218 ON THE STATE OF IRELAND. [BOOK III. 



The above table gives an average employment of about 

 twenty-two weeks, of six working days each, to the whole 

 of the labourers on hire, who are therefore destitute of 

 employment during thirty weeks in the year. If about 

 eight weeks or forty-eight days, for the work upon their 

 own land, be added to the employment obtained by the 

 labourers who hold land; and if fourteen days, for the em- 

 ployment on their con-acre ground, be added to the work 

 of those labourers who, having no land, take con-acre, the 

 average amount of employment obtained during the whole 

 year by the entire class of labourers will be 166 days. 

 This, at the rate of S^d. per day, gives an average of 2s. 3d. 

 per week during the whole year for the earnings of each 

 labourer, and amounts to 5 17*. per annum, which mul- 

 tiplied by the total number of labourers, 1,131,715, gives 

 the sum of 6,844,500. 



This number of 1,131,715 adult persons, who have em- 

 ployment for only 166 days in the year at 8d. per day, 

 increased, it is calculated, in 1834 to above 1,170,000; and 

 the number of children, women, and old persons dependent 

 upon them, cannot be reckoned at less than 3,600,000 *. 



Thus circumstanced, it is impossible for the able-bodied 

 in general to provide against sickness or the temporary 

 absence of employment, or against old-age or the destitu- 

 tion of their widows and children in the contingent event 

 of their own premature decease. A great portion of them 



* This calculation is founded upon the census of 1831, according to 

 which the adult males of Ireland amounted to 1,867,765, in a total po- 

 pulation of 7,767,401 persons, or 100 in 416. The number of adult 

 males in England amounted to 3,199,984, in a population of 13,091,005, 

 or 100 in 409. In Wales, 194,706, in a population of 806,182, or 100 

 in 414. In Scotland, 549,821, in a population of 2,365,114, or 100 in 430. 



