Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1851-08-01
From the London Times. July 9Th.
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Were there any doubt as To- the nature of the slim
ulus which has set the Irish population in full flow
across the Atlantic twould be removed by the place
occupied by the several districts in the order OF de-
population. The FIVE most depopulated counties are
the five counties of Connaught; six of the counties
of Ulster in the ten least depopulated counties
and of the intermediate counties in the lis Munster
will be found nearest Connaught, and Leinser near
est Ulster. The order of the list is very much that
with which ones eyes have become painfully famil-
lar in running the lists of distressed districts
applications for relief, numbers of indoor paupers
and grants from the Rates-in-aid Evidently the
fear of paupersm is the immediate cause of this
exampled expatriation Those who have thus sudden
cut the dearest ties and cast themselves headlong
into an unknown world, have done SO because they
feared pauperism as state they might come to them
selves as continual drain upon their as
inextricable difficulty to the understanding as a
grievance to the feelings and ntoerab1e spec
tacle to the eye. The stream once set to America
it has rapidly increased the attraction. and been
aided by the assistance of that bolder more able
portion that went out as the vanguard Of this great
| emigration
As men advance in life they feel in some degree
alienated from the world they see and naturalized
in that which they hope for by the increasing num-
Der of those who have passed on before them. That
fairly represents the state Irish feeling at this
ment. poised-if poised-between a native soil mis-
cradle and deserted, and foreign shore prosperous
and already peopled with relations and neighbors
y
implanted in the hearts of all men, that hardly will
it yield to the direct distress the most glowing
pectatons Great emgrations. however, prove that
there is positive momentum and an accumulation
of force in these in other social changes Emigra
ton commonly begins with repulsion, and ends with
attraction Hard necessity breaks the first tie but
when the anchor is weighed and the vessel once
under sail, inducements discover themselves
and facilities increase. Twenty years ago. even
ten years ago it might have been pronounced i'm
ms hlp hqt hn of ton than
million of persons, perhaps near million and halt,
would fly to America. 1t scarcely possible at
that time to imagine emigration-what it has since
become-a national impulse and an universal act.
The bare facts of the well some sensi-
BILE remarks which published yesterday under the
head of The Irish Census" suggest some grave
questions To what extent will Irish emigration and
Irish depopulaton proceed! and how far is the ex-
ample likely to be followed in this island =! There
is always great deal be said for the status quo.
and the safest course is to predict considerable
change But they who expect nothing out of the
way sometimes disappointed. Ten years ago a
man would have been laughed at who should have
ventured to orete that before the expiration of that
period failure of the potato would reduce the pop
uiatiOn of Ireland to less than it thirty years
ago, and would send more than million across the
Atlantic Less than ten years we remember to have
seen it affirmed that nothing would ever induce an
| lrishman to enter workhouse apply for public
relief. Facts however, are sometimes more para
the full tide of of the most considerable facts
with which history acquaints We may, then,
venture to ask question which would have sounded
ridiculous ten years ago. How far will ireland leave
Ireland, and England follow after her 1t is at least
question for the gravest consideration. quarter
of the Irish peasantry is already the opposite shore
of the Atlantic. and that quarter represents much
larger proportion of youth strength, energy and
skill. What gone attracts; what remains repels.
| While the Americans have received a far greater
nh aDU oh IN he ad mi
ted, their opportunities and enterprise have in
creased in still astonishing ratio. This de-
cade. so marvellous in the annals Of a marvellous
people, has been fertile in territories new
States, cities, railroads, canals. new
lines of maritime lake, and inland navigation. new
manufactures, and new mines, as it has been in its
increased population. Though the laborers are ma
ny, the harvest is still great Is it probable that this
prospect will lose its fascination in the eyes of
the Irish peasantryl They know what they will
find in the United States-what is there in their own
country to detain them at home 4? Even the mortal
ty and the casualties of an emgrant ship tri-
fling compared with those of workhouse. They
melted and assisted by those who have gone be-
FORE Are there really bounds to this emigration,
or probability of its being confined its pres
ent amounts Civil war between the States of the
Union, or dreadful epidemic might check the en-
gration, but that would be only for time. On the
whole, we hold it safe to reckon Ireland being
still further depopuaed, and the United States still
further peopled from that island.
/ But why should not the population of Ireland be
reduced, say, to four FIVE millions Should that
indeed, to pass it must and will involve great
changes in the social and political state not only of
Ireland, hut of Great Britain also. 1t greatly
increase the value of labor and the appreciation of
the laborer throughout these isles. For a whole
generation, has been a drug in this country and
population nuisance. 1t has scarcely entered into
the heads of economists that they would ever have
to deal with deficiency of labor. The inexhausti-
BILE Irish supply has kept down the price of English
labor. whether in the field the railway the factory,
the army. or the navy whether at the sickle, the
fifty years at the least labor, taking its quality into
account, has been cheaper in this country than in
any part of Europe; and that this cheapness of Ia
Dor has contributed vastly to the improvement and
power of the country to the success of all mercan
tile pursuits. and to the enjoyment of those who
have money to spend. The cheapness ha;
placed the laboring class most eectually under the
hand of money and the heel of power
But will there not be change and beginning Of
changes when our great reservoirs of human labor
begin to fall short when every employer of the
people. from the authorities at the Horse Guard.
and the Admiralty to the occupier of fifty acres OF
the possessor of half dozen lace machines, begins
to call in vain for more hands 2 Will it not be
day OF change when instead of two men being after
one master, two masters will be after one man 2
Perhaps it will be thought that at all events the con
dition of the laborer will be so much bettered tina
there will De English emigration: OF that We
are not sure. What keeps tie English laborer al
home is his profound ignorance his want of versa
ity. and his habits of dependence But these pecu
liarites will be much affected by any social changes
that shall make the laborer more actually indepen
dent than he now is and we can conceive A erea