1322.] 
source of Irish wretchedneéss. Mar- 
riages are made early and without re- 
gard to the future; the priests encou- 
rage them for gain; the people, from su- 
perstition, consider thema duty. ‘The 
consequence is an excess of popula- 
tion. Without falling info any absurd 
ery on this head, there can be no doubt 
of it with respect to Ireland. All 
writers concur in the fact,—wherever a 
draveller sets his foot, he sees signs of 
excess; the swarms of beggars, whose 
miseries cannot be exagyerated; the 
eompetition in every occupation ; and 
the crowded state of every Jane, court, 
and alley, where cheapness enables the 
wretched inmates to herd togcether,— 
all denote a redundancy. 
What is the consequence? The first 
is scarcity of employment, and conse- 
quent low price of labour, Labour is 
not half the price in Ireland it is in 
England, while common unecessarics 
are cequaliy dear. The next conse- 
quence is the general nakedness, desti- 
tution, or, in a word, indigence of the 
people, This is the greatest evil in 
Irciand. Indigence and improvement 
are Wholly incompatible, the body must 
be at ease before the mind can expand. 
it has been mentioncd how extreme 
penury ineapacitates the lower Irish 
from purchasing books, or giving in- 
struction to their children beyond that 
derived {rom charity. Of the existence 
of this calamity, and its debasing ten- 
dency, it is sufficient to mention the 
fact, that there is a regular intercourse 
between Ireland and Scotland, in which 
the former purchasesthe cast-off clothes 
of the latter.* There are few English 
mechanics or labourers, I apprehend, 
who would wear a Scotchman’s old 
clothes, and I trust this feeling will long 
be maintained. Moralists, indeed, may 
declaim against pride and luxury, but 
they are the great improvers of nations. 
if they be vices at all, they are vices in 
the higher, not the lower orders’; in the 
latter they are the only stimulants by 
which the mass of socicty can be ame- 
liorated. | 
Let us now speak of the gentry. Wo 
hear much about aljsentees ; this, how- 
ever, is a symptom, not a cause, of the 
disorder, What inducement has an 
frish gentleman to reside,— whatsocicty, 
what comfort, what enjoyment would 
he have? The Rassian noble lives con- 
stantly on his estate,’and what is the 
consequence? he becomes &s brutaland 
* Supp. to Ency, Brit, art, Ireland. 
On the Distresses and Discontents of Tretanid. 
319 
deprayed as his vassals. We know the 
effect of West-India slavery on plant- 
ers,— would it be diflerent in Ireland? 
Would thelandiordimprove his tenants, 
or be corrupted hy them? would not 
continual familiarity. with scenes of 
meanness and servility debase him to 
their level, or produce vices of an oppo- 
site character? Travel has always 
been considered one source of improve- 
ment; and, I doubt not, Ircland is inf- 
nitely more benefited by the residence 
of her gentry in the capitals of ingland 
and Scotland, and the ideas and feel- 
ings with which.they there become fa- 
miliar, and of which Ireland occasion- 
ally derives the benefit, than their cou- 
stant abode amidst a degraded popula- 
tion ; and, I am quite sure, that the 
more her gentry become acquainted with 
English manners and usages, the bet- 
ter for the cotters. 
Let us, however, not be mistaken on 
this pot: we know tho value of a na- 
tive resident gentry, we are scnsibie 
how much Ireland would be benefited 
by her rental being expended on the 
spot, we know how her population 
would improve by the constant presence 
of an opulent educated class, known to 
the people from their birth, mixing 
familiarly with them, practisiag hospi- 
tality, respecting their prejudices, pity- 
ing their vices, or reproving them by 
bettcr example; in short, acting the 
partof real gentlemen, an union of ac- 
complishment, knowledge, and huma- 
nity ; with such a class, Ireland, or any 
country ,would be blessed andimproved, 
but does such a class exist in Ireland? 
We know what the squircs were in 
Swifts days,.rackers of their tenanis, 
jobbers of all public works, proud and 
illiterate. For my part, I think Ireland 
as well off with her present oppressors; 
tithe-proctors, and middlemen, bare 
and naked as they are, as under the lash 
of such gentry. The last T would have 
sent to England to be civilized, where 
they perhaps may learn something that 
might be adopted with advantage in 
place of mud Cottages, froth, blarney, 
and faction. 
We come to our last topic, the policy 
of government. This is a delicate 
part of our subject ; and, fortunately, 
littlenced be said to illustrate it. Every 
body knows how Irelund has been go~ 
yerned for centuries; she has been a 
mere prey, a promethean liver on which 
successive administrations have sur- 
feited: she has, in fact, not been go- 
verned, she ,has been deluded and 
plundered, 
