3 I .a IRELAND THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, SEVENTH OF ENGLAND'S DOMINION; ENRICHED WITH COPIOUS DESCRIPTIONS OF THE RESOURCES OF THE SOIL, SEATS AND SCENERY OF THE NORTH WEST DISTRICT. BY A. ATKINSON, ESQ. AUTHOR OF "THE IRISH TOURIST," "IRELAND EXHIBITED TO ENGLAND," ETC. ETC. " Concordia res parvae crescunt Discordia maximae dilabuntur." SALLUST. LONDON ; PUBLISHED BY HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO., PATERNOSTER-ROW. LIVERPOOL; D. MARPLES, LORD-STREET. 1833. D. Marples, Printer, Lord-street, Liverpool. 7 6 TO THE ENGLISH PUBLIC. THE Author of this Work refers with confidence to the free and UNPURCHASED terms of approbation, in which divers of the LIVERPOOL Journals (to whose proprietors and editors, ample specimens were submitted for inspection as they came from the press) have spoken of the importance to the English interests, of the varied contents of this impartial and inde- pendent volume, which we have now the honour of submit- ting to the serious consideration of the friends of British prosperity in both countries. TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Page Embracing a concise but important Review of the numerous and com- plex causes, (political, ecclesiastical, and commercial) by which Ire- land has been impoverished, divided, demoralized, and laid waste ; together with the legislative measures that should be adopted for securing the rights of British connection to that country without a dissolution of the Act of Union. As also the reports of Mr. Dalton, an Irish antiquary, and those of the National Trades' Union, " on the rise, progress, and decline of trade in Ireland," embracing a period of parliamentary history, in relation to that country, of nearly six centuries 1 CHAP. II. Author's letter to the King on the nature and effects of the legislative union between Great Britain and Ireland ; and on the establishment of a local Parliament in the latter country for purposes of internal improvement 60 A Review of the Press and the Parties ; including a critique upon Cob- bett's Reformation, with observations upon the character and capa- bilities of O'Connell and other leading men 91 Poor laws , 143 Mallhusian system in Ireland 151 The tithe question ; with the Author's letter on that question to Sir Hussey Vivian, Commander of the forces 1 68 The grand jury system 174 Evils in the policy by which some Irish estates are governed 176 General observations on the soil of Ulster, &c 177 Reflections addressed to" the landed interest of the province 178 CHAP. III. AUTHOR PROCEEDS THROUGH THE COUNTY OF ANTRIM TO THE NORTH-WEST DISTRICT, IN A TOUR OF OBSERVATION AND RESEARCH. The O'Neill estates 183 Hollybrook and Gracehill 18-5 Town of Bally money (including reflections upon the patriot Hutchinson) 186 Balnamove mills, with the surrounding scenery 191 Moorefort 193 Coldagh 194 iv. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Page Brookhall 195 Town of Coleraine, and drive to the Giant's Causeway 196 Somerset 199 Leghinmore 199 Lisnafillan 200 Bushmills 201 Ballydivity 202 Lisconnan 204 Knockmore 206 Craig and Culresheskin 207 Town of Ballycastle 207 CHAP. IV. AUTHOR ENTERS THE COUNTY OF LONDONDERRY, AND VISITS THE FOLLOWING OBJECTS. Bristol folly 21 Fruit hill, with its neighbouring valley and surrounding mountains. . . . 211 Newtown Limavady (with remarks on the Irish spirit trade ; on the best mode of reforming the Irish people ; on the British crime of murder by strangling ; and on the national crimes and future prospects of E ngland) 220 Bellearena 233 The Manor of Walworth (the property of the Fishmongers' Company of London) 235 The London Grocers' estate ' 246 The Templemoyle Agricultural School, and North- West Farming So- ciety 248 The City of Londonderry 253 The Farm, the seat of Sir Robert Ferguson, Bart., M.P., with a critique upon the nomenclature of our seats 257 Ballynaguard, the seat of John Hart, Esq., with a query to the farming societies, remarks on the criminal laws, and a rhyme on the broad oak 265 Kilderry, the seat of the late General Hart 279 Bellemount 281 Thornhill 282 Greenhaw House 282 Beech-hill 283 Coolkeiragh 284 Ashbrook 290 Dunmore House 291 Prehen 292 Birdstown ; , .... 293 Burt House 294 Faan Cottage ... 295 TABLE OF CONTENTS. V. Page Mrs. Heath of Faan 296 Pennyburn Flour-mills 297 The river Foyle 297 CHAP. V. AUTHOR ENTERS THE COUNTY OF TYRONE, AND VISITS THE FOLLOWING OBJECTS : Town of STRABANE its trade, markets, &c., together with critical remarks upon the manner of levying local taxes upon towns and counties in Ireland 299 Minerals in the mountains 309 A landscape 310 The Tyrone Abercorn estate 311 Milltown 312 Burndennet bleach green 312 Urneyhouse (church property) 314 Shannon 316 Mulvoyne , 317 Deer Park 318 Crosh House 318 Parish of Ardstraw 319 Galloney House 319 Glencush 320 Corcreevy 321 Omagh (the capital of the county) 321 Mount Pleasant 324 Newgrove 325 Seskinore Lodge, &c 326 The Vesey estate 328 Ecclesville and Fintona 33 1 Spur Royal Castle 332 The Ravella estate 334 Killyfaddy House 334 Straughroy Cottage 339 The Tyrone election of 1830 341 Petty Sessions at Omagh 343 CHAP. VI. COUNTIES OF FERMANAGH AND LEITRIM. Entrance into the County of Fermanagh, with observations on its general appearance 349 Facilities for trade 361 Mineral wealth of Leitrim 365 Its towns, trade, character of the peasantry, and magisterial persecutions of the poor 379 Spas-Derrycarn 384 vi. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Page COUNTY OF FERMANAGH RESUMED. Garden Hill (with observations on the advantages resulting to a country from the example and labours of industrious resident landlords) .... 386 Colebrooke (with observations on minerals and tenures, and a brief notice of the Lisnaskea estate) 388 Castle-Coole (with observations on the utility of commercial surveys, preparatory to manufactures and commerce ; concluding with a seri- ous address to the landed interest of Ulster 391 Castle Archdale (scenery from thence to Belleek) 397 Florence Court 404 Derrybrusk House 405 Bellevue 407 Lisgoole Abbey ' 407 Riversdale 409 Crocknacrieve 409 Jamestown. 410 Rossfad 410 Graan House 411 Hollybrook 412 Curragh 413 Forphy House 413 Killyhavlin Cottage 413 Lisbofm 414 Magheramena 415 The Rockfelt Property 416 Prospect Hill 417 Swanlinbar 418 A circuit drive 420 Tithe Composition Law 421 Lough Erne floods ; destruction of crops ; endemic diseases; cholera.. 424 Queries 426 CHAP. VII. COUNTY OF. DONEGAL. Boundaries, extent, climate, soil, and commercial resources 428 Kildrum lead-mines 430 Sulphureate springs, and indications of iron and other minerals 431 Bundoran, and the mines in its vicinity 431 Waters and farms 433 Peasantry 434 Capabilities of improvement 435 Introduction to the local descriptions 436 Bally shannon m 437 Principal proprietors of the soil of Donegal 456 TABLE OF CONTENTS. Vll Page The Conyngham estates . 456 The Hall (the family seat) 458 The Murray estate 459 Lough Eask 460 The Abercorn estate 461 St. Ernans 463 Drumboe castle 464 Fort Stewart 467 Castle-grove 469 Rock-hill 469 Woodlands 470 Glendoen glebe 47 1 Rockville 472 Buncrana castle, and the town of Buncrana 473 Rochfort, and the mountains of Innishowen . . 476 The mountain island of Inch 477 Coxtown 478 Donaghmore glebe 479 Oak-park 480 Rathmelton 481 Ballybofey and Stranorlar, with remarks on village inns 482 Woods and fences 485 Town of Donegal 485 National education 488 IRELAND. CHAPTER I. EMBRACING a concise but important review of the numerous and complex causes, political, ecclesiastical, and commercial, by which Ireland has been impoverished, divided, demoralized, and laid waste together with the legislative measures that should be adopted for securing the rights of British connexion to that country without a dissolution of the Act of Union. As also, the reports of Mr. Dalton, an Irish Antiquary, and those of the National Trades' Union, " on the rise, progress, and decline of trade in Ireland," embracing a period of parliamentary history in relation to that country of nearly six centuries. WHATEVER has a tendency to produce a spirit of enquiry in England, concerning- the resources of Ireland, and the political and ecclesiastical impediments to its improvement, must prove useful to both countries ; since experience proves that, up to this hour, England has not availed her- self of the fruits of her conquest ; has not profited in a due proportion by the great natural riches of the Sister country ; has not made Ireland (no, not even by her legislative union) one country with herself; has not effected a sound moral amalgamation of the two countries, by all her laws; has been compelled, by the effects of her own ignorant or wicked policy, to govern Ireland in the 19th century, and the 7th of her own nominal dominion, by laws so ridiculously defective, that in several districts of Ireland (witness those of Clare, Galway, and Roscommon) there was no adequate security for life and property, so recently as in the year 1831 ; no permanent relief from ecclesiastical imposts that u 2 IRELAND, have oppressed and convulsed that country for several ages ; no security for the religious and moral influence of the Established Church, against that contempt and hatred of its wealthy clergy, which the basely ignorant framers and maintainers of the law of tithe, so effectually created and transferred to the Church itself; no- legislative enact- ments to provide employment for the poor, and to shield them from the unjust exactions of their domestic op- pressors; no provision for the myriads of families that have been thrown out of employment by the Act of Union, by the absentee system (and the consequent drain of native income) which that act produced;* no remedy for As a letter to the king on the subject of the Legislative Union between Great Britain and Ireland, will be found in a succeeding part of this work, we shall make no farther advertence to it in this note, than merejy to say (and this we do for the sake of those weak but well-minded Englishmen who apprehend dangerous results from an abolition of that Act) that the best conceivable substitute for its repeal would be, an appointment, by the crown and imperial parliament, of a standing committee of the two houses of legislature, composed of all the Irish lords and commoners for the time being, to sit in Dublin for a short period every summer during the recess, to compose bills (subject of course to the royal assent) for the improvement of Ireland, and the employment of her people.-j-This would probably be the best and most available substitute for a repeal of the Act of Union that human wisdom could devise, as it would combine with all the useful and lawful purposes of that Act, the most effectual secondary means of regenerating Ireland, and retaining her as a willing captive in the bosom of the British union. It would also have this additional recommendation, that it would enable the imperial parliament to devote a much larger portion of its time to the consideration of other subjects, than when heavily encumbered, as hitherto, with Irish affairs. And inasmuch as these committees would be charged with the exercise of a delegated power, (strictly confined to the internal improvement of their own country) and for every abuse of which they were liable to impeachment by the imperial parliament from which they derived their authority inasmuch, we say, as this legitimate mode of improving Ireland, by the natural (though hitherto, in many instances, treacherous') guardians of her welfare, would have a powerful tendency to preserve the unity and integrity of the empire, and to bury the question of repeal in the sea of oblivion ; and to all its other benefits would unite the important additional grace of compelling its lazy lords to spend a little of their time and money in their own country; we think they are no friends of England who will treat this question with contempt. I- A committee composed of equal proportions of English, Irish, and Scotch members, would be still better; as these would be likely to do, what Irish senators in their legislative capacity never did JUSTICE to an injured and disordered peasantry. REVIEW OF HER POLITICAL AND MORAL STATE. 3 an English monopoly of all our manufacturing interests, which it contributed to produce also; nor for the sublet- ting act, which (whether right or wrong) threw many hun- dreds of labouring families adrift upon the world. And lastly, no laws to protect the hundreds of thousands of men- dicants that were thus created, from the painful alternative of becoming robbers and rebels to the laws, or of covering the whole face of the country (as swarms of locusts are said to have covered the land of Egypt) in the character of sup- pliant beggars in pursuit of food ! Under such circum- stances it is not therefore surprising, that in certain districts of Ireland the laws of England are trampled under foot, the most sacred ties of humanity disregarded, and the value of property so completely deteriorated, that (in the absence of a strong military protection) a man of sense would not give sixpence for the fee simple of a good estate, if his residence upon the property to be purchased were made a sine qua non of the title proposed to be conveyed to him ! In a word, that Ireland up to this day is a drag upon the wheel of England, instead of being what she ought to be, a powerful contributor to her treasury, and the main pillar of her strength by sea and land.* * Some of the causes by which this unfortunate country has been deprived of the means of existence, her character demoralized, and her capital and energies forced into foreign lands, being plainly and strongly exhibited in the first report of a committee of that called " The National Trades' Union," held in Dublin, on " the rise, progress, and decline of trade, com- merce, and manufactures in Ireland," we shall give the substance of that report in the following extracts from it ; and as much light has been shed upon the same subject, by a Mr. Dalton, an Irish antiquarian (in a letter addressed by him to the editor of a Dublin paper), we shall append the substance of his letter to the aforesaid extracts, as we think these united communications, in connexion with the other important facts which this work contains, will enable every honest Englishman who lays his hand upon this book, to trace, with ease and accuracy, the complicated mis- fortunes of Ireland to the primitive causes which produced them ; and as the facts of English and Irish history contained in these communications, shed considerable light upon the state of trade and manufactures in the sister countries, at a very early period of their connexion, the English commercial reader will probably feel a peculiar interest in the perusal of this note, 1 IRELAND, In such a state of affairs as this, every work which has a tendency to call the attention of England to the causes by which these effects have been produced and perpetuated, must prove useful; and therefore, although in reference to which forms with us an additional motive for annexing it to our own facts and reflections upon the state of Ireland. Extracts from the Report of the Committee. " Your Committee have commenced a very laborious and minute enquiry, into the rise, progress, and decline of trade, commerce, and manufactures in Ireland : feeling deeply the necessity and importance of such an investigation in the present deplorable state of our trade. " It appears to your committee, that so far back as the year 1357, the serges manufactured in Ireland were esteemed and encouraged in many nations in Europe, particularly in Italy and Germany. It also appears, that annual fairs were for several succeeding centuries held at Kilmainham, (in the neighbourhood of Dublin) and which extended from thence to Thomas- street, (in the city) at which fairs, frizes, stuffs, and serges, the manufacture of Ireland, were sold not only to home purchasers, but to merchants from all parts of Europe, who attended here to purchase, in like manner as at the Leipsic fair in our own times ; whereby a considerable revenue was drawn from foreign countries and spent in Ireland. This great and impor- tant fair, under English jealousy and misrule, has long since totally ceased ! " It also appears to your committee, that in the reign of Elizabeth, a con- siderable export of cattle took place from this country to England, and which export trade, so far from being a drain of the resources of Ireland, as at present, and going into the pockets of heartless and unfeeling absentees, was then a considerable advantage to this country, the landlords being all residents, and spending their rents (which their tenantry were by such exports enabled regularly to pay) in the country, thereby benefiting the nation at large, and their own neighbourhood in particular, and rendering pauperism and want almost unknown in Ireland at that period ; but this trade tended too much to the good and prosperity of Ireland, according to the opinion of our English rulers; wherefore by the 8th of Elizabeth, chap. 3, the export of cattle from Ireland to England was totally prohibited! The consequence was, that the Irish nation paid more particular attention to the increase of their sheep, in order to export and manufacture their wool, which succeeded to such an extent in the succeeding reigns of James and Charles, that it next excited the jealousy of England, lest the Irish woollen manufacture should beat the English out of the foreign market. This appears from a letter of Lord Strafford, while Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, to Charles I., dated ijth July, 1636, wherein he says, ' there is a beginning here towards a clothing trade, which I had, and so should still discourage (unless otherwise directed), in regard it would trench not only on the clothings of England, (being our staple commodity) so as if they should manufacture REVIEW OF HER POLITICAL AND MORAL STATE. 5 the treasures of the soil we have little that is new to offer, yet, as that little will be accompanied with facts of history, calculated to shed considerable light upon the vicious and hostile elements of society in Ireland, we do not fear but their own wool, which grows to very great quantity, we should not only lose the profits we made now by indrapering their wools, but his majesty lose his customs, and in continuance it might be found that they might beat us out of the trade itself, by underselling us, which they are able to do. Yet I have endeavoured another way to set them at work, the rather in regard the women are naturally bred to spinning, and that Irish earth is apt for the bearing of flax, so I trust to make them to follow it when they see great profit arising thereby ; and that they shall generally take and employ themselves that way, winch, if they do, I am confident will prove a mighty business.' " On this letter your committee shall only remark, that Providence inflicted a just and well merited punishment, both on the treacherous writer and his more treacherous master, who could so calmly contemplate, for the aggrandisement of another country, the ruin of the staple trade of a brave and industrious people. Both terminated their mortal career upon a dis- graceful and ignominious scaffold." '' Notwithstanding all the treacherous efforts that were made to divert the attention and capital of Ireland from the woollen to the linen trade, the exports of woollens to foreign countries from Ireland, still exceeded the expectations of England ; and to prevent its continuance, an Act was passed, the 14th and loth of Charles II., whereby an export duty of 3 6s. 8d. was laid on each piece of broad cloth containing thirty-six yards, and fifteen shillings on each piece of stuff and kersey. And in the reign of William III. a duty of four shillings in the pound value on all broad cloths exported, being the manufacture of Ireland, and two shillings in the pound on all kerseys and stuffs; and thus Ireland was totally cut off from all foreign trade. These cruel prohibitions were passed in the days of her meekness and humiliation, but, as must be now apparent to every candid and thinking man, with more than Russian despotism and injustice. " The unwise, unjust, and paltry jealousy of England, appears amply from the foregoing ; * but to put the matter beyond doubt, your committee state one undeniable fact, whereby that jealousy is unblushingly acknowledged by the higher governing power of England, for in the address of the House of Lords to King William III., they openly complain of the increase of the * Paltry jealousy indeed, and, strictly speaking, as impolitic as paltry ; since, not to fetter the natural energies and resources of any branch of a dominion, but rather to encourage a full and vigorous development of these in every part, (each having its peculiar natural advantages) is not only the more generous and liberal policy, but in the end, must, obviously, contribute a larger aggregate amount to the wealth and power of the state. What would we think in these days of the wretched minion, who, to preserve the trade of London, would stand in his place in parliament, and say, that Liverpool and her commerce should be destroyed ! ED. NOTE. (> IRELAND, this tour of observation and research, so far as it shall come under the eye of honest and impartial Englishmen, will contribute, with larger and more useful works, to direct their vroollen manufacture in Ireland, ' which,' they say, ' marie his majesty's loyal subjects very apprehensive that the further growth of it might greatly prejudice the said manufacture in England, by which the trade of the nation and the value of land would very much decrease, and the number of people lessened ; they, therefore, besought his majesty to declare to all his subjects in Ireland, that the growth and increase of the woollen manufacture, had long and would ever be looked upon with jealousy by all his subjects of England, but to recommend them to turn their attention to the linen trade.' The Commons, in still stronger terms, ' implored his majesty to make it his royal care to hinder the exportation of wool from Ireland, and discourage the woollen manufacture and encourage the linen ' to which his majesty gave a most implicit answer, saying, ' I shall do all that in me lies to discourage the woollen trade in Ireland, and encourage the linen, and promote the trade of England.' The royal promise was carried into full effect, the result of which is felt at this day. " Another strong proof of the ruinous treatment extended to the manu" factures of Ireland, appears in the speech of Mr. Pitt, the prime minister of England, made in the British House of Commons, on the 21st of January, 1800, where he says, " I will admit that for an hundred years this country (England) followed a very narrow policy with regard to Ireland. It mani- fested a very absurd jealousy concerning the growth, produce, and manu- facture of several articles ; " but what cure does he propose for all this jealousy and injustice? He says, " that all this jealousy will be buried by the plan of the Union, which is now to be brought before you ! " Alas ! this measure, so highly praised by its base proposers, proved, instead of a benefit, the grave of Ireland's trade and manufactures. " Your committee think it unnecessary to enter more fully into a detail of the legal enactments and documents, proving the evil policy and legislation of England. They conceive they have shewn to demonstration the jealous and unfeeling conduct pursued for ages, in regard of the legitimate and staple manufacture of Ireland ; and that instead of fostering care and pro- tection, the Irish woollen manufacture received from the government of England nothing but discouragement and prohibition. "In the glorious year of 1782, and for several years afterwards, the woollen manufactures of Ireland made rapid strides towards prosperity, under the fostering care of a patriotic and liberal resident gentry, and the blessings of a domestic legislature. The city of Dublin was filled with industrious, well-fed, well-clothed operatives, and health and competence were enjoyed by thousands of persons connected with the woollen manufac- ture. The Liberty, formerly the principal residence of the master woollen manufacturers, is now a desert waste, filled with wretchedness, poverty, and filth where the cheering sound of the shuttle is no longer heard, and where REVIEW OF HER POLITICAL AND MORAL STATE. 7 attention to the policy by which that fine fertile country has been more than half lost to the British empire ; and, by an easy transition of the mind, to those better and happier houses, which at that period would bring 60, or even 80 a year, are now let at 20, or 10, and some even so low as 5 a year ! " A similar decline in the woollen trade has taken place in the country parts of Ireland. The flannel manufacture of Wicklow, formerly a most important branch of trade, both for the home and foreign market, is now nearly annihilated; and the flannel-hall of Rathdrum, which some years since was crowded with the industrious manufacturers of that useful article, is now converted into a school-house. " In Carrick-on-Suir, once a most important manufacturing town of coarse woollen cloths, and what is commonly called " Carrick ratteen," hav- ing 500 looms in full work, there is not at present, as your committee have been informed, 40 looms at work. In Kilkenny, the blanket and cloth trades have been reduced from great prosperity to the lowest ebb. In Cork, and every other place in Ireland where the woollen manufacture formerly flourished, a depression in a similar ratio with Dublin has taken place. " Your committee, from the lamentable falling off in this important branch of the manufactures of Ireland, have been naturally led to inves- tigate the cause of such deplorable results, and they are of opinion that the principal causes are ; First the cessation of the protecting duty of 8^d. a yard on ' old drapery ' imported into Ireland ; which was enacted in 1799, and continued for twenty years by the act of union, which enacted, 'that old and new drapery should pay on importation into either country, the duties then payable on importation in Ireland.' This duty, though small and inadequate to the protection of the higher priced cloths, yet afforded a considerable protection to the low priced cloths, and the other woollen manufactures of this country; but in violation of the promises made at the time of the union, as hereafter stated, this duty was suddenly taken off in the year 1821, and the Irish market thereby opened to the English manu- facturer, who was then in possession of his own immense home trade, and a foreign woollen trade extending throughout Europe, and almost to every country in the world. " Secondly The loss of above 100,000 a year, formerly expended in Ireland on the army clothing department, which is now laid out in England, it appearing to your committee that from 1782 to 1800, the entire of the Irish militia, and several of the regiments of the line quartered in Ireland, were supplied by native manufacturers with Irish woollens. One house in the Liberty had at one period the supply of twenty regiments, which busi- ness has now totally ceased. " Thirdly, and above all The unjust and infamous act of union, which has deprived Ireland of her domestic legislature and her resident gentry, and consequently of her capital. " Many and specious were the promises held out when that detestable act 8 IRELAND, days, when the murky gloom and withering blight of civil of Ireland's ruin was about to be accomplished. It is quite needless to say, not one of these promises was ever fulfilled. Lord Castlereagh, of execrated memory, the prime mover of that fell act, and then the organ of the British government, in proposing that measure in the Irish parliament, and alluding to what lie stated to be protecting duties on the several articles enumerated in the schedule No. 2, of the Act of Union, thus expresses himself. ' I wish them to continue for such a period of years as will give security to the speculations of the manufacturers. At the same time I wish to look forward to a period when articles of this kind may gradually be discontinued, and ultimately cease. It must be evident that if our manufactures keep pace in advancement for the next twenty years, with the progress they have made in the last twenty years, then that they may, at the expiration of it, be fully able to cope with the British* and that the two countries may be safely left, like any two counties of the same kingdom, to a free competition! It is therefore provided that after twenty years the United Parliament may diminish the duties of protection in such a ratio as the situation of our manufactures at that period may render expedient.' " Here, then, was a distinct, and unequivocal understanding, that the protecting duties should be merely diminished in proportion as a fair compe- tition between the two countries would permit taking it all the while for granted that Ireland would continue to improve in a ratio at least equal to her advancement during the preceding twenty years, which comprised the most glorious period of Ireland's liberty since she had come under the Eng- lish yoke; but notwithstanding her evident and rapid depression (for the absentee system, draining the country of its life blood soon commenced), in open and shameless violation of this solemn pledge, and of every principle of justice, the protecting duties were entirely struck ofl' 'at one fell swoop.' This was the finishing blow to Ireland's manufactures; the result was soon felt with appalling effect, as will appear fully by the following return of the persons employed in the woollen manufacture (not including the manu- facture of stuff's, hosiery, or carpets, which will form the subject of another * Did this Statesman know, when he was preaching this fudge to the Irish house of Commons, that Ireland had been deprived of her foreign trade and connections for a century or two previous to his speech, by the prohibitory impositions heaped upon her manufactures in the preceding reigns? (as alluded to by Mr. Pitt, and quoted from tha acts of parliament in the report which we are copying.) If he did, he must have been practising a gross deception upon the Irish house: for nothing can be more obvious than that Ireland, thus deprived of her foreign trade and connections, for a long period of years, could not maintain a competition with England at the end of his twenty years, under any circumstances of temporary protection. England having thrust our woollen trade out of the foreign markets, and not only possessed herself of all the advantages Ireland formerly enjoyed, but of many others, which the peculiar favour of government enabled her to acquire, to talk of competition with England, under such circumstances, was a pure humbug. ED. NOTE. REVIEW OF HER POLITICAL AND MORAL STATE. 9 and ecclesiastical oppression, having slunk convicted into report,) taken on an average between the periods of 1800, 1820, and the present time. Average number ol'persons evnployedineach branch of the Woollen Manufacture (except Stuff's, Hosiery, and Car- pets) Irora 1800 to 1820, with their weekly rate of wages. Average number of persons at pre- sent employed, with the rate of wages now paid. Branches. Numb. Weekly Wages. Weekly Amount. Numb. Weekly Wages. VeeklyAmount. Sorters 50 50 200 600 700 200 100 1000 75 150 150 50 25 500 75 20 20 20 10 20 s. d. 30 14 30 25 5 7 14 25 16 25 20 16 24 5 7 30 30 20 30 30 . s. d. 75 35 300 750 175 70 70 1250 60 187 10 150 40 30 125 2li 5 30 30 20 15 30 12 10 40 60 140 25 25 300 20 20 20 5 5 None. 15 4 4 4 2 4 s. d. 30 9 15 15 5 5 10 15 10 12 6 12 10 20 None. 5 26 26 10 20 25 . s. d. 18 4 10 30 45 35 650 12 10 225 10 12 10 12 2 10 500 3 15 540 540 200 200 500 Scourers .... Slubbers Spinners Feeders &Piecers Warpers Sizers Weavers Millers Shearers and ? Knappers ' ' Rowers Tenterers Dyers Winders Burlers Millwrights Carpenters Nailers Reedmakers .... Smiths Labourers 4015 60 3468 15 31 5 715 15 441 8 7 10 Total in Dublin. . Total in Coun-~\ try Towns, / averaged at > about half as i many more. . j 4075 6075 3500 5250 730 1095 448 18 672 10150 8750 1825 1120 18 In 1800 there we In 1815 In 1821 In 1832 only If Ireland wer Manufactures, th at an average of ; Deduct one-ha And the remai in Ireland than re 90 Woollen I 80 80 20!!! e to supply her ere would be 3, Os. per annum if for the raw DC nder would dist Manufacturers in Dublin, do. do. do. do. do. do. own population with Woollen 000,000 persons wearing elt.ths, 4.500. 000 aterials, &c. ribute no less 2.5 "iO. 000 ' ' a sum annually . .fo.o/io.ooo 10 IRELAND, the dark and infernal chambers of their birth, a new era shall commence, when Ireland, bursting through the gloom of ages, shall be called by the sun of justice to take her station in the heavens of political Christianity, among those " One consequence of this policy has been, that since the protecting duties were removed, several thousand persons, who were engaged in the woollen manufacture, were obliged, in order to save themselves from actual starva- tion, to emigrate to America, where factories are by their skill now esta- blished, which may yet compete with England herself.* " To such an alarming extent had the poverty and wretchedness of the woollen operatives reached, that a public meeting was convened by the Lord Mayor, in 1829, to consider the most prompt means for their relief. It then appeared that, in 1821, 1027 operatives connected with the woollen and stuff manufactures had been suddenly thrown out of employment, although a sum of 195,000 had been sunk in buildings and machinery, and totally lost to the proprietors ; and that hundreds of these operatives, whose wages for- merly amounted to 1 5s. per week, were then (in 1829) breaking stones on the highways ! " The same tragedy of relief ((or it ended as a tragedy) was acted in Dublin, professedly for the benefit of many thousands of operatives that were thrown out of employment, in the year 1826, in consequence of the manufacturers not being able to effect a profitable sale of their goods on hand ; but although divers public funds existed, which, if given as a premium to the employers, would have enabled them to sell their stock on hand at a losing price, and by this means to have resumed their trade and restored their workmen to their accustomed employments, yet none of these funds would be applied by their trustess to this use. With one sum, of twelve or fourteen thousand pounds, which had lain dormant for seven years, they built a bridge, rather than apply it to the support of Irish trade. How they disposed of other and similar sums, (among the rest, a large remaining surplus of the English charity of 1822) lying dormant also, we have not since learned. Suffice it * This reminds us of the persecutions of the French Hugonots, which produced the settlement of many colonies of French Manufacturers in other countries. It is time for the jealousy of England towards the countries of her own dominion to give way. In her free trade system she has acted with prodigal liberality to independent states, which profited by her folly, but refused to follow her example. Would not this liberality have proved more useful to her, had it been extended to Ireland, and other countries with which she is closely connected ? This indeed would have been the true free trade system, as the energies and resources of every country, enjoy- ing an equality of protection, would have been exerted in a useful and honourable competition to excel. This competition would prove equally serviceable to the state and to her members, whose interests are one and indivisible ; but hitherto England appears to have acted upon a narrow and selfish policy, and the consequence has been that she has lost America, beg- gared Ireland, and forced thousands of her manufacturers and artisans to emigrate to foreign states! ED. ^ REVIEW OF HER POLITICAL AND MORAL STATE. 