IRISH PROSPERITY.
N0 idea is encouraged more persistently and more eagerly by the Parnellite Party than that which represents English rule in Ireland as a moral and material upas-tree, under whose blighting shadow that unfortunate island has been reduced to ruin. According to this theory, Ireland is the most backward country in Europe,—a land where material prosperity makes no progress. Could, however, English influence be removed, and Ireland be governed in accordance with Irish ideas, a complete transformation would be witnessed. It is hardly to be wondered that Englishmen who hear and believe these things should argue,—' If we hold Ireland at the cost of forbidding all progress among her people, are we not doing her a great wrong ? Since our rule is such a curse to Ireland, there can be no great harm in letting the Irish try to
mend matters. They cannot well make things worse.' Granted the premisses, no doubt there is a good deal to be said for the deduction. Unfortunately, however, the premisses are absolutely false. Instead of Ireland being unable to prosper when bound to England, she has in the last generation prospered more than any part of the United Kingdom. Instead of English influence being a upas-tree, it has made Ireland advance in prosperity with a rapidity astonishing for a country which does not possess the natural advantages of a fruitful soil, a climate of special kindliness, or a store of mineral wealth. Without going into the important statistics lately produced by Professor Leone Levi, in which he showed that Ireland," in proportion to population, has made in the last thirty years even greater progress than England and Scotland," it is extremely interesting to examine the figures of various kinds which have lately been published for the first half of the year of 1887. It will be universally admitted that there can be no better signs of growing material prosperity than increasing railway returns, increasing banking deposits, increasing purchases of Government Stock, and increasing consumption of intoxicating liquors. Every one of these signs of prosperity is apparent in the latest Irish returns.
Let us examine first the Railway Returns. If we take the eight principal Irish railways during the past half-year, we find that they, without exception, show an increased volume of traffic. The total gross receipts of these lines show an increase of £36,906, or nearly 3 per cent., over the corresponding period of 1886. The average dividend on the ordinary stocks of the Companies has risen from 31- per cent. to 4 per cent. It is sometimes asserted that in the case of Ireland, increase in Railway Returns is not necessarily a good sign, since it probably only means that the people have taken to idling their time away, and wasting their money in gadding about the country. An analysis of the returns shows, however, that this is not so. Though the passenger traffic has risen, it has not risen in so large a proportion as the goods and mineral traffic. If we examine next the Banking Returns, as published by the Registrar-General for Ireland, they will be seen to show some very curious facts. Last Jane, the deposits and cash balances in the Joint-Stock Banks showed a decrease, as compared with the same date in 1885, of £17,000. Such was the immediate result of the mere threat of Home-rule. This June, the deposits and cash balances show an increase of £116,000. Such was the result of the assurance that the Union would be maintained. The balances in the Post-Office and Trustee Savings-Banks show an increase of £246,000 over the corresponding period of last year. Their gross sum is now £4,832,000, the largest figure at which the Savings- Banks' deposits in Ireland have ever stood. The capital invested in Government and India Stocks on which dividends are payable at the Bank of Ireland, shows also the substantial increase of £295,000, or nearly 1 per cent. Taking next the returns as to the consumption of intoxicating liquors, we find still stronger facts to show that Ireland is not getting poorer. We must, however, preface our comment on these statistics by admitting that to a certain extent a rising drink-bill need not mean an improving condition. It may mean only increased demoralisation. Still, though this sign of prosperity is extremely unsatisfactory, and one which maybe to a certain extent illusory, it deserves the most careful attention. Falling Excise Returns may not be a sign of decreasing wealth. They may only mean more sober habits. An actual increase in the purchases of stimulants among a people already given to intemperate habits can hardly mean anything but an increase in wealth with which to make the purchases. In the year 1881-82, there were 32 public-houses for every 10,000 of the population of Ireland ; in 1884-85, there were 34.3 for the same number. In 1881-82, the arrests for drunkenness for every 10,000 of the population were 153; in 1884-85, they were 188. In 1881-82, the money-value of the intoxicating liquors consumed per head by the population was £2 ls. 3d. In 1884-85, it had risen to £2 4s. 4d. If we take the gross sum of the increase of the money-value of the intoxicating liquors consumed in Ireland, when these same two years, 1881-82 and 1884-85, are compared, the full significance of these figures can be seen. The total amount spent in 1884-85 on drink is larger by £750,000 than that spent in 1881-82. In three years, the drink-bill of Ireland rose by three-quarters of a million sterling. It is a most singular fact that this sum is almost exactly the total amount of the reductions made under the Land Act of 1881 in those years. Instead of the saving in rent going to raise the moral or material condition of the peasantry, it apparently went into the publicans' pockets. We have never regretted that rents in Ireland should be reduced when too high, and we believe the reductions made by the Land Court to have been justified. Still, if it is only to be a choice between whisky and rack-renting, it seems doubtful whether the drink- tyrant is not as bad as the most rapacious of landlords. What makes the increase in the consumption of stimulants in Ireland particularly disheartening, is the fact that in England and Scotland the people have been steadily spending less and less on intoxicating liquors. For instance, this year's returns show that while England, compared with last year, has reduced her" consumption of spirits as a beverage" by 626,557 gallons, and Scotland has decreased here by 175,781 gallons, Ireland has increased hers by 210;616 gallons. We learn, also, from this year's returns that "where an Englishman drinks one bottle of spirits, an Irishman drinks two." In the case of spirits, these figures show nothing as to the consumption of whisky illicitly distilled. This is in Ireland, however, a very important matter, since last year there were 1,186 cases of illicit distilling, against nine in England.
With this slight excursion into the very interesting subject of Irish statistics we must be content. It will not, however, be out of place to mention here the fact that, contrary to Mr. T. W. Russell's well-meant but gloomy forebodings, there seems reason to believe that the harvest in Ireland will be a particularly good one. "One of the finest seasons with which this island has ever been blest," is the description of a farmer writing to the Times. Another correspondent calls the harvest "a splendid one," and speaks of the potato-crop thus,—" Never were potatoes so good and plentiful as they are this year." With good crops, increasing prosperity generally, and a fair chance of improvement in her social conditions, Ireland may fairly look forward to brighter prospects than she has been accustomed to for the last few years.
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