The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-29 00:00:00

_Ell l4 TT L N

has now been abati &Tied to an unpropitious destiny
and a suspicious multitude by the ruthless destroyers
of her tranquillity. Queen CHRISTINA has glutted
her Ina of wealth by conniving at her daughter's in-
veiglement into an unh.ly and unblessed marriage—
she has fled with her quondam paramour to enjoy
the fruits of her atrocious policy in quietude, and
to drain the last polluted dregs of her existence
in an infamous obscurity. M. DB BRECSON has
executed the most odious commissions of his
master; he has acted with all the callousness of a
Borgian Minister and with all the heartlessness of
the minions of FRONTDEBCEUF. Having consummated
his treachery, he has likewise departed from Madrid,
and, together with the minor actors in the late
deplorable scenes, has abandoned the Ibe-
rian SOVHREIGN to her fate. What must be the

consequence of their proceedings it is impossible to

' conjecture, but that they will prove most disastrous
and speedy is beyond denial. The independent course
recently pursued by Queen ISABELLA is serving to
precipitate the doom originally reserved for her by
Louis PuiLIPPE. She is evincing more confidence
in herself than could have been anticipated ; she is
becoming troublesome to her august relatives in the
Tuileries; something must be done to terminate her
anti-Gallican struggles ; the imagination of M.
GuizoT must be taxed to conceive some channel,
however tortuous, through which to conduct the
policy of his Cabinet intact; the guile of his
anointed superior must be consulted to discover the
readiest means of extrication from this embarrassing
labyrinth.
Rumours are naturally rife as to the intentions of
France towards the Peninsular Government. It is
actually whispered that ISABELLA is to be despoiled
of her crown and all her consequent prerogatives, and
that the destinies of Spain are thereupon to be re-
resigned to a Regency, consisting apparently of the
KING•CONSORT and the Duke DR MONTPENSIER, but
actually concentrating the power of the State in the
grasp of Louis PHILIPPE. Whatever may be the
course adopted by the latter personage, it is certain that
that supreme directorial power cannot remain much
longer in the bands of ISABELLA. She is asserting
that power in a manner inimical to the Afrancesado
interests; she is maintaining the right conferred upon
her by the Constitution, of selecting her Ministers at
her own irresponsible discretion ; she is virtually
avowing her determination to throw aside for ever
the shackles of her guilty mother and the influences
of her faithless uncle. Can there be any doubt that
ISABELLA will be compelled to abandon her throne,
or to yield, at least, to the inclinations of the Orleans
patriarch ? Can there be a moment's hesitation in
any mind as to the result of such unexpected
evidences of independence in a mind so
docile and conceding heretofore ? Her Spanish
MAJESTY is betraying a partiality to the views of the
Progressistas, if she is not looking benignantly upon
the Moderados. To her jealous ears the very name
of Afrancesado has become a subject of abhorrence.
How far will Louis PuiLirps permit this to con-
tinue ? When will the reins be tightened ?
Soon ; that is inevitable. And how will
the Spaniards themselves allow of further encroach-
ments upon their nationality by a premature usurpa-
tion of the diadem by the Duke DE MONTPENSIER ?
These conjectures are forced upon the mind irre-
sistibly by the circumstances now transpiring in
Madrid. They demonstrate still more plainly the exe-
crable nature of the French interference in Peninsular
affairs ; they show how deeply the GuizoT Adminis-
tration has plunged into blachiavellism ; they prove,
beyond denial, that the extrication of Spain from the
difficulties with which she has been surrounded by
Louis PHILIPPE is almost hopeless, without a con-
vulsion disastrous to the Spanish community; they
illustrate what we have all along maintained, that the
Peninsular policy of King Louis PHILIPPE has so far
been germinated in a depraved ambition, that it can-
not by possibility be consummated, excepting by the
commission of enormous crimes.

