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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 1494: IRELAND.
By Edward Farr
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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

IRELAND.

Of this country, at the close of our History as well as so frequently during its progress, it is a painful duty to relate that its moral and material progress was retarded by barbarous and cruel assassinations perpetrated by member’s of a secret conclave, called the Ribbon Society. This society was exclusively composed of Roman Catholics, and fanatics of that creed. Their brutal murders were partly agrarian, and partly of a bigoted character; but the effect upon the social condition and prosperity of the country was disastrous. Still progress was made, and agricultural and commercial enterprise increased. A government report, on the agricultural statistics of Ireland for 1858, just published, gives the following particulars:—“The land under crops was 5,882,052 acres; under grass, 9,354,117 acres; fallow. 42,551; woods, &c., 313,271; and bog or waste, 4,667,331 acres. In some counties the area under tillage continues to increase; in 13 of them it has diminished. The total increase last year, on 1857, was 22,935 acres. The principal crops grown in Ireland, are oats, potatoes, and hay, which in 1858 occupied 78 acres in every 100 of the entire extent under cultivation. In that year, the proportionate area under oats was 34, potatoes 24, and hay 24 acres in every 100. Wheat covered only nine, turnips six, and flax not quite two acres per cent, of the whole area under crops. The area under crops in 1858 is thus divided:—Wheat, 546,964 acres; oats, 1,981,241; barley, 190,768; rye, 11,470; and beans, 11,038; potatoes, 1,159,707; turnips, 338,202; mangold-wurtzel, 29,547; flax, 91,646; rape, 14,067; and meadow and clover, 1,424,495 acres. The grass lands of Ireland cover nearly one-half of the entire surface of the island. These tracts do not include the land under meadow and clover (or the hay-producing lands), but merely those returned to the enumerators as used for pasture at the time of the collection of the statistics. The turf-bog is a very valuable portion of the land, the turf being used for fuel, and till coal becomes cheap enough to supersede it, the reclamation of bog will be but slow in many parts of the island. There were 599,178 holdings in Ireland in 1858: viz. 38,198 of 1 acre (not exceeding); 83,219 of 1 to 5 acres; 181,267 of 5 to 15 acres; 139,618 of 15 to 30 acres; 71,791 of 30 to 50 acres; 53,544 of 50 to 100 acres; 21,566 of 100 to 200 acres; 8,383 of 200 to 500 acres; and 1,592 of above 500 acres. The holdings have increased by 4,786. Of the entire 20,259,322 acres forming the area of Ireland, nearly one-half is in the possession of farmers holding from 15 to 100 acres, of which 1,475,433 acres, or 14.9 in every 100 is waste or unproductive; about one-third is under farms of 100 to 500 acres, of which 1,741,956 acres, or 28.5 per cent., is bog or waste, and one-tenth of which, more than 1,260,535 acres, or nearly one-half, are unprofitable for tillage, is occupied by farms of above 500 acres; the remainder, which includes only 189,407 acres of the waste lands, is in the hands of farmers holding under 15 acres. The following is the return of live stock for 1858: viz. 630,611 horses and mules, 163,323 asses, 3,667,304 cattle, 3,494,993 sheep, 1,409,883 pigs, 228,351 goats, and 9,563,185 poultry. The value is computed at £34,977,244. The weed nuisance is still bitterly complained of by the Irish registrar-general, who urges the passing of a bill to compel the destruction of weeds with winged seeds before they are allowed to ripen. Besides the Blue-book from which the above figures are copied, two small papers have been printed, giving briefly the statistics for 1859. Last year, then, it appears that 465,497 acres were under wheat, 1,981,197 under oats, 1,200,144 under potatoes, 322,266 under turnips, 136,329 under flax, and 1,436,680 under meadow and clover. The gross total area under crops was 5,861,666 acres, against 5,882,052 in 1858. There was a decrease in cereal and an increase in green crops. The net total decrease was 20,386 acres. Weeds are again complained of. The live stock in 1859 included 628,916 horses, 3,810,136 horned cattle, 3,588,356 sheep, and 1,262,873 pigs.”