Lord Emly, on Tuesday, delivered a speech before the Irish
Statistical Society, in which he produced figures showing that the value of land in Ireland has risen by nearly three years' pur- chase since Mr. Gladstone's Land Act came into operation. In the seven years ending 1870, the average number of years' pur- chase given for land was 17 2-3rds, while in 1873 it had risen to 20i, the exact difference being, therefore, 21. The landlord has therefore lost nothing in money, though he has suffered some diminution in prestige, while it is calculated that the additional value conferred on occupancies throughout Ireland is not less, according to the best statists, than £75,000,000. As to taxation, so far from Ireland being despoiled, she is exempted from taxes paid in Great Britain to the amount of /3,800,612 a year, and receives also in proportion more than Great Britain from the Treasury in relief of local taxation. The dark spot in Ireland is the decline of the industrial classes, who were leas in number in 1871 than in 1861, a decline attributed by Lord Emly to the want of a proper system of intermediate education. Might he not add, to the want of a proper sense of the fact that a dead employer, or one frightened away by threats, cannot pay wages?
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