of labour.

I have shown how the serfdom of the Irish tenant leads to misery. But
the subject is one which would require a volume. No one can understand
the depth of Irish misery who has not lived in Ireland, and taken pains
to become acquainted with the habits and manner of life of the lower
orders. The tenant who is kept at starvation point to pay his landlord's
rent, has no means of providing for his family. He cannot encourage
trade; his sons cannot get work to do, if they are taught trades.
Emigration or the workhouse is the only resource. I think the efforts
which are made by the poor in Ireland to get work are absolutely
unexampled, and it is a cruel thing that a man who is willing to work
should not be able to get it. I know an instance in which a girl
belonging to a comparatively respectable family was taken into service,
and it was discovered that for years her only food, and the only food of
her family, was dry bread, and, as an occasional luxury, weak tea. So
accustomed had she become to this wretched fare, that she actually could
not even eat an egg. She and her family have gone to America; and I have
no doubt, after a few years, that the weakened organs will recover their
proper tone, with the gradual use of proper food.

There is another ingredient in Irish misery which has not met with the
consideration it deserves. If the landlord happens to be humane, he may
interest himself in the welfare of the _families_ of his tenantry. He
may also send a few pounds to them for coals at Christmas, or for
clothing; but such instances are unhappily rare, and the alms given is
_comparatively_ nothing. In England the case is precisely the reverse.
On this subject I speak from personal knowledge. There is scarcely a
little village in England, however poor, where there is not a committee
of ladies, assisted by the neighbouring gentry, who distribute coals,
blankets, and clothing in winter; and at all times, where there is
distress, give bread, tea, and meat. Well may the poor Irish come home
discontented after they have been to work in England, and see how
differently the poor are treated there. I admit, and I repeat it again,
that there are instances in which the landlord takes an interest in his
tenantry, but those instances are exceptions. Many of these gentlemen,
who possess the largest tracts of land in Ireland, have also large
estates in England, and they seldom, sometimes _never_, visit their
Irish estates. They