CH. VII.] ABLE-BODIED PERSONS OUT OF WORK. 201 



Without this resource^ he would have died of starva- 

 tion. 



The greatest calamity of the labouring classes is neither 

 sickness nor beggary ; it is the want of employment, which 

 is universal. An able-bodied man excites no pity in 

 begging. 



The labourers who overcome the shame of begging are 

 much better off than the others. Those who go over to 

 England can only reach that country by begging ; they 

 are often aided by their neighbours with means to pay 

 their passage, but on condition of repaying them on their 

 return. 



All the people are in debt ; there were fifty ejectments 

 served in this parish only during the past month. 



County of Mayo, parish of Kilgeever, barony of MurrisJc. Thirteen 



witnesses. 



The land in this parish, containing a population of above 

 1 1,000, is cut up in so many small holdings, that there 

 are scarcely a dozen farmers occupying as much as ten 

 acres of arable land. A man can scarcely procure thirty 

 days' labour through the year, and will take work for 

 twopence a-day and his food. Notwithstanding all this 

 distress, there is no instance of a father abandoning his 

 family. 



Province of Leinster, county of Kildare ; examinations taken by Captain 

 White and T. N. Vaughan, Esq. ; parish of Naas, barony of North 

 Naas. Thirty-four witnesses. 



There are in this parish 317 families of labourers, 

 amounting in all to 1600 persons, out of employment, who 

 would have actually died of starvation during the month 

 of August last, but for the relief from a subscription made 



