Speech #460052030

And itis a remarkable testimony to the horrible way in which the land system has been administered in Ireland that the fertility of the country has proved the destruction of the population. instead of being their support. Only on the poor lands have our people been allowed to settle. and there they are crowded in numbers far too great for the soil to support. Let the next emigration be from the West to the East. instead of from the East to the Westfrom the hills of Connemara back to the fertile lands of Meath. When the resources of my country have been fully taken advantage of and developed. when the agricultural prosperity of Ireland has been secured. then if we have any surplus population we shall cheerfully give it to this great country. Then our emigrants will go willingly and as free mennot shoveled out. by a forced emigration. a disgrace to the Government whence they come and to humanity in general. Then our emigrants would come to you as come the Germans. with money in their pockets. and education to enable them to obtain a good start in this great and free country. with sufficient means to enable them to push out to your western lands. instead of remaining about the eastern cities. doomed to hard manual labor. and many of them falling a prey to the worst evils of modern city civilization. I have noticed within the last few days a very remarkable refutation to this argument of overcrowding. in one of the newspapers of this contrythe Nationa journal. I believe. distinguished in the walks of literature. and whose opinion is entitled to very great weight and consideration. The Nation says: That the best remedy for Irish poverty is to be found in the multiplication of easant properties and not by emigration. as many suppose. there is littlo question. iEmigration is good for those who emigrate . but it loaves gaps in the home population which are soon filled by a fresh povertystricken mass. A writer in the Lou. don Times. giving an account of the island of Guernsey. shows that it supports in marvelous comfort a population of thirty thousand by the cultivation of ten thousand acres. while Ireland has a cultivable area of 15.600000 acres. and would. if as densely peopled as Guernsey. support a population of fortyfive million instead of five million. The climate of Guernsey. too. is as moist as that of Ireland. and the island is hardly any nearer the great markets.