acturing population of that town were to rely
for their maintenance on the demand for their productions at home, they
would simply starve. But they make the best and the cheapest goods of
their kind, and hence the demand for them is world-wide.

There is an abundant scope for the employment of capital and skilled
labour in Ireland. During the last few years land has been falling
rapidly out of cultivation. The area under cereal crops has
accordingly considerably decreased.[2] Since 1868, not less than
400,000 acres have been disused for this purpose.[3] Wheat can be
bought better and cheaper in America, and imported into Ireland ground
into flour. The consequence is, that the men who worked the soil, as
well as the men who ground the corn, are thrown out of employment, and
there is nothing left for them but subsistence upon the poor-rates,
emigration to other countries, or employment in some new domestic
industry.

Ireland is by no means the "poor Ireland" that she is commonly supposed
to be. The last returns of the Postmaster-General show that she is
growing in wealth. Irish thrift has been steadily at work during the
last twenty years. Since the establishment of the Post Office Savings
Banks, in 1861, the deposits have annually increased in value. At the
end of 1882, more than two millions sterling had been deposited in
these banks, and every county participated in the increase.[4] The
largest accumulations were in the counties of Dublin, Antrim, Cork,
Down, Tipperary, and Tyrone, in the order named. Besides this amount,
the sum of 2,082,413L. was due to depositors in the ordinary Savings
Banks on the 20th of November, 1882; or, in all, more than four
millions sterling, the deposits of small capitalists. At Cork, at the
end of last year, it was found that the total deposits made in the
savings bank had been 76,000L, or an increase of 6,675L. over the
preceding twelve months. But this is not all. The Irish middle
classes are accustomed to deposit most of their savings in the Joint
Stock banks; and from the returns presented to the Lord Lieutenant,
dated the 31st of January, 1883, we find that these had been more than
doubled in twenty years, the deposits and cash balances having
increased from 14,389,000L. at the end of 1862, to 32,746,000L. at the
end of 1882. During the last year they had increased by the sum of
2,585,000L. "So large an increase in bank deposits and cash balances,"
says the Report,