DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22140#0308
292
INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL HISTORY.
people that they are tenants at will, under an arrangement in
which they are sure to lose.
To all appearance the most obvious case in which emigration
would be a benefit is the relief of those congested agricultural,
districts of Ireland, in which the holdings are so small, that even
on the smallest rent the occupier finds it disficult, with the most
unsparing industry, to get an adequate subsistence from his.
tenancy. I have seen such tenancies by hundreds, and I can
allege, that there is no more baseless calumny than that which
charges the Irish cottier with laziness or unwillingness to work..
But it is not a light thing to expatriate a man, especially in a
country where the passionate devotion of the inhabitant to his.
native soil is as real as it is inexplicable to the ordinary observer.
It is not a wise thing to expatriate him, when he nourishes, even in
the midst of an infinitely better condition of things, a deep and
abiding animosity against the government which has exiled him,
and the race which has condoned the injury. His feeling may be
irrational, but it is very clear and very lasting. Now the true
statesman does not seek to force his remedies on the unwilling ;
he studies their case, and soothes them instead of irritating them.
Hence it has been suggested, and as I think with wisdom, that a
system of migration cautiously encouraged, and, under the circum-
stances, safeguarded in Ireland, would be a better remedy than
emigration. No one can say that, with a population which is not
more than half what it was forty years ago, Ireland is over densely
peopled. Nor do I doubt that in time, and under conditions of
hope, and perhaps of consideration, the industries which were
violently suppressed in Ireland more than a century ago will be
revived and flourished. It was noted, at the time of the union,,
that Ireland was singularly well adapted by nature for the cloth
industry. I know that it is far easier to destroy than to renew,
but of all the silly calumnies which can be uttered, none is more
silly than that of denying to a race, which has contrived to main-
tain its vitality, the power of recuperating its industries.
INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL HISTORY.
people that they are tenants at will, under an arrangement in
which they are sure to lose.
To all appearance the most obvious case in which emigration
would be a benefit is the relief of those congested agricultural,
districts of Ireland, in which the holdings are so small, that even
on the smallest rent the occupier finds it disficult, with the most
unsparing industry, to get an adequate subsistence from his.
tenancy. I have seen such tenancies by hundreds, and I can
allege, that there is no more baseless calumny than that which
charges the Irish cottier with laziness or unwillingness to work..
But it is not a light thing to expatriate a man, especially in a
country where the passionate devotion of the inhabitant to his.
native soil is as real as it is inexplicable to the ordinary observer.
It is not a wise thing to expatriate him, when he nourishes, even in
the midst of an infinitely better condition of things, a deep and
abiding animosity against the government which has exiled him,
and the race which has condoned the injury. His feeling may be
irrational, but it is very clear and very lasting. Now the true
statesman does not seek to force his remedies on the unwilling ;
he studies their case, and soothes them instead of irritating them.
Hence it has been suggested, and as I think with wisdom, that a
system of migration cautiously encouraged, and, under the circum-
stances, safeguarded in Ireland, would be a better remedy than
emigration. No one can say that, with a population which is not
more than half what it was forty years ago, Ireland is over densely
peopled. Nor do I doubt that in time, and under conditions of
hope, and perhaps of consideration, the industries which were
violently suppressed in Ireland more than a century ago will be
revived and flourished. It was noted, at the time of the union,,
that Ireland was singularly well adapted by nature for the cloth
industry. I know that it is far easier to destroy than to renew,
but of all the silly calumnies which can be uttered, none is more
silly than that of denying to a race, which has contrived to main-
tain its vitality, the power of recuperating its industries.