Part 23

The difficulty of dealing with the subject of emigration, when the task is undertaken by men who are not practically acquainted with the state of Ireland, and the feelings and habits of the Irish people, is made manifest by the speeches delivered on the scheme in parliament. Mr Hawes, when the question was brought forward last session, refused to sanction any government system, on the grounds that voluntary emigration was proceeding at too rapid a rate already; and that it would be much better to keep the people at home. Now, while we advocate a measure which would remove a certain portion of the population, who can have no permanent occupation afforded them on account of the numbers congregated in particular localities, and who consequently must become a charge upon the resources of the country, we quite agree with the under-secretary of the colonies, that nothing can be more lamentable or more ruinous to the prosperity of Ireland than the removal of those persons who emigrate at their own expense. But, paradoxical as it may appear to the honourable gentleman, the system which we consider absolutely necessary, would act as a most effectual check to the abandonment of their country by the industrious and comparatively wealthy, which he so justly laments. Those industrious and well-conducted men ought to be the "thews and sinews" of the land; but they are driven from their homes by the insecurity of life and property in their wretched country. They cannot extend their operations in proportion as they acquire wealth. They dare not venture to enlarge the size of their farms, although they see the land uncultivated and lying waste around them. Death is the penalty they are certain to pay, if they take the ground from which others have been removed, no matter what may have been the cause of their expulsion. They therefore realise their property, and carry their capital and their industry to other countries, where they can freely use the one, and fearlessly enjoy the fruits of the other; while the idle and profligate ruffian who is the means of driving them from the land of their birth, revels in his crimes with impunity, and derives a legal support from the community which he oppresses--_he_ either cannot, or he will not emigrate. Now, it is clear, that if a system were adopted by which men who become a charge on the public should have the option of leaving the country at the public expense--of course we mean exclusively at the expense of Ireland--and that at the same time the laws were so vigorously administered, as to prevent the possibility of their earning a livelihood by the commission of crime at home; the country would get rid of the worst and most irreclaimable culprits, and society be relieved from the crimes and the oppressions which they practise; industry would be protected, and prosperity would advance. Lord Clarendon may seek, by his well-intended advice and his remonstrances, to stay the march of crime; but his efforts will only evince his ignorance of the habits and prejudices of the people he has to govern. He may subscribe his money to communicate agricultural knowledge to those, whose poverty and misery lead him to suppose that they only require instruction to become industrious and happy; but he should know, that those persons to whom he so praiseworthily wishes to impart information, _are in fact the best skilled agriculturists the country can produce_. They compose the migratory hordes who annually proceed to Scotland and England. There is not a man amongst them above sixteen years of age, who has not practical experience in the very best systems pursued in those countries to which they resort; and we would "wager a ducat," that scores of boys may be found in Ennis and in Galway, who could instruct his paid lecturers in the performance of the nicest operations of agriculture. The Irish Viceroy feelingly deplored the disappointment of his hopes with regard to the Irish Fisheries, when giving audience to the Clare deputation. "When I came to this country," said his lordship, "I indulged in the hope of promoting the prosperity of the Irish Fisheries; but I have been grievously disappointed. When the nets and gear were redeemed from the pawn-office, the men would not use them, or go to sea, unless they were fed; and when they were fed, they caught no fish." The same spirit which actuated the fisherman in this instance, actuates the agricultural peasant. He will not till his land, not because he is ignorant of the best method of doing so with success, but because he prefers idleness to industry, and gratuitous support to honest independence.

We respect Lord Clarendon's talents, and admire the honesty with which he has set about discharging the high and arduous duties of his office; but we tell him that the pacification of Ireland can never be effected by the powers now at his disposal, nor yet by the emasculated measures proposed by the ministry for the adoption of parliament. Neither need he calculate on any assistance in his efforts from the diplomatic devices of her Majesty's advisers. Lord Minto may earwig the Pope; but the Pope's influence is set at defiance by the Irish bishops, when it happens not to be exerted in the furtherance of their own particular views. The present pontiff's predecessor issued his commands, that both priests and prelates should abstain from agitation, and avoid those political festivals where some of their body had covered themselves with such well-merited disgrace; but his encyclical letter was treated as so much waste paper, and had only the effect of increasing the custom it was intended to abolish. The Viceroy can have no hope or expect no succour but from the efficiency of the laws, and their uncompromising administration. Military tribunals must be substituted for civil ones. No juror in the present state of the country will hazard his personal safety by the due discharge of his duties, when he sees no chance of obtaining adequate protection. Summary justice must supersede the ordinary law's delay; immediate punishment must follow upon conviction; agitation of every kind must be suppressed; and the disturbers of the public peace must be dragged forth and made amenable for their crimes, whether they be found beneath the smock frock of the peasant, or the cassock of the priest.

