1829-3 Protextaiit Colonieit oj Ireland. 41. '> 



waste lands, have, under tlio influence of this system, become an independant, 

 and industrious, and a religious people. 



In Ireland the soil is more fertile, the resources more abundant, the winters 

 less severe, the extent of waste land greater and more eligibly circumstanced, 

 the Protestants not less poor, nor more untractable than in Holland. 



The administration of the funds to be confided to the Grand Orange 

 Lodge. 



The families to be located to be recommended by the lodges to the District 

 Lodge — if approved of by the District, to be forwarded to the County Grand 

 Lodge — and when sanctioned by it, to be transmitted to the Grand Orange 

 Lodge for final approval. 



The County Grand Lodge to maintain a superintendence over the colonies 

 established in their county. 



As soon as sufficient funds shall have been collected to enable the Grand 

 Lodge to commence operations, a portion of waste land shall be purchased 

 sufficient for the establishment of a colony. On this the necessary buildings 

 for conducting the business of the establishment are to be erected. This 

 colony shall be divided into a certain number of farms, on each of which a 

 slated dwelling-house shall be built from the funds of the society. 



In each house two families of destitute brethren shall be located, subject to 

 such regulations as may be hereafter adopted. 



These shall be relieved by the institution from the bitterness of present 

 want, and prepared, by the promotion of moral and intellectual cultivation, to 

 take a higher place in future in the scale of their fellow-countrymen. 



The relief shall be administered v.nth a constant care to avoid, and the 

 fullest sense of, the evils to which indiscriminate charity is usually exposed. 



It can alone be obtained by their own labour — no encouragement is there- 

 fore offered to idleness. The comforts to be enjoyed shall be proportioned to 

 the industry employed — a constant stimulus is therefore given to exertion. 



Good conduct and industry on the part of the Colonists will obtain for them 

 the privilege of purchasing from the Institution the Farms on which they 

 reside, subject to certain conditions, and at a nominal rent. A system of 

 rev/ards and punishments thus applied, aided by the education of the young 

 and ignorant in the prhiciples of religion and good conduct, and a particular 

 ac(piaintance with habits of trade and agricidture, will be calculated to raise 

 those to whom it is applied to a condition to provide for their own wants, to 

 yield obedience to the laws, and a good example to their fellow-countrymen. 



We have not allowed any speculation to divert us from a rigid adherence 

 to the system which the experience of more than ten years in Holland, and 

 the sanction of practical ol)servers of its benefits, have confirmed. 



We recommend that the institution should never advance a step beyond 

 what their means afford and their previous success authorise. Thus they 

 never can be placed in a situation from whence they can only advance with 

 loss or retire with discredit. 



With our brethren it lies to give power to make the experiment. The sum 

 required from each individual would not be missed if abstracted frorn the 

 amoimtnow bestowed in indiscriminate, and, therefore, unprofitable charity. 



In a single colony in Holland there were two hundred orphans, inde- 

 pendent of the families located. A careful examination of them by intelligent 

 visitors produced the conviction that the food in the colonies was equally ex- 

 cellent, the appearance of the children more cheerful, their occupations more 

 healthy, and their education better calculated to prom.ote their progress in 

 after life, and their eternal happiness, than the system followed in towns, in 

 the ordinary orphan hospitals, and in the parish schools. 



The benefit proposed is great— the risk none. If the waste lands and 

 pauperism which now encumber the country, without the prospect of benefit, 

 and with the certainty of increase, shall be made to contribute wealth and 

 strength to the state ; 'if the burthen of the poor l)c diminished, and the dis- 

 eased wretched portion of our brethren be converted into a healthy, a happy. 



