*04 PRESENT STATE 



In raoft of thefe articles we find fuch a decline of import, 

 that there is no wonder the revenue fhould have fuffered. If 

 it is faid, that this decreafed import is to be attributed to a 

 preceding poverty, it will only throw back the period of en- 

 quiry into the years difcufled in a preceding fedlion, and from 

 which no national decline can by any means be deduced. 



Some articles of import, however, contain fuch a decline, as 

 induces me to think there muft be more diflrefs than appears 

 from others. The following are the obje&s I fix on. 



Year 



Thefe are demanded by the agriculture, or the manufac- 

 tures of the kingdom, and are the laft that ought to fall. 



The declenfion in the trade of Ireland is not, however, in 

 imports only, there is a great decline in many export articles, 

 enough to convince any one that all is not right in that coun- 

 try j the following particulars will fhew this. 



It is fome confolation that hogs have not experienced the 

 declenfion which has attended oxen and cows. The article 

 beef puzzles me. I have been informed, that for thefe two 

 years, all government contracts for beef, &c. have not been 

 entered on the cuftomhoufe books, by an order of Mr. Gor- 

 don, the furveyor general ; if this is the faft it accounts for 

 the heavieft articles in this declenfion. The circumftance that 

 the export of ox horns has fcarcely declined at all ; that the 

 export of ox guts has greatly increafed, and that glew has 

 ruen, would iuftify one in fuppofmg that fomething of this fort 

 snuft hz-ve affefted the accounts of beef, &c. 



In 



