|
IRELAND
EMIGRATION
and
VALUATION AND PURCHASE OF LAND IN IRELAND
By John Locke
LONDON:
John William Parker and Son, 445, West Strand;
or from the author, 14, Henrietta Street, Dublin.
Published 1853
| p. 5 -
Irish Emigration, with especial
reference to the working of the Incumbered Estates
Commission.
-----
[Read before the tatistial Section of
the British Association, at Belfast, 3rd Sept., 1852]
------
| THE agricultural
blight of 1846, which swept away the staple food
of the Irish peasantry, initiated a series of
events, that promise to result in a total
revolution of the social and industrial
condition of Ireland. Not only the love of
country, but the rude agrarian links, that bound
the peasant to his farmstead, at whatever
desperate risk, were completely broken by the
loss of the potato crop; and, following close
upon the steps of famine, came that
emigration,so unprecedented in extent, as to be
termed by journalists the National Exodus;
and which now appears to be annually increasing
beyond the supply from births and immigration,
the circle of attraction being widened by every
emigrant, whose first savings are almost
invariably transmitted to the parent country,
for the purpose of defraying the passage-money
of relatives and friends; the remittances from
North America to Ireland, in 1851, intended
mainly for this purpose, amounting to the
enormous sum of 990,000l.* |
|
Social revolution |
According to the twelfth report of the Colonial
Land and Emigration Commissioners, the total
decrease in the population between 1841 and 1851
was 1,659,330, and the emigration within the
same period 1,289,133, or more than
three-fourths of this decrease. Again, by
the last census, the population of Ireland on
Mar. 31st 1850, was
6,515,794, and, assuming the rate of increase by
births at 1 per cent, per annum, it would give
an annual addition of only 65,157: but the
number of emigrants in 1851 is estimated at
257,372, or about double the average emigration
of the preceding ten years, whilst it exceeds
any probable increase of the population by
nearly four to one; and this disproportion is
still further aggravated by the fact, that the
outflow is of vigorous adults (male and female
in nearly equal numbers), by whom population is
mainly sustained, while orphaned infancy,
destitution, and old age, an unprolific remnant,
are left behind. The attraction of the
gold-fields abroad, and the number of evictions
at home, also contribute largely to swell the
tide of emigration; and both these causes are on
the increase, new gold districts being
discovered, and proprietors of land, especially
those who have purchased under the Encumbered
Estates Court, finding the consolidation of
farms a necessary preliminary to the
introduction of an improved system of
agriculture. This policy is, indeed,
sometimes adopted with as little discretion as
humanity, for tenancy must be considered in most
instances as the indispensable instrumentality
of production and profit, few purchasers being
either willing to farm their land, or competent
to so with advantage. There may be
difficulty in finding a new tenant, but there
can be no mistake
in keeping and encouraging one who is inclined
to improve. |
|
Decrease
of
population |
If then Irish expatriation proceed in this
accelerating ratio (and the number of emigrants
for the first four months of 1852 (76,370)†
-----
* Twelfth Report of the Colonial Land and Emigration
Commissioners, pp. 9 - 12, and p. 68.
† Twelfth Report of the Emigration Commissioners.
p. 6 -
appears to warrant such an inference) a simple
sum in arithmetical progression suffices to
demonstrate, that the country will be denuded of
its agricultural population in a very few years.
