" The true remedy is to make Irish articles of the
best and cheapest, and they will be bought, not only by the
Irish, but by the English and people of all nations.
Manufactures cannot be "boycotted." They will find their way
into all lands, in spite even of the most restrictive tariffs.
Take, for instance, the case of Belfast hereafter to be referred
to. If the manufacturing population of that town were to rely
for their maintenance on the demand for their productions at
home, they would simply starve. But they make the best and the
cheapest goods of their kind, and hence the demand for them is
world-wide.
There is an abundant scope for the employment of capital and
skilled labour in Ireland. During the last few years land has
been falling rapidly out of cultivation. The area under cereal
crops has accordingly considerably decreased.[2] Since 1868, not
less than 400,000 acres have been disused for this purpose.[3]
Wheat can be bought better and cheaper in America, and imported
into Ireland ground into flour. The consequence is, that the men
who worked the soil, as well as the men who ground the corn, are
thrown out of employment, and there is nothing left for them but
subsistence upon the poor-rates, emigration to other countries,
or employment in some new domestic industry.
Ireland is by no means the "poor Ireland" that she is commonly
supposed to be.
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