of the heartinefs of their food. But here arife fresh difficulties; were their food ever fo nourishing, I can easily conceive an habitual inactivity of exertion would give them an air of debility compared with a more industrious people. Though my refidence in Ireland was not long enough to become a perfect mafter of the queflion, yet I have employed from twenty to fifty men for feveral months, and found their habitual lazinefs or weakness fo great, whether working by measure or by day, that I am abfolutely convinced 1 s. 6 d. and even 2 s. a day in Suffolk or Hertfordshire much cheaper than fixpence halfpenny at Mitchelftown: it would not be fair to confider this as a reprefentation of the kingdom, that place being remarkably backward in every fpecies of industry and improvement; but I am afraid this obfervation would hold true in a lefs degree for the whole. But is this owing to habit or food? Granting their food to be the caufe, it decides very little against potatoes, unless they were tried with good nourishing beer instead of their vile potations of whisky. When they are encouraged, or animate themselves to work hard, it is all by whisky, which though it has a notable effect in giving a perpetual motion to their tongues, can have but little of that invigorating fubftance which is found in ftrong beer or porter; probably it has an effect as pernicious, as the other is beneficial. One circumftance I should mention, which feems to confirm this, I have known the Irish reapers in Hertfordshire work as laboriously as any of our own men, and living upon potatoes, which they procured from London, but drinking nothing but ale. If their bodies are weak, I attribute it to whisky, not potatoes; but it is still a queftion with me whether their miferable working arifes from any fuch weakness, or from an habitual laziness. A friend of mine always refufed Irishmen work in Surrey, faying his bailiff could do nothing but fettle their quarrels.

But of this food there is one circumftance which muft ever recommend it, they have a beйyfull, and that let me add is more than the fuperfluities of an Englishman leave to his family: let any person examine minutely into the receipt and expenditure of an English cottage, and he will find that tea, fugar, and strong liquors, can come only from pinched bellies. I will not affert that potatoes are a better food than bread and cheese; but I have no doubt of a bellyfull of the one being much better than half a bellyfull of the other; ftill lefs have I that the milk of the Irishman is incomparably better than the fmall beer, gin, or tea of the Englishman; and this even for the father, how much better muft it be for the poor infants; milk to them is nourishment, is health, is life.

If any one doubts the comparative plenty, which attends the board of a poor native of England and Ireland, let him attend to their meals: the fparingness with which our labourer eats his bread and cheese is well known: mark the Irishman's potatoe bowl placed on the floor, the whole family upon their hams around it, devouring a quantity almost incredible; the beggar feating himself to it with a hearty welcome; the pig taking his fhare as readily as the wife; the cocks, hens, turkies, geefe, the cur, the cat, and perhaps the cowand all partaking of the same dish. No man can often have been a witnefs of it without being convinced of the plenty, and I will add the chearfulness, that attends it.'

After confidering the fituation of the Irish poor with respect to fome other circumftances attendant upon their condition, he proceeds to a matter of very ferious import, and which feems to call loudly for redrefs. The nature of this grievance will be beft learned from his own words:

• Before I conclude this article of the common labouring poor in Ireland, I must observe, that their happiness depends not merely upon the payment of their labour, their clothes, or their food; the fubordination of the lower claffes, degenerating into oppreffion, is not to be overlooked. The poor in all countries, and under all governments, are both paid and fed, yet is there an infinite difference between them in different ones. This enquiry will by no means turn out fo favourable as the preceding articles. It must be very apparent. to every traveller through that country, that the labouring poor are treated with harfhnefs, and are in all refpects fo little confidered, that their want of importance feems a perfect contraft to their fituation in England, of which country, comparatively speaking, they reign the fovereigns. The age has improved fo much in humanity, that even the poor Irish have experienced its influence, and are every day treated better and better; but ftill the remnant of the old manners, the abominable diftinction of religion, united with the oppreffive conduct of the little country gentlemen, or rather vermin of the kingdom, who never were out of it, altogether bear till very heavy on the poor people, and fubject them to fituations more mortifying than we ever behold in England. The landlord of an Irish eftate, inhabited by Roman Catholics, is a fort of defpot who yields obedience in whatever concerns the poor, to no law but that of his will. To discover what the liberty of a people is, we must live among them, and not look for it in the ftatutes of the realm: the language of written law may be that of liberty, but the fituation of the poor may speak no language but that of flavery; there is too much of this contradiction in Ireland; a long feries of oppreffions, aided by many very ill judged laws, have brought landlords into a habit of exerting a very lofty fuperiority, and their vaffals into that of an almost unlimited fubmiffion: fpeaking a language that is defpifed, profeffing a religion that is abhorred, and being disarmed, the poor find themfelves in many cafes flaves even in the bofom of written liberty. Landlords that have refided much abroad, are ufually humane in their ideas, but the habit of tyranny naturally contracts the mind, fo that even in this polished age, there are inftances of a fevere carriage towards the poor, which is quite unknown in England.

