the difficulties and sufferings of the period before the potato-
The one great drawback to Irish prosperity, that which in- failure. But fortunately there is much more than a reduction spires fears for its continuance, is the absence of a varied of numbers, or rather, the reduction of numbers only makes industry. Where there is a varied industry there exists within room for the action of the favourable causes. Inefficient and the country itself a market for its agricultural produce, and also defective as in many respects the National Schools are, they a field of employment for the surplus arms the rural districts rear. still have been at work for forty years, not without producing But without such industry, both produce and labour have to good fruits. Yet more powerful has been the influence of seek a foreign market. Now, Ireland can be said to have only emigration. Thousands of people pass to and fro annually two industries,—the linen manufacture and the distilling of between Ireland, England, the United States, and Australia. whiskey. But the linen manufacture is confined to a portion They bring to the knowledge of the stay-at-homes a new world, of Ulster ; and the distillation of whiskey, though a profitable new states of society, new conditions altogether. Then every business, is not one which the statesman, the moralist, or the year millions of letters are received from near and dear rela- philanthropist would wish to see indefinitely increased. The fives, with minute details of life in other countries, little prosperity of Ireland thus is dependent on the prosperity of touches that reveal the relations of classes to one another, and England. In other words, it is a reflected prosperity. Last cen- statements of prices and wages that contrast with what exists tury Ireland was almost exclusively a grazing country. But at home. All these things have dispelled the mists of insular the great war against Napoleon compelled England to prejudice and insular ignorance that hung over the land, and raise her own food, and the enormous prices consequent on have swept with a fresh breeze the nooks and crannies of help- the war created a willingness to grow corn. Ireland then less apathy. Moreover, the vast multitudes that are settled became a grower of grain, and the Corn Laws induced her to beyond the Atlantic and in the South Pacific have made continue the same r6le. The repeal of the Corn Laws, how- America and Australia sound like home to the Irishman. ever, soon convinced her that she could not compete against He is no longer resigned, therefore, to injustice or poverty. the United States, Russia, and the Danubian countries in the Ha knows that the world is wide. He stands upon his inde- wheat market, and year by year the cultivation of wheat has pendence, awl resolves to better himself if he thinks he is not diminished, until now the area under that gran is only one- treated well. Employers sad landlords understand the feeling, fifth of what it was in 1847. ArAkcr remarkable proof of how and they do not presume as of old. Lastly, the xrdua AAA Lao wurplctely Lin agriculture of Ireland is regulated by the improved immeasurably the position of the farmers. Mr. Butt English market, is that the total area under crops of all kinds and others who find fault with the Act, object that it merely is now not greater than it was in 1847. In the course of puts a fine on eviction, and that tenants are ready in abund- thirty years,—that is, of unprecedented progress throughout ance to pay the fine in order to get a farm. In too many the world, and as we have been showing, of marked advance instances that is true, but the objection does not touch the fact in Ireland itself,—there has been no addition made to the that since 1870 the tenant is sure of compensation for his im- tillage of Ireland. The explanation, of course, is, that under provements, and sure also of indemnity for disturbance. At the regime of Free-trade, foreign competition in corn and roots the worst, therefore, he is secure against loss, and consequently proved too powerful to allow of extension. The Irish farmers has a motive for improving his farm. Besides, the malcontents therefore wisely turned their attention to the branch of their against the Act represent the exceptional as the ordinary. business in which their nearness to the market gave them a Formerly the tenant had no protection against eviction but decided advantage. In other words, they directed their the good-feeling of his landlord, the pressure of public opinion, energies to the breeding and fattening of cattle and the making and the dread of being shot. Now he has, in addition, the of butter.
