Page:Irish Emigration and The Tenure of Land in Ireland.djvu/116

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choose,—all the evidence converges to the same conclusion, and establishes beyond a doubt that out of every 100 persons who cross the Atlantic, not more than two or three arc induced to do so by any difficulties which may have arisen out of their relations with their landlords.[1]

After this I trust we shall hear no more of the landlords of Ireland annually driving hundreds and thousands of victims into exile. And when it is further observed that the number of emigrants who are classed as gentlemen, professional men, merchants, &c. almost equal the number of those who are entered as farmers,[2] perhaps the possibility will be admitted that the same economic laws and inevitable casualties which have influenced the destiny of the one class may have also operated on the other, without their having become the special victims of landlord oppression.

  1. See Appendix, p. 88.
  2.  Total number of Farmers who have emigrated from the United Kingdom in 1864 .... 7245

    Total number whom the Commissioners have classed as Gentlemen, Professional Men, Merchants, &c. . 5842