The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1879-11-27
IRISH Emigration.

Irish Emigration.
Few people are fully aware of the extern
sive emigration to our shores Of the people
of Ireland, and yet fewer understand the
causes which have brought it about. We
regard it as astonishing that people have
decided upon quitting their homes almost
en- masse, and trying their chances of for
tune in this great Republic, for it is to Amer
lea the Irish people turn when they de-
termine to place the ocean between them
and their native land. John Bright, in a
remarkable speech he made some years
since ia Dublin, gave utterance to the state
ment that when the Irish peasant begged
for prayers and blessings his eyes followed
the setting sun, and so, following the pros.
pect in that direction, me lands upon the
shores of America, where millions Of his
race have found homes and bread. He
comes here because he knows America is a
free country, that will greet him with out
stretched arms and offer him an asylum.
when his own country presents only the al
tentative OF grave or prison.
What. let us enquire, is the cause of this
Irish exodus? 1t is a long story, but we will
try and make it short. Since the confisca-
lions of Cromwell, the Irish people have re-
garded the English usurpers of their lands
as enemies, and upon this footing the strug.
gle has gone on between both parties for
three centuries-one party struggling for
what was taken from them by force, and
fiscation placed in their possession. As the
law of England embodies within itself num-
bers of provisions which strengthen the in
| 1luence of British arstocracy rather than
that of the people, it was to be presumed
| that all the folc of that law would be de-
voted to the maintenance If those who in
the sister kingdom had acquired wealth and
power, and who, on that account, might
safely be regarded as props of the throne,
and friends and allies Of the titled people
who are always fitting around it and bask-
ing in its shadow. The presumption did
not turn out to be erroneous. Those who,
by confiscation, became possessors of the
soil in Ireland were, by the very act, con-
verted into enemies OF the Irish people, and,
in order to seek protection in their so-called
rights, had to rely only on the Parliament
and aristocracy of Great Britain. This re-
lance was not misplaced. Parliament passed
the most stringent enactments for the pur-
pose of enabling the new proprietors to
hold with tight grasp the lands they
had acquired, or that had been acquired for
them, by the sword Of the conqueror, while
the unhappy serfs, left without the slightest
| legal protection. were placed utterly at the
mercy of the landowners, who feeced them
with oppressive exactions. This state of things
continued down to the period of the Par
liamentary union of Ireland with England.
The landlords then, in the hope of getting
the county elections, began to give leases
and seemed inclined to set their faces
against the enforcement of the penal laws
which had been passed against the Roman
Catholics in the reigns of Elizabeth and
William Ill. A better feeling appeared to
be growing between landlord and tenant !;
but in an unhappy hour for Irelan d, Daniel
O'Connell com menced his agitation for
emancipation" as it has been called. The
people thought that this movement was 60
ing to give them more liberty, as regarded
their mode of dealing with the land, as well
as more liberty of conscience. True, 1t gave
them more liberty of conscience, but it did
not secure them in their homes; it left them
without any kind of protection, except
whatever they might derive from the con-
sideration of the landh olders. The struggle
went fiercely on; ''emancipation" was OBJ.
tanned. The result was the elevation to the
bench of few Catholic judges and the APP
pointment to office of some Catholic place.
hunters, while the mass of the Catholic pop
ulation, whose only resource was the Guilt
walton of the soil, were then, more than
ever, thrown utterly on the mercy of the
landlords, who should naturally have been
the protectors of the people. bit who had
become exasperated With their tenants be-
cause they had voted against them at the
elections, and gave the weight of their in
| fluence to O'Connell and the Catholic cler-
gy. When real distress came upon the peoS
| pie, neither O'Connell nor the priests had
the power of helping them, and ''the Liber-
ator'' and bis party must have felt mortified
when they saw the landlords taking tleirre-
venge by exterminating the people in thous-
ands. 1t is this determination that has
| filled America with Irish people. O'Connell
began at the wrong end. If he had sought,
| in the frs. instance, for tenants rights, for
| the permanent settlement Of the people upon
| their own soil, he might, in all probability,
have achieved that grand object; but it
seems now to be the unanimous opinion of
the Irish people themselves that Catholic
emancipation has been small gain indeed,
compared with the great advantages they
| would have derived from land code like
that of Stein and Hardenborg. which rem.
| dered the peasantry Of Prussia independent
Of the mobiles. Emancipation, as we ha We
stated, placed few Catholics in power.
| Some of them very worthless men. Tenant
| rights would have given them secure pos.
session Vi tHelr ldTuuS anu TaiSeU JIiclu dDOFc
the power of landlords.
Among the grievances of Ireland, until
recently, in addition to the land system, was
the Established Church. The effort of Mr..
Gladstone and the Liberal party to disestab-
lish the Church has been successful, but it
has brought little comfort to the Irish farm
er, who stands in mortal dread every hour
Of the bailiff or the ''notice to quit"
There is nothing to which the Irish farm
er clings with so much tenacity as his ''bit
of land.' When stung to death by notice
of ejectment, he goes out and shoots his
landlord or his agent he believes he is put
ting out of the way an enemy OF bis race;
one who has usurped what belongs to him.
In this way he individualizes the struggle
that has existed between the native Irish and
the descendants OF the confiscators of their