The Sun.
London, England, 1865-02-25 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—No subject of more truly imperial interest
could be brought to the attention of the House of
Commons than the condition of Ireland and its
people. The pertinacity and querulousness of some
Irish members may make the House forget this, and
look upon an Irish debate as the very best to stay
away from. But every thoughtful person who
dwells upon the state of that unhappy island, which
must ever, for weal or woe, be united in destiny to
our own, will admit that if inquiry, or legislation,
or able administration! can remove the evils or even
still the complaints that now prevail, no exertions on
the part of Parliament will be too great to attain
such an end. Feeling this, we come to the considera-
tion of Mr. Hennessy's speech last night with a real
desire to find something in it which is practical,
and worthy to be adopted by statesmen legislating
on sound principles and with a due share of political
knowledge. Mr. Hennessy has great opportunities.
He is an Irish member, one of the spokesmen of a
considerable political and religious party. He is
known to be a champion of the Irish people against
the alleged injustice or neglect of England, and has,
therefore, no doubt, been furnished with all the
arguments that can support their cause, and with
the demands which they think will iremedy their
wrongs. Yet, when we find what Mr. Hennessy
wishes the house to .declare, • and what he wishes
the nation to perform, we feel that we are only
listening over again to the declamation of former
years. An unmeaning expression of regret at the
state of Ireland is to be followed, if we take his
advice, by one of the most questionable schemes of
relief that were ever proposed to a Legislature.
Parliament is first to echo thepopular orators of the
Irish platforms, and then to establish a system of Im-
perial works, in comparison with which the nationa 1
workshops of the French Republic would be but trifles.
The Resolution itself, though apparently harm-
less, contains two very doubtful propositions—the
first, that the House " observes with regret the
decline of the population of Ireland," and the second,
that it is the duty of her Majesty's Government to
prepare some " well-devised measure to stimulate
the profitable employment of the people." If the
terms of the resolution are objectionable, the eluci-
dation they received from Mr. Hennessy's speech
was not such as to recommend them to reasonable
politicians. There were, of course, the old argu-
ments concerning the unhappy social condition of
Ireland. Although Ireland is a part of the United
Kingdom, and has been so for 65 years, Parliament
is still legislating for that country by special Acts.
There is nothing that an Irish member will not com-
plain of, and Mr. Hennessy makes it a grievance
that at the present time nearly one-half of the Go-
vernment bills already introduced are Irish hills
Having uttered this complaint, it is characteristic
that he should go on to demand, in the course of his
speech, the most gigantic piece of special legislation
that Parliament was ever asked to embark in. But
first we have the reasons why the Irish population
decreases, and why we should lament its decrease.
The absence of such a tenant-right as should secure
a farmer a return for the laying out of capital is
set down as one of the chief causes of the lack of
improvem6nt in the land. Doubtless it is expedient
that law or custom should secure to the Irish
tenant that power of making improvements and
being compensated for them which obtains in Eng-
land, and must obtain in every country where
agriculture is carried on with skill and capital ; but
the evils of Ireland lie far deeper than the mere terms
of agreement between the owners and the cultivators
of land. Tenant-right might be established all over
Ireland to-morrow, and make no diminution in the
number of emigrants who are yearly passing from
her shores. What, then, is the cause of depopulation?
This is thequestion which people must ask themselves
before they agree with Mr. Hennessy in lamenting it.
Certainly, at first sight, it is a very melancholy fact.
