492 



FAIiMERS' REGISTER 



[No. S 



lund enoijgl) in the kingdom for all its inhabitants, 

 no\v' exi^Ung, and lor as many more as could be 

 anticipated in any reat^onaiile tinie, and that no- 

 thaig more was wanting but proper regulations to 

 niake it avaii;iS-)le tor their wa'nls, then tiie objec- 

 tion may he fairly considered to he set aside. In 

 a laie publication entitled "Ireland as it was, is, 

 and ouirlil to he," a table is given of the acreable 

 contents and popniaiiori of each county in Ireland, 

 which may be supposed, at least, so ihr relatively 

 accurate, as to atiord data lor the following calcu- 

 lations. From this table it appears that the coun- 

 ty of Armairli contains 212,755 acres, and a pop- 

 ulation of 220,t)53 souls, and that the entire lunir- 

 dom contains 17,190,725 acres, and 7,839,469 

 eouls; now, in the county of Armagh, by a recent 

 survey, more than one-seventh of the surlhce is 

 taken up by lakes and unprofitable land, and the 

 remainder is, lor the greater part, but inditrerenjly 

 cultivated, and yet the peasantry are better cloth 

 ed, lodged, and lf;d than they are in most other 

 counties in Ireland. I cannot, therefore, be ac- 

 cused of taking away from the comforts of the 

 rest of the kingdom, by taking the county of Ar- 

 magh as a standard, and its proportion of unpro- 

 fitable surface is not very remote. I believe from 

 the average of others ; U] then, 212,755, the num- 

 ber of acres in Armagh, give a population of 220,- 

 653 souls, 17,190,726 acres, the entire contents of 

 the kingdom, oiirrht tosive a population of 17,828,- 

 888, in place of 7,839,469, the population at present. 

 It therefore appears, that supposing the other parts 

 of Ireland to be as well cultivated a.s Armagh, it 

 ■would support about two and a halftimes the num- 

 ber of its present inhabitants, and be able to export 

 provisions largely besides, for Armagh, notwith- 

 standing Its population, exports pork, butter, and 

 grain in great (juantities. But before deciding finally 

 upon the population which the kingdom could sup- 

 port, it ought to be examined how far the county of 

 Armagh (the standard taken) has arrived at its 

 full complement; and in reg;ird to this, I would say, 

 fi-om a pretty general knowledge of it, that under 

 an improved system of agriculture, and a regular 

 rotation of crops, the produce would be treble of 

 what it yields at present, and I think this may be 

 considered as practically proved, if I can shoiv 

 farmers possessing land of average quality, who 

 bein(^ induced to change their manner of cultiva- 

 tion in the way already described, are now receiv- 

 ing fully treble produce from the identical same 

 farm, to what it formerly yielded; but supposing it 

 only to yield double as much, it would follow, that 

 the population of Armagh, if that beneficial 

 change became general, might be doubled also, 

 without, in any degree, lessening the comforts of 

 the inhabitants; which increase being taken as the 

 basis of the calculation, and applying it to the 

 whole of Ireland, would make it adequate to the 

 fsupport of better than thirty-five million of souls. 

 "VVhen, therefore, it is considered what unexhaust- 

 ed, I might say unexplored, resources remain for 

 the maintenance of any increase of inhabitants 

 that can be expected in any definite period, it 

 must, I think, be evident to every reflecting person, 

 that all fears as to a surplus population are per- 

 fectly ideal, and that it is its unequal distribution, 

 and not its aggregate amount, which is to be de- 

 plored. It may be said that the quantity of waste 

 land in the country of Armagh is below the ave- 

 rage of the kingdom, and this I have not the ne^ 



cessary returns exactly to ascertain; but the pro- 

 portion in Armagh would give an amount of 

 3,000,000 t)f acres 6f unprofitable land in the 

 whole of Ireland, which cannot be so far from the 

 truth, as in any maferiwl degree to affect the re- 

 sult of the Ibregoing calculation.* If then such 

 be the real state of the quf>stion, what, it will lie 

 demanded, can prevenl the population now in ex- 

 istence from seizing upon comlorts so com|)letcly 

 within their reach, and applying tJiemselves at 

 once to the cultivation of these immense tracts of 

 improvable lund, al present lying useless? The 

 ansvyer to this will lead me to 'the point I wish to 

 arrive at, and the rfply I slioujd give would be, 

 that the chief reason was, the want of security for 

 person and property, which deters the working 

 classes from attempting to settle in any place re- 

 mote from their own connexions, and thereby pre- 

 vents the population i'rom extending itself to liie 

 more unculiivated parts of the country; and being 

 thus pent up in particular districts, it occasions 

 land to be almost unattainable, where there is the 

 greatest wish to cultivate it, and leav'es it lying 

 idle, where it exists in the greatest abundance. 

 Any one, who knows anything of the slate of Ire- 

 land, knows that it is not sale in a farmer to emi- 

 grate even to an adjoining parish, without paying 

 largely for what is called the good will of the per- 

 son to whom he succeeds, which explains fiilly 

 the reason why a sum of money, nearly equal to 

 the value of the fee simple of the land, is ofien 

 given to get into possession of a farm under a 

 respectable landlord, in a quiet neighborhood, al- 

 though the land may be subject to its full value 

 in rent. But to the want of securit}' for person 

 and property, may also be added, the want of skill 

 and capital in the working population, and the 

 consequent incapacity of those who have neither, 

 to attempt the business of reclaiming, which re- 

 quires both, and thus (even where land might be 

 acquired) they cannot pnoceed, without meeting 

 that support and assistance fi-om the landlords 

 which they are, generally speaking, unwilling or 

 unable to afibrd; and thus things have been left to 

 take their own course from century to century, the 

 local improvement creeping on by degrees, as it 

 happens to be pushed forward by the advancing 

 tide of population in each particular district, with- 

 out almost an instance of any thing being under- 

 taken upon an extended scale, to bring into culti- 

 vation the numerous tracts of country, which 

 would so well repay the sums that might be judi- 

 ciously e:tpended on them; and the land is. left 

 waste, which alone is capable of affordinrr the ne- 

 cessary employment, and the people are left turbu- 

 lent, discontented, and disaffected, and will always 

 remain so, until employment is provided for them. 

 The existing state of things, therefore, operates 

 as cause and effect : the land lying waste leaves 

 the people lawless and turbulent ; and again, the 

 lawlessness and turbulence of the peojile is the 

 causes of the land beino; left so. 



From the American Journal of Science and Arts. 

 ON SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION. 



By James 3fease, M. D. 



n my 'Archives of Useful Knowledge,' vol. 

 iii. p. 167, I recorded three cases of ihe sponta- 



* The Commissioners of Bogs, in their fourth report^ 



