IRELAND, 
$66 
Among the patriotic focieties, the Dublin Society for 
the encouragement of agriculture and manufactures, is 
particularly worthy of notice. It was inftituted chiefly 
by the efforts of Dr. Madden in 1731, being the oldeft 
eftabliflnnent of the kind now exifting in Europe. To 
promote the objeCts of this fociety, public leCtures. are 
given on chemiftry, botany, natural phiiofophy, and the 
veterinary art; models of agricultural implements and 
improved machinery for manufactures have been pro¬ 
cured; fchools of architecture, landfcape, ornament and 
figure drawing, have been eftablithed ; and annual pre¬ 
miums are afligned as the rewards of ingenuity. A bo¬ 
tanic garden, including more than twenty-feven Englith 
acres, and laid out in a peculiarly-inftruCtive manner, has 
been made at Glafnevin, near Dublin. The collection of 
minerals formed by Lelke, one of the earlieft and molt 
diltinguilhed of the pupils of the celebrated Werner, has 
alfo been purchafed by this fociety. It confifts, with fub- 
fequent additions, of 7331 fpeeimens, and is ope of the 
molt perfect collections now extant. It is depolited in a 
large room fitted for the reception of ftudents; and in 
adjoining apartments are the minerals of Ireland and 
fuch others as the fociety are continually adding to the 
collection. 
The Royal Irifh Academy has already been noticed in 
vol. i. p. 47. 
The foil and agriculture, of Ireland have been ably illuf- 
trated by Mr. Arthur Young. It is obferved by him, as 
well as by other writers, that the foil far exceeds that of 
England in natural fertility. Its molt Itriking feature is 
its rocky nature, Hones generally appearing on the fur- 
face, yet without any detriment to its produCtivenefs. 
The ftones are commonly calcareous, and appear at no 
great depth, even in the moll flat and fertile parts, as 
Limeric, Tipperary, and hvleath. “ You mull examine 
into the Irilh foil,” fays Mr. Young, “before you can 
believe that a country which has fo beggarly an appear¬ 
ance can be fo rich and fertile.” Notwithftanding this 
advantage, owing to the univerfal want of capital hitherto 
prevailing among the more numerous clafs of farmers, 
in addition to habitual negligence and fupinenefs on the 
part of many, and a lamentable deficiency of agricultural 
knowledge on that of others, the produce of Ireland is 
proportionably inferior, both in quantity and quality, to 
that of England. A very confiderable part of the arable 
land, not lefs, as Mr. Newenham conjectures, than one 
tenth, is by a long and continued fucceffion of grain- 
crops without manure, annually reduced aimoft to a Hate 
of fferility, from which, however, it recovers in about two 
or three years. Even in the bell corn-counties, tillage is 
little underflood, turnips and clover being aimoft un¬ 
known, the wheat fown upon fallow and followed by 
feveral crops of fpring-corn. The farmers are befides 
oppreffed by the abominable fyftem of middle-men, land- 
canting, rack-renting, and tythe-jobbing. A middle-man , 
(a word aimoft unknown in England) is, in Ireland, a 
perfon who appears in the double character of leflee and 
leflor, of tenant and landlord. The owner of a piece of 
land, for inftance, lets it out on leafe at a low rent to fome 
perfon who, by taking advantage of temporary diftrefs, by 
giving a paltry premium, or uling fome undue influence, 
has had addrefs and cunning enough to effeCt this objeCt. 