11 brighter luminaries of the west, which have been purged by the finger of a special Providence from those impurities which disgrace Europe, and from which England herself, notwithstanding her baptism in the font of two revolutions, is not yet purified. to say, that the English interest prevailed in the Dublin councils. The weavers, unused to such labour and unfit for it, were sent to break stones in the streets, or in the vicinity of the city, notwithstanding the citizens were paying the paving corporation for the execution of that work. The money distinctly subscribed for the relief of the weavers at that time (about 12 or 13,000) was appropriated to their daily payment for the execution of that work, first, at the rate of one shilling per day, secondly, at the rate of six- pence, and lastly, at so low a rate as that of four-pence per day : the con- sequence may be easily anticipated ; a dangerous endemic disease, the obvi- ous result of famine and inanition, spread through the liberties of the city, and extended to the streets in their vicinity : the hospitals were filled ; an extensive coach-house in Kevin-street, and we believe other buildings also, were fitted up to supply their lack of service ; and hundreds of these unfor- tunate tradesmen and their families, sunk, as we heard, under the pressure of a disease produced (as the doctors of that day acknowledged) by famine, nakedness, and inanition, and were interred under cover of the night in the hospital fields at Kilrnainham, in the neighbourhood of Dublin. We have added, from our own knowledge, the last paragraph to our extracts from the report of the Trades' Committee ; and shall now proceed to those parts of Mr. Dalton's letter which throw some light upon the nature of the trade of Ireland from the year 1250 to that of 1808, (a lapse of nearly six centuries,) where his facts and reflections upon that trade, and upon the policy of England in reference to it, terminate. " 1250. There is a very remarkable notice on record of a wager of battle awarded, and a combat thereupon fought, concerning a coat of " Irish cloth." " The Flemings were, however, at this period, and for nearly a century afterwards, the great manufacturers of wool, until the policy of Edward III. first shook their monopoly. By an act of the 12th of his reign, he not only prohibited the exportation of the raw material (wool,) but he also proclaimed privileges to all foreign clothiers who would settle in his dominions, and by every other attainable mode fostered the advance of this manufacture. " 1358. By an act of the same monarch's reign the staple of wools in Ire- land was established at Dublin, Waterford, Cork, and Drogheda, which led to that excellence of the Irish serges, referred to by the report (of the com- mittee) to the year 1357, and the subsequent establishment of annual fairs, which were held in the space of ground between James's-gate and Kilmain- ham." (The committee's report makes the former boundary to have been Thomas street, which forms a junction with James-street at the west or south-west side of the city ; the difference, however, between these accounts 12 IRELAND, Having thus proceeded straight forward to the end and object of this work, we shall make no apology for that simplicity of style which bests suits the gravity of our sub- ject; but leaving to other writers those meretricious orna- is not very material; but with the exception of the Acts of Parliament quoted, neither mentions the historical authorities from which the report was taken.) " 1376. It is remarkable that the last statute of the aforesaid Edward's reign has special regard to the woollens of Ireland enacting that no subsidy or alnage duty shall be paid on cloths called frize ware, whether made in Ireland or in England, of Irish wool, because these cloths did not contain the prescribed length or breadth. " 1463. It was enacted, that no cloth of any other region but Wales and Ireland, should be imported into England. From the recital of this statute it appears, that sundry deceits and abuses were about that time practised in making cloths in England, by which the nation sustained much discredit beyond sea. " H82. A licence was granted to the pope's agent to export into Italy certain commodities custom free, amongst which we find the following articles of Irish woollen, viz. : five mantles of Irish cloth, one lined with green, one russet garment, lined with Irish cloth, &c. " 1521. In this year the first legislative provision was made to prohibit the exportation of wool from Ireland. It was, however, by no means intended to operate to the prejudice of this country, which the preamble to the act strikingly testifies" Whereas the taking and lading of wool and flocks out of this land'' (it is an Irish statute) " hath been the cause of the dearth of cloth, and idleness of many folks, so that in default of labour and occupation of the same, divers persons, both men and women, have fallen to theft and other misgovemment, to the desolation and ruin of this poor land." " 1569. Queen Elizabeth adopted her father's policy as to our woollen manufacture, and by an Irish act of this year, the exportation of wool was yet further prohibited, by having duties made chargeable on all shipped from Ireland, ' in order,' as the preamble yet more explicitly declares, ' the better to increase the Queen' revenues, and that said commodity might be more abundantly wrought within the realm of Ireland, and English artificers be allured, by the abundance of material, to come and work it here.' This act was confirmed by one of the 13th of Elizabeth, c. 2. " H522. These statutable regulations worked their service, as is evidenced by the short sighted jealousy of the English clothiers of this period. A com- mittee was in this year appointed, under the great seal of England, to advise, amongst other matters, how the exportation of wools and woollens into Ire- land might be prevented (the cloth manufactory of Ireland must necessarily have then been very extensive,) and how the wools in Ireland, not dressed for use or merchandise, might most commodiously be transported into Eng- REVIEW OF HER POLITICAL AND MORAL STATE. 13 ments which are culled from the flowers of poetry and the fields of fiction, for purposes of artificial excitement, we shall content ourselves, in this introductory chapter, with the labour of collecting facts ; and that these facts may be land, bought at reasonable prices, and employed. English committees, how- ever, must necessarily have an inexperience in Irish affairs, which a few partially selected witnesses, attending on honorary summonses, are but ill calculated to instruct. The natural operation of such a course was, never- theless, in this instance, innocent of evil to Ireland, as appears from a speech of Lord Clarendon, delivered in 1630. ' Ireland,' says he, 'which had been a sponge to draw and a gulph to swallow all that could be got from England, has been reduced to that degree of husbandry and government, that it not only subsisted of itself, and gave England all that might be expected from it, but really increased the revenue 40,000 or 50,000 per annum, besides a considerable advantage to the people by the traffic and trade thence.' " J637. Neither was the letter of Lord Straflbrd in this year, to which the trades' committee has alluded, followed by any statutable smothering of our (then) staple manufacture. 1647. It appears from ' Whitelock's memorial,' that an ordinance was in this year sent up to the Lords, to prohibit the transportation of wool, and of fullers' earth, and of Irish wool. " 1G52. In consequence of ' the spoiling of Ireland' at this time, (such is the technical term applied to Cromwell's career of slaughter, confiscation and persecution,) great quantities of wool were imported from France to Eng- land ; so great indeed was the scarcity thus induced, that by a vote of the English parliament all the wools brought into that country were to be ex- empted from any duty. " 1663. In this year the really effective act was passed, to prevent the ex- portation of fat cattle from Ireland to England, (a jealous policy, alluded to in the report of the national trades' committee) and that but worked injury to those who imposed it. " 1665. The parliament at Oxford carried their antipathy still farther, and voted the importation of any cattle from Ireland, fat or lean, dead or alive, a nuisance.* On their bill being sent up to the Lords, it was debated with great heat; the Duke of Buckingham haughtily declared that 'none could oppose it but such as had Irish estates or Irish understandings' an observa- tion which produced a challenge from the Earl of Ossory, which was met, as might be conjectured, by the Duke's complaining to the house, and Ossory's consequent imprisonment in the tower. The Chancellor of the * It is not very surprising that England felt (and perhaps still feels) a con- siderable degree of antipathy to the Irish, they found it so very hard to conquer these wild dogs, and to take their country and their trade from them. Indeed it is not natural that we should like those people who gave us a great deal of trouble in doing business. This may perhaps account for the pettishness of the Oxford parliament. ED. NOTE. 14 IRELAND, arrived at by the shortest and simplest course, and make the deepest possible impression upon the memory of the reader, we shall conclude the introduction that we have thus begun, in the familiar form of a dialogue between the English Reader and the Author. day, on the other hand, commenting on the word 'nuisance,' insisted that the Commons might as well have termed the traffic ' adultery ; ' and the upper house sent it down only for the alteration of this word j the Commons, how- ever, remained inflexible, and their favourite word was impressed upon the statute book. " The Irish nation thus suddenly deprived of the questionable privilege of the Phrygian king, of seeing every thing turned to gold upon which they should have fed, harboured, nevertheless, so little ill will towards those who would have persecuted them, that they voted in the following year a contri- bution of 30,000 beeves, the only riches the country at that time possessed, for the relief of the sufferers by the fire of London. They were, however, obliged to begin the world again ; and though the act has by many been construed grievous in its effects, I would rather maintain that it served the country, and brought destruction to the trade of England ; first, by prevent- ing the exportation of young cattle, and thus improving the Irish trade in butter, tallow and hides ; secondly, hy ultimately inducing the beef trade, of which we had so long [an exclusive possession ; and thirdly, by recalling the attention of the Irish farmers to the breeding of sheep, which had been neglected since the great rebellion. Nor were they the only persons so sti- mulated ; various English clothiers, induced by the cheapness of wool, and of the necessaries of life, settled with their families in Ireland, and erected a manufactory in Dublin ; others repaired from Holland to Limerick. Suc- ceeding families settled in Cork and Kinsale. Some French artizans next resorted to Waterford, and made drugget there ; and at a yet later period, some merchants of London established another manufactory at Clonmel. Industry again appeared to guide the peasantry (as it ever will most effectu- ally) to civilization ; the revenue of the country not only increased, but it was raised from a willing and a comparatively comfortable people. " 1677. About this time an ungenerous and miscalculating policy did certainly evince itself in the manner reported by the committee, to the dis- couragement of the woollen manufacture in Ireland. It was ungenerous, I repeat, as it would seek to enrich one portion of a nation by the calamities of another ; but yet more, it was miscalculating, as I maintain th^t England has herself felt to this day an unexpected result of injuries to herself by the measure. It was considered that by suffering the continuance of the woollen manufacture in Ireland, that country would be liable to send serges, baizes, &c. to Holland, Flanders, Spain, Portugal, &c., and that thereby the English manufacturers would have less profit ; but although it is true that the greater quantities of cloths would certainly have gone out of both islands to the foreign markets, and the individual profit would have been consequently abated, REVIEW OF HER POLITICAL AND MORAL STATE. 15 DIALOGUE. English Reader. May I take the liberty of asking, what end do you propose to yourself by the publication of this tour ? Author. To lead as many of the people of your country as yet the consumption would thereon be wonderfully increased, as is generally the case where an article of this nature is cheap and plentiful. Again, it was supposed that all the woollen manufacture that was checked in Ireland, would then be necessarily carried on in England. This conclusion was equally erroneous; Ireland excelled in particular stufl's, which she was enabled to make and sell in a state and at prices that England never could arrive at in the foreign markets ; the consequence was, that the latter country, which, in conjunction with Ireland, would have disheartened other nations from attempting this staple commodity, was ultimately undersold by the industry of foreign nations, who then found they could excel and undersell her in their own emporia. Nor was this all the evil consequence even to England. It was her real interest to have encouraged the increase of riches in Ireland, not only as the latter country would then have been enabled to contribute more to its own support, and been the less charge to the English revenue ; but as, in point of fact, almost the whole of her money found its way into English coffers. To what a state, however, did this superadded lash of policy reduce our poor country. Her cattle were no longer to be exported her woollen manufacture was prohibited heavy impositions were laid on her tallow, her leather, and her corn the tonnage and poundage were doubled on her linen ! In fact, she could hardly export materials for the English manufacturer, as wool, flax, skins, hides, rape-seed, &c. and while even that little trade was carried on in English ships, she herself was sup- plied with almost every commodity from England, and her estates were mortgaged at 10 per cent to Englishmen. A pamphlet of the day states, that there were in 1697 8, in the city and suburbs of Dublin alone, 12,000 families, and throughout the nation 50,000, who were bred to trades con- nected with the manufacture of wool, and " who could no more get their bread in the linen manufacture, than a London tailor could by shoe- making." " 1791. By an act of this year, the exportation of woollen cloths from Ireland, except from certain ports to certain ports of England, was wholly prohibited. " 1702. Sir Richard Cox was summoned to England to advise Her Ma- jesty, amongst other matters, as to which manufacture, linen or woollen, it would be most the interest of England to encourage in Ireland ; when he delivered his opinion, " that it was the interest of England to encourage the woollen manufacture in Ireland, in its coarse branches, as this would prevent the wool being carried to French manufacturers, and would not interfere with the manufacture of England ; and that he thought it the most impolitic step ever taken by England, to prohibit the whole exportation of 16 IRELAND, shall read this book, (and particularly those of the com- mercial interest to which you belong) to think justly con- cerning Ireland, by becoming accurately acquainted with its real history. E. R. A good and necessary end ; but is a tour through a few counties (replete, as we may suppose, with travelling incidents, as tours usually are) the proper sort of publication for enlightening the people of England upon the state of your country ? A. The sort of tour of which you speak, (and some such have been published by men of your country, who knew Ireland only through the casualties of stage-coach and posting excursions !) is perhaps better calculated to mislead than to enlighten England, upon the complex causes by which Ireland has been made a proverb to the world ; and therefore it shall be my aim, in the composition of this book, to attach to the specimens of the counties which I visited in 1830, such views of the political and moral woollen manufacture from Ireland." Lord Godolphin, however, overruled his arguments, by the impossibility of contending with the prejudices of the British people ! " The fatal consequences of the act of William soon manifested them- selves. The poor of Ireland became destitute of support ; families before comfortable were reduced to beggary, and all of the manufacturing class that had any capital fled to the continent ; and as the Flemings had here- tofore done, when persecuted by the Duke of Alva, so these too contributed to the extension of the wool trade in every land of their exile. The looms of Montdidre, Abbeville, Turcoin, Tournay, Leyden, &c. were fed with Irish wool, and, to a certain extent, worked by Irish artizans. Lisle alone is said to have found employment for a thousand looms. Another necessary consequence of the prohibition was a contraband traffic of the wool thus injuriously carried to be worked abroad. About the year 1704, a Mr. Rothe, of Youghal, brought 13 ships laden with Irish wool into Nantz ; and in 1705, several Irishmen, who were taken by Sir George Byng in a French man-of- war, confessed, on examination, a constant trade and practice of exporting wool to France. This evasion became so open, that in 17-20 several petitions were sent up, complaining of it to the English Parliament." These extracts will assist to shew the nature of the policy by which Ireland has been governed by England, since she came under the control and direction of that country. Of the effects we need say nothing they are written in legible characters of decay upon the face of the whole island. REVIEW OF HER POLITICAL AND MORAL STATE. 17 state of Ireland generally, as may lead the reader to think seriously of the means by which the leaven of the old system of law and government may be safely exuded ; the healthful principle of moral life resuscitated and brought into action ; the people made prosperous and happy by pro- fitable employment and wise institutions of charity; the laws respected for their justice and equity ; the government for its wisdom and vigor ; and the wealth and power of the state promoted, by a faithful development of the resources of the country, through a local parliament, (or a competent substitute for it) established upon the soil of Ireland for that special purpose. E. R. I beg pardon for interrupting you ; these are cer- tainly important objects, but would not a statistical and geological report of the counties through which you travelled in 1830, prove more eminently calculated to draw the atten- tion of England to the great commercial capabilities of your country, than a political tour, or even a commercial survey, resting upon partial observation, and the information of certain inhabitants, upon the accuracy of whose reports you could by no means place implicit reliance ? A. No man can feel more sensibly than I do the force of your last observations, which bear no just relation, however, to those important sections of the work that treat on the political and moral state of Ireland; and for which the author was, happily, quite independent of those imperfect sources of information to which you have shrewdly alluded. The more deeply and severely these sections of the work shall be scrutinized, the more important to the future inter- ests of England they will appear; and in relation to the geological and statistical developments of which you speak ; of these and other works of public utility, it may be justly said, that the labourer's power of doing good is limited by the means which he possesses ; and that my means in these departments of research were so extremely circumscribed, that I found it physically impossible to accomplish, even the limited measure of good that I had contemplated when 18 IRELAND, I entered upon this tour. A statistical and geological sur- vey of the counties which I visited in 1830, would require a course of time, and a union of funds and talents, which I could not personally command. It was a debt due by the lords of the soil to their own properties, and might have been executed by mining engineers and other men of science, under their direction, at an expense of trifling consequence to them; but though trifling to the rank and property of a large district of country, still of such mag- nitude in its aggregate amount, as would render it totally impossible for any individual of limited resources to achieve it; and hence, having no geological map of those counties to consult, and thrown, by the absence of this desideratum, upon my own slender talents and limited exertions for a collection of the elements of their future wealth, I found the task too gigantic for my feeble grasp, and was compelled to rest contented with the humble office of a precursor to some greater power, to whose authority and resources the natural history of the country could be made to bow. The few fragments, however, of their natural wealth (combined with many distinguished specimens of artificial improvement) which I have been able to collect, will, I trust, prove useful in awakening a spirit of enquiiy into the deep and various resources of this interesting district; and therefore I shall proceed to collect and combine those fragments under their respective heads, when I have answered such farther ques- tions as you may think proper to propose to me. E. R. I am satisfied with the reasons you have given for your inability to gratify my wishes to the whole extent, on the great subject of your mineral wealth, and other materiae which your country possesses for manufactures and com- merce. I am aware that these can only be brought to bear upon the prosperity of a country, and upon the wealth of a state, under the protecting shade of liberal laws and a wise government ; and I must confess that on the page of your living history, proofs of criminal negligence or corrupt prin- ciple are too plainly inscribed, to be misconstrued or trans- REVIEW OF HER POLITICAL AND MORAL STATE. 19 ferred to inferior causes ; but still, as on political subjects there will always be much difference of opinion, while on the sound policy of finding employment for the people by an improvement of their own native resources, all reasonable men are heartily agreed ; hence I cannot but wish that such a strong and concise report of your statistical and geological resources had been executed, as would place before the eye of the English reader, pure from political infusions, and from all objects of minor interest, the cardinal features of your country's wealth. The maps and volumes hitherto published upon Ireland, have been too numerous; some of them have dwelt too much upon the minutiae of that country, and consequently have been too voluminous for com- mercial men. One compendium of the whole would su- persede them, and that compendium is now much wanted. All men of science who have explored your country ac- knowledge, that in its soil and other natural resources, it is one of the richest countries in Europe, and has decided ad- vantages over every other part of the British islands. It opens upon the atlantic ocean on the west, and thus com- mands an easy communication with the new world. On the east, the English channel, with the aid of a steam naviga- tion, renders the English market accessible to its produce in a few hours. Its coast abounds with noble harbours, its valleys with spacious lakes, and its mountains with rapid rivers with numerous falls for mills. Its soil is fertile beyond that of most countries : it abounds with all sorts of minerals and fossils applicable to trade and domestic convenience. Its inhabitants are distinguished by their wit, genius, and personal bravery. Why then are they divided ? Why is it that they do not coalesce and become one people ? Why is so large a proportion of their peasantry reducible into three classes, the famished, the mendicant, and the criminal inha- bitants of the land ? Why are the artizans of your most po- pulous cities destitute of employment, and perishing for want of bread ? Why do more than half the population of your capital appear in the garb of the most abject beggars, and a 20 IRELAND, large proportion of its parishes exhibit the appearance of a spacious lazaretto ? Something must be radically wrong in the whole state of society in your country ; or the religion and laws by which that state of society is produced and per- petuated, must be lamentably vicious point these out to me with the pen of a diamond ; and if to the evils you will add the remedies, your book will be worth reading, although its statistical and geological information may be poor and slender, its style plain and unpolished, its tale of distress as artless as that of Parson Adams or Dr. Syntax, and its subject matter as curious and diversified, as that of "Robinson Crusoe," or " The Adventures of a Guinea." A. On taking a cursory view of the task which you require me to execute (and in language that renders doubtful whether Heraclitus or Democritus shall bear away the palm of victory from Patience, bending serenely sorrowful over the tomb of a country that was once a nursery for heroes, and a school for kings,) it does not at first sight appear to be one of extreme difficulty ; but on farther consideration, it is found to involve centuries of misrule and plunder, far beyond the limits of a pocket volume. To do justice to such a subject would force me back through many centuries, to the period of the English invasion, and to all the succeeding causes of the conflicting elements of society in Ireland. Besides, on these subjects there are various and hostile opinions ; some regarding the Reformation (out of which the religious divi- sions of the country, and the plunder of the poor and the Roman Irish Church proceeded) as a great public curse; while others regard it as a great public blessing. I myself am convinced that the Reformation laid the foundations of religious liberty in Europe, and am of opinion that the conquest of Ireland by England (in putting an end to the feuds and divisions of its Kings, and uniting its petty prin- cipalities in one country, under one crown of sufficient power to protect it,) was a great and important advantage to the former country, notwithstanding all the evils which followed that conquest in its train ; but then, I have not REVIEW OF HER POLITICAL AND MORAL STATE. 21 forgotten, that I am descended from an English family, and am a protestant by birth and education; and conse- quently that my feelings are not exactly the same as those of a Roman Catholic born in the same country, although I can safely assert, that I have suffered persecutions and privations, in person, property, and liberty, to which I never saw a Roman Catholic subjected in Ireland under the influence of the penal laws; and hence, by my own experience, I was instructed to believe, that the recently abolished remnant of those laws, was no otherwise an instrument of punishment to Roman Catholics, than as it presented an obstacle to their attainment of power in the state, from which I felt myself as effectually excluded as any Roman Catholic whatsoever, by the honest and impar- tial course, which my duty to my country and my conscience compelled me to pursue; and by the impediments which the expenses of the law had opposed to justice, in reference to the fortunes of my family. But although I had thus brought into the world with me, from my school and cradle, feelings peculiar to an Irish protestant, forced into perpetual collision with elements hostile to his cloth and creed, yet, as I advanced in life, and dipped into the polluted source from whence those elements of discord derived their birth, I finally became too well acquainted with the conduct of England to this country to imagine, that because the Reformation laid the foundations of free enquiry, and consequently of religious liberty in Europe, that therefore England presented this valuable boon to Ireland without a stain ; or that because an extinc- tion of the ancient princely feuds and petty principalities of Ireland, by the English conquest, was an incalculable benefit to this latter country, that therefore England governed that country with a fair and judicious hand. The reverse of all this I at length discovered to be the fact, but not indeed until I was far advanced in life, and had studied the genuine history of my country's wrongs with impartiality and atten- tion. Previous to this I had, from my very infancy, and 22 IRELAND, until I had nearly attained the age of 40 years, been brought into perpetual collision with the elements of hatred to the Sassenagh and his religion, without knowing that any other cause existed, save that innate spirit of persecution and hatred of religious freedom, which I then believed, and still believe to be, the cardinal mark of an Antichristian church. However, on devoting my attention a little more particularly to the political history of Ireland, and tracing the source of the penal laws through rivers of blood and over mountains of human carnage, to the confiscation of property and the pos- session of power in the land, I at length discovered that for the too long cherished hatred of the Sassenagh and his creed, there were other and deeper causes, than the narrow and in- tolerant spirit of the church of Rome. Thus was I led by degrees to a new and more perfect discover)' of the source of our divisions, than those which I had entertained in early life ; and the result was, an immovable conviction, that for the malignant scoff, and the scowling spirit of ill concealed revenge, which once met the fearless advocate of the protes- tant faith at every corner, he was still more deeply indebted to English policy, jealousy, and injustice, than even to the characteristic despotism and intolerance of Rome. This was the result of a fair and fearless examination of the bearings of this great question ; and from the moment that my under- standing became enlightened upon this subject, my con- science and my actions have kept pace with it (as the works which I have since published clearly prove) ; and although I remain to be a true and zealous protestant, disliking popery and persecution in all churches, and defending the right of every man to the enjoyment of civil and religious free- dom, to its utmost possible extent; yet the narrow and mistaken (though honest) conceptions of my early life have fled ; for I now know, not only the effects of the English and Romish systems, thus harmoniously working (for these I had alway painfully felt), but also the causes which produced them, and which are not even now (in the 19th century, and REVIEW OF HER POLITICAL AND MORAL STATE. 23 the 7th of England's nominal dominion) more than half removed. To develop these causes with that accuracy and superiority to prejudice, hy which alone the historian's pen should be guided, would force me back, as I have already observed, through many centuries of misrule and plunder, to the period of the English invasion ; but as the limits of this book will not permit me to travel in retrograde motion, to that point of time when Dermod, King of Leinster, sold this country to Henry II., and Henry contracted with Pope Adrian IV. for the privilege of reducing the Irish Bull to the English and Roman yoke. As I cannot travel so far back as this, in order to satisfy your inquiry concerning the principal roots from whence the conflicting elements of Irish society arose, I shall endeavour to supply this defect by tak- ing my stand upon an important period of our modern history, (and one of much more importance to us than the annals of the English invasion,) namely, that in which George III. recommended his faithful Commons of Ireland to take into consideration the sufferings of his Irish Roman Catholic subjects, in order to a repeal of the penal laws by which they were oppressed. Here the greatest blunder into which England has fallen since the conquest of this country, was committed by the British government. That government had ample proof (in the history of the English Dissenters and Irish Catholics) that persecutions of the secular power, could neither exterminate the principles nor the professors of any religion (for Popery still continues in England and Protestantism in France) ; and they ought to have known that if the extinction of the Catholic religion in Ireland was what they sought to accomplish, they took the very worst method of producing that effect; while the only one that could reconcile an Irish Catholic population to the reli- gion and government of their conquerers, was composed of two parts aliberation of the people from all penal restrictions on the score of their religion, and an independent provision 24 IRELAND, for their clergy, as a compensation for the property they had lost. This, when George III. ascended the throne, would, in all probability have been accepted by the Catholic clergy of Ireland (who were then in a very degraded state) as a gracious boon ; but his Majesty's advisers, either did not see the policy of this measure ; or being determined to govern Ireland by the maxim " divide et impera," they rejected it ; and in either case, were they not weak or wicked governors, totally unfit to guide the councils of this divided nation ?