498 
present calamity: the insurrection of 
the peasants and the failure of the 
harvest; but neither of these seems 
sufficient to account for it. The crops 
of all kinds were so abundant last 
year, that, in some counties, the farmer 
has been known to give away his po- 
tatoes to any labourer that would be 
at the trouble of digging them up, 
concluding, that, in thus preparing his 
ground for wheat, he gained the only 
compensation he could expect for 
planting them. Indeed, the current 
prices published weekly, prove this 
abundance. With regard to the in- 
surgents, as withdrawing so many 
hands from country work, and inter- 
rupting the business of the field, — these 
are not, nor ever were, among the 
class of suffering poor ; they belonged 
to the peasantry in better circum- 
stances, nor did they enlist or force the 
mere cotters to join them,—they had 
too high an opinion of themselves and 
their cause. The pretext for all their 
outrages was to redress the hardships 
and to relieve the poverty of a class of 
people still lower than themselves. 
Although the habitual indolence and 
improvidence of the Irish peasant may 
justly be ascribed to his political con- 
dition, yet this unfortunate habit is the 
proximate cause of hissufferings, when- 
ever his routine of field-work happens 
to be interrupted for any time by a 
continuance of bad weather ; for, if he 
could command all the corn and pota- 
toes in the country, he would neglect 
to provide for the possible occurrence 
of an adverse season. As supine and 
careless as the American Indian, he 
adheres strictly to the abused precept, 
“Take no thought for the morrow, let 
to-morrow provide for itself.” In the 
distressed. districts which border on the 
Atlantic Ocean, and where much more 
rain falls than in the other parts of the 
island, the small farmers neglected to 
put their potatoesin the ground until 
the rainy season overtook them, and 
the seed itself was bad. Hence the 
partial failure of the potatee crop. 
But, if these poor people did not take 
all the advantages which they might 
have done early in the season, from 
the plenty and cheapness of grain and 
potatoes, their landlords, or their land- 
lords’ agents, should not have neglected 
them. It would have cost these gentle- 
men little to have furnished them with 
good seed; and, when the scarcity made 
its sudden and frightful appearance, 
one would imagine it would not haye 
The Present State of Ireland described. 
[July ls 
been difficult promptly to have brought ° 
provisions from the neighbouring plen- 
tiful districts. But, strange to say, 
whilst they were exporting large car- 
goes of grain, flour, and oatmeal, from 
the ports of Wexford, Waterford, and 
Cork, to Liverpool and Glasgow, they 
sent off these same articles from the 
last mentioned places to supply the im- 
portunate demands of the West of 
Ireland! However, by their retarding 
relief, it has excited universal sym- 
pathy for the sufferers, and produced 
the most generous efforts of unexam- 
pled charity. 
The Irish support adversity better 
than prosperity, they never murmur at 
their fate, nor attempt to shorten their 
misery by suicide; but, whether they 
die on their wisp of straw or exalted 
on a gibbet, they meet death with the 
same resignation and careless indiffer- 
ence. That this race naturally pos- 
sesses great energies, both. physical 
and mental, is universally allowed; 
quick to learn, and willing and able to 
work, it is not their faultif these adyan- 
tages are lost. Like manure heaped up, 
they become a nuisance instead of he- 
ing the source of plenty and prosperity. 
Having thus given a sketch of the 
actual state of things in Ireland, I am 
now led to attempt to account for it. 
The principal and_ still increasing 
cause, which, like Aaron’s serpent, 
swallows up all minor causes, is a su- 
perabundant rural population. In the 
last parliamentary census for 1520, the 
province of Munster alone was_re- 
turned as containing more than two 
millions of inhabitants. Here then is 
a country, the most fertile portion of 
the island undoubtedly, but without 
capital, without manufactures, and 
without enterprise or industry, and 
without employment of any kind forthe 
natives, except what may occasionally 
be given by the partial demands of 
agriculture. And this idle country is 
more populous than all Scotland, 
which supports a not too numerous 
population in great prosperity, by 
morals, industry, manufactures, and 
commerce !* 
There is no remedy or check for this 
increasing evil, nothing can prevent 
the peasantry from marrying at an 
early age, and getting swarms of chil- 
dren, 
* The rapid and surprising progress of 
population in Treland, from the census 
made by Sir William Petty to the last of 
1820, is given with great accuracy in tables 
of 
