They were all agreed that a great change had
taken place in the internal condition of Ireland. They noticed a great
increase of self-confidence, of prosperity, of hope. Many who entered
upon that tour with doubts as to the power of the Irish people to take
up the burden of self-government came back convinced that her increase
in material prosperity would form a firm and secure basis on which to
build the new fabric.
What does this new prosperity amount to? The new Census figures leave
us in no doubt as to its existence. For the first time there is a real
check in that deplorable wastage of population that has been going on
for more than half a century. The diminution of population in Ireland
revealed by the 1901 Census amounted to 245,000 persons. The diminution
revealed by the 1911 Census amounts to 76,000. In other words, the
decrease of 1901-11 is 1.5 per cent., as against 5.2 per cent, for
1891-1901, or only one against five in the previous decade[12]. This is
far and away the smallest decrease that has taken place in any of the
decennial periods since 1841; and this decrease is, of course,
accompanied by a corresponding decline in the emigration figures.
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