BLACKWOOD AND COPYRIGHT IN AMERICA.

In connexion with an article in this Number from our able American contributor, it may be interesting to the readers of Maga to be informed of her precise position at present on the other side of the Atlantic, where she is figuring as the champion of the rights of authors, and the leader of an important revolution in literature.

Whether we consider the claims of literary men to the property of their works as founded on inherent right, to be controlled only by the superior good of the community,--or as supported by a mixture of moral and equitable considerations, having reference to the reward and encouragement of learning and talent, it is undeniable that, without some protection of this kind, the fairer and better productions of literature will fail, and their place be occupied by a rank and unwholesome growth, offensive to the senses and noxious to social life. Even the selfish and short-sighted policy of our American brethren, which, in extending the privilege of copyright to their own countrymen, has denied it to foreigners, is found to operate in the most prejudicial manner upon their native literature; as no American publisher is likely to pay its due price for any composition of domestic genius, when he can please his customers and fill his pocket by reprinting, without any remuneration to the author, the most successful productions of the British press. The repression of such a system of piracy in America, would benefit alike the foreigner, whose copyright is thus pilfered, and the American man of letters whose talent is borne down by so disadvantageous a competition.

The publishers of the Magazine had for many years been aware that a cheap American reprint of the work was in regular circulation to a very large extent and they were naturally desirous to put an end to such an injustice.[56] While they were turning their attention to the subject, they received in the early part of the past year, a communication from an American gentleman, suggesting as an effectual means of redress, the insertion in the Magazine, from time to time, of an article from a native or naturalised citizen of the United States, who should establish a copyright in his own person, or that of an assignee, and thus either protect the whole work or compel the publishers of the pirated edition to reprint it in an imperfect form, such as would materially check their success, and, in either way, break up the system.

The tone and talent of this communication seemed to the publishers to recommend their correspondent as himself well qualified to lead the way in this most righteous enterprise, and the result was, the appearance in the October number of the article "Maga in America," which has been highly relished on both sides of the Atlantic. Of this article a proof was despatched to Mr Jay, a solicitor of eminence in New York, who, with the utmost promptitude, registered the copyright in his own name, and, presenting himself to Messrs Scott, the reprinters, inquired if they were about to publish the Magazine, as usual, that month, as he thought it right to inform them that, by so doing, they would be placed in a delicate position. On hearing an explanation, Messrs Scott were considerably taken aback, and, although unwilling to acknowledge that the game was up, they seemed to have a painful consciousness that such was the case. The negotiation terminated in the meantime, in their agreeing, after various letters, and not a little conversation, to pay a sum as copyright, before they issued the October number, and a like amount for each succeeding number, until a further arrangement were made. It would have been very easy for the proprietors to have brought the reprinters under heavy responsibilities, by giving them no hint of their movements, and allowing the October number to be published as usual, when Messrs Scott would have become liable to a severe penalty for every copy sold. This was not done, as no blame is attached personally to Messrs Scott, who have merely acted under a bad system, in which any one publisher might think himself free to seize all advantage which was open to all.

This movement has been most cordially welcomed by the American press, and it will be a source of great pleasure and pride to the Messrs Blackwood, if the step they have taken should in any degree, however humble, assist in establishing, an international copyright, which alone can effectually check a system of reprinting which is ruinous to American authors, and only very moderately profitable to American publishers, who are compelled, by the fear of rival reprints, to sell at a price which leaves a narrow margin of profit, even with no expense but paper and print. They are also in their turn afflicted with a host of smaller weekly pirates, who select the best, or at least the most attractive articles from all the periodicals, and serve them up in a cheap form, not without seasoning sometimes of a very questionable character both in taste and in morals.

