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people to accept the latter alternative.[1] The mildness of the climate, the cheapness of the fuel, and above all, the suitableness of the potato to what is technically called "la petite culture" contributed to turn the scale, and early marriages continued to remain a characteristic of the Irish peasantry.[2] Even had the landlords interfered, their remonstrances would have been in vain, and, the downward impulse once communicated, acquired a continually accelerated momentum, for the simple reason that each succeeding generation was accustomed from infancy to a lower standard
- ↑ A. Young, enumerating the causes favourable to the growth of population in Ireland, says:—"Marriage is certainly more general in Ireland than in England: I scarce ever found an unmarried farmer or cottar; but it is seen more in other classes which, with us, do not marry at all; such as servants; the generality of footmen and maids in gentlemen's families are married, a circumstance we very rarely see in England. Another point of importance is their children not being burdensome. In all the inquiries I made into the state of the poor, I found their happiness and ease generally relative to the number of their children, and nothing considered as such a misfortune as having none."—Part ii. p. 6l.
- ↑ The following Table, quoted by Mr. Mill, sufficiently illustrates the rapid rate of increase of population which at one time prevailed in Ireland:—
per cent. per cent. Ireland . . . 2·45 Bavaria . . . 1·08 Hungary . . . 2·40 Netherlands . 0·94 Spain . . . . 1·66 Naples . . . 0·83 England . . . 1·65 France . . . 0·63 Rhenish Prussia . 1·33 Sweden . . . 0·58 Austria . . . 1·30 Lombardy . . . 0·45 Mill's Polit. Econ. Vol. I., p. 360.
