EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



THIRD REPORT. 



XXV. AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 



MY Second Report gave an account of the Agricultural 

 School at Glasnevin, near Dublin, Ireland. I propose to add a 

 notice of some other industrial schools, which I have had an 

 opportunity of inspecting. The excellent establishment which 

 I described, and three others, of a similar character, which I 

 have visited, are in Ireland. Ireland, in this respect, has taken 

 the lead of England and Scotland, where we might sooner have 

 expected to find institutions of this nature. 



That in a country where the waves of political agitation have 

 for years been tossing all over it like the sea in a storm, and 

 where, certainly in large portions of it, there exist a degradation 

 and state of destitution utterly beyond any power which I possess 

 adequately to describe, in many parts, a struggle for existence 

 which seems, to an inexperienced spectator, absolutely desperate, 

 and, in some parts, a ferocity, growing not out of any innate 

 malignity, but out of unfortunate social relations, (for which the 

 remedy is not obvious,) scarcely to be paralleled even among 

 cannibals, in a condition of society where all the elements of 

 social life appear in a state of violent conflict, that in the 

 midst of all this there should be growing up institutions of this 

 character, even in advance of places blessed with peace, plenty, 

 quiet, and the highest measure of social improvement which 

 has yet been reached, is not a little remarkable. 



