116 IMPROVEMENT OF 



tenpence per day. He was anxious, he said, to 

 make a shilling, but could not accomplish it. 

 According to the price which he was allowed 

 he ought to have made 2s. per day or 12s. 

 weekly, and that too with much more ease to 

 himself than he was making the 5s. Any 

 Englishman would have made the 12s. ; as 

 would also many of the Irishmen in our em- 

 ployment in the north. The question then 

 may be asked: Why did not this workman 

 execute as much work as the workmen of this 

 country do? or why, in other words, did he 

 not receive the same wages? The task was 

 looked upon as impossible in the district. It 

 had never been in practice, nor ever could be, 

 was the opinion of every practical man in the 

 locality. Even had this man made 2s. per day, 

 the next job would have been so reduced in 

 price as to bring down his wages to the common 

 standard of the district. 



Irish labourers are, in general, sufficiently 

 knowing not to spoil a good job when they get 

 one, and the drainer above referred to, even had 

 he received double the price allowed him on 

 the occasion, would not have ventured beyond 

 Is. per day on any account. Some time pre- 



