LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
LORD MONTEAGLE ON IRISH EMIGRATION.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
1312,—As you kindly gave me so mach of your space in the Spectator for August 21st, I must apologise for again trespass- ing on your columns. But as the conclusions I arrived at in my former letter were but the basis of views which I entertain on the vital problems of Ireland, and specially on that of Emigration, I venture to trouble you again.
My three conclusions were,—(1), that the Land Act of 1870 does not adequately secure to the small tenant his improve- ments, and that rack-rents are too often the result; (2), that the Connaught question is in great measure a labour question (and consequently also a Poor-law question) ; and (3), that there is reason to fear that, under present conditions, a system of small farms and cottier tenants pays the landlord better on poor land than consolidation.
I shall assume that emigration (if possible, aided by the -State) is necessary ; but I am convinced that it is not in itself --sufficient, being only a part of the remedial measures required.
I wish also briefly to point out a few facts which,' though frequently alluded to in Parliament and in the
Press, I have not seen brought to the test of figures.! I quote from the Emigration statistics, 1879. Firstly, the emigrants come from the wrong places,—i.e., they do not come! from the parts where the pressure of population and distress, is greatest. The number of emigrants per 1,000 of popu- lation of all Ireland is 8'7. It is not surprising to find that Leinster has far the lowest average, 4-6. But it is not so satisfactory to observe that while Mimster, sent 12'4 and Ulster 9-6, Connaught only sent 7.2, and that Galway and Mayo sent respectively 7.] and 6.5 per 1,000 of their populations. Secondly, the emigrants (looking at the question as an Imperial one) go to the wrong places, for of the total from Ireland, about -two-thirds go to the United States, and it is not, perhaps without significance that this proportion rises for Connaught to four-fifths, and to eleven- thirteenths for Mayo. Not quite one-twentieth go to Canada,. Thirdly, as to the description of emigrants, about one-third of the total are between twenty and twenty-five years of age, two-thirds are between fifteen and thirty. Only about one- twentieth are between forty and fifty, and of these the men are about double the women. About one-thirty-third are over - fifty. These figures show how truly it is stated that the very bone and sinew of the country are leaving us, and that when -the bread-winner goes, the wife and family are, as often as not, 'left behind.
It is not generally known, I believe, that State aid to emigra- tion has been offered in the past (the first Act is of 1838), the Government being empowered to lend money to Boards of Guardians for the purpose. But this provision has not been much used, even though the Guardians have power to join the landlord in emigrating tenants under L5 valuation. Of the whole emigration since 1851, the proportion assisted under these 1provisions is only 12 per 1,000 ; and whereas in the earlier years, 1851-5, the proportion was about 27 per 1,000, in the year end- ,ing March, 1880, it has fallen to 6 per 1,000, the effect of these laws appearing to dwindle away. Lord Dunraven has very clearly explained lately the liberal (and, I believe, novel) offers made by the Canadian Government, and if the Home 'Government would co-operate by advancing money to the land- , lord on- the security of his property,.as it already does to the -43flardians, an advance might be made towards sending families from the overcrowded parts of Ireland to the rich prairies of Canada, which, if practicable, would obviate the three evils attending the present emigration to which I adverted above.
But at the same time, though Government should without delay look into this matter, I maintain that they are equally bound to consider the possibility of some portion of the surplus population of the poorer districts being supported in their own country. It is the opinion of Professor Baldwin, lately at the head of the agricultural education of the country, that Ireland might support a larger population than she now has, if properly farmed and, as far as possible, reclaimed. The question of re- clamation is a vexed one, and vague statements are commonly made on both sides, of which I am not going to increase the number. But it ought to be authoritatively settled ; and if, as I have been told, on authority which I can trust, there is in the near neighbourhood of some of the most hopeless cottier populations reclaniable land which might support them in far greater comfort, why should industrious peasants be driven from oer shores P Until, however, its feasibility is decided, it can hardly be considered an essential part of the policy to be. desired.
I come now to show how the conclusions of my former letter point to the necessity for other reforms to accompany emigra- tion. The state of Ireland in 1846-8 was sufficiently grave to call for searching remedies ; but the immediate strain once removed by the flood-gates of emigration being opened, the causes that had led to over-population and famine were too often left in the soil, and (fortunately in a minor degree) have again borne similar fruit. If by emigration the pressure now weighing upon us were removed, there can be little doubt that the causes would be forgotten, until they bore their next crop of fruit, when another drastic, but temporary, remedy would be applied. If at the present crisis you emigrate, and do nothing else, a double mischief is the result,—the roots of evil.are left, but the visible growth from them being cut down, they are concealed from view, and the chances of real amendment once more postponed. So long as there is a demand for harvest labour in England and Scotland which cannot be supplied in the larger island ; so long as it pays the Irish landlord better on poor land to have a large number of small eottier tenants, whose rents are kept up by, and paid in part out of, harvest wages earned in England ; above all, so long as these cottiers have not adequate legal protection against rack- renting,—so long there will exist the seeds of mischief ; and directly your emigration has been set going, the system will arise again which makes State emigration necessary. And if I am told that it must be a benefit, by my own admission, to start emigration, and that it will be soon enough to consider how we are to maintain what is gained by-and-by, I answer that it is precisely at this point that there is most danger of the permanent elements of the question being forgotten in the immediate relief experienced.
The vital question still remains,—how to secure the occu- pier's property in his improvements ? And I fear that in Con- naught, among the poorer small cottiers, neither the extension of the Bright Clauses, nor the recognition or creation of tenant-right, will meet the case. Let us hope the Land Com- mission may throw some fresh light on the subject. For this purpose, I earnestly hope that the Commissioners will do everything in their power to elicit evidence from the small tenants. It will be difficult, almost like making the dumb to speak. But though their reasonings would be hard to come at, and perhaps not very valuable, their facts should be ascertain- able with care, and would be perhaps the most important evidence adduced.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Mount Trenehard, Foynes, August 25th. MoNTEAGLE.
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