IRELAND AND HER COMMENTATORS. 617 



of hundreds ; but though that is partially effected, if something be 

 not done for the improvement of the social condition of the people, 

 but little good will result from the abolition of tithes. Ireland has 

 always been wretched since her history has been separated from fable, 

 and if the most glowing accounts of her welfare, according to the 

 most favourable authorities, real or fictitious, were admitted, a brief 

 analysis would demonstrate their fallacy. Colonel Torrens * says that 

 " at the present time a common labourer is better off in England with 

 respect to food, clothing, and furniture than were the kings of Britain 

 at the period of the Roman invasion." Ireland could not have been 

 much of an Utopia then, or for many a day after. Even about the 

 time when, according to Irish chroniclers of the present day, she was 

 at the highest pitch of her " glory," with her own parliament' &c. 

 we find that Bishop Nicholson,-)- in a letter, dated Londonderry, 

 June 24, 1718, speaks of the peasantry between Dublin and Derry 

 as ee wretches lying in laky sod-hovels, having no more than a rag of 

 coarse blanket to cover a small part of their nakedness." Sir Henry 

 Piers, in his Chrorography of the county of Westmeath in 1682, 

 speaks similarly. But it is useless to multiply instances of the 

 melancholy fact that Ireland and misery have been synonymous long 

 before the present generation. Mr. Inglis describes a section of 

 misery in Limerick, which persons reading of such scenes for the 

 first time might well be excused in doubting. But unfortunately 

 Mr. Inglis has told nothing in this respect at all novel. 



It being then abundantly evident that the evils of Ireland are not 

 of the growth of a day, and equally clear that however lamentable 

 the state of religious feeling may be, the people on that score are not 

 unfitted for improvement the question is, what are the remedies 

 calculated to ensure the satisfactory removal of the causes of misfor- 

 tune? Want of employment for the agricultural poor being ad- 

 mitted to be the real source of poverty, it follows that to provide that 

 in abundance would be to effect a decided and instantaneous im- 

 provement. But how to do so is the difficulty. The prevailing opi- 

 nion in Ireland, and to a very great extent in this country, is that 

 the residence of the landlords on their estates would achieve that de- 

 sideratum. Mr. Inglis also entertains this opinion with some par- 

 tiality, though by no means with undue zeal. We differ with him, 

 however, on this head ; his facts admit of no contradiction, but his 

 inferences, in our mind, are not exactly correct. We also think we 

 shall be enabled by the citation of a few authorities to prove briefly 

 the error of the prevailing opinion j ust mentioned. 



Sir Charles Morgan, in his preface to his accomplished lady's 

 work, entitled" Absenteeism/' * observes : 



" So natural is it for men to complain of the evil which strikes the 

 most powerfully on the senses so convenient is it for those who are 

 determined in the denial of justice to make absenteeism the causa 



* " On Wages and Combination," by R. Torrens, Esq. M. P. London : 

 Longman, 1834. 



j- See article entitled " Irish Peasantry," in the Captain Rock published by 

 Robins in 1827. 



J One vol. 8vo. Colburn, 1825. 



