8i EFFECTS OF AGRICULTURAL 



provinces, the erection of machinery may 

 justly be said to have commenced already ; and 

 but for the restraints put upon it by agrarian 

 calamities would have produced the most 

 favourable results before this time. Remove 

 those restraints, and its extension over the 

 whole of the four provinces of the Sister Isle, 

 on a scale not inferior to that which exists in 

 this country, is the obvious result. 



We are aware that the opinions of some 

 theorists differ widely from those contained in 

 the last paragraph. They entertain those ex- 

 alted notions of England's unrivalled great- 

 ness formerly alluded to, and assure themselves 

 that the introduction of manufacturing industry 

 into Ireland would be a hopeless as well as pro- 

 fitless step, and that it is her wisest policy to 

 limit her labours to the production of raw 

 materials ! " She has," say they, " very great 

 facilities for the production of raw materials; 

 and it is in all respects more suitable for her as 

 well as for England that she should direct her 

 efforts to this department, and import manu- 

 factured articles from Britain, than that she 

 should attempt to enter into an unequal com- 

 petition with the latter in manufacturing in- 



