CONDITION OF IRELAND IN 1779. 125 



and therefore unnoticed by the traveller ; or on very 

 rocky, stony ground, where the plough cannot be eco- 

 nomically used, and where, from the frequent rocky 

 obstructions, one does not see at once the dense popula- 

 tion which is sheltered by many an Arabia Petraea in 

 the West of Ireland. Numbers of the people also are 

 lodged in the union poor-houses. It is only, therefore, 

 by consulting the statistical returns that accurate infor- 

 mation on this point can be obtained. 



Before proceeding to do so, however, it will be 

 instructive to compare the state of the country at the 

 time of Arthur Young's visit, with what it is now. In 

 1779, just seventy years ago, that celebrated agricultural 

 writer made a tour through Ireland, an account of which 

 he soon after published. It is full of agricultural infor- 

 mation as to the state of the people, the landlords, and 

 the land. It gives very full details as to rental, pro- 

 ducts, tenantry, labouring poor, price of provisions, 

 roads, waste -lands' improvement, public works, flax 

 culture, free trade ! Indeed, nearly all the questions 

 which now occupy the public mind in reference to Ire- 

 land are there treated of ; and much that Arthur Young 

 says is as applicable to the present condition of Ireland 

 as it was then. " I have reason to believe," he says, 

 " that five pounds sterling per English acre expended 

 over all Ireland, which amounts to £88,341,136, 

 would not more than build, fence, plant, drain, and 

 improve that country, to be upon a par in those respects 

 with England. And farther, that if those 88 millions were 

 so expended, it would take much above 20 millions more 

 — or above 20s. an acre — in the hands of the farmers 



