367 
I R E L 
England. Even now, notwithftanding the deterioration 
which it has experienced, the wool of the native Iriih 
Iheep fells, in fome parts of the iiland, for two or three 
findings a ftone more than that obtained from the Englilh 
breeds. 
To compenfate the Irifh in fome meafure for the re- 
ftriftion laid upon their indultry in regard to the manu¬ 
facture of wool, the Bntifh government refolved to afford 
additional encouragement to the manufactures of linen 
and hemp which Ireland had poffeffed for many years an¬ 
terior to the revolution. By the bounties granted by the 
legi(lature for promoting and improving the latter, at 
prefent amounting to the annual fum of '24,000!. thefe 
manufactures have been railed to a ftate of fuch high 
profperity, that they are computed to afford employment 
to 300,000 perfons, and the yearly export is about forty 
millions of yards. No other manufacture, it is true, yet 
ftands confpicuous among the Irifh exports. 
At the time of the palling of the aCt which exempted 
from duty the filk-manufactures of Great Britain, there 
were, according to the evidence^given before the Irifh par¬ 
liament, 800 (ilk-looms at work in Ireland ; thirty-fix 
years afterwards there were but 50, and thus three thou¬ 
sand perfons were driven to beggary or emigration. In 
confequence of the eftablifhment of the filk-warehoufe in 
Dublin, as many looms and engines were at one time em¬ 
ployed as fupported more than 11,000 perfons, the value 
of whofe labour was computed at 140,0001. a-year; but the 
increafed importation of filk-manufaCIures from England, 
threw out of employment, in 1783, about 780 of thefe 
looms, and above 3100 induftrious people. 
The attention of the government began to be extended 
to the cotton-manufafture about the year 1783, when the 
fum of 4000I. was granted for machinery and 25,0001. to 
Mr. Brooke for carrying on that manufacture in the coun¬ 
ty of Kildare. Since that period the importation of cot¬ 
ton wool and yarn has rapidly increafad, fo that, from 
822,788lbs. which was the annual average importation of 
three years ending in 1787, it has rifen to very little lefs 
than fix millions of pounds in the year ending the 5th 
Januar}'-, 1811 ; increafing the wealth of the country by 
upwards of a million flerling a-year, and affording employ¬ 
ment to near 100,000 perfons. 
The bounties liberally granted, during the viceroyalty 
of the duke of Rutland, gave a powerful impulfe to the 
Irifh manufactures in general. According to the evi¬ 
dence given before the committee on Irifh manufactures, 
thofe of hats began to flourifh 5 the blanket and carpet 
manufactures were likely to thrive exceedingly, if fairly 
protected ; cotton-printing was Hated to be executed as 
well if not better than in England, fo that Irifh printed 
cottons had even been fmuggled into Great Britain. 
It is the produce of her agriculture, however, that con- 
flitutes the principal fource of the wealth of Ireland. Its 
prefent flourifiling ftate is in a great meafure to be afcribed 
to the efficacious bounties on the exportation of corn from 
Ireland, granted by an aft paffed in the feilion of 1783-4. 
The bounties paid in the year ending in March 1786, was 
57,142.1. and the value of the corn exported was 406,893!. 
This was about the average of the export of the fucceed- 
ing ten years ; but iince the union a great increafe has 
taken place. In the year 1807, the quantity of wheat, 
barley, and oats, exported to Britain alone, was 837,122 
barrels'; and the value of the corn and meal together ex¬ 
ported in the fame period amounted to one million fterling. 
In the year ending January 5, 1811, the quantity of thefe 
articles exported was; wheat, 192,981 barrels (atz8olbs.) 
barley, 766,743 barrels (at 224'lbs.) cats, 756,254 barrels 
(at i961bs.) flour, 91,211 cwt. and oatmeal, 57,299 cwt. 
