PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 187 



bad management where a nation parts with her raw materials, 

 the sinews of industry, and receives them back in a manufactured 

 form; the lecturer would with honest warmth repudiate the 

 sophistry which denominated this position "a fallacy/^ 



The richest soils may prove but little beneficial without their 

 inhabitants possessed stimuli to industry, and were afforded ju- 

 dicious moral guidance; a fact which was proved by comparing 

 the comparatively poor province of Ulster with the more favored 

 districts of Ireland. The other three provinces had, at a former 

 period, a great opportunity for exercising industry; viz., in the 

 woollen trade, of which she possessed the raw material in abun- 

 dance; but in the time of William HI., this branch was almost 

 annihilated by royal influence, in consequence of the jealousy of 

 English manufacturers. Ireland was then obliged to have re- 

 course to the linen trade, a change which was disastrous; as her 

 annual linen export amounted but to £14,000, whilst that of her 

 woollen had been £110,000. 



Commercial jealousy being laid aside, fear of danger and inse- 

 curity have succeeded ; but there are remedies for these, and Ire- 

 land thus holds out most excellent prospects for the speculations 

 of the capitalist ; private individuals had tried the experiment and 

 had been successful ; amongst whom might be enumerated Lord 

 Headly, who created almost a paradise in place of a mob of law- 

 less and dangerous miscreants ; but it would be impossible for 

 individuals to reclaim the great mass of waste lands, this must 

 be the work of united capital fully liberated by legislative au- 

 thority. 



The lecturer went into a calculation, made by a committee of 

 the Royal Dublin Society, upon the evidence of the late Mr. 

 Francis French, brother of Lord Ashtown ; a person of experience, 

 and no enthusiast; from this it appeared that 640 acres of bog, 

 by being reclaimed, would, in four years, (having during those 

 four years repaid part of the outlay) yield an interest of 21 per 

 cent on the capital remaining invested, even when let at the low 

 rate of 16s. per acre; and this was the least encouraging of any 

 calculation the lecturer had seen made of the subject. The other 

 capabilities of Ireland were no less encouraging, viz., her mines, 

 collieries, and precious clays. 



The revenue of Ireland falls short of her annual expenditure by 

 some millions, but with proper management she might pay her 

 her own expenses, and leave a surplus, which would, of course, 

 be to the advantage of England. By instituting a comparison 

 between England, Scotland, and Ireland, as to population and 

 agricultural capability, the lecturer considered that with due care 

 Ireland might yield a surplus of 6 or 7 millions over her 

 expenses. 



The Irish peasantry are not an intractible body of men ; they 

 are fond of peace and civilization ; and would willingly be sub- 

 ject to those who could give them employment, and defend them 



