Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1856-02-02
tFrom the London Times, December 2o1
Return of the Irish to reland---Their
Conduct and Fortune in America.

no man with the least regard to his reputa-
ton would have predicted twenty years ago.
Nevertheless. il is a fact. The provincial
journals are daily announcing the return OF
numbers to the old country, all with money
in their pockets-Some Of them have even
had the precaution to send home orders for
guano and seaweed in anticipation So far,
of course, it has been with these emigrants
question between moral and physical con-
siderations.-Few men, certainly not fathers
Of families, will leave their native soil but
from the necessity of subsistence, or what is
equivalent, the maintenance Of their rank in
society. Numbers, famine and the inextrica-
BILE entanglements Of landed propriety re-
duced it to matter Of self.preservation, and
there was no choice but to fly to a land, if
not of kind hearts. at least Of good cheer.
Hence that unparalleled migration in which
two millions went "wth n run" in less than
ten years. Now, considering the very little
progress we have made ourselves in the
course of seven centuries in assmilating the
Irish element-consideri that at the end
of the seven centuries the relations Of the two
countries we're hardly better than nt the first.
we ought not to undertake the difficulty of
the task thus suddenly thrown upon our
transatlantic cousins. The irish carried
with them not only their rags, their dirt, their
diseases, bat. what was more serious. their
unthrifty and slovenly habits. their turbu-
lence; their love of combination on every
pretence, and all that sets them at war with
civilized society. Happily for the Irish.
happily for human nature, there were good
men in the Union, who seeing q good work to
be done, buckled themselves to it, and, at
great cost and trouble made all sorts of ar.
rangemcnts to tighten the misery Of the i'm
migrant and save him from the temptations
and snarcs OF new country. The struggle
that has been going on for years in the great
ports Of the Union between the swinder3
who prey on the immigrant and the societies
formed for his guidance and protection would
furnish as many materials for the novelist as
the contest between the STAKEHOLDER and the
abolitionist The results have been of a
very mixed character. It cannot be said
that the immigration has been disastrous
when railways have been carried into the
heart Of that vast continent, and new cities.
ports, and even universities, have been raised
out Of the wilderness by the labor OF Irish
men, and when it is contested that without
the Celt, nothing could have been done. On
the other hand, there is the melancholy fact
that nearly third Of the immigrants are
computed to have died through poverty,
change of climate, or the seeds Of disease
brought with them, within q twelvemonth of
their landing. There is, too, the not less
serious fact of a permanent hostility of feeling
between the Irish and large portion of the
native Americans.
The moral tie that binds the heart of the
emigrant to the soil Of his birth cannot but
be weakened every year. The parent who
carries the tradt on becomes feebler and
feebler. The children acquire new ties
! Present scenes engross their attention. and
it is only, ns it were, through bright and
living viel that they dimly see the far land
| of their infancy. Wait few years, and the
| Ireland Of the Irish settler will be only the
region of harmless legends, unless, indeed,
| the commixture of American blood and re-
publican ideas convert the grand sons Of the
original immigrant into sober, calculating
citizens. Nothing indeed, is so remarkable
as the rapid assimilation Of English, Irish,
Scotch, German, and even French national-
ties, not to speak of some halfa dozen lesser
| distinction Of race, in the average American
! type. 1t might have been expected that the
| fact Of this continual fusion would have led
the citizens Of the Union TO assume it as q
| political condition, to reckon upon it, to pro-
mote it, to remove all obstacles, and to hail
as second only to those who signed the decla-
ration Of American independence any one
who should devote himself TO the task Of
concilliating and harmonizing the heteroge-
neous mass of immigration. There a.e men
who do this great work. There are others
who do their best TO hinder it. Thanks to
tue efforts of this latter class, the Irish i'm
migrant finds, if not actual persecution, at
| least the treatment Of aliens and intruders.
! He is confronted by cold looks, invidious
rules, by iactous demonstrations. and every
thing short Of law and worse than law. No
| doubt this, as far as it goes, drives the Celt
| back TO his old country. He will not make
! his home where he docs not find himself at
home. This unkindly rebuff has already sent
back many, it has discouraged still more
| from ever leaving Ireland; it may ultimately
stop the immigration altogether, and produce
| the most Serious results on the social and
commercial condition of the States. The
working classes are there kept in certain
degree of submission, il not subordnatioa, by
the continual influx Of immigrant labor.
! When that influx ceases the working man
will soon feel himself better able TO make his
own terms, and the contest of labor and cap
| ital will probably assume character injuri-
Gus to trade, if not dangerous 10 order. 1t
is the very fact Of the immigration keeping
down the pretensions Of labor that chiefly
inspires the movement against it,
Ireland, there is little doubt, is now bet.
ter country for the farmer than il was ten
or twenty years ago. The land is generally
in q better state as regards the proprietor
ship there is not the same burden Of power
ty; the potato is sound and. what is more,
prices are high, and will probably continue so
as long as the war lasts. In q mere COM
mercial point of view. tillage, and still more
pasturage, must be more profitable within q
hundred miles OF the market than across the
| Atlantic.
In other respects ireland is a more agree
able place to live in than it was Political
agitation is almost extinct no demagogue
is able to take the place Of 0'Connell; the
question of tenant right is but poor substi.
tute ,or the repeal Of the Union, assassina.
tlons there still are, but few and there is no
longer that frantic competition for farms that
once beggard the small class of farmers. The
railways have thrown open parts of Ireland
that once were almost inaccessible and there
is now hardly point where the farmer can.
not bring his crops or his cattle to q good
market expeditiously and eheaply. 1t may
be observed, by the way. that the three
Queens Colleges have received an unexpec.
ted testimony in the shape of pupils sent to
them from America by Irish emigrants, now
at liberty TO educate their sons as they please
Thus it appears that these colleges will serve
Tor the States as well as for Ireland, and will
be link between the two countries.
| lFrom the Dublin Evening Mail Of Dee. sel