Imatges de pàgina
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rate upon an ingenuous mind much more than the rufty cudgels of a thousand sturdy Polemics.

But O! what foes befet each honour'd Name,'
Advancing in the path of letter'd fame!
To ftop thy progrefs, and infult thy pen,
The fierce Polemic iffues from his den.
Think not my Verfe means blindly to engage
In rafh defence of thy profaner page!
Tho' keen her fpirit, her attachment fond,
Bafe fervice cannot fuit with Friendship's bond;
Too firm from Duty's facred path to turn,
She breathes an honeft figh of deep concern,
And pities Genius, when his wild career,
Gives Faith a wound, or Innocence a fear.
Humility herself, divinely mild,

Sublime Religion's meck and modeft child,
Like the dumb Son of CROESUs, in the ftrife,
Where Force affail'd his Father's facred life,
Breaks filence, and, with filial duty warm,
Bids thee revere her Parent's hallow'd form!

After the very ample fpecimens that have been given of this excellent performance, it seems in a great measure superfluous to say what are our fentiments of it. In the difpofition and conduct of his poem, Mr. Hayley has fhewn confummate knowledge of his fubject; and his language, though not only figurative and glowing, but oftentimes daringly metaphorical, has all the ease and elegant familiarity of epiftolary compofition. The choice and application of fimiles has ever been confidered as one great teft of the poet's art: if by this criterion we examine the poem before us, it will be found to poffefs almost unrivaled excellence; and the fentiments and imagery are fuch as could only be expected from an imagination truly creative, regulated by a judgment critically exact.

The notes, with which this poem is enriched, are learned and valuable.

ART. VI. A Tour in Ireland; with general Observations on the prefent State of that Kingdom: made in the Years 1776, 1777, and 1778. And brought down to the end of 1779. By Arthur Young, Efq; F. R. S. Honorary Member of the Societies of Dublin, York and Manchefter; the Oeconomical Society of Berne; the Palatine Academy of Agriculture at Manheim, and the Phyfical Society at Zurich. 4to. 11. I s. Boards. Cadell. 1780.

WHETHER we confider the volumes that Mr. Young

has written, or the miles that he has travelled, we fhall find no Author whofe labours can any way come in competition with those of this indefatigable Compiler; and if, as he himfelf acknowledges, he has been reproached for being tedious,

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it muft at the fame time be confeffed, that had he treated his fubject lefs circumftantially, and in detail, his works would but indifferently anfwer the end, to accomplish which, he has travelled, practised, and written.'

There is no doubt but in his Tours (certainly his most valuable publications) many things appear which might have been omitted, and others are related in fuch terms as, in the cooler moments of enquiry, are found to have been exaggerated; there is, nevertheless, more information to be collected from them than from any other books on the subject that are extant; nor can there be the leaft doubt but they have already proved of very confiderable benefit, in introducing many improvements into general ufe, which were before confined to a particular province, or individual.

Though the country through which we are now attending this intelligent and communicative traveller be fome centuries behind us in agricultural improvement, we fhall, no doubt, meet with many things worth obfervation, there being, as he juftly remarks, no people exifting fo backward but have some good practices to copy, as well as errors to avoid.

Mr. Young's narrative commences at Dublin; which city having been frequently defcribed, our attention will be more particularly directed to that part of his itinerary which speaks of places and customs not fo generally known.

Not only as a matter of curiofity, but also to fhew what thofe gentlemen have to contend with who attempt to introduce more improved fyftems of farming, we fhall infert the following picture of Irish agriculture, which though poffibly not general, does not at the fame time appear, as we learn from different parts of this work, to be fingular.

