discriminations, and drove many from the island. Finally, the selfish
Navigation Laws forbade both exportation of cattle to England and the
sending of foodstuffs to the colonies, dealing thereby a heavy blow to
Irish agriculture. These restrictions were followed by other
inhibitions until almost every industry or business in which the Irish
engaged was unduly limited and controlled. It should, however, not be
forgotten that these restrictions bore with equal weight upon the
Ulster settlers from Scotland and England, who managed somehow to
endure them successfully.

Absentee landlordism was oppressive both to the cotter's body and to
his soul, for it not only bound him to perpetual poverty but kindled
within him a deep sense of injustice. The historian, Justin McCarthy,
says that the Irishman "regarded the right to have a bit of land, his
share, exactly as other people regard the right to live." So political
and economic conditions combined to feed the discontent of a people
peculiarly sensitive to wrongs and swift in their resentments.

But the most potent cause of the great Irish influx into America was
famine in Ireland. The economist may well ascribe Irish failure to the
potato. Here was a crop so easy of culture and of such nourishing
qualities that it led to overpopulation and all its attendant ills.
The failure of this crop was indeed an "overwhelming disaster," for,
according to Justin McCarthy, the Irish peasant with his wife and his
family lived on the potato, and whole generations grew up, lived,
married, and passed away without ever having tasted meat. When the
cold and damp summer of 1845 brought the potato rot, the little,
overpopulated island was facing dire want. But when the next two years
brought a plant disease that destroyed the entire crop, then famine
and fever claimed one quarter of the eight million inhabitants. The