CllAPT. xxvl Tin I Famine on Fishermen. 391 



tions ' They would onlj weaiy. Such calculations as have been 

 brought forward, 1 have felt compelled t<> adduce for the purpose 

 of reducing platitudes that make no impression to points that 

 b ave a mark. 



How else could I draw exact attention, how else gain a definite 



working belief in the real magnitude of the food farm at ourd 8 1 



There is food for millions. 



58. While quoting from the report of the Sea Fishery Commis- 

 sioners passages that suit my argument, I must in fairness not 

 omit t" quote also the one single passage thai seems to militate 

 against sea fisheries being a preventive of famine. 



With reference to Ireland, where the fishermen are mostly 

 farmers, who fish only when not farming, the Commissioners 

 write: "The great decline in the number of the fishermen we 

 " believe to be wholly due to the effects of the famine in 1848, 

 " and the subsequent emigration. It might have been anticipated 

 " that during the famine the fishermen at least would be secure 

 " from its ill effects, and would not only have plenty of food them- 

 " selves, but would be the means of diverting starvation from 

 " others. But such was not the case ; it was found that the people 

 " would not live wholly on fish, nor would they, out of the small 

 "means remaining to them, buy fish in preference to meal or 

 " ] '< itatoes ; the fishermen, therefore, suffered, not only from the 

 " loss of their own crops of potatoes, but from want of a market for 

 " their fish. They shared to the full extent in the sufferings of the 

 " famine, and as most of them became physically incapable of 

 "going to sea, it was frequently found that men were starving, 

 " while fish wire in abundance on the coast. In many parts of 

 " Ireland, the fishing population has not yet recovered from the 

 "depression and ruin caused by the famine; and the subsequent 

 "emigration, by taking off the youngest and ablest of the fisher- 

 "men, and leaving behind the old, the feeble, and the incompetent, 

 "has still further operated, not only in reducing the numbers, 

 "but in lowering the average condition of those who remain 

 - behind." 



59. These axe awkward facts and unexpected. All 1 can do is 

 to set against them the equally stubborn fact that our experience 

 during the present Gamine in India has been the While 

 other classes have been starving, the fishermen have done well I 