'The farms around Weftport, the feat of Lord Altamont, are in general large, from 400 acres to 4 or 5000, all which are stock farms; and the occupiers re-let the cultivated lands, with the cabbins, at a very increased rent, to the oppreffion of the poor, who have a ftrong averfion to renting thefe tierney begs. The foil in general is a cold, fpewy, ftoney clay and loam; the best lands in the country are the improved moors. Rents rife from 2 s. for heath, to 16 s. for good land. Average 8 s. about three-fifths of the country unimproved mountains, bog and lake. Great tracts of mountain, but bogs not very extenfive. Clara ifland 2,4co acres, at 300 l. a year; Achill 24,000 acres, at 200l. a year; Bofin 100l. a year, and is above 1200 acres. It belongs to Lord Clanrickard. The courfe of this country, 1. Potatoes, manured with fea weed; this is fo ftrong that they depend entirely on it, and will not be at the trouble to carry out their own dunghills. On the fhore, towards Joyce's country, they actually let their dunghills accumulate, till they become fuch a nuifance, that they move their cabbins in order to get from them. A load of wrack is worth, at least, fix loads of dung. They do not take half what is thrown in, On the fhore, open to the Atlantic, there is a leather

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leather fort of Alga, which comes in in the fpring. The kelp weed grows only where it is fheltered. The coaft of Lord Altamont's domain and iflands let for 100l. a year for making kelp.

1. Potatoes.

2. Barley. 3. Oats. 4. Oats.

1. Potatoes. 2. Barley. 3. Oats. 4. Flax.

I. Potatoes. 2. Barley. 3. Oats.

• Potatoes they measure by the barrel of 12 cwt. and in each barrel 16 pecks of three quarters each. They plant 10 bushels, of 3 cwt. each, at the average price of 12 s. a barrel, or 1 s. per cwt.

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Expence of an acre.

County cefs and parish charges

Seed

Planting, 30 men a day

Weeding, 3 ditto

1. s. d.

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Shovelling, 10 ditto

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Taking up, and carrying home, 60 men

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Sorting, &c. 3 men

They will not carry fea weed above a mile; if dung is ufed, the expence will be

PRODUCE.

Twenty barrels, or twelve tons, at 12s.

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A man, his wife, and four children, will eat a bufhel of 3 cwt. every week in 39 weeks, therefore, they eat 117 cwt. or 5 ton 17 cwt. this is juft half an acre for the family. Of oatmeal, the common allowance is a quart of oatmeal a day for a labourer. A mower that is fed is allowed that quantity, and 6 quarts of butter milk á day, or as much bonny clobber. To explain what this is, I muft obferve, that they fet the milk three days for the cream to rife, and hav ing then skimmed it, the milk that remains is as thick as blamange, and as four as vinegar, and this is bonny clobber.

Of barley they fow 6 pecks, each 21 quarts, and the crop is generally from 20 to 30 fold, or at 25 it is 150 pecks. Of oats they fow a barrel of 24 ftone per acre, and they get 6 fuch barrels. Of flax they fow 40 gallons, and it will fell in common on the foot at 8 1. they find that it enriches the land. No wheat fown but by gentlemen for their own confumption. They burn their corn, instead of threshing it. The grazing fyftem is generally the fucceffion, buying in at year olds, or if the lands are very bad, two year olds; keep them till four year olds, and then fell them lean at Ballinafloe. They give 10 s. 6d. to 31. 10s. for yearlings; average 40s. For twoyear olds, they give 31. They fell for 61. what they gave 2 1. and for those they gave 31. they will fell at four-year olds for 61. They keep but few fheep, but generally buy year-old wethers; bog

gerills

gerills in May, 8 s. to 10 s. each, fhear them and turn to the mountains; bring them on to their arable lands in Winter, fhear them again the following year, and fend them to the mountain again; and in the following Summer fhear again, putting them on their best pastures, and felling fat at Ballinaloe, at 15 s. or 16 s. their fleeces 5 lb. at 1 s. a pound. There are fome dairies, as far as ten or twelve cows, which are employed for butter. Twenty years ago cows were lett for 1 cwt. of butter for the year, and rearing the calf. Very few fwine kept, and of a bad kind. They plough all with horfes, four in a plough, directed by a man, walking backwards, who, to make them move forward, ftrikes the beafts in the face. Young colts they harrow with by the tail. Twelve horfes are neceffary for one hundred acres in tillage. They winnow their corn in the road, and let the wind blow away the chaff.

Lord Altamont mentioned defcriptive of Mayo hufbandry, Acts of Parliament to prevent their pulling the wool off their fheep by hand; burning their corn; ploughing by the tail, &c.'

In another place, fays he, they have three cuftoms which I muft begin with; first, They harrow by the tail. Item, The fellow who leads the horses of the plough, walks backwards before them the whole day long, and, in order to make them advance, ftrikes them in the face: their heads, I trow, are not apt to turn. Item, They burn the corn in the straw, instead of

threshing it.

