THE Manawatu Times. WEDNESDAY, OCT. 15, 1879. THE TWO PREMIERS.

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 83, 15 October 1879, Page 2

THE Manawatu Times.

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 15, 1879. THE TWO PREMIERS.

n Word- _m t'iiu;'% ,»ud a drop of ink f<t^lng like 1 d£w uj^n v t .ought, produces that which make:, thouunds, perkdps milliont think."

-T) tntftfG a 'recent debaie;in the House upon tho question of the land law, -1 be-.ex|Pi;eniier, . m j*ef erringTto .the -present staite of ■ J the land tenure iii Europe, - made r ,mnarifs }.u)jr>ro especially A reli&iug' v to frehtndV and m doing so muiied rYpma speech made by 'Mp. Dis^^iJ, when betorevbis Biiykin^hara constituents, m I§6B. That- rgen tlei n an ; dil aited m ,-glo wiag .terms -upon . the benefits accruing v£rom~rt!fe" Pish' fa;mine of 1848jVand so eloquently were the praises of that ■'d'read calamity . sung, that .-one enthusiastic auditor was so parried away as to cry out, " Three cheers fqr7-tbe fam^ candidate rej >ined : " Wellj you} have given tliree cheers before, .this for things which have not done so much igood to maai -as As an Irish man, Sir Q-eorge (Mey took rthe nnpard'*nat)]e liberty of differing: from the English utterer, and forth'-* with we bava't.ie Reyi 7 pHA*aLBS M; M*3T.gET-THQMPSON,VrI^ VRectdr of -■Clay (Jo rv ßuiVkihghamshire^and pre-; sent seoretary to his.Ejcelleno*** Sir Hercules Robtoso-t, 'rushing into -prints to def end. tbeV English Tory leader/ In order tq ; sho vy -tlie perversion of sense attributed to Lord ; the rev. geritleman has prihtedside by side, m the* cqlumns of :; t;h^vNe^ Zealand -Times,, .-the speeches of the two Premiers, to? gejtKe.r^with a column from his own pen on the same subject. The latter is particularly strained to show that the reason wh^^^ man if elin so thankf ql f oria depopulation which we have always considered . Ci^nitqus, Ywa8 v th f^ v -qvercr; .wded sjb&e bfv Ireland, efo Vthat' the millions of deaths by famine were a : blessing tQ?thbse,:whQi inherited sq much .njqre land. This certainly is an acknowledgement by. means flattering to tlie'" humanity of the utterer, and such a national panacea, if reduced . m, application to families;, would, we imagine,"" be %e parent' of wholesale selfishness, mi' the destroyer 'of all brbtberfe -feeling. Jf suppose, a ; s t niggling laborer had a wife and ; dren, ,v,^^^qci ? higUhardesp t tqil barely kepf life 'and "so vi' together nccording to the code of ethics or -{Wlitieal-economy enunciated byl^qrd B BAcoifspiErin, brie half should ba destroyed, to enable tlie other tq subsist m comfort. Why not adopt the Mongolian system at the outset, arid instieadvof a father or mother imposing ; the slightest inconvenience upbh-themsislves.'ifrhe diffieultj' could be obviated by having ;a huniaiv isl_iding scale, so that according to the meausin possession wouldtbe number m each family be regulated. -We '.Avili-!ta.k^ tlie; Vfoqrth sentence v o? Mr; DrsßAEiii's speech as it has^been furnislied by Mr. Thompson to VtKe "rimes," and we findTte reads as follows X~' : '' ' : ' ; "-- y- : - .i-7>-707 -."

