Advantageous Improvement of the Bann. 161 



state. Removing the obstructions to the water 

 in its course through the Bann to the sea, and 

 rendering that river navigable, would be attended 

 with other great advantages beside those of 

 draining and bringing into cultivation many 

 thousand acres of profitable land, and effecting 

 a communication between St. George's Channel 

 and the great Western Ocean. If the means 

 possessed by individual speculators in Ireland 

 be unequal to so expensive an undertaking, the 

 assistance of the state might possibly be advan- 

 tageously directed to its accomplishment. 



& ?',' i.^.'i'.^'J {Ml IffctX !>n<)i 



The whole of the country through which we 

 this day passed is wretchedly poor and ill-culti- 

 vated, excepting in one small spot where the 

 agent of a considerable proprietor has success- 

 fully applied his capital to productive labor; 

 and has proved what might be done with a like 

 disposition, and the same means, by the im- 

 proved appearance of his grounds round his 

 house and offices. Beyond this little domain all 

 again was in a deplorable state from some 

 cottiers we learned the cause the land could 

 not be rented under thirty shillings per acre. 

 This discouraged the attempts which might 

 otherwise be made for its improvement, as it 

 was not highly esteemed among them in the 

 neighbourhood. We were answered by a pea- 



VOL. I. M 



