We reply, that the tendency in question is a proof of the love of honest
industry, enterprise, and independence, by which our countrymen, when
not degraded by neglect and poverty, are actuated. It is not of this
class, however so degraded, that we now speak. On the contrary we
take the decent and respectable farmer as the subject of our
illustration--the man who, loving his native fields as if they were of
his blood, would almost as soon part with the one as the other. This man
it is, who, with the most child-like tenderness of affection towards the
land on which he and his have lived for centuries, will, nevertheless,
the moment he finds himself on the decline, and with no cheering hope
of prosperity or encouragement before him or his family, resolutely
determine to forget everything but the noble duties which he owes
to himself and them. He sees clearly, from the unhappy state of
the country, and the utter want of sympathy and attention which he
experiences at the hands of those who ought to have his interests at
heart, that if he attempt to hold his position under circumstances so
depressing and unfavorable, he must gradually sink, until he and his
become mingled with the great mass of pauperism which lies lik a an
incubus upon the energies of the country. What, therefore, can possibly
prove more strongly than this that the Irishman who is not dragged into
the swamp of degradation, in which hope and energy are paralyzed, is
strongly and heroically characterized by I those virtues of industry and
enterprise that throw their lustre over social life?
There are other and still more indefensible causes, however, which too
frequently drive the independent farmer out of the country.
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