The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-05-27 00:00:00

WHAT IS TO BECOME OF IRELAND ?

The London Times must surely have consigned the
editorial scissors to some new hand when his publication
of last Saturday contained the following paragraph :
"EMIGRATION FROM ULSTER.—The Fermanagh Reporter
thus refers to the progress of emigration in the north of Ire-
land :—‘ From every part of the country the people are flying,
as if before the surging sweep of another deluge. Every day
the different conveyances that pass through Enniskillen are
loaded with exiles—those who are breaking their hearts to save
their lives. Whole families are moving away together under
the desperate incantation of `No hope here.' What will be-
come of the country when those able to stay are going—the
strength and hope of the land departing, and those remaining,
so many of them, burdens on the country. And when this
wish to fly is so strong in Ulster, what must be the feeling in
the dark parts of Ireland, that are full of the habitations of
cruelty. There must be an end to this flying, and where will
the end be?"

Well may we ask,—" Where will the end be ?" We
might also ask—what is the reason that the people of
Ireland are flying, with the desperate incantation in their
mouths of "no hope here" ? The answer gvien by any
sensible man would be, because the anti-national policy
of the British legislature has handed over their labour
market to the foreigner ; that it is no longer a privilege
and a benefit to be a British subject. The Irish farmer,
who used to supply a portion of the population of this
island with his wheat, his flour, his butter, and his bacon,
is driven himself to consume the grain with which other
nations feed their pigs. What wonder that they transfer
their labour to those soils upon which they can profitably
raise that grain for themselves. "No hope here' ! Well
may that melancholy cry be uttered by a people whose
representatives in parliament, turning a deaf ear to their
distress, are expending their whole energies in defending
a spiritual tyranny, which has been the originator of one-
half of the degradation, misery, and crime, wh!ch have for
ages made Ireland the wonder and scorn of the world.
God gave her a fertile soil, splendid rivers, expansive bays,
rich fisheries. Popery darkened the minds of her popu-
lation, held them in the depths of ignorance and poverty,
with all these means of abundance and enjoyment spread
with a bounteous hand before their eyes. British legis-
lation, aided by the factious folly of Irish representatives,
and of a turbulent and ambitious priesthood, has put the
finishing band to the work of ruin.

THE " PUBLIC VISIBLE" AND " INVISIBLE".—I have
lived long enough to find out that there are two Publics—
a Public invisible, with " airy tongues that syllable men's
names," much quoted in newspapers, much referred to
by members of Parliament,—and another Public that is
visible and tangible, that we meet in street and club, in
market and shop ; and I cannot say I find this latter
Public of the same mind as that first-mentioned and
mythical Public, with which neither you nor I, nor any
creature of flesh or blood, ever comes into positive con-
tact. I have as wide a range of acquaintance as most
people, amongst all ranks and all classes ; and whether I
talk with the statesman, the man of the world, the ab-
struse thinker whose task it is to master these topics, or
with the merchant, the man of business, and the intelli-
gent tradesman, I find a very large proportion who are in
favour, certainly not of prohibitory duties, not of a rever-
sal of the general policy involved in our tariffs, but of a
moderate fixed duty upon foreign grain. And moreover,
amongst those not in favour of attempting such a modifi-
cation of the law, I find at least half who are far from
disliking the notion of that said fixed duty in itself,—far
from doubting its beneficial effects, if it could be carried;
but who merely doubt whether that animula vagula, that
incorporeal essence, the other Public, will be disposed to
accept it. And, though it may seem strange to persons
less acquainted with the inconsistencies of mankind than
it has been my professional lot, as a writer, to make my-
self, I positively aver, that among those who, thus seen
in the streets and talked with in tranquil nooks, either
favour a fixed duty altogether, or wish the other meta-
physical Public might so favour it, I find no small num-
ber of the very men who enjoy, by votes in Parliament or
paragraphs in print, the reputation of being " sensible
and enlightened," and go the whole loaf with Mr. Cob-
den ! The Corn-law settled No ! Free-traders and
Protectionists alike feel in their heart of hearts that it is
not settled; that it is not in the power of this Parliament
to settle it. Many large portions of the constituent body,
many agriculturists themselves, were induced, by the
calculations of great authorities, to consent to what was
called an experiment. Those calculations have been
tested ; and it is now not on the speculative probabilities,
but on the experiment itself, that the agriculturists at least
desire to pass their opinion. There has been a Parliament
with faith in the prophecy ; there must be a Parliament
to decide on the nature of its fulfilment. "It is one
thing," said the shrewd Arab, " to believe the assurance
of Mahomet that he can move a mountain, and another
thing to say before the kadi that the mountain has been
removed."—Sir E. Bultver's Letters.
A crack-brained man, who was slighted by the females,
very modestly asked a young lady " if she would let him
spend the evening with her." " No," she angrily replied,
that's what I woWt." " Why," replied he, " Y
needn't be so fussy,e6
I didn't mean this evening, but some
stormy one when I can't go any where eke I"