There is no doubt, indeed, that the change is
usually a beneficial one for the emigrants
themselves, tending to develop, by many
favourable opportunities, and urgent motives of
action, their moral capabilities, and latent
intellect; and rejecting the servile and
slothful habits of a worn-out state of society
for the awakening energies of a new country,
that affords high remuneration for labour, and
ensures to persevering industry its just measure
of reward. And this observation applies
especially to the inhabitants of the remote
west, where the physical type has been gradually
deteriorating for generations, and the inferior
facial angle, and stunted size, denote
degradation both of the physical and
intellectual man. Where the peasantry had
no knowledge of the wants of an advanced
civilization, and no experience of its comforts,
their food a precarious root, their dwellings of
mud and straw, the result could not be
otherwise; for a sordid habitude of life will
dwarf the bodily frame, and penury will ‘‘chill
the genial current of the soul.” |
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Increase
of
emigration |
|
An elaborate article was lately published in a
French newspaper (La Presse), by M. Bertillon,
proving by comparison between the former
condition of the negroes and present state of
that emancipated race in the West Indies, that
education and liberty conduce to lengthen life,
and consequently increase population; and had we
time now to enter upon the subject, we might
demonstrate by comparison of Ulster with
Connaught, that the numbers and prosperity of a
population are precisely in proportion to the
extension of sound education, and the
application of the principles of industry and
rational freedom to the conduct of life. |
|
Effects
of
education |
|
We now proceed to consider the reparative
agencies, that promise to check the consequences
of excessive emigration; and these are, 1st, The
general progress of the people, industrial,
educational, and social, 2ndly, A well defined
law of tenure, worked out in the spirit of its
intention by the mutual good-feeling and
good-sense of landlords and tenants; and 3rdly,
The improvement of the labouring classes,
including cottiers and small farmers, whose
profits and wages have been hitherto
insufficient for decent maintenance. Now,
the first mentioned is abundantly manifest in
the decrease of crime and the increase of
agricultural improvement and general enterprise
throughout the country. Of the second, we
may entertain a well-grounded expectation, the
matter being in competent and zealous hands; and
the diminution of poor-law taxation, and
substitution of independent capitalists for
distressed or insolvent landed proprietors, who
were unhappily incapacitated from fulfilling the
responsibilities of their position, afford
strong warranty for the improvement of the
labouring classes; which is, indeed, already
felt in the rise of wages and progress of
industry in all its departments, agricultural,
manufacturing, and commercial. |
|
Reparative
agencies |
|
To discuss all the subjects involved in our
inquiry, would lead to statements and reasonings
quite too numerous and tedious for a brief
essay: I have therefore selected but one branch,
and have now the honour to lay before the
section a series of tables, together with a few
statistical observations, compiled from the
records of the Incumbered Estates Court, proving
the importance and extent of those social and
p. 7
economic changes, which have been facilitated,
rather than caused, by the enactment of a law,
severe indeed in its operation to some, but
justified by the public exigency, and rendered
unavoidable from circumstances that legislative
wisdom could neither anticipate nor control.
The number of Petitions lodged for sale of estates up
to July 3 1st, is 2,389; number of Absolute
Orders for sale, to same date, 1,714; the number
of Conveyances executed to August 9th, is 2,310.
From the first sale under the act, which took place
February 19th 1850, to the end of July 1852, not
quite two years and a half, 779 estates, or
parts of estates, have been sold, in 4,062 lots,
to 2,455 purchasers; so that the number of
proprietors has been more than trebled; and this
proportion is in fact considerably greater; for
the purchases of the Ballinahinch property, and
a few other large estates, are intended for
division and re-sale in lots.
The quantity of land, that has already changed hands,
exceeds 1,000,000 acres, or one-twentieth of the
surface of the island; the total area exclusive
of water amounting, according to the Ordnance
Survey, to 20,177,446 acres.
In comparing the great extent of acreage with the
proportionally small amount of the
purchase-money, especially in the case of
English purchasers (see Table II), it must be
borne in mind, that a great portion of the land,
especially in Mayo and Galway, consists of
mountain, bog, and unreclaimed tracts.
The total proceeds of the sales is upwards of 7,000,000l.,
and the amount distributed up to August 26th,
inclusive of about 1,000,000l. allowed to
incumbrancers, who became purchasers, is
4,248,708l. 11s. 1d., or
nearly two-thirds of the produce of the sales;
thus, not only realizing this enormous amount of
capital, hitherto locked up in barren mortgages
or chancery litigation, but quickening its
circulation, and facilitating its productive
reinvestment in the soil. The comparison
of the number of purchasers with the number of
conveyances executed, and of the amount
distributed with the total amount of sales,
prove how diligently and satisfactorily to the
public the Commissioners are accomplishing their
arduous labours.
TABLE I.
Showing the Number and
Comparative Amounts of Purchasers under the
Incumbered Estates' Court.
By
this table it appears, that the purchasers
at and under 2000l., are two-thirds
of the whole number; thus exhibiting the
practical tendency of the Act to establish
an independent agricultural middle class,
which is so much wanting in Ireland.
The greatest amount of sales has been in
Galway, - nearly a million; the least in
Londonderry, - only 7015l.
There have been only two purchases exceeding
100,000l., one in Galway, and one in
Queen's County, *
* Emo Park, part of Lord
Portarlington's estate, purchased by
himself; and the Ballinahinch
Etsate in Galway, purchased by the
mortgagees, the Law Life Insurance Company,
who will probably re-sell in lots.
p. 8 -
Showing the County, Acreage, and
Amount - English and Scotch Purchasers.
