UNFIT SCHEME FOR IRELAND. 57 



unless Irish commerce should at the same time 

 obtain five or six times her present demand for 

 manufactured goods, that that level would not 

 be the level of the north at present a level 

 which does not exceed one shilling per day on an 

 average for a labouring man. A great many, 

 if not the majority of the small farmers and 

 their sons whom we had in our employment in 

 the county of Armagh, were weavers, but pre- 

 ferred out-door work at this rate of wages 

 to plying the shuttle. The condition of many 

 of these was deplorable, and that of the most 

 favoured of them far below what it should be. 

 We can point out a small tenant with a family 

 in the above county, not an exceptionary case, 

 but an average of the most industrious hands, 

 occasionally employed in agriculture and occa- 

 sionally on their looms. We can point out a 

 labouring man in this country, with a family 

 of a similar size, equal in every respect as to 

 numbers, age, and physical appearances, wholly 

 engaged in agriculture, where the difference of 

 the joint incomes of the two families exceeded 

 407. per annum on ordinary years in favour 

 of the latter, and much more under seasons like 

 the last. 



