in 1847, the numbers who left the country were more than double those who had departed in the previous year. In 1848 there was an arrest of the exodus, and the emigrants only amounted to 178,159, but in the following year they again rose to 214,425. The emigration reached its maximum in 1851, when the numbers amounted to 249,721, after which they gradually decreased to 150,222 in 1854. Independently, however, of emigration, there was a large deficiency in the population from pestilence. The mortality increased gradually from 1840 to 1846, when the deaths reached 17,145. In 1847 there were 57,095 deaths from fever; in 1848 there were 45,948 deaths; in 1849 as many as 39,316; and in 1850 there were 23,545. The total deaths from fever during the period between 1841 and 1851 amounted to 222,029. The deaths from starvation in the years 1841 to 1851 were 21,770. The causes which led to the diminution of the population of Ireland between 1851 and 1861 were not of the twofold character to which the decrease was attributed in 1841-51. The diminution between 1851-61 may be said to have been caused by emigration alone, no fatal epidemic having prevailed during that period. The total number of emigrants from 1841—51 was 1,240,737, while the number who emigrated from Irish ports in the decade 1851-61 was 1,208,350—viz. 179,507 in 1851, 190,322 in 1852, 173,148 in 1853, 140,555 in 1854, 91,914 in 1855, 90,781 in 1856, 95,081 in 1857, 64,337 in 1858, 80,599 in 1859, 84,621 in 1860, and 17,485 from January 1 to April 7, 1861. In the seven years 1862-68 the emigration from Ireland was about 666,000. The returns of the Emigration Commissioners show that the number of emigrants of Irish origin who left the United Kingdom in each of the years 1862-68 respectively was as follows:—127,920 in 1863, 118,061 in 1864, 100,676 in 1865, 98,890 in 1866, 88,622 in 1867, and 64,961 in 1868; the last year showing a decrease of 23,661. Starting with the enumerated population of 1851—viz. 6,552,385—the Census Commissioners estimate that if emigration and immigration had been equal between 1851 and 1861, the population of Ireland in 1861 would have been 7,241,758, whereas it was found upon enumeration to be only 5,798,967, or 1,442,791 in defect. Again starting with the population of 1851—viz. 9,018, 799—as estimated by the Commissioners on the supposition that emigration and immigration had been equal, and assuming that the population had continued to increase at the moderate rate of 0.926 percent, perannum, the population of Ireland would have numbered 9,887,400 souls in 1861, and 10,548,000 in 1869. The Irish Registrar-General estimated the population in the middle of 1869 at 5,546,343, so that during the 28 years 1841-69, the population of Ireland had been reduced to nearly one-half of what it would have been had the country not suffered from famine and pestilence and been drained by emigration.
