168 ORGANISM OF 



plans, the advice he would then give would be listened 

 to with a more reasonable prospect of improvement. 

 The necessity for the system at all has arisen chiefly from 

 the want of practical knowledge on the landlord's part, 

 and the same on the part of his agent ; as otherwise they 

 never would have permitted their tenantry to fall so 

 much behind in the most ordinary agricultural know- 

 ledge. 



The reader who has followed me through the fore- 

 going details, will see that very much is being done to aid 

 the material improvement of Ireland. The whole 

 mechanism of a perfect body is, as it were, being put 

 into order by the directing hand of Government. The 

 brain is being prepared by national schools, colleges, 

 and agricultural instruction ; the bones covered with 

 sinews by the means of communications, promoted by 

 the Board of Works ; the arteries and veins are repre- 

 sented by the arterial and thorough drainage of the 

 country ; while the pulsations which indicate health or 

 disease are obtained by the statistical returns of food. 

 To set all in vigorous motion, a full heart of capital is 

 required, whence would issue the life-blood itself which 

 is requisite to the healthy action of the whole frame ! 



Whilst there can be little doubt that many of these 

 improvements have outrun the rate of individual pro- 

 gress in the country, and that the repayment by instal- 

 ments of the outlay incurred, will only add more to the 

 burdens of the already deeply-embarrassed proprietor, 

 who has no means left to develop the additional resources 

 thus laid open to him, it is very different with the pur- 



