ADDRESS. 



IX 



lation are paupers, — that is, they receive eleemosynary 

 aid from the public purse. Much of this pauperism 

 may be attributed to the intemperate and improvident 

 habits of the poorer classes : but they would be much 

 more likely to be temperate and provident, if they were 

 owners of an amount of land sufficient, with temper- 

 ance, prudence and industry, to support a family in 

 comfort, and gradually to raise them to a higher social 

 position. Besides, in the vast estates of the nobles, 

 large tracts of land are wholly unproductive, devoted 

 to parks for game, and other aristocratic uses. In 

 Ireland, the evils of this overgrown ownership of land 

 aggravated by the privilege of entail and the abuse of 

 non-residence, had become intolerable ; and the govern- 

 ment was obliged to provide a remedy, by an act of 

 Parliament requiring the sale and division of encum- 

 bered estates. Since that act was passed, less than 

 fifteen years ago, about $150,000,000 worth of landed 

 property has changed hands. And it is a significant fact^ 

 that within these limits of time, the number of children 

 in the national schools has increased by more than half 

 a million, although the population has been reduced by 

 emigration during the same period fully 2,500,000. To 

 express the change in the form of a proportion, the 

 attendance in the schools has increased 285 per cent,, 

 (from 282,000 in 1843, to 804,000 in 1861,) while the 

 population has diminished 30 per cent, (from eight and 

 one-fourth millions to five and three-fourth millions,) 

 showing an advance of above 400 per cent, (407) in 

 the popular appreciation of the value of education. 

 This is but one index of that great social revolution 

 which is transforming Ireland into an industrious, 



