The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1881-01-22
FLOR the Dispaich.i
Ireland as viewed in Progress ana
rOyerty.v

Ireland as viewed iu PrOsrcss anu
Poverty"
was engaged in reading The recently
publjsbed work Progress and Poverty"
and had reached that portion OF 1t wherein
issue is taken with Nautilus in the theory
that population increases faster than SUBJ
sjstence, when | saw in the Dispatch that
the Duke of Richmond's conservative Com
mission on Agricultural Depression recon-
menCed a government scheme OF emigra-
ton for Ireland.
Now. emicration should be the last resort
of a government aiming at improving the
material wealth OF the country II governs.
An effort should first he made in other d.
recions at remodeling existing inslltu-
tons, rendered, perhaps, more oppressive
than ever before owing to the present L.
cilities for production and exchange; at
modifying laws; in fine, at attempting, by
some means, 70 shape the government to
the ace, not the aye to suit the government.
But no: il is notorious fact that emlgra-
ton is the first remedial measure that enters
into the head OF an English statesman when
It is a question If betlering the condition
of Ireland; aud it is equally notorious that,
no matter how many leave, the material ana
social condition Of those who remain IN
Ireland is never beItered. How stu
pid it j., to say the least. in those
English statesmen. 1t is as II doctor pre-
scribed for disease remedy which he
knew to have been tried over ana over again
by Others without the least Improvement IN
The patient. ireland was famine-stricken
when she had population of little over
eight millions. Look at her condition last
year with q population OF something over
three millions. She was famine-sirieken
when there were only two millions, as we
can learn, il from no other source, from
Swif's Modest PROPOSAL" OF which we
are reminded in " Progress and Poverty"
Even then, at that day, the cry OF emlgra-
ton for Ireland had become so tiresome to
Irish ears from constant repetition by Eng
lish statesmen that Swift proposed to them
to make an attempt at cultiyatng among the
rich taste for roasted Irish babies, extend
ing the number to be thus served up 10 one
hundred thou and annually
My object 10 writing is to ask you, gen.
tlemen of the Dispatch, TO publish the views
put forward in the work Progress ana
Poverty" as 10 the cause OF agricultural
depression in Ireland. From the promi-
nence given in yours and other papers ~
the Irish affairs OF to-day 1t will doubtless
prove interesting to many OF your readers.
As far As | have seen in your paper, and
read it daily, the Irish news to which you
have so far treated us was imported directly
from London. and smells, If you will pardon
me. more or less of the factory. i ask you
TO be so kind as to let an indie pendent Amer
,can investigator speak OF Ireland IN his OWL
elaauent and yividly descriptive language
I ask because | think be describes the con
dtion of things as they really are-ihink sc
too. let me say. white | favor English rule
i'm ireland, under certain conditions.
Our author takes up India and Ireland
both under English dominion, both afford
inc the main support to this Malthusar
theory | have stated. He proves the grea
fertility Of India by English writers, ant
| then shows that the frequency OF he
| f,mines is to be attributed to the "stead,
grinding weight Of English dominion;
| weight which is crushing millions out
existence, and. as is shown by Engllsl
writers, is inevitably tending to mos
friehtful and widespread catastrophe" III
support himself he quotes Macaulay as say
| ing, Enormous fortunes were rapidly &C
cumuIated at Calcutta, while millions 0
| human beings were reduced TO the extremi
~ OF Indebtedness. They had been accus
toned to live under tyranny. but neve
under tyranny hike this. Some
times they submitted in patient misery
sometimes they fed from the white man a
their fathers had been used 10 fly from I'd
| Maharatta, and the palaquln OF the Englls
traveller was often carried through silen
villages and towns that the report OF his ap
proach had made desolate."
These were familiar words to the writer
but they struck him as never before Will
being engaged with this subject OF depreS
sion in Ireland.
Passing over several pages in which W
see that Indian famines are due to othe
causes than over.populatou. we come t
Ireland. And now let the author speak:
} ~ doubt if more striking instance (tha
that of Ireland) can be cited OF the powe
OF a preSccepied theory TO blind men rs {
THE true relations Of facts. The truth |:
and il lies on the surface, that Ireland ha
never yet had q population which the ma
ural powers OF the country, in the exisiin
state of productive art, could not ha'
. maintained 10 ample comfort. At the perio
| OF her greatest population (lS40-'45) irelan
contained something over eight millions
people. But very large proportion
them managed merely to exist-lodging
: miserable cabins, clothed with miserab
rags, and with but potatoes for their stap
food. When the potato blight came the
died BY thousands. But was 1t II
inability OF the soil TO support s
large a population that compelled so man
/ to live In this miserable way, and expose
them to starvation on the failure OF q sing
, root crop? On the contrary. 1t was the san
remorseless rapaclty that robbed the India
ryot Of the fruits Of bis toll and left him
siarye where nature offered plenty. me
cless banditti OF tax.gatherers did NJ
march through the land pIundering and 10
, turing, but the Iaborer was Just as efiectua
] ~ stripped by as merciless q horde OF Ian!
lords, among whom the soil had been O
!. yided as their absolute possession, regart
less OF any rights Of those who lived upon J
Consider the conditions OF productio
, under which this eight millions managed
live until the potato blight came. II was