8
were almost cut off from civilisation—who could scarcely hope to rise above the condition of labourers at 6d. a-day—and who were worse lodged, clothed, and fed than the peasantry of any other civilised country, or even than many savage and heathen races. We boast of the natural advantages of Ireland, and of the capabilities of the peasantry; but we must reflect that, in proportion to the population, even still there are more paupers in Ireland than in any other country pretending to civilisation.
The whole question of modern peaceful emigration is intimately connected with pauperism. Now, the poor may be divided into four several classes—the first and least numerous is composed of those wretched beings who, from organic deformity, whether manifested in mind or body, are unable to earn their bread, and with these may be included the aged; the next is composed of the wicked and idle, who refuse to labour for their subsistence, and who, not possessing realised property of their own, are supported, whether comfortably or not, whether in whole or in part, by the labour and charity of their friends; the third is composed of those who, by war or other such violent means, have been deprived of their realised property, and are consequently unable to support themselves; the fourth, and by far the most numerous class, consists of the great masses of mankind, descendants of savages, who as yet have scarcely emerged from primitive barbarism, and who, through ignorance of the methods of life, linger always upon the verge of starvation.
This last division includes the great majority of the poor in every country. In Ireland, it is principally formed of the Irish-speaking peasantry, or their descendants, who for ages have subsisted in the same state, fluctuating perhaps slightly with the growth and abundance of the miserable vegetables upon which they subsisted. Nor can it be said with certainty that the ancestors of these poor persons, in all their migrations from Irama, through Europe, to Ireland during many thousand years, were ever in a positively better condition than they themselves were in the years 1844 and 1845.
Now, it is at once to be perceived that the immense emigration of the last four years must have diminished the number of those likely to fall upon the poor-rates; and this is proved from the following tables:—
| Year. | No. of Unions. | Expenditure. | Paupers |
| 1840 | 4 | £37,057 | 10,910 |
| 1841 | 37 | 110,278 | 31,108 |
| 1842 | 92 | 281,233 | 87,604 |
| 1843 | 106 | 244,374 | 87,898 |
| 1844 | 113 | 271,334 | 105,358 |
| 1845 | 123 | 316,025 | 114,205 |
| 1846 | 129 | 435,001 | 243,993 |
| 1847 | 130 | 803,686 | 417,139 |
| 1848 | 131 | 1,835,310 | 610,463 |
| 1849 | 131 | 2,177,651 | 932,284 |
| 1850 | 163 | 1,430,108 | 805,702 |
| 1851 | 163 | 1,110,892 | 708,450 |