Poor Mr. Young! what muft you have felt in contemplating fuch management as this! You, who was more delighted in feeing two large compoft dunghills turning over and mixing, than if they had been palaces! You, who, when faluted by four turnep-hoers at Shanes Caftle, was more tranfported than if you had been received by four Emperors!

It is no wonder that in a country in which the general state of agriculture is fo wretched, gentlemen of fortune and enterprize fhould attempt a reform. Mr. Young has been very careful to note whatever of this kind has fallen within his knowledge. Many are the gentlemen to whom their country is indebted for very great and valuable improvements, both in agriculture and manufactures; and that too upon a fcale which, from lefs refpectable authority, might feem incredible. Among thefe, are Mr. Baron Forfter, Lord Shannon, Mr. French, Mr. Jeffries, Lord Altamont, Mr. Fitzmaurice, Lord Kingfborough,

&c.

We fhall conclude this Article for the prefent with Mr. Young's account of the place and improvements of the laft of thefe liberal benefactors to their country.

It is not to be expected that fo young a man as Lord Kingf borough, just come from the various gaiety of Italy, Paris, and London, fhould, in fo fhort a space as two years, do much in a region fo wild as Mitchelftown; a very short narrative, however, will convince the Reader, that the time he has fpent here, has not been

thrown

thrown away. He found his immenfe property in the hands of that fpecies of tenant which we know fo little of in England, but which in Ireland have flourished almoft to the destruction of the kingdom, the middle man, whofe bufinefs and whofe induftry confifts in hiring great tracts of land as cheap as he can, and re-letting them to others as dear as he can, by which means that beautiful gradation of the pyramid, which connects the broad bafe of the poor people with the great nobleman they fupport, is broken; he deals only with his own tenant, the multitude is abandoned to the humanity and feelings of others, which to be fure may prompt a juft and tender conduct; whether it does or not, let the mifery and poverty of the lower claffes fpeak, who are thus affigned over. This was the fituation of nine-tenths of his property. Many leafes being out, he rejected the trading tenant, and let every man's land to him, who occupied it at the rent he had himfelf received before. During a year that I was employed in letting his farms, I never omitted any opportunity of confirming him in this fyftem, as far as was in my power, from a conviction that he was equally ferving himself and the Public in it; he will never quit it without having reafon afterwards for regret.'

The reflection with which he then introduces Lord K.'s embellishments of Mitchelftown deferves to be particularly remarked; it is truely philofophical and juft.

In a country changing from licentious barbarity into civilized order, building is an object of perhaps greater confequence than may at first be apparent. In a wild, or but half cultivated tract, with no better edifice than a mud cabbin, what are the objects that can imprefs a love of order on the mind of man? He must be wild as the roaming herds; favage as his rocky mountains; confufion, diforder, riot, have nothing better than himself to damage or destroy: but when edifices of a different folidity and character arife; when great fums are expended, and numbers employed to rear more expreffive monuments of industry and order, it is impoffible but new ideas muft arife, even in the uncultivated mind; it must feel fomething, first to refpect, and afterwards to love; gradually feeing, that in proportion as the country becomes more decorated and valuable, licentioufness will be lefs profitable, and more odious. Mitchelftown, till his Lordship made it the place of his refidence, was a den of vagabonds, thieves, rioters, and white boys; but I can witness to its being now as orderly and peaceable as any other Irish town, much owing to this circumftance of building, and thereby employing fuch numbers of the people. Lord Kingsborough, in a fhort space of time, has raised confiderable edifices; a large manfion for himself, beautifully fituated on a bold rock, the edge of a declivity, at the bottom of which is a river, and commanding a large tract of country, with as fine a boundary of mountain as I have feen; a quadrangle of offices; a garden of five English acres, furrounded with a wall, hot houfes, &c. Befides this, three good ftone and flate houfes upon three farms, and engaged for three others, more confiderable, which are begun; others repaired, and several cabbins built fubftantially.

So naked a country as he found his eftate, called for other exertions. To invoke the Dryades, it was neceffary to plant; and they must be coy nymphs indeed, if they are not in a few years propitious

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