Page:Irish Emigration and The Tenure of Land in Ireland.djvu/117

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(See p. 72.)

It appears that there was a continual emigration of Protestants from Ireland to America throughout the last century, at which time persecution by the Catholics could not have occurred. The emigrations appear to have almost constantly taken place from the northern ports: thus seven ships, leaving Belfast for America with 1000 passengers, in 1728, are mentioned in Boulter's Letters, vol. i. p. 288. The number of emigrants who left Ireland in 1771, 1772, and 1773, is stated in Newenham's Inquiry into the Population of Ireland, p. 59: the ports from which the ships sailed were Belfast, Newry, Derry, Larne, and Portrush. Arthur Young gives the following more detailed account of this subject:—

"The spirit of emigrating in Ireland appears to be confined to two circumstances, the Presbyterian religion and the linen manufacture. I heard of very few emigrants, except among manufacturers of that persuasion. The Catholics never went, they seem not only tied to the country, but almost to the parish in which their ancestors lived."—Tour in Ireland, part ii. p. 30.

"It is well known that in the counties of Fermanagh, Tyrone, and Donegal, extensive confiscation took place, and a large number of farmers (Protestants) were in possession of from fifty to one hundred and fifty acres, some fee simple, more than 2s 6d an acre, which they inherited from their predecessors. In the lapse of years their families increased, and having received favourable accounts from persons who had emigrated some half-dozen years previously, farmers who had three, four and five sons or daughters approaching to maturity, considered it prudent to sell their lauds, emigrate, and purchase double or treble the quantity in a new country; 'Because,' said they, 'if we split our farms and apportion to each child a share, it will be but a few acres each, and they and theirs will become poor.' " Sir G. C. Lewis on Irish Disturbances, p. 457.

"In a certain sense, it may be said with truth, that the emigration of the Protestants has been owing to the pressure of the Catholics. The Catholics having multiplied rapidly, and being destitute of the means of subsistence, have increased the difficulty of obtaining employment, have lowered the rate of wages, and raised the rent of land by their competition. The Protestants, unwilling to submit to the degradation, and unable to resist the tendency to sink, preferred emigration to impoverishment, and left the country while they had still the means of defraying the expenses of their passage and outfit." ''Ibid. p''. 458.