( 22 ) 



Misconception of 

 people as to out- 

 lays on emigra- 

 tion. 



In 1851 condition to 3706, and the return of some favourable seasons, 

 buro'IfttyT^^^^ brought about the beginning of a better condition of 

 provements con- things. But my outlays on improvements, for the 

 sake of employing the people, and for the sake of 

 increasing the produce of the Island, continued to be 

 heavy. In the seven years from the famine to 1851 

 these outlays exceeded ;zf [0, 160, of which the greater 

 part was in drainage. 



I had by this time begun to find that the outlays on 

 emigration had produced one bad effect — namely this, 

 that the people conceived it to be a boon not to them- 

 selves, but only to the proprietor, and were disposed 

 to rely upon him entirely in regard to it. I therefore 

 ceased altogether to offer it to them, leaving it entirely 

 to their own suggestion, although I was always will- 

 ing to help when occasion required. Sir John M'Neill, 

 in his Report of 185 1, mentions that in that year 

 there were 900 persons then anxious to go to join 

 their friends in Canada, from Avhom good accounts 

 had been received. This number would very nearly 

 have reduced the population to the figure at which it 

 stands at present, that figure being, according to 

 the census of 1881, 2700. It may be roughly 

 assumed, therefore, that the 900 persons who were 

 anxious to go in 185 1 represent those who have 

 actually gone from one time to another during the 

 last thirty years. 



I may now at once explain to the Commission the 

 principle on which I determined to proceed in the 

 improvement of the Island from the moment when 

 the first extreme pressure of the years of actual desti- 

 tution had passed away. I was satisfied that the 

 population was excessive, arising from the causes to 



Principle of 

 management 

 adopted by pre- 

 sent Duke after 

 first years of 

 potato famine. 



