The Fruits of English Rule in Ireland.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 218, 15 September 1888, Page 3 (Supplement)

The Fruits of English Rule in Ireland.

I.—A frightful decrease in ifo? population of Ireland. The population of every prosperous and progressive country in the world hag increased during the last half century. That of Great Britain has increased in 60 years' from about 18 millions of people to 32 millions. But the population of Ireland, on the contrary, has decreased from 8,196,597 in 1841 to about 5 millions in 1881. < The result is, that now Ireland is one of the most thinly inhabited of European countries, having less than 170 inhabitants to the square mile, while England, for instance, has 389, and Belgium 460 persons to the square mile. _ ; 2.—Wholesale emigration of the Irish people. . Emigration within due limits is a healthy incident of national life, and the emigration from England and Scotland and most other countries has been of that character. But the emigration from Ireland has assumed tlie character of a. national exodue; No less than 4,186,000 people have been forced to leave thao oountry in search of bread in the last fifty jears.

3.—Unparalleled evictions. «Ireland,' says John Bright, "has been a land of evictions. 1 in nd other country have there been so many, su.oh qraej, ana such unjust evictions as in Ireland. In the last SO years no less than 3,668,000 persons —or 75 percent- of the presenb population of Ireland—have been thrown, without compensation, out of houses which they themselves built, and farms whiph they themselves reclaimed, most of them because, simply the landlords considered them a nuisance, the rest because they could not pay grossly excessive rents. 4.-—Constant famines and periods of distress. , .

Since the so-called Union there has been almost every ten years a partial famine, to relieve which appeals have had to be made to the charity of the civilised world ; while, in the great famine qi 1846-7, it ia estimated.that 1,200,000 persona, or a number equal to a quarter of the present population, of Jrelarid, died either of starvation or of famine fever, in the midst of plenty which they themselves created, but which tho Unipn robbed them of to pay absentee rents and taxes. s.—Alarming increase of pauperism. In 1859 the population of Ireland was nearly 6,000,000, and the number of paupers 153,000. In 1886 the population was less than 6,000,000 and the number of paupers over 700,000. In three yeara the paupera have much more thau doubled. They now number 1 in every 7 of the population. Last year (1886) in Connaught out of 800,000 people, 247,134, or 309 in every 1,000 persons, received poor relief, while in England and Wales the number $o relieved was oqly 28 in every l,ooo f Ab this rate, all Ireland will be in receipt of poor relief in a few years, 6.—Destructive increase pf rent ancj taxes.- ■.; •■.''- .' , ' .' , ■■ '■■

While the population of Ireland has been almost decimated, rent and taxes have Increased under «The Union' to amor?destructive extent.

Aaricultural rent in Ireland rose from ! £8,838,216, in 1865, to £9,992,076, in 1886, or 10s 6d per head; while in iSngland it was reoluoed 13s per head. Poor-rate increased in Ireland frpm £730,000 in 1865 to £1,250,000 in 1886, or from 2s 7d to 5s per head; other local rates from 11s to 17s 6d per head ; and imperial taxes £2 6s 8d to £2 9s per head. 7.—An almost total destruction of Irish indußtries. . _ Most of the industries which Ireland possessed at the time of the so-called^ Union nave ceaaed to exist, and those which remain are every day declining. . Take, as one example out of bundreds? the decline of Irish shipping, absolutely and as compared with the incre/ase of the shipping of the, other parts of the United Jiingdom, in the last 40 years (see th;e current Board of Trade Returns and the Parliamentary Return of 23rd April, 1847):—

IM7, 1885. ■ . Tons. Tons. . Per Cent. Increase, England 2,300,000 6,083,000 120 ' „/' Wales, 9,500 : 323,000 g23 „ Scotland; 503,000 1.746.000 247 Irttland, 247,000 235,000 , 5 deoreaae. ■In 1829 the;re were in Ireland 12,611,fi?h}ng boats with crews numbering 63,421 persons.; in 1886 there were only 5,785 boats with prows numbering only 21,825 persons. ' B.—Continual auspepsion of the Cptiatition. - , • . In 87 years of the 'Union' there have bqen 87 Coercion Acts, including the latest: of: the series,; which is intended by its authors to last for ever. Under those Acts public liberty has ceased to exist ; the majority of the people have been handed over to the tende.^ mercies Of a hostile domestic faction ; thousands of meh, and even many women, have been imprisoned, either without any trial at a}l, or.Sifter trial by packed juries, for political as well aa other offences, imprisonment in those cases having often resulted in insanity or death; and the most odious practices of despotism, such as Star Chamber inquiries, have been revived to,keep the yoke of 'Dublin Castle" tyranny on th 6 necka of the people. 9, —Froquenb inaurvectione, disturbances, and disunion; So intolerable has been the ' Union' in its efforts on Ireland that it has produced at least four insurrections since 1800—viz,, tlie insurrection of 1803; the tithe war of 1833; the insurrection of 1848; and the Fenian rising of 1867. Besides all this, the discontent and turbulence directly produced by the * Union' have been continuous. JTinally, as Ijeoky, the -historian! who has lately becbrno a ■' Unionist■.'• de-i clare?, the eo-callecl ■ Union ' by 'uniting t\\e legislatures has divide^ fch,e nations' of Great Britajirr and Ireland. , And this is ' the Union,' so disgraceful to England its resulte, as well as so disastrous to Ireland, bf which the so-oalled Unionists of the present.day are so proud ! Surely ■it is time to subsbibube for this eliam and shameful(Union' which, as Mr Ch&mborl^in has said, is ' inaiptainecl ojjjy by3O,OOQ bayonets,' another Unipn. founded pn mutual benefits and mutual friendship, suoh as Mr Gladstone has proposed. and the. Irish people have accepted. —•From * Irish Press Agency Leaflets.'