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prietors are non-resident. The labourers, in many parts, are not paid in wages, but give a certain number of days' labour annually, in payment for their cabin and a plot of potato ground. A considerable domestic manufacture exists, of flannel, frieze, linen, and stockings, which are sold in the fairs and markets, and form the chief part of the clothing of the people. They are evidently a different people, far behind the eastern counties in civilization and industrial advancement.)

Some statistical details which are given in the Appendix B. to G. will illustrate this position.* In these tables, the four provinces are compared with each other, as respects the quantity of waste and of arable land, the density of population, the number and size of farms, the value of stock, the valuation for poor-rate, the occupation and means of support of the people, the quality of house accommodation, the extent of education, &c. The civic and rural districts are separately examined, and another table gives the aggregate of both taken together. The same enquiry is again entered into for the counties of Wexford and Down, as these are in

The tables in the appendix are compiled from the Reports of the Commissioners for taking the Census in 1841, and the Report of the Commissioners on the Occupation of Land in Ireland. The appendix also contains copious extracts from the very valuable report last mentioned, to which the reader's attention is requested. They illustrate many of the views taken in this essay.

many respects the most improved portions of Leinster and Ulster, and also for the counties of Kerry and Mayo, which are certainly the most backward of Munster and Connaught. The result shows differences in the state of society greater than could well be imagined, in a country subjected for so long a time to the same authority, and governed by the same laws. It would be very satisfactory to compare the condition of Ireland with that of England and Scotland in these respects; but the census was not conducted in exactly the same manner in Great Britain as in Ireland, so that it is not practicable fully to compare them. For some statistical information respecting Great Britain, see Appendix N and O.

On examining these tables, we find that Connaught has the largest proportion of waste land, and Leinster much the smallest; that the population of Munster and Connaught is more thinly scattered over the whole area than that of the other provinces, but much more dense than that of Leinster, though less so than that of Ulster, when compared with the amount of arable land.* The comparison has the same result, if calculated on the supposition that the waste or uncultivated lands are made so far available

* The population of the whole of Ireland is only 39 persons per 100 statute acres; while that of England and Wales is 43.

to human existence in the feeding of cattle, that seven acres of waste may be estimated as equivalent to one acre of arable. We are struck with the large proportion of small farms in Connaught; nearly twothirds of the whole number of farms being under five acres in extent. When we look to the value of live stock, whether averaged on the area of valuable land or on the population, no very important difference is observable. But in comparing the annual value of fixed property as assessed for the poor-rate, the difference is very great; Connaught having only £103 annual value for every 100 inhabitants, whilst Munster, Ulster, and Leinster have £157, £139, and £234 respectively. The proportion of violent deaths on which inquests were held during the ten years ending June, 1841, appear to have been: Ulster, 12; Connaught, 21; Leinster, 32; and Munster, 49. But the most striking discrepancy exists in the occupation and means of support, the house accommodation, and the extent of education. Munster and Connaught

When taking the census in 1841, the number of cattle, horses, sheep, pigs, and poultry was also taken, and the value being estimated at an average rate, constitutes the "value of stock," stated in the Reports of the Commissioners.

†The annual value assessed to the poor-rate averaged over the whole of Ireland is £161 for 100 inhabitants, while in England and Wales it amounts to £393. In Cornwall, the poorest English county, it is £267; and in Glamorgan, the poorest county in Wales, it is £217; but in Mayo it amounts only to £76.

have 70 and 78 out of every 100 families engaged in agriculture, while Leinster has only 59, and Ulster 60; and the two former provinces have 51 and 53 per cent. of the inhabitants occupying the very lowest class of house accommodation, while the numbers in Leinster and Ulster are only 35 and 33 per cent. respectively. The difference as respects education is equally great; 64 per cent. of the male inhabitants of Connaught, over five years of age, being unable either to read or write, and the number in the other three provinces being 52 per cent. for Munster, 35 per cent. for Ulster, and 38 per cent. for Leinster. There appears to be a very close connexion between the amount of education and the quality of house accommodation. The greater number of early marriages in the western province is a feature worthy of particular notice, as is also the shorter average duration of human life. On the latter subject, the commissioners for taking the census make the following remarks:

"The remarkable difference in the duration of life, "in favor of Leinster and Ulster over Connaught "and Munster, is too striking to be overlooked. The "latter are the most exclusively agricultural, and "from the analogy of Great Britain should on that "account seem likely to present the longest, rather "than the shortest, average duration of existence. "We fear, however, that the very low state, as to

"food and accommodation, of the rural population "of these provinces, would be found, by a more "searching inquiry and comparison, to place them, "in a sanatary point of view, more nearly equal "with the crowded inhabitants of the western parts "of England and Scotland, rather than the healthy "rustics of the English and Scotch agricultural "counties."*

* Par. Rep. 1843, vol. xxiv. p. 51.

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