Page:Irish Emigration and The Tenure of Land in Ireland.djvu/97

Rh further the number of the land-occupying class who have taken part in emigration, and who probably with their families have never amounted to one-fourth of the entire number.

This moderate share taken by the tenantry in the emigration from Ireland has greatly decreased during the last ten or twelve years. Between 1853 and 1862 the number of farms in the country actually increased under the alleged exterminating policy of the landlords, and if within the last four years there has been a slight diminution, it is to be accounted for by the three successive wet seasons, which signalized the period during which the decrease has taken place. Even so it is probable that for the last twelve or thirteen