* The misfortune however is, that such governors as these * It is worthy of observation that, if Popery be an evil, Ireland is indebted to England for that scourge ! Prior to the English invasion, thelrish church appears to have been independent of the See of Rome. Henry II. received the gift of Ireland from his countryman, Nicholas Breakspear, then Pope Adrian IV., on the express condition that he should reduce it to the Roman yoke, and impose the tax of Peter pence upon all householders, as a tribute of obedience and a tie of filiation to the Roman See. The Irish clergy are said to have long protested against the ambitious and arbitrary views of the See of Rome (which had been tampering with them by divers instruments) ; but after the arrival of Henry their remonstrances were to no purpose ; the English invader forced Popery down their throats at the point of the bayonet ; and when his pious namesake, Harry VIII. thought to make the men of Ireland disgorge the pill which his predecessor had administered, he found it so deeply seated in the Irish constitution, and so effectually incorporated with its blood, that no efforts of his political stomach pump, however violent, could force them to discharge it. All the succeeding Reformers in power pursued the same course (such ignorant Empirics were they) ; and to aid the operations of their stomach pump, they not only opened all the offices of the Irish church to the priests of the Reformation, but followed with the most bloody and inhuman penalties of their law, all those who remained faithful to those Popish legends, and that Popish usurpation of authority, which England herself had forced upon Ireland with the progress of her arms. The Irish, however, were not a people to be thus kicked into a religion and kicked out of it at the sole will and pleasure of their conquerers. When united to a church by education, and by faith in the supposed divinity of its doctrines and ministers, no operations of human cruelty, no blandishments of human power, no semblance even of sound reason, could induce them to forsake it (as the Apostles of the second reformation now well know.) The Irish people are still attached to their church and to their chiefs. The vnjust and arbitrary acts of England have riicled that attachment , and the hosti- lity to her name which these acts have engendered, will only decline with the growth of a liberal policy, rapidly advancing the knowledge, wealth, and commercial interests of this injured country ; and in a ratio with the same REVIEW OF HER POLITICAL AND MORAL STATE. 25 are frequently permitted to enjoy power, property and plunder, even to the end of life ; while the nations they have ruined are forced to writhe under the lash of their infernal policy, long after the authors of their miseiy have been dead and d d ! The King's advisers of that day were, no doubt, quite certain, that in withholding a provision from the Ca- tholic clergy, and in governing Ireland by their own favour- ites, they were strengthening the power of the crown and the Protestant church ; but it is now very visible to every man capable of tracing the connection between cause and effect, that in treating the sufferings of the Irish Catholic clergy with contempt, and neglecting to conciliate them by a com- petent provision at the proper time, they laid the foundations of an evil which is now rapidly recoiling upon the church which these ministers pretended to defend ; to say nothing of the incurable principle of jealousy, and animosity, which they thereby created and maintained between the two churches. The enmity that was thus planted by the policy of these ignorant or wicked ministers, has produced such fruits of desolation in my native land ; and, even in my own memory, alighted with such indiscriminate vengeance upon the evil cause, certain doctrines of Rome, and that furious zeal and brutal degradation of the human understanding, which a corrupt ecclesiastical interest generated, will decline also. Mr. Lawless, a Catholic historian, appears to have borne unwilling testi- mony to the early independence of the Irish church. At pages 22 and 23 of the first edition of his compendium of Irish history, he thus writes. " About the period of the English invasion, certain ceremonies and points of disci- pline of the Irish church, werejirst assimilated to those of Rome. Cardinal Paperon assembled 3000 clergymen, regular and secular, in the townofDrog- heda, about the year 1 152, and at this period " (of course not before it) " the discipline of Rome was universally established, and the spiritual supremacy of the Pope" (he might perhaps have added for the first time) " formally ac- knowledged." Some difference of sentiment may occur between historians concerning the precise date of this memorable meeting ; but however this may be, the previous independence of the Irish church is established by it, and in connection with the impudent sale of Ireland by Pope Adrian to Harry, and the measures which this Prince took to accomplish the Pope's ghostly mission, clearly prove that all previous efforts to establish the supremacy of the holy see in Ireland, had failed; and that for this boon (or rather bone of contention') we are totally indebted to the policy and the steel of England ! 26 IRELAND, and the good professors of the hated creed, that I have fre- quently thought the cause of wise and liberal govern- ment, as well as that of civil and religious liberty, would be materially promoted by a collection of the facts (to divers of which I have been an eye witness, and in some instances a sufferer in my own person without consciousness of crime) into one volume, that the world might see reflected in this mirror of Irish martyrology, the image of that infer- nal brood of oppressive and vengeful monsters, that were produced and propagated in Ireland by English councils, in first planting the Pope's supremacy in that country by their arms, and then labouring by a cruel and oppressive policy to weaken and destroy it. The effects thus produced in the Catholic and Protestant mind of Ireland, were something like those which attend the Burking system (for which species of murder no prompt and effectual remedy has yet been provided by the wisdom of the British government.) They were marked, not only by an absence of confidence and good-will between people of the same neighbourhood, but by suspicion, vigilance, and smothered feelings of disaffection and resentment. These feelings broke out between boys at school, and almost between infants in the cradle. Of this I could name various instances in private life, in one of which I myself was per- sonally a sufferer when not more than twelve years old ; and in the year 1798, when the death of Law and the reign of Anarchy gave an unbridled licence for exhibition to the ill smothered spirit of hatred and revenge which had long slumbered with sulky indolence in the bosoms of the parties, the existence of this spirit was exhibited by such cruel and cold-blooded murders of men, women, and children, as proved the demoniac capabilities of the factions by whom they were perpetrated ; and the recollection of them at this day is almost sufficient to make an Irishman blush that his country should be stained with crimes so cruel in their nature, so hostile to humanity, and so totally contrary to the laws of war, as they are received and practised by civil- REVIEW OF HER POLITICAL AND MORAL STATE. 27 ized nations. Nor did the spirit of hatred and revenge, thus developing to the country the full measure of its sanguinary influence, feel satisfied with the blood of its enemies in arms ; or with that of the men associated with them in prin- ciple and feeling. It thirsted also for that of the peaceful Quakers, who, as merchants and manufacturers, had been of the utmost service to the working population, and who, as men of true Christian humanity, had no rivals (considered as a sect) in this or any other country of the Christian world. Divers of these peaceable men were made prisoners in the County of Wexford, and would have been piked on the spot, if they had not appealed for protection to the com- manders of the rebel army. They were also threatened to be consumed with fire in their meeting-house at Enniscorthy, if they should assemble there to hold the Quarterly meeting of their province in its usual course. But Heaven,which had these peaceable people in its protection, so ordered the events of the rebellion, as that the battle which finally extin- guished it, was fought at Vinegar Hill, above the town of Enniscorthy, exactly two days before the meeting com- menced (of which divers from distant parts of the kingdom who attended it knew nothing at the time,) and thus the Quakers' quarterly meeting of Enniscorthy was held in peace ; and being the only worshipping assembly then existing in that town or neighbourhood, it was attended, we believe, by all those poor straggling Protestants, who, like a few solitary blades of grass in a harvest field, had escaped the general desolation of the mower's scythe. But of all which happened to the peaceful Quakers at this time, there was no particular incident that struck us with more force (con- sidered as an evidence of the harmonious working of English policy and Romish piety, in the schools of education in this country) than that of a deliberate effort, on the part of a Catholic child of seven years old, to take the life of Joseph Haughton, a Quaker of innocent and amiable character, residing in the County of Wexford at that time. This child, who had procured a small loaded piece, was taking deli- 28 IRELAND, berate aim at the heretic whom he hated, when a Catholic who knew and respected Haughton, happened to come up, and seized the instrument before the feeble child had power to effect his purpose. By what party or power, or for what purpose this rebellion was excited, is now immaterial to us. But it is not immaterial to an examination of the wisdom or wickedness of the policy by which the elements of Irish discord were produced, to enter a field where they were so forcibly displayed, and to prove, from the nature and circum- stances of their operation at that time, that they had long slumbered in sulky silence in the cavern of the heart, before the rebellion of 1798 called them into action ; and that for the gift of their primeval existence, they were exclusively indebted to that corrupt and selfish policy, by which Eng- land, through a band of very corrupt and selfish agents, had governed this country from the period of her conquest. That the enjoyment of constitutional liberty upon the one hand, or of constitutional power upon the other, was not the sole object of the combatants in this warfare, may be easily collected from their acts ; when, by the circumstances of the rebellion, their passions were liberated Jrom the restraints of law. It was not to preseve the British government invio- late, that the flattering choice of " Hell or Connaught," was given to the Catholics of Ulster in the tumults of that day ; and that for disobedience to this despotic mandate, their properties were, in many most respectable instances of manufacturing industry, consumed to ashes. It was not to preserve that government inviolate, that floggings were inflicted upon unconvicted Irishmen, in the heart of the capital, or elsewhere, in order to extort confessions I These operations of war shew, that the party in petty power regarded their Catholic countrymen as the natural enemies of the state ; and they imply a consciousness, on the part of these abusers of temporary power, that human nature, governed without justice, by the mere law of force, must necessarily be the enemy of that power, and of that people, REVIEW OP HER POLITICAL AND MORAL STATE. 29 which thus trample upon nature's rights. Viewing the Catholics of Ireland through this medium, it is not surprising that the Orangemen of that country, who were then the right arm of the British government, should indulge their hatred of Popery and Papists in the most licentious abuses of their temporary power; but to pretend that these violations of justice were volunteered in the service of a wise and good government, is rather too gross an insult to common sense ! No ; there was a deeper cause than the support of govern- ment for these anti-constitutional proceedings there was that species of hatred and suspicion to be indulged, which every man naturally feels towards the victims of his own robbery and wrong. There were places and pensions, with the monopolies of office, to be preserved. There was the plunder of civil and ecclesiastical corporations to be kept whole and entire ! These were the true motives of the ultra loyalty of that day ; and as they fully account for the course that was pur- sued, so they clearly exhibit the character of that policy, from which Ireland has equally derived her poverty and her vice. On the other hand, we find the same policy producing among the Roman Catholics of Ireland, an inveterate hatred of the Sassenagh, his religion, and his oppressions; and thus working, by the same means, the same salutary pur- posses of hatred and division; with this single difference, however, in the national character of their vices, that the Orange persecutions were purely of English manufacture, while those of the Catholic party were tinged with an infu- sion of superstitious fanaticism, from a foreign and alien source. But that the deeds of cruelty which the Catholics perpetrated (to say nothing of their sale of Ireland's political independence for the selfish hope of emancipation, which was held out to them) were totally incompatible with the noble feelings of a patriot, and uncalled for by the neces- sities of an honourable warfare, is self-evident. It was not to obtain a deliverance from civil and ecclesiastical oppres- 30 IRELAND, sion, that Protestant women and children were burned to ashes, in the barn at Scullabogue, and thrown back among the blazing elements with pikes when they attempted to escape,) a piece of cruelty which took place in the County of Wexford, in the rebellion of 1798. It was not to maintain the cause of liberty by an honourable warfare, that British officers, who were taken prisoners by the French, who landed at Killala, would have been murdered by the rebels in cold blood, but for the officers of the French invading army, who had taken these monsters into their service, and whose com- mander is reported to have said, that if he had known the cha- racter of the people of the country, he would not have landed a French soldier on their coast. These officers, moved with indignation at the savage and cowardly spirit of the assassins, who would have thus murdered their prisoners of war in cold blood, drew their sabres and threatened to cut them down ; and finding, in the course of their dealings with them, that they could not be restrained within the limits of military duty, they are said to have brought several of them to trial, and hanged them for a violation of the laws of war. This sanguinary spirit was nursed and brought to maturity in Ireland, by a course of ill-founded favouritism upon the one hand, and of wicked and unrelenting persecution upon the other. And so far as the peasantry of the country are concerned, the system which has corrupted Ireland still exists ; since for this class the laws have provided no pro- tection against the grinding despotism of their domestic oppressors, notwithstanding the obvious proofs which the state of the country exhibits of the absolute necessity of securing the just and reasonable rights of the labourer, by special laws. When William III. mounted the throne of England, he is said to have made vigorous efforts to tranquillize Ireland, and unite it to the sister country by a healing policy. To this end he offered to the Catholics of that country, through Lord Tyrconnel, half the forfeited lands, and half the church property, if they would lay down their arms and acknow- REVIEW OF HER POLITICAL AND MORAL STATE. 31 ledge the new dynasty. This was a proposal worthy of a soldier and a statesman, who determined, if possible, to heal divisions, and to govern his new empire by equal laws ; and I shall not easily believe that the man who did this, and who fought the battles of liberty upon the continent of Europe, where he was born, would have violated the treaty of Limerick, conspired against the trade of Ireland, or have ordered the cowardly and cold-blooded massacre of the repent- ing rebels at Glencoe (at the moment when they entertained his men, and reposed confidence in his princely clemency,) if he had not been betrayed by the agents of his authority into unconscious crime ; and that he was betrayed, both in Scotland and Ireland, by the perfidious villains in whom he trusted, and forced, by their superior sway, to yield to a narrow and selfish policy, beneath the native dignity of his mind, a careful examination of all the incidents connected with these events, will prove to the satisfaction of every honest and candid mind. William being thus defeated in the just and generous policy by which he had hoped to govern Ireland, and the plunderers of that country triumphant in their purpose, it is not surprising that they fanned the flame of religious dis- cord ; well knowing that it would produce a spirit of dis- content and reaction; that it would unite the Protestants together, and constitute their ignorant populace a wall of defence to these English plunderers ; while the resentment and reaction of the Irish Catholics would furnish a feasible pretence for the enactment of those penal laws (such as <5 for the head of a priest ; the power of a Protestant to dis- possess a Catholic of any horse worth more than 5; the power of a younger son, becoming a Protestant, to take the family estate from his elder brother, &c.) which so long dis- graced the statute books of our insulted country ; and, until a very recent period of English history, were made the effectual instruments of promoting a spirit of hatred, and maintaining a wall of separation between the two parties. A wall, did we say ? Yes, a wall of separation, so strong, 32 IRELAND, and in such good repair, that it will take a century of wise legislation and liberal government effectually to remove it ; and perhaps two centuries to eradicate the last lingering remnant of its bigoted and blood-stained base. This unhappy principle of division (from which all sensi- ble Irishmen of all parties are now labouring to escape) was not a caput mortuum, or sleeping theory of law, like that article of the English criminal code, which empowered an English judge to hang up a hungry English citizen for the commission of a theft of one shilling ! It was a living and operative principle, entailing poverty, oppression and revenge upon the peasant; and upon the virtuous Protestant in pri- vate life, the suspicion, hatred and contempt of those, to a mitigation of whose sufferings he would have contributed, had his power been equal to his virtue ; while to the profes- sors of this religion, in the enjoyment of place or pension, power, property, or plunder, it imparted all the characteristics of a jealous and ferocious tyrant ! This was the boon con- ferred upon our country by the penal laws, by the principle of monopoly and exclusion, and by the policy implied in the maxim of " divide and govern ; " and under its effects our countiy is still deeply groaning ; its poor are unprovided for, its artizans are unemployed, its manufactures have nearly pe- rished; and the fertile fields ofMunster are still the digrace- ful scenes of anarchy and blood, from which they can only be preserved, even for a single year, by the presence of a resistless military establishment ! For the principle "of religious discord (which, though still too prevalent among the poor, is rapidly declining among the better classes) we are deeply indebted to those merito- rious counsellors of Geo. III., who, while recommending to his Majesty a repeal of the penal laws affecting the Catho- lics of Ireland, had not the common sense to see, that any repeal of the penal laws which did not abolish all ecclesi- astical impositions (which the poor could not afford to pay), and provide for the Catholic clergy a respectable substitute for individual contributions, would prove ultimately ineffi- REVIEW OF HER POLITICAL AND MORAL STATE. 33 cient, in reference to the peace and harmony of the two churches. About two years after, I first thought it my duty to call the attention of the British government to this cardinal blunder of the preceding reign, in a work published under the title of " Ireland exhibited to England," (and I believe I was the first Irish writer who had done so since the revo- lution of 1688,) the ministers of that day are said to have so far acted upon this just and necessary principle, as to make overtures of a state provision to the Irish Roman Ca- tholic clergy (not however as a substitute for all private con- tributions of the poor, which is the only true mode, since in any other way it would be a heavy addition to existing evils, instead of a remedy for the disease,) but this proposal, which would have been salutary, and in all probability well received when a repeal of the penal laws was first recommended by the crown, was, very naturally, viewed with suspicion, and finally rejected, by the clergy and gentry of that church, they being then in the enjoyment of comparative opulence, by the benefits which they and their fathers had derived from the modern indulgence of the law, the rapid march of British commerce ; and, we may add, of liberal sentiments in every enlightened country in Europe. Feeling themselves comparatively independent of the state when this arrange- ment was suggested ; and a certain proportion of the Irish Catholic leaders violently averse from any junction of their clergy with the government, (a gross error by the bye, for a state provision would impose no other tie upon the clergy, than that which the law imposes upon the judge who is independent of the crown,) they rejected a proposal, a pos- teriori, which if tendered at the proper time, would, in all probability, have been received with joy by the whole body of their people, as a boon of mercy to the Nation. That this rejection, however, was more the act of certain Catholic leaders, (for in reference to the poor, so far as I could dis- cover in conversation with them, they would have hailed it with delight,) than of the clergy or the people generally, 31 IRELAND, may be fairly inferred ; first from the disposition evinced by two of the most learned and powerful of the Catholic body to entertain this question ; secondly, from the evident relief which the measure itself would afford to the entire poor of Ireland; thirdly, from the rectitude of the provision, as an act of pecuniary compensation to the Catholic clergy for that which they had lost; and lastly, from the illiberal and ungracious necessity imposed upon them of begging at the altar ; and the evil moral influence inseparable from those differences that never fail to attend a mode of maintenance, which brings the Pastor and his flock into pecuniary conflicts, disgraceful to religion, and equally painful and prejudicial to them both. Should the enemies of common sense and common fact, stand up to resist this doctrine, on the ground of its noncon- formity to the precepts of the gospel and the practice of the primitive church, and fling in our face the apostolic precept, "Let him who ministers at the altar, live by the altar;" we reply; why this is the very thing we are here pleading for. We want the minister of peace and plenty, to live in the enjoyment of peace and plenty, by the altar at which he ministers : to live by the property that has been set apart for that altar : to be so far respectably supplied with income out of that fund (and it is a large one) that he need neither starve, nor prove oppressive to the poor of his flock, nor be brought into an evil collision with them by the pressure of his pecuniary necessities. And is this an immoral end? Is this a violation of the apostolic precept, to live by the altar ? Alas I I cannot but lament that the understandings of my countrymen should have travelled so slowly with the reason of the age. But some will say, did not our Saviour give this precept to his apostles, " freely ye have received, freely give," " take neither purse nor scrip nor two coats," &c.? This text, however, will no more serve their purpose than the other. First, because it was given in a warm climate, where one good coat or cloak was quite sufficient : and secondly, because the apostles, to whom it was given, REVIEW OF HER POLITICAL AND MORAL STATE. 35 received all that was necessary to their maintenance and ministry, promptly and freely, from our Lord himself; while the clergy of all our churches, without exception, have now to pay very large sums of money for their religion and learn- ing ; and therefore could not be expected, in reason, to give that to the world gratis, for which they themselves have paid such a very large consideration, both in time and money. Should any such men as the primitives alluded to, happen to start up (and these are comets whose appearance the clergy of the Christian world are by no means courting,) that would furnish no argument against those National establish- ments, which should be provided for by the state, for the maintenance of good order ; and this being once established upon foundations of justice, conducive to the peace and free- dom of the country ; if the primitive men alluded to should happen to come round, that will produce no disturbance in the state, as their kingdom is not of this world; as these kind of people go every where that God sends them, regardless of all human provisions, and of the limitations of sect and Nation ; as they have seldom occasion to ask even a living for their labours, since there is no heart, however high or however low, that infinite mercy has prepared for the reception of such messengers as these, that would not cheerfully open its little cabinet of treasures (like Lydia of Tliyatira) to make the heart of the bearer of such tidings as they convey, sing for joy I Here, then, is our view of a pro- vision for the Catholic clergy out of the existing funds of the church ; and in every aspect in which its image can be fairly viewed in the mirror of reason, (whether as that image con- nects itself with the poor of Ireland, the clergy of their church, or THE BRITISH STATE, of which Providence has made them members) it has a decided superiority over the jealousies and conflicts of the tributary system. As to the advocates of the begging plan, we have only to request they will point out to us the peculiar advantage resulting from the mendicant system, established in this country among the monastic orders. These orders may, 36 IRELAND, perhaps, supply the established clergy's lack of service, and in this respect prove useful to the people; but whether they do, or whether they do not ; whether they exalt the public mind by rational views of Christian piety, or debase it by low and grovelling superstitions, it is not our present business to examine ; but merely to maintain, that the course of life peculiar to these orders, and perhaps proper for them, is not well adapted to the influence and respectability, that ought to be found inseparable from the station and office of a parochial clergy ; and whether to this influence and respectability, individual contributions, or a parliamen- tary provision, is the more conducive, we leave the public to judge. We have now noticed the objections which have been made to a state provision for the clergy, on the ground that it has no authority in scripture precept; and shall next turn to those who urge the example of the first ages of the church, as a rule of discipline. It is somewhat surprising that those sticklers for primitive purity, who so frequently urge the example of an infant church, should forget that in the ages of which they speak ; as there was no Christian state existing, so there could be no appeal made to any such for any system of ministerial support. The church and its ministers were objects of persecution, and not protection, to the existing powers ; and, consequently, no argument can be drawn from the conduct of the church, in such circumstances, against that system of sensible relief to a whole nation, for which we here plead with a Christian state, and even demand, as an act of justice to the people, from the hands of a professedly Christian power. But if these early ages of the church afford no example of a state provision, does the wealth which Con- stantine (the first Christian Emperor) is said to have poured into the lap of the church, provide no inferential evidence that it is the duty of a Christian state to make such a pro- vision for the standing orders of clergy, as shall afford sensi- ble relief, both to the clergy and to the poor ; while, by the REVIEW OF HER POLITICAL AND MORAL STATE. 37 same act of reform, it would correct those shameful extremes of overgrown revenue and grinding poverty, by which the church, established by law in these countries, is so disgrace- fully DISTINGUISHED ! If these arguments should have no weight with the scrip- turians alluded to, we beg to ask them what the Bible means by that remarkable prophecy, where, in speaking of the order and felicity of the future gospel church, it is expressly asserted, that " Kings should be its nursing fathers and Queens its nursing mothers." We have not the passage just now before us (for some honest Irishman has stolen our con- cordance) but we are sure it is among the prophecies ; and if it do not make for our case, when pleading the cause of the poor against their oppressors, we should be glad to know what case it makes for, since it lends no assistance to the gross inequalities and sinful injustice of our established church. From this prophecy it is then evident, that Kings and Queens would become the nursing fathers and mothers of the Christian church and this is exactly the thing we plead for; namely, that the rich and powerful should support the church, as they can well afford it ; and that the poor, who cannot afford it, should pay NOTHING; particularly in a country where there are LANDS worth more than a million sterling a-year, set apart for the service of religion, and which, if fairly distributed among the various classes of Priesthood, would liberally support them all support them, did we say ? no, not merely support them, but as all the necessa- ries of life now sell, would render them eminently opulent in comparison of the clergy of other nations ; and particularly in Ireland, where potatoes have been sold at so small a price as from one penny to three per stone, since the establish- ment of the peace ; and it is unnecessary to remark how willing these humble and pious ministers would be to live, with the bulk of their people, upon this nutritious root, moistened with a sup of butterless milk ; or seasoned with a little salt ; and, as a peculiar luxury of rare occurrence, with 38 IRELAND, a Kiccet salt herring, to make it smack pleasant on their Lordships' and Reverences' palates ! With a property set apart for religious and charitable uses, that is more than equivalent to the comfortable main- tenance of the priests of all parties, ought not the British government which possesses the power, also to possess the will, to divide that property in fair proportions between them ; and thus put an end, at once and for ever, to all those tithes and offerings, by which the poor have been oppressed, and the clergy brought so frequently into hostile collision with their people, and with each other. That such abuses have been permitted to exist, and for so long a period of time, can only be accounted for by the coeval existence of a corrupt or incompetent parliament, occupied in contracts for seats and pensions, and places and patronage, instead of being steadily engaged, like some par- liaments of better days, in laying the axe to the root of National corruptions. The time however, I trust, is now fast approaching, when no poor man shall be obliged to pay turnpike money on the road to Heaven, in a country that possesses such ample funds as England does, for keeping that road in good repair. In such a country, it is extremely hard that the myriads of gate keepers that the Pope of Rome and the King of England have thought proper to place upon that road, should be thrown upon the people for support ! but this abuse, which has lasted too long, will be disposed of by a reformed parliament; and then the lands originally set apart for the support of the gate keepers, and other purposes of national police (but of which, a certain order of thieves among the gate keepers, have for a long time contrived by trickery, to hold sole possession) shall be fairly let, in the farm way, and the income appropriated, as it ought, to the support of all the decent and well behaved gate keepers on that part of the road to Heaven which goes through the British states, by a board of all parties, appointed by parliament for that special purpose. When this shall take place and be made the law of England, then all turn- REVIEW OF HER POLITICAL AND MORAL STATE. 39 pike jobbing on the road to Heaven will cease, and every man of every sect may travel on any side of that road that may best suit his fancy or his feet, since he will be asked no questions and will have no toll to pay. The contemplation of such a happy period for Ireland, and the signs of the times which point towards it, we hail with pleasure. Government, in the appointment of a board of education, composed of the clergy of all classes, have commenced the work of a healthful amalgamation of the people ; but it will not do to stop here. That power indeed must be fit to govern nations, that is so ignorant of human nature as not to know, that the pea- sant's oracle of Heaven is its best auxiliary ; that this oracle infuses whatever notions of religion and politics he may think fit, into the youthful mind, through its nurse and mother ; and that the creed, religious and political, which he sanctifies in the temple of religion, and in the homely peasant's cot, is rendered doubly dear and sacred, by every privation, and by every stroke of persecution (or even of JUSTICE) that is laid upon the prohibited creed and its sup- porters by the state. In such a war as this, religion, tradi- tion, history, prejudice, poetry, music, (and even envy, hatred, and malice.) are all enlisted in support of the favorite system (even although it should be infamously corrupt,} and against the system that may be patronized by power, even although it should be virtuous and just, and the reformation which it seeks to establish, well calculated to ameliorate and improve the condition of the people! It is therefore the duty of the civil power, in all countries where forms of religion have been long established, to attach the clergy to the state, and to work such reformations through them, as the country may be capable of progressively receiving, in its march towards moral and political perfection. In the omission of this timely measure of ecclesiastical reform, may be found the first principle of the wars of the Irish peasantry against the tithe system; for how could these poor people sustain the weight of two expensive 40 IRELAND, churches, thrown almost exclusively upon the peasant and small farmer, by that iniquitous act of the Irish Parliament, an abolition of the tithe of agistment, enacted for the sole purpose of protecting gentlemen's demesnes and feeding grounds from the operations of the tithe tax; while the poor grower of corn and potatoes was left to writhe under the weight of its unmitigated burthen ! Of the resistance in Ireland to this odious tax (a tax equally injurious to industry, religion and good neighbourhood, to the clergy and the people) we find various notices in the political and parliamentary documents of the last century ; and among the rest, in the writings of the celebrated Father O'Leary, who laboured with considerable ability, and some success, to tranquillize the people of his own persuasion, in the province of Munster, where he then resided. The nuisance, however, continuing to press upon the poor, and receiving no mitigation from Parliament, the conse- quence was, that to the Whiteboys (who flourished in O'Leary's time) various other illegal associations succeeded ; and so many of them have been formed, even in our own day, that (without the aid of printed documents, of which we have none at hand) we could not pretend to give the English reader a catalogue even of their names and number. We do however recollect that to the Whiteboys succeeded the Right-boys, Hearts-of-oak, Hearts-of-steel, Threshers, Carders, Defenders, Rockites, Ribbon-men, Terry Alts, &c. ; and to the system of law and government which produced these, we are also indebted for those called the "Loyal Orange Associations," instituted for the maintenance of tithes, church-rates, vestry jobbing, bishops princely estates, rotten boroughs, and all other institutions of this country, however bad, that had the authority of law. These Orangemen, it is true, were loyal Protes- tants, and for a season very useful to the government, as props to the existing system ; but happily for the British people, their rulers at length began to see that this system would not do ; and now many of the lower Orangemen, who REVIEW OF HER POLITICAL AND MORAL STATE. 