The Irish Land Act 



325- 



and advantages enjoyed in Ireland to the wages and 

 advantages enjoyed in Canada and the United States. 

 They were now nearly on a par, for he saw in a 

 Transatlantic paper that the farmers were holding out 

 against giving their labourers 5s. a-day, and he 

 knew that no man could be got to mow hay for less 

 than 4s. a-day at Bailieborough. He also knew that 

 4s. a-day here were worth more than 5s. a-day there. 

 It was idle to talk of depopulation of the country, or 

 of one class forcing another to emigrate. Why, he 

 ventured to say that if they had a prize proposed for 

 landlords who wished that people should emigrate, 

 and that wages should be augmented, the judges would 

 have a precious small class to adjudicate upon. It 

 was the interest of every landlord that wages should 

 not rise very high, and therefore, it was their in- 

 terest so far that emigration should not be pushed 

 forward. It was also idle to speak of depopulation 

 of the country in that sense, or to say that the land- 

 lords and tenant-farmers wished to see the people 

 leave the country. Only those leave Ireland who 

 think they have a better opening in those other 

 countries than is to be found in this. The idea of 

 supposing that it is in the power of any man or any 

 set of men materially to alter the conditions of agricul- 

 ture, or to alter the state of the markets, was one of 

 the wildest and most imagiaary that could be laid 

 down. What is happening in Ireland now was the 

 converse of what happened at the close of last century 

 and the beginning of the present. At that time there 

 was a very high price on grain, and the prices of 

 cattle were low, for the reason that steam navigation 

 had not then come into force, and there were not the 

 same facilities for transporting cattle to England. The 



grain, however, was liigh in price and was easily 

 transported. The consequence was that a great dea 

 of land was broken up, and with the great 

 subdivision of farms, the population was greatly 

 increased. Now, however, the conditions were 

 all altered. The cattle were easily transported 

 to the English market, while the opening 

 of the English market to the grain of the whole woild 

 had reduced its price. There was no means, however, 

 of keeping down the price of cattle, and, consequently, 

 it was much more profitable to have cattle than grain 

 in this country. The farmer bought out his neighbour 

 because he wanted to have a larger farm ; it was not 

 that the landlord wished to turn the tenant out : — and 

 the man who was bought out went willingly and con- 

 tentedly away with the money he had got to seek his 

 fortune elsewhere. That was what was going on at 

 present, and blame could not be laid at the door of 

 any class. It was even beyond the power of legislation, 

 for if legislation were invoked it would only produce, 

 as in many other cases, precisely the opposite results 

 to those which it was called in to effect. He trusted 

 the farmers in Ireland would not seek relief in any 

 measure of legislation to further their efforts, but would 

 depend on their own exertion, and that they would 

 remember what was as wise course as was ever given 

 to a nation— the counsel of the merchants of France to 

 the greatest Minister of the day, who wanted to know 

 what he could do for them—" Let us alone." So it 

 was with the traders, or farmers, or fishermen who 

 were now making an outcry in Ireland ; the best thing 

 the Government could do was to let them alone— give 

 them a fair field and fair play, and leave them to their 

 own ingenuity and their own efforts. 



IRISH AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS. 



THE Registrar-General has now furnished 

 the complete "General Abstracts" shew- 

 ing the acreage under the several crops and the 

 number of live stock in each county and pro- 

 vince in Ireland in the current year. There 

 had been issued in advance a return of the 

 acreage under flax, and, more recently of the 

 number and value of the live stock. The 

 present returns give more details as to the 

 live stock, and for the first time, the area under 

 crops of all kinds during the current year. 

 There is also a tabular return of the total area 

 under the several crops for the last five years. 

 From the last mentioned return it appears 

 that the acreage under wheat has steadily 



decreased since 1868, the figures for the five 

 years being 285,150, 280,460, 259,846, 

 244,451, and 228,189 acres respectively. 

 Thus, in 1872 the acreage under wheat is 

 fully one-fifth less than it was in 1868. Oats 

 also shew a steady and continuous reduction 

 during the same quinquennial period, although 

 only to the extent of about 5 per cent., the 

 figures for the five years being 1,701,645, 

 1,685,240, 1,650,039, 1,636,136, and 

 1,621,813 acres respectively. The acre- 

 age under barley had increased from 186,318 

 acres in 1868, to 218,894 in 1872, although 

 the latter year is less by 22,391 acres than 

 the year 1870. Potatoes during the first four 



