The Sun.
London, England, 1827-10-04 00:00:00

.7....,
uenj
alone catty ;144'. entio4udiott 0V capital) may
conseq jl- J.. ' tcsl-by ‘itch conttgency.
A refe,vetVe h'. - ; tlie.'evidenci taken before
your ConWentee ;-:;-4:,_ to 10, "evideOe already pre-
sented to PiirlievienT.by-t • ::Committee appointed
to consider the gtatt,of Ireland, will prove that many
of the most alarming insurrectionary movements
have either originated with tenants dispossessed of
their ,farms, or have been materially aggravated in
their extent and duration by the discontent and
wretchedness of this class of the population; and it
must be obvious, that so long as the population re-
mains in this state, it must at all times furnish
abundant materials to be worked upon by turbulent
or designing individuals at any period of temporary
discontent. The evils of a --redundant population,
with all the incidental consequences, have been uni-
versally felt and acknowledged ; and various sugges-
tions have been made for their partial relief.
But your. Committee cannot but express their opi-
nion, that a more effectual remedy than any of
those temporary palfiations which have been offer.
ed, is to be found in the removal, by Emigration,
of that excess of labour by which the condition of
the whole labouring classes is deteriorated and de- --*
graded. The question of Emigration, as connected
with Ireland, has been already decided by the popu-
lation itself; and that which remains for the Legis-
lature to deride is, to what point; the emigration
.shall be directed, whether it shall be turned to the
improvement of the North American colonies, or'
whether it shall be suffered and encouraraged to
take that which otherwise will be, and is, its inevita-
ble course, to deluge Gieat Britain with poverty
and wretchedness, and gradually, but certainly, to
equalize the state of the English and Irish peasantry.
It may not be superfluous to state, that subscriptions
have actually been entered into for this very purpose
of promoting emigration to Great Britain; and the
daily increasing communication between the two .
shores affords a facility for the execution'of this sys-
tem, the consequences of which cannot be viewed
without alarm. In point of fact, the numbere re-'
moving from Ireland to England have infinitely in-.
creased, and the character of the emigration has
been changed from one of labourers leaving their
small farms and cottages, to which after a temporary
absence they were in the habit of returning, into an
emigration of vagrants, who have neither the ties of
home, nor the hope of obtaining provision to induce
them to go back; their only hope is to' obtain in
England the means of subsistence, which they can
effect in no other way than by displacing a certain
proportion of the labouring English classes in con-
sequence of their competition. Dr. Elmore; an
English medical gentleman, who has been resident
for twenty years in the south of Ireland, states, that
subscriptions are now actually in progress for remov-
ing paupers from Ireland to England (especially to
Manchester) in bodies of about forty each, so that
their arrival may not excite any particular jealousy.
The details upon this subject will be found in his
evidence given in answer to the questions 4,412,
4,413. And in the Appendix will be found some
Returns from the Mendicity Society in London,
showing the great increase of Irish paupers upon
their lists during the present year, es compared with
former periods.
Your Committee cannot too strongly impress
upon the House, that between countries so in-
timately connected as Great Britain and Ire-
land, two different rates of wages, and two dif-
ferent conditions of the labouring population, cannot
permanently co-exist. One of two results appears
to be inevitable,—the Irish population must - be
raised towards the standard of the English, or the
English depressed towards that of the Irish. The
question, whether an extensive plan of emigration
shall or shall not be adopted, appears to your Com-
mittee to resolve itself into this simple point, whe-
ther the wheat-fed population of Great Britain shall
or shall not be supplanted by the potatoe-fed popula-
tion of Ireland ; whether great Britain, in reference
to the condition of her lower orders, shall or shall
not progressively become what Ireland is at the pre-
sent moment.
But your Committee, in reverting to the redun-
dant population in Ireland, cannot but press upon
the attention of the House the condition of that part
of it (alluded to in the Report of last year) which,
under,,the .presegt circumstances, is more peculiarly
and strictly redundant, and to a case on which they
conceive that emigration may be brought to bear
with most important and beneficial results.