41 had been made use of by the bishops and the borough- mongers, as bullocks or wool-packs in the front of an army of defence, to prevent the bullets of the rapidly increasing army of the Reformers from reaching to the pockets of the commanders in the rear,) have latterly had their eyes opened ; and, like many of the yeomanry of Manchester, who fought so bravely in the same cause, have joined the ranks of reform, and are now clamouring, in the political circles of their country, for a removal of those abuses under which so many of the King's subjects have suffered, and by which none profited save those who got the plunder of their country, collected from the sweat of generations, firm in their grasp. To this unjust and unequal policy may be traced, as to their primitive source, all those violent unconstitutional mea- sures, to which the government have been compelled to have recourse for the preservation of the peace, under the pressure of a partial and oppressive system. The cause of these dis- orders is clearly traceable to the errors of the system ; which working their effects by their own proper laws, the current of human action became irritated, was thrown into a state of unnatural fermentation, and finally overflowed its banks ; and to restrain the destructive progress of this deluge, laws of sudden and violent coercion were resorted to. But as these are, at best, but temporary specifics fora disease which lies at the very root of the Irish system, it is obvious where the remedy should be first applied. This remedy is now well known to the British public. It is an effectual reform of the laws and policy by which Ire- land has been hitherto governed ; including a deliverance of the peasantry from all civil and ecclesiastical oppressions ; and providing for them a certain asylum in sickness and old age : a measure of reformation which can only be wrought by securing to them a living compensation for their labour ; by protecting them against land jobbing extortion, by pro- viding for them a well regulated poor law, by an abolition of the tithe tax, as it affects the crop for their support ; and by 42 IRELAND, a parliamentary provision for their clergy, to whose wants they are incompetent to contribute without inflicting a deep and deadly wound upon the most wretched and scanty means of their own existence.* * If a state provision for the Roman Catholic clergy, and a deliverance of the Irish peasantry from all ecclesiastical taxation, whether imposed by custom or by law, are measures without which, the foundations of a lasting peace, and the progressive advancement of the people in knowledge, cannot be laid in Ireland. If such be the fact, and some who know Ireland well, and who are good friends of England too, are strongly of this opinion, then no time should be lost in making an effort to repair the mischiefs that hare been created and maintained by former governments. The Roman Catholic clergy are now paid without law ; but they are paid chiefly by the poor, which is extremely wrong, and in some instances they are reduced to the necessity of collecting their revenues by a degrading system of solicitation, which is wrong also. To pay the same or a similar amount out of any existing fund (such as the consolidated fund, or the church property fund, on a reform of that property taking place J would afford considerable relief to the labouring classes, and to their clergy also ; and in whatever point of view it might be taken, it could not in truth be regarded as a new burthen, since it was always borne by the country, but borne unjustly by those who were least able to sustain it. As a hint to the present legislators of the land, who appear anxious to purify the system of law and government from the errors of past ages, we beg to point out the mode of proceeding that we would recommend, in reference to a still practicable remedy for this great fundamental evil of the Irish system. And first we would begin to legislate upon this question, without holding any consultation whatever with the people who were lobe benefited by the law. Of this, neither the people nor their clergy could justly complain, because we would make the law conditional and not coercive. We would hold no con- ference with the Irish Catholic church upon the subject, because that church might be divided in opinion ; because time and reflection would be necessary to remove prejudices and prove the justice of the law ; and lastly, because the acceptance of the boon must be altogether voluntary on the part of the receivers. The single duty of the state (a duty which should not be encum- bered with useless conferences or distracting counsels) would be, to MAKE THE PROVISION, and leave the beneficial influences of the law to time, to reflection, to sober reason, and to irresistible necessity, all of which would work progressively in its favour, and procure for it a certain triumph. Having given the force of law to the provision, and determined the mode by which that provision should be raised, we would next enter upon a graduated scale of payment ; and as we would make A SOLEMN RENUNCIATION OF ALL PRIVATE DUES OR LEVIES AN INDISPENSABLE TITLE TO THE BOUNTY OF THE STATE, we would make that provision sufficiently liberal for all the purposes >f a respectable maintainance for the working clergy, with an extra allow- REVIEW OF HER POLITICAL AND MORAL STATE. 43 We have now noticed a few of the deep roots of bitterness in the political wilderness of the Irish system, that require to ance to the higher orders, suited to their rank and expenses in the church and in the world. To the Roman Catholic primate of Ireland, we would give 1500 per annum; to each of the archbishops 1200; (while in the act of classifying these officers, a thought just now occurs to us. As there is a loud call for economy and retrenchment, and the bishops have not much business to do, might not these officers be reduced in each church to one half of their present number without prejudice to the service?) to each bishop 1000 per annum; to each dean 500 ; to each archdeacon 400 ; to each rector from 2 to 300 (according to the expenses of his residence in town or country) and to each curate 75 per annum, with an allowance of one or more curates to each rector, according to the extent and population of his parish. Having thus fixed the scale of payment, and determined the fund from, whence that payment should arise, we would have the income of each year, thus due and payable by law to the Catholic clergy, lodged with the county treasurers, to be paid by them to the claimants residing in their respective districts, and returned, if not claimed, or any unclaimed portion thereof, to his majesty's Irish treasury, there to accumulate for the benefit of THE FIRST CLAIMANT, each such claimant to receive the income of all preceding years arising from his parish, diocese, or cure, according to his rank, from the passing of the act to the period of his claim, he proving himself to be the lawfully appointed officer of the see or cure for which he claims, and swearing that so long as the state shall continue to him this respectable pro- vision appointed by the law for his support, he shall receive for his religious services no pecuniary compensation whatever from the people. Thus would we place upon a durable, a respectable, and an independent base, the Roman Catholic church of Ireland, and on terms of a common interest and a common amity with the Protestant government and population of Great Britain and that too by a mode, which instead of imposing any new burthen upon the country, would relieve that country of a large portion of its existing encumbrances. Thus would we unite " happy homes with altars free," by removinge very slain of oppression, and of indelicate solicitation and reproach, from religious services. For every clergyman of the. established churches of England, Scotland, and Rome, and to whose ministry a congre- gation was attached, we would make a competent provision out of ancient and ill-appropriated ecclesiastical estates, which only need to be fairly let and wisely organised, in order to meet a much larger claim than this, without imposing any new burthen upon the country. These estates are now farmed out, in numerous instances, on bishop's leases of twenty-one years, (we understand a bishop can grant no longer lease by law) to families who hold splendid seats and highly cultivated demesnes and farms, at an acreable rent of a few shillings, that, in many instances, would now let for nearly so many pounds ! And these tenants contrive, by paying a good yearly fine to the 44 IRELAND, be extracted from the soil; and they have indeed all the merit imputed by the ancients to the box of Pandora, from existing bishop for an annual renewal of their lease at the old rent, to have ALWAYS a twenty or twenty one years title to run against the life of his suc- cessor, should the latter, which he seldom does, refuse to tread in the annual renewal track, in which bis predecessors for generations had trod before him. Thus have a million acres (of more than a million annual value) of the best lands in Ireland, been thrown into the hands of a few bishops and their tenants, while the people have been compelled to support their various priesthoods, by tithes, taxes, and voluntary contributions, notwithstanding these lands, if fairly let, and fairly divided between the clergy of all the Irish churches, would make them the richest clergy in the world; and to support this unjust and oppressive monopoly of a few individuals, the people have been ground to powder, and the country thrown into a state of civil war ! Were this reform of church property to take place, then tithes of every description might be instantly abolished, and those voluntary contributions by which the clergy of the dissenting churches are now supported by their people, abolished also. The clergy of all these various churches (in reference to their mode of maintenance) would then be placed by law upon an equal footing ; and as, under the operation of such a system, there would be no just reason for jealousy or discontent, they would draw more cordially together in works of charity and public utility, and would enjoy a happy exemption from the jealousies created by extravagant monopolies in the church, and from the altercations and disgrace inseparable from pecuniary differences with their people, on the subject of ecclesiastical exactions. And as a property exists, nominally, but not truly, applied to the purposes of religion (but rather to those of jealousy and discord), that, under wise regulations, would be more than sufficient for the maintenance of all our churches; and which, thus wisely appropriated, would deliver the Catholics of Ireland from a heavy twofold burthen, what a pity it is that the government of these countries should want either the knowledge, the virtue, or the power, to carry the healing system that we here speak of into effectual operation. Some Catholics have said that their clergy might become indolent, like some of our own, if they were provided for by the state, to which we reply, would their curates become indolent upon 7o a year, and their parish priests upon two or three hundred ? Are the Scotch clergy indolent, who are thus competently provided for, and WHO HAVE NO BISHOPS TO CALL THEM TO ACCOUNT ? and would the Irish Catholic clergy, habituated to labour, and liable to be cashiered by their superiors for neglect of duty, be injured in their virtues by an exemption from money trucking, or by that sentiment of self respect, which is the natural effect of a justly merited independence? Other objectors say, that such a provision would prove injurious to liberty, inasmuch as it would throw the weight of the Roman Catholic and Presby- terian churches into the scale of crown influence. This objection we have elsewhere confronted with the just and legitimate argument of the judges' REVIEW OF HER POLITICAL AND MORAL STATE. 45 which an indiscriminate mixture of all possible evils was poured forth upon the world ; for if it may be said in truth of any moral, or of any political tree that has ever grown out of the soil of a wicked system, that the fruits of that tree are an unmitigated poison, religious discord, for which our country is so famous, is that prolific plant; and from the soil of Ireland, this plant will never be extracted, until "justice has been laid to the line, and righteousness to the plumb line," of ecclesiastical plunder and oppression, hy the united powers of an enlightened government with those of a free and an aggrieved people. independence of the crown. Were it a Regium donum that we plead for (such as that which the Irish Presbyterians now enjoy,) the objection would have some force ; but in reference to a parliamentary provision for the clergy now unprovided for, it is a mere corpus mortuum, a form without life. But let us look to France and to our own country for an illustration of this truth. And first to our own country. At the moment while we write this note, a very large proportion of the dignitaries of our church, and of its clergy generally, are at issue with the crown and its ministers upon the great and important questions of parliamentary reform and Irish literary educa- tion ; and should these questions be carried, it will not be by an obsequious submission of the church to the power and influence of the crown, but by such a powerful junction of the people as shall lay the unhallowed opposition of the clergy prostrate in the dust. The clergy are therefore an independ- ent body, and act by the counsel of their own will. Again, has the provision made by the laws of France for the clergy of all denominations, produced this effect ; or rather, are not many of the Catholic clergy in that country, like many of the Protestants in this, a sort of rebels against the crown? In any new arrangement for the maintenance of the clergy, the law would make the provision as it has made it for the bench ; and nothing but cor- ruption or incapacity in the eye of the law, would be able to deprive the official of his legal revenue ; for wheresoever the congregation was attached, there the salary should be paid, leaving conscience free and unrestricted for the performance of its own office; for with its sacred dictates, or with any other than the broad characteristic distinctions of religion (like the broad charac- teristics of blue and green, of which there are divers shades) should the profane hand of law presume to interfere. In all respects, the minister of every church thus provided for would be a free citizen, and need not be the slave of any faction, or the minion of any authority in church or state ; and should he preach the doctrines of active obedience to a good government, and even long suffering submission to a bad one, it would be nothing more than the religion of Christianity (as we find it in the New Testament) requires from all its ministers. 46 IRELAND, Had this tree been rooted out from the soil of Ireland, by a timely reformation of the property of the church, issuing in a deliverance of the peasantry from all ecclesiastical taxation, by an abolition of the tithe system, and by a parliamentary provision for the Catholic clergy (not as an auxiliary to the marriages, funerals, and other impositions of the latter, but as a substitute for all impositions, present and to come) we could then have well afforded to forgive the past, after having dropped a tear upon the mighty hecatombs of human vic- tims that have been sacrificed upon the altars of church rapacity, in almost every Christian nation of the world ; but by none more eminently, alas ! than by those who in Ireland are called the Bishops of the reformed church, appointed by a Protestant government to lead the Catholics of that coun- try, by their doctrine and example, out of the errors of popery into the light and liberty of that Gospel, of which these Bishops pretend to be the champions and defenders ? But although the ecclesiastical system of which we com- plain is one of the greatest grievances under which Ireland groans; yet the evils which demoralize the country and goad the peasant into midnight massacre and blood, do not end here. The state has contributed to swell these evils, by a contempt of the labourer's rights; and the landlord or middle man, by his avarice or neglect. Let the reader turn to our note on Leitrim, in this volume, and he will see how the criminal laws (criminal indeed) are made to operate against the life and liberty of the Irish peasant, by those gross perversions of justice, of which he is made the perpe- tual victim, in divers parts of those southern or western dis- tricts, in which his unfortunate destiny has placed him under the hands of wicked and unprincipled magistrates, who, in some instances, have plunged him into the dungeons of his country, and placed him on trial for his life, on the informa- tion of women of loose morals, who had been the long and iciU'mg partners of his crime, if crime it were ! But in addi- tion to all this, the very possibility of supporting his exist- ence by honest labour, is nearly cut off in some of those REVIEW OF HER POLITICAL AND MORAL STATE. 47 districts, by the low prices for labour, and the high prices for land. Only think of a cottier or small tenant (and this is no solitary case) without constant employment, and when employed by his master, receiving from four to sixpence per day for twelve hours' work ! with a family of perhaps six, eight, or ten persons to support by the produce of his conacre, and in many instances compelled to pay for this potatoe plot (which he sows and digs out at his own expense) at the rate of eight guineas per acre! (the average farm price for eight acres of land) and, in the neighbourhood of towns, very fre- quently ten guineas, (and after this to surrender a tithe of his crop, to a priest of whom he knows nothing) ; and yet for these grievous impositions upon the want and poverty of the peasant, there is no remedy in law ; although there is a remedy for the gentleman, if he should be overcharged by his attorney, or defrauded by his baker ; and for the professional man, should he choose to enforce his fee ; and, in this situa- tion of the Irish peasant, can the intelligent Englishman feel surprised that he is a rebel to the laws, and compelled, by the very necessities of his nature, to make war upon the men and the institutions which oppress him ; while to maintain a military establishment, in order to restrain him from acts of robbery and murder, the trade and capital of Great Britain and Ireland must be burthened with a system of taxation, which clogs the wheels of industry, and renders it extremely difficult for the British merchant to maintain that ascen- dancy in the scale of commerce, to which his merits and previous advantages had well entitled him. Could not parliament legislate upon this subject with as much propriety, as upon the prices of corn, the weight of bread, the fees of attorneys, or the salaries of officers of jus- tice ? and in reference to the peace and improvement of Ireland, is not the call for parliamentaiy interference in favour of the Irish labourer and his family, at least equally imperative ?* * Whether would it be better for parliament to effect a total abolition of tithes ; to purify our criminal laws ; to provide profitable employment for 48 IRELAND, Is it not also wicked and unjust to compel the industrious citizen to pay war prices, by old contracts for lands and houses, when the owners of these lands and houses receive from the tenantry of the country in return, twice the quantity of manufactured goods, and twice the quantity of agricul- tural produce, that they would have received from the pro- ducer when these contracts were entered into during the late war? Here the whole weight of oppression is thrown by the selfish landlord, and by a government obstinately reject- ing an equitable adjustment of war contracts, upon the shoulders of the industrious classes, whose privations and sufferings under the burthen of this war system, in a period of profound peace and of unprecedentedly low prices for all the products of human labour, no language can describe ; and this mode of proceeding cannot but be rendered doubly galling, by the good care which is generally taken of the great and wealthy, whose interests (whether in or out of office) are seldom neglected by the rulers and legislators of the land ! In relation to the Irish labourer, the absentee also steps in to increase his oppressions, by withdrawing that income from the country which he produces by his labour, and a proportion of which, in strict justice, should be applied to the employment and improvement of that people, by whose labour the income is produced. In the substitution of cold and unfeeling agents for the presence of the owners of the soil in the deep and exten- sive failure of Irish manufactures in the almost total the poor in the disturbed districts ; and to pat an end to all petty oppressions of the labourer, by fixing the standard of his wages, and the price of his potatoe land, and thus make him feel, by blessed personal experience, (the only way that he can feel it) the advantage which he derives from the pro- tection of English law : and then if disorderly proceedings did not cease, (and it could not in reason be expected that a new and equitable sj'stem of law and government would remove them all at once) have immediate recourse to the insurrection act, which is a prompt remedy, sheds no blood, and deprives no man of his day's labour ; or leave Ireland open for ever (like a field without a fence) to briars and thorns of oppression, upon the one hand ; and to the lawless ravages of men rendered furious by a wicked contempt of the rights of nature, upon the other ? REVIEW OF HER POLITICAL AND MORAL STATE. 49, absence of public works in the dormant state of our nume- rous minerals in the similar state of millions of acres of waste lands in the general dearth of employment for the poor in the low prices of human labour in the corrupt state of our criminal laws in the corrupt administration of justice by petty magistrates in the heavy oppressions and divisions of our ecclesiastical system ; and in the general deluge of ignorance, passion, poverty, beggaiy and crime, which these united causes produce, ma} r be found an answer to the English reader's inquiry relative to the causes by which Ireland has been demoralized and laid waste ; and to these may be fairly added, an unhappy attachment of the people to ardent spirits, litigation, and party quarrels ; evils which the progress of education, and a sensible improvement in the physical and social comforts of the people, would materially correct. Regarding, as we have always done, the absentee system as a great national evil, and the expenditure of the income of the land in foreign countries, as the deepest source of poverty and want of employment to the Irish people ; and being firmly convinced that by the establishment of a local legislature upon the soil of Ireland (for purposes of domestic improvement, and for these only) this pregnant spring of ruin to the country might be subverted ; not only without prejudice, but with great advantage to the state ; the author of this work thought it his duty, at the close of his north-west tour, to publish a pamphlet in Dublin on this subject, in the form of a letter to the king ; and as this letter contains a complete answer to all the principal objections that had been previously made to this useful measure, and divers important reflections upon the defective state of the legis- lative government of Great Britain and her colonies ; con- firmed also by the views taken of the same subject by Sir John Sinclair (the celebrated Scotch statician), and other able writers ; he shall make no apology for introducing this letter to the notice of the English reader, when the last question of this honest enquirer concerning the author's E 50 IRELAND, country has been answered. This vital measure (without which there is great reason to fear that Ireland will never be united to England by any better tie than that which binds to his master the slave, who only wishes for a safe opportunity to cut his throat) shall be then introduced. E. R. On casting my eye over certain works that you have produced on Ireland, in the course of my visits to that country, I have perceived a considerable part of these works occupied with descriptions of Irish seats and landscapes (blended, it is true, with occasional reflections calculated to draw the attention of strangers to the beauties of your coun- try, and that of the ow r ners of the soil to some useful and necessary improvements) but as these do not come up to my ideas of a work intended to promote the substantial interests of Ireland, I should be glad to know what end do you pro- pose to yourself by these descriptions ? A. As coming from an English merchant, who could not easily place himself, even in thought, in the circumstances of an Irish author and his country, I am not surprised at the question you have put to me. The descriptions, how- ever, to which you allude; in reference to the resident gen- tlemen of Ireland, and to the poor that are dependent upon them, are not altogether useless. They have a tendency to draw the attention of an Irishman to his native land, and to encourage a spirit of improvement in the country (as you yourself appear to acknowledge.) But besides this (and even this is a right course to be pursued in relation to a country so deeply neglected,) there are other reasons to justify these descriptions. To trouble you and the public with all these reasons in detail, would be an indelicate trespass upon the reader's feelings and my own ; but in reference to an accurate account of the rural history of Irish properties (if such could be procured, which it could not,) it would prove of more service to Ireland, than all the bulky volumes that have been written upon its ancient history; as it would let the public into a very large proportion of the history of landlord and tenant, of the mode of administering REVIEW OF HER POLITICAL AND MORAL STATE. 51 justice to the poor, of the prices of land and labour, of the estates that are well governed by resident landlords, and of those which are treated as foreign plantations, from which the sugar is drawn to be sold, and the money expended in a distant country, without any return being made to the slave, by whose blood, and sweat, and stripes, and impri- sonment, the income was raised for the foreign owner. This is the kind of history that would be developed to the view of mankind by an accurate report of Irish properties. It would shew why the tenants upon some estates are moral, prosperous, and happy, in comparison of others, who are poor, abandoned, and rebellious ; and to the statesman who would govern Ireland by just laws, it would furnish no mean clue to the discovery of those facts by which he should regulate the spirit and principle of his statutes. While upon this subject, I feel pleasure in offering a well-merited compliment to two Irish landlords, with whose persons I am scarcely acquainted, and with whose political principles I am totally at variance. I mean Lords Farnham and Lorton, with the accounts of whose care and kind attention to their people (received in the progress of my travels from divers of their own tenants,) I was much edified. These are the kind of country sermons which make the heart of an Irish- man leap for joy ; and I cannot but wish that they were more generally preached by the landlords of Ireland in their home pulpits, as I am sure they would go far towards work- ing as useful a reformation in the manners, as in the social circumstances of the people. But to effect these important improvements, there must be an almost constant residence of the landlord on the soil, and an established moral agency between him and his tenant, distinguished by attention, humanity, and good sense, pure from proselyting purposes, and wholly unconnected with the collection and enforcement of the rents. The valuable purposes of such an agency are noticed elsewhere in this work ; and therefore I shall only say concerning them in this place, that they are so pecu- liarly called for by the circumstances of the peasantry and 52 IRELAND, small tenantry of Ireland, and still more eminently where the landlord is an absentee, that to do justice to the subject would require a distinct and separate volume, embodying the facts of those rural districts which have been long- aban- doned by the proprietors of the soil to spoliation, poverty, and crime ; thus exhibiting in the broad and legible cha- racters of their living history, the consequences of the ab- sentee system, and the turpitude of the Irish planters, who have thus abandoned their estates to ignorance, poverty, and crime. In such a general dereliction of public duty, (and, properly speaking, of private interest,) it affords the heart of huma- nity pleasure to notice such landlords as Lords Farnham and Lorton, whose services to themselves and their tenantry derive additional value from those parts of the country which they occupy, and which cannot boast, like the Downshire, Hertford, and Belfast estates, of the advantages of a long- established and wealthy manufacturing population, in the neighbourhood of a great mart of trade. Their services to a comparatively poor country, are therefore the more valu- able, and furnish a more worthy object of imitation to other landlords ; and besides these, there are other gentlemen who live very much at home, and spend a large proportion of their fortunes in the bosom of their country ; but the con- trary cases are so numerous, and their effects so fatal, that I have frequently lamented the total impossibility (in my peculiar circumstances,) of getting at all the facts that would be necessary to a complete political and moral survey of Irish properties; as through this medium, and perhaps through it alone, many lurking causes of discontent, of poverty, of idleness and rags, of emigrations to America, and of insurrections, midnight massacres, and burnings of property, would be discovered, that otherwise could never be arrived at, and made known to the statesman, whose duty it is to regulate his political and parliamentary pro- ceedings, by the circumstances of the various countries for which he is bound to provide just and salutary laws. REVIEW OF HER POLITICAL AXD MORAL STATE. 53 The nearest approach to a history of this kind that has been made in Ireland, within our memory, was that of a sta- tistical account (in imitation of Sir John Sinclair's, of Scot- land,) of all the parishes in the country ; attempted to be collected from the Protestant clergy some sixteen or eighteen years since, by a gentleman (equally respectable in character and station) who holds (or recently held) an employment at the castle of Dublin. This gentleman, however, found him- self unable to complete the work, as many of the Protestant clergy would not undertake the troublesome, and (as some of them conceived) invidious task of exhibiting to the world the rural history of their parishes ; which, in reference to education, and other subjects in which their most respectable parishioners were concerned, should be freely developed, if all the questions proposed to them in the compiler's list, were fully and truly answered. The plan, however, of appealing to the Protestant clergy only, in reference to the rural history of a country, inhabited by various, and violently hostile parties, was obviously defective ; as few of the Protestant clergy would like to enter deep into any subject, that might, by any pos- sibility, be considered as offensive to the feelings of the class just noticed ; such as questions of rents, prices of labour, peasantry improvement institutions, and other items in which the gentry are personally concerned; and still less into questions connected with the church, such as the influence of tithes and vestry laws, upon the peace and prosperity of their parishes, &c. The consequence of this mode of proceeding was, that a large proportion of the clergy declined the office that was assigned to them ; and after a few volumes of such unconnected parishes as the Editor could collect were pub- lished, (for his materials did not enable him to produce a symmetrical division of the work into Sees, Provinces, or Counties,) he was compelled to abandon his design. Had it been consistent with the Editor's plan, (or perhaps, in strict propriety, we should say, with the narrow views and feelings of his patron) to have opened a correspondence at the same time, with the Roman Catholic and Presbyte- 54 IRELAND, rian clergy of the country (in which case the omissions in one meagre report, would have been supplied by the corpu- lent fulness in another) he would have been able, at the favourable juncture when he undertook that work, (under high official patronage) to have collected the most valuable body of Irish statistical and rural history that was ever pub- lished in the sister country. It is in fact a desideratum that has never been supplied ; and which, had it been completed, would have constituted an excellent guide for English state secretaries going over to conduct that country (that is, if they would read the books thus prepared for their instruction, and which would probably amount to about twenty thick octavo volumes ! ) But this liberal and extended mode of procuring information from all the clergy, does not appear to have tallied with the views of Mr. Peel, the acknowledged patron of the work, who was then His Majesty's principal Secretary of State in Ireland ; and to his contracted views, (though probably by the Right Hon. Gentleman himself considered conscientious, as the prejudices sucked in with the milk of our Alma Mater usually are) I impute the failure of the plan. This distinguished statesman, however, has since learned to make both his pride and his prejudices yield with a little more convenient pliancy to the force of circumstances ; and were he to resume his former station in Ireland, it is not improbable, with his present experience, but he would take the true and successful course of procur- ing that body of Irish rural history which is still wanted ; and which the Catholic and Presbyterian clergy of Ireland would be much more likely to communicate, than the order of clergy upon whom he exclusively depended; and he might also perhaps see the necessity of extending the origi- nal plan of the work, by adding a few questions to his former list, of which I have only a partial recollection at this distant period of time, and no copies of the queries connected with that work before me, to supply any defects of memory into which I may have accidentally fallen. Having thus adverted to the part which Mr. (now Sir REVIEW OF HER POLITICAL AND MORAL STATE. 