The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1867-07-11
CURRENT TOPICS.

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missioners, however, are valuable for another.
reason they shows decline of the natural in7
crease of The population Tho average nums
Der of emigrants from 1877 to 1854 was go lol1
per annum During the following eight years
it averaged 5e,9S9 year. During the last
four years it has again increased, so as to aver
age 1O7, SAG. Increase of population by births
must principally depend on the proportion
which those between the ages Of twenty and
thirty-fve bear to the rest of the community
The proportions of such persons in the pOpnla-
tion Of tho whole kingdom is about twenty-five
per cent, while their proportion in the emf
grafton of the present day is more than fifty
two per cent. The London Daily Ne'os says:
"When the fullest deductions have been made
for emigration the Irish population returns
still show large deficiencies, which can only be
accounted for by admitting decline in the
power of the population to reproduce itself.
The natural increase Of the population Of Ire
land in the period between 1881 and 1841 was
one-tenth per cent. per annum. In the period
1s4l-1s5l, which included several terrible
years of famine, fever and flight, it Of course
fell enormously; but even between 1851 and
1861, when there was nothing to produce a
specially injurious effect upon the health of the
people, the natural increase Of the population
was only 70 per cent. per annum. In the ten
years before 1861 the population fell from
6,5l5,7ss to 5,764,543. A natural increase
Of 100000 souls was to be set against
an emigration Of 100000, and the de-
crease of the population was 657, ,25l.
lin the six years since 1861 as
many as 517, ,sS7 emigrants have left Ireland,
and supposing the natural rate Of increase OF
the period 1s51-'61 to have been maintained,
the population at the census in 1871 can scarce
ly exceed $500, 900 souls. But the commits
sioners believe that it is not being maintained.
OF the 81, 800. persons who emigrated last year,
SO, 423 were single men, and 81 SO per cent. OF
the whole Irish emigration went to the United
States, being much larger proportion than in
previous years. "That the emigrants do not
leave in circumstances of destitution, is shown
by the better order of passenger aocommoda-
ton which they select. In 1868, the proper
ton of those who emigrated in steam vessels
was 1885, in 1864 it was 3.65, in 1866 it was
73 so, and in 1866 it was 81.16 per cent; the
shorter and better accommodation being about
one-third desrer than in sailing ships. The
inferences ofthe Emigration. Commissioners as
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to the effect Of emigration upon the natural in
crease Of population, are corroborated by the
returns of the Registrar-General of ireland.
Last year the marriages Of Protestants were
only for every IA Protestants, and for every
212 Catholics, the rate in this country being
one marriage to every 122 persons. The birth
rate in Ireland was two-and-a-half per cent,
while in England it was thrse-and-a-half per
cent. in the same year."
A WRITER IN THE Saturday Rspies0, the same
one, we presume, who not long since wrote
Natural History of Blookheads, discourses
lesrnedly and pleasantly on donkey Power
We have room only for tho following extract
sPolities and literature are as much indebted
to donkey power % philanthropy and religion.
Politics perhaps may be taken as one Of the
happisst INSTANCES OF the success Of the COM
bination of the donkey engine and the steam
engine. Great changes in the political arena
are never so prosperously achieved as when
they are the effect of satisfactory compromise
between the two So far from forbidding the
bans between them, we ought to thank heaven
upon our knees that both exist, and are ap-
parsntly destined to exist together to all time
If the world were only governed as PLATO and |
as NJ. CoMrE wished, by philosophers, changes
never would be stable, and every revolution Of
thought would lead to 9 reaction. As it is, |
great changes are accomplished by q regular
law, the results of which are far more salts |
factory. Some twenty or thirty years before |
the final plunge is taken, steam power begins |
to shoot ahead with startling velocity. The |
who sit on the engine whistle, the !
enthusiasts who feed the furnace scream, and
if steam had everything its own way, the ma |
chine would be over the declivity at
But once over, the less
active portion Of the community would |
be dissatisfied at the abrupt transition into |
which they ,bad been. 90 abruptly hurried.
They would for ever be endeavoring to retrace
heir steps, and to resent the force which /
dragged them over. Instead Of this undesira-
BILE condition of things, the twenty sor thirty
years are at present usefully employed in mod
alating the steam power of the philosophers to
'uit the donkey Peysr ,ef the rest. Gradually
md slowly donkey power brings up the train
.oward the edge Of the formidable precipice
There Is mo- excitement and no alarm, till just
.tthelsss' moment there is q little pull, and
h. community which was at the top finds it.
,elf at the bottom. Nobody is at all frightened,
Md. tho doakeys, after . moment Of surprise,
,egin feeding peacefully again on the grass that
yrows underneath. The reason that 30 little
,arm has been done is ,due irely-ithough
Ikeptics may refuse to see ito the fact that
he descent has been approached at sober
,aoe. People have had time to weigh the real
Of. the fall; and 10 provide against
III possible dangers. And when it comes, they
.ccept it without resentment, without any uR-
lue reluctance, and Without 4 burning sense
# antipathy to those who have led them to it.
Z cannot be said that this is not great ad-
Iantageto the social body, and the credit of it
,ught to be given 70 those to whose steadness
ind even tardiness Of pace the advantage is
,artly due.
Our READERS will remember the cable dis
'atches, We published some time ago, in refer
nee to the Birmingham Anti Popery riots.
Ehe English press is unanimous in their un-
naliHed condemnation of the rioters and