-certainty of a law-suit ; and after all, the certainty of a law- On another page we publish a letter, in which very strikinl suit, whatever the chances of winning, has a very deterrent statistics are given of the increase in the stock of cattle in effect upon nine out of ten people. Owing, then, to all Ireland between 1841 and 1876. Whatever the reason, it will these and several other causes, not only is the c,ondi- be noticed that there is no material increase in the number of tion of the people generally ameliorated, but their standard horses and mules. The subject is one that would lead us of living has been very markedly raised. Their food is better, altogether out of our way, if we were to enter upon it. We their clothes are better, and their houses are better. The food therefore content ourselves with noting the fact. Again, it to Liberal common-places about non-intervention and moral is even yet, indeed, not as nutritious as it ought to be, for on influence, even the Conservative policy in the East has this point the Irish peasant is too self-denying, but it is very an air of decision and almost of grandeur. If it were only much better than of old. The houses, again, are certainly the party that suffered by this strange turning of the not such as sanitary science approves, and in the poorer parts of tables, it would matter but little. Unhappily, on this the country especially the hovels are deplorably wretched. In occasion, when the Liberal party suffers, the nation the bogs, for example, one frequently sees cabins with a damp and humanity suffer at the same time. A Government earthen floor, a roof so low that a tall man could touch it, no which knows that it ought to strike for something, but does windows, and a hole in the thatch for a chimney. But these not know for what, has used the strength of England to build up lairs of fever and rheumatism are far less numerous in pro- a system of whose working Bulgaria has witnessed the natural, portion than they were. Generally speaking, there is a decided, if not the inevitable results. And the Liberal party sees itself though very insufficient improvement in the houses, and the compelled to sit by in silence, because when it had the strength general health is marvellous, the death-rate of Ireland, according of England at its disposal, it taught itself, and wrongly believed to the official return just published, being only 19 per 10,000. it had taught the country, that that strength was only to sit Altogether, then, as we have said, there is a marked rise in still. the standard of living, and when this has once taken place, a people never go back. They will not willingly relinquish com- forts to which they have grown accustomed. They will not IRISH PROSPERITY. split up farms into minute patches, but will prefer to emigrate, NO one who now revisits Ireland after an absence of some or to seek their fortune in some other way. The change that years can have any doubt that she has made a con- has come over farming, too, the substitution of pasture for siderable advance in material prosperity. Evidence of the tillage, tends to the same results. Pasturage requires fact is borne in upon him in a multiplicity of ways. The a farm of some extent. And the intense anxiety of the prosperity is not such as this country enjoys, but of its kind peasants to make money still further helps to prevent minute it is real and considerable. It has been attained through subdivision. The effect of prosperity on the character of the terrible sufferings, that reflect discredit on our statesmanship people has been very remarkable. Talk to any one who has and our intelligence, but now that the suffering is past, it intimate dealings with the farmers,—a priest or a country is some consolation that it has not been undergone altogether attorney,—and he will tell you that the eagerness to get on is in vain. The great emigration which followed the Famine has almost a mania, that it possesses men to the exclusion of every diminished competition for the land, has brought the popu- other thought, and blinds them to everything but the object in lation within the limits the wages fund can support, and in view ; and indeed Mr. Butt's argument, referred to above, short, has made the general condition tolerable. If that were assumes the same thing, for it is based on the premises that all, the prosperity would be unsubstantial indeed. In the the farmers have money, and are scheming to buy one another middle of last century there was a famine as grievous out in an underhand manner. This is not a very pleasing as that of '47, and yet the beginning of the present character, nor one that lends itself readily to teachers, but it century saw the population outgrowing the means of proves very clearly that the old thriftless, thoughtless peasant, subsistence. If there were at present, then, no more than if he ever existed anywhere but in novels and plays, has made a reduction of numbers, we might well fear a repetition of way for the peasant of the French type. the difficulties and sufferings of the period before the potato- The one great drawback to Irish prosperity, that which in- failure. But fortunately there is much more than a reduction spires fears for its continuance, is the absence of a varied of numbers, or rather, the reduction of numbers only makes industry. Where there is a varied industry there exists within room for the action of the favourable causes. Inefficient and the country itself a market for its agricultural produce, and also defective as in many respects the National Schools are, they a field of employment for the surplus arms the rural districts rear. still have been at work for forty years, not without producing But without such industry, both produce and labour have to good fruits. Yet more powerful has been the influence of seek a foreign