58 MAKING BREAD. [No. 



part : men so degraded have no protection ; and it is 

 a disgrace to form part of a community to which 

 they belong. This degradation has been occasioned 

 by a silent change in the value of the money of the 

 country. This has purloined the wages of the la- 

 bourer; it has reduced him by degrees to housel with 

 the spider and the bat, and to feed with the pig. It 

 has changed the habits, and, in a great measure, the 

 character of the people. The sins of this system are 

 enormous and undescribable; but, thank God 1 they 

 seem to be approaching to their end ! Money is- re- 

 suming its value, labour is recovering its price: let 

 us hope that the wretched potatoe is disappearing, 

 and that we .shall, once more, see the knife in the 

 labourer's hand and the loaf upon his board. ' i 



[This was written in 1821. Now (1823) we have 

 had the experience of 1822, when, for the first time, 

 the world saw a considerable part of a people, 

 plunged into all the horrors of famine, at a moment 

 when the government of that nation declared food 

 to be abundant ! Yes, the year 1822 saw Ireland in 

 this state $ saw the people of whole parishes receiv- 

 ing the extreme unction preparatory to yielding up 

 their breath for want of food ; and this while large 

 exports of meat and flour were taking place in that 

 country ! But horrible as this was, disgraceful as it 

 was to the name of Ireland, it was attended with 

 this good effect : it brought out, from many members 

 of Parliament (in their places,) and from the public 

 in general, the acknowledgment, that the misery and 

 degradation of the Irish were chiefly owing to the 

 use of the potatoe as the almost sole food of the 

 people.'] 



100. In my next number I shall treat of the keeping" 

 of cows. I nave said that I will teach the cottager 

 how to keep a cow all the ye.ar round upon the pro- 

 duce of a quarter of an acre, or, in other words, forty 

 rods, of land ; and, in* my next, I will make good 

 my promise. 



