The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-30 00:00:00

reinstate them in their former amount of comfort.
I will now enter upon some other financial details
mit altogether connected with your society, but yet
not less vitally important as evidence of a country's
wealth. if we begin with the amount of bank stock
in the Bank of Ireland, we find the return for half
year ending June, 1867, to amount to £18,900,000,
being about £170,000 in excess of the whole year's
returns of 1866. And we also find that, with the
exception of the year 1835, which was £328,000 in
excess of the present year, the present year 1867 is
higher than any previous year whatever. In another
important subject—the deposits in the Post-office
savings banks—we find a progressive increase since
their first establishment in 1862, the amount for the
present year, ending June, being set down at
£280,000, or £40,000 more than the whole year's
returns of 1866 ; while we find in every succeeding
year since 1862 a progressive increase averaging
about £35,000 a year. In another still more im-
portant subject, namely, the amount of deposits in
joint-stock banks, we find that the amount of de-
posits, or rather the actual wealth in the hands of
the people of this country, is larger at this moment
than it has ever been known to be before. (Hear,
hear, and applause.) The return for the half year
ending June, 1867, shows £18,900,000, being
£200,000 in excess of the whole year's returns for
1866—(applause)—while the year 1866 is in excess
of 1865 by £1,600,000 and in excess of 1864 by no
less a sum than upwards of £4,000,000. Nor is
this the only satisfactory result to be deduced from
these returns, for on going back to a succession of
years from 1814, when the amount was only
£5,500,000, we find the return for the half year
ending in 1867, certainly the highest that has ever
been made, is £3,000,000 higher than any year
antecedent to 1864. (Great applause.) There is
another return connected with property that may
be worth your notice as certainly evidencing no de-
crease of means in the country. I mean the amount
of property passing under probate and administra-
tion. We find for the year ending February,
1867, the amount set down as £5,048,500, being
£1,000,000 more than the amount in any four pre-
vious years, and by £450,000 more than in any
previous year whatever, the highest previous amount
being £4,600,000 in 1858-9. My lords and gentle-
men, I have gone somewhat fully into these details,
because I thought it might be interesting to you to
know the precise details of some of these branches
of internal finance and economy—(hear)—aud with
the exception of a depression downwards in relation
to the number of those receiving poor-law relief,
we have clear evidence of a larger amount of wealth
existing in 1867 than has ever been known in the
same form in the country before. (Applause.) If,
then, we have this amount of capital in the funds
of the country, why do we hear of stagnation of
trade, and of a certain slackness in commercial pro-
ceedings, and of a certain amount of general depres-
sion ? Well, gentlemen, I think that an amount of
capital may be compatible with an indisposition or
a mistrust in applying it. (Hear.) We have evi-
dence of a larger amount in bank stock, in joint-
stock banks, and in Post-office savings banks than
has ever been known in the country before. We
have also evidence of an indisposition to apply it in
mercantile or speculative projects. I leave the fact
in your hands, premising only that I believe that,
while the designs of the insane and mischievous men
who have disturbed the peace of Ireland for the last
two years have been unable to affect the monetary
wealth of the country, they have yet been the means
of materially locking up the issues of that wealth—
(hear, hear)--of diverting it from its natural occu-
pations—(hear, hear)—and of paralysing to a great,
extent the beneficial effect it might have had on the
progress and advancement of the country. (Hear.)
I will now revert to some subjects more iminediaLly,
though perhaps not more vitally, connected with
your society. The returns for the present year show
no material diffaence as regards the breeding of
stock and cultivation, except iu the item of sheep.
We find a small decrease of about 60,000 in the
amount of land under rotation of crops, making alto-
gether a decrease of 500,000 acres of land under rota-
tion of crops, including about 200,000 of green
crops, since 1860 ; while we find au increase of
cattle to the amount of 500,000, and of sheep to no
less an amount than 1,500,000, of which 500,000
are in the present year. I find this decrease since
1863. 'this large increase in cattle, with a decrease
of the winter means of feeding them, is a subject
which, in the presence of so many more experienced
than I am in agricultural economy, I will not ven-
ture to enter further upon than to say that it is a
subject which appears to be worthy of the serious
consideration of the practical and skilled members
of your society. (Applause.) Connected with this
increase in cattle there is one point which is un-
doubtedly highly satisfactory, namely, the large in-
crease of exported cattle during the present year as
compared with former years. We find the number
of cattle exported during last year to be 579,000 as
compared with 345,000 in 1863, and, to go further
back, to 1850, as compared with 195,000. If the
average of the exported cattle be taken at some-
what less than £l5 per head, which, I am informed
by competent judges, is not much over the mark,
we shall find the difference in the exported value
between this year and 1865 to come really to three
millions of money. In flax we have a decrease in
the whole of Ireland of 10,000 acres ; but if we
, look into the returns we shall find the decrease to
be wholly confined to Ulster, while in the rest of
Ireland there is a slight increase of about 500 acres.
Now I question much whether this decrease in
Ulster may not Le a very beneficial one, for it is
possible that the cotton famine years may have over
stimulated the growth of flax in that province, and
that the present decrease is merely a return to a
more healthy amount of production—(hear, hear)
—and I think that a comparison of the number of
acres grown in Ulster last year—namely, 263,000
acres, as compared with the number of acres grown
in 1861, before the cotton famine—namely, 147,000
—very much bears out that view of the case. On
another highly important subject—important both
to the working powers of the farming interest and
to the wealth of the whole country—l mean that of
emigration, the returns are comparatively
wtiveelhyavctosatisfac-
tory.
I say comparatively, for though
re-
gret still the departure of alargenyuemt theber returnsof our
population for Transatlanticregions,
of the first six months of the present year show a
palpable decrease from the corresponding
hctorerefisrspotncsliixngmpoeiriitohds of
f
last year ; the amount for
ths oflast
with
1867 being 48,000 persons, as compared
66,000 persons in the corresponding
mo
year—a decrease of 18,000, or nearly one-third of
the whole amount. There is yet another subject
which has been much discussed and considered in
Ireland
m duringen o n .
past year, which I can hardly
omit
mean that of railways. Iti
be-
lieve the advantages that abetter system of railway
to the 1
traffic would confer on this country are almost in-
calculable. (Great applause.) I believe that those
advantages would be felt down to the pettiest trader
and the smallest farmer in the remotest districts,
and that a stimulus might then be given to enter-
prise, and capabilities developed which are now in
their infancy. I might instance among others the
sea fisheries of the south and west of Ireland, which
I believe might be made a source of national profit
and employment now nearly thrown away. (Hear.)
The consideration which the Government, looking
to this matter, have given on this subject, has re-
sulted in the determination of a committee of in-
quiry, which it is confidently hoped may produce
results highly advantageous in this respect. INly
lords and gentlemen, I have already trespassed too
long upon your patience, but I think the view we
have been able to take both of the financial condi-
tion of the country and its agricultural progress,
has been one of no despondent nature. It is true
that this country has been just delivered from one
of the most insane and unmeaning attempts at in-
surrection ever recorded in history. (Hear, hear.)