TABLE II.
Showing the County, Acreage, and Amount -
English and Scotch Purchasers.
p. 9 -
English and Scotch have purchased in every
county in Ireland, except Clare in Muster,
Sligo in Connaught, and Down, Armagh, Cavan,
Fermanagh, and Londonderry, in Ulster.
TABLE III.
Acreage and Amounts arranged according to
Provinces.
TABLE IV.
Showing the Localities from whence the
Purchase-Money came.
p. 10 -
Of
these, one purchaser was from Calcutta,
amount 24,250l.; three from the Isle
of Man, all under 1,200l.; and eight
from cotland: - viz., one between 2000l.
and 5000l.; and seven between 5000l.
and 10,000l. of the eight purchasers
from Scotland, two were gentry and six
farmers.
TABLE VI.
Showing (as accurately as can be
ascertained) the Classification of these
Purchasers.
|
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Incumbered
Estates
Commission. |
It is a fact of great importance, as affecting
the improvement of the far west, that English
and Scotch purchasers, and farmers also, usually
settle in groups. Thus, 63,000 acres of
Sir R. O'Donnell's Mayo estates have been
purchased by English captalists, led by Mr.
Ashworth; whose work, entitled "The Saxon in
Ireland," has been so serviceable to this
country. And now a large portion of Erris,
and of the northern shores of Clew bay, are in
the possession of Englishmen. Again, in
Galway another set of English purchasers,
Messrs, Twining, Ellis, Eastwood, Palmer,
and others, are grouped on the shores of
Ballinakil bay, and in the vale of Kylemore.
Nor are our own countrymen backward in the work
of improvement, nineteen-twentieths of the
purchasers being Irish, and the greater number
of these, especially in the west, diligently
applying their capital to reclamation of the
soil. Even in this prosperous province,*
the advantages of facilitating the sale and
transmission of hopelessly incumbered property,
are remarkably exemplified, the sale of the
Mountcashel estate affording
opportunity to the wealthy citizens of Belfast
to invest their capital in land; and the sale of
the Donegall estate stimulating
the enterprise of manufacturers and tradesmen,
by enabling them to purchase their own holdings
or tenements in the borough.
We now return to our subject of English and Scotch
purchases; and it will be observed, on reference
to the foregoing tables, that by far the greater
proportion of these is in the very districts of
the far west, where the population has been most
diminished, and where capital and improvement
are chiefly required; three-fourths of the total
average being in Galway and Mayo, and two-fifths
of the total amount being invested in the same
counties.
The immigration too is confessedly not of an expulsive
character, abundance of unoccupied land,
perished from stagnant water, or the surface of
which has been only scratched in scattered
patches for centuries, being in the market, and
inviting the advent of more productive systems
of culture.
The number of English and Scotch purchasers, as well as
the
---------------
*Ulsterp. 11 -
amount of their investments, is also increasing.
Up to January 31st of this year, the purchasers
were one-twenty-fifth* as to number, and
one-tenth as to the total amount of
purchase-money. On referring to these
tabbies, we shall find, that up to July 31st the
proportion as to number is one-twentieth, and as
to amount, about one sixth of the total
purchase-money.
It is undeniable, that the forethought, punctuality,
disciplined labour, and scientific skill of the
English and Scotch farmer,—what may in one word
be termed industrial economy, must prove an
invigorating graft on those wayward and
procrastinating habits, that have for so long a
period impeded the improvement of the peasantry
of the south and west of Ireland. |
|
English
immigration |
|
It was not until the jealousies of Norman and
Saxon merged in one common name and undivided
interest, that the signs were developed in
England of that progress, which has placed her
at the head of the nations. And just in
proportion as the invidious distinction of Celt
and Saxon is forgotten in this country, and all
classes, however differing in creed or opinion,
are bound to each other and to the throne by the
links of constitutional loyalty and social
order, will a similar happy example of progress
be developed in Ireland.
_________________________
Observations of the
Valuation and Purchase of Land in Ireland.
[Read before the Statistical Society of
London, 15th November, 1852.]
