CH. VII.] ABLE-BODIED PERSONS OUT OF WORK. 199 



to him one for con-acre, another for house-rent, another 

 for provisions given on credit, and so on. 



One witness said that he wanted a labouring man to 

 work for a day, and his wife had to come the night before 

 for the price of his breakfast, or he could not work. 



A landowner stated that he had five or six tenants, and 

 that, not being able to get his rents as regularly as for- 

 merly, he was obliged to give less employment, and that 

 he could not any longer give provisions on credit to his 

 tenants, as used to be the custom with the landlords. He 

 regards the increase of the price of provisions as the 

 greatest calamity that the labourers could suffer. 



The families of labourers out of employ go begging. 

 One witness said he believed this parish to be better off 

 than the surrounding ones, especially those in the county 

 of Mayo, which, he said, "would give beggars to the 

 whole nation." 



The poor of one county pass to other counties, so that 

 there is a regular and continual exchange of beggars ; for 

 they are ashamed to follow this trade in the district where 

 they are known. They adopt begging only in the last 

 extremity. 



Parish of Killimore, barony of Longford. Seventeen witnesses. 



From September till March there is little or no employ- 

 ment for labourers in this part of the country. The small 

 farmers are the principal employers, and their poverty, 

 from the depression of the times and the high rents, leaves 

 them unable to give employment until the harvest. One 

 witness says that in the parish there are from six hundred 

 to eight hundred able-bodied men who do not get three 

 months' work in the year; all the work done by hired 



