“The comparative prosperity enjoyed by that part of Ireland where tranquillity ordinarily prevails.--such as the Counties Down, Antrim, and Derry,--testify the _capabilities of Ireland to work out her own regeneration_, when freed of the disturbing causes which have so long impeded her progress in civilization and improvement. “We find there a population hardy, healthy, and _employed_; capital fast flowing into this district; new sources of employment daily developing themselves; and people well disposed alike to Government and to the institutions of the country, and not distrustful and jealous of their superiors.” In another place the Commission reports that the manufacturing industries of Ireland were doing well, and that-- “The woollen trade in Ireland is in a more sound and healthy condition than it has ever been, and its yearly advance may be confidently expected.” There was an abundant supply of land for the increasing population--1,200,000 acres of land being capable of cultivation, besides upwards of 1,000,000 acres of bog land capable of reclamation at a cost of little more than £1 per acre. With such capabilities for advancement, nothing short of the most extraordinary prosperity ought to have followed the general advance of wealth in the civilised world, caused by the improvements in arts, sciences, machinery, steam, and electricity. But what do we find after thirty-six years of the curse of Free Trade? Land out of cultivation; farms abandoned; manufacturing industries extinct; population decreasing by more than three millions[79] in forty years. Anarchy, murder, assassination rampant. No doubt the Famine of 1847 and the subsequent emigration caused a large decrease in the population of Ireland, but disciples of the Malthusian theory would have told you that this was an element of prosperity. I do not hold this view, but any protectionist country would have rapidly recovered the blow, whilst Free Trade Ireland has since steadily decreased in population, and is sinking lower and lower into the Slough of Despond. You argue that “_rack-renting is the cause_.” Nonsense! The average rent of land in Ireland is only one-third of that which is paid in prosperous protectionist countries;[80] any rent at all will soon be a rack-rent. There is plenty of land in Ireland to be had at nominal rents, land that has gone out of cultivation; but Free Trade has taken away the possibility of its cultivation at a profit, even if it were rent-free. You urge absenteeism as the cause; it is the _effect_, not the cause. Moreover, only about one-sixth of the land is owned by absentees.