20 A LIFE'S WORK IN IRELAND. 



few realise how utterly low the condition of the 

 country was in the year 1800, or any time in the 

 previous century that may be taken as a starting 

 point. It was a state of excessive backwardness, 

 not to call it by the harsher name of barbarism ; 

 and if this is lost sight of, no one can judge fairly 

 of the progress that has been made. I believe for- 

 getfulness of this fact is the key to half the con- 

 tradictory views of the condition of Ireland ; that, 

 in truth, great progress has been made, though the 

 state of things is still far short of what is to be 

 wished for. In some districts the progress has been 

 much greater than in others. In the district I have 

 been writing of, I am certain it has been inmiense. 

 We are in a wholly different state in all respects 

 from that we were in twenty-five years ago. Men's 

 ideas are quite changed. I can remember when the 

 improvement of an estate and its tenantry was 

 always spoken of as an impossibility, the dream of 

 an inexperienced enthusiast. It is very different 

 now. Twenty -five years ago, except on the farms 

 of gentlemen and townspeople holding land, a plough 

 was not to be seen. I do not think there was one 

 on my estate. There were things called ploughs 

 that would scratch the surface, but all the art of 

 man could never turn a furrow with them — i.e. with 

 a log of wood sharpened and shod with iron, and 

 the other parts of a form Hke the pictures of the 

 implements used by the ancient Eomans. Ten or 



