented from adding to the care and respon-

6 Irish Emigration Considered. By Michael Joseph
Barry, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, Nash, Prince4-street,
Cork.