| Title: | Letter on Emigration, to the Editor of The Armagh Guardian. |
|---|---|
| ID | 4003 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | 1871-80/22 |
| Year | 1871 |
| Sender | unknown |
| Sender Gender | male |
| Sender Occupation | tenant farmer |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Ireland |
| Destination | Armagh, N.Ireland |
| Recipient | Editor of The Armagh Guardian |
| Recipient Gender | male |
| Relationship | letter to newspaper re emigration |
| Source | The Armagh Guardian, 7 April 1871. |
| Archive | The Central Library, Belfast. |
| Doc. No. | 9410002 |
| Date | 30/03/1871 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | LET |
| Log | Document added by LT, 06:10:1994. |
| Word Count | 377 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | CORRESPONDENCE EMIGRATION TO THE EDITOR SIR - As there seems to be large surplus just now of revenue over expenditure, it seems a wise suggestion of a Member of Parliament, made last week, to appropriate some few thousands of this surplus for the purpose of shipping to Canada the unemployed mechanics of our towns, and the idle labourers of Ireland. There is no hope of these if left at home. There are the parties who in Meath and Westmeath are plotting mischief against the farmers as well as the Landlords. In case these idlers are kept in the country, they must be fed, or they will plot and rob and do worse, and as we have large fields for them to spread on, our duty is to help them to emigrate at once, and in this way, empty of idlers the poor-houses as well as the unsightly cabins where they squat and increase. I know the Irish Priests are opposed to wholesale emigration, on their own account. It is from these miserable squatters they draw their dues, and these must be paid, though the peasantry have to beg for them. But the time is come when we must be done with both priest and peasant and if we are to have peace in Ireland, we must give the land rest from political demagogues who use the misery of these paupers as a cover for their idle declamation against English rule in Ireland. It is to Irish mobs, too, we owe the outrages at elections. Were they gone, the respectable people could and would live in peace behind them, and the sooner the State supplies the means the better for all parties. The Irish fenians had their passage money paid for them, and got besides £5 a man, as pocket-money to carry them through the States, and it will be no loss in the long run to take half a million of the Income Tax, and with it ship to the new fields in Canada hundreds of the Irish young men and girls who are longing to get away from the hardships inseparable from their cabin homes in Old Ireland. To my own knowledge the young of both sexes are now ready to leave, and the sooner they get the means the better. ONE OF THE TENANT FARMERS MARCH 30, 1871. |
