IRELAND AND HER COMMENTATORS. 611 



the lower classes of the Irish metropolis, Mr. Inglis says that they 

 are in an abject state of wretchedness. " I was also struck/' says he, 

 " with the small number of provision shops. In London every fifth 

 or sixth shop is a bacon and cheese shop. In Dublin luxuries of a 

 different kind offer their temptations. What would be the use of 

 opening a bacon shop where the lower orders, who are elsewhere the 

 chief purchasers of bacon, cannot afford to eat bacon, and live upon po- 

 tatos ?" That every fifth or sixth shop in London is a bacon and cheese 

 shop, is not to be taken, we imagine, literally, though they are very 

 numerous in the non-aristocratic portions of this vast city. By the 

 way, what fancy possessed Mr. Inglis to Greecianize the homely po- 

 tatoes into potatos? Authorities for the latter orthography are, we 

 dare say, not wanting ; but we would rather be conservative in that 

 respect. 



In Dublin, Mr. Inglis lived opposite to the Royal Society, and as a 

 proof of the miserable condition of the Irish, he says, that at the cattle 

 shows of the society, ee the half-eaten turnips became the perquisite 

 of a crowd of ragged boys and girls without ; a half-gnawed turnip 

 when once secured was guarded with the most vigilant jealousy, and 

 was lent for a mouthful to another longing tatterdemalian, as much, 

 apparently, as an act of extraordinary favour as if the root had been 

 a pine-apple." The Globe quotes this, and views it in the same light 

 as the author as a proof of the wretchedness of the eaters. Now, 

 although we very well know that the poverty of the Dublin poor is 

 scarcely capable of increase, we look upon this as no- confirmation of 

 their misery. Did the Globe, which is usually so shrewd on these 

 subjects, 'never see little boys, who were not ragged, contend 

 for turnips, carrots, or ripe wheat in-ear? We have certainly seen 

 those esculents the source of many a juvenile broil; and a visit to 

 Covent-garden any market morning, will satisfy any one that there 

 are other than Irish urchins who prize such roots as delicacies. We 

 make this observation for the purpose of showing that if Mr. Inglis' 

 assertion was not borne out by others than this proof, its parallel 

 could be found in every village in the empire. 



In the Dublin Mendicity Society there were, at the period of Mr. 

 Inglis's visit, " 2,145 persons on the charity, of whom 200 were 

 Protestants." This Institution endeavours to keep a portion of the 

 Dublin paiipers from absolute starvation ; but though it partially 

 answers its end respecting positive beggars, the poor room-keepers, 

 whose pride would brave the death of hunger rather than receive 

 alms like the others, partake of none of its assistance. In Saunders's 

 News Letter, April 13, 1831, we find, from a report of a benevolent 

 society, that in the months of January, February, and March, 21,283 

 persons were relieved in their own residences, and the year before the 

 numbers were even greater. Mr. Inglis says that the support of the 

 Mendicity Society is owing to the Protestants in proportion of fifty 

 to one. The principal gentry of Dublin are not Catholics, and are 

 best enabled to remove the nuisance of street-begging, or at least to 

 ameliorate it. But we know that the support of the indigent room- 

 keepers falls in nearly the same proportion as the above, on the 

 middle tradesmen and shop-keepers, who are of the Roman Catholic 



