154 A LIFE'S WORK IN IRELAND. 



stances, because they never liad any industry or 

 exertion in them. To treat them as some seem to 

 wish is pure protectionism. And as with other pro- 

 tected interests, Free Competition, in the same way 

 as it has been brought to bear on all the other pro- 

 tected interests of the kingdom, is the only way to 

 cure the evils that arise from it. 



Those who propose heroic cures are, without 

 exception, men who have no personal knowledge of 

 land or of farming. All the powers on earth cannot 

 improve land, except by the expenditure of capital of 

 some sort, or of labour which is capital. These men 

 have no sort of capital, they hinder those who have it 

 from expendmg it, and will not work hard themselves. 



The principle of the Land Act was economically 

 unsound. It was really a measure of protectionism 

 for one kind of business — small farming in the hands 

 of the least industrious class in the three kingdoms. 

 The business of small farming needs the stimulus of 

 free competition more than almost any other busi- 

 ness ; and protection to small farmers was sure to 

 produce, and has produced, the same effects on them 

 that it has produced everywhere else. 



8. One thing that makes the progress of Ireland 

 slow is that it is only within the last ten years that 

 the personal recollections of the Eebellion of 1798 

 have passed away. Ten years ago there were many 

 alive who could tell of the crimes and horrors they 

 had actually seen or heard. And there is a reality in 



