1 52 Labor of Agriculture done by married Men. 



necessary to show that when the Irish have it in 

 their power to labor, they idly refuse to work. 

 To be able to perform a fair day's work, men 

 must have been in the habit of labor : many of 

 the Irish, during their lives, have had no op- 

 portunity of being constantly employed, and 

 from the want of muscular powers produced 

 by use, they are at first unequal to the con- 

 tinued exertion of a complete day's labor. Prac- 

 tice, and not inclination, is alone wanting to 

 make such parties equal as workmen to their 

 associates. The numerous instances, which for 

 years have fallen under my own observation, 

 justify me in stating, that on their first arrival 

 from their own country, they cannot easily for- 

 get the long-handled shovel, and the lay, in 

 the application of which they retain an erect 

 posture ; yet a short time is sufficient to make 

 most of them expert laborers on the surface, as 

 well as good miners under ground, with the tools 

 of the country. 



Agricultural labor, which is the great source 

 of occupation in Ireland, is, as I have men- 

 tioned in a former letter, almost exclusively 

 performed by the married men, because it be- 

 comes a sort of barter between them and their 

 employers ; and the value of it, instead of being- 

 paid in money, is set against rent and somp 



