Wellington Independent MONDAY, 12th JANUARY, 1874.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXIX, Issue 3999, 12 January 1874, Page 2

Wellington Independent MONDAY, 12th JANUARY, 1874.

The " Irish difficulty" is about to be Bolved at last ! But not in the way proposed by O'Connell, nor in that for which Smith O'Brien fought in the famous cabbage garden ; but in a manner which would have horrified the gallant Meagher of the Sword, and cannot but be distressing to that less earnest patriot, Sir Charles Guvan Duff/. Jt is not now "Ireland for the Irish," but the creation of a new Ireland for the Irish people on the plains and amongst the mountains of the far west of America ! This, at least, is the information which comes to us by the last mail from England. Some time ago on Agricultural Laborers' Union was formed in Ireland, for the purpose of ameliorating the condition of the farm laborers. Amongst other things, the Union appears to have sent an agent — Mr O'JLeary, of London — to the United

States for the purpose of inquiring into the condition of the workers ou farms i here. He returned some weeks before Ihe departure of the mail, and although we are unable to find bis report in the journals to hand it would oppear not tc have been altogether favorable ; for the Union, in place of agitating for higher wages from the farmers at home, or proposing an extensive but desultory immigration — each emigrant to Beels out his own fortune in the States — nave resolved to send the honorary Beo retary of the Union to America, accom panied by Mr O'Leary, their business being to proceed direct to Washington, to arrange with the authorities ther« " for an emigration of the Irish people en masse to the Western and Pacific States of America." That is to &aj the President is to be asked to set asidt territory, at present unoccupied, or onlj nominally settled, sufficiently large tc receive the whole Irish people, and tc permit of their expansion at the rapid rate which characterises the Celtic race The proposal is a brilliant one; but. it hat »wo or three of those objecii >ns in il which are usually found in proposals thai have their origin in the fertility ol brain which marks the Irish politician, The President would probably receive " the whole Irish nation" with open arms. He knows Irishmen have proved most active, useful, and successful citizens. lie would give them leave, with pleasure, to select their own New Ireland — to swallow up Utah and overrun the Mormons, if they liked. But the Secretary of the Agricultural Laborers' Union, and Mr O'Leary, might call from Washington upon •' the Irish nation" to come at once, and would it respond ? You may •' call spirits from the vasty deep, but will they come?" The emigration of late years from Ireland to America has been very great. The success of the earlier settlers there has induced numbers lo follow. The Laborers' Union will probably cause a great many more to go over, especially if the idea of a New Ireland is worked upon. But to talk of an emigration en masse is an idea which has no better foundation than the fervour of the imagination of the Secretary and the agent ; whose desire, moreover, is that in their New Ireland, the Hibernians now prosperous in London and elsewhere should join their countrymen to revive the glories of the nation. In a New Ireland, the literature and traditions of the old land, might be preserved. But a second Killarney would not be found. They might erect another statue of "Nebuchadnezzar, standing mother-naked in the opeD air," but it would not be in " the Groves of Blarney." The Secretary, indeed, adds the ridiculous to the sublime, for in his letter to Mr O'Learv, i announcing the intentions of the Union, he states that as many mnmbers of the Royal Irish Constabulary desired toemigrate,theGovernmentoftheUnited States were to be asked whether they would " bave any objection to accept these men as settlers in the Western dis'ricis ! " Fancy President Grant refusing to receive a number of strapping fellows, accustomed to arms, drill, and disci, pline ! The mixture of the great and the small is still more curiously shown in the intimation — evidently given with great pride—that the White Star Line, which is much engaged in the Irish American trade, would give the two delegates a free passage across the ! Atlantic! This is not the first time we have been indebted to our Irish fellowcountrymen for great ideas based upon small foundations — pure " castles in the air."