588 



IRELAND. 



cellent, and it has one of the handsomest and finest quays in Europe. The city is well buiit, 

 and its commerce is extensive and flourishing. Waterford now cotnmunicates with Dublin, 

 Limerick, and Cork, by railroads and canals. Population, 28,820. In the vicinity is Wex- 

 ford, a trading town, with 11,000 inhabitants. 



Galway, on the western coast, is a place of some trade, with 33,120 inhabitants. In the 

 vicinity, are Tuam, the see of the archbishop of Connaught, and Ballinasloe, noted for its great 

 cattle fairs, at which 120,000 sheep, and 40,000 cattle, are sometimes collected. 



Other principal places are Kilkenny, now reduced from its former importance, with consid- 

 erable woolen manufactures, and 23,740 inhabitants ; Drogheda, a trading town upon the 

 Boyne, in the neighborhood of which, James the Second was defeated by William the Third, 

 17,365 inhabitants ; Dundalk, with linen and muslin manufactures, 11,000 inhabitants ; JVewry, 

 Londonderry, and Sligo, places of considerable trade with about 10,000 inhabitants each, and 

 Valentia, a village on the southwest coast, with a good harbor, remarkable as the most western 

 in Europe. 



4. Manufactures. The linen manufactures have long been the most important branch of 

 manufacturing industry in Ireland, but for some years have been on the decline. The cotton 

 manufacture has been more recently introduced, and is rapidly increasing. The distilleries of 

 Ireland are extensive, and a considerable quantity of whisky is exported. The industry and 

 resources of the country have been greatly developed during the last twenty years. 



5. .flgricuJinre. Agriculture is very backward. The cultivators are generally not proprie- 

 tors of the soil, and studiously avoid any permanent improvement of the land, lest the rent 

 should be raised. The Irish are idle, and their implements of husbandry very rude. Wheat 

 is not generally cultivated, and what is raised is often inferior. Barley is now common, but 

 oats are raised in a tenfold proportion to that of any other grain. The Irish staff of life, how- 

 ever, is another article, which is so extensively cultivated, as to confer upon this island, the 

 name of the " land of potatoes." This root furnishes to the poor the greatest part of their 

 sustenance. It is remarkable, that a plant, brought originally from America, and hardly known 

 in Europe a century ago, should now be so universally cultivated in Ireland, and grow in such 

 perfection there. Even in the United States, this vegetable is called the Irish potato ; this, 

 however, is to distinguish it from the sweet potato of the south. The dairy is the best managed 

 part of Irish husbandry. 



6. Commerce. The coasting trade between Great Britain and Ireland is active ; the latter 

 receiving from the former almost every sort of manufactured articles, coal, &c., and exporting, 

 in return, potatoes, salted and other provisions, butter, corn, linen, spirits, and fish. The 

 foreign trade of Ireland is not very extensive, but is on the increase. The shipping amounts 

 to 100,000 tons. 



7. Inhabitants. In the eastern part, the people are chiefly of English descent; m tne wc^ , 

 the originally Celtish race is less mixed, and in the north, there are many people of Scottish 

 descent. The common classes are strongly marked with the national peculiarity of features, 

 and by this they are readily recognised in other countries. These classes have little beauty, 

 for their indigence exposes them to many physical wants and hardships. This observation, 

 however, will not apply to the class in more easy circumstances. The Irish have clearer 

 complexions than the Scotch, and they are hardy and strong ; they are rather less in height 

 than the English ; the orders are the same as in the rest of the United Kingdom. 



8. Dress. There is no national form of dress, except that of England, and this is some- 

 what varied. It consists in a coat of frieze, a waistcoat of the same, a shirt of linen, made at 

 home, and breeches, purchased at the shops, seldom fitting, and never buttoned at the knee. 

 Some districts are marked by the color of the frieze. A traveler concludes at once, from the 

 common dress, that he is in a country of extreme poverty. The dress is often but a broken 

 patchwork of rags, sometimes not entirely hiding the skin ; and children, of neither sex, have 

 stockings or shoes ; many of these. Indeed, go half naked, and some go entirely bare ; shoes 

 and stockings are, with many adults, but things of ostentation, worn as in Scotland, at church. 

 On Sunday, few are Ill-dressed ; one suit is kept sacred for festivals, at which, there are both 

 shining faces and goodly apparel. The men wear their hair long and shaggy, though they dress 

 better than the women. On holidays, the women wear white gowns and colored petticoats, 



md have a cloak thrown over the arm. Vast quantities of old clothes are imported from Eng- 



dnd, in every grade of shabbiness. 



9 Languages. The English is the general language, though not always spoken even by the 



