378 EURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND. 



These tardy measures of kindness, however, did not 

 suffice to arrest the evil. Famine was universal, and lasted 

 several years ; and when the decennial census of 1851 was 

 taken, it was found that, instead of an important increase 

 as usual, there was a startling decrease in the population. 

 One million out of eight an eighth of the population- 

 had died of misery and starvation. 



This frightful calamity has effected what years of war 

 and oppression failed to do it has subdued Ireland. 

 When the Irish beheld the loss of their chief article of 

 food, they began to perceive that there was no longer 

 sufficient room for them on their native soil. They who 

 had hitherto obstinately rejected the idea of emigration, 

 as a flight before the enemy, now suddenly passed to the 

 opposite extreme. A current, or, as it might be more aptly 

 termed, a torrent of emigration ensued. For the last 

 seven years for the movement began in the height of 

 the famine one million five hundred thousand persons 

 have embarked for America; and the tide still flows on. 

 Those who have found work and are well off in the United 

 States, write to their relatives and friends to follow their 

 example, and at the same time send funds enough to pay 

 the passage of these fresh emigrants. It is reckoned that 

 the total sum thus remitted, since 1847, amounts to four 

 millions sterling ! The unfortunate Irish never dreamt of 

 such a sum. They look upon America as the land of 

 riches and liberty, and regard their own country as a 

 scene of misery, slavery, and death. Ties of country and 

 religion, once so strong, no longer hold them back. To 

 find a name for this popular flight, we must go back to 

 Bible history, for it can only be likened to the great 

 migration of the Israelites, an exodus like that in Moses' 

 time. 



The proprietors, in place of opposing, second the move- 

 ment. This they are in some measure constrained to do, 



