cumbed to a similar fate in Munster, Leinster and Connaught, to the total number of farms in their respective Provinces.
If this latter statement were correct, it would not be a valid objection. Every one is aware that the agriculture of the North has always been in a sounder state than that of the South and West,[1] and in a subsequent chapter I hope to account for that circumstance. But as it happens even the proportionate obliteration of the very small holdings in Ulster, viz: of those between 1 and 5 acres has been 19 per cent greater than what it was in Leinster, within 4¾ per cent of what it was in Munster, only 8½ per cent below what it was in Connaught,
- ↑ Throughout the whole of this discussion I have carefully abstained from drawing any invidious distinction between the people of the North and South of Ireland, nor do I now wish to do more than hint at a consideration, which, in drawing a comparison between Ulster and Munster, it would be as undesirable to omit altogether, as it would be to press unduly, viz.:—that a more indefatigable spirit of continuous and persistent industry seems to pervade the inhabitants of the North that can, with perfect impartiality, be attributed to those of the South. This circumstance, I imagine, will hardly be disputed, though it may fairly be argued, that when controlled and disciplined by necessity, the labourer of the South will work perhaps harder and quite as willingly as any one in the
world.
"What he seems to lack is a spontaneous inclination to unremitting and dogged exertion (which is certainly a characteristic of the Ulster population), perhaps to be accounted for by the natural liveliness of his disposition, and even the superiority of some of his intellectual faculties. Nor should the influence of the unhappy past be left out of consideration, in any estimate of the national character.
