295 



duced themfelves, with a profit ; which return, again, would reproduce 

 itfelf, with profit, in itifinitum. — This return would have be en made 

 either in money, or in the crude materials of fome raanufafture. Ne- 

 ver any country ftndied parfimony fo much as Holland, and confumed 

 fo little ; the Butch furnifli infinite materials to luxury, which they 

 never praftile ; and traffic in pleafures, which they never tafte. 



There is no country, in which the leffon of frugality fliould be more 

 ftrongly inculcated, than in Ireland ; fince, there is no country, to 

 which habits of parfimony are more requifite, than one, which fupports 

 an inceflant drain, in the fums perpetually extrafted from her, by ab- 

 fentees,* and a variety of other powerful exhaufting caufes. In faft, 

 Ireland has been fo long in a dependent ftate, that her ruling prin- 

 ciple is the fervile fpirit of imitation ; her arts, her notions, her fafliions, 

 her luxuries, her vices, are all imported, idlenefs and drunkennefs ex- 

 cepted ; thefe, indeed, are the native growth of the foil. She attempts, 

 in every particular, to exhibit a poor caricatura, a feeble imitation of 

 what is done in England, a country advanced a century, at leafl, be- 

 fore this, in true refinement and knowledge ; and exceeding us, be- 

 yond all comparifon, in induftry, arts, and opulence. 



The difproportionate expence, in fuperfluities, diffufes a fyllem of 

 fplendid mendicity, and bankruptcy, through this ifland ; the fums, which 

 fliould be added, to the capital of the merchant, or employed by the 

 proprietor of the foil, in the improvement of his eftate, and the dif- 

 fufion of induftry, are diflipated in gaming, or laviflied, in the expen- 

 ces of the table.' The buildings, both public and private, (efpecially 

 in the capital) are on a feale, vaftly too large, for the means of the 

 country, and of the individual. We fee the manfions of private gen- 

 tlemen abandoned, and the capital fwelling to a preternatural and per- 

 nicious magnitude ; the eftates, of land-owners, groaning under a weight 

 of debts, and among traders and manufa£lurers, prodigality and ruin 

 the order of the day. 



* The annual fum, drawn frtrni Ireland, by her abfentees, is about two millions of 

 money. 



