The Sun.
London, England, 1828-03-06 00:00:00

the end of the year; but then, towns and villages
apriatig, .up in all dire.ctians to circulate luxuries for
these agriculturists, and to supply numerous %%ants
iadependently 'of those which are provided for by
manufacturing towns. We are acquainted with A
district in which there is not a manufacture, strictly
sd called, cultivated in a very high style. In 1755
the farms were small, and on each farm there were a
niiimber of cotters, or cottiers, as the Iriah call them.
At this present time the farms .average from 400 to
• 600 acres. But though an immense exportation of
fond for the London market takes place now, whereas
in 1755 it was nearly all consumed on the spot, the
'population has not diminished, but, on the contrary,
increased above one-fourth; but then the increase
has taken place in the small towns arid villages. In
the South of Ireland at this day, it is said that you
may travel for fifty miles without seeing in the whole
of that space farm-buildings, the materials of which,
if put tin to auction, would sell for twenty shillings.
But there is an improved agriculture, there are ex-
pensive buildings, to which repairs and additions are
constantly made. Artizana of all sorts must be con-
sequently in the immediate neighbourhood. The
farmer who possesses an income of 500/. or 6001.
a year cannot live in a wilderness. He requires the
produce of the East and 'West Indies, and of the
( outinent, books, newspapers, Szc.; and the shop-
keepers and tradesmen give employment to a
nuraber• of other persons in their turn. The
Statistical Account of Scotland furnishes a num-
ber of illustrations of the manner in which
the increased produce, raised by a more e:o-
-nomisal cultivation, is distributed. Take, for in-
stance, the parish of Chirnside, in a purely agricul-
tural district. The population in 1755, was 363;
in 1791 it was 961, of whom 609 were in a village,
and 552 in the country parts of the parish. In the
village there are fifteen masons, twelve carpenters,
-two spinning-wheel wrighta, four coopers, seven
thatchers, twelve weav era, one dyer, ten tailors, ten
shoemakers, eight smiths, seven gardeners, one corn-
chaialler, six shopkeepers, one brewer, five publi-
cans, one butcher, and two carriers. The process
by. which small farms can be converted into large
.ones is necessarily slow, even under the most fa-
a-ourable circumstances. The Irish Landholders
cannot say " Presto, begone !" to their c 11 tenants,
and immediately supply their place w .1a tenants of
capital and skill. In Scotland, of wri lithe whole
the fertile land is of very limited extent, the ex-
Xnapie of good cultivation spread so very slowly, that
Lord lames informs us, not more than; two or three
counties were cultivated in any other than the Irish
manner, so late as the American war. Supposing
no impediment in the way of agricultural investment
in.lreland from the idea of insecurity, still thechange
-must take place slowly. Towns and villages would
gradually arise as the process of engrossing of farms
went on. We are aware that the population in some
parts of Ireland is much greater than aught, under
;arty circumstanaes, to be in them, A desperate disease
Ilemands a desperate remedy. We merely throw out
the a!iove ol:servations to show that the economy of
lahour, which enables a small number of individuals
to raise move food titan could be raised by a much
la -ger number under a wretched system, draws at the
same time a laror population into towns and vil-
lages, which consumes a considerable portion of the
additional produce, even supposing the establish-
ment of no manufactures in the strict sense of the
al-ord.—A/or ?ling Chronicle.

in an early copy of the forthcoming Number of
Thr Edinburgh Review, with which we have been
favoured, there is an able article on the subject of
Emigration, which will be of considerable benefit at
this time. The Reviewer pays some merited com-
eoliinents to Mr. Horton, " who has been exposed
,(he observes) in this matter to most unaccountable
misunderstanding." The Reviewer justly observes
that the battle, on the result of which is to depend
the salvation of the people, must he fought in Ire-
" There can be no possible objection (he
says) upon, public grounds, to depriving both the
Scotch toad Irieh of any claim to relief in England
as casual poor; or to abolishing the system of passes,
as-no presumption, even in law, can be raised in
these cases, that the parishes to he charged have
derived a benefit from the labours of the party where
no settlement has been obtained, and because there
is bo mutuality between the two countries. But
this leaves the national evil untouched; for the
Irish would still pour in, upon the speculation of
employment in a market which they can undersell.
The difficulties respecting the price of labour should
be thoroughly investigated, and when once generally
understood, resolutely faced. Cheap labour, like
cheap corn or any other article, is in itself only honest
while: natural ; and only advantageous whilst it can
be,ao got without the ruin of its producers. But
when the cheapness is the consequence of an arti-
ficial mixture of fraud and force, by which the ma-
nufacturer makes charity or the poor rates contri-
bute towards the maintenance of his workmen,
every shilling paid in aid of wages operates as
a bonnie, of the worst 'deeeeTtion ; only enabling
foreigners to purchase in a foreign trade, thus
violently extended, the produce cf such labour
at far less than it lies really cost, and this
ee:. the expense of the rest of the community.—
In every corner of the realm it has
been bitterly experienced that labour may be too
cheap. Every remedy will be merely tampering
with the illt.:sr-nediate steps of this national disease,
thet does note •we wil not say include, but begin with
Ireland. It is because the Irishman's name is
not entered in the .00er'e book, to suppose, when
bis-corupetition has st7,npirwed your own labourer,
and thrown him cn the narici,.; that you are not
paying his rate in another name. The battle of the
three kingdoms on this argument inust he !ought in
Ireland. Emigration from Ireland raisea the wages
there, and gives him an inducement to stay ,7.hcirne,
If you postpone Irish emigration, the condensed id--
pu!ation of particular districts must prevent the due
management of petatee, and the growth of a middle
Blass--and hence the pretence of disturbance and in-
eerrection, the absence of manufactures and of in-
doetry—an additional fall of Irish .is compared with
British wages, and an additional influx of Irish pau-
pers across the Channel." So far so good. But
the Reviewer, though aware of the impossibility of
arresting- the progress of a population in the low
condition of the Irish, by any other means than ab-
solute want of food, and of the rapidity with which
such a population necessarily advances in numbers,
does not grapple with what we contend is the
main difficulty, namely, the possibility of making
the drain by emigration so effective as to keep
pace with the constant additions made to the Irish
-population. If, for instance, while we are re-
eeoving ten thousand twenty thousand are added,
ere are worse than we were, after all the
outlay, and can make no progress in preparing the
century for the reception of an improved system.
The efficacy of the plan of emigration, like the effi-
cacy of the plan for freeing a mine from water, de-
per;ds on ,more being taken out by the machinery
than flows in. The Reviewer adverts to what has
been said respecting the introduction of Poor Laws
into. Ireland. We have certainly," lie says, "never
been more surprised, than that several persons, who
must have travelled by such 'very- die'eeent roads to
it, should have arrived at this ca„ei
US"4" LAWS of
this nature are
iniong the things which seem irre-
sistible in any particular instance, but are
pulverised
by the test of general consequences. In the pre-
sent.ettee of Irish property, population, and charac-
ter, they would be national confiscation." No doubt
they wesuld put the Irish Landlords on their mettle.
But in the present state of Irish property, poput„,_
Con any! character, what security have we that the
voids caused by partial emigrations will not be in-
stantly filled up ? We know that Poor Laws would
free the landholiere either to watch carefully over
the population themselves, or to sell their estates to
tiibie who would relieve them of this trouble. It
is really too much to expect that the welfare of the
whole population of these islands should be sacrificed
to Irish landlords. The battle must not only be
fodght-in Ireland, but securities must be taken also
Irelteid.—lbid.
Mr. Dawson last night gave eotice that there

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