55 Robert) Peel is supposed to have taken (and with good reason) in a plan for procuring a development of the resources of the soil of Ireland and the circumstances of its population, I shall avail myself of the opportunity which this introduction of his name affords me, to offer a brief remark upon his character as a statesman. Deriving, as this gentleman did, whatever rank and con- sequence he possessed, exclusively from the walks of trade ; it might be supposed that, with the sympathies and senti- ments congenial to men who have received their ALL in life from the pure and unsullied source of honest industry, he would have felt a lively interest in the prosperity of British trade, and in the comfort of the working classes, to which his family originally belonged ; and that with such feelings and sympathies, in aid of a good natural understanding and polished education, he would have proved himself to be the friend of the people, and the useful minister of a free and commercial nation. The event, however, (if indeed the nation looked up to him for a redress of grievances) appears to have disappointed this expectation ; as this statesman of plebeian birth had scarcely entered into public life, until he proved himself to be the enemy of popular rights, and the unbend- ing advocate of vested oppression ! his mockery of criminal law reform his military remedies for the disorders of a country, whose wrongs he had neither the principle nor the spirit to redress the corrupt and criminal indifference with which he beheld the sufferings of the Irish poor (although sprung himself, as it is commonly reported, from the very lowest of the people) the complacency with which he regarded the boroughmongering oppressors of his country, and the bloated bishops of his church the resistance which he gave to the Catholic claims and to parliamentary reform the sufferings of widows and orphans, for whose family wrongs he procured from parliament no free tribunal of jus- tice ; and the little and low partialities by which it is said some portion of his private patronage had been governed ; altogether produced such an impression of his character in 50 IRELAND, Ireland, as (with the exception of the reptiles who had fat- tened upon the spoils of the country) left very little room in the bosoms of the people of that country for the entertain- ment of any other sentiments towards him, than those of hatred, disapprobation, or contempt : and had this penalty been incurred in the cause of truth and justice (as has some- times been the case) and not in that of pride, bigotry, and intolerance ; instead of regarding such penalty as a brand upon his character, we would have beheld it with veneration, as a garland placed upon his brow by the hand of VIRTUE, and which would crown that character with future and imperishable fame. The fact, however, of having lent his name and patronage to a parochial account of Ireland, sufficiently proves, that the rural history of this country has not been regarded by all the statesmen into whose hands our destiny has thrown us, as a useless department of research. The queries pro- posed to the Protestant clergy on that occasion (if our recol- lection has not deceived us) could not be answered without entering, more or less, into the policy by which Irish estates were governed, and the tenantry residing on them, improved or degraded in their character and circumstances, as the reputed citizens of a free and independent state ; and hence, in all probability, the deep dislike which many clergymen felt to what they conceived to be, the invidious and unprofit- able task of working for the statesman's information and the compiler's profit, with a reasonable prospect of procuring some inconvenience to themselves. This I heard divers of them express in substance at that time ; and in these senti- ments they do not appear to have been much discouraged by their bishops, who might probably have anticipated, that through the crevices of such a mighty machine of information, some bitter drops of truth relative to church property might possibly have been exuded, that as a literary morceau selected for " a feast of fat things" would not have been found to smack sweet on their Lordships' palates. In the humble but laborious department it has been my lot REVIEW OF HER POLITICAL AND MORAL STATE. 57 to fill, in the circle of Irish literary labour, I have had a very different task to execute from that of the compiler just noticed. I had to see the country with nay own eyes ; and for that purpose was obliged to travel far, and to work hard in my own person (and not by proxies) for the measure of information which I procured. I had no splendid statesman for my patron, and could not sit in the castle of Dublin at my ease, while other men sowed the seed from which I was to reap the harvest. It is true I was permitted to dedicate a work to the Duke of Sussex ; and I believe I might have received the same sort of compliment from one or two of the Irish Viceroys who subscribed to my researches ; but I was unacquainted with the ways of Courtiers, had no taste for intrigue, and still less for dedications in which nothing could be said ; and the manner in which my country had been always treated by England, whose agents I regarded as the instruments of a jealous and blasting policy, rendered false and flattering dedications totally impossible to me. A new era has now opened upon Ireland ; a reformed parlia- ment (for which I myself have long laboured) is now in full prospect; and perhaps the day is at length approaching, when an Irishman of principle, may, without doing violence to his honour or his conscience, dedicate a work on Ireland, to the minister of a British King. Lastly. No reasonable man Avill deny, that specimens of the natural history and artificial improvements of a country of so much importance to England as Ireland is, may prove more or less useful, even to strangers, as exhibiting its capabilities and comparative improvements, in connexion with the causes of its ruin and decay. Nor will the limited number of these specimens be objected to by English mer- chants, who have little leisure for reading ; who, on subjects of secondary consideration, like to receive much in a small compass, and to whom Ireland was perhaps never more than a second or third object of value, in the great scale of nations which their extended commerce has embraced. Thus reflecting on the taste and circumstances of those 58 IRELAND, men, to whom this work is chiefly addressed, and labouring-, as the author has always done, under the heavy disadvan- tages, in such a country as Ireland, of being forced by a sense of duty to exercise a hated censorship over the abuses of the church, the law, the factions, and the press; and over all those corporate, ecclesiastical, and popular leaders of the people, who have risen into wealth and influence, upon the ignorance, prejudices, and oppresions of a priest-ridden and plundered nation. When these disadvantages are fairly considered, and taken in connexion with the embarrassments of a once large family, and the loss of valuable properties unjustly alienated from the author, and for which he could obtain no redress from an unreformed parliament, no hear- ing from a British minister, and no decision in courts of law, where justice is sold at a price that amounts to a prohibition ! When to these misfortunes are added, the pains and penal- ties inseparable from a life of perpetual exertion, frequent ill health (from damp beds and other similar accommodations), with limited pecuniary resources to meet these evils, together with narrow escapes from dangers by sea and laud, from concealed enemies, from treacherous snares laid for his ruin under fair appearances, with the absence of all co-operation from the sects and parties, whose displeasure he had excited, and whose corruptions he had exposed. And when still farther to aggravate his afflictions, even his children, whom he had nobly educated, were either called away, or became rebels to their father in his declining years ; and all this because he would, as a British citizen, assert his right of private judgment, discharge his duty to his country accord- ing to his conscience, and preserve his station and mental independence firm to the end. W'hen these accumulated wrongs, with the numerous and inexplicable difficulties and embarrassments they involve, are seriously considered, in connexion with the infirmities inseparable from his ad- vanced years, he trusts they will prove an apology for any accidental defects into which this work may have inevitably fallen; but which, notwithstanding these errors, and the REVIEW OF HER POLITICAL AND MORAL STATE. 59 light descriptions objected to by the English reader, will, nevertheless, be found to embody a number of important facts, from which the statesman, and the merchant too, may derive some useful hints. Having now made a candid communication of my views to the English enquirer concerning Ireland, I beg to direct his attention to the article recently noticed on the establish- ment of a local legislature in that countiy, as he will find it, in the form of a letter to the King, at the opening of the next chapter. CHAPTER II. EMBRACING the Author's Letter to the King upon the Irish Parliamentary Question A Review of the Press and the Parties (including a critique upon Cobbett's Reformation, and an impartial review of the character and capabilities of O'Connell) Poor Laws Irish Malthusian Philoso- phy The Tithe Question The Grand Jury System Evils in the policy by which some Irish estates are governed and General Observations on the Soil of Ulster. AUTHOR'S LETTER TO THE KING, Upon the Irish Parliamentary Question. SIRE, As every good citizen is the guardian of his Prince's throne, and of his country's liberties ; and as your Majesty's interests, and those of the people who support the State by their labours, are one and indivisible ; and as, in an age of illumination and knowledge, nothing but just and wise institutions (pregnant with the seeds of peace and pros- perity to the people) can guarantee the security of the throne; it behoves every good subject, when the public peace is menaced, by treasonable conspiracies upon the one hand, or by corrupt legislation and government upon the other, to raise his warning voice, and to approach the throne, the legitimate guardian of the people's rights, with remon- strance and petition. In the discharge of this duty, Sire, I approach your Majesty not as a partizan not as a participator in the plunder of my country's property or my country's rights not as the bigotted or priest-ridden slave of any faction but as an Irish Protestant Briton, anxious to see the power and glory of your Majesty's throne and dominions perpetuated, by just and wise institutions. AUTHOR'S LETTER TO THE KING. 61 On this ground, Sire, I am entitled to be heard On the ground of a perfect superiority to all religious and political sectarianism to all party purposes and to all views of policy, which have not for their object a consolidation of the entire interests of the British empire And lastly, I am entitled to be heard, as an Irish Briton who knows his country ; who refused to place his signature to the base act by which that country was sold ; who is anxious to see that act repealed, that his country may be united to England by better ties ; and who, as he speaks from knowledge, having (at a sufficient distance to protect himself from defilement) studied with close attention the filthy springs, by which the machine of society has been kept moving in Ireland for the last thirty years, is therefore a competent, an impartial, and an experienced witness of the things whereof he speaks. Sire, it is of importance to your Majesty's throne, and to the peace and security of your Majesty's dominions, that justice should be done to Ireland forthwith. That country, even under the dominion of a corrupt Parliament, was rapidly progressing, prior to the Act of Union. By that Act she was deprived of her natural protectors, of her natural income, to the amount of many millions ; her manufactures, which were then in a flourishing state, are now nearly extinct ; her poor, who were then fully employed, are now perishing ; mendicity, which was then a partial evil, is now a national curse ! These, and many other evils, which a local Legislature (travelling with the lights of the age, and with its own interests) would have arrested in their progress, by the powerful arm of domestic legislative protection, have been entailed upon this unhappy country, by that which is falsely called " the Act of UNION ;" an Act pregnant with the seeds of disunion which injustice generates, and there- fore very improperly entitled, " a UNION of the sister countries." Sire It is not in the nature of things, that a Union pro- cured by bribery and corruption upon the one hand, by an act of political suicide upon the other, and by a compact 62 IRELAND, which left the weaker country undefended, (for how could its rights be protected in an assembly of six hundred, in which Ireland could not count upon the support of twenty unpurchased advocates ?) How, in the name of Heaven, could such a Union as this produce an equality of rights, or indeed any other fruits than those which it has produced; the alienation of the natural protectors of the land, an expenditure of their income near the seat of power; the establishment on their properties of cold and unfeeling agents, a total silence of the loom in many districts, a total absence of all useful public works, a total neglect of four millions of acres of waste lands, with very little attention to the mineral wealth and other great commercial resources of one of the finest countries in the world, a total neglect of her impoverished and perishing peasantry, and who, as if this were not enough, have been hunted out of house and home, by the unfeeling and relentless provisions of a British Act of Parliament? Sire, your Majesty will pause and consider, whether these are visitations of affliction, under which seven millions of oppressed Irishmen can maintain the silence of a Quakers' meeting ! And if, in addition to all these various sources of suffering, their exist various unproductive classes, pressing with a destructive and deadly weight upon the industry of the people, shall the deep and dying groans of a nation, labouring under these accumulated oppressions, be deemed an offence against the State? and must their peaceful and constitutional advocates be perse- cuted with state prosecutions, and with fine and imprison- ment, for daring to complain ? Sire, This is not a state of things to be endured much longer. In the name of God, interpose your Majesty's authority to arrest its course. Look at the mendicity insti- tutions of this country. Look at an assembly of your Ma- jesty's ragged and half-starved subjects in the capital of Ireland (and not merely at the carriages and liveries in Grafton-street and Stephen's-green,) and your Majesty will AUTHOR'S LETTER TO THE KING. 63 perceive a living exemplification of the blessed fruits of the union of the two countries ! That Union was founded in crimes, to which no Govern- ment could lend itself without being tainted by guilt ; no Constitution acknowledge without blushing for its baseness; no countiy subscribe to without suicide or oppression ; and no Law sanction without treason against Justice ! Sire before I close these pages, I shall point out to your Majesty a better mode of uniting Ireland to England, than by an act of Union, on one side of which lies all the power to do good or evil, and on the other all the disadvantages which result from criminal neglect and corrupt legislation! I trust I shall be able to convince your Majesty, that not Ireland only, but every branch of your Majesty's dominions, may be so incorporated with the state, as to contribute the full measure of their resources to the wealth and grandeur of the British Empire ; an effect that can never be produced by a partial system of legislation, and while every country is groaning under abuses, which reformed local legislatures, acting under your Majesty's authority, and that of an enlightened con- gress, would infallibly remove. This panacea for the evils of a widely extended and variously circumstanced empire, may yield for a season to military government (necessary, and only necessary, to maintain the progress of civilization, and to secure the final establishment of liberal institutions) or to coercive restraints upon free enquiry, unknown to the constitution and to common law ; but the glorious cause of equal representation will finally prevail, for it corresponds with experience, with the reason of the age, and with the lights which God is daily pouring upon the eye-ball of the nations. The scriptures abound with proofs of God's hatred of oppression ; of the mighty miracles he has wrought to deli- ver his people from the authority of tyrants ; of the phials of his indignation poured out upon whole nations, on account of their wicked systems of religion, and their oppressive 64 IRELAND, systems of civil policy. Religion, alas ! that which is falsely so called, exhibits the Almighty to the poor and the op- pressed as an object of terror but although he hates deeds of wickedness, and will punish them, he is a Being of per- fect love, and the operations of his Providence clearly prove that, however long he may bear with the powers of darkness which oppose the manifestations of his mercy to mankind, he will finally make them the trophies of his victory, both in the kingdoms of this world, and in the life which is to come Sire, the fiat of political regeneration has gone forth from a higher court than that of your Majesty's dominions It was echoed from heaven when the new world was founded by European persecutions. It reached England when Penn pleaded in its courts of justice, against the monstrous wick- edness of the English penal code. It reached France, when the philosophers of that country first laid their hand upon the ecclesiastical impostures which oppressed it (I plead not for the infidelity of these philosophers ; God permitted it, but he made their intelligence and their love of liberty his instruments ; and still more, he gave them intelligence and the love of liberty for that special purpose.) It reached America, when Britain overstepped the legitimate boundaries of her power, and Washington and La Fayette first fought in the ranks of liberty. It has reached various states of Europe, and it will finally reach them all. Every good man ; every lover of his species, wishes that this salvation may be wrought out by moral and not by military means. Every Christian prays for its peaceful celebration ; but its achieve- ment is in higher hands, and we may rest assured that a God of mercy and goodness will not resort to the last extre- mity, until all the means of conviction with which he has supplied tyrants, have been trampled under foot. Happy are those princes, and they only, w r ho, having carefully studied their duty in the school of Providence, are resolved to con- form their practice to the lessons which they have there received. AUTHOR'S LETTER TO THE KING. 65 Sire, in addressing this letter to your Majesty, I make no apology for the humility of my rank, nor for the obscurity of my name ; more particularly as I am much more indebted to the corruptions of British law for these misfortunes (if misfortunes they are) than to the accidents of my birth, or the poverty of my genius. Poor as these have been, they would have proved sufficient for the purposes of a patriot, long and ardently devoted to the interests of his country and kind, had the fortunes of my family, now partly, as I have heard, in the possession of your Majesty, descended to their rightful heir but having been defrauded of these in early life, and finding no tribunal in these countries to which injured innocence can obtain a free and unpurchased access, I have been compelled to give vent to the zeal of my heart for the improvement of my country, in those lowly walks of moral and political literature, which the magna- nimity of British ministers has left open to the neglected or pillaged sons of genius, very justly concluding that, under the operations of the stamp act, the poison of these vermin can scarcely touch the colossal statue of corruption, and that it would be utterly beneath the dignity of a great power to trample them under foot, (as in the cases of Cobbett, Hone, and Wooller, under the pious administration of the late Castlereagh) or even to cast a look upon their weak and innoxious ebullitions. Thus tolerated, by the obscurity of my name and rank, to publish TRUTHS, from which the powerful literary tribunals of the empire would be restrained by a due attention to their interests ; and being peculiarly well qualified by my know- ledge of my own country, and by my total disconnection with its sects and factions, to submit to your Majesty a few plain practical reflections upon the great question of a Repeal of the legislative Union between the two countries, which is now pending ; I trust if this letter should have the honour of meeting your Majesty's eye, that it may prove the humble instrument of placing that great question fairly before it pure from the dregs of faction, upon the one hand and F 60 IRELAND, free from all those artificial embellishments of human learn- in f, by which truth is too frequently obscured, upon the other. In entering upon a review of this great question, I shall first briefly notice the broad political foundations upon which the temple of British prosperity should be built, in the pre- sent extended and diversified circumstances of the British empire. Secondly, point out a few of the leading objections that have been urged against the re-establishment of a parliament in Ireland. Thirdly, endeavour to meet those objections. Fourthly, I shall endeavour to prove, that an Irish parliament, upon reformed principles, would promote the prosperity of both countries, and tend to a consolidation of the interests of the empire and shall conclude the whole of my reflections with an important fact, namely, that the most powerful obstacle to the regeneration of nations, is to be found in those legions of corruption which surround the thrones of princes, and who, by multiplying amusements for the royal eye, and dazzling it with brilliant deceptions, divert its attention from the miseries produced by their own cor- rupt measures, or criminal negligence of duty; until at length the heavings of discontent produced by their accu- mulated oppressions, becoming stronger and stronger, those political convulsions are produced which shake the founda- tions of their power, and sometimes terminate in bloody conflicts, in the overthrow oi dynasties, and in great moral and political revolutions ! It is, Sire, to protect your Majesty's throne and dominions from these final effects of mislegislation and misgovermnent, (and the heavings of the political terraquea that surrounds us, are not altogether destitute of moral admonition) that the humble writer of this letter presumes to suggest to your Majesty, that circumstanced as the British empire now is, it is totally impossible that any partial system of legislation should be able to meet its numerous and varied wants ; and that, in order to preserve the unity of the empire, by an effectual purgation of every province from the evils which AUTHOR'S LETTER TO THE KING. 67 peculiarly oppress it, it is necessary that each such province should have its own local parliament, and that an imperial congress, composed of deputies from all these local legisla- tures, should meet every third or fourth year in London, to transact the general business of the state, and to correct the abuses of the local parliaments, when, by any accident or oversight, they had abused their functions, and overstepped the proper boundaries of their power. Having thus briefly noticed the broad foundation, upon which alone the temple of moral and political prosperity can be built and perpetuated, in an empire so widely extended, and so variously circumstanced as that of Great Britain, (a principle partially recognized by the British Government, in the local parliaments of Canada and Jamaica,) I shall not enter deeply (however it might pro- mote my object) into the abuses complained of in divers colonies, and particularly those under which one hundred millions of British subjects are groaning in India, (where, if public report is to be credited, the East India Company derive no mean revenue, from the murders and idolatrous sacrifices of the Hindoo superstition, to which divers of their officers contribute, in the character of Priests, or attendants upon the annual exhibitions ,of the idol Jugger- naut !) but shall proceed to the more immediate object of this letter, that of a closer union of Ireland with England, by the establishment of a domestic parliament in the former country, upon true British foundations. And first, I am to notice a few of the leading objections that have been urged against this measure, by the advocates of the act of Union, among which, a question affecting the succession to the throne has been started, and by the writer of this objection, was, no doubt, supposed to be unanswer- able. " If the Princess Victoria," said the objector, " were to embrace the Roman Catholic religion, while seated on the throne of England, this offence, according to the law of England, would be punished by deposition. In such a circumstance as this, would an Irish parliament, composed 68 IRELAND, | of a majority of Catholics, confirm the deposition, or dis- annul it ? Undoubtedly they would do the latter ; for they had sworn allegiance to the Queen, and would not violate that allegiance for an offence against the law, which they would deem to he a duty paramount to all law. Their allegiance to the Queen, would therefore he confirmed and proclaimed, and in consequence thereof, a war would he declared between the two countries." To all this I have merely to reply, that in the system of representation which I advocate, no change could take place in the fundamental laws of the empire, without the con- currence of the three estates; and no local parliament, in common sense, could have jurisdiction in such a question as that which the objector has mooted; neither in any question of foreign policy, nqr in any other affecting the general interests of the empire. To the entertainment of any question, affecting the fundamental laws of the empire and its general interests, the Imperial Congress (composed of deputies from all the local legislatures) would alone be competent; and as this Congress, notwithstanding Catholic Canada and Catholic Ireland, would have a large majority of Protestant deputies, neither the law of succession as it now stands, nor the unity of the empire, would be in the least endangered. The Times, therefore, may pull down his cap, for cunning as that serpent is, he will find an Irishman to answer him. Pleading, as I do, the cause of Ireland, in the unity of the British empire, every such objection as that which the Times has mooted, vanishes into thin air. Justice to Ireland is compatible with the paramount duty of justice to the empire ; and in attempting to promote the interests of the whole, that man must be a wretched poli- tician, and miserably devoid of intellect, who finds it neces- sary to sacrifice a part ! As well might he think of sacrificing Coventry to Lichfield, or Liverpool to London, as Ireland to England. Their interests are one and indivisible nature has determined their connexion, and Providence has con- firmed it by a thousand ties. There is no necessity, there- AUTHOR'S LETTER TO THE KING. 69 fore, for the doctrine of separation, nor for starting fanciful questions, calculated to generate a bad feeling between the two countries. The policy that stabs Ireland endangers England, and if persevered in, will finally pierce her to the heart. Let England, therefore, look to this in due time, and by another great act of justice, that of conceding to Ireland a Parliament for the regulation of her own internal con- cerns, bind her to the heart of England, in a unity of interest and of amity, that shall perish only when Britain sinks into incurable corruption, and ceases to be a nation among the empires of the earth. Secondly. It has been suggested, that if her Parliament were restored to Ireland, the Protestant interest and the Protestant church would perish under a Catholic ascend- ancy to which I reply, IMPOSSIBLE, if the House of Peers (one hundred and fourteen Protestants to six Catholics) did its duty, and if the whole property (chattel as well as free- hold) and intelligence of the land were represented, as undoubtedly they ought. Of the entire knowledge and property of Ireland, a very large proportion is still truly Pro- testant. In the march of education and letters, which will always keep pace with the march of property and freedom, this number would rapidly increase (vide France and other countries, where freedom is on her march). These Pro- testants would never consent, and never ought, to an extinc- tion of their church, by an act of political despotism on the part of their Catholic countrymen (whom I cheerfully ab- solve, whatever my timid Protestant brethren may think, from the entertainment of any such malevolent design). Notwithstanding, I believe a great majority of the Pro- testant interest would subscribe, and undoubtedly ought, to an appropriation of the property of the church, better calculated to serve the morals of her clergy, to promote the religious influence of the church itself, and to advance the general interests of Ireland, than that unequal, and I was going to say, iniquitious system of appropriation which now prevails. 