Denis Caulfield Heron

“ We boast of the natural advantages of Ireland, and of the capabilities of the peasantry; but we must reflect that, in proportion to the population, even still there are more paupers in Ireland than in any other country pretending to civilisation.
The whole question of modern peaceful emigration is intimately connected with pauperism. Now, the poor may be divided into four several classes—the first and least numerous is composed of those wretched beings who, from organic deformity, whether manifested in mind or body, are unable to earn their bread, and with these may be included the aged ”

“ During the process of civilisation, the sympathy of man for his fellow men extends in an ever-widening circle. The first nucleus of society is the family; and the family developes into the tribe or clan, composed of persons sprung from it. Persons, whilst in the stage of the tribe, fanatically regard its interests beyond anything else; they do not yet recognise the positive rights of other men to life, liberty, and property ”

“ There is thus, yearly, a greater Celtic emigration from Ireland than from Gaul one Brennus led to Rome, or the other to Greece. Yearly, a greater multitude leaves Ireland than sufficed in old times for a Crusade. Happily, under more peaceful auspices, they go to plant the germs of civilization in lands yet uncultivated.
In addition to the famine of 1846, consequent on the failure of the potato crop and such extraordinary causes, there are other obvious reasons to send the population of Ireland in such numbers to the United States. ”

“ Where a warlike nation of superior development settled amongst them, as the Franks amongst the Gaels of Gaul, they have finally become fused with their conquerors. And, at the present day, nineteen-twentieths of the population of France are of almost pure Celtic descent. Although the French Celts have adopted the language of ancient Rome, even now but slightly changed through climate, barbarism, and the lapse of 1,500 years—although they adopted, down to the first French revolution, the Feudalism of Germany—the spirit and temperament of the Celtic races pervades all France. ”

“ In that remote age of which no personal records remain, but whose history may be derived from the known dispersion of races and languages—as the geologist, from fragments of rock, traces the events of the primeval world—we find that the Celtic race, first of the Indo-European nations, fled from their primitive homes in Central Asia, and, by the succeeding waves of emigration, were forced further and further to the West. ”

“ At a new letting, the tenant calculates what he can afford altogether to pay for the land, reckoning in his calculation both rent and taxes; and it is immaterial to him whether he pay the whole price for the letting of the land to his landlord, or only a part to him and the remainder by way of taxes. The decrease, therefore, in the poor-rate, effected by emigration, is an increase in the value of the land. The diminution in the value consequent upon the famine far exceeded the mere money loss ”

“ Men rather bear the ills they have than fly to others they know not of. But the national schools, as well as their friends in America, have informed the Irish poor that beyond the Atlantic a continent exists, subject to the same laws as Ireland, though better and more cheaply administered, where the same language is spoken, and where there is plenty of good land to be had at a very cheap rate. The more go, the more will go, until the rates of wages are almost the same in Illinois and Connemara. ”

“ In all those things, do we not see symptoms of the time when paltry national differences shall disappear; when men, true citizens of the world, shall roam freely to whatever locality they best may prosper in; and when their rights of person and property shall be the same wherever civilisation may reign? ”

“ For in Ireland, with the exception of the districts where the custom of Tenant-right prevailed, the small farmer, holding as tenant from year to year, has not, nor ever had, the slightest legal guarantee that, if he built, fenced, and drained, his rent would not, as a natural consequence, be raised, and himself compelled to pay the owner for the permission to use such improvements, contrary to every principle of natural law. ”

“ The gifts of nature are variously scattered among the children of great national families, and the brilliant variety of genius, taste, and imagination in races, constitutes the splendour of mankind. The types of nationalities with difficulty disappear; and there is in all nature one uniform variety. Grandeur and beauty would vanish from the earth if it were smoothed into level plainness. And although, once the laws be discovered under which we may best live in happiness, all nations in a similar state of civilisation will adopt them, the glorious diversity of mankind must ever still proceed. ”

“ In many parts of Ireland, before the famine, labour was only 4d. a-day: it is believed, now, not to be less than 6d. in winter and 8d. in summer. But even this is a miserable reward for a day's labour. In the United States, on the other hand, but little of the profitable land has been cultivated; and the purchase of land from the Government, or even from private parties, in most of the States, is one of the easiest transactions to be imagined. In the Western States, agricultural labour is about half a dollar a day, whilst every species of skilled labour is paid at a very high rate. ”

“ But I take a much larger view of the beneficial effects of this Celtic Exodus. One of the great advantages arising from this extensive emigration of persons who, by various causes, were prevented from developing any high degree of prosperity in Ireland, must spring from the consequent fusion of races in America. I consider that, the more the population may be mixed of different races, the more prosperous will be the country. This arises from the principle of division of labour. Individual races excel in divers qualities, and are deficient in others. ”

“ It is true, paupers themselves rarely emigrate, but the persons who were on the out-door relief lists in 1848 have mainly supplied the places of the labourers above them, who have migrated. At the same time, I wish it to be understood that all the emigration arising from bad laws at home is injurious; but the emigration which arises from the discovery of new fertile land, and poverty at home, is beneficial. ”

“ Sympathy developes from the tribe to the nation, and thence to the race. In ancient Greece, the rights of all Hellenes were finally recognised, but the rest of mankind were still considered barbarians, perpetual enemies, without natural rights to life, liberty and property. The Roman citizen united many nations, but warred upon the rest of the ancient world. In modern Europe, we have seen the different states of France, once independent, coalesce into one. The old kingdoms of Spain are now under one government. Most of the Sclavonic races have been united under the empire of Russia ”