There v>ere more inhabitants to the square mile m Ireland, n t unly than m any other European country, but thin m »ny \siati_ ""eountry, I believe, with the exception of Chirm. This inirn nse populal ion sustained themselve- mainly by a single root, and that of n very^ preciriou. ehar.wjter, and iherc'fore they were, as a population, as miserable as ;rii!lion:y)f men herding together could be. From the f .regoing it will be seen that both Mr. Diskaelt and his rev. apologist base the licence of the remarks about the fr*ghtr'u 4 overcrowding upon the truth of it. Consequently ifjt were found that instead of Ireland having a overplus to Hie square mile the rever.se were the (^ase/we conclude both Mr. Drsraeli and iVIr. Thompson would admit iliat the blessing was such no longer, and should be viewed as a curse. Now for the proof. Referring back to the census of 1861, thirteen years ar'rer tlie famine, we find that Ireland had a population of v>,7oi,s_ies ; and as she has 31,874

square miles, it cannot be denied that there are only 150 inhabitant.- , to tho square mile.. Turning next r to England, we find that even m 1851 1 , the population of England and Wales was estimated at 20,000,061, and as she -contains an area of 57,960 square miles, the population per square mile would b"e"34i6. Pursuing our investigation further, Jwbvj find that the various countries are' as follow : — Scotland, 100f to the square mile ; Denmark, 78 ;iNqr%ay, 14 ; Sweden, 24 ; Russia m Eupope, 35 ; Prussia (m 1867), 175 ; Belgium, 453; Prance, 183; Spain, 88 ; and Portugal, 119. From these statistics, it will\be seen that while England and Wales rank next to Belgium, or second highest m density of populiation, Ireland— whose wholesale depopulation by plague and famine was a national blessing-^was at vthat time considerably below France, Germany, aud Prussia ; was 100 per cent England, and over 300. per cent. less than Belgium. Everyone¥nows the rapid manner. .in.,whieji the population of England is increasing year by year, and everyone knows that its 57,990 square milea have not increased an iota since" the last census.' ' We then.* ask --if- the 'density of pop'ulaftioh iti J Irelahd— ■- 150 to the square mile— necessitated a depletion by scourge aud famine, what recipe will the noble lord have for unhappy England --;■ -with V,more, than double that. ''We-MMr^ JDiseleli m the self -same speech fairly admitting — They were scantily clothed, their dwellings were pot fit for the loweisanimtds, and their sustenance was of the small arid precarious kind I have mentioned. It is not at all wonderful that a people m such a state should be a discontented people. Arid what reason had they .to, be, contented ? Had they not everything to 'make f theih 'miserable — bad clotlinigj no shelter,- ! in- ; efficient food ? ' It is not surprising;- 'under such circumstances, that men should be die-; contented with the institutions of their country and with their form of government, although their form of government might not be m the lease responsible for the economical condition m which they found themselves. — ' * The noble lord assumed the task of interpreting the cause of all these grievances, and while he has shown that grievances did exist, we have incontestibly disproved that, as he alleges, over-crowding was _*.qt the cause ; while Sir G-eobG-e GiiET,in the very speech which has brought out the Rector of Claydon, m plain and unmistakeable language furnished the key. No ;it was not the density of population', but the fact that iri Ireland, 292 persons own one-third of tbe island, 744 persons own the half of Ireland, and 1912 perspns hold two- thirds qf Ireland, and almost the whole of it will be m the hands of these 1942 persous when large leases v( fall m. At no time' has the population of Ireland bpen 10,d0a,000, consequently, with its number of square miles, it never could have beom m the crowded state that England and Wales is at this moment. Englandis at present supposed to Abe suffering fro m that repletion of popqla;tion which Mr. Disraeli so erroneously *attri buted tq I reland, ; aud* would the Rev. Mr. Mevs.ey-Thomb-' son take up the cudgels for a wretch who would say that it would be a blessing to sweep away the surplus by famine "or pestilence? Even " Merry England "is not without her grievances, nor is it surprising that it shqnld he so when we flqd one-sixth of the whole of -pjbglaqd aud Wales m the hands of 280 persons. While those few hundreds own a sixth of the whole country, the qthep five-sixths are left' to so ine 25,000,000. The Rev.. Mr, Thqmj?-. son - has the authority- of theVgreat statesman that Ireland has had grievances, and just ones ; perhaps he would like to knqw tjheretnexly proposed by another English statesman — ?" that she should be dipped' beneath the surface of the Atlantic, and kept there foT twenty-four hours."