The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1855-01-15

IRELAND AND THE IRlsH.--A celebrated
Presbyterian Clergyman, under the sig
nature OF 'Kirwan, has commenced series
of articles on the above subjects in the New
Yerk Observer. He speaks in eloquent terms
of the varied scenery, the quiet beauty, the
exhaustless fertility of Ireland, 'the very gem
of the sea. Ireland had its civiliz atom before
England, and from its schools learning went
forth over Europe, while England was
yet in darkness"
The writer refers to the squalid and wretch
ed Irish who crowd our almshouses and beg
in the streets; but these, he says, are the re-
fuse of the Irish people, many of them sent
here from country poor houses, because it
was cheaper TO send them abroad than to
support them at home. "and yet, says Kir-
wan, Glow as they are in the social scale, they
now and then give out evidences OF what they
might have been, and would have been if
differently cared for. There is warmth of
heart, tenacity of affection, a generous
prompting, readiness of repartee, flashing
w.t. broad humor, which reveal the native
elements ofthe persons upon whom you look
in compassion, if you do not turn away from
them in contempt. Satan is an angel fallen;
and the persons now described are Irish, de-
graded by the pressure, for ages, of adverse
causes, which would have reduced almost
any other people to absolute barbarism.
And vet these very people have noble ancestry,
and history Their fathers had name before Rome
was foundei; and naviga the surrounding seas,
before the great victory OF Themi-tocles at Salamis
From them in various ages, men have arisen who
have adorned every human pursuit and VINO have
obtained undying fame as poets historians orators,
scholars, soldiers. patriots; who have shone with
cloudless lustre from the bench the forum, the pull
pit.
And the proof of all this we have around u.s. They
come 10 this country clumsy, poor, degraded and
ignorant peasantry. They have carried up New
York ON their shoulders they have dug our canals;
they have laid our railroads They seem fitted only
Tor mental and iaborious occupations And in these
occupations they have added immensely 10 the
wealth and resources of the country But how ra-
pidly their children rise above the condition oil their
parents With ready bound they take their place.
as equals, among the youth OF the country, and IA
thrift Ia lent, high honor, professional ability and So
ciai position, there none above them. They bee
come sooner AmerjcanZed than any other class oil
people. And without knowing the precise data, yet
on general principles would venture the assertion
that there is at this hour more Irish blood ia the
veins our eaterprising merchaDts,-ot our Naton-
al and State Legislators out of New England -of
our ministry, out OF New England,-of our men of
enterprise OF every profession aud pursuit, In the
Middle and Western Sthtes,-by many degrees, than
there is any other European people that pour
ing their swariniIg muititudes upon our shores
The Irish mind is aciige its heart is impuisve: and
tue Irish character, with more Industry than the
French, with less caution than the Scotch with less
prejudice than the English, with less phlegmatism
than the German, Is more actually adapted to .se-
ceive the American impulse of 'going ahead, than
any other There is not social, civil or religious
position in America, which Irishrnen and their deg
pendants have notiadorned, and are not now adorn-
ina