80 THE IRISH PEOPLE. 



with the direction of public works both in England 

 and Ireland, and I have been obliged to employ by 

 turns English and Irish workmen. I confess that, 

 after the double trial, it would be an impossibility 

 for me to award a superiority to either. The Irish 

 workman cannot be judged at the outset. He first 

 begins by mistrusting his employer ; he is continu- 

 ally under the impression that some advantage is 

 going to be taken of him, and that he will be made 

 to work without being paid. Hence, his work is 

 sluggish, unequal, and irregular, and requires con- 

 stant watching. But when he perceives that the 

 agreement made with him is honestly carried out; 

 when at the end of each week he receives the fruit 

 of his toil, and sees that he has been honestly dealt 

 with, he then takes heart; and I am unable to 

 express the indefatigable ardour, the constancy and 

 punctuality, with which the unfortunate man works, 

 who just before thought himself doomed to die of 

 hunger, and who has found the means of living." 



79. In 1840 (?) Dr. Arnold, in his History of 

 Rome, remarks, that " there was one point in which 

 the difference between the Celtic race in ancient and 

 modern times has been unduly exaggerated. The 

 Greek and Roman writers invariably describe the 

 Gauls as a tall and light-haired race in comparison 

 with their own countrymen ; but it has been main- 



