Page:Celtic migrations (Heron, 1853).pdf/11

11 The poor-rate, although in its first levy laid upon both landlord and tenant, and, by reason of a certain elasticity in human affairs, borne for a time partly by the tenant, becomes finally a tax upon the rent alone. At a new letting, the tenant calculates what he can afford altogether to pay for the land, reckoning in his calculation both rent and taxes; and it is immaterial to him whether he pay the whole price for the letting of the land to his landlord, or only a part to him and the remainder by way of taxes. The decrease, therefore, in the poor-rate, effected by emigration, is an increase in the value of the land. The diminution in the value consequent upon the famine far exceeded the mere money loss; for resident country gentlemen did not pass their time pleasantly among the details of auxiliary workhouses. It is true, paupers themselves rarely emigrate, but the persons who were on the out-door relief lists in 1848 have mainly supplied the places of the labourers above them, who have migrated. At the same time, I wish it to be understood that all the emigration arising from bad laws at home is injurious; but the emigration which arises from the discovery of new fertile land, and poverty at home, is beneficial.

But I take a much larger view of the beneficial effects of this Celtic Exodus. One of the great advantages arising from this extensive emigration of persons who, by various causes, were prevented from developing any high degree of prosperity in Ireland, must spring from the consequent fusion of races in America. I consider that, the more the population may be mixed of different races, the more prosperous will be the country. This arises from the principle of division of labour. Individual races excel in divers qualities, and are deficient in others. The French, Italian, German, Sclaves [sic], and English of the present day each have their different qualities, in which they severally surpass the rest; and if they were fused into one community of United States, would each apply themselves solely to those departments of human skill and industry in which they were superior. This principle has long since been perceived, and termed the territorial division of labour; but it never can be completely developed whilst men, remaining under different governments, are separated by international tariffs, customhouses, and wars.

In effect, we find that pure races, like the Turks, languish and become etiolated; whilst the most flourishing communities, like the city of Romulus, have sprung ex colluvione gentium. In the mythical story of the foundation of Rome, Livy tells us that the founder opened it as an asylum for fugitives—in other words, the political refugees of the neighbouring petty states of Etruria and Latium. All the young men for whom (to borrow a sentiment of a distinguished writer) the governments or societies of those states provided no employment, and who became their enemies in consequence, as naturally as the sparks fly upwards, fled to the protection of the seven hills of Rome. England has owed much of her greatness to being a similar asylum. Thither have fled the artizans of the