SURPLUS POPULATION READILY EMIGRATE. 47 



principle of obtaining the largest produce at 

 the least cost, the same principle by which the 

 power-loom has supplanted the hand-loom. In 

 this process many ancient ties are loosened, and 

 among them that adhesiveness to the soil which 

 for generations has more bound the English 

 labourer than the owner of the land to the 

 parish of his birth ; the man of most ancient 

 known descent being in very many cases the 

 labourer. The process is a wholesome one so 

 long as the command to multiply and replenish 

 the earth has not been fulfilled. And the 

 general rise of wages among the labouring 

 classes both in town and country, with the 

 diminution of pauperism, in the last five years, 

 would seem to be a satisfactory proof that there 

 is still room for our people in this country and 

 its colonies, and no need to check the growth of 

 population. 



Such a check, however, took place in Ireland Checked 



in Ireland, 



at the time of the potato famine in 1846. The by potato 



famine in 



population was then eight millions and a half. 1846. Its 



results. 



Within five years it had fallen to six millions 

 and a half, nearly one-fourth of the people 



