2?4 ON THE STATE OF IRELAND. [BOOK III. 



Corn gives employment only to the miller, the 

 baker and the brewer ; and this but partially, since 

 the greatest part is consumed by the producers. 

 The vegetable kingdom, in Europe, is also capable 

 of producing flax and hemp, but this is only one 

 of those exceptions which confirm the rule ; for 

 few soils are capable of growing them, and, as they 

 require a peculiar mode of cropping, an advanced 

 state of agriculture is necessary for their cultivation. 



Timber, which Providence has given us a hun- 

 dredfold more than our wants require, is of too 

 little value in proportion to its weight to admit of 

 being transported from one place to another. 



The productions of the animal kingdom consist 

 in Ireland principally of pigs, and the horses re- 

 quisite for the transports of the country : the skins 

 of these animals are not susceptible of any manu- 

 facture*. The climate of Ireland is unfavourable 

 to the mulberry, which feeds silkworms. There 

 are, in addition, cattle and sheep ; but as, with 

 the exception of the consumption in Dublin and 

 two or three other large towns, these animals are 

 exported to England for the payment of Irish rents 

 due to English landowners, their skins, wool and 

 fat are manufactured in England. 



The only other resources are those derived from 

 the mineral kingdom. Lime, chalk, stone, or brick- 



[* Horses' hides are an article of traffic and manufacture. TRANSL.] 



