WHAT WILL DO GOOD IN IRELAND. 241 



the two Dublin workhouses it is worse. They are born 

 there, marry there, live and die there. The quantity 

 of stimulants consumed in the houses is outrageous. 

 Poor Law Inspectors almost live in them to keep things 

 right, but still the evil goes on unchecked, a huge wen 

 of pauperism. Nothing so bad has existed in the three 

 kingdoms since the old Poor Laws of fifty years ago. 

 I am sure the sentimental thought, that it is a 

 hardship on a poor person to be forced by circum- 

 stances to emigrate, is a delusion. Irish people, when 

 removed from the influence of their own class, become 

 better workers, and more quiet and more prosperous. 

 They have many qualities that better fit them for 

 success in a new country than the English have. 

 The faults of home are their bane. The proportion 

 of those who succeed in America is very great. 



To sum up : Agrarian pauperism is the true 

 trouble of Ireland, and increased production of some 

 sort the only possible cure, except in those parts 

 where emigration is wanted. In one hundred years 

 bad tenants will not produce more from the land 

 than they produce now, but probably "much less, 

 as their land becomes more exhausted. Let, there- 

 fore, every opportunity for emigration be given to all 

 unsuccessful and bad tenants and to all superfluous 

 labourers, and let the land they occupied go into the 

 hands of those who already hold land and are doing 

 well with it. There is immense room for profitable 

 employment for some generations in draining, with 



R 



