POPULATION. 87 



Marriage is certainly more generaJ in Ireland than in Eng- 

 land : I fcarce ever found an unmarried farmer or cottar, but it 

 is feen more in other clafTesj which with us do not marry at 

 all ; fuch as fervants ; the generality of footmen and maids, 

 in gentlemen's families, are married, a circumftance we very 

 rarely fee in England. 



Another point of importance is their children not being 

 burthenfome. In all the enquiries^ made into the Mate of the 

 poor, I found their happinefs and eafe generally relative to the 

 number of their children, and nothing confidered as fuch a 

 misfortune as having none : whenever this is the fact, or the 

 general idea, it muft neceflurily have a confiderable effect in 

 promoting early marriages, and confequently population. 



The food of the people being potatoes is a point not of lef 

 importance : for when the common food of the poor is fo dear 

 as to be an object of attentive ceconomy, the children will 

 want that plenty which is eflential to rearing them ; the arti- 

 cle of milk, fo general in the IrifK cabbins, is a matter of the 

 firft confequence in rearing infants. The Irifli poor in the 

 catholic parts of that country are fubfifted entirely upon land, 

 whereas the poor in England have fo little to do with it, that 

 they fubfift almoft entirely from fliops, bv a purchafe of their 

 neceflaries ; in the former cafe it muft be a matter of prodi- 

 gious confequence, that the product fhould be yielded by as 

 fmall a fpace of land as poflible ; this is the cafe with potatoes 

 more than with any other crop whatever. 



As to the number of people in Ireland I do not pretend fo 

 compute them, becaufe there are no fatisfactory data whereon 

 to found any computation. I have -feen feveral formed on the 

 hearth tax, but all computations by taxes muft be erroneous, 

 they may be below, but they cannot be above the truth. 

 This is the cafe of calculating the number in England from 

 the houfe and window tax. In Ireland it is ftill more fo, from 

 the greater carelefinefs and abufes in collecting taxes. There 

 i.s, however, another teafon, the exemptions from the hearth- 

 money, which in the words of the aft are as follow : *' Thofe 

 who live upon alms and are not able to get their livelihood 

 by work, and widows, who fliall procure a cenifkare of 

 two juftices of the peace in writing yearly, that the houfe 

 which they inhabit is not of greater value than eight mill- 

 ings by the year, and that they do not occupy lands of the 

 value of eight fhillings by the year, and that they have not 

 goods or chatties to the value of four pounds *.*' It muft 

 be very manifeft from hence, that this tax can be no rule 

 whereby to judge of the population of the kingdom. Captain 

 South's account is drawn from this fource in the lat century, 

 which made the people 1,034,102 in the year 1695 f; the 



* A Treatife of the Exchequer and Revtmtf of IrelnnJ, By 



G. E. HOW A RD, Eft; Vol. \. f>. 90. 



t Abridgment of Phil, TranJ. Vol. iii. /. 665. 



number 



