148 The rural Irish labor only to exist. 



excellent flax, generally speaking, being pro- 

 duced on the bogs ; and possibly hemp might 

 also be cultivated to advantage. 

 : fifP:. :^Mtinrti.'t'V ^^^f-m-^^M'l-fvfftt'h^?? 



A very extraordinary state of indifference, 

 even to their own interest, seems to pervade 

 the proprietors of these vast tracts of bog, all of 

 which would probably remain in statu quo, 

 were it not for the overwhelming torrents of 

 population which are forced over them, who, like 

 drowning men, seize the sod and venerate the 

 soil that saves their lives. It is the stimulus of 

 dire necessity, not the encouragement of com- 

 petent neighbours, that alone gives the impulse 

 to this description of improvement. 



On the first view of the possibility that so 

 extended a cultivation may be effected, in a 

 country abounding with the means, and where 

 by far the greater proportion of the people are 

 glad to drag on a daily existence merely to 

 labor and labor merely to exist ! to feel the 

 toils of to-day must be the task of to-morrow 

 the mind becomes delighted with the animating 

 hope, that the time is not far distant, when by 

 these rural efforts all shall reap the comforts 

 which constant employment to so glorious an 

 end will furnish. Want of active employment, 

 or in other words, apathy and idleness, engender 