The more operose contemporaries of Maga will learn with some surprise--whether pleasant or painful, it would be presumptuous to say--that the buoyancy of her contents seems to be used to float off a few hundred copies of their ponderous productions, which might otherwise be stranded without help or hope. It appears that subscribers are obtained to no less than four quarterly publications, by the inducement that, on such condition, they will receive _Blackwood_ at two-thirds of the price.

_Edinburgh, January 1, 1848._

_Printed by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh._

FOOTNOTES

[1] _Wealth of Nations_, vol. ii. b. iv. c. ii. p. 195.

[2] Table showing the British and Foreign tonnage with Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Prussia since the Reciprocity treaties with these powers in 1821.

| | SWEDEN. | NORWAY. | DENMARK. | PRUSSIA. | |British|Foreign|British| Foreign|British|Foreign|British|Foreign | |Tonnage|Tonnage|Tonnage| Tonnage|Tonnage|Tonnage|Tonnage|Tonnage | +-------+-------+-------+--------+-------+------+--------+------- |1821| 23,005| 8,508| 13,855| 61,342| 5,312| 3,969| 79,590| 37,720 |1822| 20,799| 13,692| 13,377| 87,974| 7,096| 3,910| 102,847| 58,270 |1823| 20,986| 22,529| 13,122| 117,015| 4,413| 4,795| 81,202| 56,013 |1824| 17,074| 40,092| 11,419| 135,272| 6,738|23,689| 94,664|151,621 |1825| 15,906| 53,141| 14,825| 157,910| 15,158|50,943| 189,214|182,752 |1826| 11,829| 16,939| 15,603| 90,726| 22,000|56,544| 119,060|120,589 | | | | | | | | | |1837| 7,608| 42,602| 1,035| 88,004| 5,357|55,961| 67,566|145,742 |1838| 10,425| 38,991| 1,364| 110,817| 3,466|57,554| 86,734|175,643 |1839| 8,359| 49,270| 2,582| 109,228| 5,535|106,960|111,470|229,208 |1840| 11,933| 53,337| 3,166| 114,241| 6,327|103,067|112,709|237,984 |1841| 13,170| 46,795| 977| 113,025| 3,368| 83,009| 88,198|210,254 |1842| 15,296| 37,218| 1,385| 98,979| 5,499| 59,837| 87,202|145,499

--PORTER'S _Parl. Tables_, vols. i. to xii., p. 50 each vol.

[3] Dumas, viii. 112; Mackenzie's _St Domingo_, i. 312.

[4] "Of the progressive decline in the powers of production of the West India possessions generally, some idea may be formed from what has been observed in Jamaica; for though that island labours under some peculiar disadvantages, that fact merely increases the force of the argument which is derived from its past experience:--

Average of the five years ending 1807 --last of the slave trade, £3,852,624 Average of the five years ending 1815 --date of the Registry Act, 3,588,903 Average of the five years ending 1823 --date of Canning's Resolution, 3,192,637 Average of the five years ending 1833 --last five of slavery, 2,791,478 Average of the five years ending 1843 --first five of freedom, 1,213,284

"The House of Assembly, from whose memorial to the government (June 1847) we borrow these facts, makes the following remarks on this instructive table:--

"'Up to 1807 the exports of Jamaica progressively rose as cultivation was extended. From that date they have been gradually sinking; but we more especially entreat attention to the evidence here adduced of the effects of emancipation, which, in ten years, reduced the annual value of the three principal staples from £2,791,478 to £1,213,284, being in the proportion of seven to sixteen, or equal, at five per cent., to an investment of about thirty-two millions of property annihilated. We believe the history of the world would be in vain searched for any parallel case of oppression perpetrated by a civilised government upon any section of its own subjects.'"

[5] EXPORTS TO BRITISH WEST INDIA COLONIES:--

1827, £3,583,222 1828, 3,289,704 1829, 3,612,085 1840, 3,574,970 1841, 2,504,004 1842, 2,591,425 --PORTER'S _Parl. Tables_, xii, 114.

[6] Buxton _on the Slave Trade_, 172.

