The significance of these figures is shown by the Government valuation in 1867.  The valuation of Mourne Union is 40,668 l., the average for each person being 2 l. and for each holding 11 l.  The valuation of Trim is 109,068 l., allowing 5 l. for each person and 38 l. for each holding.  In other words, the capability of the land of Trim to support population is as five to two when compared with Mourne; but whereas in Mourne 2 1/3 acres support one person, in Trim it takes 5 acres to support one person—­about double the quantity.  As the value of the land in Meath is more than double what it is in Mourne, each acre in Meath ought to maintain its man.  That is, if Meath were cultivated like Down, its population ought to be five times as large as it is!

But this is not the whole case.  The Mourne population may be too large.  With so many families crowded on such a small tract of poor land, the Union must be overwhelmed with pauperism.  If so, the case for tenant-right and tillage would fall to the ground, and Scullyism would be triumphant.  Let us see, then, how stands this essential fact.  The number of paupers in the workhouse and receiving outdoor relief in the Union of Trim, in 1866, was 2,474.  This large amount of pauperism is not peculiar to Trim.  It belongs to other Unions of this rich grazing district, which so fully realises the late Lord Carlisle’s ideal of Irish prosperity.  Navan Union has 3,820 paupers, and Kells has 1,306.  Now, the population of Trim and Mourne being nearly the same, and Trim being twice as rich as Mourne, and not half as thickly peopled, it follows that Mourne ought to have at least four times as many paupers as Trim—­that is, it ought to have 9,896.  But it actually has only 521 persons receiving relief in and out of the workhouse!

Consequently, Scullyism and grazing produce nearly twenty times the amount of poverty and misery produced by tenant-right and tillage.

I have not overlooked the difference of race and religion.  On the contrary, they were uppermost in my mind when rambling among the nice, clean, comfortable, orderly homesteads of Mourne, reminding me strongly of Forth and Bargy in the county Wexford.  I said to the owner and driver of my car, who is a Roman Catholic, ’Do the Roman Catholics here keep their houses and farms in as nice order as the Presbyterians?’ He answered, ’Why should they not?  Are they not the same flesh and blood?’

According to the census of 1861, the Roman Catholics greatly outnumber the Protestants in this Union.  The exact figures are:—­

Total population of Mourne Union 22,614
Protestants of all denominations 8,080
Roman Catholics 14,534

The result of this comparison may perhaps make a better impression on the reader’s mind if cast in the form of tables, as given on succeeding page.

Table Headings: 

Col A. Population in 1861
Col B. No. of Holdings in 1864
Col C. Total Area (in Stat.  Acres)
Col D. Area under Crops, 1864 (in Stat.  Acres)
Col E. Valuation in 1807 (in L)
Col F. No. in Workhouse and receiving Out-door Relief
Col G. Protestants of all denominations
Col H. Roman Catholics