3* F O O D. 



what is commonly called luxury, the more fimple mode cf 

 paying labour with land can fcarcely hold. It does not, howe- 

 ver, follow that the poor are in that refpect better off, other 

 advantages of a different kind attend the evils of fuch a firua- 

 tion, among which, perhaps, the employment of the wife and 

 all the children, are the greateft. In fuch a country, alfo 

 markets and {hops will be eftablimed in every corner, where 

 the poor may buy their necefTaries without difficulty j but in 

 Ireland there are neither one nor the other ; the labourer there 

 with his pay in his pocket would find nothing readily but 

 whifky. 



I have gone into this enquiry in order to fatisfy the people of 

 Ireland, that the mode there common of paying the labouring 

 poor is confident with the fituation of the kingdom : whether 

 it is good or bad, or better or worfe than that of England, it 

 is what will neceflarily continue until a great encreafe of nati- 

 onal wealth has introduced a more general circulation of mo- 

 ney, they will then have the Englilh mode with its defects as 

 well as its advantages. 



FOOD. 



The food of the common Irifti, potatoes and milk, have 

 been produced more than once as an inftance of the extreme 

 poverty of the country, but this I believe is an opinion embrac- 

 ed with more alacrity than reflection. I have heard it ftigma- 

 tized as being unhealthy, and not fufficiently nourishing for the 

 lupport of hard labour, but this opinion is very amazing in a 

 country, many of whofe poor people are as athletic in their 

 form, as robuft, and as capable of enduring labour as any 

 upon earth. The idlenefs feen among many when working 

 for thofe who opprefs them is a very contraft to the vigour and 

 activity with which the fame people work when themfelves 

 alone reap the benefit of their labour. To what country mud 

 we have recourfe for a ftronger inftance than lime carried by 

 little miferable mountaineers thirty miles on horfes backs to 

 the foot of their hills, and up the fteeps on their own. When 

 I fee the people of a country in fpite of political opprefllon 

 with well formed vigorous bodies, and their cottages fwarm- 

 ing with children ; when I fee their men athletic, and their 

 women beautiful, I know not how to believe them fubfifting 

 on an unwholefome food. 



At the fame time, however, that both reafon and obferva- 

 tion convince me of the juftice of thefe remarks, I will candid- 

 ly allow that I have feen fuch an excefs in the lazinefs of 

 great numbers, even when working for themfelves, and fuch 

 an apparent weaknefs in their exertions when encouraged to 

 work, that I have had my doubts of the heartinefs of their 

 food. But here arife frefli difficulties, were their food ever fo 

 r.ouriming I can eafiiy conceive an habitual inactivity of ex- 

 ertion would give them an air of debility compared with a 



