emigration has been confined—viz., the occupiers of land—have one and all vacated their mud cabins and strips of blighted potato ground, not because they found they could no longer feed their pig or grow oats with advantage on an acre of land,—not because they heard that wages were 4s a day in New York[1] and that farms could be got for nothing in the Western States,—not because their friends besought them to cross the Atlantic, and sent millions of money to pay their passage,—but solely and entirely in consequence of their having been driven from their homes by the wanton cruelty of their landlords and the injustice of Parliament—a series of assumptions incompatible with ascertained facts.
Before, however, addressing myself to the details of the question opened up by the foregoing consi-
- ↑ Farm wages in the United States—The February official report on agriculture contains on elaborate compilation of the statistics of the wages of farm labour throughout the country. An average rate of wages for white labour, without board is made $28 (=£5. 16s 8d) per month; $15.50c (=£3. 4s 7d) per month with board. The average rate of freedmen's labour is $l6; (=£3. 6s 8d); with board furnished, $9.75c. (=£2. 0s 7½d). The highest rate for States is in California, which is about $45. (=£9. 7s 6d). Massachusetts pays the next highest, $38. (=£7. 18s 4d). The average rate for the Eastern States is $33.30c. (=£6. 18s 9d): in the middle States $30. 7c. (=£6. 5s 3½d): in the Western States, $28. 90c. (=£6. 0s 5d); in the Southern States for freedmen, $16. (=£3. 6s 8d). The increase in the price of labour since 1860, is about 50 per cent.; since 1835 upon Carey's estimate 70 per cent.
