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ENGLISH INTERFERENCE WITH IRISH INDUSTRIES.
ENGLISH INTERFERENCE WITH IRISH INDUSTRIES.
CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD; BARRISTER-AT-LAW, PROFESSOR OF CONSTITUTIONAL AND CRIMINAL LAW IN THE HONOURABLE SOCIETY OF THE KING'S INNS, DUBLIN; AND AUTHOR OF "THE IRISH PARLIAMENT: WHAT IT WAS, AND WHAT IT DID."
CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED: _LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK & MELBOURNE_. 1886. [ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.]
Agriculture is at the present time almost the only industry in Ireland. This fact has frequently been noticed and deplored. Public men of widely different views on other matters agree in their estimate of Ireland's economic condition, of which they give but one explanation. Thus Mr. Gladstone, on the introduction of the Irish Land Bill in April, 1881, spoke of "that old and standing evil of Ireland, that land-hunger, which must not be described as if it were merely an infirmity of the people for it, and really means land scarcity."[1] "In Ireland," says Mr. Bright, "land, from certain causes that are not difficult to discover, is the only thing for the employment of the people, with the exception of some portion of the country in the North; the income for the maintenance of their homes, and whatever comfort they have, or prospect of saving money for themselves or their families, comes from the cultivation of the soil, and scarcely at all from those various resources to which the people of England have recourse in the course of their industrial lives."[2]
"It is generally admitted, I think, on both sides of the House," Mr. Bright observes in another debate, "that in discussing the Irish question one fact must always be kept in mind--that is, that apart from the land of Ireland there are few, if any, means of subsistence for the population, and, consequently, there has always been for its possession an exceptional and unnatural demand. This, again, has led to most serious abuses, including nearly all those constant causes of trouble and complaint we are for ever hearing of in Ireland."[3]
"The truth is," says Mr. Chaplin, from his place in the House of Commons, "that the English Parliament and the English people are mainly responsible for those conditions of the country which have driven the people to the land, and the land alone, for their support. It was not always so; there were other industries in Ireland in former days, which flourished, and flourished to a considerable extent, until they first aroused, and were afterwards suppressed by, the selfish fears and commercial jealousy of England--England, who was alarmed at a rivalry and competition that she dreaded at the hands and from the resources and energy of the Irish people."[4] "I am convinced that it is in the history of these cruel laws that lies the secret of that fatal competition for the land, in which--and it may well be a just retribution upon us--the source of all the troubles and all the difficulties that you have to deal with will be found."[5]