CHAPTER III
Having shown that the "exterminating policy" of the Irish landlords has resulted in the existence at the census of 1861, of a greater number of holdings of all sizes in Ireland than there were in 1851, and of 160,000 more tenant farmers of fifteen acres and upwards than there were twenty years ago, (and on referring to the evidence given before Mr. Maguire's Committee it will be seen that, in the unanimous opinion of Judge Longfield, of Mr. Dillon, of Mr. M'Carthy Downing, of the Catholic Bishop of Cloyne, and of Mr. Curling,[1] fifteen acres are the smallest area which can be cultivated with advantage, or over which those gentlemen would themselves be willing to extend the protection of a lease,) I would have passed to the third point in our inquiry, had it not been objected that I have mistaken the nature of the accusations directed against the landlord class in Ireland, who, I am informed, have been so ruthlessly gibbeted, not exactly on
- ↑ By fifteen acres, 15 Irish acres=24 statute acres were probably meant by these gentlemen. I should not myself have drawn so hard a line or passed so sweeping a condemnation on farms of this size.
