The Sun.
London, England, 1848-12-05 00:00:00

dirge can be sung over the former, and a paean
chaunted over the latter ; before unconditional praise
can be bestowed on the one and unmitigated condemna-
tion pronounced upon the other; before America can be
eulogised (as it has been eulogised across the ocean),
as containing the model nation and the model govern-
ment ; before Europe can be scouted (as it has been
scouted from the same quarter) as an agglomeration
of administrative baseness and popular depravity—
some few facts, bearing rather intimately upon the
question at issue, should be candidly and studiously
borne in recollection. Foremost among these is the
circumstance, that while each of the continental races
of Europe is striving individually to conquer its inde-
pendence without. encroaching upon any of their re-
spective dominions, the model Republic has
been availing itself of the shallowest pre-
texts to aggrandize its own dominions by
incursions upon the dominions of the contiguous
countries. True it is that the despot of Prussia,
screening himself under a masquerade of liberality,
endeavoured, by force of arms, to rob the crown of

Denmark of its hereditary appenage of Schleswig—
true, again, that tyranny strove to trample out the
germs of freedom sprouting up among the Posenese,
the Lombards, and the Hungarians ; but in each
instance the cries of execration which resounded
from the surrounding nations caused the crowned
aggressors to desist in their unholy efforts at repres-
sion. With the model Republic of the United
States it has been wholly otherwise. There the
wiles of diplomatic chicane and the audacity of mili-
tary expeditions have been sedulously directed to
the acquisition of new provinces, to the subjugation
of unoffending races, to the massacre of the patriots
of Mexico, and to the desecration of the golden halls
of the Montezumas.

While again French democracy has, even in the
agony of her own struggles for existence, decreed
the abolition of slavery in all her possessions,
American democracy clings with the tenacity of
fanaticism to the bloody sway exercised over the
negro population by her free and enlightened citizens !
The WILMOT proviso is as flagrantly repudiated by
the legislators of the United States as ever were the

local bonds of Illinois:or Pennsylvania. It were well
consequently, if the journalists of North America,
before exulting so vain-gloriously over the virtues
and eminence of the United States, when compared
with the vices and degradation of Europe, would
simply put two and two together and see whether or
not they come to four. Stones of abuse hurled from
glass-houses are liable to provoke reprisals ; and
marvellous, indeed does it appear to us, that,
while our Transatlantic contemporaries are exulting
over the pacific character of their republican institu-
tions, the principal representative of that pacific po-
licy is the very man who overran with his soldiers the
mountains and savannahs of Mexico, and advanced
with fire and sword from Monterey to the capital.
Old ZACHARY is not the least anomaly, amongst all
the huge and multifarious anomalies of the United
States.

The condition of Ireland still constitutes the chief
difficulty of the British Government. It is, however,
no longer the political, but the social condition of that
unhappy land, that awakens the Ministerial anxiety,
and forms the subject for discussion at Cabinet
Councils. The agitation that so long prevailed
throughout the country no longer exists. The fierce
excitement that might have been witnessed in every
district has subsided. The aspect of the political
horizon is no longer• threatening. But a tnoreformid-
able danger has arisen. The wail of misery
and distress is to be heard from every
quarter. The residrnt gentry are impoverished,
the occupying tenants pauperised, and the
labouring population reduced to the most melancholy
state of destitution. The entire resources of the
country is scarcely sufficient to feed its poverty.
Little remains either for the use of the proprietors, or
the satisfaction of the charges and incumbrances by
which they are overwhelmed. All classes look to
England as the only quarter from which they can
hope for aid and assistance in their emergency.
There is no possibility of any beneficial change un-
less the iniitative is taken on this side of St. George's
Channel. The ordeal to which Ireland has been
subjected during the last three years has paralyzed the
energies and exhausted the resources of the
nation. It has sunk into a state of exhaustion,
and is unable to arouse itself from the stupor into
which it has fallen. Some slight restoratives, some
trifling temporary assistance judiciously applied, will,
however, awaken it from its lethargy, and restore it
to a state of health and activity. England should
render the required help to her fallen sister. It is
not, however, by the expenditure of large sums in
maintaining the population in unproductive idleness,
but in developing the industry of the country by
directing the enormous mass of labour into beneficial
channels, by providing useful employment for every
person able and willing to work, whether male or female,
juvenile or adult. There are ample means of
affording that employment. No country in the
world possesses so many opportunities, so wide a
field, for industrial employment, and in none have
these resources been so deplorably neglected and
misapplied. This can no longer be the case; for our
own sakes—if for no higher motive than the mere
selfish and personal one—it is essential that Ireland
should be rescued from the melancholy position in
which she is placed, that she should be elevated in the
scale of nations.
We have long dwelt on the means by which this
desideratum might be attained without any ultimate
loss to this country. The reclamation of the waste
lands is one of the most obvious that suggests itself
to every mind the moment the question is started.
Six millions and a half of acres remain wholly waste
and uncultivated, of which, according to the most
unquestionable authority, nearly four millions could
be reclaimed, so as to return fully ten per cent. on the
amount expended, and the whole of that outlay would
be applied in payment of wages for labour that now
remains utterly useless and unproductive. Nay, the
very able-bodied paupers, who now crowd the several
workhouses, or clamor for out-door relief, could,
without the outlay of an additional shilling,
bring thousands of acres into cultivation,
and materially increase the food of the coun

try. The Government fully recognised the
national advantages derivable from this source, and in
the programme put forward by the Premier in the
commencement of the session of 1847, it was stated

that 1,600,000/. sterling was to be applied in that
manner, and that a Bill for the purpose would be

introduced in the course of the then session of Par:
liament. These favourable intentions were, however,
unhappily not carried out, difficulties were said to

have arisen that prevented the realization of the hopes
then excited. The impolicy of interfering with " pri-

vate enterprise" and "private property" was the ar.

gument put forward to justify the disappointment of
the fondly•cherished expectations of the country.
The fallacy of that principle has been well

exposed in a letter which will be found in another
part of our impression this day. Mr. RIGBY WasoN,
many of whose valued communications have already
appeared in our columns, has again directed his at-
tention to the subject, and purposes to address a
St:fries of. Letters to Lord J. RUSSELL, for the purpose
showing " that the reclamation of the waste lands
forms one of the best means of alleviating the social
condition of Ireland."
and successful ex
gladly hail so able and
energetic a eollaboirateur, whose practical expe-
rienceeriments in reclaiming vast
tracts of land
entitle his Opilniorlasnother part of the country
vats enterprise
of the country is such that 13tara137
is
now to peculiar weight. Pri-
zd—the condition
power. That
it is the
eaannot be brought into
operation save by some other
State alone that can supply theasgmeintost7rieg;
iplatonswd.
property has its duties as well
admitted axiom, and it cannot for a momeints nbe
ow
an
gued that the possessor of thousands of barren acres
is justified in permitting them to lie waste and un-
productive, while the country languishes for want of
employment, and the neighbouring proprietors are
suffering from his neglect and apathy, by being
compelled to support many families that might be
provided for if he discharged his duties to society-
the essential conditions on which he was permitted

to. hold that very property. The rules that may be

very properly acted on under ordinary circumstances,

must be altered when a pressing emergency arises.
The diet suited for a healthy man will not be good
for a patient suffering under a severe disease. The

present eenclitiQn et IrelAnd is bad iadeed, gad A