The Sun.
London, England, 1851-12-19 00:00:00

FRIDAY

WESTERN IRELAND AS A FIELD FOR
ENGLISII EA' TERPRISE.'
Several years have passed away since the publica-
tion of Doctor (now Sir Robert) Kane's able work
on the Industrial Resources of Ireland attracted public
attention, on this side of the Channel, to the abun-
dant means that existed in that country for its own
material and social improvement. Parliamentary
blue-books, and tourists without number, before and
since, hs.vo contributed their quota to our general
stock of information on the subject, but unhappily
without effecting much towards the object at which
they aimed. In seeking to account for this, we need
not long be at a loss to discover sufficient reasons.
We apprehend they have been of a twofold cha-
racter. First, the information supplied has com-
monly been of a too general nature, and has not
been calculated to fix the attention of our enter-
prising capitalists upon any specific objects, to which
they might devote their energies and their wealth.
Secondly, the cause of this absence of success is to
be traced, in a great measure, to many economical
considerations that no longer exist—the principal
being the almost complete want of manufactures to
employ a population that was too numerous to be
profitably employed on the land. It is admitted on
all hands that Nature has been prodigal of her bless-
ings to this favoured island. No country can boast
of a better soil or a milder climate. It possesses all
the requisites for commercial and manufacturing
greatness. Its aptitudes for mechanical power are
unrivalled. Its natural means of internal communi-
cation, by rivers and lakes, are the theme of constant
admiration from all who investigate the subject ;
whilst, of late, its geographical position with respect
to America has added a new feature to this already
imposing catalogue of attractions. But, alas !up to
the present, on the one hand comparative ignorance—
not withstanding all that blue-books and travellers
have done to enlighten us—as to the special means by
which these vast resources might be profitably deve-
loped ; and, on the other, undeniably formidable,
economical, and social obstacles have defeated alike
the capitalist and the philanthropist, the statesman
and the adventurer in their attempts to enter upon
this goodly land that they might possess it ; and still
it remains the grave of enterprise—the plague-spot
of the empire.
If these remarks are specially applicable to any one
district of Ireland rather than another, we have no
hesitation in saying that the province of Connaught is
that district. There the bounty of Heaven and the
abject misery of man stand side by side in appalling
contrast. " There," to use the elcquent language of
our author, "in the midst of riches there is poverty ;
in the midst of plenty there is scarcity; in the midst of
material beauty there is moral desolation." Let us not
forget, however, that the west of Ireland, with all its
misery, is remarkable for its comparative freedom from
crime. We believe we are correct in saying, that in
respect of all serious offences against the law, its
criminal statistics will bear comparison with those of
the most peaceable counties of England—no mean
eulogy upon a peasantry steeped to the lips in poverty,
with little inducement to respect property or law,
which deny to them a proper supply of the very ne-
cessaries of life. The peaceful and industrious habits
of the peasants of Connaught, we suspect, will have no
inconsiderable effect in determining many whose
minds are now turned to the subject of enterprise in
Ireland—so far at least as the locality of their labours
is in question.
At the time of my visit to the neighbourhood of
Newport (says Mr. J. H. Tuke, a well-known and
esteemed member of the Society of Friends) nearly
one thousand persons, principally women, were en-
gaged by Sir R. O'Donnell in harvesting the crops ;
the women earned 4d. per day, and the men Bd.
Even at this miserable rate of wages I have seldom
seen more cheerful or industrious labourers. "If we
don't get work we will all die. Won't your honour
get us work for the winter, or we will all starve,"
was the constant and touching appeal ; and yet this
was from the people we daily hear branded as idle and
unwilling to work !
This is a valuable testimony on behalf of the poor
Irishman of the west, emanating, as it does, from a
shrewd and impartial witness, who had abundant op-
portunity of forming a correct opinion of the habits
of the people whom he visited. We have met with
some others equally satisfactory ; but it is needless to
say more of a matter which appears to be granted by
all who have taken the pains to investigate it, and
those who dislike trouble may find as much informa-
tion as they require on the subject of western Ireland
generally in Mr. Rigby Seymour's work, to which
we refer them.
Mr. Seymour has had the good sense to avoid the
common error of writers on Ireland, which we have
mentioned above. He is not content with generally
stating its industrial and agricultural resources. In-
deed nothing in his book pleases us more than his
careful abstinence from all those meaning less "gene-
ralities," which Lord Bacon well characterized as
merely bhsndientia et speciosa. His proposition is to in-
