EMIGRATION FROM IRELAND.

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 646, 23 June 1852, Page 3

EMIGRATION FROM IRELAND.

The Dublin Evening YoU contains the following remaikable statement, founded chiefly upon Hie census r>tuina of the Poor-law Unions, just issued to tho IJoaids of Guardians :— •'The detailed returns of the population in the various Un.ons, prepared by the Census CummU&ioners since llip issue of their abstract of the decennial enumeiation. some months since, afford moio ample means of estimating i he (acts of famine and oinigration than we had before possessed. Wu shall give the results of a lew ( f those i. 'turns, (torn vauous pans of tlie countiy, which will on.iblc tho loadei to foun a juetty arcuiate opinion of tin 1 'cope and tendency of the entne. " In t(n j Union of Kilkenny, con&i&ting of twentyonp elrctoial diMbiont,, tlie population mlSll vv<is 03,38 4; inJBal.it was 40,710, being a deouase of

6h?4:, 'Ibis is a much smaller proportional reduction than in most other Unions throughout the country, and les-s than sevm.il even in Ulster. In general the towns had augmpnted their population, whilst the rural divisions had fallen off, because tho destitute people sought rpfuge in the large inhabited places during the pressure o/^the famine. • " I/i the Union of Wexford, comprising 33 electoral divisions, and extending over]! 26,301 acres, the population in 1841 was 53,258 ; in 180 l it was 51,079 ; being a decrease of only 2179. Wexford, in regard to Us population, bassufferedgmuch less than any other count} with the sole exception of Antrim. Ihe per centago of reduction according to the estimate of the Commissioners, was, in Carlow, 20 ; in Longford, 28 ; Wicklow, 21 ; Cork and Limerick, 28 ; Armagh, 15 ; Cavan, 28 ; Down, 12 ; Fermanagh, 25 ; Monaghan, 28 ; Mayo, 29 ; and Roscommon, 31 — the highest of the entire, But in Wexford the per centage of reduction was'butlO and in Antrim it was only 9. •Mn-the Belfast Union, taking tha electoral divisions all round, there has been an increase of nearly 25,000 within the ten years ; but this augmentation, it appears has been confined to the manufacturing divisions, those depending on agriculture generally showing a decrease. Tn the Clonmel Union, the population in 1841 was 39,962 ; in 1851, the amount was 36,650; being a decrease of 3312. The area of this Union is 36,811 acres, being at present about one acre to each head oi population. " In Carlow Union the decrease has been 15,373, or about one-fifth of the population of 1841 ; but the town division of Carlow had increased, like most other towns, whilst the rural districts had been swept by famine, pestilence, and emigration. "We shall take a Connaught Union— that of Ballina — as a sample of the detailed census retarns for the western province. It consists of twenty electoral divisions, extending over an area of 1 50,020 acres. In 184 1 the population was 52,167 ; in 1851, it was only 33,611 j being a falling-offof 18,556, or nearly one-third, of the entire inhabitants of the Union at the previous decennial enumeration. '« The return of the Union of Castlebar presents a still more startling evidence of the devastation . of famine. That Union consist of nineteen electoral divisions, embracing 151,999 acres. In 1841 the population was 58,508 ; it was brought down to 36,746 in 1851 — being a diminution to the awful extent of 21,762, considerably more than one-third of the whole population when the previous census had been taken ten yeais before ! In some of the divisions the numbers have been reduced about one-half ; and in one, Killavally, the decline has been from 2277 to 754. In this .Union, unlike most others, the decrease has been universal applying even to the town division of Castlebar, which shows a diminution from 10,304 to 8479. " The returns of the Kerry Unions exhibit a very considerable decrease, but much less m proportion than that of Ballina. In the Tralee Union, in 1841, the population was 71,626; in 1851, it was 58,184, being a diminution of 13,442. Killarney Union has suffered in a less degree, the decreasp having been from 60,80, to 50,388, or about fifteen, per cent. The Kenmare Union which had been one of those most severely afflicted during the famine, has decreased from 28,026 to 21,282, a falling off of 6744 within the ten years, or about twenty-four per cent of the population in 1841. " Since the dato of the census the 31st of March last, tho emigration has continued upon a still greater scale than during any previous year. We have as yet no official returns, but we have pretty exact data for the first six months of 1851 , from which there can be no difficulty in drawing the conclusion that the exodus from Ireland has considerably augmented. It appears, from the Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the working of the Passengers' Act, of which Mr. Sidney Herbert was Chairman, recently printed, that the number of Irish who emigrated in 1850 was about 210,000, three-fourths of whom took shipping at Liverpool, the remainder proceeding directly from Irish ports. Within the six months of 1851, ending on the SOth of June, the number of emigrants from Liveipool alone was 108,934 against 84,314 in the corresponding period of 1850, and of this number it is estimated that 98,000, or nine-tenths of the entire, were