This is the true key to "the Irish difficulty." But before entering into the subject which it opens up, let us dispose of some other questions which bear upon the condition of Ireland.

CHAPTER IV.

DECREASE OF POPULATION.

EMIGRATION.

Census Returns-Depopulation-Subdivision of Land-Small Proprietors The Irish in England-Emigration to America.

'HE decrease of population at first glance seems

THE

at variance with the alleged prosperity of Ireland. It is disheartening to look at the population returns in every census return since 1841. The total of Ireland in that year was 8,196,567. The estimated population at Midsummer, 1845, was 8,295,061, the highest reached. In 1851 it was 6,574,278; in 1861, 5,798,967; in 1871, on the census-night, April 2nd, 5,402,795. The decrease between 1861 and 1871 has been, in every province, in the following ratio: in Leinster, 8:35 per cent.; in Munster, 8:14; in Ulster, 438; in Connaught, 6·83.

The population of the four provinces in 1871 stood thus: Leinster, 1,335,960; Munster, 1,390,402; Ulster, 1,830,398; Connaught, 845,913. The only county in all Ireland showing an increase since last census is Antrim, the population of which rose from 378,588 in

In each of

1861 to 419,782, an increase of 41,194. the thirty-one remaining counties there has been decrease. From the town returns I select the following items: Belfast rose from 121,602 to 174,394, or 4341 per cent.; Londonderry (city) rose from 20,873 to 25,242, or 20'92 per cent.; Carrickfergus shows an increase of thirty persons; Waterford an increase of forty, probably from the steam line to Milford Haven. The Dublin suburban townships showed an increase of 4,459, or 287 per cent. ; but Dublin city a decrease of above 9,000, or 3'50 per cent. Almost every town and county in Ireland showed de

crease.

It is sad to see everywhere the deserted villages, and ruined homesteads, and roofless cabins. But these ruined houses are in reality marks of the country's progress, as much as the ruined castles and fortresses are marks of the "bad old times" which have passed away. In the times when "every rood of ground maintained its man" it was a poor and precarious maintenance at the best, and always on the verge of starvation by famine, which did come at last. emigration, which then began to flow in earnest, saved the country. The famine year, with all its calamities, has proved the dawn of a better era, and that by compelling the "depopulation," of which Oliver Goldmith spoke sentimentally in the Dedication to Sir

The

Joshua Reynolds of his "Deserted Village." Not many years ago Mr. Gladstone expressed his anxiety to get rid of "the frightful and monstrous evil of emigration." He knew as little about the matter when he said that, as the poet did. "To complain of emigration, and to endeavour to devise some means which shall induce the peasant to struggle against nature, to toil on in improving barren surface, where his earnings will be perhaps a few pence a day, while he is within a short sail of a country where he can earn five shillings, is surely sadly to mislead him.' These are the words of the late Earl of Rosse, one of the wisest and best friends of the Irish peasantry. In the same pamphlet where they occur, Lord Rosse combats the speculations of Mr. John Stuart Mill in favour of multiplying peasant proprietors. In the Channel Islands, to which Mr. Mill pointed as a "crucial instance," Lord Rosse found that his statements were wholly erroneous. "The agriculture of the islands maintains," Mr. Mill had said, “besides cultivators, non-agricultural populations, respectively four and five times as dense as those of Great Britain." Lord Rosse went to examine for himself, and found this statement directly contrary to fact. There is a very large importation into the islands of wheat, cattle, and sheep. "So soon," he says, "are fables dissipated by statistics."

Of the impossibility of raising wages without diminution of population, and the possibility of this being made plain to the labourers, an amusing illustration is given in Mr. Nassau Senior's "Irish Journals." "When I began to reclaim my mountain farm, I employed 100 men, at wages varying from 8d. to Is. a day, the average being 10d., and the weekly expenditure £25. After this had gone on for about three months, my clerk wrote to me in Tipperary, where I was staying on business, that the men had struck, and demanded that the minimum payment should be Is. 2d. a day, and that the wages of the better men should be raised in proportion. We were in a critical period of the work, and my clerk thought the matter serious. In my answer I said to him, 'I am ready to accede to the men's demands. I am willing to give a minimum price of Is. 2d. and a maximum price of 3s. a day. Of course, at that rate of wages I cannot continue my present expenditure. You will reduce it to £12 10S. a week. You will select the best men, beginning by the highest wages. In this matter you will follow out, not your own opinion, but my instructions, and you will read this letter to the men.' The men assembled next day to hear my answer. It was read to them, and highly approved. My clerk then said, 'Now, boys, I must choose my men,' and he began by selecting a dozen of the best.