The Express. — 1855-08-24 (London, England)

LONDON, 11W17, AVOW 91.  WHAT a lesson it is. that we have lived to bear the news of Ireland which now comes by every mail! The aristocracy have thrown off their debt by the sacrifice of some of their land. No fear of arrest, no spectacle of tumble-down mansions, acrd land relapsing to waste, and a starving peasantry—no horror of a shot from the ditch need now keep the Irish proprietor in foreign countries, when his heart is at home. Everybody knows that many of the estates of Ireland have changed hands within a few years; but most of us have exaggerated the number of immigrating proprietors, because the introduction of Scotch and English methods of farming is conspicuous among the redeeming influences which have changed the faced the country. Improved agriculture is widely prevalent ; but the number of Scotch and English proprietors is insignificant in comparison with Irish purchasers. The fact seems to be that a very large amount of Irish capital, which was before invested in the English funds, has new found a better destination at home. What must have been the insecurity of property when millions of Irish money were fetching the low interest of the funds, while the lack of capital was depressing every hope of social improvement ! That is all over now. The land and the money have accomplished a partnership ; and the consequence is an amount of production which no prophecy would have made an ancient Irishman believe in, and a rise of wages which has sapped the political schemes of the Young Ireland agitd ton. Men who earned sixpence a day in O'Cos,tr.t.L's time now get eight/et:pen°, in ordinary seasons, and half-a-crown and three shillings with their food in this present month of August. Comtism need to say that when the Irish ceased to live on " mere roots," rage and wretchedness would cease; and greatly would he glory in his prophecy if he were living now. The people still eat and relish potatoes; but there are very few of them who would now be satisfied with the potato alone. The steam mills which are rising up all over the island to meet the popalu demand for flour and meal tell a most cheering tale; and one resells for the remarkable rise of wages is that the men work so much better than formerly, from being better fed. No scarcity of labour would induce the farmers to pay se they do, if the work done were no awe than formerly. The workhouse return, show a wonderful change, even from 1853 to 1864; a reduction of the numbers is the workhouses, side by side with a considerable incluse& in the production of the workhouse farms, and other kinds of workhouse industry. The mortality in the gaols is reduced; and yet more striking is the falling off in the number of criminals. Such an assize as the last was never known in Ireland eines courts were established. White gloves made their appearance at more places than one : and the offences were, for the most part, of a light character, in the place of the fearful murders and barbarous outrages which used to make the Irish circuits the most tragical facts in the empire. Instead of Ribbon lodges on the one hand, and hedge schools on the other, we have now extensive industrial enterprises and schools of a high order, into which hundreds of thousands of children are pressing, to be trained for the vinuous citizenship of the next generation. All the while, new branches of industry are opening for them; new relations with England are arising ; •and differences are dissolving from day to day. Take the following as one instance of the changes visible. Travellers in Ireland know the difficulty of getting cheese there, and the absurd price of it, even in Clare and Kerry, where the hills are covered with cattle. Cheese has been imported, so as to sell at ls. 4d. per lb., in the very districts where butter is made for exportation. Not a single cheese was made; and nobody had the spirit to try. Now, a cheese as good as Cheshire is produced, by the enterprise of English settlers, and mold at 6d. per lb. This new product will be a source of wealth in those parts of the country where gazing has taken the place of arable farming on the one hand, and mere smote on the other. Thus are new products one after another introduced, from one end of the industrial scale to the other: and thence comes the increased intercourse with England which brings together meetings at the Mansion-house, and originates arrangements all along the line, to enable mails and passengers to be exchanged batmen Dublin and London, twice a day.