On Saturday we alluded to the enormous expense
,hat would necessarily be attendantupon any system of
emigration sufficiently extensive to reduce the popu-
lation of Ireland to the amount contended for by its
advocates as absolutely necessary for the salvation of
the country, and to make the proportion of the agri-
cultural labourers to the land under tillage equivalent
to that in this country. That expense, amounting at
the lowest calculation to from sixty to seventy-two
millions of pounds sterling, would alone prove an in-
superable bar to the scheme, and render its general
aduption perfectly impossible. The removal and
location of even 50,000 families, a number so incon-
siderable as to occasion little perceptible difference in
the numbers of the destitute poor, and not more than
equivalent to tb annual increase, would cost no less
than from 5,000,0001. to 6,000,0001., a sum equal to
the entire produce of the income tax.
But there is another and a higher ground on which
our opposition to an extensive and organized system of
emigration is based; it is not to be regarded as a mere
question of pounds, shillings, and pence. Before such
a plan can be sanctioned by the Legislature, or ap-
proved of by the public, it must be satisfactorily
shown that the population is greater than can be
adequately supported by the country, or than can be
usefully employed in it. Until these points are
clearly established it is vain to demand the public
assent to the wholesale deportation. All authorities,
however, go to prove the converse of the proposition.
Sir It. KANE contends that the soil of Ireland is
fully adequate to the support of not less than seven-
teen millions of inhabitants, or more than double the
present number ; while Ausom, in his celebrated
work on population, contends that it is abundantly
sufficient for even a still larger number. There is,
however, one practical fact that proves far more than
the speculations of any gentlemen, no matter how
talented or ingenious they may be—lreland is a food
exporting country. Every description of edible is
annually borne from her shores to the English
market, and that in quantities sufficient to provide
for additional millions. Coupling this well-authen-

ticated fact—which, indeed, no one can be found
with sufficient hardihood to deny—with that, which is
equally indisputable, viz.,—that the lands of Ireland
have not been brought to the greatest degree of fer-
tility, and that increased produce would reward a
better state of cultivation—it is manifest that Ire-
land can maintain her children at home. The first
ground is thus taken away from the supporters of the
system.

But there is also an ample field for the profitable
employment of their labours. Regard the almost
unbounded waste lands, more than 4,000,000 acres
of which might be reclaimed, and converted from
barren wastes into smiling and productive holdings,
and that not merely without expense to the national
purse, but yielding a dividend on the outlay beyond
any that has been obtained from the most judiciously
selected railway. As a mere speculation to the ca-
pi!alist, the project for the reclamation of Irish waste
lands would hold out inducements of no ordi-
nary character. The estimated cost of that
reclamation would amount on an average (including
the purchase-money to the proprietor, estimated
at twenty-five years' purchase), to ten pounds per
acre, while the land thus obtained would he well
worth fr(,m 20s. to 303. per annum. Taking
even the lower amount—and we believe that no person
competent to form an opinion will say that we have
underrated the first cost or the improvements, or esti-
mated too highly the value of the reclaimed land—
it will yield 10 per cent. on the principal money, an
amount more than double that which can be ob-
tained by the capitalist. Indeed, so well was this
known, that in the Public Works Act, 1 and 2 Will.
IV., c. 33, which has been taken as the basis of the
new enactments, it was provided that no advance
could be granted unless the applicant produced the

certificate of a competent engineer or surveyor, stating
_ _

that the improvement would be equivalent to at least

ten per cent. per annum on the amount of the outlay.
What a field is there here for the employment of the
people, and that in the most desirable manner, in in-
creasing the fertility and annual produce of the
country.

The proportion of English agricultural labourers
to the acreage cannot be taken as a just criterion fur
our sister island, at least in her present condition.
In this country the land has been improved and
brought into a high state of cultivation. Although
its natural fertility is less, an acre of English ground
produces sixty per cent. more than a similar qusntity
of Irish land. Much labour would
quire to be impended on bringing the lattere-