Extract on 'Emigration', from the paper, 'The Whigs _ Free
Trade _ Emigration _ Decimation _ Scully's Land Tenure _ The
League _ The Tablet v. [versus?] The Irish Bar, published
in: - The Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. [Volume?] 1, No.
[Number?] III, September, 1851, pp. [pages?] 507-522.
The writer blames Free-Trade and political mismanagement
for the poverty-stricken condition of Ireland. He declares
that, "An abundant harvest is growing in the Irish fields but
even if it surpasses all expectations it will not 'raise the
condition of the Irish farmer', due to the scourge of
Free-Trade. 'In our own land, the Turk, the Greek, the
Frenchman, can undersell us.' Ireland's poverty is not due to
her own people but the fault of 'English statesmen and
political Charlatans'. Agriculture is being destroyed and we
are swamped by continued Free-Trade, due to the Incumbered
Estates' Act following the repeal of the Corn Laws."
The newspapers claim that there is progress and that
since the repeal of the Navigation Laws, an increase in
shipping has ensued. However, the figures show that there has
been a decrease over a two year period whilst there has been
an increase in foreign tonnage.
Similarly, an increase in exports can be attributed to
the changes brought about by Revolution in France and Europe
and the increasing demands of the 'new world'. Statistics
show that, in fact, they have not incrreased any more in the
past five years compared with any five year period since
1820.
Meanwhile, foreign imports of bread-stuffs are 'the
destruction of Ireland's only hope'. He asks the reader to
consider, 'if he be an Irishman, the effect of this foreign
importation upon his country'. He writes, 'Thus it is? that
the shipping interest has increased by the repeal of the
Navigation Laws, and emigration, too, has helped to swell the
shipping list. And why should it not do so? Land is worth
little now in Ireland. Our people fly to all points of the
globe from famine or the poorhouse; and the tourist in
Ireland sees by the way-side the tenantless peasant hut, and
learns that the progress of misgovernment is marked by these
ruins,
...... Oh! the horrors of the Irish emigration! Read, if you
are one with a mind to think, and a heart to feel, the
following melancholy tale:-
YEAR. EMIGRANTS. YEAR. EMIGRANTS.
1840 90,743 1846 129,851
1841 118,592 1847 258,270
#PAGE 2
1842 128,344 1848 248,089
1843 57,212 1849 299,498
1844 70,686 1850 280,896
1845 93,501
And, then the folly, the madness, of continuing Peel's
measures until, and during, and since the famine. The
landlords have been beggared, the poor have been slaughtered,
the country has been, in one place a lazaretto, in another a
vast poorhouse. Look at Castlebar, at Kilrush, at Scariff, at
Skibereen;[Skibbereen?] and what is the result of all? That in
ten years our population has decreased 2,059,340. In all our
counties there has been an awful falling off, as the following
table will show; it suggests a sad, sad history of want, of
pain, of disease, of woe, of inexorable death, of damning
misgovernment. Read, and remember, that it is the history of
your counry's decline and degradation, brought about, too,
not by the fault of the Irish people, but through the
blunders of the legislature. Well, may we say,
"Notre mal s'empoisonne
Du secours qu'on lui donne."
NUMBERS OF PERSONS
PLACES 1841 1851
Antrim,....................... 276,188 250,353
Wexford,...................... 202,033 180,170
Down,......................... 361,446 317,778
Londonderry,.................. 222,174 191,744
Donegal,...................... 296,448 244,288
Kildare,...................... 114,488 96,627
Armagh,....................... 232,393 196,420
Louth,........................ 111,979 91,045
Tyrone,....................... 312,956 251,865
Kerry,........................ 293,880 238,241
Carlow,....................... 86,228 68,157
Wicklow,...................... 126,143 99,287
Waterford,.................... 172,971 135,836
Kilkenny,..................... 183,349 139,934
King's Co. [County?].......... 146,857 112,875
Westmeath,.................... 141,300 106,510
Meath,........................ 183,828 139,706
Tipperary,.................... 435,553 323,829
Fermanagh,.................... 156,481 115,978
Clare,........................ 286,394 212,720
Monaghan,..................... 200,402 143,410
Cavan,........................ 243,158 174,303
#PAGE 3
Cork,......................... 773,398 551,152
Limerick,..................... 281,638 201,619
Longford,..................... 115,491 83,198
Queen's Co. [County?]......... 153,930 109,747
Leitrum,...................... 155,279 111,808
Sligo,........................ 180,886 128,769
Galway,....................... 422,923 219,129
Mayo,......................... 388,887 274,716
Roscommon,.................... 253,591 173,798
In ten years, Cork County lost 222,000; Galway, 124,000;
Mayo, 114,000; Tipperary, 111,000; Limerick, 80,000;
Roscommon, 79,000; and yet, whilst there is this decrease in
the county population, there is an unnatural increase in that
of the towns, as the next table will show; and we quote it
with sorrow and humiliation. There is no table in that record
of Irish woe __ the census of 1851 __ so piteous and ominous
in all parts. The misgovernment of England is in no
particular more clearly shown __ it cries to heaven for
vengeance,; but
"Deus patiens quia aeternus."
NUMBER OF PERSONS
PLACES 1841 1851
Dublin,...................... 232,726 254,850
Belfast,..................... 75,308 99,660
Cork,........................ 80,720 85,485
Limerick,.................... 48,391 55,268
Waterford,................... 23,216 26,667
Galway,...................... 17,275 24,697
Drogheda,.................... 16,261 16,876
Carrickfergus,............... 8,488 9,379
But why has there been so great an increase in these
places? Simply because there is no means left of supporting
life in the country, for the great body of the poor, and,
therefore, they hurry to the towns. The farmers will give no
voluntary charity; the poor-rate collector has dried up all
the springs of feeling in the hearts of the once liberal
people; and the Irish peasant, so hospitable by nature, has
become, like to that boor, who
"Against the houseless stranger shuts the door."
Thus our population has fallen off; and we are at present
6,515,787 in number, being 286,043 less than in 1821. And
this decrease is the result of bad government, of misrule, of
#PAGE 4
Manchester and Brummegem [Birmingham?] quackery; it has gone
on in spite of all the money squandered on Public Works, and
wasted in carrying out the Utopian projects of dilettanteish
legislators. The people of Ireland cannot hope to live in
common comfort, if the present wild policy is continued. We
are purely and entirely an agricultural country; by
agriculture we must live, if we live at all; and the moment
agriculture fails to repay the farmer, that moment he will,
of course, abandon it, and his country too, if he be able, if
incapable of emigrating, he will rush to the town. And to
this frightful condition the country is fast falling.'
The author continues to substantiate his case with
agricultural returns, showing decreases in the crops grown in
1847, 1849, and 1850, and in the amount of grain exported to
England, due to her imports from foreign sources.
