Previous to the Famine there was a large and steady emigration from Ireland for many years, independent of Government aid.  The total colonial and foreign emigration between 1831 and 1841 amounted to 403,459, to which the returns add 25,012, for probable births, that item being calculated at one and a-half per cent. per annum; making a total of 428,471.  These figures give a yearly average of nearly 43,000.[282] Of these, 214,047 embarked from Irish ports, 152,738 from Liverpool; and ten per cent. was added for imperfect returns.  The largest number of those who went from Ireland direct to the colonies or foreign countries, from any one port, embarked at Belfast, viz., twenty per cent. of the whole.  From Cork nearly the same.  From the ports of Ulster there went 76,905.  From the ports of Munster 70,046.  From Leinster 34,977, and from Connaught only 32,119.  Those emigrants who embarked from Irish ports proceeded as follows:—­189,225 to British America, namely, 107,792 males and 81,233 females; to the United States of America 19,775, namely, 10,725 males, and 2,950 females; to the Australian colonies, there went 4,553, in the proportion of 2,300 males and 2,253 females; and 494 persons embarked for the West Indies—­300 males and 194 females.[283]

Within the decade of years comprised between 1831 and 1841, emigration was at its minimum in 1838, the number that left our shores in that year being only 14,700; it rose to its maximum in 1841, namely, 71,392.  It rose still higher in 1842, the emigrants of that year being set down at 89,686.  The year 1843 was named by O’Connell the Repeal year; the people were filled with the hope of soon seeing a parliament in College Green, and to this fact may probably, be attributed the great falling off in emigration; the number for that year being only 37,509.  It increased in 1844 to 54,289; and in 1845—­the eve of the Famine, to 74,969 persons.

In the year 1846, as might be expected, emigration from Ireland reached a height which it had never attained before in a single year; the number, as estimated by the Emigration Commissioners, being 105,955.  Besides which between the 13th of January and the 1st of November, 278,005 immigrants arrived at Liverpool from Ireland; but the Irish labourers who, at that time, annually visited England, and who were variously estimated at from 10,000 to 30,000, are included in the number.  For the protection of the emigrants, additional agents were appointed by the Government at Liverpool and some Irish ports; and the annual vote in aid of colonial funds, for the relief of sick and destitute emigrants from the United Kingdom, was increased from L1,000 to L10,000.[284]