country are not now a matter of guess-work and individual opinion. However satisfactory the tenure of land in Ireland may be to the landlords, we are not reduced to abiding by their estimate. Whether things are steadily improving or not from Lord Rosse's point of view, from an economical point of view they are doing precisely the reverse. Without reference to the vexed questions between proprietors and occupiers, without an allusion to tenant-right or landlord-wrong, Ireland is a far less productive country than it was formerly, even during the years which it is the fashion to look back upon with horror, viz. those preceding and following the famine. A few statistics taken from Thom's Almanack, which are based on returns made to Parliament, and, I believe, of unimpeached accuracy, are here indispensable. We find that

In 1847 the number of acres under wheat was 743,871. In 1866 it was 299,190.

In 1847 the number of acres under oats was 2,200,870. In 1866 it was 1,699,695.

In 1847 the number of acres under barley was. 345,070. In 1866 it was 160,314.

In 1847 the number of acres under beans was 23,768. In 1850 it was 62,590. But in 1866 it had fallen to 14,804.

Or take the estimated produce:

In 1847 the wheat crop amounted to 2,926,733 quarters. In 1866 it had fallen to 805,710.

The oats had fallen from 11,521,606 to 7,284,835 quarters within the same period.

The barley, bere, and rye had fallen from 1,716,139 to 685,717 quarters.

Taken altogether the corn crops in 1847 were spread over 3,813,579 acres. In 1866 they had shrunk to 2,173,433.

It must be admitted that these are startling figures. They indicate an extraordinary diminution of production during the most productive era the world has ever known. It looks odd to be told, in the presence of such facts, that things are steadily improving. It is requisite to add that there is a set-off against this decrease in the increase under the heads of meadow and clover, live-stock, flax, and potatoes. But even the meadow and clover last year were not as productive by upwards of 300,000 tons as they were in 1860; the cattle are not as numerous now by 100,000 head as they were in 1859; while the immense development of the flax culture and industry was a temporary and artificial growth stimulated by the dearth of cotton during the American Civil War.1

1 Thom's Almanack for 1868. Statistics, pp. 779, 785. I append,

It thus appears that economically at least there is a very serious Land question in Ireland.

And if we regard the matter socially and politically it is not better, but worse.

Discontent and

on Mr. Butt's authority, the following evidence of decrease in Irish manufactures :

"In 1800 there were engaged in the woollen manufacture 91 master manufacturers; in 1840 these were reduced to 12; in 1864 to 8.

"In 1800 the hands employed were 4,038; in 1841 these were reduced to 682.

"In 1800 there were in the town of Roscrea in Tipperary 900 persons supported by the woollen factories; at present there are none. "In 1800 the manufacture of flannel in the county of Wicklow employed 1,000 looms; at present in all that county there is not 1. "In 1800 there were 30 master wool-combers in Dublin; in 1835 they were reduced to 5.

“In 1800, in Kilkenny, a blanket manufactory existed which gave employment to 3,000 operatives; in 1841 these were reduced to 925. "In 1800 there were 1,491 persons employed in the city of Dublin in stuff serge manufacture; in 1834 they were reduced to 131.

"In 1800, 720 operatives were employed in the carpet manufacture under 13 masters; in 1841 there was but 1 carpet maker."-The Irish People and the Irish Land, by Isaac Butt.

We may add to these figures the following, taken from the "Statesman's Year Book for 1868:"

All Ireland has 9 cotton factories; Lanark alone in Scotland has 83 cotton factories.

2,734 Irishmen are engaged in manufacturing cotton; 41,273 Scotchmen are occupied with the same business.

But this last fact admits of another comparison. In all the factories of all Ireland, the male and female hands employed number 37,872. Thus the cotton factories alone of Scotland exceed in the number of their operatives the total of the factories of Ireland by upwards of 3,000 hands.

Or compare the cotton trade of Scotland with the linen trade of Ireland;

Scotland has 138 cotton factories.

Ireland has 100 flax factories.

disaffection towards the established order of things have notoriously reached an alarming pitch in that country. To say that the farmers are not the Fenians is futile. The Fenians are the fighting division of Irish disaffection. The English army at Waterloo was not the English nation, but it represented the English nation; the Fenians are not the Irish nation, but they represent the large element in it which is hostile and fierce against English rule. Their ranks are recruited from many classes, the farmer class included, but their moral strength and capital consist in the sympathy and

Yet flax is Ireland's specialty, and the population of Ireland is very nearly double that of Scotland.

To conclude this long note :

In January 1846 there were 19,883 fishing-vessels, employing 93,073 men and boys; in 1866 the numbers respectively were 9,444 vessels and 40,663 men and boys; thus making a decrease of 10,439 vessels, and 52,410 men and boys, engaged in that occupation in 21 years.

1 This fact is persistently denied by the upper class in Ireland, and their advocates in the English press. But the following testimony from Mr. Marcus Keane may probably be considered sufficient to outweigh a good deal of contrary evidence. Mr. Keane is, as he says, land agent of several large estates-among others of that of the Marquis of Conyngham-and a land proprietor himself. He says: "The strength of Fenianism lies in the sympathy which it receives from a large majority of the tenant class. As a mere conspiracy Fenianisin is not very formidable, but as a principle pervading the Irish nation—active in the minds of multitudes who never thought of becoming avowed Fenians-I look upon it as more serious than I can easily find words to express."-Letter addressed to Col. Vandeleur, M.P., on the Irish Land Question, by Marcus Keane.

encouragement they receive from nearly all who are not landlords and clergymen of the Established Church. Nothing is easier than to say that this disaffection is unreasonable, perverse, and wicked. Persons against whom such complaints are made always consider disaffection perverse, from the Kaiser on his throne to the fish-wife skinning the eels and cursing them for not being quiet. The charge is that the position of the Irish tenantry has gradually become absolutely intolerable, that the people are leaving the country rather than endure it any longer, and that they carry away with them hearts swelling with the most savage animosity against the laws and the country which in their minds are the cause of their sufferings.

IN WHAT DOES THE LAND QUESTION CONSIST? I wish, with as little of hypothesis or of disputable matter as possible, to answer this question by a statement of such facts as are admitted by all, or nearly all, parties. The interpretation of these facts will come afterwards.

(1) The great mass of the Irish tenantry have no better title to their holdings than the will of their landlords.1

1 This paragraph and the next are taken literally from the last-cited letter of Mr. M. Keane ; it would be impossible to adduce weightier authority.