Page:Letters to Lord John Russell on the Further Measures for the Social Amelioration of Ireland.djvu/16

LETTER II.

Ireland not over-peopled—Proofs of this upon every scale from a Townland to a County Statistics of Mayo—Waste Land and Waste Labour generally found together—Proofs that Reclamation of Bog will Pay—Lancashire Bogs—Irish Bogs—Private Enterprise not to be relied on in Ireland—Immediate Action indispensable.

My Lord,

I have ventured to assert, contrary to the general persuasion, that Ireland is by no means over- peopled; nay, that even her seemingly most over-crowded districts might easily, by wise arrangements, be made to support in comfort their entire population. I proceed to the proof of this assertion.

I will first take an extreme instance on a small scale. In the course of last spring a memorial was circulated among Members of Parliament, signed by the Chairman of the Board of Guardians of the Union of Limerick, Mr. John Thomas Devitt, containing a statement in detail of the condition of the population of the single townland of Moanduff, in the county of Limerick, which measures less than 150 acres, and is inhabited by more than 300 souls, or above two to the acre I Being a rural townland, the inhabitants of which have to live (if they can) off its produce, it is, therefore, one of the strongest examples to be met