troduce and extend the cultivation of what the French
denominate " Commercial Plants," and he proposes
some questions in reference to three of them, to all of
which he gives definitiee and most satisfactory
answers in the aflSrmative. Here are his "few prac-
tical questions."
1. Uan beet sugar, grown and manufactured in Ire-
land, compete with foreign and colonial sugars?
2. Should a company, undertaking the manufacture of
beet sugar in Ireland, rely on private enterprise for the
supply of roots, or include in its operation as well the
cultivation of the beet as the manufacture of sugar?
3. Can rotation crops of beet and flax be advan-
tageously introduced into Ireland? If so, should the
cultivation and manufacture of flax, together with that
of beet, form a principal object of the promoters of such
a company ?
4. Are the soil and climate of Ireland suited to the
growth of chicory ; and would its manufacture there, en
a large scale, be profitable?
5. Without reference to the Commercial Plants'
mentioned, does the west of Ireland present any natural
capabilities, agricultural or industrial, which peculiarly
render it an eligible field for the employment of capital ?
6. What are the best means for introducing manu-
factures of beet sugar, flex, &c.,
&e
Ire-
land, and for otherwise developing i, into western
ts agricultural and
industrial resources ?"
In treating the first question Mr. Seymour refers
to the example of France and Belgiim.
1849.50, the quantity In the year
was 75,000 tons, although in 1840 the duty was only
1 ls. 6d. per cwt., and in 1850 it amounted to from
18s. 7d. to 1/. 2s. per cwt. on raw
Belgium the manufacture of eugars, according
of sugar produced in France
to quality, and 1/. 6s. 7d. on refined. The present
year exhibits a still further increase of 10,000 tons. In
In France,
attained to an equal degree of toportance, and is
yearly increasing, so that shortly that country will
raise a sufficient supply for the whole of its
indigenous sugar has
own consumption.
beet sugar has
now no protective duty to encourage it : in
fact, the manufacturers complain that certain ex-
cise regulations give a virtual protection of 6 per
cent. to colonial sugar. With such facts to encourage
us, it only remains to inquire whether Ireland can
furnish beet-roots at as low a price as the sugar-
growing countries of the Continent ;
happy to have overwhelming evidencP and we are
on this part of
the subject. Without entering into tiny tedious de-
tails, we might almost content ourselves with the
figures of Professor Hasidcock, who;, we think, has
somewhat hastily pronounced himself opposed to the
manufacture of sugar in Ireland.
He
5 states
average price of beet-roots in Franc to be 15s. lid.
Is.the
per ton. M. Paul Hamin, the celebrated manufac-
turer of Valenciennes, puts them down "
The crop of beet-roots which is usually obtained
in France," says Sir Robert Kane, a varies from 10
to 16 toms per statute (English) acre; the mean pro-
duce may be taken at 12 tons. Mr. Seymour shows
that in Ireland the crops in the better cultivated
counties generally exceed 20 tons per Irish acre.
On comparing (says Mr. Seymour) the average
produce per acre of the sugar-beet in those depart-
ments in France, where it is principally grown, as
given by Moreau de Jonnes and Boussiughault, uith
the Government returns of the average produce of
turnips and beet per acre for the unfavourable year
1848, it will be found that the produce of an acre of
land sown with beet in a badly cultivated part of Ire-
land in unfavourable years, is considerably higher than
the general average in favourable years, of the best
cultivated departments in France.
We remember, in the Exhibitors' list of the last
annual show of the Royal Dublin Society, mention
being made of specimens of mangold wurtzel (a
variety of beet), which weighed from 12 lbs. to 18 lbs.
each, having been taken from a crop averaging 40 to
60 tons per English acre.
Mr. Seymour shows satisfactorily that beet-roots
can be profitably raised in Ireland at 103. per ton or
less—its soil and climate being much more suited for
the production of root crops than of cereals. "It
has been ascertained," says an able writer in the
" Rural Cyclormiis, " that the quantity of nitrogen
in grain produced in the southern and middle parts
of Europe, and in the United States of America, is
greater per cent. than in that grain under the most
favourable circumstances in Ireland ; and the humid
atmosphere of Ireland, on the other hand, highly
favours the growth of grasses, and herbage, of roots,
of flax, and of hemp."
Now, if there be no reason—and we know of none
—why the cost of the process of manufacturing sugar
in Ireland should be greater than in France, it ap-
pears pretty plain that it would be but prudent to
open up this new and promising source of industrial
employment to those unhappy peasants who are at
present craving work at the rate of from 41. to Bd.
per day, according to the statement of the excellent

• "How to Employ Capital in Western Ireland, beicg
Answers to a Few Practical Questions upon the Manu-
facture of Beet Sugar, Flax, and Chicory, in connexion
with a Land Invcstuccut in the West of Ireland." By
William Digby Seymour, of the Middle Temple, Bar-
rister-at-Law. Third Edition. Ridgway and Effingham
Wilson.