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IRELANDYS MISERIESI THEIR CAUSE.
starvation, a11d therefore it is that we see him now everywhere abandoning
the home of his fathers, to seek elsewhere that subsistence which Ireland,
rich as she is in soil and in her minerals, in her navigable rivers, and in
her facilities of communication with the world, can no longer afford him.
To enable us to understand the causes of this extraordinary state of things,
we must study the colonial system of England; that system which has for its
object the conversion of all the people of the rest of the world into farmers and
planters, dependant upon Manchester and Birmingham, Leeds and Sheflield,
for a market for their products, and for a market in which to purchase the
machinery of cultivation, and the clothing of the cultivator, his wife and his
children.
The government which followed the completion of the Revolution of 1688,
pledged itself to discountenance the Woollen inamifacturc of Ireland, with 3
View to compel the export of raw wool to England, whence its exportation
to foreign countries was prohibited; the etlcct of which was, of course, to
enable the English manufacturer to purchase it at his own price. From
that period forward we find numerous regulations as to the ports from which
alone woollen yarn or cloth might go to England, and the ports of the latter
througli which it might come; while no etlort was spared to induce the peo-
ple of Ireland to abandon woollens and take to tlax. Laws were passed prohi-
biting the export of Irish cloth and glass to the colonies. By other laws Irish
ships were deprived of the benefit of the navigation laws. The fisheries were
closed against them. No sugar could be imported from any place but Great
Britain, and no drawback was allowed on its exportation to Ireland; and thus
was the latter compelled to pay a tax for the support of the British govern-
ment, while maintaining its own. All other colonial produce was required
to be carried first to England, after which it might be shipped to Ireland;
and as Irish shipping was excluded from the advantages of the navigation
laws, it followed that the vt>y‘:ige of importation was to be inade in British
ship:-6, manned by British seamen, arid owned by British merchants, who were
thus authorized to tax the people of I1'cl:md for doing their work, while a
large portion of the Irish people were lllL“(ZlSQlVL‘:‘ unemployed.
Wihile thus prohibiting‘ the growth of inanuliuztiires or of trade, every
inducement was held out to them to confine tlicni.sel‘.'c: to the production of
commodities required by the llngjlisli 111a11ut'a<3fiii‘ers, and wool, hemp, and
flax were admitted into llngglzziitl tree, ol‘ tliliV', and thus we see that the system
of that day in ref‘crenc:‘: to Irvl:‘.::d w.;.-1 ;;m1.u;-T; precisely what it is now in
reference to the worltl at large.
During our ‘Var of the Revolution, frietlom of mu),-, “-3,; Claimed for
Ircland; and as the demand was made at a time wlien a l::i';;jc portion ofher
people were unzle1'arins as Volunteer;=, the 1nercli::nt, ;:‘;rl 1iia:ititiit‘t:ii‘ei's of
I‘lI1gl;‘.!1tl, wlio had so IUll:j" ft I'I?C‘t,l lllCl1J.‘:'t‘.l‘.'Ci into the sitiiatioii of ll1l‘.lLllClllCIl
for the pee‘,-lc of the sister I-;iiigtlx>iii, found ll1:“.:l:f-‘clVC.< compelled to remove
some of the restrictions under which the latter l::‘.4l >13 lwng remninctl. Step
by step Cl1iiX]::"C;3 were made, until at lcllgtll, in 173:3), lrelai;.,l wa: tl::t.'l:ll‘L'tl
iiulcpzntlcnt. 'Il1eiiceforwzird we lind X1lillXl.'ill‘.Cll11‘t.‘:‘ and trade making
pi‘cg1'ess; and such t‘t)llll.7.1‘tEL“=.l. to be the ca.-c, until, by the Act of Union,
the country was rtluccd to the condition of a iiicre colony, without the
cnjoyiimit of any single I'l:K;‘lli. for which tht -e mlnni hml conteutletl. The
Copyriglit Laws of l<lngl;z1nl were t'Xl',‘llIlt;-'l t; ll‘L‘lil1lv’l, anvl at once the large
and gi'tvxv,'ii:g manufacture of boel;:; was p1'os:r.it;- lb‘ The Patent Laws were
‘’i 1’erliaps the most striking illustration of the changed circumstances of Ireland