New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1847-02-06
The Moral Of Famine.
questiq.

We do not choose to harrow the seDsIbIiities
Of our readers with column after column OF details
Of the awful tragedy Of General Starvation now
proceeding in Ireland-of whole families and al
most entire villages perishing day by day--of the
uput,erable agonies Of Hunger and Fever which
are fast consuming Nation. Suffice It that they
know already that in that island there are at this
moment Three Millions of People in state OF
destitution save they are subsisted from day 70
day by public or private charity, aud that i've
thousand per week would probably be a low es'
innate of the number actually dying from Starva-
ton and the diseases il eDgenders. And this state
of general distress for food is by no means pecu
liar 10 ireland, but pervades the Scotch highlands
and is messuraby felt throughout Europe IN
France and Belgium especially. There IS stu
food there. and indeed everywhere save in the
novels of those who need it; but 1t is scarce ana
dear while Employment for large classes IS scan
~ and precarous and thousands on thoosahos ~
every country, beside the millions OF hsoitual pau
mars and bepesrs. are now suffering the horrors
M Famine Yet it is in Ireland that the system
which separates Capital from Labor by Social bar
,;srs-wbicb makes Of the owners and the cult.
xators of the Soil two distinct and isolated classes
miprling never in social enjoyment in individual
effort. nor even in Divine worshr--has obtained
It's fullest development and there we have nat
nrallv the most striking exhibition Of its tenden.
cies and fruits. Ireland to-day shows us what
York or New England probably will be, when
ever our Population shall have become as dense as
hers. and when the giant fortunes which the lew
are now rapidly amassing everywhere by Com
merce. Speculation and Machinery, shall have
fastened upon and monopolzed the Soil, as War
md Conquest have already monopolized that OF
Great Britain and Ireland Wherever and when
over Land shall become costly as il now is IN
those Islands, while the Labcring Mass remains
A.. isolated. dependent and impotent as now, then
and there will be enacted, after every season un-
propitious to the husbandman, scenes OF wretch
edness as stupendous and as awful as now make
the hear, Of Humanity shudder in contemplating
the condition Of Ireland
All but says Political Economy, through tho
mouths of its steel hearted Rioarlos aud its soft
headed Burr,ts we shall cure these evils by the
magic of Free Trade Indeed, will youl VIII
ycu be good enough to tel US little more specific.
all, how this is to mitigate the suiierings of the
Irish Millions for example We have made great
strides toward Free Trade during the last year
So and yet those Millions were never more wretch
cd than a,this moment Nay sirs they main.
~ Agricultarists in their poor way, subssting and
paying their strocous rents from the proceeds of
their petty holdings Of acre or so each. The
patch OF potatoes. while potatoes would grow, fur
nished the food OF the family while the pig and the
eggs. and perhaps months work in harvesting
paid the rent and bought such clothes as they had
Now the tendency of Free Trade is to depress the
price OF what they have sell yet not diminish the
charges they must pay. The pig and the eggs viii
be confronted aud oheapened in the British markets
OF consumption by Pork aud soon by Eggs from
Cincinnati; the Potatoes, ii they have any to sell
will BE- cheapened by the general consumption of
Indian Corn while the Rent will never be reduced
% long as Eight Millions OF Human beings com
petug. struggling with each other for the privilege
OF guilty ating each some patch Of Irish soil on any
terms which will allow them to exist there. So
hong Us few proprie,ors and these mainly non.
resident. the landlords OF populous ireland, SO
long must the multitude sroan in misery and find
no relei but in the grave.
Nor. can Christian Charity, essential though it
be- divine as 1t is work a cure Of the appalling
evils We now contemplate. Charity there must
bs-there Is vital need OF far more Of il than the
world has ever yet knowa--but how immensely
must it be expanded to afford even a mitigation Of
these gigantic woesl How can Charity adequate
~ relieve the wants Of Three Millions Of the + am
ishing on one little island especially when woes
similar in kind though not in intensity and univer'
sshty, exist everywhere else aswelli Who does
not that the thing vitality needed is not Charity
but Opporunity-not Aims but Justice-not a sub
sistenee from the earnings Of others, but unisil-
Ing sphere OF Industry and the jus, reward o: such
Indusry7 Everywhere but in Ireland the Irish
are known among the mos, industrious and willing
workers on the face Of the earth. There they do
all the work they can get wretchedly reccmpense5
as il is aud die OF famine not mainly because their
Potatoes are blasted bat because they have no
chance to learn sny,hing instead. The Govern.
ment provides employment ct some rate to IS msny
Is possible. but the scantiness Of work its neces-
ssry remoteness from many who need H. IT'S miser-
able reward and the enormous prices Of the cheap
est staples Of food. render this resort very made
Qaste though apparently the best that could be de
vised and PIT in practice the instant 10 view o.
the prevailing Social conditions But let it be es
tsblished, fundamental law Of the land tina,
those who own the Soil shall provide employment:
Mt fair rates whenever demanded. for all who were
born or have acquired alegal residence upon it, aud
the resulting changes would work speedy and Ct
fcctual cure for the woes which Chrstendom now
coutemplstes with horror
II is worthy Of note thar the very virtues of the
Irish People tend to augment their miseriss by
rendering more intense their competition for land
and employ ment. Were Ireland rs absolute in
rossls as Paris or Vienna, its population would