IRELAND. 



potato blight of 1845-46, had extended over the 

 first few years of the decade upon which it is now 

 our province to report. Assuming that the in- 

 crease of population by births over deaths was at 



the rate of -92 per cent, per annum, as stated in 

 former Census Reports emanating from this country, 

 the population of Ireland would had no disturb- 

 ing cause intervened have been about 6,297,275. 

 It is therefore probable that the decrease of the 

 population may be accounted for by the very great 



emigration, as stated above. It is here worthy of 



cemark, that at the time of taking the census in 

 1851, there were no less than 250,611 paupers in 



the Irish workhouses, and 47,014 persons in 

 hospital, of whom 4545 were not workhouse in- 



anates that in 1861 the numbers in workhouses, 

 healthy and sick, were only 50,010; while there 

 were but 48,989 persons in the Irish workhouses 



the day before the census was taken in 1871.' 

 The Act for the registration of Births and Deaths 



in Ireland (26 Viet c. n) came into operation 



of January i, 1864. The number of marriages in 



1870 afforded a ratio of i in 188, or -532 of the 

 population I in every 153 Protestants, and I in 

 every 202 Roman Catholics. The marriages in 



1871 give a ratio of I in 186, or -537 per cent. 

 <of population i in 158 Protestants, and i in 196 



Roman Catholics. The marriages in 1881 give a 

 percentage of -560 Protestants, and -379 Roman 

 Catholics. 



NATIONAL INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE. 



Agriculture. For the following we are indebted 

 mainly to Thorn's Irish Almanac. ' Ireland,' says 

 this authority, ' was almost exclusively a pasturing 

 country until the middle of last century. That 

 the soil of Ireland is, however, eminently fitted for 

 tillage, appears from the evidence of every intelli- 

 gent person qualified to give a sound opinion who 

 has visited the country. ... "In the elements 

 of natural fertility," says Mr M'Combie, M.P. for 

 Aberdeenshire, " only the richer parts of England, 

 and very exceptional parts of Scotland, approach 

 to it." 



' Notwithstanding this great fertility of soil, 

 political, social, and moral forces, the strength of 

 which cannot be known until some time after they 

 have ceased to be in action, have heretofore kept 

 the land in a very imperfect state of cultivation. 

 "" Under the treatment the soil of Ireland receives, 

 great part of the soil of Scotland would long ago 

 have ceased to produce any crops at all would 

 have relapsed into sterility. It is only the natu- 

 ral richness of the soil of Ireland which has 

 averted a like result. But rich as it is, and 

 capable so far of recovering fertility, if only let 

 out into grass, it stands to reason that the finer 

 elements are in course of being gradually with- 

 -drawn from the soil. Skilful farmers remark 

 that its meadows beautiful as is their close car- 

 pet of green do not fatten stock proportionately 

 "to their apparent richness. Nor is Irish milk 

 equal to that drawn from the more highly manured, 

 though less verdant fields of Scotland." Another 

 competent observer from Scotland says : " The 

 tillage lands of the south of Ireland, though not 

 so rich as the pasture-lands in Tipperary, Lime- 

 rick, and the Meaths, are also of great fertility. 

 -I join heartily in the eulogium pronounced by 

 -Arthur Young and other judges on the richness 



of the soils of Ireland, though they have been 

 sadly deteriorated by bad fanning, since that dis- 

 tinguished agriculturist wrote on them. The over- 

 cropping to which the small holdings have been 

 subjected, amounting often to nine or ten crops 

 of oats in succession, is enough to reduce to 

 sterility any soil of ordinary fertility. The average 

 rent of the tillage lands is about 155. per statute 

 I acre. In Ulster the farming is better, and the 

 j rents are about 93. higher than those paid for land 

 of the same quality in the south." (Land Culture 

 and Land Tenure in Ireland. By Peter Maclagan, 

 Esq. M.P.) 



'Notwithstanding the bad cultivation of the 

 smaller and other holdings held by tenants 

 at will, it must not be supposed that there 

 are not many exceptions and some improve- 

 ments. "A journey of some thousand miles 

 through the various counties of Ireland, has 

 made it impossible for the writer to doubt that 

 in the last thirty years there has been generally 

 throughout the country a great development 

 of all the elements of national prosperity 

 wealth has increased, and the condition of the 

 labouring classes has materially improved." (Ire- 

 land in 1839 and '869. By H. S. Thompson, 

 Esq. late President of the Royal Agricultural 

 Society of England.) But this increase of pros- 

 perity is very much of foreign origin ; i.e. it has 

 arisen mainly from the attraction of remunerative 

 employment in the United States of North 

 America, Great Britain, and elsewhere, which has 

 greatly diminished the number of the population, 

 and by the largely increased value of stock, &c. 

 caused by the unlimited demand in the markets 

 of Great Britain, and facilities for reaching those 

 markets.' There can be little doubt, however, that 

 the legislation of recent years has already done, 

 and will continue to do, material benefit to Ireland. 

 The passing of the Landlord and Tenant Act of 

 1870, unquestionably marked an epoch in the his- 

 tory of Ireland. It may be too much to say that 

 this Act has produced general content ; but it has 

 diminished dissatisfaction, and has opened the 

 way to the ultimate solution of the whole questions 

 involved in the term tenant-right, which denotes 

 the various claims of right which tenants main- 

 tain against their landlords such as the right of 

 occupancy not subject to removal, and the right 

 to occupy at a rent not subject to increase on the 

 ground of improvements ; it being said to be in- 

 equitable to make them pay rent for what they 

 have themselves produced. In Ulster and in the 

 north of Ireland generally, the equity of these 

 claims had long been recognised and acted on. 

 In the south of Ireland, on the other hand, tenant- 

 right had never been conceded by the proprietors, 

 while the right of occupancy not subject to re- 

 moval had de facto been enjoyed by the tenants. 

 The non-settlement of the question was long the 

 subject of bitter controversy, and undoubtedly its 

 evil condition was the root of much of the national 

 misery. Owing to the old tenure of land, as tribal 

 or clan property, the people of the south of Ireland 

 never received into their minds the notion of 'con- 

 tracting ' with any one as the ' owner ' of the land. 

 They had the traditional feeling of being them- 

 selves the owners ; and so much was this feeling 

 a source of agrarian disturbance, that few Irish 

 ' landed proprietors ' ever ventured fully to exercise 

 their rights of property ; and nothing was more 



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