English Interference
with
Irish Industries.
English Interference
with
Irish Industries.
BY
J. G. SWIFT MACNEILL, M.A.,
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.]
PREFACE.
Agriculture is at the present time almost the onlyindustry in Ireland. This fact has frequently beennoticed and deplored. Public men of widely differentviews on other matters agree in their estimate ofIreland's economic condition, of which they give butone explanation. Thus Mr. Gladstone, on the introductionof 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 aninfirmity of the people for it, and really means landscarcity."[1] "In Ireland," says Mr. Bright, "land, fromcertain causes that are not difficult to discover, is theonly thing for the employment of the people, with theexception of some portion of the country in the North;the income for the maintenance of their homes, andwhatever comfort they have, or prospect of savingmoney for themselves or their families, comes fromthe cultivation of the soil, and scarcely at all from thosevarious resources to which the people of Englandhave recourse in the course of their industrial lives."[2]
"It is generally admitted, I think, on both sides ofthe House," Mr. Bright observes in another debate,"that in discussing the Irish question one fact mustalways be kept in mind—that is, that apart from theland of Ireland there are few, if any, means of subsistencefor the population, and, consequently, there hasalways been for its possession an exceptional and unnaturaldemand. This, again, has led to most seriousabuses, including nearly all those constant causes oftrouble and complaint we are for ever hearing of inIreland."[3]
"The truth is," says Mr. Chaplin, from his place inthe House of Commons, "that the English Parliamentand the English people are mainly responsible forthose conditions of the country which have driven thepeople to the land, and the land alone, for theirsupport. It was not always so; there were otherindustries in Ireland in former days, which flourished,and flourished to a considerable extent, until theyfirst aroused, and were afterwards suppressed by, theselfish fears and commercial jealousy of England—England,who was alarmed at a rivalry and competitionthat she dreaded at the hands and from theresourc