70 IRELAND, A check, and a sufficiently powerful check, would always be placed by the Protestant interest of Ireland, and by the general power of the State, upon Popish intrigue and ambi- tion. In the new and reformed state of society which I con- template, religious distinctions of an acrimonious character would be lost, and very happily lost indeed, in the much better and more endearing relations of kindred and country, in the equality of political rights, and even of party distinc- tions, in the removal of all well grounded complaints, by even-handed justice, in the spirit of toleration which true knowledge produces, and above all, in the triumph of Chris- tian charity over that vile and ignorant bigotry, of which corrupt laws and unequal government, with the jealousies, distinctions, and acts of injustice which they generate, are the prolific parents, and the never ending attendants. The people, when properly enlightened, would not sell their liberties and their country, for the purpose of support- ing priestcraft and the pope. The State would provide, as in France, for all the clergy in the land, and leave the creeds and formularies of sects to support themselves by their own proper evidence, or to sink into contempt by their lies and impostures, which have always a reference to one great end, the subjugation of the human mind, as the only base upon which the temple of ecclesiastical property and power can be permanently established. In such a state of things as this, neither the Catholic nor Protestant intelligence of Ireland would permit themselves to be wheedled out of their civil rights, by pompous religious villanies, whether Protestant or Popish ; well knowing that by impostures of this kind, Christian nations have been too long and deeply persecuted and plundered of their properties and civil rights ; and therefore they would leave the clergy to transact their own proper business, but they would give them no power in the State: and I need not remark with what joy so just an arrangement would be hailed by the lovers of social order, and particularly by those Christians who regard the visible forms of religion, merely as a pruden- AUTHOR'S LETTER TO THE KING. 71 tial institution, intended for the instruction and edification of the church; but who, in reference to the scheme of redemption for the salvation of man, believing it was planned, executed, and rendered perfect, by the arm of omnipotent love, and that angels can neither add to nor take from it, are unhappily possessed of an opinion, that standing in such a perfect state, it needs not the aids of human tinkering, or ghostly imposture, to accomplish its objects. The lower classes in Ireland, as in all other countries, are no doubt, to a certain extent (both Protestant and Catholic), the dupes of their respective prejudices, being (God help them) but little acquainted with the political springs of those things which they hold most sacred neither do they under- stand the science of metaphysics (a term invented to describe CAUSES, which are seen only through their EFFECTS, and) upon which human learning, in its highest state of perfec- tion, can shed but partial light; but this inevitable igno- rance of the great mass of our population could do no mischief to the State, so long as the elective franchise were confined to the knowledge and property of the country, and the undue influence of priests and landlords excluded, by those limitations to the elective franchise, which are dis- tinctly laid down in a succeeding section of this Letter. The powers of election being thus vested where they ought to be, that is, in the knowledge and property of the country, those men would be sent into parliament, without reference to religious distinctions, who were best qualified to promote the peace and prosperity of Ireland; and under the influence of this system, a period of twenty years would scarcely elapse, until (here as in England, in Paris, and in parts of Germany,) if you wanted to know the creed of an intelli- gent Irishman, you would hunt for it in vain, unless per- chance you caught him in his chapel, and even then you might be somewhat at a loss : as it is now a well known fact, that every man who goes to worship his God in a certain house, does not believe all the stories that are told 72 IRELAND, him there; but imagining it to be the best thing that is going in his neighbourhood, he attends for his own edifica- tion, the good order of his family, and for public example and if closely questioned upon the point, the answer, perhaps, of every five intelligent Irishmen out of ten would be, " far- ther than this, deponent saith not." Those Protestants, therefore, who anticipate the evils to be apprehended from a Popish ascendancy in an Irish Parliament, either know not the checks which are fairly and strongly laid down in this Letter, or wilfully overlook them : whether from inveterate prejudice, or from a wish to profit by the divisions of the empire, I shall not say. With reference to those who could entertain a wish so base, as that of perpetuating dis- cord, for the purpose of deriving fortune or distinction from the party to whose prejudices or interests they minister, I shall say nothing ; but there is a class of truly well disposed Protestants, who being immovably convinced of the reli- gious intolerance of the Romish church, and knowing that, when religious liberty is successfully invaded, civil liberty will fall, apprehend the most dangerous results to the Pro- testant interest of Ireland, and to freedom herself, from a restoration of the forty shilling franchise, of which the Catholic leaders have generally avowed themselves the ad- vocates and defenders. Knowing the abuses of that fran- chise as I know them, I think it my duty to enter my solemn protest against the restoration of that law; and I say to my Catholic countrymen, who are anxious to obtain the confidence and co-operation of their Protestant bre- thren, in the achievement of a great national benefit. Aban- don your claim to a restoration of that franchise; sacrifice something even of your just rights to the fears of your honest neighbours prove to them by your WORKS, that your professions of friendship are sincere for otherwise, however lofty your words may be, they will believe that you have ulterior views upon their liberty ; and all that you can say upon that subject, while you hold what they believe to be the engine of their slavery in your hand, will avail AUTHOR'S LETTER TO THE KING. 73 nothing. I know their sentiments you do not know them quite so well; and I can assure you, that in thus advertising you of their opinions, I am not the echo of my own fears only, but of those of a large proportion of the most exem- plary Protestants in the middle walks of life in Ireland: and even suppose those fears to be ill-founded, it is great and manly to yield to them for the sake of peace ; by thus acting you will gain upon their confidence and good opinion, and, with their assistance, but not without it, you will be able to build that temple of domestic legislation, without which, Ireland, though nominally incorporated with the State, will continue to be a poor and impoverished pro- vince. In reference to the forty shilling franchise, I was too long the spectator of the abuses of that law, and am too much the friend of the Irish peasant, to wish to see him reinstated between those galling fires of his landlord and his priest, by which he was so deeply injured in the last campaign. It is true, he fought nobly in the cause of emancipation, and assisted to achieve a victory for men, who by their parlia- mentary conduct have proved themselves worthy of the station to which their country has advanced them ; but as peace and protection are needful to the Irish peasant, and as an improvement in his physical condition would prove much more conducive to the interests of his family, and to his own future advancement, than the enjoyment of political power ; and as it appears to me to be quite time enough for a man to participate in the latter, when he has something in the shape of property to protect ; or when he has advanced to that stage of knowledge and independence, in which he can exercise an unbiassed judgment on public affairs ; I am therefore conscientiously averse from the restoration of a law, pregnant with the seeds of mischief to the humble labourer, who, if he should obey his priest, will be menaced with temporal destruction by his landlord, and if he obey his landlord, will be covered with spiritual maledictions by his priest! This system might do while the Catholics were 74 IRELAND, fighting for liberty ; but now that they are quietly seated in the temple of the constitution, the tools of their former war- fare should be given up. Thus would they acquire the con- fidence of their Protestant brethren thus would they give the lie to the frequent imputations of their political enemies, who assert that their only motive for conciliating the Pro- testant interest, is to make it a stepping-stone to their ascen- dancy in the state and thus would they redeem their own repeated and solemn assurances, that in looking, first for emancipation, and secondly for a repeal of the act of Union, they seek no ascendancy of power at home, and have no ulterior views subversive of the unity and integrity of the British empire. This guard being placed upon a new and reformed par- liament in Ireland, the most timid and scrupulous Protestant need not apprehend an undue ascendancy of Catholicism in the constitution of that house ; but if the Catholic gentlemen who advocate the doctrine of Reform and Repeal, should (in a country where the entire peasantry are of their own persua- sion) make universal suffrage, or the forty shilling franchise, a sine qua non of the .national benefits which they seek, I could not then undertake to remove the scruples which timid Protestants entertain relative to the sincerity of their public disclaimers of ascendancy, and of inviolable attachment to the integrity of the empire.) A third objection has been raised against the restoration to Ireland of her local parliament, on the ground of that venality and corruption, of which her ancient legislature was so publicly and generally accused ; and on the wicked and immoral policy of forcing the British government into the resumption of that system of bribery and intrigue, by which alone they could render the acts of an Irish parliament tri- butary to their views. To all this I have merely to reply, that the Babel of con- fusion erected upon an inadequate system of representative government (productive, as all inadequate systems must necessarily be, of crime and disorder) would fall prostrate AUTHOR'S LETTER TO THE KING. 75 before the just and comprehensive system of government for which I plead, even as the idol Dagon fell prostrate upon his face before the ark of God. Let the wise foundations of universal justice, according to the diversified circumstances of the various provinces of the empire, be once laid upon the broad and immutable base of the British constitution of three estates, by reformed local parliaments, under one crown and one congress; and the necessity of ministerial tampering with any of these local parliaments would cease. The just and liberal laws by which the British empire should be connected and governed, being defined and settled by a congress of deputies from all the countries interested in the British compact; and the local parliaments of the empire being empowered to legislate for their respective districts within the broad imperial circle drawn by that congress around their power, what necessity could exist for ministerial tampering with the local legis- latures, when these legislatures would have no jurisdiction in any question affecting the fundamental laws and general interests of the empire, and that an act of the imperial con- gress only could give the authority of law to any measure of the minister? And even if a British minister should think it necessary to tamper with the leading men of the local legislatures, for the purpose of carrying some favourite measure through the imperial congress, he would not find it so easy to bend them to his purpose under a reformed system, as when he made his descent upon the Irish House of Commons, with the corruptions of the constitution in full blow, with the treasury of England upon his back, and when Ireland had scarcely recovered from the wounds of a civil war. If the object indeed were to establish a parlia- ment in Ireland totally independent of a British imperial congress, some ground for this objection might be found, and even some apprehension entertained of a final separation of the two countries; but drawn together, as all the members of the empire would be, to the crown and imperial congress as their common centre, the necessity of tampering with 76 IRELAND, the Irish parliament would cease ; Ireland would rapidly advance in internal improvement, and that which the Union, falsely so called, has failed in achieving, this would effec- tually complete a second moral and political incorporation of the two countries. As the government of the British empire is now consti- tuted, dependent upon one body of men for the transaction of its entire concerns (concerns that are seldom transacted well, either for the whole or for any part of its extensive territory,)* it is quite possible that the views of two inde- * On this subject we beg to quote the following remarks of Sir John Sinclair, (the Scotch statician) in a letter addressed by him to Sir Robert Peel ; as also an extract from the Pilot newspaper of Dublin, (of the truth or falsehood of whose contents, those persons only can be judges who are in the habit of attending the debates in parliament, which we are not.) Sir John observes " Great Britain and Ireland united, is as large an empire as any government can manage with advantage to its subjects ; and if they are closely united, there is no country, or even confederacy of states, that could venture to attack us with the least prospect of effecting any material mischief. " It may be contended that it is desirable to have some outlets both for our surplus population and for commercial purposes : but even were that admit- ted, surely our great objects ought to be security and improvement at home, and not a reliance on distant possessions for our prosperity. The absurdity of a contrary system was proved when our North American colonies became independent. It was then predicted that the ' Sun of England was for ever set; ' whereas we were never so powerful as since the separation. What a for- tunate event, therefore, was the emancipation of America. How could we have governed the thirteen United States, when we cannot advantageously manage those American provinces which remain in our possession ? " It is now universally admitted, that from the increasing transactions in parliament, matters cannot any longer continue on their present strange footing. The House of Commons is quite oppressed with business of all descriptions ; not only public and private, foreign and domestic, but with the concerns of the vast empire in the East (containing, it is said, more than one hundred millions of inhabitants), and above thirty Colonies, scattered over Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. Such an empire cannot go on pros- perously. It is impossible, in the nature of things, that any branch of public business can be properly conducted, while the time of the House is occupied with such an endless variety of matters, and when a single day can hardly be procured to bring forward questions of the greatest domestic importance. In the House every thing is done amidst confusion and bustle ; bills are hurried through their most important stages, in hopes of getting improvements AUTHOR'S LETTER TO THE KING. 77 pendent legislatures might differ on some points of essential importance to the unity and prosperity of the state. In such cases the public would have to look to the good feeling of those independent bodies, and to their mutual concessions to the reasonable claims of each other, for the preservation of the unity and integrity of the empire ; but although the most sanguine views that could be entertained of this expe- riment might be realized, I should, for my own part, much rather see (as I am not fond of running any chances in a game of this nature) the temple of British unity and power, effected in some of the subsequent steps of the procedure ; but reliance is much oftener placed on amendments to be introduced in the course of some future session of parliament. P. 7. " I do not think that the British House of Commons would be prevailed upon to give up any part of its privileges to any body of men that was not in some measure a part of itself, and elected by the people. My plan, therefore, is, that there shall be a Second Chamber of the House of Commons, chosen in the same manner as the First Chamber, consisting of a number not exceeding two hundred members, and that to a Chamber thus constituted, ' the decision of all private bills and of all contested elections shall be delegated.' " Extract of a Letter from a London Correspondent of the Pilot Newspaper, copied from the Dublin Morning Register of February 9, 1 832. " ' Have you been ever in the House of Commons ?' ' Have you ever been present at a debate ?' ' Do you know how the affairs of millions are con- ducted there?' if not, learn, and you will, like me, be surprised that the people have not long long since reformed the house ; you would expect a number of sensible men, who had the experience of years, proceeding to manage the affairs of the nation with the same attention as persons manage their own private concerns ; it is no such thing ; you see there many boys, who, instead of being members of parliament, should not be let loose from the nursery ; and you see some old men hobbling in, who should, at their time of life, be sent back to the charge of nurses ; you see my Lord Althorp and Lord J. Russell, two of the worst speakers I ever heard, endeavouring to carry the machinery of the bill through the house, and preserve their seats as his Majesty's servants. You find Peel, Sugden, and Co. striving to push them from their seats, not by argument, but by the trickery and chicanery of debate. In fact, you find the entire machinery to be an endeavour to keep in place, and to get into place. As for the discharge of public business or public duty, you will see none of it there ! The debate was on the mode of ascer- taining the value of the tenement out of which the ten pound franchise was to be had. This occupied the house from six to past one. During the debate I was anxious to discover whether the members knew what was going on, 78 IRELAND, erected on the sure foundations of reformed local parliaments under one crown and one congress, than upon the accidental good feeling of independent legislatures (this good feeling being an admirahle cement wherewith to unite the various and there happened to be a grave old Tory, with his back to the body of the house, and looking at those under the gallery for a considerable time. Sug- den was then half an hour on his legs. I plucked up a little Irish effrontery and said to the member, Can you inform me on what side of the question is that gentleman arguing ? Sure I can't tell, was the answer. He seems to be very much in earnest, said I, and I should really be obliged to you if you could let me know who he is? Whereupon the member turned round and exclaimed, oh ! that's Mr. Sugden. I see now, Sir, he is arguing against the ministry. You are not convinced, Sir, by his arguments on the subject? Oh ! God bless your soul, I never listen to these arguments. I go with my party. I vote in the opposition at present. Judge how business is carried on, from this anecdote. About ten o'clock you find the members become dozy, after going in and out frequently. I saw the member for Louth, Sheil, very near the entrance to the house, on his return, after being out for a considerable time. I subsequently had a conversation with him. He was lively, and, as usual, pleasingly communicative, and in good spirits. He is very constant in his attendance in the house. You find all the members, on their re-entrance to the house, complain of the great oppression from want of ventilation. I should think the oppression proceeds from other causes. My friend and self were determined to see the rising. Well, what think yon, half the members were gone home to bed, and four-fifths of the remainder were fast asleep on the benches. I found my friend grow fidgety ; he muttered occasionally I caught the words they were ' This won't this can't last ; the funds, they will be all blown up ! ' This was good pre- paration of mind fora fundholder, just as the house was resolving itself into a committee of supply ; when lo ! we heard the Chairman speak of granting to his Majesty twenty-five millions * for some purpose or other, and one hundred and eighty-six thousand, respecting the building of churches ; both passed without a word. Joseph Hume was fast asleep ; my friend groaned ; and if you can imagine the countenance of Sheil, when asked by Lawless at the election of Meath for the 500, as described by your friend Ford in his evidence, you can have a faint idea of the countenance and manner of my friend. His first expressions were 'The bubble's burst; the funds, who would keep money in them ; look at the guardians of public property !' Thus ended my visit to the House of Commons, and I left, saying, if the business of England is so little attended to, and so badly managed, surely the Irish cannot expect such a house will ever pay the slightest regard to the affairs of their impoverished country." * This must be a gross error of the press ; but we hope not a wilful lie it tends, however, to throw the gloom of falsehood upon the whole picture. AUTHOR'S LETTER TO THE KING. 79 sections of the temple of British liberty, but still no sub- stitute for the law and the constitution.) Hence I plead, and conscientiously plead, for the establishment of a system which shall confine the agitation of all great questions of state to an imperial congress, and which shall appoint local parliaments, to manage the local concerns of their own districts ; and as the people would be the source of the local legislatures, and these latter of the imperial congress, the laws by which the whole empire would be governed, would emanate from the people, and no branch of the empire would have just reason to complain, if its representatives did their duty ; and if otherwise, under the operation of triennial parliaments, they could be soon dismissed. Thus would I unite Ireland to England. Thus would I restore her absentee lords, and the several millions of British currency which they have annually drained from their exhausted country, since that called " the act of Union " made England the theatre of their parliamentary career, and, as a necessary consequence, the scene of their residence and pleasures. It remains now that I should point out the nature of that reform in the Commons house of parliament, and in the system of election, by which I conceive Ireland would be protected from venality, and from all dangerous excesses ; and this I shall endeavour to do in a few words. First, Triennial Parliaments, as they were enjoyed by England in the reign of William III. Secondly, Vote by Ballot. Thirdly, The representation of all populous towns, with a vote to all inhabitants paying a certain rent. Fourthly, A reduction in the property qualification of a Representative. Fifthly, The 10 freehold franchise as it now stands. Sixthly, The extension of that franchise to chattel property of 100 and upwards; and, Lastly, To all the liberal and literary professions, without any property qualification whatever, they being obviously the best qua- lified of any classes in society to exercise their franchise for the public good ; contributing also more largely to the 80 IRELAND, expenses of the State, by the excisable commodities which they consume, than any similar number of electors of small freeholds, and by their knowledge and talents, to the edu- cation of the rising generation, and to the irradiation of the public mind, and consequently to the strength and power of a free State, than all the other classes of society put together ; and yet, strange to say, the privilege which for so many years was conceded to the naked peasantry of Ire- land (in order to serve the electioneering purposes of their masters), has been withheld from the literary professions, by what in common parlance is called a liberal Govern- ment ! ! ! With a parliament thus constituted, and under a congress of the ablest men in the British Empire, no capital or car- dinal abuse could long remain uncorrected, particularly in an age of general information, with the schoolmaster abroad, and the press at home, to keep that parliament to its duties. In the above outline of Reform I have made no allusion to the abuses of the law department (those shameful abuses, by which families are ruined, and justice turned into deri- sion at her own temple gates,) nor to the corruptions in any other department of our social system, it being the proper office of the legislature to correct these abuses ; and knowing that a reformed parliament could not sit for twelve months in either country, without laying their hand vigorously to the plough of reformation, and rooting out those rank weeds from the political soil of Britain (land of the brave, land of the fair, what a pity that it should be the land of corruption) that have choked the good seed, and blasted those flattering prospects of a rich harvest, that were held out to her children by the Bill of Rights, and by the Pro- testant Reformation and Revolution ! The fourth and last objection (and in reference to the country at large, the least capable of proof that has been yet advanced) to the restoration of our local legislature, is that of the great advantages we have derived from British com- mercial connection, by the Act of Union. AUTHOR'S LETTER TO THE KING. 81 It cannot be expected that in a limited article like this, I should enter into an exact debtor and creditor account between England and Ireland for the last thirty years ; but if the insolvent and bankrupt calendars within that period be carefully compared with the preceding thirty years, when Ireland basked under the shade of a domestic legisla- ture (imperfect as that legislature was) if the state of our linen and woollen manufactures, both in a highly flourishing condition at the commencement of that hapless Act, and for some time after if the state of the manufacturing popu- lation of Dublin, of the houses of lunacy and mendicity, of the spectacles of misery in the public streets, the inmates ot the public hospitals, and other sure tests of the influence of a political system upon the state of a country, including the unemployed and starving state of the peasantry in the rural districts (many of whom, with their wives and children, have been turned adrift upon the world by the subletting Act) If all these put together, may be regarded as any evi- dence of the advantages which Ireland has derived from that famous Act, why then we cannot be much at a loss for a true conclusion ; and if any man of common sense, and of com- mon honesty, who knows Ireland now, and who knew her as well as I did before that Act took place, will place his hand upon his breast, and say, that these evils, with a domestic legislature, would have risen to their present height, I should of course believe that he spoke as he thought, but would infer that his intercourse with the country had been very partial. Truth, however, compels me to say (and in all my public labours it has been the wish of my heart to yield obedience to her injunctions,) that many of my poorer country folk, though not all, might, by temperance and a strict economy, have mitigated the hardships of their low condition. With warm feelings, and a generosity of heart that is seldom equalled, they are, too frequently, bad economists, and thoughtless of the future. They act up indeed to the letter of that scripture precept, " take no thought for the morrow." G 82 IRELAND, Their attachment to ardent spirits is another source of their misfortunes, and I confess I cannot but wish (although I would not myself contribute by unfair means to a reduction of your Majesty's revenue,) that the Exchequer derived a something less from their consumption of this ardent fluid, however necessary and useful it may prove at certain times, in this cold and humid climate. The practicability of such a change in the habits of the Irish peasantry, was evinced not long since on a great political occasion ; and as the possibi- lity of its accomplishment is hence evident, I sincerely wish that the influence by which alone that change could be effected, may be once more set iu motion, and steadily exerted, until temperance shall become a characteristic virtue of the nation. It is fair also to acknowledge, that the whole amount of the decline of our staple trade (the linen manufacture) is not imputable to the act of Union this fabric, so infinitely superior in strength and duration to goods manufactured of cotton wool, was nevertheless put down by an all prevalent argument in times of public distress the cheapness of the latter ; and to the consumer who could procure no better, it was all one, whether they were manufactured here or in the sister country. Whether an Irish parliament would have been able by legislative protection to have maintained the competition of the linen manufacture with the cotton and capital of England, appears extremely doubtful; but cer- tainly, if any trade produced by the ingenuity of man had a claim (not only on the ground of its commercial, but of its amazing moral influence upon the population of Ulster) to artificial support, it was this ; for by it, from the sowing of the flax to the bleaching of the linen, the entire population were employed from it they drew, not only the sources of plenty but of wealth ; and by it a most pleasant and profit- able intercourse was maintained between all the ranks and classes of society, from the landlord to the weaver on his loom ; and the labours of the latter being blended with the labours of the field ; the healthiest, the most cleanly, the most AUTHOR'S LETTER TO THE KING. 83 industrious, the most prosperous, and the most independent peasantry that ever the world produced, was to be found in that Province. The scene, however, in most parts of that once flourishing 1 district, has experienced an awful revolu- tion England has got possession, not only of our woollen trade, but of a large proportion of our linen also ; although the latter (upon giving up the former) had been conceded to Ireland, and placed under strong protection, by a solemn compact. Indeed England has been too cunning and too strong for Ireland at all times in every bargain she labours hard to keep the best handle to herself; and in proportion as she makes her neighbour weak, she makes herself strong by progressive infringements. This to be sure is the usual course of trade, but it is a policy perhaps better suited to a distant colony than to a country bordering on our own, and irresistibly pressing upon our resources, by the wants of an overwhelming population. Under such circumstances I am convinced, as I am of the truth of my existence, that so powerful a remedial measure could not be devised by Eng- land for her own relief, as that of compelling Ireland to legis- late on all her own local concerns, by which means the latter country would be enabled to draw forth her resources, give full employment to her people, and contribute much more largely to the expenses of the state, than it is possible for her to do, borne down as she now is by an unemployed and rapidly increasing population, with the life exhausting drain of absenteeism upon all her resources ; and lastly, England would rid herself of a vast deal of trouble, which the manage- ment of Irish affairs now gives her. With regard to the absentee system, that conspicuous and ruinous result of the act of Union ; it is somewhat curious that the London journalists who are perpetually abusing us for calling for a repeal of that act, should comically remind us of all those great corn and other provision exports which we send to England, in order to put the amount into the pockets of the absentee landlords, as if we derived any benefit whatever from these exports. The corn merchant, holding 84 IRELAND, over for a good market, may profit ; but the cultivator of the soil, who must sell when his rent is due, and who cannot taste a morsel of the bread, the butter, or the pork, which he raises by his industry, how does he profit ? Eh ! Cockney, wilt thou answer that ? If thou art a Cockney Editor, thou may indeed come in for a part of the plunder of our country ; of that income of our land which the absentee distributes among thee and thy neighbours ; but although it may be natural enough for thee to bark and snarl, when we seek to get back that bread of our country which thou devotfrest, still it is too bad for thee to add insult to injury, by remind- ing us of our exports ! might they not as well be buried in the sea, and the throats of our beef cows cut upon the pas- sage, as to be sent to absentee Landlords, who fill thy hungry craw, and give us nothing in return for the produce of our labours, but the bitters of thy goose quill ? If the seven millions annually (amounting to two hundred and ten millions in thirty years) thus and otherwise aliena- ted from Ireland, without yielding to her any equivalent advantage in return if these, with the abuses of the law and of the church property (which a reformed parliament would have corrected) if expensive military and police establishments (necessary at all times on a moderate scale of expense to the purposes of good government, but con- ducted on a most extravagant scale of expense under the existing system) in aid of those gagging bills to which the Protestants of Ireland have been compelled to submit, as the price of Roman Catholic emancipation. If these are the gifts which England, by her legislative union and other acts of her government, have conferred upon our country, we cannot much boast of the political or commercial advan- tages that we have derived from her connexion, notwith- standing a certain proportion of our merchants (and let these be compared with the number of the broken and the bank- rupt) may have derived some peculiar advantages from their intercourse with a country, whose men of business are dis- tinguished in every quarter of the globe, by those generous AUTHOR'S LETTER TO THE KING. 85 virtues and manly enterprising qualities, which belong to the first commercial nation in the world. But these in- stances of good fortune are too partial to be erected into an argument in favour of the Legislative Union. Had that Union never taken place, the benefits of our intercourse with England would have been much more general and extensive, as the two hundred and ten millions extracted from Ireland by that baneful measure, would have formed a capital that would have enabled us to have dealt much more largely with the sister country ; and from my own know- ledge I can assert, that Ireland, previous to the Union, flourished in almost every department of her inland trade, that every guinea embarked in business produced nearly as much profit as three do now, (the whole of this reduction however not being exclusively imputable to the Union, but to it in connexion with other causes) that Mendicity, which was then a partial evil, is now a general curse; and although it is said that a Mr. O'Callaghan (having perhaps largely profited by the sale of pork to England) asserted, in the House of Commons, that no respectable man in Ireland would advocate a Repeal of the Legislative Union, yet there is the strongest presumptive proof that the fat of this gentle- man's bacon had so deeply injured his vision, that he could not distinguish between the respectable and disrespectable classes of his countrymen ; for there are hundreds of thou- sands of respectable Irishmen (if that term may be conceded to any who do not deal in pork) that are now ardently long- ing for the restoration of that Parliament, by which alone our absentee Lords, and the income of our soil, can be restored to the people who produce the latter by their labour. Sire a parliament is to a country, what the sun is to the solar system the source of light and heat, and the centre of attraction to the surrounding planets. We beseech you, therefore, Sire, as an injured nation to whom your Majesty is dear, cause that sun of our prosperity to be restored to us, of which we have been deprived, by the Act of Union ; that 86 IRELAND, centre of attraction to our absent planets, of which Ireland has been deprived, by a course of treachery upon the one hand, and of political suicide upon the other, to which no law bottomed in justice, and no constitution founded in liberty could be a legal partner. Take the sun from the system of the universe, and only conceive, Sire, what the inhabitants of this planet (if in its absence they could indeed live) would say to Mr. O'Calla- ghan, the pork philosopher, if he came to reason with them upon the advantages of its establishment in another and more distant system. Undoubtedly if it were possible for the inhabitants of the earth to live in the absence of the sun, they would answer the philosopher of pork, by casting his bacon overboard, to reason with the darkness of the deep abyss to which they had so deservedly consigned it. As well might the enemies of Ireland think of sending Davy the tailor on his lap-board to the moon, to snuff out that planet with his shears, and to extinguish the seven stars with his thimble, as to put an extinguisher upon a question which has its origin in the necessities of a nation. As well might they think of driving old Ocean to his source, as of driving back eight millions of people into their primi- tive nothingness ; but between this alternative, and the esta- blishment of a local legislature for the redress of grievances in Ireland, I can see no medium ; for the restoration of her parliament is not a question of sedition (as the London press falsely asserts), but a vital question of EXISTENCE. I have now noticed, and met, a few of the principal objections that have been urged against a Repeal of the Act of Union. I have also selected a few of the principal arguments that may be fairly put forward in support of the re-establishment of a house of legislature in this country ; and having discharged these duties, I humbly hope, fully and fairly, I have next to examine whether the restoration of the Irish Parliament in a new and reformed character, and under the control and direction of an imperial congress, would promote the commercial interests of the two countries, AUTHOR'S LETTER TO THE KING. 87 all the valuable objects of an essential union, and largely contribute to the unity and power of the British empire. It would be an insult to common sense to go about to prove, by laboured arithmetical details, the superior advan- tages that England would derive from her commerce with Ireland, if the latter country were in the