Reflections on employing the People. 347 



for which it long has had credit, that " idleness 

 is the root of all evil/' what crop of ill may 

 not be expected hereafter to arise from the 

 ramifications which are so rapidly extending from 

 this lamentable cause throughout Ireland ? This 

 question, which I have before agitated in 

 another form, again recurs. How can the 

 celerity of its propagation be practically and 

 prudently stopped ? Would a conversion of 

 the peasantry from the sickle to the shuttle, 

 have the desired effect ? Certainly not ; if all 

 the laborers in husbandry are to be made 

 weavers in manufactories. But as there is not 

 in Ireland a sufficient agricultural capital afloat 

 to afford employment to the numerous in- 

 dividuals in that department, the redundancy 

 of laborers should undoubtedly be provided 

 with some other means of employ. There are 

 various modes by which this important object 

 might probably be accomplished. But I call 

 the attention of those most immediately in- 

 terested in furthering this patriotic measure to 

 that particular vocation, most familiar to the 

 present miserable habits of the cabin. 



If, in addition to an extension of the staple 

 manufacture of the country, those of woollen 

 and cotton were judiciously established in ap- 

 propriate places, to multitudes of children and 



