302 Adaption of mistaken Means 



ever, in which has been sought an abatement of 

 these wrongs, by their various associations, has 

 only aggravated the sufferings they fondly hoped 

 to alleviate ; and by their inordinate proceedings 

 they have indisposed their countrymen and all 

 mankind towards what otherwise might have 

 been deemed well-founded claims to relief. 

 Whilst I cannot but condemn the means re- 

 sorted to for redress, I must commiserate the 

 wretchedness, and pity the incitements of these 

 deluded people, under a conviction that there 

 must be something radically wrong in the con- 

 stitution, order, and management of the Irish, 

 which calls aloud for the sedate thought and 

 interposition of government, temperately to in- 

 quire into, and strictly to ascertain, the causes 

 of complaint, of grievances, and abuses 5 and to 

 adopt such measures as may appear to be best 

 calculated at once to remedy and remove them, 

 and not, by temporizing, .palliate and continue 

 the present evils. Undoubtedly a large propor- 

 tion of them will be found to arise from an unem- 

 ployed excessive population. This, as one in- 

 stance of the operation of mistaken notions in 

 Ireland, has injudiciously been promoted by a 

 general desire in persons of landed property to 

 multiply the number of settlers on their estates, 

 from a belief in some that it is the best means of 



advancing their income, in others, the surest 

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