Page:Irish Emigration and The Tenure of Land in Ireland.djvu/77

Rh of the statement. Now, what these gentlemen say I am sure they believe, and the vehemence of the commentary which accompanies their statements is only natural to men of a generous and patriotic temper; but accusations involving a large class of our fellow-countrymen in so hateful a responsibility cannot be lightly accepted, and I therefore propose to examine their validity by such tests as can be conveniently introduced into a hasty controversy like the present.

Indeed, if we believe so much, there is a great deal more we must believe. We must believe that all those general incentives to emigration which I have already enumerated, and which have told with such effect upon England, upon Scotland, and upon Germany, have had no influence in Ireland, although the peculiar circumstances of Ireland were so well calculated to intensify their operation. We must believe that the emigration from Ireland has been entirely confined to the rural population of the country, and confined not only to the rural population, but to less than one-half of the rural population—viz., the occupiers of land. We must believe that the wages of labour have doubled in 15 years—not in consequence of the emigration of the farm-servant as distinguished from the tenant-farmer, but from some other cause which has yet to be explained; and, finally, we must believe that the individuals of that class to which alone it is alleged