293 



yield little or no profit. Had fome fuch meafure been adopted, fome 

 fome years ago, it might have proved the means, of retaining, in this 

 country ; large fums of money, and what is of more importance, mul- 

 titudes of adiive and induftrious individuals, who have fled from this 

 ifland, with their families, and their property, to cultivate and enrich, 

 the wilds of America. But meafures of this nature muft be left, to 

 the prudential or patriotic confideration, of individuals. They cannot 

 become an objeft of legiflative interference. I fliall only obferve, 

 that, to render the remote, mountainous parts of the kingdom pro- 

 du^ive, they mufl be made accefllble, and interfered with roads, the 

 want of which contributes very much to retard the progrefs of civi- 

 lization, and indullry, in Ireland. 



Sect. 3. 

 Of Frugality, with a Glance at the Prodigality ef Ireland' 



In confidering the means, of advancing the profperity of manufac- 

 tures, frugality, and correftnefs, and fimplicity of manners prefent them- 

 felves, in the foremoft rank. Frugality is the nurfing parent of all the 

 exertions of induftry. 



The real wealth of a nation is in proportion, not to the grofs, but 

 to- the net revenue, /. e. to what remains, after deducing the ex- 

 pence, of maintaining, firft, the fixed, fecondly, the circulating capital. 

 If a nation is frugal, and makes the general expences, lefs than the 

 nett revenue, the overplus goes to the augmentation of capital ; and, 

 in proportion as it is encreafed, the produftive powers of labour are 

 encreafed. Improved machinery, improved materials, a greater number 

 of hands, mufl be the confequencej all that is laid out, on the fixed 



V capital. 



