The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1899-08-05
THE WANT OF POPULATION.

DR.. Gattney, the new bishop of Meath,
appears to be a worthy successor OF the
late Bishop McNulty, the patriotic prel-
ate whose voice was ever raised for the
rights OF Ireland. On his first visit af-
ter his conservation to the town OF
Navan, the new bishop delivered an adj
dress to the people in which he said:
What is the thought that occurs to a
stranger when he visits your town or
travels in its neighborhood? Navan is
splendidly located 1t is embosoned in
the richest soil in the universe: it has
water-power, Waterways, highways and
railways, adapted for the most extensive
commerce; and yet cloud OF desola-
ton hangs over it, and refuses to lift a
fringe OF its dark pail. The water
powers that babbled all day and night,
in busy industry, when l was boy are
nearly all husfcd in silence; and Boyne
end Blackwatcr flow to the sea almost
without any concern or contact of man.
One luggage train in the day suflices for
the wants OF a whole country; and there
is general paralysis. Gentlemen, what is
the cause? 1t is to my mind the want OF
population. You may boom your fairs
and your markets; your hunting fields
may be the admiration Of the world: but
they are artificial, spasmodic, and un-
certain industries. The wealth, the
power OF country is population
planted in the land, developing it and
deriving from it the fulncss OF its re-
sources. There are many questions
connected with it which l can merely
touch. Thus 1 do not contend for a
dead level of distribution. l do not
argue against hierarchy in the social
order Of the state as we'll as in the
Church. I do not argue against the ex-
tirpation of the bullock; but I do argue
against the extirpation of man. The
electoral compaign OF 1852, which was
memorable in Meath for the return of
Frederick Lucas, and which first taught
the nation the power OF an Independent
Opposition, was avenged by the slaugh-
ter of hecatombs of honest, honorable
farmers, for the exercise OF their po-
litical rights. The great iron and coal
industries of England, which rose like a
tidal wave with the introduction OF rail
ways, required that its workers should
be fed; and Meath was depopulated to
supply the Lancashire markets. 1t
seemed so good and easy and profitable
to the tyrant lord to clear out the peo-
pie, by the law of England, and let the
land go back to its original fertile prai-
rie, and let the fat kline range over its
wide extent, and be shipped to England,
for the benefit Of the depopulator. My
soul sickens at the remembrance and
thought of these horrors! But, it is
true, they did not altogether forget you
In your royal county, in your fertile
county, they built six poor-houses and a
few more on your borders, to receive
your banished peasantry, the finest
specimens OF humanity that God made.
Do not mistake it. The crumbling
towns of Meath are the result of depop-
ulation; and, till the peasantry are re-
stored to the land the process of decay
must go on, and town and county be
buried in its ruins. The growth of de-
cay is in country as we'll as in town.
The fat lands and fat kline have disap-
pointed all hopes, and the monster
farms are only maintained, in many
places, by an eleven months setting, at
competitive value, which I character
| ize as system contrary to public policy