Star.
London, England, 1823-07-30 00:00:00

IMPROVEMENT OF THE STATE CF

IRELAND.

OIM/Ml/1/.

Yesterday a Meeting was held at the City of Lon-
don Tavern, pursuant to public advertisement ad-
dressed by Mr. Owitm, of New Lanark, to the Nobi-
lity, Gentry, Professions, Bankers, Merchants, and
Master Manufacturers, for the purpose of taking into
consideration the present state of Ireland. The Meet-

ing was numerous and highly respectable. Amongst
the distinguished persons present, we noticed the
Duke of LEINSTER, the Honourable LEICESTER STA N-
HOPE, Mr. HAMILTON, of DeIVAI, Sir JOHN DOYLE,
and others. A number of Ladies, remarkable for the
elegance and beauty of their appearance, sat next the
Chair, and added their countenance to the benevolent
object of Mr. OWEN—At about half-past twelve Mr.
OwEN made his appearance, and immediately after
took the Chair; he was received with loud ani gene-
ral marks of applause. When silence was restored,
Mr. OWEN rose, and addressed the Meeting to the
following effect :—" We have met here this day to
consider what remedy can be found for the distresses
of Ireland ; and it is a subject possessing claims to
our serious attention, too powerful and too gene-
rally acknowledged, to render it necessary that I
should occupy the time of this Meeting with any
introductory observations. It will be admitted, that
no effectual remedy can be expected to be applied
until the nature and cause of those distresses shall
be ascertained. The evil is two-fold; it consists in
the want of productive employment, and in the
existence of religious differences; and so long as
these causes continue in operation, it is impossible
that the condition of Leland can be ameliorated.
We have therefore to ascertain, in the first place, why
productive employment cannot be found for the Irish
peasant and labourer. Productive employment is
either natural or artificial. Natural productive em-
ployment is, that through which the individual by his
labour produces more than he consumes, and what-
ever the excess may be, in the same proportion it is
a gain to one or more individuals, a gain to the world.
Artificial productive employment is that which, under
the present commercial system of society, renders it
necessary that a trading profit should be left to the
producers. These two kinds of employment have no
connection with each other. The first, or natural
productive employment, may be given to all, until
poverty shall be removed from society, and the world
be saturated with real wealth ; but no arrangements
have yet been made to admit of the introduction of
this employment in practice. The other, or artificial
produptive employ ment, is the mode to which the in-
dustry of man has been hitherto restricted, in the
creation of wealth. It is a system most defective in
principle, and calculated to continue only until a cer-
tain stage of civilization is attained, beyond which
period it will create poverty, and not wealth. The
period referred to is, that when science may be made
to supersede, in a general degree, the work of ordi-
nary men, and when, in consequence, manual labour
ceases to be of sufficient value to support human ex-
istence in adequate comfort, compared with the pro-
giess of civilization. That period is now arrived ;
the inventions and discoveries in the sciences of me-
chanism and chemistry in particular, have created a
new power at the disposal of society, which is, even
now, in the infancy of these improvements, far
more than sufficient to over-supply every want of life,
and if properly directed, to remove all want, or the
fear of want, from the whole of society, although the
population of the world were to be increased twenty,
thirty, or fifty fold. The time is therefore come
when the system of artificial productive employment
must cease to exist, and when it must give place to
another; to one which will better fulfil the purposes
of mankind; one, that will immediately enable so-
ciety to saturate itself with real wealth, that is, with
a full supply of all those productions which can con-
tribute to the well being and happiness of human
life. Under a system of natural productive em-
ployment, arrangements may be formed in which
a due proportion 'of the useful sciences, and of
manual labour may be so combined, as that every
portion of the working classes may with ease, com-
fort, and pleasure, create an abundant supply for
themselves, and also a large and more valuable sur-
plus for the use of others, than the industrious part of
society has ever yet provided for the higher classes.
The late rapid progress which has been made in the
useful sciences, has gradually produced such changes
as render it necessary that this system should be now
introduced, in order that ignorance and poverty may
be withdrawn from society ; and it is the direct in-
terest of. every one that these scourges of the human
race should be withdrawn, as soon as the means of
extirpating them are in our power. That it is not ne-
cessary that poverty should longer exist anywhere,
may be deduced from the knowledge of one single
fact, which is, that, in less than half a century, Great
Britain alone has acquired a new power from science,
which very much exceeds the whole manual power,
of the world, and with that power, and her present
population of 22 millions, if she knew flow to direct
them, Great Britain might amply suppry half of Eu-
rope with food, and the whole of Europe and the
Americas with all their other wants.—This, and more
than this, were there any necessity or utility in the
measure, could be accomplished, under a system of
natural productive employment, by means of the soil,
science, and manual power at present possessed by
Great Britain and Ireland. The Government of Ire-
land, however, is required to provide for a popula-
tion of seven millions only, from a soil and a power
scientific and manual, more than sufficient to main-
tain four times that number in a state of greater
comfort than is experienced at present, by any por-
tion of those seven millions. It is probable that not
more than one-seventh of the inhabitants and pro.
ptietors of Ireland can be considered to be above the
rank of working class; is which case, there is a
population of six millions to provide for themselves,
and for one million more. The system which at pre-
sent prevails in Ireland is evidently incompetent to
enable those six millions to support this one million
and themselves, although they should be content to
exist under the deprivation of almost all the comforts
of human life. As a remedy for this state of things,
Mr. Goulburn, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, re-
commends encouragement to entigration, and a re-
polar system of coercion. This is the essence of his
practical knowledge respecting the best mode of go-
verning Ireland; and, while so governed, it would
be a master of surprise, indeed, if Ireland presented
a different appearance from that of her present con-