[ 254 4 
Uron the whole, I believe that more peop'e aré crowded 
into one houfe in Ireland than in other countrics, for two rea- 
fons; firft, that many cannot afford to build; and fecondly, 
becaufe thofe who can, have many motives to prevent them. 
Notwithftanding this the new buildings in an increafing country 
cannot be inconfiderable. We fee by one of the columns in 
the paper that they amount to i8,824 in.one year; and I be- 
lieve that column to approach nearer to the truth than any other 
in the paper. In order to know the real annual increafe of 
houfes, we fhould dedu@ from that number the houfes which 
have gone to decay; and there is fo much fraud and error in 
the accounts of them, that I can give nothing more than a loofe 
conjeure. I believe they may amount to about nine thoufand. 
Perhaps there may be another caufe for the number of people 
being fo great in proportion to the number of houfes; in my 
opinion the being without poor rates has that effect. When the 
labourer dies, his houfe is often broke up, and his family is 
divided amongft the neighbouring peafantry. Thofe who are able 
to work hire with them as fervants; and even thofe who are 
not fo, are readily taken by their neighbours, both from kindnefs, 
and from the hope of future affiftance from their labours. Even 
in the houfes inhabited by widows and paupers I do not find 
the population to run very low, but it is very unequal. In 
one houfe I frequently find but one poor widow ; in the next 
the remains of two, three or four families living together. In 
the newly inhabited houfes the population runs low; the caufe 
is that many of them are not /u//y inhabited, which finks their 
general average; fometimes there is but one fervant in the houfe. 
In the houfes of two hearths and upwards, inhabited by the 
gentry, 
