poor was so great that it was found to produce no sensible result; while all the time it imposed a heavy burden upon property. Others proposed to make a distribution of the uncultivated lands among the peasantry; but the too palpable reply was, that these, for the most part, were incapable of cultivation; and that, as regarded those which might be brought into condition, heavy expenses would be necessary as well as time-that time which was wanted for everything. Numerous inquiries were made, and the question discussed both publicly and privately, but without eliciting anything decisive. The question remained to be solved by God; and that proved a terrible solution. All that long arrear of crime and error was to be atoned for only by an unexampled catastrophe. 377 CHAPTER XXV. THE FAMINE AND EXODUS, THE year 1846, so disastrous throughout Europe, was particularly fatal to Ireland. The potato disease, which had some time before made its appearance, became very virulent that year, destroying three-fourths of the crop. Oats, the other resource of the poor cultivator, were equally short. On the news of this terrible disaster, it was very evident what would be the result. The English Government, alarmed at the prospect, took the most active measures for bringing supplies from all quarters. Although it had to concert measures at the same time for England, which was also suffering from scarcity, but in a less degree, the Government made extraordinary efforts to provide work for the Irish. It took half a million of labourers into its pay; made arrangements for employing them upon government works; and spent, in relief of all kinds, ten millions sterling. The proprietors, too, very different in this respect from their forefathers, who would have looked upon these sufferings with indifference, made in their turn every possible sacrifice on behalf of their tenantry. In case of need, the law forced them to do it, for the poor-rate rose in an enormous proportion. In 1847, neither rent, taxes, nor interest on mortgages, were paid. These tardy measures of kindness, however, did not suffice to arrest the evil. Famine was universal, and lasted several years; and when the decennial census of 1851 was taken, it was found that, instead of an important increase as usual, there was a startling decrease in the population. One million out of eight-an eighth of the populationhad died of misery and starvation. This frightful calamity has effected what years of war and oppression failed to do-it has subdued Ireland. When the Irish beheld the loss of their chief article of food, they began to perceive that there was no longer sufficient room for them on their native soil. They who had hitherto obstinately rejected the idea of emigration, as a flight before the enemy, now suddenly passed to the opposite extreme. A current, or, as it might be more aptly termed, a torrent of emigration ensued. For the last seven years for the movement began in the height of the famine one million five hundred thousand persons have embarked for America; and the tide still flows on. Those who have found work and are well off in the United States, write to their relatives and friends to follow their example, and at the same time send funds enough to pay the passage of these fresh emigrants. It is reckoned that the total sum thus remitted, since 1847, amounts to four millions sterling! The unfortunate Irish never dreamt of such a sum. They look upon America as the land of riches and liberty, and regard their own country as a scene of misery, slavery, and death. Ties of country and religion, once so strong, no longer hold them back. To find a name for this popular flight, we must go back to Bible history, for it can only be likened to the great migration of the Israelites, an exodus like that in Moses' time. The proprietors, in place of opposing, second the movement. This they are in some measure constrained to do, owing to the ruinous pressure of the poor-tax ever since this starving population was charged upon them, and henceforth they have great interest in thinning it. There is certainly nothing more distressing than such a sight, and nothing could have been more strikingly condemnatory of England's conduct towards Ireland in times past. But it must, at the same time, be admitted, that all the hitherto undetermined problems are practically solved by this rapid depopulation. England finds in it at once her punishment and her safety. Ere long, the population of Ireland will have been reduced by a half; and as emigration and mortality have affected only the agricultural and Catholic part of the population, all the fundamental difficulties go along with them. Previously to 1847, the Protestants formed only a fifth of the population they will soon come to be one-half. The rural population was twenty-four to the acre, now it is approaching to twelve, as in England; and from the wildest and most rugged districts, such as Connaught, after suffering most from the famine, the exodus takes off the greatest number. It may now be said that warfare between the two countries no longer exists: the Irish have left the field. Those who remain are not sufficiently numerous either to carry on the struggle, or to occasion much trouble by their wants. One fact, in particular, shows the general pacification of the country: agrarian outrages have ceased, and security is as complete now in Ireland as it is in England. God has employed the formidable means of which Tacitus speaks-He has made peace out of solitude. What was before impossible in rural economy, henceforth becomes easy. The too great division of the farms is no longer a matter of necessity. In place of seven hundred thousand farms, there may now be, and indeed ought to be, only half the number, and conse par Where two families of culti quently of twice the size.* vators were unable to exist, one may henceforth live in comfort. Potatoes and oats, which had been grown to excess, may now be reduced within proper bounds. Present wants being now less urgent, more thought may be given to the future. The four-course system may be more extended, and with it rural prosperity, of which it is the token. Meadows and pastures, hitherto neglected, begin to receive the attention they merit, and which they ought to repay a hundredfold. Ireland will again become --what she should never have ceased to be the Emerald Isle excellence that is to say, the finest grass country in the world. Cattle, which were never sufficiently encouraged, because the population could not obtain enough to feed themselves, will now find a more abundant alimentation. Farming, in place of desperately seeking effects without causes, may at length, by substituting an ameliorating in the place of an exhausting system, be taken up at the beginning. Wages being no longer unduly depressed by a superabundance of hands, labour becomes more productive and better paid; and, provided the impetus imparted to manufactures and commerce for the last few years is maintained and increased, the overcrowding of the fields need no longer be feared, even should population rise again to its former level. |