REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS. 



ness of the country to an asserted extreme use of ardent 

 spirits, and proposed a system for repressing illicit distilla- 

 tion, for preventing smuggling, and for substituting beer 

 and coffee. Another party found the cause in the combi- 

 nations amongst workmen, and proposed rigorous laws 

 against Trades 3 Unions. Others again were equally confi- 

 dent, that the reclamation of the bogs and waste lands was 

 the only practicable remedy. A fourth party declared the 

 nature of the existing connexion between landlord and 

 tenant to be the root of all the evil ; pawnbroking, redun- 

 dant population, absence of capital, peculiar religious tenets 

 and religious differences, political excitement, want of edu- 

 cation, the mal-administration of justice, the state of prison 

 discipline, want of manufactures, and of inland navigation, 

 with a variety of other circumstances, were each supported 

 by their various advocates with earnestness and ability, as 

 being either alone, or jointly with some other, the primary 

 cause of all the evils of society ; and loan funds, emigration, 

 the repression of political excitement, the introduction of 

 manufactures, and the extension of inland navigation, were 

 accordingly proposed, each as the principal means by which 

 the improvement of Ireland could be promoted. 



Having so difficult a question to deal with, and so many 

 plausible solutions offered to us, aware that the public 

 would be impatient of a second Inquiry, we felt bound to 

 use great consideration in selecting the subjects and the 

 order of investigation. That many, if not all, of the alleged 

 causes of evil did exist in a greater or less degree, was suf- 

 ficiently evident ; and that good might arise from some of 

 the remedies proposed, we were not prepared to deny. To 

 decide, without careful investigation, upon the degree in 

 which each might be productive of evil or of benefit^ would 



