CH. VII.] ABLE-BODIED PERSONS OUT OF WORK. 203 



a week ; but from the distress of the people, he received 

 during the last ten months only 9s. 6d. among them all. 



Those who purchase food on credit pay double the price 

 of it ; nor can the seller be blamed, since he always ends 

 by being ruined, from not getting his dues paid. All the 

 Catholic priests say that the poor share all amongst them- 

 selves, without thinking of the morrow. 



The facts gathered in the other parishes of Ireland are 

 of the same nature as the foregoing ; and everywhere the 

 witnesses agree in saying that early marriages are so pre- 

 valent, that girls of twenty years and men of thirty are 

 considered as old maids and bachelors. So great is the 

 misery in which children live at home with their parents, 

 that they only think of marrying. 



Other witnesses say, that the Irish, in marrying so 

 young, do so only with a view to be supported by their 

 children when they shall grow old, for the greatest confi- 

 dence is universally felt in the spirit of family union. 



REMARKS. 



The melancholy state of society we have just 

 witnessed is only the necessary consequence of the 

 want of employment felt by those able to work ; 

 for the subsequent investigations will show the 

 development of a system, in which labour and its 

 reward are never wanting to men in a condition to 

 work, and in the countries in which this system 

 exists mendicity and vagrancy are unknown. The 



