PRACTICABILITY OF IMPROVING IRELAND. 195 



ately worth twenty years purchase, or 10,000, for the expenditure 

 of 2,546 ; and this valuable improvement was effected by means 

 of sin ce'/g the bed of a river, to the uniform depth of seven feet, through- 

 out a distance of three miles. 



The case of the Marquess of Hertford is only one of similar sue- 

 cessful efforts of industry, upon the wastes of Ireland ; and may well 

 excite the activity of joint-stock companies. In this money making 

 age it would be no bad speculation to obtain fully four hundred per 

 cent, when not a tenth, perhaps not a fortieth of such profit could 

 be obtained, out of Ireland, by honest or creditable means. 



It may well be asked, wherefore are not joint-stock companies 

 formed, while such prospects of wealth are manifest ? I shall leave 

 the question, for the present, to be answered by others; and, perhaps 

 when English capitalists shall inquire further, they may think it time 

 to turn from their Mexican, their bubble speculations, to Pro- Irish 

 societies of improvement, for which I believe I have produced a 

 powerful stimulant, namely, self interest . And the poet's axiom may 

 have its d ue effect " self love but serves the virtuous mind to wake" 

 and " the o'erflowings of the mind take every profit in of every kind. " 



Many persons have been alarmed at the expense, and fancy that the 

 waste bogs would not make any return for three years at least ; yet 

 Mr. Nimmo himself offered to undertake the reclaiming of Bog, 

 upon the condition of receiving only the first crop as his remuneration. 

 He made an estimate, and found that the profit would be at least one 

 pound sterling per acre. Of course he would not engage for less 

 than several thousand acres, to make it worth his while. He com- 

 puted that two men and one horse can improve five acres of waste in 

 one year, and derive at the same time an adequate subsistence from 

 the produce. 



There should be no necessity for applying to government 

 for pecuniary aid, but a legislative enactment would be ne- 

 cessary for the reasons I have before stated, upon the same 

 principle that acts of parliament are obtained, in order to facilitate 

 roads and canals; and thus joint-stock companies might go to work 

 with every moral certainty of success : yes, and of security too : 

 for they could employ the whole of the labouring poor; they could 

 pay liberally and punctually; Mr. Nimmo and other engineers 

 have shown how certain would be the security. 



I have been talking of waste lands : now let me say something about 

 waste waters ; and I believe it could be made to appear, to the satis- 

 faction of the manufacturer and the miller, that their capitals might 

 be profitably employed in Ireland. 



