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