full possession of her own income, and of a legislature capable of bringing into effectual operation, the numerous virgin resources of one of the most fertile countries on the globe, and the most eminently distinguished by mineral wealth, and other great facilities for an extensive commerce. Nature, in her ad- mirable economy, has given to every country in the world certain characteristic advantages; and to encourage the full development of these advantages, is the province of a wise policy ; but this policy can never be carried into effectual operation (more particularly in countries that have tasted the sweets of liberty) without the aid of local legislatures. It is through them that a wise government will work into view the full resources of its territory, and by cultivating a spirit of liberty and a love of law, in connection with the useful arts, render these resources tributary to the wealth and power of the state ; and if a political cord was ever conceived by the human imagination, more capable than another of drawing the numerous interests of an extensive empire towards one common centre, and of uniting them in the bands of a common interest and a common charity, it is that of local legislatures, under one crown and one congress. But to accomplish the good which these are capable of pro- ducing, they must be established upon reformed principles, and justice, by being administered at the public expense, must be rendered accessible to the injured citizen, without money or without price, leaving property to support all the necessary expenses of the state by an equitable system of taxation. Having now laid down the self-evident foundations upon which the unity and prosperity of the two countries could be best promoted, I shall leave to some able financier the 88 IRELAND, task of exhibiting 1 , by arithmetical tables, the profits that England would derive from the increased sale of her manu- factures in Ireland, which, with a legislature of her own, would soon become one of the richest countries in the world. Nor is this an idle theory : for if with a corrupt parliament, such as she formerly possessed, she enjoyed peace and plenty even to a proverb, how much greater would be her advan- tages under a reformed system, in which none would have to complain of oppression, and none of peculiar privileges. To England she would be a granary of life, and England would be to her a storehouse of manufactures ; for Ireland, with her utmost industry, would not be able to arrive at English manufacturing perfection in less than two centuries; and being so much behind the sister country in the measure of her capital, it is highly probable that England, with this great advantage, and with the high perfection of her science, would always lead Ireland in the march of trade ; and it is certain she would profit much more largely by her con- nection with a rich and prosperous country, than by her deal- ings with a withered, beggared, and bankrupt population. The numerous complaints of an inconvenient and offensive influx of Irish labourers to England, would then decline, as the cultivation of four millions of acres of waste lands in Ireland, with various other useful public works, would, in addition to the ordinary labours of the field, furnish the whole peasantry of Ireland with full employment ; and if there were no other argument to advance, in the support of a local legislature, than that of its calling home the property of the country, and finding full employment for the labour- ing poor, even this would be conclusive. It will be allowed, by all impartial judges, that, next to England, Ireland would be the most important country, in a Congress of the Members of the British Union ; and as all those members should be subject to the laws of congress, so Ireland could not complain of those just and necessary restrictions to her legislative power, to which England her- self had subscribed, in a congress of the states or provinces. And here it occurs to me to make a passing observation AUTHOR'S LETTER TO THE KINO. 89 upon the magnificence of such an assembly as this, composed of the cleverest men in the British Empire, collected in London from the four quarters of the globe, for the noblest of all human purposes, that of preserving the unity of the empire, and promoting the freedom and happiness of many millions of human beings ! And in such a connection, I beg to ask, would the English interest wither by the par- liamentary existence of her Irish ally ? Shame be to the thought. Did Rome wither by granting liberty to her conquered provinces ? Did Greece contend with the most powerful states, by extinguishing her schools at Athens? Or was it by liberty that these states rose into power ? And will nothing serve England but gagging bills, and the abominable caricature of fat and lean ! ! ! Is not the body politic, like the animal economy, kept in vigour by a general circulation of the blood, and by the healthful state of the functions of every part ; and does not the prosperity of a state consist in giving life, vigour, and activity, to the faci- lities and resources of every province ; but how can this be done, as well by assemblies of men who only know these countries by report, as by men resident on the spot, and well acquainted with all the local concerns of their own districts ? The consequence of legislating for countries of which we know so little, is, that we naturally fall into capital mistakes, and are obliged to have recourse to extra constitutional measures, to check the unhappy effects of our own errors ; and if we thus force numerous disorders upon the body politic, will acts of mal-administration heal them ? or will the heart always remain sound, and the belly prominent, when the members are so deeply disordered? May we therefore take warning in time, lest that scripture proverb should at length be fulfilled upon us : " He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." And now, Sire, I shall conclude this Letter with observing, that, as in an enlightened age and country, power can only be permanently maintained upon the foundations of a just and liberal policy, it is the interest of your Royal House to 90 IRELAND, place its arm with vigour upon those corruptions and defects, by which the prosperity, the glory, and the permanency of your Majesty's dominions are endangered. I humbly con- ceive, that in submitting to your Majesty's consideration a plan of government, by which all diseases may be met, and all defects remedied, without departing from the letter or spirit of the British constitution, I have discharged the duty of a good citizen and subject. If obstacles exist to the execution of that plan, those obstacles have not their source in the imperfection of the system, but in the selfishness, indolence, or ignorance of those men, by whom, alas ! the best of princes are too generally surrounded men born and nursed in the lap of ease, and in the cradle of indolent security, and labouring to establish the thrones of their masters upon the base of their own particular interests, are but ill calculated to stop the clamours of a nation, or to carry into operation such an admirable system of government as that which has been imperfectly described in this Letter. In such a state of things, the throne and the law are not established in the judgment and affections of the people, and must be maintained by an overwhelming military force ; while in the United States of America, where the converse of this proposition is exemplified, the most perfect peace, and most prosperous state of society exists, with a slender military force, and a trifling system of taxation; and yet this simple and cheap government, if menaced with invasion from abroad, would find an army of citizens that would perish on the shores of their country, rather than bend their necks to the yoke of those foreign despotisms, by which a large proportion of the people of Europe have been so long deprived of just and equitable institutions. I have the honour to be, Sire, With undissembled attachment to Your Majesty's person and interests, Your Majesty's most devoted, most faithful, And most candid Servant and Subject, A. ATKINSON THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES. 91 A REVIEW OF THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES ; Including a Critique upon Cobbett's Reformation, and an impartial Review of the Character and Capabilities of O'ConnelL In Ireland, the press and the parties are the counter-parts of one system of music ; very jangling music to he sure, in the ears of those who have a taste for moral harmony ; hut still deeply divine in the sensorium of our country ; and doubly deep in that of every administration intending to govern Ireland by the maxim " Divide et impera," as in days of yore ! However, it is not the British Government that are to blame for this system, so much as the Irish themselves. The high church Tories, having had their chops so long and so sweetly buttered with the oil of rape and the juice of parsnips, (and if these gentlemen do not know how to butter their parsnips with good places, and to reap their tithe from the green fields of Erin with an oppressive hook, there is no truth in history,) plants which flourish in Irish tithe- lands, and close boroughs, beyond any other tract of soil in that divided country ; and for the richness of their flavour, and the quantity of their produce, without any parallel even in the horticultural history of the heavenly bodies ! These gentlemen, we say, with their sons and cousins, having grown fat upon the oil and the parsnips of their church and their boroughs, in proportion as the land grew poor by the attraction of too large a measure of its nutritive powers to the growth and perfection of their plants, did not wish to withdraw their tongues from their long-established and deli- cious function of lapping up the oil upon their palates, and within and without their cheeks; and consequently they became extremely wroth, and sung out most discordant notes, when they found the doors of the legislature thrown open to the very men whose farms had been exhausted and reduced to nothing by the absorbing power of their plants. Instead, however, of giving up, as all wise men would, to the claims of justice, and the public good (to say nothing of the sound policy of preserving their own valuable family 92 IRELAND, estates, and all their just and reasonable privileges,, whole and entire) plants that had proved so pernicious both to their church and to their country, they renewed the cry of WAR when the roots of their monopoly were touched ; they sounded the tocsin aloud, concentrated their forces in Dublin and the north, and harangued the Protestant populace in basses, quavers, tenors, and counter-tenors of all tones and mea- sures : and although O'Conuell pleaded for their life interest in the rape and the parsnip, and offered to them the right hand of fellowship, and pronounced the orange to be a very good colour, and the Boyne water a rich mellow tune, and even ordered his men to fire a feu-de-joie round the statue of King William III. ; yet all would not do ; " the fellow," said they, " was educated for a priest, and is a Jesuit in his heart ; his object is to overthrow England and the Protestant religion, and to make a tool of the Irish Protestants in that holy warfare ; and all this though he knows in his heart that Popery is a d d imposition ; and, if the truth were known, would much rather be tried for his life by honest and intel- ligent Protestants, than by a jury of his own profession in the city of Madrid." To this effect do the high church Tories think and speak of O'Connell, and thus do they fight for the preservation of the rape and the parsnip, whole and entire, instead of uniting with their countrymen, heart and hand, in demanding a regeneration of that political system, under which ignorance, poverty, discord, deadly prejudices, the ruin of Irish manufactures, the absentee system, draining the country of its life-blood, the oppression of the Irish labourer, the horrible spread of mendicity, the murders, burnings, and savage factions of the west and south, and the party battles of the north, have been, one and all, gene- rated, reared, and brought into action ; and notwithstanding that if this system should continue to the end, even Catholic estates in the South of Ireland would be of little value; Protestant estates of still less ; Ireland, instead of being the right arm of England, would be her curse and thorn ; and should an ambitious power, or a union of such powers as THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES. 93 those of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, alight upon our shores, in any conflict of the Nations But here we shall draw a veil over the violation of our peaceful homes by a ferocious foe, or the conversion of our fields of fertility into fields of slaughter. The evils which afflict our country are sufficient, without drawing upon the horrors of a foreign invasion, or the ravages of a barbarous enemy, alike indifferent to our quarrels and our claims. The existence of two opposing parties in this country has been its curse. It has arrested the progress of improvement. It has enabled England to oppress us, and Scotland to pass us by in the march of trade. It has sold the political independence of the country, by which alone her commercial interests could be promoted and secured. It has made us a mere tool in the hands of religious and political Quacks, who profit by our ignorance and credulity. In a word, it has left us a poor, beggared, bankrupt, barbarous Nation of wicked, superstitious, and oppressed slaves; and to this portrait, the educated, the intelligent, and the virtuous, are the sole exceptions, and in comparison of the nation, these, we fear, are but a small number. It is not a temperate rational warfare, (like that which Scotland, a united and enlightened nation, recently exercised in her pursuit of constitutional reform) that marks our course. It is a war embittered by religious hatreds, by clerical jealousies, by monopolies to be lost or won, by oppressions felt and painfully remembered, by Antichristian impositions of the high church, upon the one hand ; and by foreign connection, and disgraceful corruptions of Christia- nity, obstinately adhered to by the low church, upon the other. These are the deep sources of Irish discord ; most or all of which might be removed by a free conference of the parties, if that conference were entered into in a spirit of Christian charity, and with a firm determination to prefer the interests of truth, of their country, and of justice, to those of falsehood and imposture ; of monopoly, anarchy, and blood. But to the shame of the Protestant high Tories be it said, that in the work of conciliation, in the Christian virtue of 94 IRELAND, forbearance ; and above all, in a patriotic pursuit of justice for their country ; even O'Connel, the prince of agitators, has left them far behind, Are we O'Connell's slaves ? Do we bow before a foreign altar ? Do we owe him any debt of gratitude ? Yes, we owe him the debt of gratitude due to such personal incivilities as we never received from men of the first rank and distinction in the state. Do we know the source of these incivilities ? No matter we scorn them and their source together; we trample them under foot ; and when we write upon our country, we shall do it independently and without prejudice, as we have always done. And without imputing to O'Connell that purity of motive which .angels feel, or that perfection of judgment which is their attribute ; without asserting that he is free from high ambition or from low resentments, or from selfish interests and prejudices, the worst of all ; we maintain that (with all his faults) he has proved so far faithful to his coun- try's claims; and that he is just such a man as Ireland requires at the present crisis; cool, constitutional, well informed, rich in experience, and in the resources which she supplies ; steady, persevering, and patriotic ; and from his superior knowledge of the law, fit to guide the bark of his country over that stormy sea of civil oppression and political discontent, on which she has been long embarked ; although we are not ignorant that in the discharge of his duty as the pilot of the vessel, he has sometimes exercised a despotism towards virtuous and unbending spirits (witness his conduct towards the amiable and unfortunate Clayton, of Galway,) that clearly evinced he had not arrived at that point of men- tal illumination, or rather perhaps of religious and political independence, in which he could afford to let justice triumph at the expense of priestcraft, his working tool. Or if his treatment of Clayton, who had become a Protestant, and his vindication of the conduct of the Galway priests in that family transaction (and we have known some Methodist preachers of the high church party in Ireland guilty of a similar offence, thus proving a principle which we have often THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES. })5 advanced, that Priestcraft is the same in all churches.) If these proceedings of his, we say, in reference to Clayton, were really the offspring of a religious or educational bias, we must only conclude, if the doctrine of Purgatory be true, that its fires have not yet purged the bigoted soul of the patriot from its last stains of prejudice ; and the worst of all prejudices in a catalogue of the corruptions of the heart, that which takes its rise from a zeal for God and his church ; as if the former could be glorified, and the latter honoured by acts of injustice to our brethren, and by taking for the guide of our conduct, the most imbittered and criminal of all those unholy passions which have taken up their abode in the human heart.* * In reference to this affair of Clayton, (who, when he hecame a Protestant, was ejected from the embraces of his family by Popish bigotry, cultivated by Galway priests,) and some other acts of Mr. O'Connell, that, as private acts, would not bear to be tried by the aquafortis of that golden rule, " Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them,'* &c. ; as also in reference to the use which he is supposed (by some) to make of such political institutions as derive their existence from his personal influence acting upon popular feeling ; and which, in opposition to him, could obtain no lasting position on the soil of Ireland. In reference to the use which he makes of these, and to the ascendancy which he maintains in them, it may perhaps be said, in vindication of his occasionally partial and despotic conduct, that in the peculiar circumstances of Ireland, he could not conduct his country out of her present distresses into her former pros- perity, without placing the political institutions of that country, as far as possible, under his own personal control, and enlisting the priesthood of the people effectually in his cause; and to this end he might deem it justifiable to put down every individual, however upright, or however well founded his particular complaint, who should presume to lay a finger (as Clayton did) upon any part of that machinery, by the working of which, he proposes to restore his country to that state of prosperity in which she stood prior to the Act of Union, agreeable to that well-known maxim of certain politicians and divines, " The greater good justifies the lesser evil." This is perhaps the best apology that can be offered for O'Connell's treat- ment of Clayton, and some other acts of a similar description ; and if, in a moral point of view, they cannot be justified, the mere politician will regard it as an extenuation of their guilt, if not a vindication of their necessity, that the end justified the means ; and we need hardly state, that although a man actuated by motives of Christian virtue, may embark on the sea of European politics for the public good, yet over that sea he will never 96 IRELAND, In pressing towards the mark of TRUTH, we do not believe that any Protestant of our stamp will receive justice conduct his bark to the place of its destination, with this principle for his pilot; although his own soul may be conducted to a happier port; for Europe is not like Pennsylvania, when William Penn colonised it with a company of such honest and virtuous men as our quarter of the world is not likely soon to produce again for a similar purpose. It is much more like a nest of cunning sharpers, each labouring, by plot and intrigue, to outwit the other, and to carry into operation their respective views, without yielding to anv foolish scruples (for such they regard them) as to the crimes that must be committed in the working of their favourite scheme to that placid and pros- perous conclusion which they always contemplate ! This being the state of Europe, we need not look for more virtue in O'Connell than in other men, notwithstanding that he was educated for a priest and indeed if we take a retrospective view of those characters who are recorded on the page of history, even as instruments of the most dis- tinguished revolutions in the cause of human liberty, we shall not find many of them adhering, like William Penn, to the strictest rules of Christian morality in their laws and public proceedings ; nor returning, like Wash- ington and the Roman Cincinnatns, to the cultivation of their family farms, after splendid victories ; nor with Tiberius Gracchus, denouncing that man as a vicious citizen who could not live upon seven acres of land ! Oh no, we do not look for such examples of stern morality in these days of Europe ; for although she has still her patriots, thank Heaven, and many too ; yet these excellent men do generally wish to be well rewarded for their services (which no doubt they deserve to be) ; and hence when we thank God that the Duke of Wellington conquered Buonaparte, and that Dan. O'Connell rose up to procure justice for Ireland, we do not tarnish their laurels with the liberal rewards with which their country has crowned them ; nor dwell with fastidious particularity upon the affairs of Marshal Ney, or the fibs of O'Con- nell, in a burst of gratitude for the services which they have rendered to their country, in their struggles with the despotism which would have crushed it. All candid Protestants will allow that Luther was a man of strong passions, and without him the mild and virtuous Melancthon would never have been able to procure religious liberty for Europe ; bnt while the intelligent Pro- testant is thankful for the victory achieved by Luther over the intolerance of Rome, he has too just a sense of the respect which he owes to his own character, to enter into a vindication of all the words and actions by which Luther achieved that glorious victory over bigotry and blood. Without a Howard, the prisons would not have been reformed. Without a Washington, a Franklin, and a Bolivar, America would still retain the blessing of taxation without representation. Without a Luther, there would have been no reformation. Without a Knox, Episcopacy would have still blessed Scotland. Without a Wesley and a Whitfield, there would have been THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES. 97 from either of the great leading parties in Ireland ; because these parties are actuated by other motives than those of the public good. From the people of Ireland, if permitted to obey the generous impulses of their generous nature, we would receive justice ; and we have received it in divers pub- lic assemblies, as well as in private Catholic society, when no influence was exerted to withhold the boon ; but those generous people, both Protestant and Catholic, together with the whole press of the capital of Ireland, are under the direction and influence of powers, with which TRUTH, pre- suming to bear testimony against any portion of their cor- ruption, would vainly labour to contend ; and if this applies to O'Connell, his party, and his press, it attaches with equal force to every high church portion of the Protestant press of Ireland, and to every meeting, religious and political, where the advocate of any truth that does not tally with the object of the meeting and its leaders, would receive the same treat- ment that poor Clayton received from O'Connell, in a meeting of the Catholic Association; that Mr. O'Hagan received at a meeting of the New Reformation Society, in the Rotunda of Dublin ; and with which the author of this work had also been honoured, in a Catholic meeting at the Corn Exchange in the same city ; at the first Brunswick meeting convened in Dublin (where personal violence was their last argument) ; and lastly, at a biblical meeting in Sligo, where, after discussion was publicly invited and accepted, and a fair hearing (after routine business) promised to the acceptor from the chair, the clerical underlings of the no Methodism; and without a Harry VIII., England might have been still sub- ject to the Pope. We Protestants regard all these men as the benefactors of their country ; and yet they all had their crimes, errors, and infirmities, as well as Dan, as we ourselves, and all other men, since nature has been corrupted by the fall. Let us therefore forgive his faults for the sake of his virtues ; and as by his supereminent talents he has procured liberty for himself and his Catholic brethren, let us hope that his name will descend to posterity as the restorer of Ireland (in a happy moral union with the British Empire) to that prosperity into which she was so rapidly ascending before England took her into her cold embrace. H 98 IRELAND, plot, in order to find an apology for breaking the Chairman's pledge, and the invitation of the Rev. Mr. Me Neale (son- in-law of Dr. Magee, the then Archbishop of Dublin) to enter upon free discussion, kept preaching long winded ser- mons to the people until a late hour in the evening, when no one could listen to a reply ! This is the kind of justice that men find in Ireland who are of no faction, and exactly the same sort of justice they receive from that slave of faction, THE DUBLIN PRESS. The press has now become an engine of such enormous power, and exercises such an influence over the public mind in Ireland, that no outline of this country will be deemed satisfactory to the public, without some observations on the existing state of that immense machine, which, by a secret influence, forces the whole tide of society before it ; notwith- standing that it is as crazy and corrupt as it is huge and unwieldy, and is continually vomiting forth a promiscuous mass of good and evil upon the country. That much important truth oozes through the crevices of this crazy and corrupt machine, propelled in most cases by interested managers, for purposes very foreign to those of truth and the public welfare, (but here the out and out friends of the press will interrupt us and say, that its managers could not possibly live by fair dealing; and that, like attor- nies, priests, and doctors, they are really as honest as they can afford to be.) That much valuable truth, we say, oozes through the crevices of this crazy and corrupt machine, must be admitted ; for if some proportion of truth were not blended with the lying impositions that are every day prac- tised upon the prejudices and passions of the people for selfish ends, even the factions for whom they write would blush and be disgusted ; but that the press of Dublin is the tool of privilege and plunder, upon one side ; and of ambi- tion, private interest, and factious purposes, (mixed up with the Nation's just claims) upon the other ; a cool and sensible THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES. 99 observer, raised by the force of his own virtue and genius above the plots and prejudices of his country, has only to see and be convinced of. It has already been hinted at, in mitigation of the censure due to such a corrupt course, that men who have embarked their all in a printing and publishing establishment, are forced, by irresistible necessity, in such a country as Ireland, to enlist their capital and talents under the banners of a faction, and to follow the leaders of that faction through thick and thin, (a principle of policy, however, though equally with them dependent upon public patronage for support, that the author of this work has always trampled under foot, in the management of his various literary concerns ;) and farther, that a corrupt people must always have a corrupt press, inasmuch as they would neither read nor support a publication that was not embarked in the service of their prejudices ! and still less, one that was expressly originated to reform their vices, correct their prejudices, and teach them to snap asunder the silken chains of monopoly, upon the one hand, and those iron chains of Priestcraft, upon the other ; by which their souls have been made the instruments of their own slavery, and of the poverty and degradation of the country which gave them birth. That arguments deducible from these selfish considerations will always have much force in the way of trade, we well know ; and that they will always be regarded as paramount by the man, whose chief object is his own private interest, requires no force of logic to convince the candid mind. On this principle the slave dealer (and we would fain know whether the poor brawny blacksmith, who forges chains for the body, or the thinking literary impostor who forges fetters for the mind, is the greater criminal of the two?) On this principle, we say, the slave dealer is a righteous man and a good citizen in his own vocation, and should not be censured with severity by the moralist, since he only forges chains for the body ; while the literary cri- minal, whose turpitude he overlooks, makes fast those fetters 100 IRELAND, of slavery and superstition, from which the General who has conquered in the field, and the Orator who has triumphed in the senate, have not been able to escape. If this apology for the corrupt press of Dublin stand good, then the Evening Mail, the Warder, and other papers of that stamp, cannot be justly censured by their opposers, for having travelled the whole way with the tithes and the Parsons ; for preaching up the purity and impeccability of their friends the Bishops ; for vainly pretending (at the very moment when they give the lie to the gospel, by calling on Protestants to arm in the support of & forced maintenance for the ministry !) that they believe the New Testament to be the standard of a Christian's faith and practice, and the only sure instrument of a Christian education in their native land ! seeing that it is their obvious interest to preach up these doctrines; and all others, however gross and con- tradictory, that minister to the errors and corrupt interests of the party who support them, and from whose favour alone they can hope to reap a rich harvest of reward. Neither are they to be censured for stooping to persuade such poor Protestants as cannot reason well upon these sub- jects, that the tithes and the church are one and indivisible ; and that if the former should fall, the latter will sink into extinction ! and in like manner, ceteris paribus, that if Par- liament should be reformed, and the laws purified, the British constitution (by which they always mean Protestant privi- lege, Protestant ascendancy, and Protestant plunder) will be tainted in its purity ; and, as a final result of this disaster, that the state will perish } These worthy journalists do not feel it necessary to place American Protestantism in the fore-ground of the systems which they thus rear upon narrow and untenable foundations; nor Protestantism, even as it stands in France, where the ministers of this religion are well and sufficiently supported by the state, without any aid from the Levitical establishment. In the former of these countries (we mean the United States), Protestantism stands upon the foundation of its own evidence, and in the full THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES. 101 enjoyment of its own manly freedom, without any aid from the laws or constitution of that country, which, like our own humble but independent labours, disclaim all connection with sect, party, or profession, Protestant or Popish. But it would not suit the interests of the Irish Tory press, to exhibit Protestantism to their readers in these aspects; for that would look like a course of pleading against tithes, and to plead against tithes and the princely revenues of the bishops (in a paradise where they stand upon such a proud pedestal,) would be to offend their patrons, and to bid fare- well to their emoluments. Neither would it work favour- ably for their interests to talk too much about the growth of Methodism in England, and the high respectability of the ministers of the Dissenting congregations, without any other aid from the secular power than that of its mere toleration ; because facts of this kind, frequently put forward, would finally convince all Protestants that the wealth and splendour of a gorgeous church are not necessary to the maintenance of true religion ; and that all which has been taken, m et armis, from the poor and from the public, for this purpose, was deeply detrimental to the country, to the state, and to the church itself; and the sooner these abuses are got rid of, the better for the king and for the people. On the other hand, the Freeman, the Register, and other papers of that stamp, pursue exactly the same policy in the opposite direc- tion. Their priests, (like Hannah More's ministers,*) are * Vide Miss More's Religious Tracts. But we could tell Hannah a story about one of her clergy in Liverpool that would shock her feelings. This gentleman entered the house (we think of a Mrs. Simon, where a sick stranger was lodging) in a furious passion for having been twice called upon to read the office of the sick for the stranger just noticed. The latter, after attentively viewing the sort of character that had come to visit him (and who had entered his sick room with a charge of impertinence for the trouble that had been given him,) took the candle and candle-stick from his table, and walking in his night- cap and sick clothing to his chamber door, opened it, and with a stern look of disapprobation, desired the minister (who was dressed in his canonicals) to withdraw, as he would not receive assistance from such a clergyman, even in the article of death. The clergyman, evidently astonished, (and the land- lady, if possible, still more so) retreated quickly from the scene of his impro- 102 IRELAND, all marvellously pious men ; God bless the mark. Their bishops are all " My Lords and your Grace " ! (we say nothing here about St. Paul's " Lords over God's heritage.") The revenues of their clergy (which Davy M'Cleery says are equal to those of the Established Church,) are nothing to the poor, and could not be commuted for an income from the state, without compromising the purity of the Rosary, the litany of St. Joseph, or the mysteries of St. Mary of Mt. Cannel ! ! ! The lay leaders of their party press are all good men and true, in proportion to the weight and solidity of the arguments which they produce to the literary rogues who write for them ; in proportion to the power and influence which they wield over the public mind through the public prejudices ; in proportion as they play well upon the strings of national feeling ; in proportion as they are able to render lies venerable, and to throw every man into the shade whose spirit kindles with honest indignation at this vile traffic, and who has the manliness to avow his contempt of that popularity which is procured by inflammatory appeals to the prejudices and passions of a generous and warm- hearted people ! But this is the corrupt element in which the press of Dublin thrives and prospers ; and it is therefore not surprising that you so seldom find impartial truth in it, and that the labours of the most upright men for the eman- cipation of their country from prejudice and oppression, and for the promotion of all the real interests of Ireland, have been sometimes either totally overlooked, or so grossly mis- represented, as to produce an impression upon the reader's mind, diametrically opposite to that which the facts of the case would justify in the hands of an honest and impartial writer. It was to such writers as these, that Cobbett was indebted for the unjust and illiberal contempt with which they passed priety, with, we hope, a useful conviction of the error of his conduct; but we are bound to say, to the honour of the clergy of the establishment in our own unfortunate country, that we never saw such an instance of flagrant impropriety as this in the whole course of our experience. THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES. 103 over divers of his works that have contributed to the diffusion of useful knowledge in Great Britain and her colonies (his grammar, political sermons, and agricultural treatises for instance ;) and this evidently prejudicial proceeding was ren- dered the more remarkable by a generous devotion of their columns to works of inferior utility, at the lime when Cob- bett's books made their appearance in England, and put in a strong claim to the notice of the English and Scotch Re- viewers, from the importance of the topics which formed the subject matter of these his useful practical productions. This tribute of condemnation, upon the one hand, and of appro- bation on the other, is due to justice, and is therefore freely paid; although, in reference to this celebrated writer and his works, we must say, (since we have made a momentary plunge into the English press,) that of all his productions which we have seen, his History of the Protestant Reforma- tion is the most unjust and partial. Into the arguments for or against the doctrines of the Reformation, or the service which it rendered to the cause of liberty, by breaking the despotic chains of Rome, the numbers of Mr. Cobbett's work that we saw did not once enter ; it was prickly ground for the interests of Rome (from which the work drew its prin- cipal support,) and on that account was perhaps carefully avoided in the few first numbers of the Reformation that we saw. If in the succeeding numbers, Mr. Cobbett did indeed become a theologian, it was a design of which we could derive no just presumption from the numbers which we read ; and as to the arguments which he drew forth against the Reformation, from the crimes or errors of the Reformers, from the corruption of English law, or the abuses of church property, from the distresses of the English people, under the sway of a Protestant church and government ; or from the peace and plenty of Catholic England in former times, upon which he emphatically dwelt. These arguments, we say, if indeed they deserve the name, (though seized with avidity by a blind and prejudiced population, as containing a disgraceful portrait of the Reformation from the pen of a 104 IRELAND, popular Protestant writer !) had just as much to do with the civil reasons for the Reformation, or with the religious doc- trines which it held forth, or with those which it impugned and resisted, as the crimes of the popes, the despotism of their government, and the hardships endured by the Italians (who have recently risen in arms to resist their oppressions) have to do with the doctrine of the Trinity which they teach, (although their nearer relation to the fires of purgatory, of which they are a more sensible and impressive figure, we shall not deny.) And even if it could be proved that the sufferings of these Italians were the natural and necessary result of the despotic character of their religion and govern- ment (which would not be very far from the mark,) this, instead of being an argument against the Reformation, would be a strong one for it, as it would prove the necessity that existed for the formation of a powerful coalition to lay prostrate an authority, which under holy pretences (the worst pretences in the world,) was calculated to oppress mankind, and to rob them of their just and natural rights.