se in wages since the
famine. Well, they are nominally higher, but in the old times the
labourer could get more for 8 d. or 10 d. than he can now get for 1
s. 6 d. or 2 s. Fuel is now three times as dear as it was, because the
'rules of the estate' will not allow the tenants to sell turf even
on the verge of extensive bogs. Milk, which was formerly abundant and
very cheap, is scarcely to be had at all now in the country towns
and villages, because the land is devoted to feeding sheep and 'dry
cattle.' Under the old system, the cottiers in the small towns and
villages, as well as on the roads in the country, were enabled to keep
pigs. The pig paid the rent, and made manure which was put out on the
ground of some neighbouring farmer, hired as 'conacre.' The crop of
potatoes thus obtained was a great help in the winter months, when
employment was rarely to be had. This practice still prevails in
Ulster. The farmer puts in the crop for the manure, the cottier paying
the farmer's rent--5 s. to 10 s. a rood, or whatever it may be. With
this help the family get over the winter, and feed the pig, without
which help, they say, it would be impossible to exist, even with
constant employment at a shilling a day. But on the estates of
improving landlords in the other provinces, the rules forbid the
tenant to give the use of any ground for conacre. He must not, on pain
of eviction, take manure for such a purpose, though it would help to
enrich his land for the ensuing year. The evicted cottiers and small
farmers are forced to go to towns and villages, shut up in unwholesome
rooms. When they have been thus so far got rid of, the most ingenious
devices are resorted to in order to render it impossible for them to
live. By the 'rules of the estate,' the supply of necessaries is
cut off on every side. Without fuel, without milk, without potatoes,
unless bought at a high rate for ready money, how are they to live?
The strong members of the poor man's family emigrate or go to
service; the weak ones and the young children pine away in a state
of semi-starvation, preferring that to the best fare in the hated
workhouse.

The people are fully sensible of the causes of these privations. They
know that they have been forced into this condition by the landlords
and their improving agents, induced in some cases by the temptation of
a few pounds to surrender their little holdings. The lord lieutenant
of the King's County has thus cleared an immense