years no more than three or four per cent, of the total number of emigrants have been holders of land.[1]
Such a conclusion is, of course, quite contrary to the popular belief, but it is, nevertheless, a fact within the cognizance of every one who is acquainted with the subject. Judge Longfield states it over and over again. He is asked if he knows
- ↑ "There is one point in connection with the emigration movement which should be noticed, in order to dispel a very erroneous impression which the tone of certain journals has done much to create, viz. that there is a feeling of despair amongst the agricultural class in Ireland, and that the farmers have given up, or are giving up, their land, to go to America. Speaking from trustworthy information derived from various parts of Ireland, we must deny this to be the case; and we very much doubt if in the whole of Ireland twenty instances could be found where the tenant of either a large or a small farm, who has paid his last half-year's rent and is able to pay the next, has voluntarily resigned his land in order to emigrate.
"Statistics clearly show that, however the number of inhabitants may have diminished in Ireland within the last seventeen years, the agricultural population is still much in excess of the agricultural population of either England or Scotland; [Irish Emigration considered, by M. J. Barry, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, pp. 9—11.] if and bearing this in mind, we cannot avoid the painful conclusion that, if the people of Ireland be destined to remain as exclusively as now dependent on the land for their support, there is no reasonable expectation of any rapid decrease, much less of a cessation, of the emigration." [The average annual preponderance of births over deaths in Ireland is about 60,000; so that, in the absence of any other disturbing causes, a yearly emigration to nearly that extent would not have the effect of making the population less than it now is.] Home and Foreign Review, Ap. 1864, p. 344.
