Census of the Islands of Bombay and Colaba, as enumerated on the 1st of May, 1849.-Continued.

Statement showing the Population and Per-Centage of Young, Adult, and Aged Persons in each Police Division.

Statement showing the Number of Males and Females of all Ages, and their Proportion to each other, in each Police Division, classified according to Caste.

VOL. XV.

PART IV.

On Irish Emigration, with especial reference to the working of the
Incumbered Estates Commission. By JOHN LOCKE, ESQ.

[Read before the Statistical Section of the British Association, at Belfast,
3rd September, 1852.]

THE agricultural blight of 1846, which swept away the staple food of the Irish peasantry, initiated a series of events, that promise to result in a total revolution of the social and industrial condition of Ireland. Not only the love of country, but the rude agrarian links, that bound the peasant to his farmstead, at whatever desperate risk, were completely broken by the loss of the potato crop; and, following close upon the steps of famine, came that emigration, so unprecedented in extent, as to be termed by journalists the National Exodus; and which now appears to be annually increasing beyond the supply from births and emigration, the circle of attraction being widened by every emigrant, whose first savings are almost invariably transmitted to the parent country, for the purpose of defraying the passage-money of relatives and friends; the remittances from North America to Ireland, in 1851, intended mainly for this purpose, amounting to the enormous sum of 990,000l.*

According to the twelfth report of the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, the total decrease in the population between 1841 and 1851 was 1,659,330, and the emigration within the same period 1,289,133, or more than three-fourths of this decrease. Again, by the last census, the population of Ireland on March 31st 1850, was 6,515,794, and, assuming the rate of increase by births at 1 per cent. per annum, it would give an annual addition of only 65,157: but the number of emigrants in 1851 is estimated at 257,372, or about double the average emigration of the preceding ten years, whilst it exceeds any probable increase of the population by nearly four to one; and this disproportion is still further aggravated by the fact, that the outflow is of vigorous adults (male and female in nearly equal numbers), by whom population is mainly sustained, while orphaned infancy, destitution, and old age, an unprolific remnant, are left behind. The attraction of the gold-fields abroad, and the number of evictions at home, also contribute largely to swell the tide of emigration; and both these causes are on the increase, new gold districts being discovered, and proprietors of land, especially those who have purchased under the Encumbered Estates Court, finding the consolidation of farms a necessary preliminary to the introduction of an improved system of agriculture. This policy is, indeed, sometimes adopted with as little discretion as humanity, for tenancy must be considered in most instances as the indispensable instrumentality of production and profit, few purchasers being either willing to farm their land, or competent to so with advantage. There may be difficulty in finding a new tenant, but there can be no mistake in keeping and encouraging one who is inclined to improve.

If then Irish expatriation proceed in this accelerating ratio (and the number of emigrants for the first four months of 1852 (76,370)† * Twelfth Report of the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, pp. 9—12, and p. 68.

† See Twelfth Report of the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, before referred to.