38G Different Plans of improving the Bk. iv. 



flourishing condition of our manufactures and the 

 numerous checks to our population, there is no 

 practical problem so difficult, as to find employ- 

 ment for the poor ; but this difficulty would evi- 

 dently be aggravated a hundred fold, under the 

 circumstances here supposed. 



In Ireland, or in any other country, where the 

 common food is potatoes, and every man who 

 wishes to marry may obtain a piece of ground suf- 

 ficient, when planted with this root, to support a 

 family, prizes may be given till the treasury is ex- 

 hausted for essays on the best means of employing 

 the poor ; but till some stop to the progress of po- 

 pulation naturally arising from this state of things 

 takes place, the object in view is really a physical 

 impossibility.* 



Mr. Young has intimated, that, if the people 

 were fed upon milk and potatoes, they would be 

 more independent of scarcities than at present; 

 but why this should be the case I really cannot 

 comprehend. Undoubtedly people who live upon 

 potatoes will not be much affected by a scarcity 

 of wheat ; but is there any contradiction in the 

 supposition of a failure in the crops of potatoes ? 



* Dr. Cnimpe's Prize Essay on the best means of finding em- 

 ployment for the people is an excellent treatise, and contains most 

 valuable information ; but till the capital of the counti-y is better 

 proportioned to its population, it is perfectly chimerical to expect 

 success in any project of the kind. I am also strongly disposed lo 

 believe that the indolent and turbulent habits of the lower Irish 

 can never be corrected, while the potatoe system enables them to 

 increase so much beyond the regular demand for labour. 



