The Press.
London, England, 1856-09-13 00:00:00

IRISH CENSUS REPORT,

THE Return from the Irish Census Commis-
sioners is a showy document, exhibiting a
great range of results, which arc more appa-
rent than real. It strikes us, on the whole,
as being overdone, when we remember that
the enumerators were the constabulary and
the coast guard, who are reported as having
been entirely successful, " without having re-
" course to the compulsory powers given
" them by the statute." That statement at
once suggests how extraordinary have been the
changes in Irish society. In former periods
(circa 1835, and later) there were three sets of
persons visiting every house, and private per-
sons were tormented with the inquisitorial
character of the census-takers, owing to the
jealousy between the Protestant and Roman
Catholic populations, and the anxiety of par-
tisanship to swell their numbers. " Commis-
sioners." now-a-days. are familiarised to the
Irish, and in some quarters we suspect that
political indifference has taken the place of
previous jealousy and distrust. The fact that
the Irish constabulary has been applied to
the purposes of this investigation is an inte-
resting one, and adds further proof of the
utility of that fine civil force.
In some parts of the Report we think that
the reference to particular causes may be dis-
puted, as indeed must often be the case in
documents of this kind. For example, it is
stated that " In 1841 there were 64.7 per cent.
"of the entire area occupied by arable land,
" and in 1851 there was 71.1 per cent., showing
" an increase of the arable land of 6.4 per cent."
The Commissioners then say—" This speaks
" favorably for the industry of the people, not-
"swithstauding the great diminution of the po-
" pulation between the two periods." That
inference is loose and unscientific. Without
any reference to " the industry of the people,"
we should have been quite prepared, d priors,
for such a result. Because one of the strong-
est effects of the famine and exodus was to
injure, and in some respects to destroy, large
classes of small shopkeepers in country
towns and rural districts. Shops were de-
serted, and farms taken; and just as commer-
cial business declined in country towns, in
the same proportion did agriculture increase.
The bargains bought in the Encumbered Es-
tate Courts, and the reduced rents, also con-
tributed to this result, and by natural causes
forced " the industry of the people " into that
particular direction. Many other assertions
in the Re port would challenge criticism.
" In the whole of Ireland," says the Report,
" there has been a decrease of the rural popu-
" lation to the extent of fifty-three persons to
" the square mile of the entire area, and of.
" one hundred and four to the square mile of
arable land." There must, we suspect, be
some error in the data for that calculation,
more especially as the Commissioners record
the difficulty in ascertaining what is, or not,
cultivated land in Ireland, " where there are
" large tracts of mountains uninclosed, used
" for grazing cattle, which to the ordinary ob-
" server appears as unreclaimed." An error,
or series of errors, resulting from " the
" ordinary observers" of the constabulary,
would derange the conclusions of a Quetelet.
Accuracy is the virtue of' statistics, and
observing that " the industry of the people"

SEPT. 13, 1856.

is so certified by the Commissioners,
that agriculture has increased in the ratio of
6.4 per cent, and that " the population has
" decreased to the ratio of one hundred and
" four to the square mile of arable land," we
can only say that our credence is severely
tasked. _ _ _

We may perhaps return to this Report again,
as we have not yet had leisure to peruse it all.
The history of the vicissitudes of the Irish
population, from the Revolution to our own
days, is most remarkable. In the last century
Ireland was very thinly populated, and was
little better than a huge grazing farm. A vast
increase in the population took place at the
end of the last century, owing to the legisla-
tion of the Irish Parliament in favour of corn-
growing, which resulted in potatoes, and
conacre, and a redundant peasantry. Wages
in our manufacturing districts were affected
by the influx of Irish labourers, and our
armies were recruited copiously. There is no
danger, however, that the Irish population
will recede from its present figure, and there
can be no doubt that the social condition of
the sister country is infinitely preferable to
what it was fifteen years ago, but it has passed
through a tremendous ordeal.