Page:Irish Emigration and The Tenure of Land in Ireland.djvu/214

Rh pursuits, and so increase the size of the farms occupied by the remainder, it would be for the benefit of both.

I will conclude this short reconsideration of the subject by quoting a passage from Judge Longfield's address to the Statistical Society of Dublin : — " Mere agriculture, even in its most improved state, will not afford sufficient employment to the population of Ireland, unless it is very considerably reduced"* When, in a previous chapter, I expressed a far less sweeping opinion, I was unaware of this strong corroboration of its correctness.†


 * "But mere agriculture, even in its most improved state, will not afford sufficient employment to the population of Ireland unless it is reduced very considerably; and in order to keep the people in comfort, or indeed to keep them in the country, it is necessary to find some means of preventing them from being entirely dependent upon that one branch of industry for their support." — Judge Longfield's Speech to the Statistical Society, 18G5.

† "The population of Ireland, in fact, reduced though it be, is still far beyond what the country can support as a mere grazing district of England. It may not, perhaps, be strictly true that, if the present number of inhabitants are to be maintained at home, it can only be either on the old vicious system of cottierism, or as small proprietors growing their own food. The lands which will remain under tillage would, no doubt, if sufficient security for outlay were given, admit of a more extensive employment of labourers by the small capitalist farmers ; and this, in the opiuion of some competent judges, might enable the country to support the present number of its populatiou in actual existence. But no one will pretend that this resource is sufficient to maintain them in any condition in which it is fit that the great body of the peasantry of a country should exist. Accordingly the emigration, which for a time had fallen off, has, under the addi-