This perfon, never intending to farm the land himfelf, 
Jets it out again on leafe, at an advanced rent, to fome- 
body elfe. This fomebody lets it again to fome other 
perfon or perfons, who let it at laft to the very pooreft 
and ioweft of the people at the higheft ftretch of increafed 
rent which it can poflibly bear; and thefe poor and low 
people, who are fometimes unable to buy trie common 
implements of hufbandry, become the cultivators of the 
toil, out of which fo many gradations of vvorthlefs inter¬ 
mediate landlords, or middle-men , mult be fupported. This 
laft operation for enhancing the price of land is generally 
effected by the practice of canting ; that is, letting it by 
auClion to thofe who bid the higheft rent. The confe- 
quences of this monftrous fyftem are thefe: the owners 
and occupiers of the land are placed at fuch a diftance 
from each other, that no friendly communication ever 
pafles between them; fvvarms of idlers, calling themfelves 
gentlemen and ’fquires, are maintained in riotous luxury, 
nick-named hofpitality, at the public expence ; the mife- 
rable drudges who work upon the land, after denying 
themfelves the common comforts, and fometimes the 
common neceflaries, of life, are unable to raife the rents 
they had contracted to pay; a lioft of landlords, five or 
fix deep, then come and feize their cattle, and drive away 
the tenants; and the lands are again canted to others. 
The praClice of tythe-jobbing remains to be explained. 
The proteftant clergymen of Ireland, either unwilling or 
unable to undergo the odious talk of collecting their 
tythes from Roman-catholic cultivators, make an arrange¬ 
ment by which they receive every year a certain i'um 
from perfons called tythe-farmers, and tytlie-proClors: 
the minute diftinCtions of their feveral occupations and 
opprellions it would be too tedious to defcribe. Thefe har¬ 
pies, thefe pelts and tyrants of every parilh, contrive by 
all kinds of artifice, chicanery, and threat, to raife the 
compofitions for tythes (for they will not take them in 
kind) to fuch an enormous pitch, that they generally put 
two-thirds more money into their pockets than the cler¬ 
gymen do. 
This mifinanagement and thefe monftrous abufes, would 
be fufficient to exhauft and ruin a country not bleft with 
fuch a high degree of fertility as Ireland enjoys. Tiie. 
extenllve bogs might, as we have feen, be rendered pro¬ 
ductive; and the mountains themfelves are the principal 
mirferies of thofe immenfe herds of bullocks and cows 
which are fed or fattened on the luxu iant low lands. 
The mountains of Galway contribute confiderably to the 
great fair annually held at Ballinafloe in that county, where 
80,000 Iheep- and near 10,000 horned cattle are, one year 
with another, exhibited for ihle. Since encouragement has 
been extended to agriculture, Ireland has become a trea- 
fury of grain; and there is no doubt that, with proper 
management, the country might be enabled to fupply the 
large importations of that article required by England. 
With regard to natural manures, few countries are fo 
abundantly l’upplied as Ireland. In aimoft every county 
lime-ftone, and that incomparable manure lime-ftone gra¬ 
vel, are found in the greateft plenty. White, grey, and 
blue, marles, of the belt quality, are likevvife to be met 
with in moft diftriCts, and compenfate, in fome, for a de¬ 
ficiency of lime. The fea-coafts likewife furnilh an inex- 
hauftible fupply of manures, as, fands of different kinds, 
fea-weeds, fea-ooze, and a marine production recently 
difcovered^ and called by the common people wool, from 
its refemblance when dried and preffed to that article. It 
is of a dark-brown colour, appears to be a fpecies of mofs, 
and is found to be an excellent manure for potatoes.. 
Thefe manures were not generally known in Ireland 
twenty years before Mr. Young wrote, nor is the manage¬ 
ment of them underftood even at prefent, notwithftanding 
their abundance, which is fo great, that on the coaft of Mayo,, 
for inftance, the common people let their dunghills accu¬ 
mulate j:ill they become fuch a nuifance, that they re¬ 
move their cabins to get rid of them. Mr. Young alfo 
informs us, and the faCt is well known, that the dung of 
the city of Limeric was generally thrown into the Shan¬ 
non- He alfo remarked that in feveral parts the farmers 
burned their ft raw, and that a foddering-yard was rarely 
to be feen. 
Ireland was early diftinguiflied for her manufacture of 
woollen fluffs, which continued to flourilh till, in 1698, 
the narrow policy of the Britilh government threw fuch 
obftruCtions in its way, in order to difable the Irilh from 
excelling or even rivalling the Englilh in this manufacture, 
that it was aimoft entirely annihilated. The wool of 
Ireland was remarkably fine, and far furpafled that of 
i England* 
