86 



salmon, eels, and other fish as far as from Ballyshannon on 

 the west a return which I have here from one village en 

 route, giving of eels alone 28 tons, from January to June, 

 which at 8d. per pound average I have known lod. to be 

 paid comes to over ^"2000, going to a village of 400 

 inhabitants, all conveyed to London by the " London and 

 North Western Co." the responsibility never leaving the 

 same carriers from Ballyshannon to the place of consump- 

 tion ; no, though we pay for our whistle more than we should, 

 and though we might be defeated in a battle of rates with 

 the most influential public carrier in the world, or be cast 

 in an appeal to their generosity in favour of the London 

 poor, or Irish starvelings, I am certain that the rates swelled 

 even in their immorality by the addition of a Billingsgate 

 ring, that we hear of often, would not account for the high 

 price of fish, or show that the present supply was sufficient 

 for the existing population of Great Britain, to say nothing 

 of the vast annual increase. Then to secure to the people 

 of this country the mine of national wealth ready to hand 

 in Ireland, requires but the means of transit, boat refuges 

 and enterprise ; and in most countries the first and pressing 

 necessity would be solely effected by the Government, 

 where the object to be obtained was the supply of a 

 physical want to millions of people daily. But in England 

 the jealousy of State meddling (so called) has reached such 

 a pass, that although special interference with the laws of 

 political economy daily obtain on the grounds of abstract 

 justice, the inhabitants of Lambeth might starve in the 

 midst of plenty, and the Irish poor rates in the coast 

 unions rise to los. in the pound, before a helping hand 

 would be given on the part of the State, unless the royal 

 princes and their influential and philanthropic congeners, 

 who promoted this Exhibition, determine on coming to 