[7] For a few days during the panic consequent on the Mutiny at the Nore, the 3 per cents were at 45, but they soon rose and ranged from 55 to 58. The interest of money never exceeded 5 _per cent._, and indeed it could not, as the usury laws were then in operation. The issue of one pound notes in sufficient numbers by the Bank of England, after February 1797, soon relieved the distress, extinguished the panic, and brought us triumphantly through the war. The following are the rates of interest and amount of bullion in the Bank of England for thirty years past, which shows how little low interest has to do with the plentiful stores of the precious metals:--

Bullion. Rate of Discount.

1815.--28th February £2,037,000 Five per cent. 1816.--29th February 4,641,000 Five per cent. 1820.--29th February 4,911,000 Five per cent. 1826.--28th February 2,460,000 Five per cent. 1832.--29th February 5,293,000 Four per cent. 1837.--28th February 4,077,000 Five per cent. 1839.-- October 2,522,000 Six per cent. 1840.--25th February 4,311,000 Five per cent. 1847.--13th November 9,258,520 Eight per cent. _min._

The rate of eight per cent. has not been charged by the Bank of England before for upwards of a century and a quarter.

[8] Report of the Glasgow Poor Inspector, 28th November, 1847.

[9] Mr Newdegate's Speech in Parliament, December 2, 1847.

[10]

TO OCTOBER 10 IN EACH YEAR. 1845. 1846. 1847. Machinery, £644,839 £897,442 £942,533 Iron and steel, 2,854,048 3,374,335 4,096,367 ----------- ----------- ----------- £3,498,887 £4,271,777 £5,038,900

[11] AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE IMPORTED FROM JANUARY 5 TO OCTOBER 10.

| 1845. | 1846. | 1847. | |----------+----------+----------| |Live animals, | 19,593 | 85,542 | 172,355 | |Provisions, beef, pork, &c. cwts.,| 109,550 | 206,455 | 403,877 | |Butter, cwts., | 189,056 | 177,165 | 243,140 | |Cheese, do., | 183,891 | 216,191 | 243,601 | |Grain in quarters, |1,336,739 |2,635,218 |7,905,419 | |Grain in flour and meal, cwts., | 394,908 |2,631,341 |7,900,880 |

The grain imported in nine months measured in quarters will stand thus:-- In quarters, 7,905,419 In flour and meal, cwts., 2,650,263 ---------- In nine months, quarters, 10,555,682

The greatest import in any one year before was in 1841, when it was 4,772,641 quarters.

[12] The sum invested in railways from 1841 to 1845, was £154,716,937; of which £114,513,035 was subscribed capital, and £46,203,902 authorised to be borrowed. See _Parl. Returns_, Nos. 159, 1844; and 637, 1845. Since that time it has at least risen to £200,000,000, of which _half_ may be considered productive.

[13] See _Parl. Debates_, xxviii. 66, 67.

[14]

Viz. England, £85,000,000 Scotland, about 5,000,000 Ireland, 16,000,000 ----------- £105,000,000

[15] _Lords' Report on Real Property_, pp. 8, 9. In our last Number we stated the amount of heritable property at £63,000,000, from a desire to be within rather than beyond the truth. But the latter figure was taken from the Poors' Rate return, which, as the Lords' Report justly states, is always below the truth; and their own report of £85,000,000 is taken from the rating for the property tax, founded on the returns by the occupants.--See _Lords' Report on Real Property_, p. ix.

[16] RATE OF DISCOUNT OF FIRST-CLASS BILLS AT THE UNDERMENTIONED PERIODS.

