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

ments for the suppression of mendicity, and the
Government, which contributes to provide funds'
for the pauper. In the towns distress accumulates:
in proportion as it decreases in the country, whilst
a proportion of vagrants is gathered together in
state of misery, thereby affotditig Materials for dis-
orderant4ritne-." The Committee referto the evi-
detict of Mr. Dixon, an extensive land agent, as
to the practical difficulty of effecting ejeetments.
On turning to Mr. Dixon's evidence, we find he
states; that in the toWer part of Westmeath the
landlord) Were he to remove. the people' on the
laYi& could not get any person to take it. " I
could not," he says, " get my Bailiff to dis-
train." " There is a farm Sir Thomas Chap- •
man has, of about t`,o acres ; it. has, been out of
lease for 'some time past, and I was obliged to
lit it by the year to the family of the man . who
died, in the Barony of Moyeashell ; I could not.
get any other to take it." "I am going to tell
the Committee a.fact as to what I have done for
a few years past, and that Sir Thomas Chapman
did not know of ; when people gOt into arrear
I was to eject them, and I put another name in,
as if I set it to another man ; I did it in three
instances, and the family are still in posiession ;
when they don't' pay and are in great arrear, Sir
Thomas orders to eject them:; I have told him I
would, told him that I had set it to another man,
and I have done that ; I know that Sir Thomas
does not know the fact, but I tell it to the Com-
mittee; I don't want to mention it as a secret.
" Why did' you do that ?--4 saw the disposition
of the country ; and although Sir .Thomas gave
me his orders, I thought I did better fbr all
parties in this way.. What did you appre-
hend if you carried the orders into execution ?
I would not get any one to take it. Why ?
They would be afraid to take it. Why ?—lt is
the Captain, Rock' system in Ireland: I was
asked about the driver the other day, that is, the
Bailiff; he is a confidential man I have in the
different baronies ; I could not get him to drive
latterly for me.. Do you thing: this disposition
to resist the landlord is likely to
,zncrease
or to give way to the landlord's efforts ?
—I think it is increasing in Westmeath.
—Do you not think it is increasing in other
parts of Ireland ?—From hearsay, I belieVe it is."
Here then, is the grand difficulty. The popu-
lation is greatly redundant; the landlord would
willngly get rid of the superfluous people on
his lands, but Captain Rock will not allow him.
Captain Rock ties the hands of those landlords
who would not be deterred by a feeling of hu-
manity; and thus the redundant population re-
mains, becoming regularly more redundant. For
it is to be always borne in mind, that the lower
the condition of the population, the greater the
tendency to increase in numbers, till positive
famine intervenes. It would appear that the
greater increase is produced net only by early
marriages, but by the tendency of poor living to
increase the fecundity of the female.. For in-
stance, it is stated in the evidenee,that—
" The Irish women are possessed of greater fecundity
than the Scotch, producing generally about one-fourth more
children than the latter."
Mr. DixoN, speaking of the Irish peasantry,
says—

"De you think there is anything in the misery and po-
verty of the people, such as you have described in the county
of Westmeath, which prevents the people from mar-
rying? Nothing ; they will marry, no matter what their
poverty is; they marry very young, and that is the greet•
ev.

Do you conceive tha'l there is still going on a consi-
derable increase of population?—Yes, I dp.
" You think, therefore, that the evil, as fur as it is in-
volved in excess of population, is an increasing evil?—
Certainly it is ; the peasant mill marry when he is young;
he never thinks of being better off, and they have large
families.

* * ♦ U

" Are you aware of any new causes now operating in
Ireland that have a tendency to cheek this progressive
increase of population ?--No, indeed, lam not; I don't

know of any.
Can you contemplate any thing that can remedy the
evil, other than removal of a certain portion of these un-
employed persons ?—I don't think. there is any other ; I
can think of no other."
Thus then we find, that the removal of re-
dundancy from England, would only increase
the emigration from Ireland to England ; that
the seat of :the evil is Ireland ; that there is an
enormously redundant population in that country,
which operates as a bar, to all attempts to raise
the condition of • the Irish, and will bring down
the English to the Irish level ; that that redun-
dancy is increasing, in spite of the disposition of
landlords to clear their lands, from their inability
to cope with. Captain Rock, and consequently
that the condition, of the population of Ireland
is constantly growing worse. How then do the
Committee propose to get over the difficulty.?
There being an enormous redundancy in Ire-
land, and a large addition, and that constantly
increasing, making to it every year, it is obvious
that a very large deduction from the existing po-
pulation, instantaneously made, would alone be
adequate to arrest the evil, and open a door to
improvement. But here the Committee are
without means. They propose only an experi-
mental emigration for two or three years, of a
number of persons, bearing but a small propor-
tion, net to the redundancy, but even to the ad-
dition making every year to the population, on
the supposition that there is no cause in opera-
tion in Ireland at present to prevent the increase.
We do not see how they could propose the re-
moval of more people, because the experiment,
as they say, requires time, as preparations must
be made for the reception of the emigrants, and
a foundation be laid in the Colonies for the re-
ception of increasing numbers. But let us keep
in mind, that during this experiment the evil is,
proceeding at an accelerated rate, and that there
is abundant evidence before the Committee that,
leaving Ireland entirely out the question, there is
a greater number of hands in the English agri-
cultural counties without employment, than the
whole number the Committee proposes to re-
move. The Committee propose to remove in all—
In 1828-9 only 4,000 families.
In 1829-30 6,000 families.
In 1830-1 9,000 families.

Iti all 19,000 families, or, allowing five to
each family, 95,000 individuals, and the expence
on which they calculated is 1,140,0001.
"It may, perhaps, be observed (say the Committee),
that the removal of 19,000 families would produce little
effect in remedying the redundancy of any superabundant
portion of the population in the mother-country.; and your
Committee feel that it would be extremely difficult, if not
dangerous, to attempt to lay down with any pretensions to
accuracy, the precise number of the population which it
might be necessary to remove for such a purpose. The
progress of the.measure would furnish the best commentary
on that point ; but under any circumstance it would be ne-
cessary to commence with comparatively small numbers,
and to increase them progressively. The principle of in-
crease in this hypothetical proposition is, that each suc-
ceeding year should carry out emigrants in the ratio of four,
six, and nine ; in other words, increasing in the proportion
of one half, as compared with the number of the preceding
year; and it appears to your Committee, from the neces-
sity of food preceding population, that whatever number
may be selected for the experiment of the first year, the
successive emigration must be regulated by some principle
of this nature."
It, would, therefore, seem that the plan of
coping with the redundant population, by means
Of a graduated emigration, is something like the
plan of paying off the National Debt by a