FOR PEACE AND WAR. 57 



hay, corn, potatoes, and roots carted home in due season. 

 From the agricultm-al operations upon that scale which 

 were formerly general in Ireland, horse labour was, of 

 necessity, inseparable ; whereas, in dealing with big fields 

 and large farms of later growth, steam-power, aided by the 

 labour of heavy imported horses, has preference, and is, of 

 late years, adopted by those who had experienced its value 

 in their own countries, and by those in Ireland who have 

 had the Avisdom and opportunity to follow a commendable 

 example. 



The native Irish farmers, like the Arabs, were predis- 

 posed to the possession of mares; for, while discharging 

 some duty of draught or burthen to her owners, she was, 

 as a rule, either rearing a foal, or " in a fair way to become 

 a mother" — more frequently both. It was thus that a 

 prodigious horse supply from such an area of land, and so 

 poor a population, was formerly derived from Ireland. 

 With the advent of new systems, that necessitated the 

 demolition of little homesteads and small tillage farms, and 

 the expatriation of their ruined inmates under "the arrange- 

 ment system," that afforded the means of transport to 

 America, or the more stern and cruel operations of eviction 

 by the Sheriff" and his myrmidons, came two great blows to 

 the thews and sinews of Old England in time of war — loss 

 of men, who made, at least, brave soldiers, and with them the 

 necessity and opportunity that kept her cavalry and artillery 

 "remount" supply in that state of efficiency that drew forth 

 the envy and encomiums of civilized Europe. May not 

 we, therefore, infer that the falling off" in the number of 

 horses produced in Ireland, and the increased supply of 

 beef from that country, is a state of things derivable from 

 the change in affairs I have endeavoured to depict, rather 

 than from a preference for beef producing, as the more 

 remunerative of the two. It is obvious that cattle feeding 