All that is said about the physical qualities of the
Irish peasant is no doubt true. He is strong and
active ; he may be called lazy in his own country,
but in Great Britain, in the Atlantic cities of
America, in the Far West, there is no more hard-
working and, we may say, docile mortal than the
Irish emigrant. Of course, there will be people to
say that all this is owing to political and social
causes, to the Irish Church, to the legislation of
Protestant ascendancy, to the domination of a poor
and reckless aristocracy, and so on. But these com-
mon-places will hardly satisfy any one who considers
the question fairly. The Irishman works hard and is
prosperous and contented not only in republican
America, but in Liverpool or London, where he
suffers just as much, and as little, from the aristo-
cracy and the presence of a Protestant Establish-
ment as at home. There are even parts of Ire-
land where there is but little misery, and only
a small emigration. People do not starve
in Ulster ; they do not fly from its ports as
from Cork and Galway. Surely, then, there must
be some causes other than political which make this
excellent raw material, the Irish people, useless .and
discontented at home, always on the verge of star-
vation and sedition ? Mr. Hennessy, we think,
unconsciously lighted on the true cause when, in
order to persuade the house to adopt his Imperial
drainage scheme, he dwelt on the physical deficien-
cies of Ireland. The conformation of the country,
which makes so large a part of the soil mere bog ;
the dampness of the climate, Which unfits, the island
for the growth of corn ; the want of minerals which
prevents the establishment of manufactures else-
where than in the North, are among the chief causes
of the backwardness and misery of Ireland. In fact,
the country has a population living by agriculture
alone on a soil and under a climate the most unsuited
in the world to that cultivation which is necessary
to feed large masses of people. Exposed to the
almost incessant rains of the Atlantic, covered with
mists, saturated with moisture, the soil of Western
and Southern Ireland, though excellent for pasture,
was never intended by Nature to bear large crops
of corn. But as long as even six millions of people
are to be supported by agriculture alone, with
hardly any help from commerce or manufacture, the
soil must be devoted to the production of those
crops for which it is manifestly unfitted. The Irish
people are prolific, and as they increase there must
ever be a pressure on the means of subsistence.
So it was up to 1847 •, so it would be again but for
emigration. What, then, is more natural than that
the people should seek in America an easier life and
more abundant comforts ? Ought the House of
Commons, then, to express its regret at the decrease
of Irish population ? Doubtless, the decrease is a
sad thing in itself, but if it be granted that there
are no manufactures or commerce to employ the
people, it seems unreasonable to lament their going.
The House of Commons, especially, ought not to
indulge in sentimental regrets. Can we say, then
that even six millions of people are not too many to
be supported in comfort by the Irish soil ? Com-
pare the country with England or Scotland. How
large a part of the English population subsists by
pure agriculture ? Not a third. Were it not for
the prodigious manufacturing industry of England,
its people would be hurrying across the Atlantic
like the Irish. It was remarked at the last Census
that the population of the Eastern Counties, which
are the most purely agricultural in England, had
actually declined. This is precisely what has
taken place in Ireland, what must take place
everywhere under the same conditions, and it
would be as reasonable for a Norfolk or Suffolk
member to propose a resolution of regret to the
House of Commons as for Mr. Hennessy to do so
with regard to Ireland. Look, then, at Scotland.
That is a country inhabited by one of the most
energetic and educated populations in the world ;
it is of great extent, it has a most elaborate and suc-
cessful system of agriculture, and yet it numbers
less than three millions of people, of whom a very
large part are dwellers in towns. One of the most
striking features of Ireland, on the contrary, is the
absence of this urban population. When from the
3,000,000 Scotchmen are subtracted Glasgow and
Greenock with not far from half a million of inhabi-
tants, Edinburgh with 170,000, Aberdeen with up-
wards of 70,000, Dundee with 90,000, Paisley with
near 50,000, Leith with 45,000, and so on, how
many are left to subsist on the agriculture of the
country ? Ireland, with double the population, has
but Dublin with 254,000, Belfast with 100,000,
Cork with 86,000, and Limerick with 52,000, which
can be called large cities, and the number of towns
of moderate size is much less in iaroportion than in
Great Britain. It is impossible that a country with
such a disposition of its inhabitants can fail to wit-
ness a large emigration. Great Britain keeps up its
numbers, not by means of beneficial legislation, but
because it is becoming the workshop of the world.

Our increase is an increase of towns, and unless
Ireland can develope such an industry as will cause
the growth of towns, her people must, as heretofore,
steadily diminish.

HERALD.—The letter of Mr. Seward to Mr.
Adams, in which he gives for the edification of the
European public, his own account of the meeting
with the Confederate commissioners at Fort Monroe,
is a marvellous specimen of the lowest order of diplo-
matic craft. We pass over the inflated periods, the
clumsy historical parallels, with which the Northern
statesman ushers in his report of a meeting of which
he pretends to give an honest description, while he
carefully conceals its origin, distorts its circum-
stances, and most palpably falsifies its end. " Mr.
