D U B L I N S O C I E T Y. 101 



The fociety offers a great number of other premiums for 

 manufactures, many of which are very exceptionable, but it 

 would take up too much room to be particular in an examin- 

 ation of them. In agriculture they have a great number offer- 

 ed to poor renters feparately. 



Upon the general fpirit of thefe I have to remark, that the 

 defign of ncouraging poor renters is very meritorious, and 

 does honour to the humanity of the fociety ; but from a great 

 variety of inftances which were pointed out to me, as I travel- 

 led through the kingdom, I have too much reafon to believe, 

 that abufes and deceptions are numerous, that the fociety has 

 actually paid premiums per acre, to great numbers of claim- 

 ants, who have, as foon as they received the money,, let the 

 land run wafte again, fo that no perfon could diftinguiili it 

 from the adjoining bog or moor. There are two r^afons why 

 thefe premiums muft very much fail of their wifhec-for fuc- 

 cefs ; the extreme difficulty, not to fay impoffibility, of .afcer- 

 taining the merit of the candidates, or the facts alledged ; and 

 the utter impoflibility that fuch very poor fellows fhould work 

 any improvements worthv the fociety's patronage. The Lon- 

 don fociety have found, by repeated experience, their utter in- 

 capacity of doing any thing by weight of money, in bounties 

 per acre for any object ; I am convinced the fame fact will hold 

 true with that of Dublin ; the funds even of the latter are 

 much too inconfiderable for this mode. The object ought to 

 be to infpire thofe men, who have the neceflary capital to em- 

 ploy it in the way the fociety thinks for the public good : the 

 premiums fhould be honorary but confiderable, with that de- 

 gree of variety and novelty that fliould attract the attention of 

 men of fortune. 



But nothing was ever better imagined, than the plan of fix- 

 ing an Englifh farmer in the kingdom, fo much at the fociety's 

 expence, as to give them a power over a part of his manage- 

 ment. This was the cafe with Mr. Baker ; and it was alfo a 

 very wife meafure to enable him to eftablifh a manufactory of 

 hulbandry implements. The only errors in the execution of 

 this fcheme were : Firft, Not fupporting him much more libe- 

 rally, when it was found that his private fortune was too in- 

 confiderable to fupport himfelf and family ; had he been eafy 

 in his private circumftances, his hufbandry would have been 

 perfect. Second, The not directing him in the choice of his 

 farm, which was not a proper one for an example to the king- 

 dom j it fliould have been in fome mountainous tract, where 

 there was bog, and tolerable foil. Third, In permitting him, 

 to make and publifh fmall and trifling experiments, objects of 

 curiofity to a private fpeculatift, but quite unworthy of the 

 Dublin Society j befides, fuch a perfon fliould be brought to 

 eftablifh what a previous experience has convinced him is right, 

 not to gam his own knowledge at tht fociety's expence. 



The fcheme, had it, in the cafe of Mr. Baker, been execu- 

 ted in this manner, or was fuch an one ovv to be adopted, 



would 



