SECT. XIII.] RESULTS OP THE INQUIRY. 26? 



SECTION XIII. 



RELATIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



WE cannot conclude this part of our Report without ob- 

 serving, that we understand Poor Laws have been recom- 

 mended in some quarters for Ireland, " in order that the 

 Irish labourer may stay at home and consume the corn 

 he raises, and that the English farmer may have remu- 

 nerating prices/ 5 



It might as well be suggested that the English labour- 

 ers of any particular district should stay at home and con- 

 sume all the corn they raise, leaving the farmers none to 

 carry to market, in order that the farmers of another di- 

 strict might have " remunerating prices," or, in other 

 words, that farmers in one district might be ruined in or- 

 der that those in another might thrive and prosper. If 

 the Irish agricultural labourer consumed the whole pro- 

 duce he raised, civilization must end. It is the produce 

 which the agricultural labourer raises beyond his con- 

 sumption that elevates him above savage life ; it is in pro- 

 portion to that surplus produce that he is enabled to clothe 

 himself instead of going naked that he becomes a means 

 of promoting national wealth, or proves in any degree a 

 profitable member of society. 



Those who complain of the introduction of Irish agri- 

 cultural produce into England should be informed too 

 that it takes no money from England ; that part of it goes 

 to pay the rents of Irish absentee landlords, and that the 

 rest is exchanged for English manufactures ; that if it did 

 not go into England, English manufactures could not 

 come into Ireland ; and that there would not be one 



