Agriculture sustained by Manufacture. 



inerce ; of the importance of which to the hus- 

 bandry of every country, I was not so fully aware 

 until I visited Ireland. The inhabitants of rich 

 countries can alone afford to bring into cul- 

 tivation poor ground. It is here the profits of 

 the manufacturer would not only create a new 

 market, and a further demand, but enable him to 

 pay a higher price for the produce of the soil, 

 than the cultivator can afford : and as the 

 labor of a man has been found, on all ordinary 

 occasions, equal to provide for his own wants, 

 and those of his family ; after every allowance 

 which can possibly be made, there would re - 

 main in society, were it exclusively confined to 

 agriculture, a great surplus population, the 

 members of which would become a dead weight 

 on the productive labor of the community, if 

 manufactories in its neighbourhood did not 

 afford them employment. 



The present unfortunate situation of Ireland 

 has proved to me, that cheap food is not the 

 blessing which, by many, may be imagined : 

 the greatest political alteration that could take 

 place in this distressed country would be a dis- 

 like to potatoes, and a general preference in the 

 rising generation to bread and animal food. I 

 have formerly been an advocate for an extended 

 growth and use of the potatoe, but have iv- 



