Return of Prosperity. 51 



into adjoining larger farms, one-half of the small on the 



return of 



holding's of 184S having totally disappeared, prosperity 

 '^ ^^ ^ /it -j^ Ireland. 



The tide of emigration began to turn, extreme 



poverty ceased, the proportion of paupers to the 



population became much lower, and the costs of 



poor relief nearly one-half less, than in either 



England or Scotland. This was accompanied 



by better wages to the labourer, higher profits 



to the farmer, and a rise in the value of land, all 



fostered by a growing demand for the kind of 



produce which the soil and climate of Ireland 



are specially adapted to yield. But the lesson 



left by the previous disaster has led to the 



gravest distrust in the system of very small 



holdings, in a country producing neither wine 



nor oil, and where the occupier is not the owner 



of the land. 



It is worthy of note that the strictly rural Diminu- 

 tion of agri- 

 parishes of England exhibit some decline of cultural 



population 



population. In one-fourth of the registration in propor- 

 tion to 



districts there has been a diminution of the other 



classes in 



agricultural population in the ten years ending England. 



1871, amounting altogether to 108,000. And it is 

 quite certain that this continues. It arises from 



