1798.] Prefent State of Ireland in refpect to Induftry, Manners, 8c. 89 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
PRESENT STATE OF IRELAND IN RE- 
SPECT To INDUSTRY, MANNERS, 
HaBITs, AND LITERATURE. 
HOUGH Treland is a very poor 
country compared with Great Bri- 
tain, or indeed with moft of the European 
itates, and though fhe continues unable 
to fupply the heavy impofts which the 
exigencies of the empire have recently de- 
manded, fhe has rapidly advanced in 
profperity within the laft eighteen years. 
_ For this profperity fhe is indebted to the 
policy which removed the commercial re- 
ftraints that had, previous to tne year 
1780, fhackled the efforts of the people ; 
and to the induftry of her inhabitants, who 
applied themfelves early to profit by thofe 
new fources of wealth which were then 
thrown open to them. The zeal with 
which the people engaged in the cultiva- 
tion of thofe modes of induftry which were 
placed within their reach by the opening 
of Irifh commerce, may be judged of by 
one initance; namely, their rapid pro- 
grefs in the manufacture of zew drapery. 
in the year 1780, the exported quantity 
of that article amounted to no more than 
8,653 yards; but, by a progreffive an- 
nual increafe, it had arifen in the year 
1785 to 770,032 yards. The increafe in 
the quantity of old drapery exported within | 
y ry Exp 
the fame periods was proportional to the 
_ increafe in the new drapery ; and, indeed, 
there were f{earcely any articles of manu- 
fa&ture, of which the export was then 
permitted, that had not increafed in a 
ratio beyond what even a!fanguine mind 
could have expected. 
_ Unhappily for Ireland, its increafed 
profperity and wealth was confined to the 
mercantile and manufacturing part of the. 
community. The peafantry, which form- 
ed by far the greater part of the people, 
were not benefited by this new arrange- 
ment, which diffufed comfort and afflu- 
ence among the reft of their countrymen. 
If, by the increafed wealth of their coun- 
try, the price of every article of con- 
fumption had been raifed, and among the 
_ eft the price of the produce of the land, 
this fupplied an increafed rent to the owner 
of the foil; but the cottager, who cul- 
tivated it; had no fhare in the profit. 
The agent of the abfent landlord, or the 
middle-man who rented the ground from 
the refident proprietor, and made a profit 
by letting it again to the peafant, raifed 
the rent invariably in proportion to the 
growing value of its produce; fo thai the 
miferable animal, who had formerly been 
MontTuty Mag. No. xxxv. 
obliged to live altogether on potatoes and 
-butter- milk, found no addition to 47s com-~ 
forts. ‘Tythes, the great and inveterate 
root of difcontent throughout the whole 
kingdom, and which had for fifty years 
difgraced it by caufing petty infurrec- 
‘tions, continued to be exacted with un-. 
qualified rigor: in a word, the funfhine | 
which warmed and comforted the reft of 
the community, only ferved, by the con-~ 
traft, to render more dark and comfort- 
lef the fituation of the great body of the 
Trifh tenantry. 
W ith the augmentation of wealth, which 
the increafed manufactures and commerce 
of Ireland have produced, luxury has in- 
creafed, perhaps, in more than an equal 
proportion. It has always been the mif- 
fortune of Ireland, that its people have 
egun to enjoy affluence before they pof- 
feffed the power to fecure its continuance. 
At prefent, Irifh manufa€turers, or 
traders, who are not poffefied of a capital 
greater than in England would be thought 
enough to begin with, live in a ftyle of 
expence which is not exceeded in England © 
by thofe who, having fecured an inde- 
pendence, are about to retire from bufi- 
neis. It is not inthe male fex in which 
this propentity to extravagant expence is 
the moft prominent; it is a charaCterifiie 
feature of the women, and feems to arifé- 
from the abfurd plan of their education. 
In families of the narroweft circume 
ftances, and in which the manual labour 
of the head conftitutes the fupport of the 
whole, the daughters are almoft invari- 
ably taught Mufic, French, and Em- 
broidery; and, at the fame time, fuffered 
to continue ignorant of every domeftic 
qualification. Every girl is dehgned by 
her parents for a match above her own 
rank; and the means taken to enfure the 
fuccefs of this defign is to give her what 
is thought by them a genteel educations, ' 
which is no other than to teach her every 
thing which, in her proper {phere, fhe can 
have no eccafien for, and leave her unac- 
quainted with all thofe arts which are of 
daily utility. .The natural confequenc 
is, that the great mafs of Irifhwomen ara 
lazy; they are, however, poffefied of 
good-breeding, and have a tafte for ele- 
gance which would better fuit the rank 
above them than that to whiclr they be- 
long. A love of fociety always accom- 
‘panies the ability to fhine in it; the 
middle order of Irifhwomen, of courfe, 
think parities indifpentible to their ex- 
iftence; and one of that clafs fees com- 
pany five times for the once in which an 
Englithwoman, m familar circumftances, 
M indulgs 
