IV PREFACE. 



classes of the two countries. The view I then 

 took of their respective conditions appeared so 

 questionable to many individuals, that it revived 

 my former desire to speak of Ireland and its 

 inhabitants as I had found them. At this 

 moment I am further induced to give my ob- 

 servations publicity, under an impression that, 

 in the discussions now likely to take place on 

 the Poor Laws, it may not be unimportant to 

 call the public attention to this established 

 fact, that the Irish peasantry depending solely 

 on themselves, and possessing the necessaries 

 of life in a much less proportion than falls to 

 the share of those numerous parties who receive 

 parish relief in England, are, in point of 

 happiness, vastly their superiors. The cause of 

 this is evident: their independency of mind 

 supports them under all their privations, and 

 gives them the full power of enjoying the social 

 affections, which the great moralist and philo- 

 sopher Dr. Paley considers the primary source 

 of human happiness. 



