THE IRISH EXODUS. From the Times.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 734, 14 August 1852, Page 4

THE IRISH EXODUS. From the Times.

The British Isles which did not contribute one permanent 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 has propounded schemes -for amalgamating the' Celt -with the mixed British race. Man has tried Ins 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 yon the soil, but'they diJ 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 cf Ireland is inadequately expressed in «he 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 uo more than that from Great Britain to the colonies for 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, Waterford, 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 from exterminations. When these towns, therefore, are deducted, the depopulation of the rural districts is much greater than appears in the grand total ; and that depopulation, we know, is still going on. The 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 totalpopulation of 8,175.124, the excess of women over men was J 35,972. Had the same proportion been found under the diminished population of 1851 the excess would have been only about 101,000. The actual excess of women, however, in 1851, as appears from the census was 162,340. 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 colonijs, it 'may not be worth while to promote female emigration at the public expense on a much larger scale than has hitherto been attempted. As for Ireland herself, we resign ourselves without reserve, though not entirely without misgivings, to her continued depopulation until only a half or a third of the nine millions claimed for her by O'Connell remain. We may possibly live to see, the day when her chief produce will be cattle, and English and Scotch the majority in her popnlation. The nine or ten millions who by that time will have settled in the United States cannot well be much less friendly, and will certainly be much better customers, than they now are. When the Celt has crossed the Atlantic, he begins, for the first time in bis life, to consume j 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 in the presence of a foreign foe.