WRETCHED CONDUCT. 165 



But the caufe of all thcfe evils, which are abfolutc excepti- 

 ons to every thing elfe on the face of the globe, is eafily found 

 . a moft profperous manufacture, fo contrived us to be the 

 deftruction of agriculture, is certainly a fpe&acle for which 

 we muft go to Ireland. It is owing to the fabric fpreading 

 over all the country, inftead of being 'confined to towns. 

 This in a certain degree is found in foqne manufactures in Eng- 

 land, but never to the exclufion of farmers ; there, literally 

 fpeaking, is not a farmer in a hundred miles of the linen 

 country in Ireland. The lands are infinitely fubdivided, no 

 weaver thinks of fupporting himfelf by his loom ; he has al- 

 ways a piece of potatoes, a piece of oats, a patch of flax, 

 and grafs or weeds for a cow, thus his time is divided between 

 his farm and his loom. Ten acres are an uncommon quan- 

 tity to be in one man's occupation ; four, five, or fix, the com* 

 mon extent. They fow their land with fucceflive crops of oats 

 until it does not produce the feed again, and they leave it to 

 become grafs as it may, in which ftate it is under weeds and 

 rubbifh for four or five years. Such a wretched management 

 <> conftant deftruction to the land ; none of it becomes im- 

 proved unlefs from a ftate of nature ; all the reft is deftroyed, 

 and does not produce a tenth of what'it would if cultivated 

 by farmers, \vho had nothing to do but mind their bufinefs. 

 As land thus managed will not yield rent, they depend for 

 that on their web ; if linen fells indifferently they pay their 

 rents indifferently, and if it fells badly, they do not pay them 

 at all. Rents in general, at their value, being worfe paid 

 there than in any other part of Ireland. 



Where agriculture ;s in fuch a ftate of ruin, the land cannot 

 attain its true value ; and in fact the linen counties, propor- 

 tioned to their foil, are lower let than any others in Ireland. 

 There has been a great rife on many eftates, and fo there has 

 all over the kingdom, but not at all o\ving to the manufac- 

 ture ; and I am confident, from having gone over the whol 

 with attention, that any given tract of land in the linen, 

 country, if it could be moved to fome other part of the king* 

 dom where there are no weavers, would let twenty per cent, 

 higher than it does at prefent ; and I am fo convinced of this, 

 that if I had an eftate in the South of Ireland, I would a? 

 foon introduce peftiler.ce and famine as the 15r.cn manufacture 

 upon it, carried on as it is at prefent in the North of that kingdom. 

 Particular fpots may be, and are high let in. the North, out I 

 fpeak of the average of any large tract. 



But if, inftead of the manufacture having fo diffufed itfelf 

 as abfolutely to banifli farmers, it had been confined to towns, 

 =vhich it might very eafdy have been, the very contrary effeft 

 would have taken place, and all thole yaft advantages to 

 ; ture would havp flowed, which flourifhing manufactures 

 *a other countries occafion. The towns vowld have been 



