318 
first tanner whe proved it possessed a 
sufficient body to tanstout hides, has per- 
haps already ascertained this, desidera- 
tum; ifso, he would confer a great service 
upon his brother tanners by furnishing 
the public with the particulars of his 
practical calculations. Few trades have 
sustained more temporary inconveni- 
ence than tanners haye through the fre- 
qucnt scarcity and high price of oak- 
bark. Iremember, about the year 1806, 
when this last-mentioned article was not 
tobe purchased under from 20]. to 22L 
per ton, to what straits and unpleasant 
shifts the tanners were reduced, Among 
other ineflicient substitutes, the sorry 
article of clm-bark was introduced into 
different parts of the country; but it was 
found to be of so poor a nature, and so 
unequal to the grand task of decom- 
posing animal juices by vegetable 
power, thatit wholly failed. The clear- 
ness and brightness of leather tannage 
trom larch is so superior to the dull 
dark huo caused by valonca, that no 
objection can Le started against it on 
that head, Enoxt Situ. 
Cercle 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
THE STATE of IRELAND ILLUSTRATED, 
and REMEDIES SUGGESTED. 
HE evils which aflict Ireland are 
more of a moral than physical 
character, and hence arises the great 
difficulty in suggesting remedies. Phy- 
sicians can prescribe morc easily for dis- 
eases of the body than of the mind, and 
politicians know better how to remove 
physical disorders than those that grow 
out of haman passions. If a nation be 
poor, by removing restrictions on in- 
dustry she will become rich; if igno- 
rant, let schools be founded, and know- 
Iedge rewarded, and she will become 
enlightened. There aro direct reme- 
dies for these calamities; but, when the 
national mind is affected, when the po- 
pulation is divided inte hostile sects and 
partics, hating, prosecuting, and thwart- 
ing each other; without union, charity, 
or toleration ; the case is much more ar- 
duons ; and the reform of the inhabitants 
ef Bethlem is hardly more difficult than 
that of. a community so distempered. 
Treland is a country of paradoxes ; 
her, peasantry are the poorest. fed in 
Europe, yet the least exposed to abse- 
lute want; population has rapidly in- 
creased, when, according to the theory 
of economisis, yice and misery should 
have checked, its progress; manulace 
tures and agriculture have extended, 
without produciag Weulth ; and educa- 
On the true State of Irctand. 
[May 1; 
tion has been rendered accessible to alk 
classes, without diffusing kuowledge. 
These paradoxes are all facts, well 
known to those who have examined ihe 
state of Ireland: without iliustrating 
them more particularly at present, let 
us go directly to those causes, which 
have rendered a country degraded and 
miserable under so many apparent ad- 
vantages. ‘These causes may be put 
under three heads; first, such as are pe- 
culiar to the character of the people ; 
second, the gentry; and, thirdly, the 
policy of government, 
To begin with the first of these divi- 
sions. he lower Irish are. vicious, 
not from want of education, but want 
of knowledge; they are as well in- 
structed, and as cager to receive in- 
struction, as the same class in any other 
part of the empire, except Scotland. 
Why then are they so inferior? It 
arises from indigence; the poverty of 
their parents is so extreme, that they 
cannot extend the elements of know- 
ledge; when their children leave school 
they cease toimprove,—what they have 
there learnt is forgotten, If they learn 
any thing afterwards it is evil ; from the 
exainple of their parents they become 
habituated to indolence and improvi- 
dence ; from the legends of saints, the 
histories of thieves, smugglers, and 
prostitutes, (the only reading of the 
youth of both sexes in Ireland,) they be- 
come familiar with models of every spe- 
cies of violence and depravity. 
Hence the frish, though an educated, 
are really an ignorant people ; and, from 
this source, flow the principal defects 
in their character. The chief of these 
is an absenco of artificial wants : with- 
out such stimulants, neither nations nor 
individuals advance in refinement. 
They have no motive to exertion; their 
wants being few, and these easily satis- 
fied, they sink into sloth and apathy. 
This evilis appareniin Ireland. Pota- 
tocs, forming the staple fond, are as hurt- 
ful there as tho banana in, South 
America. The comforts and clegancies 
which excite the industry and emula- 
tion of the Euglish, mechanie¢ are un- 
known to the Irish cotter; hence, he 
aspires not to convenicnces of which 
he has no knowledge; and hence his 
greater laziness and indifference, and 
all the evils which flow from these 
SOUICES.., - 
But an absence of artificial wants is 
only one of a class of cvils flowing from 
the ignorance of tle peopie. The next 
in order, is improvidcnee, a prolific 
Source 
