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Men of Invention and Industry-Part38_Samuel Smiles(1812-1904)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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of Irish agrarianism were the English anglers, who are ready to

brave all dangers, imaginary or supposed, provided they can only



kill a big salmon! And all the rivers flowing westward into the

Atlantic are full of fine fish. While at Galway, we looked down



into the river Corrib from the Upper Bridge, and beheld it

literally black with the backs of salmon! They were waiting for



a flood to enable them to ascend the ladder into Lough Corrib.

While there, 1900 salmon were taken in one day by nets in the



bay.

Galway is a declining town. It has docks, but no shipping;



bonded warehouses, but no commerce. It has a community of

fishermen at Claddagh, but the fisheries of the bay are



neglected. As one of the poor men of the place exclaimed,

"Poverty is the curse of Ireland." On looking at Galway from the



Claddagh side, it seems as if to have suffered from a

bombardment. Where a roof has fallen in, nothing has been done



to repair it. It was of no use. The ruin has been left to go

on. The mills, which used to grind home-grown corn, are now



unemployed. The corn comes ready ground from America. Nothing

is thought of but emigration, and the best people are going,



leaving the old, the weak, and the inefficient at home. "The

labourer," said the late President Garfield, "has but one



commodity to sell--his day's work, it is his sole reliance. He

must sell it to-day, or it is lost for-ever." And as the poor



Irishman cannot sell his day's labour, he must needs emigrate to

some other country, where his only commodity may be in demand.



While at Galway, I read with interest an eloquent speech

delivered by Mr. Parnell at the banquet held in the Great Hall of



the Exhibition at Cork. Mr. Parnell asked, with much reason, why

manufactures should not be established and encouraged in the



South of Ireland, as in other parts of the country. Why should

not capital be invested, and factories and workshops developed,



through the length and breadth of the kingdom? "I confess," he

said, "I should like to give Ireland a fair opportunity of



working her home manufactures. We can each one of us do much to

revive the ancient name of our nation in those industrial



pursuits which have done so much to increase and render glorious

those greater nations by the side of which we live. I trust that



before many years are over we shall have the honour and pleasure

of meeting in even a more splendid palace than this, and of



seeing in the interval that the quick-witted genius of the Irish

race has profited by the lessons which this beautiful Exhibition



must undoubtedly teach, and that much will have been done to make

our nation happy, prosperous, and free."



Mr. Parnell, in the course of his speech, referred to the

manufactures which had at one time flourished in Ireland--to the



flannels of Rathdrum, the linens of Bandon, the cottons of Cork,

and the gloves of Limerick. Why should not these things exist



again? "We have a people who are by nature quick and facile to

learn, who have shown in many other countries that they are



industrious and laborious, and who have not been excelled--

whether in the pursuits of agriculture under a midday sun in the



field, or amongst the vast looms in the factory districts--by the

people of any country on the face of the globe."[1] Most just



and eloquent!

The only weak point in Mr. Parnell's speech was where he urged



his audience "not to use any article of the manufacture of any

other country except Ireland, where you can get up an Irish



manufacture." 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 accordinglyconsiderably decreased.[2] Since 1868, not




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