i86 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



cod, ling, haddock, hake, mackerel, herring, whiting, 

 conger, turbot, brill, bream, soles, plaice, dories, and 

 salmon. And yet Scotland imports eighty thousand 

 barrels of cured herrings every year into Ireland, 

 most of which have been caught off the Irish coast. 

 The newspaper, Laiid and Water, remarks that 

 " The fishing at Kinsale is so enormous that mackerel 

 are sold at one shilling for six score, that piles of 

 magnificent fish lie rotting in the sun, or are thrown 

 back into the sea." This great and wicked waste 

 is attributable to the scarcity of packing-boxes in 

 which to send them away, but more probably from 

 a want of energy on the part of the inhabitants. 

 What is wanting is the industrial element ; in fact, 

 as Sir Rowland Hill said when engaged as one of 

 the Royal Commissioners on Railways, in examining 

 witnesses as to the fish traffic, " The Irish will 

 neither fish themselves, nor allow any one else to 

 fish, if they are in sufficient numbers to drive the in- 

 vading fleet of fishermen away." 



But, to return to Bianconi's cars. What I have 

 said respecting the Irish fisheries, the mineral wealth 

 of the country, and the prolific nature of the soil, 

 all goes to prove that Ireland is endowed by Nature 

 with considerable wealth ; that if there is poverty 

 and destitution the fault rests, not with the natural 

 features and productions of the country, and the 

 seas along its coasts, but with the inhabitants, and 

 those who politically influence their welfare. Had 

 Bianconi been an Irishman and not an Italian, his 

 marvellous system of cars would never have been 

 established ; and had he been from the South of 

 Italy and not from the North, I believe the lack 

 of energy would have been as apparent as though 