In the articles of fpirits and beer, both made from the 
produce of the foil, and almoft entirely c On fumed at home, 
-we find an aftonifhing increafe in the interval above-men¬ 
tioned. In 1784 the average quantity of fpirits annually 
made was 1,768,042 gallons ; whereas that made in the 
year ending the 5th of January, 180S, was 5,704,158 gat- 
A N D, 
Ions; exclufively of the produce of the illicit ftills, which 
is very great. The average quantity of home-made ale 
which annually paid duty in 1784, before the malt-tax was 
impofed, was 459,860 barrels. The quantity computed 
to be annually made, on an average of the years 1807 and 
1808, is 750,726 barrels; though Mr.Newenham adduces 
arguments from which he infers, that the confumption 
of ftrong beer in Ireland muft be nearly double that 
quantity. 
To the benefits refulting from the increafe of tillage in 
confequence of the aft already mentioned muft be added 
the proportionably-augmented gain upon the exportation 
of pork. The diiference between the quantity exported 
in four years ending in March 1788, and in four years 
ending in March 1796, was 200,131 barrels, the value of 
which at the then price was 646,9921. or 161,7481. on an 
average yearly. The difference between the number of 
flitches of bacon exported in three years ending in 1785, 
and three years ending in 1795, was 109,809, worth 
131,769b or 43,923b on an average annually. I11 the year 
ending the 5th January, 1808, Ireland exported 17,345 
hogs, 283,665 barrels of pork, 291,019 flitches of bacon, 
5,834 cwt. of hams, 19,885 cwt. of lardworth in the 
whole near 1,200,000b fterling. In the year ending the 
5th January, 1811, the export of thefe articles was 
hogs, 35,876; pork, 110,806 barrels; bacon, 310,622 flitch¬ 
es ; hams, 16,419 cwt. and lard, 12,839 cwt. 
Though the tillage of Ireland has been thus wonder¬ 
fully benefited during the laft thirty years, its pafture-land 
has fuftained no diminution, but the quantity has evidently 
increafed. Befides providing for the confumption of its 
own vaftly-augmented population, it exported annually,, 
on an average of the two years ending January 5, 1808, 
27,057 live cattle, 115,403 barrels (of 2iolbs. each) of 
beef, and 336,253 cwt. of butter. In 1810 the quantities 
of thefe articles exported werelive cattle, 45,18.5 5 beef, 
95,498 barrels; butter, 390,833 cwt. 
This vaft exportation of provifions from Ireland, is not 
to be afcribed wholly to the fuperior fertility of the foil; 
but partly to the nature of the food on which the lower 
claffes of its inhabitants chiefly fublift, and in a very, great 
degree to the general facility of conveyance. Potatoes, 
the ordinary food of the agricultural labourers of Ireland,, 
require a much lefs quantity of land for the production 
of a fufficient fupply for a given number of perfons than 
corn ; and fo numerous are the ports of Ireland, fo great 
its extent of fea-coaft in proportion to its area, fo conve¬ 
nient its rivers, and fo good its crofs-roads in genera!, that 
no farmer can be deterred by the inability to get rid of 
occafional redundances of produce at a faving price. 
Thefe circumftances, if improved to the extent of which 
they are capable, might enable Ireland to fupply a greater 
quantity of food than any country that ever exifted. 
To the falutary operation of the aft which has more 
than once been alluded to, muft be almoft entirely at¬ 
tributed that great augmentation which the rental of 
Ireland has experienced within the laft. twenty-eight 
years. Since 1782, the rent of land, which, fliortly before 
had begun to fall in many places, has been much more 
than doubled in all parts of Ireland, one with another, 
and more than trebled in many. Mr. Young, at the pe¬ 
riod of his vifit to Ireland in 1778, computed the whole, 
rental at fix millions ; and Mr. Newenham contends, that 
at prefent it muft be upwards of fifteen millions, exclu- 
five of the ground-rent of the houfes in the different 
towns, and that arifing from the wafte land containing 
4,800,000 acres. 
That the internal trade of the country has increafed in 
proportion to the extenfion of. tillage is abundantly ma- 
nifeft. Many branches of bufinefs are now. purfued, fome 
with vaft and others with adequate profit,, which previ- 
oufty were either not carried on at all, or yielded but lit¬ 
tle emolument. On turning to the external commerce,, 
we (hall find that fince 1,782 the imports have more than 
'doubled, as have alio the exports, if the real value be 
taken. 
