382 



NEW ENGLAND FABMER. 



Aug. 



etors and farmers, seemed bent on a common ruin 

 by ruining the common wealth, the soil. Every- 

 thing was taken from it, and nothing added to it. 

 Capital was wanting and the skill to emi^loy it. 



One thing marks the agriculture of England as 

 sujjerior to that of every other country. It is that 

 the productions of domestic animals, in England, 

 annually is greater in value than the annual crops 

 of England ; or, in other words, that the animal 

 produce is greater in value than the vegetable pro- 

 duce. This is always a sign of an ameliatory agri- 

 culture. The reason is plain ; animal manures ai'e 

 the great means of increasing the fertility of the 

 soil — the more animals the richer the agriculture, 

 the richer the agriculture the more domestic ani- 

 mals — cause and eflect, or rather each cause and 

 each effect. No fact, if it be one, makes more 

 against the agriculture of ]\lavssachusetts, than 

 that I commented on in a former number — that 

 the sheep and pigs in Massachusetts diminished 

 177,000 from 1840 to 18i50. But in Ireland, the 

 value of the crops was double the value of the ani- 

 mal jjroduce — sure harbinger of a decaying agricul- 

 ture. Besides, the whole value of the agricultural 

 produce of the island, animal and vegetable, gave 

 to each person but $20 the year, and much of this 

 was exported to absent j)roprietors, in kind ; while 

 that of England afforded each person $40 a year, 

 consumed at home. 



Ireland formed one immense pasture country for 

 which by nature it is best fitted with arable lands 

 in small holdings, cultivated chiefly by the spade 

 and devoted to potatoes and oats ; yet in 1846 it 

 contained eight millions of people. In such a coun- 

 try, with such an agriculture, how could such a 

 population have been brought into existence, or 

 how existed without the potato — a vegetable which 

 furnishes, especially in Ireland, the largest quantity 

 of human food upon a given surface, yet exhausts 

 without renewing the means of production. The 

 true place of the potato in a well-ordered economy, 

 is as a plentiful provision for cattle, and as a suj)- 

 plement to the food of man — a resource, also, if 

 other crops fail. But it formed in Ireland of neces- 

 sity three-fourths of the food of the peasantry, and 

 oats the other fourth. As long as these two produc- 

 tions could be obtained the population managed to 

 exist, and unfortunately to multiply, but in wretch- 

 ed poverty. 



How came Ireland in this wretched condition ? 

 It is said the Irish character has peculiar failings. I 

 am willing to admit that the Celtic race has not the 

 same degree of energy as the Anglo-Saxon, but 

 this cannot account for everything. It is said the 

 Catholic faith has an enervating influence on the 

 Irish. This assertion may be, in some respects, 

 well founded ; for it is true, that in general, the 

 Protestant nations of modern Europe exhibit a 

 steadier and more decided character than the Cath- 

 olic. But it has not always been so, and even 

 now the remark is not absolutely just. Spain and 

 Italy preceded Holland, England and Germany in 

 civiHzation. Catholic Belgium, and to a certain ex- 

 tent, France, are not now much inferior to most 

 Protestant countries. 



But the Irish in America re])ly to all these im- 

 ])utations. As soon as they put their feet in our 

 soil, these demoralized, degraded and improvident 

 beings become changed, and are among the most 

 industrious in our land. As soon as they have the 

 hojje of bettering their condition, they better it. 



They own two-thirds of the immense deposits of 

 our savings banks, and have sent as much more to 

 help their friends In Ireland. All the prejudices 

 in the world cannot set aside these facts. 



How then came Ireland into its wretched condi- 

 tion ? The answer dates back in history. Ireland 

 was too near to England, it was conquered, confis- 

 cated, seized upon, oppressed by the unbending, ex- 

 clusive, rough-mannered English. Conquest and 

 confiscations of former days, followed by oppression 

 since, changed the destiny and fortunes of this fair 

 island. Our fathers and the Irish both suffered un- 

 der English oppression, and fled from it ; and in 

 both cases, religion mingled with and Increased the 

 i)itterness of strife ; but the Irish suffered more, far 

 more, than our fathers. 



England conquered Ireland and made English- 

 men owners of its soil, by confiscations of the 

 estates of the native Irish — masters of its govern- 

 ment by excluding Irish Catholics from all partici- 

 pation in It, and made the Irish helots and laborers 

 on the soil which their fathers owned. Stripped of 

 their possessions, disfranchised on account of their 

 religion, the Irish hated the new jDrojirietors of the 

 soil, and the i)roprietors resided in other lands, for 

 fear of personal violence. Intestine strife and war- 

 fare ensued, and descended from generation to 

 generation. A wrong done in the world never dies, 

 but usually multi])lies itself in miseries by the force 

 of human jiassions, to the doers and the sufferers, 

 and to their descendants. So It was with the con- 

 quest and confiscations in Ireland. There was pea- 

 sant warfare, murders, plunderings, and l)urnings 

 on the one side — government, bayonets and law on 

 the other. There was the cry of "Ireland for the 

 Irisli," answered by the cry of "down with the Cath- 

 olics ;" the meteor-iike eloquence of Emmett, 

 Grattan and O'Connell shone over Ireland's wrongs, 

 but government replied only by capital trials and 

 bayonets. 



But the Irish sunk deeper in povertj', and yet 

 amidst their misery multiplied in numbers; and 

 proprietors rejoiced that wages would be lower and 

 rents higher. 



At last, England recoiled from her work, grant- 

 ed Catholic emanci])atIon, and sought in earnest to 

 undo the wrongs of centuries. But It was too late. 

 Man could not repair such evils. The question re- 

 mained to be solved by God, and has proved a ter- 

 rible solution. All that long arrear of crime and 

 error was to be atoned for by a terrible catastro- 

 phe. In 1846 the potato disease made its appear- 

 ance, destroying three-fourths of the crop, while 

 the oat crop was equally short. The English gov- 

 ernment, alarmed at the prospect, took the most ac- 

 tive measures for bringing supplies from all quar- 

 ters ; it took half a million laborers into Its pay, 

 and spent, in relief of all kinds, fifty millions of 

 dollars. Individuals also made great sacrifices. 

 But these tardy measures of kindness did not ar- 

 rest the evil. Famine was universal, and lasted 

 several years, and it was found by the census of 

 18ol, that one miUIon of a population of eight had 

 died of starvation and misery. 



This frightful calamity effected what years of 

 war and o])pression had failed to do — it subdued 

 Ireland. When the Irish beheld the loss of their 

 chief article of food, they saw there was no longer 

 room for them on their native soil. They had re- 

 jected the idea of emigration as a flight before the 

 enemy ; but they now suddenly passed to the oth- 



