42 Inexhaustible Fertility of Soil. 



which the farming community restrict them- 

 selves, have enabled them, though not without 

 difficulty, to pay their extravagant rents ; but I 

 cannot, without the most painful sensations, 

 anticipate the consequences which must attend 

 these poor creatures on corn falling to a fair 

 level price ; and, as this may reasonably be ex- 

 pected, the distress in every part of Ireland 

 will then be inconceivable. 



Happy would it be if the landed proprietors 

 could be persuaded of the numerous evils which 

 arise out of this minute subdivision of land. 

 A view of the present misery, and the sad assur- 

 ance of its daily increase, damps the pleasur- 

 able prospects, which otherwise would be 

 afforded from a survey of the inexhaustible 

 fertility of this glorious country. The spirit of 

 agricultural improvement which, in converting 

 barren wastes to fruitful districts, has so largely 

 benefited the empire, can operate but partially 

 in favor of Ireland. The whole system is 

 radically wrong ; the hope of its change for the 

 better, remote. A failure in the potatoe crop, 

 which Heaven avert ! would nearly absorb the 

 whole resources of the country to subsist its 

 population 5 which, at the best of times, is 

 burthensome, but by such a casualty may be- 

 come destructive. 

 5 



