

WHAT WILL DO GOOD IN IRELAND. 205 



that small landholders belong to a time when men 

 were content with a harder and humbler way of 

 living than even labourers are now satisfied with ; 

 and that we cannot now produce artificially by 

 any efforts of our own a large system of peasant 

 proprietors, because the necessary conditions are 

 absent. Now and then, and here and there, in- 

 dividuals may chance to have the qualities that will 

 enable them to succeed as peasant proprietors ; but 

 on any large scale it is impossible. There is no 

 people in all Northern Europe in whom the necessary 

 conditions are so wanting as the Irish. 



The conditions needed for success as peasant 

 proprietors are great industry and skill in farming. 

 In every country of Europe where small farms and 

 peasant proprietors have flourished, these conditions of 

 industry and skill have existed in an unusual degree. 

 The skill is often hereditary, coming down from 

 several generations. It is enough to mention Belgium, 

 parts of France, and the Channel Islands, the latter 

 having a further advantage in the immense quantity 

 of sea- weed thrown on shore, affording an unlimited 

 supply of manure gratis, and no part of any 

 island being more than three miles from the shore. 

 Let any one read the report on the farming of 

 Belgium by Dr. Vb'elcker and Mr. H. M. Jenkins in 

 volume vi., Second Series, of the Journal of the Eoyal 

 Agricultural Society of England, and he will find the 

 facts reported at length by two of the most competent 



