ESSAYS ON THE POPULATION OF IRELAND. 
‘One important use, however, is likely 
to result from directing to this branch 
of industry, the literary patriotism of 
the Irish : it will occasion the collection 
and preservation of much information 
concerning fishery; it will secure the 
record of much traditional experience. 
The produce of agriculture, on the 
same extent of surface, is said to have 
increased one sixth, since its practices 
have been published, commented, and 
compared: a similar result will be the 
eonsequence of disserting on marine agri- 
culture. The migrations of fish along 
the eastern coast, now take place nearly 
a month later than they did fifty years 
ago ; but every observation favours the 
suspicion, that the same precise degree 
of temperature attracts them to the old 
banks as before. ‘The natural history 
of fish is an important study; it may be 
worth while to offer national premiums 
for catching certain useless fish, merely 
because they interfere with the multipli- 
eation of the useful kinds, as is done 
for wolves and moles. 
The following is an important fact: 
«« The public is indebted for the introduc- 
tion of the new mode of hake fishing by the 
trammel net*, to Lhomas Walton, esq. of 
Oyster-haven, near Kinsale. He conceived 
357 
it was practicable to invent-an easier and more 
expeditious method of caption than by the 
customary one of lines. His reflection taught 
him to imagine, that the principle, on which 
the herring and mackarel nets are constructed, 
might be applied with equal success to the 
larger description of fish. He had a net so 
contrived, and the experiment surpassed his 
most sanguine ex ectations. 
«« The acl ih use is about 40 fathoms 
in length, and three in breadth with a mesh 
of five inches in diameter. Four of these 
nets, connected by a rope passing along the 
extremity of each, compose a set. This is 
sunk with leads to the bottom of the water. 
It is sustained in a perpendicular direction by 
means of corks affixed to the upper part of 
it. ‘Thus, it arrests the progress of the fish, 
entangling by the gills and elsewhere, all 
those passing in its course, the smaller ones 
excepted. At each end of the connecting 
rope is fastened two heavy stones, which 
serve as anchors, besides two buoy-ropes, for 
the purpose of ascertaining its position.” 
In the present circumstances of the 
occidental island, it would perhaps be 
most expedient to institute a society for 
piscatory information. The means of 
transplanting shell-fish to an adapted 
beach, or of alluring whales to an airy 
bay, may, step by step, be ascertained, 
and England learn from Irish observers 
to pasture new fishes on her shoals. 
Arr. LVI. Essays on the Population of Ireland, and the Characters of the Irish. By a 
Member of the last Irish Parliament. 
THIS valuable pamphlet comprizes 
two dissertations ;° the one statistical, 
on the population of Ireland; the other 
philosophic, on the character of its inha- 
bitants. 
The first is the more important essay : 
it displays greater research, and com- 
prises more valuable information. The 
result of this writer’s enquiries and spe- 
culations are thus tabulated. 
« Assuming then that the people of Ire- 
land amounted, at the beginning of the last 
century, to about one million, | find no dif- 
ficulty in affirming, that onan average, since 
the year 1700, they have experienced an in- 
crease of one-fifth or thereabouts every eleven 
years ; and that accordingly there were about 
1,200,000 people in Ireland in 1711 
M440j000 = = 2 -) -) in 1722 
elg728j,000° =). - =. = =) jn 1733 
we2,079,000 - - - + -. in L744 
Me 2,498,920 .-.- ~ = - in 1755 
2,985,984 - - - = -. in 170) 
GOR 174 .- “. - - - in 1377 
- { 4,209,808 Id - = « ? in 1788 
and 6,159,760 - - - - - in 1799 
~  T would not, however, be understood to 
affirm that the increase of people in Ireland 
‘year 1788. 
8vo. pp. 54. 
was uniform throughout the course of the 
last hundred years. I have sufficient reason 
for suspecting that it was less remarkable for 
eclerity towards the commencement, than 
towards the middle of the last century. £ 
know that it was censiderably retarded, dur- 
ing some of the above periods, by excessive 
emigrations. And I perceive ample grounds 
for entertaining av opinion that it has been 
much more rapid since 1777, and infinitely 
more so since 1785, than it was at any pe- 
riod anterior to the former year. The fore- 
going table therefore is not offered as an ac- 
curate exhibition of the periodical numbers 
of people in Ireland,. notwithstanding its ge- 
neral and striking coincidence with the dif- 
ferent computations that have been made ; 
but merely as a useful guide, which certainly 
will not lead us beyond the truth, in otr rea~ 
sonings on the population of that country, 
so long as the political cireumstances thereof 
continiie in their present posture. 
«« According to Mr. Bushe’s computation, 
which is now universally relied on, and 
which first served to dissipate a very great, 
and perhaps dangerous error, with regard to 
the subject on which I am writing, there 
were 4,040,000 inhabitants in Ireland in the 
But that-gentleman’s computa- 
tion probably falling short of the truth, as 
* Itis not absolutely a trammel, although general réport has given it that appellation, 
Aas 
