Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland, Vol. 9

Book excerpt: Excerpt from Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland, Vol. 9: Part LXXI; September 1891 If by extra labour he doubled all produce of his bit of land, or if he prudently abstained from producing mouths to eat it up, his only gain would be to have more left to pay his landlord, While if he had twenty children they would still be fed first, and the landlord could only take what was left. Almost alone amongst mankind the cottier is in this condition - that he can scarcely be better or worse off by any act of his own. If he were industrious or prudent nobody but his land lord would gain if he is lazy or intemperate, it is not at his landlord's expense. A situation more devoid of motives to extra labour or self command, imagination itself cannot conceive. The inducements to free labour are taken away and those of a slave not substituted. He has nothing to hope or nothing to fear, except being dispossessed of his holding, and against that he protects himself by the ultima ratio of a defensive civil war. Bookism and Whiteboyism were the determina tion of a people who had nothing that could be called theirs but a daily meal of the lowest description of food, not to submit to being deprived of it for other people's convenience. - Political Economy, Book II. C. 9. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.