Page:Irish Emigration and The Tenure of Land in Ireland.djvu/257

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the only hope of salvation for the agricultural


     the death of their parents? — We prohibit them dividing the land as much as we can; but they leave them sums to be paid and some articles of furniture or cattle. Supposing a man to have four or five sons or daughters; one sou is selected for the tenant, to whom he gives the farm, and very often charges him with a provision to some extent, for the younger branches of the family; and I have found sums charged upon them often more than I thought the land would bear."—Ibid. p. 369.

    Philip Reade, Esq., Land Proprietor.

    "In what way are the children of the small tenantry provided for at the death of their parents?—Their wish is to give their farms amongst their families, and when that is prevented, the son who gets the farm endeavours to pay certain portions to other members of his family, particularly to his sisters, varying in my neighbourhood from ten to a hundred pounds.

    "What proportion should you say these fortunes in

    de ces sujets au point de vue theorique, mais signés par des agriculteurs respectables, habitants detoutes les parties de la France très connus dans leur pays, ayant des situations qui les mettent au-dessus du soupçon, et qui, en outre, ont vos opinions bien plus que les miennes, entendez vous! si vous aviez la ces ecrits, vous verriez à quel point de souffrance l'agriculture est parvenue."

    The motion on which this speech was made contained the following propositions:—
    "L'agriculture eprouve dans ce moment des souffrances cruelles.
    "Nous avions voulu donner un temoignage de sympathie aux populations agricoles si laborieuses, si modestes, et si dévoués au Gouvernement et a l'Empereur; nous avions voulu surtout que leur plaintes arrivassent jusqu'au pied du trone."
    I also subjoin what M. de Laveleye has said incidentally on the subject of French agriculture:—
    "En France, avec un territoire seize fois plus grand, le produit n'est que dix fois plus considérable."—Ecu. Ru. p. 229.
    "Le revenu net du domaine agricole belge était en 1846 de