CH. III.] YEARLY OCCUPATION, OR CON-ACRE. 



53 



system has taken such root, that nothing but a total revo- 

 lution in society could destroy it. 



The Commissioners finally inquired of the witnesses 

 whether they considered this system to have any influence 

 on the increase of the population. The unanimous reply 

 .was, that it had a decided tendency to encourage early 

 marriages, because in certain baronies a married man con- 

 siders himself sure of obtaining half an acre to cultivate 

 potatoes, and thinks he has no occasion to trouble him- 

 self about the future. In other baronies, it is stated, no 

 woman will marry a man who has not a quarter of an acre 

 hired for a year, and that no woman will refuse a man 

 if he obtains this settlement. 



The rapidity in the increase of the population of Ireland 

 may be judged of from the following table. 



