CH. III.] YEARLY OCCUPATION, OB CON-ACRE. 55 



of which increased his revenue. The increase of 

 the population thus met with obstacles, and de- 

 pended on the pleasure of the chief, who had an 

 interest in not allowing families to settle on his 

 domain without the means of subsistence. 



In the towns the law was still more severe : no 

 family could settle in them without belonging to 

 one of the corporations into which the community 

 was divided : no one could build without a permis- 

 sion from the municipal authority, and these per- 

 missions were granted to the manufacturer or mer- 

 chant only on condition of having served an ap- 

 prenticeship of seven years, and, moreover, of 

 taking only a limited number of apprentices. 



It is evident that, under such a system, the state 

 of things in Europe could not at that period be the 

 same as it is at the present day, when most of these 

 barriers are broken down. Families settle, each 

 upon an acre of ground, the landlords being so 

 blind as to let it thus in small lots, and the in- 

 crease of the population follows the increase of the 

 division of the land. From the above table we 

 might conclude, that the landowners of Leinster 

 had let much less land in small allotments than 

 those of Connaught and the other provinces of Ire- 

 land, and the investigation of the Commissioners 

 has confirmed this fact. 



The inquiry into the manufactures and commerce 

 shows that, in the towns where the corporations 





