30 LABOURING POOR. 



for it. The cabbins in little towns are in the fame fitu- 

 ation. 



I think 5!. ios.-2d. for liberty to plant a crop fo beneficial 

 to the land as potatoes, a very extravagant rent, and by no 

 means upon a fair level with the other circumftances of the 

 poor. The prime coil of two Shillings and feven fence half- 

 penny per barrel, generally of twenty (tone, being equal to 

 about eight-pence the bufliel of feventy pounds, is not a high 

 price for the root, yet might it be much lower, if they gave 

 up their lazy bad method of culture, and adopted that of the 

 plough, for the average produce of three hundred twenty 

 eight bulhels, or eighty-two barrels per acre, compared with 

 crops in England, is perfectly infignificant, yet to gain this mi- 

 ferable produce, much old lay, and nineteen-twentieths of all 

 the dung in the kingdom is employed. A total alteration in 

 this point is therefore much to be wifhed. 



Relative to the cottar fyftem wherever it is found, it may 

 be obferved that the recompence for labour is the means of liv- 

 ing. In England thefe are difpenfed in money, but in Ireland 

 in land or commodities. In the former country paying the poor 

 with any thing but money has been found fo oppreffive, that 

 various and repeated ftatutes have been made to prohibit it. 

 Is it to be confiderd in the fame light in Ireland ? this is a 

 queftion which involves many confiderations. Firft let me re- 

 mark that the two modes of payment prohibited in England, 

 but common in Ireland, are not exactly the fame, though up- 

 on fimilar principles. In England it is the payment of manu- 

 facturing labourers in ueceflaries, as bread, candles, foap, 

 &c. In Ireland it is a quantity of land for the fupport of a 

 labourer a year. The former, it muftftrike every one, is more 

 open to abufe, involving more complex accounts than the lat- 

 ter. The great queftion is, which fyftem is moft advantageous 

 to the poor family, the payment to be in land for potatoes and 

 milk, or in money, fuppofing the payment to be fairly made : 

 here lies the difcuffion. 



On one hand the Irifli labourer in every circumftance which 

 gives him any appearance of plenty, the porTeflion of cattle is 

 fubjecled to chances which muft be heavy in proportion to his 

 poverty ; ill fed cattle, we know from the experience of Eng- 

 iifh commons are very far from being fo advantageous to a man 

 as they firft feem ; accidents happen without a refource to 

 fupply the lofs, and leave the man much worfe than him who- 

 being paid in money is independant of fuch events. But to 

 reverfe the medal, there appear advantages, and very great 

 ones by being paid in land, he has plenty of articles of the 

 utmoft importance to the fuftenance of a family, potatoes and 

 milk. Generally fpeaking the Irifh. poor have a fair belly full 

 of potatoes, and they have milk the greateft part of the year. 

 What I would particularly inilft on here is the value of his 

 labour being food not money ; food not for himfelf only, but 

 for his wife and children. An Iriftiman loves whiikey as well 



