THE FAMINE AND EXODUS. 379 



owing to the ruinous pressure of the poor-tax ever since 

 this starving population was charged upon them, and 

 henceforth they have great interest in thinning it. 



There is certainly nothing more distressing than such 

 a sight, and nothing could have been more strikingly 

 condemnatory of England's conduct towards Ireland in 

 times past. But it must, at the same time, be admitted, 

 that all the hitherto undetermined problems are practically 

 solved by this rapid depopulation. England finds in it 

 at once her punishment and her safety. Ere long, the 

 population of Ireland will have been reduced by a half ; 

 and as emigration and mortality have affected only the 

 agricultural and Catholic part of the population, all the 

 fundamental difficulties go along with them. Previously 

 to 1847, the Protestants formed only a fifth of the 

 population : they will soon come to be one-half. The 

 rural population was twenty-four to the acre, now it is 

 approaching to twelve, as in England ; and from the 

 wildest and most rugged districts, such as Connaught, 

 after suffering most from the famine, the exodus takes off 

 the greatest number. It may now be said that warfare 

 between the two countries no longer exists : the Irish 

 have left the field. Those who remain are not sufficiently 

 numerous either to carry on the struggle, or to occasion 

 much trouble by their wants. One fact, in particular, 

 shows the general pacification of the country : agrarian 

 outrages have ceased, and security is as complete now in 

 Ireland as it is in England. God has employed the 

 formidable means of which Tacitus speaks He has made 

 peace out of solitude. 



What was before impossible in rural economy, hence- 

 forth becomes easy. The too great division of the 

 farms is no longer a matter of necessity. In place of 

 seven hundred thousand farms, there may now be, and 

 indeed ought to be, only half the number, and conse- 