market. Now, Ireland can be said to have only emigration. Thousands of people pass to and fro annually two industries,—the linen manufacture and the distilling of between Ireland, England, the United States, and Australia. whiskey. But the linen manufacture is confined to a portion They bring to the knowledge of the stay-at-homes a new world, of Ulster ; and the distillation of whiskey, though a profitable new states of society, new conditions altogether. Then every business, is not one which the statesman, the moralist, or the year millions of letters are received from near and dear rela- philanthropist would wish to see indefinitely increased. The fives, with minute details of life in other countries, little prosperity of Ireland thus is dependent on the prosperity of touches that reveal the relations of classes to one another, and England. In other words, it is a reflected prosperity. Last cen- statements of prices and wages that contrast with what exists tury Ireland was almost exclusively a grazing country. But at home. All these things have dispelled the mists of insular the great war against Napoleon compelled England to prejudice and insular ignorance that hung over the land, and raise her own food, and the enormous prices consequent on have swept with a fresh breeze the nooks and crannies of help- the war created a willingness to grow corn. Ireland then less apathy. Moreover, the vast multitudes that are settled became a grower of grain, and the Corn Laws induced her to beyond the Atlantic and in the South Pacific have made continue the same r6le. The repeal of the Corn Laws, how- America and Australia sound like home to the Irishman. ever, soon convinced her that she could not compete against He is no longer resigned, therefore, to injustice or poverty. the United States, Russia, and the Danubian countries in the Ha knows that the world is wide. He stands upon his inde- wheat market, and year by year the cultivation of wheat has pendence, awl resolves to better himself if he thinks he is not diminished, until now the area under that gran is only one- treated well. Employers sad landlords understand the feeling, fifth of what it was in 1847. ArAkcr remarkable proof of how and they do not presume as of old. Lastly, the xrdua AAA Lao wurplctely Lin agriculture of Ireland is regulated by the improved immeasurably the position of the farmers. Mr. Butt English market, is that the total area under crops of all kinds and others who find fault with the Act, object that it merely is now not greater than it was in 1847. In the course of puts a fine on eviction, and that tenants are ready in abund- thirty years,—that is, of unprecedented progress throughout ance to pay the fine in order to get a farm. In too many the world, and as we have been showing, of marked advance instances that is true, but the objection does not touch the fact in Ireland itself,—there has been no addition made to the that since 1870 the tenant is sure of compensation for his im- tillage of Ireland. The explanation, of course, is, that under provements, and sure also of indemnity for disturbance. At the regime of Free-trade, foreign competition in corn and roots the worst, therefore, he is secure against loss, and consequently proved too powerful to allow of extension. The Irish farmers has a motive for improving his farm. Besides, the malcontents therefore wisely turned their attention to the branch of their against the Act represent the exceptional as the ordinary. business in which their nearness to the market gave them a Formerly the tenant had no protection against eviction but decided advantage. In other words, they directed their the good-feeling of his landlord, the pressure of public opinion, energies to the breeding and fattening of cattle and the making and the dread of being shot. Now he has, in addition, the of butter. will be observed there is no increase in the number of swine. But in 1841 the population of Ireland numbered between two and three millions more than it does now, and there was no family so poor that did not keep a pig. Although, then, the aggregate number of pigs is nearly the same, they are owned by very much fewer people, and consequently the wealth of the several families, measured in swine, has increased. The number of asses has doubled. They are the beasts of burden of the smaller class of farmers, and their increase has a two- fold significance. It is due largely to the conversion of tillage into pasture-land, making it no longer necessary to keep so expensive an animal as a horse, and it is also due to the growth of well-being, which enables a class of people to keep a donkey who could not do so formerly. It is, however, in cattle and sheep that the great and noteworthy increase has taken place. The number of cattle has increased from 1,863,116 to 4,113,693, or considerably more than doubled, and the num- ber of sheep has risen from 2,125,116 to 4,007,518, or all but doubled. We may add to our correspondent's statement, what will bring out still more clearly the extraordinary increase which has taken place, that Ireland now pos- sesses a larger number of cattle than England, exclu- sive of Wales. He estimates that the whole of the Irish live-stock, if brought to market, would realise £58,561,641. If this be so, the value of the Irish live-stock has very nearly trebled in the five-and-thirty years. To which we may add, that if this estimate is right—and it does not appear excessive—the live-stock of Ireland is worth more than double the whole annual yield of the property of Ireland assessed to the Income-tax in 1874. In other words, Ireland's wealth in live-stock is double her income from lands, houses, mines, railways, businesses, professions, and official incomes, owned by all persons with more than £100 a year.
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