IN the
present transition state of property in Ireland,
valuation of land, based upon correct data, is
of great importance; and the writer of this
paper respectfully offers the results of his
information and experience on the subject, in
the hope that these may be of service,
especially to English and Scotch capitalists
seeking investments in this country. |
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Union and
progress. |
|
The Commissioners for the Sale of Incumbered
Estates, in certain cases, direct a special
valuation to be made by some competent valuator,
on application made to them showing proper
reasons for such a measure; but it is required,
in every case, that the Poor Law and Government
valuations should be set forth in the published
rentals of estates for sale |
|
Special
valuations |
| in their court. The
Poor Law valuation may be comparatively useful,
as a check on other valuations, in estimating
the amount of purchase but, having been
originally made, or subsequently revised, by
isolated individuals at different periods,
without co-operation or reference to any fixed
schedule of prices, it cannot be relied on as an
accurate |
|
Poor Law
valuations |
measure of value.
The Government valuations were constituted under
three Acts of Parliament, made respectively in
1839 (6 and 7 Wm. IV. c. 84), 1846 (9 and
10 Vict. c. 110), and 1852 (15 and 16 Vict. c.
63). The first-named, usually termed the
Ordnance Valuation, was based on a fixed scale
of prices of agricultural produce, and intended
to form an uniform and relative valuation, the
townland (the smallest denomination of land
possessing permanent boundaries) being made the
unit
-------------------------
* For more detailed information on this and
other subjects connected with the social
condition of Ireland, the reader is referred to
a pamphlet by the same author, entitled,
"Ireland, Observations on the People, the Land
and the Law,” &c.p. 12 -
p. 13 -
|
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Government
valuations. |
|
The amount of Poor Law taxation, now happily
dimishing throughout Ireland, will not be a
serious discouragement when it is considered
that the very circumstance of an independent and
employing capitalist becoming the proprietor of
a hitherto insolvent estate, must necessarily
result in the reduction of local taxation. But
purchasers should look closely to the condition
of land as respects drainage, farm buildings, or
excessive population; the expenditure necessary
to remedy imperfections in such matters being,
in reality, an essential element of price. |
|
Poor Law
taxation. |
|
The schedule of prices in the ordnance (or
townland) valuation, and the average for the
first nine months of this year, are here stated,
from comparison of which with the valuation of
any townland, the present annual letting value
can be easily computed. The scale adopted in the
Act last passed is not given, as its utility to
the land market will not be generally available
for several years; the only districts as yet
completed under this Act being the municipal
borough of Cork, four baronies in Kerry, one in
Limerick, and one in Tipperary.† |
|
Comparative
scales of
prices |
-------------------------
* The Ordnance Maps may be had at Hodges and Smith’s,
Dublin, for 2s. 6d., or 5s.
the sheet. The valuations may be inspected
at the office of the General Survey and
Valuation of Ireland, in Dublin. It is
manifest that the townland valuation does not
apply where the lot is only a part of any
townland, but this very seldom occurs.
† Glenarought,
Corkaguiny, Dunkerron North and Dunkerron South,
in Kerry; Iffa and Offa West, in Tipperary; and
Glenquin, in Limerick. |
|
|
p. 14. -
Valuation and Purchases of
Land in Ireland.
TABLE I.
Scale of Prices adopted under the Townland
Valuation, 6 & 7 Wm. IV, c. 84.
TABLE II.
Average of Four Markets - Dublin, Belfast,
Cork, and Mullingar - from
January to September, 1852, both inclusive.
On
comparing these tables it will be seen, at a
glance, that the townland valuation is a
perfectly safe measure of annual value, with the
qualifying observations before started. |
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It will
be expected, perhaps, that some definite opinion
should be here given as to the rates of
purchase, but there are so many modifying local
circumstances to be considered in each case,
that any fixed estimate would be incapale
of general application. The published
rentals, when representing the rents previously
to 1846, are in such instances usually
fallacious, and we may therefore refer to the
Government valuations. From 21 to 25
years’ purchase of the net annual value is a
moderate scale in Leinster and Ulster, with
exception of Monaghan and Cavan, where land is
somewhat lower than in the other counties;
finding this net value by deducting the tithe
rent-charge and half the poor rate from the
government valuations,* the full amount of poor
s rate being averaged at 2s. 8d.
