12O On the State of the Irish Peasantry, 



one of whom is excluded from becoming a par- 

 taker of the honors and premiums bestowed by 

 the institution. 



Were the impediments to good husbandry in 

 Ireland of the ordinary kind only, I should not 

 entertain the smallest doubt that a short time 

 would be sufficient to remove them, and place 

 the cultivation of the country on an equality 

 with that of England. Unfortunately, however, 

 some are in existence of a nature not easily to 

 be surmounted. 



Want of constant employment is the primary 

 source of all the evils. If an opportunity of 

 being employed were daily presented to the 

 laborious orders, some degree of industry would 

 be excited : this would daily increase, and tend 

 to remove much of their present apathy and dis- 

 content. Could any means be devised to give 

 profitable activity to the rural population of 

 Ireland, the country would soon become one 

 of the most abundantly fertile spots on the face 

 of the globe.* 



* " No nation ever yet became industrious till the pro- 

 spect of reward had sweetened the exercise of the spade, the 

 hammer, or the hatchet. The feelings of present ill, for 

 such is toil, must be overbalanced by the hope of future 

 good, else no man will work." 



Campbell's Strictures on Irish History* 



