Page:Irish Emigration and The Tenure of Land in Ireland.djvu/182

Rh "In the long period of anarchy which succeeded to the conquest by Henry the Second, the incessant warfare between the English Colonists and the natives, acted as an effectual bar to agriculture, for both parties thought it wiser to keep their property in the shape of flocks and herds, which could easily be removed to a place of refuge, than in corn stacks, or standing crops, which must have been left to tho mercy of a successful invader."—p. 191.

"In the year 1762, the Irish Parliament granted high bounties on the inland carriage of grain; and in 1783 and 1784, granted further bounties on its exportation, and prohibited its importation from abroad; and the rise of price which took place in consequence, was further promoted by the demand for foreign corn in Great Britain, after the commencement of the war with France, and by the abolition in 1806 of all restrictions on the corn trade between this country and Ireland. Inducements were thus given to landholders to substitute tillage for pasturage, and as the tracts held by single graziers were in general much too extensive to be cultivated by the actual tenants, they were divided into farms of more convenient size, and let to such persons as were willing to undertake them. There was not, however, capital enough in the island to meet the requirements of this revolution in husbandry, and most of the new race of farmers were so poor, that they could not pay their labourers in any other way than by assigning to them pieces of ground to build cabins upon, and to cultivate for their own subsistence. Together with the farmers, therefore, a considerable body of cottars sprang up, and in this manner the bulk of the peasantry were converted into occupiers of land."—Thornton's Plea for Peasant Proprietors, pp. 190 and 191.