in the pound annually. A similar estimate may be
also assumed in Waterford and the eastern half
of Cork. In the remaining counties of
Munster, and in Connaught, from 17 to 22 years*
purchase may be estimated as a safe investment,
finding the net value as before, and the poor
rate being averaged at 5s. in the pound
annually. These are, however, but very
loose approximations. The estate, or lot,
should be personally inspected, and considered
in every aspect, from its geological
-------------------------
* The townland (or ordnance) valuation has been
completed in twenty-six counties, as already
stated. In the remaining six counties the
tenement valuation (where published) may be made
equally available, the results of both being
nearly identical, inasmuch as the scale of the
townland valuation differs very little from the
average prices of 1846, upon which the latter
valuation, or rent-estimate of tenements, has
been founded. |
|
Rates of
purchase |
| p. 15 -
Valuation and Purchases of
Land in Ireland.
structure to its marketable
position. THe capitalist, or farmer,
intending to settle in Ireland, will generally
find estates divided into large farms with
substantial buildings, in Leinster. In
Ulster (excepting Donegal) the rents are
comparatively higher, though quite as well paid
as in Leinster, but the land is much subdivided
throughout all the
manufacturing districts of the former province.
In Munster and Connaught (especially in the
counties of Galway and Mayo) the enterprising
agriculturist will find large tracts in the
market, abundant in all the elements of
undeveloped fertility, inviting the outlay of
capital. |
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English and
Irish farming |
| |
|
Purchase of
estates in
Chancery |
| |
|
Of peaty
mountain or
moorland. |
| |
|
Of impropriate
tithe rent
charge |
| |
|
Of head-rents |
Estates subject to heavy head-rents or annuities
have hitherto sold much below the average range
of price brought by unincumbered fee-simple
property; and this circumstance appears to have
mainly influenced the unanimous decision of a
Committee of the House of Lords in recommending
a total abandonment of the claim for the labour-rate
advances made during the famine, and imposed on
our Poor Law unions
in the shape of a consolidated annuity, not
exceeding 40 years. The following communication,
extracted from the report of that Committee,
affords a clear example of the depreciation of
property thus circumstanced, which, however, has
risen in demand with the improvement of our land
market during the past year; as is specially
evidenced by an increased price on re-sales, or
adjourned sales, of from 3 to 7 years
-------------------------
* See “Ireland, Observations on," &c. &c. p. 57.
|
|
Of leaseholds,
and estates
subject to
heavy annual
charges |
| p. 16 -
Valuation and Purchases of
Land in Ireland.
|
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|
INSERT TABLE
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British invest-
ments in the
far west. |
|
p. 17 -
Valuation of Purchase of
Land in Ireland.
But little tenement property has been sold in
Ireland, except in Dublin, Cork and Belfast.
In the last mentioned prosperous community from
25 to 30 years' purchase has been generally give
for the numerous lots of the Marquis of
Donegall's estate: elsewhere such property has
seldom brought more than 18 years; purchase on
the nett rental or value. |
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Tenement
and house
property. |
| |
|
Freedom from
taxation |
| |
|
Fixed charges
on landed
estates |
| |
|
Incidental
charges |
| |
|
Cheap labour. |
| |
|
Profits on
purchases |
|
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Warnings to new
proprietors. |
p. 18. -
-------------------------
*See "Ireland, Observations on," &c. &c. pp. 42 - 47. |
|
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| p. 18 -
Valuation and Purchase of
Land in Ireland.
or accumulations, may reader
himself and succesors in a great measure
independent of those evils that have so deformed
and disorganized our social and civil condition
in Ireland.
The incoming
As the legal |
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The neglected tenantry |
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Neglected
tenantry |
|
Men of capital |
|
Encourage-
ment to
settlers |
| p. 19 -
Valuation and Purchase of
Land in Ireland.
History
affords no parallel
_________________________
The
Schedule of Prices under 15 & 16 Vict. c. 63,
referred to in p. 9, is here added: -
Wheat at the general average of seven shillings and
sixpence per hundred-weight of one hundred and
twelve pounds:
Oats at the general average price of four shillings and
tenpence per hundredweight of one hundred and
twelve pounds;
Barley at the general average price of five shillings
and sixpence per hundredweight of one hundred
and twelve pounds;
Flax at the general average price of forty-nine
shillings per hundred weight of one hundred and
twelve pounds;
Butter at the general average price of sixty-five
shillings and four pence per hundredweight of
one hundred and twelve pounds;
Beef at the general average price of thirty-five
shillings and sixpence per hundredweight of one
hundred and twelve pounds.
Mutton at the general average price of forty-one
shillings per hundredweight of one hundred and
twelve pounds.
Pork at the general average price of thirty-two
shillings per hundredweight of one hundred and
twelve pounds. |
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