214 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL CHAP. 



though the population has gone on slightly increasing, the 

 increase has been far more than counterbalanced by the 

 enormous number of emigrants ; and you must remember 

 that the emigrants are mostly men in the prime of life. 

 Those who are left behind are the women and children 

 and the old and the weak. We cannot wonder, therefore, 

 at the increase of poverty and pauperism in Ireland. 

 That increase is measured very well by the cost of poor 

 relief. In 1870 the relief cost 814,000 ; in 1880 it cost 

 1,263,000 an increase of 50 per cent, on the cost of the 

 poor, with a decreasing population ! There, again, is a 

 most tremendous cause of the depression of trade. You 

 have got a much smaller population in Ireland, and a 

 population very much poorer than it was, and that 

 necessarily results in a depression of trade, because we 

 supply Ireland with most of the manufactures she con- 

 sumes. 



Causes of Rural Depopulation. 



It is, however, not sufficient to know the facts of this 

 rural depopulation, but we must say a few words on its 

 causes. These causes have been pretty clearly made out 

 by little bits of evidence that have been found here and 

 there in the reports issued by the last Agricultural Com- 

 mission. We find it clearly stated by these official reporters 

 that a considerable body of the farmers of England have 

 been ruined by excessive rents. For many years past 

 they have been paying rent out of capital, hoping for 

 better times. Notwithstanding bad harvests and bad 

 seasons, they have kept struggling on as long as they 

 could by means of partial remissions from their landlords, 

 but a large number have been utterly broken down, and 

 have been obliged to give up their farms. The farms have 

 not found fresh tenants, because the landlords will not let 

 them, except on exorbitant terms and with the usual 

 onerous conditions, and consequently a large number of 

 landlords all over the country have been turning their 

 lands from arable into pasture. The reason they do this 

 is, that they can then obtain a return with a minimum of 

 outlay and risk. When they have turned arable land into 



