Page:Celtic migrations (Heron, 1853).pdf/10

10 We may expect, then, this tide of emigration to flow on for a considerable time. The great check to prevent the poor from emigrating is their ignorance. Men rather bear the ills they have than fly to others they know not of. But the national schools, as well as their friends in America, have informed the Irish poor that beyond the Atlantic a continent exists, subject to the same laws as Ireland, though better and more cheaply administered, where the same language is spoken, and where there is plenty of good land to be had at a very cheap rate. The more go, the more will go, until the rates of wages are almost the same in Illinois and Connemara. The first emigrants had to leave their home and kindred. In Ireland, now, there are few who have not relations in the United States. And in addition to the above-mentioned economic causes, the same rapid panic which drove the Celts in their previous migrations now impels them in a body to the west.

To Ireland, the immediate results of this vast emigration will be a rise in the rate of wages, and an increase on the present value of land.

That the rate of wages must have increased since 1847 is shown by the almost total cessation of out-door relief; whilst, at the same time, the quantity of land under cultivation has increased in every county in Ireland. And it is thus conclusively shown that there can be no want of labour to be employed profitably.

Thus, to take the example of those counties in which the distress was greatest, we find that in every single case the cultivation has increased since 1847:—

It is much regretted that we had not Major Larcom's valuable agricultural statistics taken before the year 1847, in order that we might know accurately whether there has been any great diminution in the number of acres under cultivation in 1844 and 1845.

The emigration, with the consequent rise in the rate of wages, immediately increases the value of the land, by diminishing the amount of poor-rate. Whilst agricultural wages are on the verge of starvation, a slight increase in the price of food throws thousands upon the rates; whereas, if the bulk of the population had higher wages, they would be comparatively independent of such variations.