“ The French, Italian, German, Sclaves, and English of the present day each have their different qualities, in which they severally surpass the rest; and if they were fused into one community of United States, would each apply themselves solely to those departments of human skill and industry in which they were superior. ”

“ However, although perceiving that all human races now upon the earth are apparently in a state of progress, tending towards the same legal civilization, I am far from the ideas of those who would bring the nations of the world into one sink of level avarice. ”

“ All the young men for whom (to borrow a sentiment of a distinguished writer) the governments or societies of those states provided no employment, and who became their enemies in consequence, as naturally as the sparks fly upwards, fled to the protection of the seven hills of Rome. England has owed much of her greatness to being a similar asylum. Thither have fled the artizans of the Netherlands and France, from the terror of the Duke of Alva and Louis XIV. Whilst, with respect to the mixture of races, the modern Englishman is the result of the Celt, the Roman, the Saxon, and the Norman. ”

“ The emigration is peaceful and the emigrants are prosperous. By this means ties of family and kindred are uniting still more and more the great communities of Europe and America in the bonds of peace; and a war between the United States and the United Kingdom would now resemble a civil war, since in either army would be found one third of Irish blood. The laws of both countries, springing from the same common law of England, rapidly develop together. The Americans enrol the best of our statutes in their books ”

“ Paul has said at Athens, "God hath made of one blood all mankind, to dwell upon the face of the earth." And in the lowest Australian savage exists the germ of the intellect of Socrates or Bacon. From the most deformed Esquimaux at the pole or Negro of the tropics, may, in the process of the centuries, arise forms of god-like strength and beauty like the living models of the Athenian sculptor. ”

“ In a word, the poverty of Ireland, and the want of security for the fruits of industry expended on the land, are the main causes of the regular emigration—independent of the present pressure arising from the failure of the potato. ”

“ If the small farmer chooses to buy a few acres, the whole improvement of the farm belongs to himself alone. This last inducement is in itself sufficient to bring a number of small farmers from Ireland, who now can obtain but little security for the fruits of their industry expended on the land. ”

“ It does not necessarily follow that their migrations, in the ante-historical period, were caused by war; although, amongst the races of men, whilst in an imperfect state of development, the tie of country is so strong that nothing but the most positive evils of war, pestilence, and famine will compel them to abandon their native land. ”

“ The emigration, with the consequent rise in the rate of wages, immediately increases the value of the land, by diminishing the amount of poor-rate. Whilst agricultural wages are on the verge of starvation, a slight increase in the price of food throws thousands upon the rates; whereas, if the bulk of the population had higher wages, they would be comparatively independent of such variations. ”

“ Yet, during this stage, the tribes of the same race, in process of time, come to regard one another with less animosity than the persons belonging to other races. The Berbers of Northern Africa war upon one another occasionally, but towards Christians they entertain perpetual hostility; they rob and murder us whenever opportunity arises, nor perceive that they violate a right, but believe that they discharge a duty. ”

“ The poor-rate, although in its first levy laid upon both landlord and tenant, and, by reason of a certain elasticity in human affairs, borne for a time partly by the tenant, becomes finally a tax upon the rent alone. ”

“ But the population of the United States is the most mixed upon the earth. And the Sclave alone of the Caucasian races is unrepresented there. Mr. W. F. Robinson lately read, before the Statistical Society of New York, a paper based upon the census of 1850, and in which he thus classifies the races.—
Thus, half the population of the United States is Celtic: one-third is composed of Irish Celts; one seventh is of Irish birth. ”

“ The Celts of Ireland now appear determined to try their fortunes in some other place, and are emigrating from this country at a rate that surpasses anything previously known and recorded in the history of the migrations of the human family. ”

“ Some of them are at the height of prosperity—some in the lowest depths of degradation. The primitive causes of these things we know no more than the causes which have sunk continents into the seas, and raised the mountains of the island which we inhabit from the bottomless abysses of the ocean. ”

“ As it is, when so many of the Irish have already gone, when so many in America think of their friends left behind as to send them yearly £400,000, it is more than probable that the emigration of labourers will proceed until the ordinary wages of agricultural labour will be, in Ireland, about 1s. ”

“ Thus, the Arabian tribes were engaged in internecine war before Mahomet, for a time, united them; the right of private war between the feudal barons was one of the most difficult to be abolished; the clans of the Scottish Highlands,—Celts, with Norman chieftains,—to the time of their total disorganisation, maintained the right of mutual war; the Indian tribes of America massacre one another whenever opportunity offers; the tribes of Northern Africa still war upon one another ”

“ This last division includes the great majority of the poor in every country. In Ireland, it is principally formed of the Irish-speaking peasantry, or their descendants, who for ages have subsisted in the same state, fluctuating perhaps slightly with the growth and abundance of the miserable vegetables upon which they subsisted. ”

“ We have next to consider what may be the probable reduction of the population under this pressure.
Ireland is essentially an agricultural country, with the exception of the three northern counties of Antrim, Down and Armagh. Her great towns are partly centres of trade to supply the farmers and their landlords with articles of consumption—partly centres of government, where the legal business of the district is conducted. There are very few towns like Belfast, that live by manufactures. ”

“ At the present time, by means of locality and fortune, some aggregations of individuals have developed certain peculiar mental and physical qualities, whilst they use languages mutually different—and so they are termed races. ”