Francis Blair, of Maryland, obtained," he says,
" from the President a simple leave to pass through
our lines without definite views known to the Go-
vernment." As if the wishes and views of Mr.
Blair were not known to his most intimate friend !
As if it was not notorious to every one in America,
in Europe, in the world, that Mr. Blair was bound
to Richmond on a peace mission ! Mr. Seward may
have wished to guard himself against the imputa-
tion of direct falsehood by the use of the word
" definite." But a suppressio yeti is not the less
a suggesti_o falsi in this and in other parts of this
letter of Mr. Seward. It is clear that the North
took the initiative in these overtures of peace,
and the attempt to show that the South made the
first approaches, and to imply that such approaches
amounted to a Confession of weakness, is made in
the very teeth of all the facts of the case. It is-
likely enough that Mr. Lincoln was half-hearted
in the matter. At the last moment he was in-
clined to turn a deaf ear to the urgent importu-
nities of his friends, and refuse the commissioners
access to his august presence, when a letter in their
favour from General Grant was so strongly worded
that he could not venture to deny them an inter-
view. This fact is attempted to be hidden in the
second obfuscation with which Mr. Seward besieges
our undertakings. By an ingenious confusion and
misplacement of dates, and a miscellaneous amount
of information respecting the proceedings of a cer-
tain go-between named Eckert, he endeavours to
convey the impression that it was the Confederate
commissioners, and not Mr. Lincoln, who yielded to
the last moment. These matters are of small amount
when compared with the history which the Secre-
tary gives us of the meeting ; but they prepare us
for the tissue of misrepresentation which follows.
While telling us that the North insisted on the sub-
mission of the South as an indispensable preliminary
to further negotiations, Mr. Seward wishes us to
believe that, although the Southerners refused
to admit this basis, although " the confe-
rence came to an end without producing
an agreement of views on the several matters
discussed, or any of them," yet there *as no dis-
tinct claim made, no definite ground taken by
the other side. **hat could the Southern commis-
sioners do more than absolutely reject the prepos-
terous demands of the North? What else could they
do but endeavour to probe to the fullest the arrogant
pretensions of their enemies, that they might go back
and strengthen the hands of their Government, by
telling the men of the South what terms were offered
to them ? Negotiations having thus broken down at
the outset it would have been undignified, to say
the least of it, had they made " categorical de-
mands," tendered " formal stipulations or absolute
refusals." It was their business to let the obstinate
Northerners run to the end of their tether, and show
the world that it was the North, and not the South,
which stood in the way of a cessation of hostilities.
One single plan of accommodation now suggested
itself to the commissioners. They might propose an
armistice, if they were not permitted to negotiate a
peace. A short breathing time might give space for
reflection and allow the passions to cool. The bless-
ings of peace once tasted, an opportunity given to
North and South to meet on other ground than that
of the battle-field, to exchange arguments instead
of bullets, compliments and polite speeches instead
of bayonet-thrusts, tenders of commercial exchange
instead of yells of defiance, might so enamour the
people of both sections with the rest and security
which neither has known for four years, that at the
close of a truce both sides would be more ready
to accept the status gno than to risk all again on
the desperate chances of the future. The crowning
falsification of Mr. Seward's letter is found in the
manner in which he misrepresents this humane pro-
posal of an armistice. He admits that it was a pro-
posal of " a truce or armistice," and was so regarded
by Mr. Lincoln ; but he is careful to invest it with
an artful array of words, the plain object of which
is to place the Confederacy in a painfully false po-
sition as regards Europe. " What the insurgent
party seemed chiefly to favour was a postponement
of the question of separation upon which the war is
waged, and a mutual direction of the efforts of the
Government, as well as those of the insurgents, to
some extrinsic policy or scheme for a season, during
which passions might be expected to subside and
the armies be reduced, and trade and intercourse
between both sections be resumed." Seldom has
more guarded language been used in an official
document; seldom, indeed, have such malignant
insinuations been conveyed in it. Mr. Seward's
expressions, strictly analysed, meant next to
nothing. " Seemed chiefly to favour." Perhaps
only seemed, perhaps it was an innocent misun-
derstanding on the part of Mr. Seward. They
chiefly favoured this plan, if Mr. Seward was not
mistaken. It may nevertheless have been put for-
ward by their adversaries; it may have been the
least unacceptable of many proposals made to them.