|Jan.|Feb.|Mar.|Apr.|May.|Jun.|Jul.|Aug.|Sep.|Oct.|Nov.|Dec. ----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+---- 1824| 3½ | 3½ | 3½ | 3½ | 3½ | 3½ | 3½ | 3½ | 3½ | 3½ | 3½ | 3½ 1825| 3½ | 3 | 3½ | 3½ | 3½ | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4½ | 4½ 1826| 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4½ | 4½ | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 1827| 4 | 3½ | 3½ | 3½ | 3¼ | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 1828| 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3½ 1829| 4 | 3½ | 3½ | 4 | 3½ | 3½ | 3½ | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 1830| 3 | 3 | 2¾ | 2¾ | 2½ | 2½ | 2½ | 2½ | 2½ | 2¾ | 3 | 4 1831| 3¼ | 3 | 3½ | 3½ | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3½ | 3½ | 4 | 4 | 4 1832| 4 | 3½ | 3¼ | 3¼ | 3¼ | 3¼ | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2¾ | 2¾ | 2¾ 1833| 2¾ | 2½ | 2¼ | 2¼ | 2½ | 2½ | 2½ | 2½ | 3 | 3 | 3½ | 3½ 1834| 3½ | 3 | 2¾ | 3 | 3¼ | 3¼ | 3¼ | 3¼ | 4 | 3¾ | 3¾ | 3¾ 1835| 3¾ | 3¼ | 3½ | 3¾ | 3¾ | 4 | 4 | 3½ | 3¾ | 3¾ | 3¾ | 3¾ 1836| 3¾ | 3¾ | 3½ | 3¼ | 3¼ | 4 | 4 | 4½ | 5 | 5 | 5½ | 5½ 1837| 5½ | 5½ | 5½ | 5½ | 4½ | 4½ | 4½ | 4 | 3½ | 3½ | 3¼ | 3½ 1838| 3½ | 3 | 3 | 2¾ | 2½ | 2¾ | 3 | 2¾ | 3 | 3 | 3¼ | 3½ 1839| 3¾ | 3¾ | 3¾ | 3¾ | 4 | 5 | 5½ | 6 | 6½ | 6½ | 6½ | 6½ 1840| 6 | 4¾ | 4¾ | 4¾ | 4¼ | 4¾ | 4½ | 4½ | 4¾ | 5 | 6 | 5¾ 1841| 5½ | 5 | 5 | 4½ | 4½ | 5 | 4½ | 4½ | 4¾ | 5 | 5½ | 5 1842| 4¾ | 4½ | 3¾ | 3¾ | 3¼ | 3½ | 3¼ | 3 | 2½ | 2¾ | 2½ | 2½ 1843| 2½ | 2¼ | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2¼ | 2¼ | 2 | 2 | 2¼ | 2 | 2½ 1844| 2¼ | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1¾ | 2 | 2 | 1¾ | 2 | -- | -- | --

[17] The following is the statement of the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the sums authorised by government to be expended, and actually expended, in each of the undermentioned years:--

Authorised Year. Expenditure. 1840 £4,000,000 1841 3,500,000 1842 6,000,000 1843 4,500,000 1844 18,000,000 1845 59,000,000 1846 124,500,000 1847 38,300,000

These are the sums authorised to be expended by the acts passed in each of these years. The following table shows, as nearly as can be estimated, the sums actually expended:--

Actual Year. Expenditure. 1841 £1,470,000 1842 2,980,000 1843 4,435,000 1844 6,105,000 1845, first six months 3,510,000 1845, second six months 10,625,000 1846, first six months 9,815,000 1846, second six months 26,670,000 1847, first six mouths 25,770,000

Supposing the actual expenditure, under existing railway acts, to have proceeded at the same ratio for the next three years the following would have been the results:--

Estimated Year. Expenditure. 1847 £64,000,000 1848 70,000,000 1849 47,000,000 1850 10,000,000

[18] That this statement is not exaggerated will appear evident from the following returns:--

Corn, flour, meal, live animals, &c., 1845. 1847. imported to October 10, £4,410,091 £31,241,766

This of itself, coupled with the simultaneous contraction of the currency and fall of the exports, will explain the whole catastrophe.

[19] The following table of the prodigious advance in the importation of two articles alone, tea and sugar, will show how rapidly they have increased in the three last years, at the very time that our exports were diminishing:--

1845. 1846. 1847. Sugar, cwt. 4,413,969 4,469,772 6,510,693 Tea, lb. 36,825,461 41,432,794 44,912,880

1846 to 1845. 1847 to 1845. Sugar, cwt. 55.803 incr. 2,096,724 incr. £4,193,448 Tea, lb. 4,607,278 incr. 8,087,419 incr. 803,741 ---------- £4,997,189

[20] --Mr Newdegate's Speech, _Morning Post_, December 2, 1847.

[21] Parliamentary Paper, 30th July, 1843.

[22] Viz. in round numbers:--

England, £14,000,000 Country Banks, 8,000,000 Ireland, 6,400,000 Scotland, 3,300,000 ------------- £31,700,000