Page:Irish Emigration and The Tenure of Land in Ireland.djvu/95

Rh the case of tenements under five acres, to one per annum on every area of 400 acres; and in the case of holdings under 10 acres to one per annum on every area of 1,600 acres. Of course, the process has neither been so gradual nor so uniform as this calculation would imply, the principal rush having taken place immediately after the potato failure, and from those districts most exposed to its effects; the devastation among the small tenements of Ulster being as tremendous as in any other part of Ireland. Allowing, however, for all subsidiary corrections, it is very evident that so far from the landlords being responsible for the entire emigration, they held no relation, good or bad, with perhaps three-fourths of those who went, even though you counted as emigrants every man, woman, and child that may have quitted—whether of their own free will or on compulsion—the agricultural tenancies that have been extinguished.