232 ON THE STATE OF IRELAND. [BOOK III. 



present proposes, of municipal franchise, universal 

 suffrage, or an increase in the number of represen- 

 tatives. These are mere words. Ireland, cleared 

 or cultivated as it is upon a system which on the 

 one hand leads to the increase of marriages, and 

 on the other exhausts the land and diminishes the 

 produce of labour, cannot longer yield food for its 

 inhabitants. The problem to solve therefore is, to 

 increase the produce of the soil in a more rapid 

 proportion than the population ; for Ireland, culti- 

 vated upon different principles, would be able to 

 support twice or three times the number of its in- 

 habitants. 