A landlord in Ireland can scarcely invent an order which a fervant labourer or cottar dares to refufe to execute. Nothing fatis fies him but an unlimited fubmiffion. Difrefpect, or any thing tending towards faucinefs, he may punish with his cane or his horfewhip with the most perfect fecurity, a poor man would have his bones broke if he offered to lift his hand in his own defence. Knocking down is spoken of in the country in a manner that makes an Englishman ftare. Landlords of confequence have affured me that many of their cottars would think themselves honoured by having their wives and daughters fent for to the bed of their mafter; a mark of lavery that proves

the

the oppreffion under which fuch people muft live. Nay, I have heard anecdotes of the lives of people being made free with without any apprehension of the juftice of a jury. But let it not be imagined that this is common; formerly it happened every day, but law gains ground. It must ftrike the most careless traveller to see whole ftrings of cars whipt into a ditch by a gentleman's footman to make way for his carriage; if they are overturned or broken in pieces, no matter, it is taken in patience; were they to complain, they would perhaps be horfewhipped. The execution of the laws lies very much in the hands of justices of the peace, many of whom are drawn from the moft illiberal clafs in the kingdom. If a poor man lodges a complaint against a gentleman, or any animal that chufes to call itself a gentleman, and the justice iffoes out a fummons for his appearance, it is a fixed affront, and he will infallibly be called out, Where MANNERS are in confpiracy againft LAW, to whom are the oppreffed people to have recourfe? It is a fact, that a poor man having a conteft with a gentleman muft--but I am talking nonfenfe, they know their fituation too well to think of it; they can have no defence but by means of protection from one gentleman against another, who probably protects his vaffal as he would the fheep he intends to eat,

'The colours of this picture are not charged. To affert that all these cafes are common, would be an exaggeration; but to fay that an unfeeling landlord will do all this with impunity, is to keep ftrictly to truth and what is liberty but a farce and a jett, if its bleffings are received as the favour of kindnefs and humanity, inftead of being the inheritance of RIGHT?

But

Confequences have flowed from thefe oppreffions which ought long ago to have put a stop to them. In England, we have heard much of whiteboys, fteelboys, oakboys, peep of-day boys, &c. thefe various infurgents are not to be confounded, for they are very different. The proper diftinction in the difcontents of the people is into Proteftant and Catholic. All but the whiteboys were among the manufacturing Proteftants in the North. The whiteboys, Catho lic labourers in the South: from the belt intelligence I could gain, the riots of the manufacturers had no other foundation, but fuch variations in the manufacture as all fabrics experience, and which they had themselves known and fubmitted to before. The cafe, however, was different with the whiteboys; who being labouring Catholics, met with all thofe oppreffions I have defcribed, and would probably have continued in full fubmiffion, had not very fevere treatment in refpect of tythes, united with a great fpeculative rife of rents about the fame time, blown up the flame of refillance; the atrocious acts they were guilty of made them the object of general indignation; acts were paffed for their punishment which feemed calculated for the meridian of Barbary; this arofe to fuch a height, that by one they were to be hanged under certain circumftances without the common formalities of a trial, which, though repealed the following feffions, marks the fpirit of punishment; while others remain yet the law of the land, that would, if executed, tend more to raife than queil an infurrection. From all which it is manifeft, that the gentlemen of Ireland never thought of a radical cure from overlooking the real cause of the difeafe, which in fact lay in themfelves, and not in the wretches M 3 they

they doomed to the gallows. Let them change their own conduct entirely, and the poor will not long riot. Treat them like men who ought to be as free as yourfelves: put an end to that fyftem of religious perfecution which for feventy years has divided the kingdom against itself: in thefe two circumftances lies the cure of infurrection perform them completely, and you will have an affectionate poor, inflead of oppreffed and difcontented vaffals.

;

A better treatment of the poor in Ireland is a very material point to the welfare of the whole British empire. Events may happen which may convince us fatally of this truth-If not, oppreffion must have broken all the spirit and refentment of men. By what policy the government of England can for fo many years have permitted fuch an abfurd fyftem to be matured in Ireland, is beyond the power of plain sense to discover.'

