THE FAMINE AND EXODUS. 385 



purchasers were necessary to bring these bare lands into 

 value. 



It is no doubt vexatious that these forced sales took 

 place at the very time when Ireland was undergoing a 

 terrible crisis. But does it not always so happen 1 Crises 

 are just the periods which bring about and justify extra- 

 ordinary measures. Calm weather is not the time chosen 

 for throwing part of the cargo overboard to preserve the 

 ship from future storms. The remedy is applied only 

 when the evil is at its height :. it would be still less ac- 

 ceptable if it came sooner. Perhaps it might have been 

 possible to mitigate a little the working of this realisa- 

 tion, by giving facilities to the indebted proprietors for 

 saving something out of the wreck. But at the time of 

 the passing of the Incumbered Estates Bill, England 

 had already made, without success, immense sacrifices 

 for Ireland, and was not inclined to do more. 



As to the measure itself, the necessity for it cannot be 

 questioned. The proprietors could neither pay the in- 

 terest on their debts nor borrow a fraction more. Among 

 these accumulations of mortgages there were some dat- 

 ing as far back as Cromwell. One naturally pities a man 

 who, to-day, possesses a fine property, and to-morrow finds 

 himself with nothing ; but it is not dispossession which 

 is the grievance, but debt. The man had been for a long 

 time only nominal proprietor, and in one day pays for 

 the mistakes and follies of many centuries. 



Taking the number of properties sold up to the end of 

 1852, according to the foregoing figures, we find the 

 average to be 10,000 for fifteen hundred and sixty 

 acres, which is equal to nearly 6, 10s. per acre. Surely 

 Irish land is worth, and certainly will be worth, more 

 than this. But it must also be remembered, that this 

 figure comprises large tracts of uncultivated land, called 



2 B 



