The Sun.
London, England, 1827-10-30 00:00:00

MOREAU'S WORK ON IRELAND.

(From a Morning Paper.)

There are some curious facts relative to the
past and present state of Ireland, disclosed in the
work of M. Moreau, of which we gave a brief
account a few days ago. It is generally the cus-
tom in the-native writers on Irish affairs, to de-
claim on the mighty advantages which Ireland
has lost by the Union, on the high position
which she occupied before it took place, and the
comparatively low one which she now fills. But
the orators of the sister land cut by no means
the same figure in the field of plain logical argu-
ment, that they do in that of rhetorical flourish.
When those who would persuade Englishmen
that Ireland was the most blessed place in the
whole world, " let alone itself" previous to the
year 1800, are asked in what their superiority
then consisted, they will generally be found at
a loss for an answer ; and when they call,
as in their patriotic bursts they have some•
times done, for a dissolution of the Union,
as the great salve that is to heal all the ills
to which the flesh of a Milesian is heir, they
would he rather puzzled to designate the ill to
which the sought-for remedy was to be adhibited,
or the mode of its application. It is evident in-
deed, however men's pride or their prejudice may
attempt to disguise the truth, that the union of a
poor with a rich, of an ignorant with a learned,
of a rude with a regulated country, cannot fail of
being attended with great and solid advantage to
the weaker and less valuable party in the compact.
The same disinclination which which of ffi felt in
Ireland to the Union of 1800, was felt iu Scot-
land to that of 1707 ; and the declamation of
Belhaven on the latter occasion was but repeated
on the former. The spirit of the Scotch Nobles
was, of course, caught by the Commons ; and
lie who, for some thirty years after the Union,
should have mentioned it without a sigh or a
curse would have been pointed to as unworthy
of the lamented. Edinburgh began to creep
southward and northward, at first slowly, then
more rapidly ; her ways were made straight, and
what was as important, clean ; and now she
boasts herself to be a city of palaces. Leith
began also to raise its head, as it felt the in-
fluence of increasing commerce. All along the
east coast old towns increased, and new towns
sprting up; and on the west, the straggling dirty
village of Glasgow rose in a few years to be a
city unrivalled in the north, and, with but one
or two exceptions in the south, for magnitude,
weath, and enterprise. The interior kept pace
with the coast. Walls were reared, hedges were
planted, improvement spread over the hitherto
wild and savage landscape ; crops were rsised
where marshes had stagnated ; the valleys were
raised up and the hills made low, until the agri-
culturists of Scotland were fit to give lessons to
the Southerns, who a few years before had been
their instructors. Such have been the physical
advantages of the Union to Scotland ; and it
would require no great knowledge or argument
to show that the moral advantages have been
commensurate. How stands the case with Ire-
land ? We have not, indeed, a century and a
quarter of experience to refer to in her case ;
but the briefness of the period is in some -de-
gree compensated by the better auguries under
which the Union was accomplished. In 1707,
the prejudices of the English were nearly
as powerful as those of their poorer neigh-
bours, and for many years these preju-
dices were allowed to operate in repressing
the rising fortunes of Scotland. Mankind are
now more advanced in knowledge, and though
many cannot yet see that there is no such thing
as exclusive good in the world, and that king-
doms, like individuals, if they wish to be happy
or comfortable, must give as well as take, yet
any thing like preference to one part of the same
kingdom over another is now scouted by the
most ignorant economists. The progress of Ire-
land has, therefore, been more rapid than that
of Scotland was. Of this, as we stated in the
commencement of these observations, M. Mo-
reau's tables afford some curious evidence. He
has prepared two tables, for which we shall en-
deavour to find room on an early day, shewing
the exports and imports of Ireland, in thirty-one
articles, for twenty years before, and twenty years
after 1800, with the decrease and increase on
each. In the imports there are only five articles
in which there is any decrease, namely, green
tea, French; Portuguese, and Rhenish wines—
of the last a very trifling decrease—and
white salt. The salt has evidently de-
creased from the diminished demand for salted
provisions consequent on the return to peace ;
the decrease of wines depends on the presence
in London of Irish gentlemen.duridg the Parlia-
mentary Session ; the diminished import of
green tea is amply atoned for by the augmented
consumption of black. The increase on some
articles is very striking, and goes directly to
prove that though, to the eye, in contemplating
individuals or districts, no change is apparent,
the condition of Ireland is progressively mending.
Of black tea, as an instance in point, there were
imported from 1780 to 1800, only thirteen mil-
lions of pounds, while, from 1800 to 1820, the
quantity was sixty-five millions and a quarter.
It is obvious that this vast addition to the
luxuries of the people of Ireland cannot be ac-
counted for by the increase of the population,
however great. In articles of convenience there
is a corresponding increase. Of cotton hosiery
there were imported, in the first period, three and
a half millions of pairs ; in the second, eight
millions. In the same way drapery goods have
increased from twenty-three to fifty millions of
yards, and earthenware from two hundred and
sixty thousand pounds to a million and a
half in value, a marked indication of an in-
creasing attention to cleanliness and com-
fort. In the exports the facts are equally
satisfactory. As a proof of the vast advantage
derived to Irish agriculture from the Union, we
have only to notice the increased export of
spirits. From 1780 to 1800 Ireland sent to
England only 80,000 gallons ; from 1800 to
1820 she sent 10,250,000 ! In the export of
beef, as might be expected, there is a falling off;
but in bacon and hams there is an improvement
of no less than 400 per cent. The export of
oats has been doubled, that of wheat quadrupled.
In short, in every•article, whether of export or
import, which has a bearing on the comforts of
the great mass of the people, and which indi-
cates improvement in their manner of living, there
is a decided increase; and there is no decrease,