174 



induced by the miftaken and cruel policy of England. Her progrefs 

 has been that of a generous and fpirited courfer carrying weight nearly 

 beyond his ftrength. Not to fpeak of the events of the preceding cen- 

 tury, civil wars, peftilence, and famine ; — a miftaken policy annihilating 

 foreign trade, and domeftic manufafture, a burthenfbme and expenfivc 

 eflablilhment, and a profufe government, with their infeparable conco- 

 mitants heavy taxes, a conftant drain of the wealth of the land, and a 

 fyftematic oppreflion of its peafantry by the iron hands of an iramenfc 

 body of abfentees, confpired to plunge Ireland in an abyfs, from which 

 it feemed fcarce poffible that a nation Ihould emerge. 



This country, at no very diftant period, was dependent, for a fupply 

 of corn, on England and America ; at this, on the contrary, flie ex- 

 ports large quantities of grain, and fome bread and (larch. Were land- 

 lords duly attentive, to the encouragement of refident and improving 

 tenants, were an end put to the deftru<flive praftice of land-jobbing, 

 and parliamentary aflillance given, to the reclaiming of wade and bar- 

 ren land ; this country would furpafs moft others in cultivation. In the 

 year 1778, when Young wrote, he ftatcs that Ireland was more cul- 

 tivated than England, having lefs wafte land, in proportion to the fize 

 of the two countries. Since that time, a variety of caufes, particu- 

 larly the falutary operation of the code of corn laws, have contributed 

 to improve the face of the foil ; and, I believe, it may be ftated, that 

 ■without any exaggeration, the tillage of Ireland has been doubled with- 

 in the laft thirty years. Much of the praife of this may be afcribed 

 to the induftry of the people, which, whatever may be faid to the 



contrary 



i 



