Irish Colonization of Canada:
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The proposal comes too late. Certainly, for this year: that is, too late for effects this year, but not too late for legislation with a view to effects next year. This year is provided for by the grant of a British million a month for soup, and the poor-rate of as much more as can be squeezed out of Ireland in her present state of social anarchy. With the measures of the Government for this year, Lord John Russell's memorialists do not propose to interfere. Their suggestion relates exclusively to next year and the years following. They do not beg the Government to increase its provisions for this year, but to take some precaution for the years to come. With a view, however, to results so early as next year, legislation this year is necessary. If Mr. Godley's plan of Irish colonization had been adopted by Parliament last year, British America would have produced this year the greater quantity of food required for so large an immigration, and other indispensable measures of preparation would have been cared for: so, of course, unless Parliament act this year, the objection of" coming too late" will be as valid for next year as it now is for this. This objection, therefore, is in truth a reason for prompt action.
Each of "the two great parties which divide the state" has seen fit to employ a Commission for the purpose of investigating the social ills of Ireland and devising remedial measures. There was first a Liberal Commission, appointed by the Melbourne Government, and known as the Archbishop of Dublin's: then came the Conservative one, called Lord Devon's, of which Sir Robert Peel was the author. The Archbishop and Lord Devon therefore are high authorities on a question of Irish economical policy. Either of them alone would be a high authority : agreeing, they form the highest authority to which it is possible to appeal. Now, on one matter relating to the condition of Ireland, these two authorities not only agree, but cooperate. They concur in earnestly recommending to the Government, not the principle merely, but a matured plan of Irish colonization. Such a proposal so stamped naturally excites a lively interest; it must at least be discussed in Parliament; and it may give occasion to voting not without result. We therefore return to the subject, with a view of noticing certain objections to the measure which have been urged during the week.
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The proposal is tantamount to "Hell or Connaught": it means Canada or the Grave. This is Young Ireland's objection, urged by the Nation. And a valid objection it is, provided always that the grave is preferable to Canada. But is emigration worse than death from want of food? We ask the question seriously, because the only answer to it converts this objection into a recommendation. We believe that the famine-anarchy of Ireland will so much decrease production as to render the population excessive after the horrible thinning of this year ; and therefore, if Mr. Godley's plan were adopted without delay, there would next year be a choice between Canada and the grave. For hundreds of thousands, perhaps for millions, there is unhappily no such choice this year. And what is the meaning of "Canada" according to this plan of Irish colonization? It means a country, and the only country, in which the Irish race would have fair play. In Ireland, the land which they inhabit is the property of another race, and their religion is robbed and insulted by another : in Great Britain and the United States, they are but tolerated aliens : in Canada they would own the land on which they dwelt, and their religion would be subject to neither wrong nor degradation. In Ireland the Irish are not a nation, but an inferior order, a base class: it is proposed, without making their position in Ireland worse, to let them form a nation in America ; and to this the especial organ of Irish nationality furiously objects. Well; perhaps it is because the Irish are incapable of being a nation, that they are what they are in Ireland.
This political incapacity of the Irish is the objection of the Times, which spits upon the Celt, and prays that Canada may be spared the "irritating ulcer" of a Milesian colonization. But is the race hopelessly feeble and turbulent? It appears to be so in Ireland ; but would not people of any race exhibit such defects if they were placed in the same incapacitating circumstances? When England conquered the Irish, took their land from them, degraded their religion, and neither amalgamated with them nor exterminated them, but preserved them as helots, she inflicted on them the bad qualities of feebleness and turbulence: and feeble and turbulent they will remain in Ireland until they shall acquire some fair proportion of the soil of Ireland, and until their religion shall in Ireland be placed on a footing of real equality with others. But what the Irish are in Ireland is not the question. What would they be in Canada—that is, when surrounded by circumstances calculated to make them energetic and peaceful ? One of the greatest merits in our view of the plan of colonization submitted to Lord John Russell is, that it carefully provides on behalf of the emigrants against the circumstances which necessarily make the Celtic Irish feeble and turbulent at home. The Objection of the Times, therefore, does not apply. It appears to be suggested by a blind scorn and hatred of the Irish.