Then what was the plan ? " Some extrinsic policy
or scheme for a season." This may mean anything
or nothing ; it is certain that the words convey no
precise meaning to us. It may have been only a
plausible way of commending an armistice. Taken
to pieces, Mr. Seward's statement implies no accu-
sation of a definite sort against the South. Yet,
taken in its entirety, it conveys the impression that
the Southerners had some important proposition to
propose, some scheme of common action, some "ex-
trinsic policy"—whatever the phrase may mean.
What more natural than that, being fully informed
as to the lying rumours at New York and Washing-
ton of proposals made by the Confederates to invade
Canada and Mexico, and make war upon England
and France with the armies of both sections, the
diplomatists of Europe should take alarm, and jump
to the conclusion that some wild scheme of this sort
was actually proposed by the Confederate commis-
sioners at Fort Monroe. This was what Mr.
Seward intended to suggest, though he has been
careful not to assert it. It is in this that consists
the full malignity of the despatch to Mr. Adams,
in which he designs to represent the South as the
enemy of England, and convince us that we are
immediately interested in her subjugation. With-
out waiting for the disclaimer of Mr. Davis and his
Government, we may confidently assert that nothing
can be more repugnant to the wishes of the
Southern people in its present temper than a war
with England, with France, or with any other
nation with which it has no quarrel. The states-
men, the press, the diplomatists of the South have,
over and over again, repudiated the slanderous im-
putation of their adversaries, that they are ready to
purchase their independence by an unjust and
aggressive combination against the foreigner. The
bait thrown abroad by Mr. Seward has gone straight
to its prey. The Times, among other papers, has
swallowed it whole. It offers so good an excuse for
the neutrality of the British Government, so ad-
tnirable an opportunity for a castigation of the
weaker party in the war, on which Lord Russell
frowns, in pursuance of his natural instincts, that
the apologists of the Administration are only too
eager to devour it. The inuendo, as interpreted by
them, is calumnious and false, and here, as else-
where, the truth will assert itself ere long, to the
confusion of the so-called statesmen, the little
puppets of the hour, who, to further their ends,
will stoop to almost any meanness.

ST. CROSS HOSPITAL, WINCHESTER.—It is with
much pleasure that we make an announcement
which proves the interest that is felt in the restoration of
the Church of St. Cross Hospital and the desire that is
manifested to bring it to a successful issue. When the
Bishop of Winchester visited the work in November last it
was observed by his lordship and many others who were
then present that the admirable effect produced by the very
small dash of colour introduced at the east end of the church
was such as to render a further and judicious application
of the same kind very desirable, especially as there were
such evident remains of similar work. The funds, how-
ever, contributed by " Z 0." and the public were insuffi-
cient to justify such an attempt, and the hospital, it is well
known, has no surplus fund at disposal. Under these cir-
cumstances a gentleman of high position in the county, a
lessee of the hospital, who was present on the occasion,
has undertaken, at his own expense, the decoration of the
eastern wall after a pattern carefully prepared by the
architect, Mr. Butterfield, and approved by the master.
The concluding paragraph of the letter in which this very
handsome offer is made is well worthy of attention :
" That this work of restoration should be brought to a suc-
cessful issue in a manner worthy the subject is a matter
of not merely local interest, but one which has a claim on
the sympathy of the whole county. As one who has an
interest in all that concerns this county, I therefore trust
that I may be permitted to offer as a gift to the church the
decoration of the east wall, according to Mr. Butterfield's
design. It would give me the highest satisfaction if others
should be induced thereby to apply to the two side walls of
the choir similar decoration, so that all this portion of the
church may be brought into harmony." It only remains to
add that the generous offer has been gratefully accepted,
and it is expected this special work will be commenced
forthwith. We hope that other friends will follow so good
an example and undertake the side walls of the choir under
the direction of the same eminent authority.