poned; for England also is feeling the necessity of improved arrangements, and the requirements of both countries will have to be met by comprehensive and impartial legislation.
Many Irish proprietors, desirous of assimilating the agricultural economy of Ireland to that of England, have endeavoured to effect a consolidation of the smaller holdings. A tendency in that direction is, indeed, the inevitable result of the social circumstances to which I have been calling your attention, namely, the diminution of our population and the rise of wages. Great difficulty, however, has been experienced in effecting the transition, and this difficulty is commonly attributed to the perverse character of the Irish people. "Why," it is asked, "do these small farmers cling with such desperate tenacity to the holdings they cannot properly cultivate, instead of peaceably resigning them, and becoming farm labourers like the corresponding class in England?"
Now, in these attempts to conform the Irish system of land management to the English model, one essential circumstance has been generally overlooked, namely, the intimate connexion between the land system of England and the English Poor-law.
The English labourer is contented with his situation, not only because his wages are good, and his employment in general constant, but because he knows that if he should be overtaken by calamity, he will be liberally assisted until the crisis has past away. His home will not be broken up, his aged parents, his wife and his children will not be forced to enter the workhouse, but he and those who depend on him will be relieved at his own dwelling. This is the course which humanity recommends as due to those who suffer from causes which are beyond their own control, and against which they cannot be expected adequately to provide. It is peculiarly difficult for agricultural labourers to make provision against industrial crises or private calamity. From their dispersion over the country they find it impossible to set on foot and maintain the provident societies and other organisations for mutual assistance, which are more easily established where labour is concentrated. Common sense dictates that, if temporary relief is to be given, it should be given in such a way as to be most effectual for its purpose, and to disturb as little as possible the domestic life of the labourer. And this is precisely what is effected by the outdoor relief, which protects the English working classes in seasons of emergency from the bitterest consequences of distress, and tranquillises their minds at all times by the guarantees it affords them against the inevitable vicissitudes of their condition.
Now observe the difference between this state of things and that which exists in Ireland. In this country it is contrary to law to give outdoor relief to any able-bodied man, unless the workhouse be full, or severe infectious disease prevail in it. And the guardians of the poor and the Central Board are deprived by statute of the power of relaxing the prohibition, no matter what may be the hardship of any individual case or class of cases.
While this difference in the law of the two countries continues to exist, the English system of land management cannot
