Page:Irish Emigration and The Tenure of Land in Ireland.djvu/414

Rh cannot prevent him. I would only suggest that a gentleman who can put such a gloss on a writer's language will hardly prove an impartial guide through an historical enquiry, or the complexities of an economical analysis. With regard to my opinion of the tenant right in Ulster, I can add nothing to what I have already said: I simply dissent from Mr. Butt's description of its origin, its nature, and its effects.

I now come to a point of considerable importance, to which Mr. Butt has alluded in the subjoined terms, p. 124:—

"Lord Dufferin then points attention to the fact that a greater number of emigrants go from Ulster than from any other of the three provinces of Ireland . . ..

"It is easy for any man to look wise in quoting figures; but it often happens that exactly as he looks wise he is really foolish.

"It will scarcely be credited that Lord Dufferin makes out his representation by leaving out of account the relative proportion of the population of Ulster to that of the rest of Ireland. It is not necessary to use more words than those which are requisite to make this clear.

"By the census of 1861 the population of the whole of Ireland was, in round numbers, 5,700,000; that of Ulster was 1,900,000; about a third of the entire. The total emigration from Ireland in the year 1864 was 114,908 persons, in round numbers, 115,000. Of these, Ulster ought, in proportion to its population, to have supplied 38,5000. The number of emigrants for that year from Ulster was 19,815. Leinster, with a smaller population, supplied the same number. The population of Connaught is not one half that of Ulster, yet the number of its emigrants was very nearly the same.

"Let us compare the population and the emigration from Ulster and Munster in the years 1864 and 1865. These figures are few and simple, they can be understood by every one. By the census of 1861 the population of the two provinces was as follows:—

"If, therefore, emigration were in proportion to population, the emigrants from Ulster would have exceeded those from Munster in a proportion of 19 to 15, that is, by a little more than one-fourth.

"How stand the facts as to the last two years. The emigration of these two provinces was as follows:—

"So that the actual emigration from Ulster, with a population of 1,900,000, was not one-half of that from Munster, with a population of 1,500,000. In proportion to the population, the emigration from Ulster was 41 out of 1,900, or little more than two per cent., in Munster it was 85 out of 1,500, or very nearly 6 per cent.

"It cannot be said that the last two years are exceptional. The summary of the returns which, since the year 1851, he has, with