PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION.
Agriculture has been subjected for some years past in all parts of Europe, and particularly in France, to a crisis so intense and terrible as only to be compared to that which Italy passed through at the time when, by the extinction of piracy in the Mediterranean, the transport of grain from Egypt and Algeria to Rome became possible. The effect of that measure was to ruin the agriculture of the peninsula, and to compel the rural population to exile themselves from their country; but it must be admitted that the result in the end was to benefit all the nations of the Mediterranean coast by enabling them to participate in the advantages of civilisation, which until then had been the appanage of a very small number. This economic revolution, disastrous as it was to the Roman Empire, proved beneficial to humanity.
I am absolutely convinced that the application of the discovery of steam, to diminish the spaces which separate us from the thinly-populated continents of America and Australia, must bring about an analogous revolution—that is to say, a more equal division of wealth, and a more logical distribution of the human race upon the surface of the globe. I understand very well that those who can set the love of humanity before the love of country will rejoice at this—but I am not one of them.
I believe that for certain countries success in the contest of competition is impossible. In those countries a large emigration is the only remedy. With us in France it is different. I believe we can compete, and compete successfully, when aided by protection, and I am glad to recognise the fact that most of the continental nations adopt this policy, for it is the only one which, in my opinion, will preserve to the Caucasian race and to European civilisation the position which they hold at the head of mankind.
I have been to seek in Ireland the confirmation of these theories. I believe I have found it there. I know how repugnant such ideas will be to some, and that possibly they may call forth but little sympathy from the mass of English readers; I have therefore been desirous of offering these few words of explanation in order that they may understand the spirit in which this book has been conceived and written as it is—by a Frenchman for Frenchmen.
“Traduttori! tradittori!” says an Italian proverb, and this I had so forcibly in my mind that I had some hesitation when Mr. Chapman did me the honour to offer to publish an English translation of my book. I know well the difficulty of translating a book of this style, however intimate the translator may be with the two languages; and I should never have thought it possible for any one to succeed so completely in rendering even the slightest thoughts of the author, as has been accomplished by Mrs. Morton, who has so kindly served me by interpreting me to the English public. I may perhaps be permitted to offer to her here some expressions of my gratitude and of my admiration for her literary talent, which I have felt so strongly while reading the proof sheets.
Edmond de Mandat-Grancey.
17th July, 1887.