420 Protestant Colonies of Ireland. QOct. 



in ethics, have a tendency to degi*ade human nature ; and those wlio 

 expound them, possess the rare merit of having reduced the noble science 

 of political economy to that degraded state in which natural philosophy 

 and chemistry were placed previously to the time of Bacon — the mere 

 instruments of charlatans and visionaries. 



The manufecture of cotton in Ireland has been attempted with varied 

 success. — In the western, southern, and Leinster districts, its failure has 

 been complete ; in Belfast it is making some advance, but only as a sub- 

 stitute for the linen trade. That town has now become the shipping port 

 for that trade, since Dublin has ceased to be its chief mart, but the esta- 

 blishment of the cotton trade there has arisen in a gi-eat measure from 

 the misery of the people, for they live upon the worst species of food, 

 and therefore give their work at the low rate of from two to four shillings 

 per week — x'ide Third Emigration Report — for the benefit of the Eng- 

 lish or Scotch master manufacturer, who ultimately retires to spend his 

 fortune in England, and in case of a stagnation of trade the workmen 

 have no resource. Mr. Kennedy, in the third volume of the ]\Ianchester 

 Transactions, has distinctly proved in an able memoir on the cotton 

 manufacture, that a trade subject to such vicissitudes can not be perma- 

 nent without a poor rate to relieve the workmen in times of stagnation, 

 and the state of IManchester in the month of jMay 1})'26, has since fully 

 verified his position. If the poor rate at that time had not afforded imme- 

 diate relief until subscriptions were collected, a fe.'.riul insurrection must 

 inevitably have ensued ; and we are convinced, that without this provi- 

 sion, the introduction of machinery and other scientific improvements, 

 would be productive of excessive misery ; but the increased profits 

 arising from machinery enable parishes to support those who are imme- 

 diately injured thereby, and induce and enable the capitalist to seek 

 employment of a higher nature for the people, and thus consumers are 

 created for his manufactures. In every other part of Ireland the linen 

 and cotton manufacture have failed. We can clearly prove from reason 

 and analogy, that a rate for the employment of the Irish people on useful 

 public works in Ireland, would act as a great exciting cause of the outlay 

 of the capital (which is now drawn out of the country) in the productive 

 employment of the people in private speculation, and would deter tlie 

 land owners from making paupers by high rents, otherwise they would 

 have to pay their wages at the public works. Two years since Lord 

 Caernarvon stated in the House of Lords, " that he was an absentee from 

 his estate, situated in some part of England : during that time he fovmd 

 that his rents' were almost absorbed by the poor rates ; but when he 

 returned home, and gave productive employment to the parishioners, 

 it encouraged industry and manufacture, so that at the time he spoke 

 there were few paupers in the parish, and his rents were punctually paid." 

 If the absentee landlords of Ireland found their rents thus diminished, are 

 there men who can doubt that the millions of waste acres, which lie 

 uncultivated in their possession, would not speedily produce food for 

 England, through the waste labour of a starving population ? Can we 

 doubt that boats and nets would be provided to sweep the shores of Ire- 

 land abounding with fish ; for it is only by a stimulus of this description 

 that they can be roused from their present state of cruel and heartless 

 apathy. Is it possible that three famines could have swept Ireland if the 

 land owners had done their duty in 1821 } 



]Mr. Kennedy, in a paper on the Poor Laws, in the third volume of the 



