Page:Irish Emigration and The Tenure of Land in Ireland.djvu/55

Rh emigration has a tendency to diminish rather than to increase his rental, and if it has not done so already it is because the number of those who seek to obtain their living by the land, are still out of proportion to the area capable of maintaining them.

Again, the landlord is very often a large employer of labour. Within the last 15 years I myself have paid away upwards of £60,000 in wages alone. During the last half of that period, in consequence of the rise in wages, I have got much less for my money than I did during the first half, and my consequent loss, comparing one period with another, would amount to several thousand pounds, and this has been a direct consequence of emigration. But, though a dealer in land, and a