408 



THE BEITISII ISLES. 



the wafjes whicli tliey receive in En<i-land are at least double or treble those which 

 they could earn in their own country. They are consequently able to return to 

 their families with a modest sum saved out of their earnings, after defraying the 

 expense of twice crossing the Channel. Most of these migrants annually flock to 

 the same districts, and are employed by the same farmers. But the number of 

 Irishmen who migrate with their families to England and Scotland, with a view 

 to permanently remaining there, is also large.* Indeed, the Irish element in the 

 population of Great Britain is far more considerable than it appears to be from the 

 census returns, which take note only of persons born in Ireland, and include the 

 children of Irish parents born in England among the rest of the population. 

 Every large town has its " Little Ireland " — always an inferior quarter, with 

 wretched tenements and ill-kept streets. There poor Paddy, a hewer of wood and 

 carrier of water, has established his new home. His services have become almost 

 indispensable, for he is often the only labourer who will consent to carry a burden 

 or to dig. He might grow wealthy, if it were not for his improvidence, and 



Fisr. 201. — MuYEMENT OF THE PoPUXATION IX IRELAND. 



/iuil- RecilLS 



althouo^h he generally marries among his own kin, his presence mast in the end 

 displace the Anglo-Saxon element in our labouring class, which is almost daily 

 sustaining losses through emigration. 



Ireland itself has grown in wealth in the course of the last twenty years. 

 Many estates of impoverished landowners have been thrown into the market 

 throuf^h the operation of the Encumbered Estates Court, and purchased by wealthy 

 tenant farmers or English or Scotch colonists. And this new class of owners 

 generally resides upon the land, instead of spending its revenues at Dublin or 

 abroad. A further increase in the number of landowners has been brought about 

 throuo-h the sale of a portion of the land formerly owned by the disestablished 



* Natives of Ireland residing in Great Britain : — 



England 



Scotland 

 Ireland , 



