STATE OF WARFARE. 365 



it was drawn, and did not represent a return from any 

 capital, since the proprietor took care to lay out nothing. 

 It was the produce of brute force, and was, like the rest 

 of the Irish constitution, like the tithes imposed upon a 

 Catholic people for the support of a Protestant clergy, 

 neither more nor less than an excuse for war and op- 

 pression. 



Strict entails, which had here a special object besides 

 that of aristocratic aggrandisement, helped to aggra- 

 vate the odious character of the rent. A few properties 

 had managed to change hands, and, in consequence of these 

 voluntary mutations, had lost the stigma attaching to their 

 original tenure ; but the rest traced back their origin 

 through regular succession to one of those inauspicious 

 dates, chronicled in the hearts of the Irish as the most 

 grievous moments of their long sufferings. As another 

 consequence of this state of warfare, England had stifled 

 every species of manufacture and commerce in Ireland ; 

 but she now discovers her mistake, and begins to make 

 amends, though tardily, and with an inclination still to the 

 old distrust. In times past she fell into the common mis- 

 take of thinking that the prosperity of her neighbours 

 was incompatible with her own, and therefore continued 

 to smother in Ireland that wealth which gives power. 

 England's history abounds with violent measures adopted 

 to this end, and she only too well succeeded. Her desire 

 was to make Ireland poor, and in this she succeeded. We 

 have witnessed, both in England and Scotland, how im- 

 portant to agriculture is the neighbourhood of a growing 

 industry and commerce ; for besides that it furnishes 

 markets and capital, it permits, by a fresh demand for 

 labour, an unlimited increase in the rural population. The 

 want of this, especially, has been fatal to Ireland. As 

 there was no other employment for the people, no other 



