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Show Irish Emigration. THE ANNUAL MEETING of the Maynooth Union, held at May-nooth May-nooth college, Ireland, was this time rendered memorable by the presence pres-ence of His Eminence, Cardinal Mo-ran, Mo-ran, Archbishop of Sydney, Australia, i who presided at'its first' sectional meeting meet-ing on Thursday, July 3. The question ques-tion under debate at this "sectional meeting" was one very interesting to the Irish people at home and abroad, and to none more so than the Cardinal historian of Ireland one of vital importance im-portance to the future well-being of Ireland, and one which has been har-assingher har-assingher religious as well as her political po-litical leaders for the last decade of years "Irish Emigration." The principal prin-cipal feature of the meeting was a learned paper prepared and read by Dr. McDonald, the gifted Prefect of that department of the Maynooth institution in-stitution known as the Dunboyne, which on the whole was suggestive of the needs and qualifications of the emigrants emi-grants rather than of the means of stemming. the great evil which thxeat- I ens to depopulate the country. Dis-I Dis-I cussing the merits of Dr.' McDonald's I lecture, the editor of the Dublin Weekly Freeman writes thus: "Dr. McDonald; in whatever speculations specula-tions he may indulge, tries , hard to come close to the facts and to face things as they are. His paper on 'Emigration is marked by this character. charac-ter. He sees clearly that unless there is a great change in Irish social conditions condi-tions the cry of 'stay at home' will have no meaning to the Irish emigrant. emi-grant. Until things are mora equalized equal-ized that' drain will go on; and it is idle merely to declaim against it. The diminution of emigration that we have recently witnessed is no real diminution. diminu-tion. It is a decline merely proportionate propor-tionate to the decline in the population, popula-tion, and not even proportionate to the decline in the natural rate of increase of the Irish people in Ireland. Dr. ! McDonald is, so far, therefore, in recognizing rec-ognizing the fact that for a time, at least, the tide will continue flowing; and for a time also it is proper to consider con-sider the causes of the failure and loss of so many Irish emigrants in the new countries. His appeal for correction of those defects of Irish character, those sins against industry and social progress rather than against the theological theo-logical virtues, defects begotten in the slavery of the .past, i3 to the point. But the critics of Dr. McDonald's paper, pa-per, who found it lacking in suggestions sugges-tions for the stay of emigration, had some grounds for the criticism. "There was a good deal in Canon McCartan's objection that the paper might have been entitled 'Instructions to Emigrants." The lecturer was less suggestive about the care for emigration emigra-tion that about the improvement of the emigrant. Too little attention was paid to the latter in the past; but the other problem is even more urgent, if emigration is not to be ended by the worst of all ends, the fact that there are no more emigrants to-go. It was to this side of the question that the Bishop of Raphoe. Clonfert. and Ross directed their speeches. . They do not propose merely either to cry 'Stay at home," or 'Improve yourselves and go'; they propose to give the people a real choice between life at home and life in America and Australia." The present rate of Irish emigration is truly alarming. It might be iustly styled "a national exodus" rather than an "emigration." The bravest and the best of Ireland's youths and maidens, the nucleus of her health and strength, the farmer's stalwart sons and comely daughters are yearly flocking in their thousands and tens of thousands from her ports, to Eeck a home and a livelihood liveli-hood in stranger lands. We hold our breath while statistics tell us that no fewer than 40,000 of young Irish men and women sailed across the Atlantic to foreign countries during the year 1901; and yet we are assured that this Is a diminution of the exodus of past years. Such a drainage is enough to threaten the national life of the most populous, extensive and prosperous nation na-tion in the world. How much more, then, does it threaten the national life of the "Emerald Isle," which from afar seems only a speck on the crest of the ocean. The wonder is that Ireland still Is Irish. While, thus amazed, we gaze at the result, we naturally inquire after the cause. Is this result brought about by fortune-dreamers, who always see "longer horns ori the cows that are far away than . on thoise at home?" .No; the Irish emigrant will tell you now as he did of old: "They say there's bread and work for all, And the sun shines always there; But . I'll mot forget old Ireland, Were it fifty times as fair." No; It is the result of enforced povertypoverty pov-ertypoverty enforced by a government govern-ment which stops at no means, however how-ever cruel and barbarous, in its efforts to subject a people . to a civilization inferior to, more modern but less Christian Chris-tian than their own poverty enforced by a feudal system of landlordism which has sucked the life's blood in the form, of "rack-rent" from the Irish farmer, until there is no alternate left him but to abandon the home of his forefathers in agonies of despair. Listen again to the Freeman's Editor, while he pictures the present conditions condi-tions of farmers in Ireland, and proclaims pro-claims the true cause of emigration: "The means of staying the tire of emigration em-igration is at hand in the empty grazing graz-ing lands. There are ranches in Con-naught Con-naught as well as in Texas. And we would add that there is work for the laborer on the dairy farms of Munster as well as on the wheat lands of Manitoba, Mani-toba, if the farmer could afford to pay hin One of those illuminating Irish blue books, which hardly anybody ever reads, but which throw a flood of light on such questions as that dealt with by Dr. McDonald, was published ten or twelve years ago on the condition of the Irish agricultural laborer. The assistant as-sistant commissioner, who described the condition of things in Munster, noted two evils existing side by side. On the one side was fertile land deteriorating, de-teriorating, drains becoming choked, hedges overgrown, weeds and furze fighting with the buttercups for existence exist-ence on the farms; on the other was the hopeless laborer, unable even to get employment at 9 shillings a week for half a year. There was no means to bring the two together. 'Agricultural 'Agricultur-al depression," it was explained, had so reduced the capital available for the cultivation of the land that the farmer, farm-er, however intelligent, and however anxious to give work to the laborer, had not the means. Yet there were land courts in existence then in Munster which were supposed " to preserve the wage fund of the agricultural industry; indus-try; and to complete the comedy, Judge Meredith has since begun finding the payers of judicial rack-rents for the deterioration of their farms. So that something more even than the specifics, spe-cifics, excellent though they are, of more land and more education is needed. What is the good of a farmer having land, and having the knowledge how to use it, if the means of doing so are consumed or confiscated by rack-rents? 'One class must go; which shall it be?' Parnell's alternative to the Kilkenny farmers still holds. The peasants are going because the rack-renters rack-renters still remain." Ah! well might such a condition of things excite the fears of the lovers of Ireland, and the promoters of her cause. Well might her bishops, in council assembled, bewail the loss of their exiled children as well a3 the miseries of the bereaved athome, protest pro-test against the wrongs inflicted on their people, and, with heads together, strive to stem the current of the rising tide. Venerable Pastors, we fear your efforts are in vain against such odds. j But cease not to hope and labor, for just retribution will come some day. Teach your children, as you have taught them in the pttst, "td "seek first the kingdom of God and His Justice, and these other things shall be added unto them." The day will come, and that ere long, when it shall be shown that might is not right always. The cry of the martyr's blood, the wail of the widow and the orphan, the groan of the hunger-stricken, and the moans and sighs of the emigrans' aching hearts upon your wharfs will not ascend as-cend in vain. They will be heard in heaven. Not nations any more than individuals can always go on sinning with impunity. They must at length fill up the measure of their iniquity, and when they have done it, vengeance is sure to overtake them, and they fall, to rise no more, forever. |