We have been much pleased with the political knowledge which is difplayed on the article, Religion. Mr. Young proves, in the clearest manner, that the Popery laws have been as impolitic and abfurd, as they are wicked and unjust.

In the fection in which he speaks of wafte lands, we have the following theory of the formation of bogs:

In the variety of theories which have been started to account for the formation of bogs, difficulties occur which are not easily folved: yet are there many circumftances which affitt in tracing the caufe. Various forts of trees, fome of them of a great fize, are very generally found in them, and ufually at the bottom, oak, fir, and yew the most common; the roots of these trees are faft in the earth; fome of the trees feem broken off, others appear to be cut, but more with the marks of fire on them. Under fome bogs of a confiderable depth there are yet to be feen the furrows of land once ploughed. The black bog is a folid weighty mafs which cuts almoft like butter, and upon examination appears to resemble rotten wood. Under the red bogs there is always a firatum, if not equally folid with the black bog, nearly fo, and makes as good fuel. There is upon the black as well as upon the red ones a furface of that fpungy vegetable mass which is cleared away to get at the bog for fuel, but it is shallow on thele. Sound trees are found equally in both forts. Both differ extremely from the bogs I have feen in England in the inequality of the furface; the Irish ones are rarely level, but rife into hills. I have feen one in Donnegal which is a perfect fcenery of hill and dale. The fpontaneous growth most common is heath; with fome bogmyrtle, rufhes and a little fedgy grafs. As far as I can judge by roads, laying gravel of any fort, clay, earth, &c. improves the bog, and brings good grafs. The depth of them is various; they have been fathomed to that of fifty feet, and fome are faid to be ftill deeper.

From thefe circumftances it appears, that a foreft cut, burnt, or broken down, is probably the origin of a bog. In all countries where wood is fo common as to be a weed, it is deftroyed by burn. ing, it is fo around the Baltic, and in America at prefent. The native Irish might cut and burn their woods enough for the tree to fall, and in the interim between fuch an operation, and fucceffive

culture,

wars and other inteftine divifions might prevent it in thofe fpots, which fo neglected afterwards became bogs. Trees lying very thick. on the ground would become an impediment to all ftreams and currents, and gathering in their branches, whatever rubbish fuch waters brought with them, form a mafs of fubftance which time might putrefy, and give that acid quality to, which would preferve fome of the trunks though not the branches of the trees. The circumftance of red bogs being black and folid at the bottom, would feem to indicate that a black bog has received lefs acceffion from the growth and putrefaction of vegetables after the formation than the red ones, which from fome circumftances of foil or water might yield a more luxuriant furface vegetation, till it produced that mafs of fpunge which is now found on the furface. That this fuppofition is quite fatisfactory I cannot affert, but the effect appears to be at leaft poffible, and accounts for the distinction between the two kinds. That they receive their form and increafe from a conflant vegetation appears from their rifing into hills; if they did not vegetate, the quantity of water they contain would keep them on a level. The places where the traces of ploughing are found, I should fuppofe were once fields adjoining to the woods, and when the bog rofe to a certain height, it flowed gradually over the furrounding land.'

Ingenious as this theory may appear, there are objections to it, which we think will be infuperable. One, not the leaft material, is, that in America (as we learn from a gentleman who refided many years in a very uncultivated part of it, and where the practice of burning down woods has been followed at intervals for a century back) no fuch begs as the Irish are to be met with in any of thofe places where the woods have been burned. It is an axiom in logic, that fimilar caufes produce fimilar effects. It is poffible, indeed, the intense frofts which prevail through the northern parts of America during the winter months may in fome degree prevent the fame cause from producing the fame effect there as in Ireland, where the climate is humid, and the weather mild and open.

When our Author comes to treat of manners and customs, he obferves, poffibly alluding to a late Tourift, that, it is but. an illiberal bufinefs for a traveller, who defigns to publifh remarks upon a country, to fit down coolly in his clofet, and write a fatire on the inhabitants. Severity of that fort must be enlivened with an uncommon fhare of wit and ridicule, to pleafe. Where very grofs abfurdities are found, it is fair and manly to note them; but to enter into character and difpofition is generally uncandid, fince there are no people but might be better than they are found, and none but have virtues which deferve attention, at least as much as their failings; for thefe reafons this fection would not have found a place in my ob. fervations, had not fome perfons, of much more flippancy than wifdom, given very grofs mifreprefentations of the Irish nation. with pleafure, therefore, that I take up the pen, on the prefent occafion; as a much longer relidence there enables me to exhibit a very different picture; in doing this, I shall be free to remark, wherein I

M 4

think