Page:Letters to Lord John Russell on the Further Measures for the Social Amelioration of Ireland.djvu/37

34. Within the last few days I have been gratified by finding the views I am endeavouring to press upon you of the paramount importance of a large reclamation of the waste lands of Ireland, in preference to any other remedial measure, not merely supported, but strongly insisted on by the able and experienced compilers of the "Digest of Evidence taken by the Commission of Inquiry into the Occupation of Land in Ireland," just published by authority of the Earl of Devon.

They shew, from detailed evidence (p. 565), that "by a proper selection of waste land settlers," "a total number of half a million of labourers and cottier tenants may be abstracted from competition in the [now] over-stocked labour [and land] markets;" "and that this result can be obtained not only without any permanent loss, but with a very large permanent gain, increasing the value of the yearly gross produce of the 3,755,000 acres of waste land, which we know to be improvable, from £751,000 to £22,530,000!" while "the first three or four years' crops would return the cost requisite to bring about this change."

They present in a tabular form a comparative estimate of the cost and returns respectively of this and the two other alternative measures, which are most generally advocated for the improvement of the social and economical condition of Ireland—namely, emigration, and employment on draining and subsoiling the lands already under culture.