Loudon free press. (Loudon, Tenn.) 1852-1855, 1853-03-05
J,e,,,nd. her Conaition and Pyosperitu.-The


last Westminster comes to us laden with sad
lament over the condition of this unhappy coun-
try. 1t is but the condensed echo of countless
groans and lamentations coming up from
O. once great people, now reduced to penury
and want in their own country or wandering
pennvless outcasts to the uttermost isles. Sad
indeed is the picture of ireland. We can look
with some degree of composure upon the DESC
ation of SYRIA, the depopulaton of Greece; for
the great people that once inhabited the fairest
shores of the Mediterranean, have long since
passed away and are scarce remembered. 1t
requires some stretch of fancy as you tread the
trackless deserts of Argos aud Attica to repeo-
bic them with the proud subjects of Agamem
non or the Compatriots of Demosthenes and
Plato. But in Ireland the case is different. Her
fertile fields, though no longer green, are not
vet reduced to actual sterihty. The garden
flower and useful plant still contend with the
moss, the Gchen and the brar. Her proud
people are not all gone and forgotten; they are
nov passing away. The terrible scene is being
acted before us. In our own country, every
with the wretched wanderers. Go to California
YOU find them; to Australia they are there. How
terrible must be the evil that drives US, willing
.ssaderers, from the home we love. Some no.
biz spirits indeed are bound fercibly, and against
their will, to ocean-beaten rocks but most have
wandered forth, voluntarily abandoning their
homes. To say nothing Of due natural increase,
Ireland counts to-day million and half souls
less than five years ago. How dreadful must
lie such a fearful defamation in country SO
small. But dreadful as it is, there is no hand
lifted to stay it; it is still going on, and with
daily increased rapidity. Those who have not
left are leaving-not the old, the lame and de-
tripid who, if any, might better be spared-but
The young, the manly, the vigorous. It's COM
nan in Ireland, to hear the child of twelve,
talking with absorbing interest of America, and
promising soon to meet brothers and sisters
there. In many parts whole villages are depop-
ulated; the mud houses, if by chance, they
stand. are doorless, roohess and tenantless. l
shall hardly be believed when l say that have
seen not one, but many villages numbering more
than one hundred cabins each, with not single
human inhabitant 1t is nevertheless true. In
most however, grey-haired remnant of once
powerful race is occasionally seen upon the
messy Threshold, or in the grassy street. The
last guardians of their country, they seem to be
watching her final destiny, and Ike the ancient
people of invaded Rome, having sent their pos
terity to some defensble rock, are silently await
ing the last blow which terrible fate can give
It is common to think that with the five millions
CT aims lately given by the world, misery and
want have banished from the Island. There
nav not indeed be so frequent cases OF death
from absolute famine, but the condition OF the
country is no less miserable. The immediate ne
,,essitieS of the people have been supplied, but
only at the cost of filing innUmerable work
houses with inmates, on whom never shines
single ray of hope. Go through once thickly
populated streets, traverse highways where the
traveller was often seen, horrible stiffness now
prevails. Ireland is shut up in paltry work
house. There at best must be continued toll
for daily bread till wished-fordeath release the
victim. If, ere this happy moment arrive, dis
ease seize upon the pauper, he is tossed into
some putrd Enclosure already filled with mis-
cradle wretches whose only prayer is also death.
What retribution awaits the people at whose
feet lies nations degradation and humiliation,
we know not. Guided by History we are ac-
customed however, to think that as one nation
metes out to another, so shall it be melted out
to itself If it be in fate that the oppressor Of
Ireland shall receive her just and righteous due,
that people which has grown rich by the ami
hilation of another, shall one day be cut off by
a fearful defamation; the rich parks of England
shall be levelled like the trees of Ireland SO
that not one shall be left standing her fields
shall be made desolate; her gardens vast des-
ert; her navy sunk to the oceans depths; her
populous cities the retreat Of jackals and owls;
her own name blank, utterly blotted from the
list of nations, or only retained to remind the
world that violence and wrong shall not go I'M
punished Sdranndh Courier.