Martinsburgh Gazette

POPULATION OF IRELAND.—Returns have been recently printed by order of the British Parliament, from which it appears that the population of Ireland amounts to 6,801,827 Males, 3,341,926 Females, 3,459,901. The number of persons chiefly employed in agriculture is stated at 1,133,069. Those engaged in trade, or manufactures, or handicraft, at 1,170,014. The population of Dublin is stated to be 227,335.

This is the highest estimation of the Irish population which the English Government has ever permitted to be published, but even this estimate, is, there is reason to believe, much under the actual amount of the population of Ireland.—It has been the policy of reign after reign, and administration after administration to conceal from the people of Ireland the TRUE STATE OF THEIR OWN STRENGTH. Until lately, when the measure was irresistibly pressed upon parliament the government would not suffer a census of the Island to be made. When about the close of the American revolutionary war, Mr. Bushe on stating in the Irish parliament what was likely to be the product of the tax on Hearths, estimated the then population at five millions, the government became alarmed and obliged him (as servant of the Crown) to withdraw his statement and rate the population much lower.—During the Lord Lieutenancy of Earl Fitzwilliam, in 1795, Mr. Hay, the historian, offered to procure a census of the country by his own individual exertion, but even the popular government of this nobleman discountenanced the proposal. There is little doubt but the above return is defective, and for many reasons. We observed, not long since, in the Irish papers several complaints on this head. It was said that from parts of the county Limerick and other places, there were no returns at all, and, that in many districts, proper measures had not been taken to ascertain the true extent of the population. The fact we believe is, that Ministers are not even yet very anxious to have a publication of the full amount, and the peasantry, who suspect the fairness of any measure springing from those they call their "Task Masters," and who in their turn are no less shrewd and cunning than the government, conceal as much as possible the number of which their family consists. This inherent suspicion of the government operates doubly in a case like the present, as they dread the operation of the Militia Law and other enactments, to them no less unpopular and distressing. From these causes, we believe the above to be greatly defective, and that the population of Ireland is considerably above SEVEN MILLIONS.