Speeches on Questions of Public Policy, Volume 1Bright, John
History
Speeches on Questions of Public Policy, Volume 1
Bright, John
Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1837-1901
I will not, like them, complain of bad legislation, and propose no
remedy. What is the condition of Ireland? Last year we voted millions to
keep its population from starvation; and this year we have been asked
for a further sum, but have not granted it. We maintain a large army in
Ireland, and an armed police, which is an army in everything but in
name, and yet we have in that country a condition of things which is not
to be matched in any other civilised country on the face of the earth,
and which is alike disgraceful to Ireland and to us. The great cause of
Ireland's calamities is, that Ireland is idle. I believe it would be
found, on inquiry, that the population of Ireland, as compared with that
of England, do not work more than two days per week. Wherever a people
are not industrious and are not employed, there is the greatest danger
of crime and outrage. Ireland is idle, and therefore she starves;
Ireland starves, and therefore she rebels. We must choose between
industry and anarchy: we must have one or the other in Ireland. This
proposition I believe to be incontrovertible, and I defy the House to
give peace and prosperity to that country until they set in motion her
industry, create and diffuse capital, and thus establish those
gradations of rank and condition by which the whole social fabric can
alone be held together.
But the idleness of the people of Ireland is not wholly their fault. It
is for the most part a forced idleness, for it is notorious that when
the Irish come to England, or remove to the United States or the
Colonies, they are about the hardest working people in the world. We
employ them down in Lancashire, and with the prospect of good pay they
work about as well, and are as trustworthy, and quiet, and well-disposed
to the law as the people of this country. The great secret of their
idleness at home is, that there is little or no trade in Ireland; there
are few flourishing towns to which the increasing population can resort
for employment, so that there is a vast mass of people living on the
land; and the land itself is not half so useful for their employment and
sustentation as it might be. A great proportion of her skill, her
strength, her sinews, and her labour, is useless to Ireland for the
support of her population. Every year they have a large emigration,
because there are a great number of persons with just enough means to
transport themselves to other countries, who, finding it impossible to
live at home in comfort, carry themselves and their capital out of
Ireland; so that, year after year, she loses a large portion of those
between the very poorest and the more wealthy classes of society, and
with them many of the opportunities for the employment of labour.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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