

IRELAND, 1840-1880. 87 



consequences. 1. Drink is much the most common 

 and ruinous fault, not alone drunkenness, but taking 

 a drop whenever he has a chance. The enormous 

 multitude of public-houses lately mentioned in the 

 House of Lords, and of which I could give grievous 

 proofs, shows clearly the drinking habits of the people. 

 I know of nothing that might do so much good as 

 lessening the number of public-houses by one-half, 

 by permitting only one renewal for every two vacan- 

 cies that happen. 2. Idleness. Let any one look at the 

 armies of docks and thistles enough to seed a parish in 

 every field he passes even in the beloved potato gar- 

 dens and the matting of couch besides, which farmer 

 and wife and children look at with idle hands because 

 such weeds are supposed to keep the crop warm. 

 Milk unskimmed till a green fungus shows on it, and 

 all chance of good butter is gone, though so small an 

 improvement in the quality of the butter as would 

 make it worth 2d. per Ib. extra, would put a million 

 a year into Irish pockets. Haycocks left in the 

 field and the rain until near winter, and their value 

 so reduced by half. I name these things because 

 their profit or loss is all in the same year, and to do 

 them rightly would pay many fold, even if the farm 

 were given up at the year's end. 3. Debt I need not 

 speak of. It is universal. Nor 4, Scheming, which 

 has been the very life-blood of agitation (since the 

 time of O'Connell downward), and of almost every- 

 thing else that is done in Ireland, being, as it is, the 



