[26] It has been calculated, apparently on trustworthy data, that an acre of land planted with larch or fir, at an expense of about £20, would be worth £2000 at the end of forty years, besides the intermediate yield from clearings of young timber, game cover, and so forth. This is a very high return for a small outlay; but it is completely beyond the means of any peasant proprietor.
[27] Eason's Almanac, 1879. The actual number is 285,464. The total of agricultural holdings is 581,963.
[28] I have unfortunately been unable to obtain any statistics of the cross-channel trade. I find it stated in Thom's Directory that the trade of Belfast alone was valued in the year 1866 at £24,332,000—viz., £12,417,000 imports and £11,915,000 exports. The year 1866 was a bad year: so it may be assumed that these figures represent a low average. I find no means of estimating the import and export trade of Cork and Dublin.
I may mention here that one cause of interruption in the composition of this paper was an unsuccessful search for complete trade statistics.
[29] A few of the Home Rule M.P.'s who are now stumping the country on the Land grievance are themselves landlords. It has been suggested that they should introduce fixity of tenure on their estates, in one or other of its various forms. Mr. Errington (who is not one of the stump orators of the party) has, I am told, notified his intention to give long leases to his tenantry. In a case like this the argumentum ad hominem, though a perfectly fair one, is a perfectly useless one.
[30] I have referred above (note, p. 463) to my failure to obtain trade statistics. This circumstance has caused me to fail also in fully carrying out the original plan of this paper. I had intended not only to give a general view of the recent condition of the Irish people, but to enter somewhat fully into its causes, and discuss the probabilities of the future. The great revival in prosperity, which I have imperfectly sketched, was closely connected with the cross-channel trade. At present, affairs look sufficiently gloomy both here and in England; and the forecast of the future depends mainly upon the prospect of revival in English trade.