Irish. We know thnt the emigration from' Dublin and the othe r Irish ports also increased considerably ; so that we may safely draw the conclusion that the Irish emigration, within the year now at its close, must have amounted to nearly 300,000. The remittances from Irish settlers in America to their relatives in this country, duin>g!Bso, is set down in the same report at £957,000. Thus the enormous emigration of previous years feeds and->sustains the system, augmenting year by year the drain of our population." (From the Tunes.) The British Isles which did not contribute one permanarit settler to America from its discovery to the reign of our James 1., are now contributing a thousand a day. All Ireland is thrown into the United States. Theorist after theorist hqs propounded schemes for amalgamating the Celt with the mixed British race. Man has tried liia utmost and failed. The fulness of time is now come, and we see what Ireland was made for. She was never to be England's. The Normans won the soil, but they did not conquer the race. That race remains, if not wholly what it was, yet less changed, less mixed, less refined by the virtues, and in some respects less depraved by the vices of civilization than any other part of the great European family. It is as much a relic of early days as a Druidical circle or a sepulchral cairn. Indifference or reverence suffers these objects to survive for many ages after everything is altered around them. It is doubtless by a providential plan, and for a beneficial purpose, that in the middle of the nineteenth century there still survives on the western-most shores of Europe a rugged mass of Celtic aborigines. The change which has taken place in the population and condition of Ireland is inadequately expressed in the fact, prodigious as it is, that during the ten years ending with 1850, about 1,600,000 have emigrated from that island. That calculation is itself below the truth, for it assumes the emigration from Ireland into Great Britain to be no more than that from Great Britain to the colonies or foreign countries. The change is inadequately expressed in the gloomy figures at the foot of the census return, putting the decimal decrease at 1 ,659,300. There are two important considerations that much aggravate the force of this statement. In the first place the population of Irish cities and towns has very generally increased during the ten years included in the census. Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Wateiford, Belfast, Galway, and many other places of which a return has not yet been made, have increased, either from their own comparative prosperity, or from the influx of refugees fioin the neighbouring exterminations. When these towns, therefore, are deducted, the depopulation of the rural districts is much greater than appears in the gi and total; and that depopulation, we know, is still going on. Ihe second consideration is the greatly increased proportion of women, and the probability of the disproportion being- increased instead of diminished. In the year 1841, with a total population of 8,175,124, the excess of women ovei men was 135,972. Had the same proportion been found under the diminished population of 1851 the excess would have been only about 108,000. The actual excess of women, however, in 1851, as appears from the census was 162,04:0. If, then, the former excess was a natural and proper one, the latter excess was 54,000 beyond the natural proportion, and there is now that number of women in Ireland beyond the demands, that is beyond the usual female occupations, of the country. The fact suggests a grave doubt whether, after all, it is wise to leave Irish emigration so entirely to spontaneous and accidental 'causes; and whether for our own good at home, as'well as for the colonies, it may not be worth while to 'promote female emigration at the public expense on a touch larger scale than has hitherto been attempted. As for Ireland herself, we resign ourselves without reserve, though not entirely without misgiving, to her continued depopulation until only a half or a thiid of the nine millions claimed for her by O'Connell remain. We mny possibly live to see the day when her chief produce will be cattle, and English and Scotch the majority in her population. The nine or ten millions who by that time will have settled in the United Slates cannot well be much less friendly, and will certainly be much better customers, than they now are. When the Celt has ciossed the Atlantic, he begins, for the first time in hi& life, to consume the manufactures of this country, and indirectly to contribute to its Customs. Unquestionably there is much that is consolatory, and even comfortable, in the extraordinary turn that we witness in Irish affairs. While we willingly acquiesce in it, we cannot do so without a shadow of misgiving. Sinew and bone, after all are no contemptible consideration. A whole people are not to be despised, and dismissed as if they were rubbish. We may miss those whom we lose. Brethren are made for adversity ; and should that hour come, we may have reason to remember the sorrowing departure of several millions of broad shoulders and stalwart forms, containing hearts which, with all their feverish cravings and tumultuous passions, -were never known to be craven or untrue iv the presence of a foreign foe.