Your Committee beg to refer to a late Act for
the prevention of under-tenancy in Ireland, and 'to
the obstacles which at present stand in the way of
its effectual operation. From the uniform tenor of
the evidence given by the Irish witnesses, it appears
that there is now among the.land-owners in Ireland,
a growing conviction (already almost universal) of
the mischief of the system of an under-tenantry, and
of the excess of population which attends it. They
are satisfied that the best chance for the improve-
ment of their estates and the amelioration of the con-
dition of the people is the removal otthii-grievance,
by the ejectment of that excess of 'tenantry, under
the precautions which the late Act affords against
its recurrence. In many parts of Ireland, and those
obviously the most crowded, this process 5 con-
stantly and extensively in force, checked only in
some cases by motives of humanity, and the dread
of immediate disturbance of the peace. The miser-
able beings thus dislodged from their . abodes, find
themselves without resource or refuge. They first
make an attempt to establish themselves on the next
estate, upon the same footing; if% that expedient
fails, with the trifling pecuniary means derived from
the remission of their rents; and the sale of the stock
which their landlord may relinquish, they proceed to
the nearest bog, or to a neighbouring town ; the
Ls for disorder
little money acquired by theSe' means is soon spent,
employment is scarcely to be obtained, and the most
abject existence *is supported by the assistance of the
establishments for the suppression of mendieity, and
:aersj: i t decreases in the country, whilst a
fitnohreptrGhoepoolp-reutiiropi Government,
and crime. By such a population, the rate of wages
also is generally depressed, the means of obtaining
of
foomuilsaetriy7 ot
thereby
e%rqiegbrylalvnfahl tffistcolihirsedetiaffording
gatheredtnrdikstbn
comfortable maintenance is rendered impossible, and
filtethcnetc:mt
looisfattN‘m,lhviiisetehirlianbaltielhcea illustration
eb city
tnysaorfe muumil;tiliiipinl ibaeeldo,nfooeuintwdh
(where
nebr bogs,
and
ee rgt al. iena et
ialansdbireietThl eacinubriairtbeslyofastlci
consequences appear in contagious fever, of the' prey
of two hundred thousand inhabitants, sixty thousand
cases have passed through the hospital 'nn the course
of the last year. That this account is il
overcharged, your Committee haVe only tnormefearnif'oeir•
proof to the forcible and concurrent o.
testimony of
the Irish witnesses, from whence it is almost wholly
drawn. That the. causes which produced
this state
of things are in a course of constant progress, as
there asserted, can hardly be questioned ; and, in
respect of Ireland alone, the consevences to which
they may ultimately lead,- if some steps be not taken
to check or correct their action, it.is difficult to mea-
sure or foresee. •
,:at
distressi:tvoecntruSositag.to provide
accumulates funds
The evidence of Mr. Dixon (referred to in the
margin) respecting the practical difficulty of land-
tirib 'their
ution
land-
lords in Wesuneath effecting the ejectment of their
extra or surreptitious tenantry, is of the utmost im-
portance.
From that, and much other similar evidence, your
Committee are convinced of the general feeling. en-
tertained by Irish proprietors, of the advantage to be
manyder
iveidnsftraolmicesd,imtoinimsl:tikneg
athpeepcuonpivarlaytiocnon
on
estates. Your Committee entertained no doubt
that this feeling is strong enough in induce them, in
towards the expence of Emigration v; and your Com-

* Your Committee would especially refer the House to
the evidence of Mr. Leslie Faster, upon the subject of give
ing facilities by law to Irish proprietors, to charge their
estates for the purpose of raising a. fund for the emigration
of their redundant tenantry ; and to the opinions of Irish
land agents of the advantages which, in certain cuss,
would arise to.the proprietors fioni the emigration of that
class of occupants.—Vide Mr. Dixon's Evidence, questrons
2506, 2507,25,08, 2515, 25160tc._. .