* * Nothing can furnish a more convincing practical proof of the transcen- dant moral excellence of the Reformation, than the perfect civil and religious liberty into which it has conducted England. And of this perfect civil and religious liberty there can be no more conclusive evidence than that with which Mr. Cobbett himself furnishes the English public. Instead of suffer- ing in his person, property, liberty, or civil interests in any way, by abusing the Reformation, the Protestant religion, and (inferentially) the laws and government of England, which profess and maintain them, he has, it may be fairly presumed, made a very handsome addition to his income by this holy traffic ! And if he only consider what his fate would be, were he to make a similar experiment upon Popery (and oh what noble space he would find for his literary excursions in that field,) at the fountain head of government in any of the Catholic states of Italy, Portugal, or Spain If he only con- sider, we say, the kind of compliment which the Pope, or any of the princes of these states would pay him upon this change of circumstances, it is pro- bable he would not have much occasion to glory in the honour of knighthood with which the Pope is said to have crowned him upon reading his famous book against the Protestant Reformation ! We may probably be told that England is not indebted to the Reformation for the liberty she enjoys ; for that English Catholics had wrested Magna Charta from King John long before Protestantism was known there ; but if the reader will turn to the chapter on Fermanagh, in this work, he will find this and other arguments THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES. If Mr. Cobbett can establish his hypothesis against the Reformation from the crimes and errors of the Reformers ; from the plenty of Catholic England, and her mode of pro- viding for her poor ; from the plunder of the Catholic Church by Harry VIII. ; from the present or late distresses of the working classes in Protestant England ; or from any other arguments having no more relation to the matter at issue between the two churches than these have ; why then the crimes of the Popes, their despotic government, and the distresses of their people, rising in rebellion against them, must be conclusive evidence against the Catholic religion. And not only so, but the crimes of the Jews also, (and by their own accounts there were no more criminal people) must go to prove, that their recovery from idolatry (to which they had a strong propensity,) to the worship of the one true God, was a great evil. We shall place this latter illustration in the form of a proposition, thus The Jews had plenty of food and clothing when they practised idolatry in Egypt. But they suffered great hardships when they renounced it, and returned to the worship of the one true God. Therefore that worship was a great evil ! Let the reader apply this proposition to England and the Reformation, and he has the full force of Mr. Cobbett's argument, which has not even the merit of ingenuity, as it deceives no one except those who are wilfully blind, or deeply ignorant j or who live upon the poison of prejudice, and whose that have been put forward in support of the liberal genius of the Catholic religion, freely answered. We wish England may profit by Mr. Cobbett's exposure (and every other exposure) of her errors ; for we know by sorrowful experience that there is much room for improvement in her policy. But however erroneous she has been in some parts of her policy and practice, she has (through the Reformation as the first cause,) arrived at the enjoy- ment of that civil and religious liberty, which are her chief glory ; and while we presume to point out her faults, we feel pleasure in doing justice to her virtues, and should be sorry to see her travelling back to the iron age of religious intolerance, in order to render those virtues more bright and burning. 10(5 IRELAND, food being deception, they ignorantly rejoice at the victory which they suppose their champion has obtained for them ! He has indeed obtained a victory for himself, but it was at tlieir expence, (for it implies the strongest contempt of their understandings,) while they vainly imagined it was at the expeuce of the Reformation, that he gulled them ; although all the world know that religious liberty would be unknown in Europe but for that happy Reformation, which has shorn Popery of its most dangerous fangs. Mr. Cobbett's arguments, if they were worth any thing, would go to prove that the ancient despotism of France was a better form of government than the liberal one which she now enjoys, because the people of Catholic France might have had plenty of food and clothing under the old regime, and the people of Lyons and other places have recently trod on the verge of famine, from a depression in their trade, and a consequent absence of profitable employment. The inconsistency of such arguments as these, either for or against any system of religion, is self-evident ; and yet these were the chords of prejudice which the English musi- cian touched, and to some purpose ; if it be true, as we heard, that his work took well in all Catholic countries; that the Pope read and extolled it to the skies (to be sure he would ;) and that 30,00 Ocopies of the work were sold by one Catholic bookseller in the city of Dublin ! Now, although we are as much opposed as Mr. Cobbett, or any other man, to English abuses ; and have no more taste for the crimes of Harry VIII. than for those of Pope Alexander, who lay with his mother.* And although we are absolutely dependant upon the patronage of the public (under the pro- tection of our God.) for the means of existence ; yet we never did stoop, and trust we never shall, to a flagrant vio- lation of our own professed principles, or to the public com- mendation of a system, whose principles we condemn, for * Alexander VI., who, with his son Ca?sar Borgio, perished by the poison which they had prepared for seven cardinals who had opposed their ambitious pretensions. See Encyclopedia Kribmnica, under the head of Caesar Borgio. THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES. 107 the poor perishing rewards of popularity or profit, however we may value these benefits, as a voluntary offering at the shrine of virtue. No, in a trial of this nature (where prin- ciple and profit are at issue) we would rather imitate the example of the noble Milton. " You, my dear," said he to his wife (in answer to her remonstrances against his rejection of the Latin secretaryship, generously offered to be restored to him by Charles II., whose father he had contributed to dethrone,) " You, my dear," said he, " like all other women, would wish to ride in your coach ; but I wish to die as I have lived, an honest man ! " Noble Milton ! wrong perhaps in thy judgment, but right in the integrity of thy purpose. Milton's conscientious objection to monarchy, might have been ill founded (and, in our opinion, as it relates to England, a maritime state, was a dangerous pre- judice.) Still, however we may prefer the British constitu- tion of three estates (when purified from the abuses which corrupt it,) to any form of government in the world, we cannot but reverence the honest consistency and virtuous independence of the English poet, and would say to our own heart, as to that of any other man, " Imitate the virtue of the heart of Milton, but reject the error of his under- standing;" which, if universally received, would go to impair the power, and might finally betray the liberties, of that country, whose glory and happiness it was the object of the virtuous but mistaken Milton to promote. Having now closed our plunge into the English press, we hope the reader will have no objection to our coming back to Ireland, and playing a stave or two (begging his pardon for the vulgar tune we are about to introduce to him) of Paddy O'Rafferty, upon that divine and immaculate instru- ment of Irish harmony, the Dublin Press. It is a well known fact in all human history, that from apparently trifling causes, have proceeded some of the most remarkable events that have opened to the view of mankind the sources of human corruption, and set in motion the springs of justice appointed to correct them. Thus when 108 IRELAND, Rome was polluted with the crimes of the Tarquins, the slumbering talent of Junius Brutus was made the instrument of arousing the energies of his country, and of avenging its insulted justice. In like manner that great religious and political event, which divided Europe (happily for liberty) into two great parties, had its origin in a quarrel between two obscure friars ; and to this quarrel Protestants are now indebted for liberty to worship God according to their con- sciences, and to speak and write their sentiments freely upon all subjects, without fear of the Bastile or the Inquisition, the fires of Smithfield, the act of Praemunire, or the dun- geons of the prison house. If zealous for their principles if distinguished for their hatred of oppression and imposture, they may expect that snares will be laid for their downfall in divers conclaves; but they have nothing to fear from the LAWS of the enlightened states of England and France in this age of reason, nor yet from the public acts of the magistrates appointed to administer those laws. The penalties which they have to incur, are such as must be encountered by every Reformer, until the laws of Nations are so far purified, as that human corruption must bend its neck to the yoke of justice; and it is for the achievement of this end that the Reformation was originated by a special providence, and that a handful of the Puritans and Quakers, who, in the reigns of the English Charles's were treated worse than the beasts of the field, were made the instruments of laying the foundations of liberty and moral order in the new world. Nor is it the least remarkable event in the history of retributive justice, that the children of those persecuted men, wrested from the mother country those American colo- nies which she had peopled by her penal laws ; in the same manner as Protestant liberty was established, and kingdoms rescued from the arbitrary grasp of Rome, by a violent reaction upon the abuses of the Papal power. Thus also, in Ireland our native land, where a system of penal persecution had long prevailed, a Catholic lawyer, without title or dis- tinction, was made the instrument of arousing the energies THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES. of his country, and of procuring, by legal and constitutional exertion, the commencement of a course of justice, that we trust will lead to a purification of our laws, and to a union of the two countries upon the only base that can sustain it, a just and equal participation in all the benefits and bur- thens of that common Empire, to which they equally belong. Having thus shown that great and mighty revolutions in favour of human liberty have had their origin in small beginnings (like a river issuing from the crevice of a rock, which finally bears upon its mighty tide the most majestic vessels to the bosom of the ocean), let not the reader despise this first movement of an humble individual, in that great and important work, so essential to the civil and moral improvement of a fine country; namely, a reform of the public press ; nor treat with contempt the few and insigni- cant proofs of the corrupt constitution of the press of Dublin, with which it is possible for an individual to charge his memoiy, who is so often absent from that city, and so heavily incumbered with his professional pursuits, that he could not possibly command time to collect into a heap, those mountain masses of lies, misrepresentations, equivoca- tions, mean jealousies, malicious oversights, purchased pane- gyrics, and factious conspiracies of that press, that in a single year would raise a pile as lofty as that of Babel ; and which, in its veerings, vacillations, and contradictory croakings (as the wind of interest or prejudice may chance to blow) bears a strong resemblance to that confusion of languages, into which the building of that Babel led. Rather let the reader rejoice that the hint thus furnished to men of leisure and fortune, who have some reverence for truth, may lead to the establishment of a newspaper review in Dublin, that shall drag from the literary manufactories of that city, the deceitful gauze by which the hidden springs of their bigotry and corruption are concealed from the public eye ; that shall exhibit the principle of these springs, their mode of working, and the end and object of their operations, to the view of the deluded; that shall expose their factious and fraudulent 110 IRELAND, dealing with public subjects and public men, to the common sense and common honesty of the whole country ; and thus disabusing- the ignorant and deluded parties, from whose passions and prejudices this corrupt press draws its oil and wine, the success that will attend the honest and able ope- rations of this review, may lead to the establishment of similar reviews in other cities; and thus a check may be placed upon the lies, false colourings, prejudices, and various acts of public and personal injustice, by which the press of Dublin has been too frequently and deeply disgraced ; and in time this press will be compelled to deal more fairly and impartially with public subjects and public men ; or by the aid of impartial newspaper reviews, it will be brought into such general contempt, that none will read it but the slaves and impostors for whose purposes it is written, and by whom alone, in an age of enlightened reason, it would be studied and maintained. Here is the object that we contemplate, in the discharge of our duty, as the pioneer of a company armed with suffici- ent powers to bring a Park of Artillery to bear upon those silky sleeve laughing impostors, -who under the patronage of a wealthy high church, upon the one hand, and of learned and practised Jesuits, upon the other, unite to force honest and unsophisticated Truth out of the market, and to keep the Irish populace in a state of ignorance and abject sub- mission to their leaders, as machines to be set in motion, whenever these leaders have a corruption to protect, or an end of ambition to be answered. During the progress of an humble attempt to unmask these abominable impostures in Ireland, through a work published in Dublin in a succession of numbers, under the title of "the Moon" (with seven stars originally placed as body guards around the planet, to protect her from danger while sailing through the hells of Dublin, at the top of her title page.) During this time we had many opportunities of perceiving the precise nature of the springs, by which Plot, Plunder, and Priestcraft (three brothers of the same parent stock) cany THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES. Ill on their operations against the deluded people of our country . The result of our first observation was, a discovery of the family relationship existing between these three popular leaders of the parties, whose family connexion is totally un- known to the people of Ireland upon whom they make their experiments ; because in the opposite and hostile positions to each other which these impostors have politically placed themselves, they are not even suspected by the people of the country to be members of the same family ; a mystery which can only be discovered by those who have studied deeply the science of political astrology, and who carry on a secret and confidential correspondence with the heavenly bodies. The marks however of this family relationship are sufficiently plain to prove the truth of their connexion, even to those who have been the victims of their delusion ; that is, when the eyes of those victims have been purified by intellectual light from the last remains of those green and yellow fluids which it is the whole business of these sorcerers to plant, preserve, and propagate, in the organ of vision, by their unique and yet diversified enchantments. The eye being thus purified, it is then in a capacity of seeing the Irish parties and their operations through a new and a true medium. Exercising this newly received power of seeing things exactly as they are, the enlightened eye of the spectator will discover that between the two great contending parties of his country, (both having conscious corruptions to conceal) a private agreement, or tacit understanding, has been entered into, that the Irish market of religious and political disputa- tion shall be preserved (as a valuable monopoly) exclusively to themselves ; and that if any third luminary should show itself above the horizon of their country, pretending that it has come to shed light upon the whole body of their corrup- tions, that they shall instantly kick that planet out of the Heavens; or if perchance their legs should not be quite long enough to reach it, in that distant position, that they shall despatch Davy the Dublin tailor on his lapboard to the Moon, in order to snuff out that planet with his shears, and 112 IRELAND, to extinguish the seven stars with his thimble.* This being the notorious practice, and the evidently implied agreement, of the parties, their family relationship is clearly proved by this single mark ; which if any man (from the apparent im- probability of the thing) shall choose to doubt, let him only join Owen, the Philanthropist, in an effort to provide for the poor of Ireland independent of the Priestcraft of the countiy ; or the Moon, in an attitude to reflect the light of Truth upon the public mind ; or any philosopher whatever, in an effort to disabuse that mind of its prejudices, which form the inexhaustible material of the wealthy and profitable trade of all its leaders, and he will soon find, by dear bought experience, that the Moon was before him in this market. It was thus in the days of Diana of Ephesus, that Demetrius, the silversmith, who (in connection with his fellow crafts- men) derived a liberal fortune from the prejudices of his fel- low citizens. It was thus, we say, that he laboured to pre- serve Ephesus from the irretrievable ruin that would fall upon the men of his craft, if Christianity should be permitted to overthrow idolatry in that city. It is exactly so in the present day ; and hence the true foundation of the under- standing that exists between the leaders of the parties in Ireland, that they shall preserve a monopoly of the market of disputation to themselves ; and that no power, hostile to their common corruptions, shall be permitted to enter the field with a Park of Artillery, that with one powerful and well directed broadside of plain truth, might leave their enchantments and flimsy fancy works in such a state of con- fusion and disorder, that the Doctors, with their utmost industry, and that policy of which they are such perfect masters, might not be able to put the odds and ends of their pretty images together for some time to come ; and even when, with much care and labour, they had placed them upon their former base of quiet credulity and ignorant loy- * Davy, the Tailor, a talkative member of the Dublin corporation, who thought to extinguish the Moon by his noisy insolence at the first Brunswick Meeting in Dublin. THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES. 113 alty to their leaders, in which the battle first found them, a tendency to rock and shake when assailed by those tempests which Truth only can withstand, would prove a source of continual alarm to the Doctors' minds, which are peculiarly sensitive on all these subjects. The Moon, as we have just mentioned, having embarked her services in the dangerous and arduous task of reflecting the light of the Sun of Truth upon the impostures of Ireland, was hunted so closely through all the hells of Dublin, (and believe me, my brethren, these hells are very rich and profitable places,) that the poor planet, after having endured the hardship of running through the fiery circuit of three succeeding editions, (which she gallantly performed, notwithstanding the combined powers of all the devils in the hells just noticed,) at length became so exhausted by her almost preternatural exertions, as to fall, one fine sum- mer morning, into the arms of the God of Day, in a deep fainting fit, and has never since been heard of; the god no doubt having taken due care of her in that position. In the progress of her threefold race, all sorts of scouts, Protestant, Popish, and Methodistic, were employed to hunt her down, and to extinguish her. Brunswick men, Ca- tholic association men, and Corporation men, even Davy the Tailor not excepted. The numerous religionists, and particularly the different orders of pious sisters, communi- cating between the clergy and the people, in public collec- tions, in visitations of the sick, the sorrowful, the super- annuated, the schools, the convents, the confraternities, the Bible societies, the education societies, and a hundred other societies, were handy and convenient instruments for run- ning down the Moon in every house, at every table, and in every shop where curiosity might have opened a crevice of the door to her reflections. All, all who had seen the Moon, and who trembled for their systems, were, more or less, embarked in this holy warfare ! Booksellers were menaced with a loss of custom, if they dared to let the Moon shine upon their shelves or counters. Mercers were afraid to 114 IRELAND, admit the planet that was " every where spoken against ;" and even the Dublin Library, (of which the late Dr. Hamell, R. C. Vicar-general of the Archdiocese of Dublin, was a Vice- president, and many of the same persuasion among its ruling members,) though professing to be a liberal institution, would not receive it, although moved for admission (as Mr. Wright, the Rev. Protestant secretary of that institution informed the Editor) by a member of its own body. The periodical press, with the exception of the Freeman's Jour- nal, when edited by the late Mr. Power, and one very good- natured and humorous critique by the weekly Warder, acted the same part ; and thus, as over the benevolent purposes of Mr. Owen for the relief of the poor in Ireland, priestcraft and party obtained over the Moon also, a complete triumph, although this planet had no other public object in view save the good of Ireland, by the emancipation of the public mind from the prejudices which enthral it.* Here then is a true picture of the state of Ireland, her parties, and her press ; and should any honest man, (we do not mean an honest fool, for of these we believe we have some hundreds of thousands in Ireland, our country ;) but a man of enlightened judgment, seeing things as they are, and determined, at all hazards, in his voyage of reform, to stick close to the plank of his integrity; should such a man as this embark his vessel on the sea of Irish politics, and attempt to steer her steadily towards the port of Truth and the public welfare, he would soon find that he was mistaken in his calculations, if he entertained the vain expectation of being able to arrive there. He would not have sailed fifty knots in this course, until he would find himself assailed by con- trary winds, and by frigates under false colours, pretending to sail in the same direction, but the sole end of whose * Mr. Maud, a bookseller, then residing on Ormond quay, Dublin, shewed the Editor of the Moon a menacing letter to the effect above-mentioned ; Mr. Curry, an eminent bookseller in Sackville street, to whom the Moon paid her pointed compliments in a humorous epigram; and an eminent silk- mercer, whose shop was then the resort of almost all the pious ladies of Dublin, are among the persons alluded to in the above paragraph. THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES. 115 voyage was the plunder of the seas, and the ruin of every expedition that had for its object the triumph of truth and liberty over slavery and falsehood. If finding himself baffled on the seas, he should srat himself in the Moon, in order to shed light upon his benighted country, a little experience would prove that he had only shifted his position ; for the Moon would not have performed three of her monthly revolutions, until a thousand scouts would be despatched from the schools and conventicles of Dublin, to hunt down the planet that was shedding light upon the church pro- perty, the trade of priestcraft, the abuses of the law system, of the parties and the press ; and, in a word, all the humbugs and monopolies by which (in the plain and vulgar language of a distich with which we bearded a mock meeting for the relief of the poor Dublin weavers in 1826) The millions perish, while the ciphers eat, The mutton's juicy and nutritious meat ; The bee collects the honey, but the drone, Comes in and calls the property his own.* * In reference to the aforesaid meeting, it may be observed, that several of the gentlemen (trustees to divers dormant funds) who attended this and other public meetings at the Dublin Exchange, (professedly for the purpose of relieving the liberty weavers, thrown out of employment by a stagnation of trade) could very easily at that time have restored these poor people to their looms, by appropriating the dormant funds over which they exercised a con- trol (and some of which had lain sleeping for a course of years,) to the payment of any loss which their employers might happen to sustain by the sale of their stock on hand, at whatever price could be procured for it in the public market This course, however, though urged with strong argument and evidence, in favour of our trade and weavers, was rejected ; (a conspiracy, we have good reason to believe, against Irish manufacturers, being then in active operation ; for confirmation of which opinion, see the report of the Dublin Trades' Union, and the historical facts embodied in Mr. Dalton's letter upon the state of Irish trade, at the commencement of this volume,) and as a natural consequence of this rejection of our trade, the public subscriptions were applied to the payment of the weavers, first at the rate of Is. per day to each man, which was soon after reduced to sixpence, and finally to fourpence, for breaking stones for the repairs of the streets, &c. for which the citizens pay a heavy tax to the paving corporation ; and a number of these unfortu- nate men, with their families, soon after perished in the hospitals of the city, and were buried under cover of the night, in the hospital fields of Dublin. 116 IRELAND, Lest, however, the Moon should come to the full, and shed too much light upon the "' form and pressure" of the impostures by which the millions perish, the scouts just noticed were actually despatched in all directions by the Protestant traders in metaphysics ; and the Jesuits perhaps apprehending that if the thing went on, their trade in Irish credulity might be extinguished, despatched a <; Comet" from the college of Clongowes, to burn up all the com- bustibles of the system that had been seen by Moon-light, (their own system of priestcraft save and excepted) and this Comet has continued passing through and around our part of the solar system ever since, burning up the church and corporations without mercy, and sparing no abuse whatever upon which the Moon had previously shed her beam, save that of the Rosary, the litany of St. Mary of Mount Carmel, and the bones of St. John the Baptist, reserved as an antidote to those infidel impurities with which the Reformation has so sensibly impregnated the Protestant atmosphere of the British Islands ! and to the infallibility of this antidote every Protestant head must bow, as its efficacy is self-evident.* The trade of that part of the city called " the liberty," once the principal seat of its manufactures, perished also. Houses that would let for 60, or perhaps 80, a-year, prior to the Act of Union, and even after it, would not now bring 20, and some not more than 10. That once eminently flourishing section of the city, and the streets approximating with it, soon assumed the appear- ance of a spacious lazaretto ; and with the appearance, the general spread of misery and mendicity, of filth, famine, and infection, (including a perpetual succession of endemic diseases,) perfectly correspond, as any one may see who will read the letter of Dr. Orpen, the medical inspector of the poor, on that subject. And finally, the Royal Exchange, at which the mock meetings alluded to were held, is now the residence of an auctioneer ; and was the seat of a dancing-school when this work was preparing for the press ; two very appropriate employments, it is true, for an Irish Exchange, as the auctioneer can be called upon at any moment to bring the last expiring remnant of our manufactures to the hammer ; and when the blow has been struck, the merry andrew would prove useful in dancing the remnant down to the water edge for exportation to the foreign market. (Vide America and Flanders, in Mr. Dalton's letter in the Trades' Report just noticed.) * The above is in allusion to the Comet, weekly newspaper, which appeared THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES. 117 Having now touched upon the circumstances by which the Moon was finally extinguished, (and which, during her brief and rapid revolutions, shed equal and impartial light upon the saints and sinners of every sect and party) we must next apologise to the reader for being compelled, in the discharge of our duty to our country, to introduce divers of our own personal concerns into our picture of the press; as by these, more eminently than by any other means, the author of this work was brought into close contact with that immense machine, and his attention forcibly attracted to its secret springs of action. And although long before he had any professional connection with the press, the glaring contra- dictions of the newspaper department had caught his eye, (as they must have caught the eye of every intelligent reader) still he did not feel it his business, when a very young man, to assume the office of a censor; and his numerous and embarrassing avocations in after life, rendered it totally impossible to devote his time and faculties to an examina- tion of those perpetually multiplying documents, upon which alone the truth of its corruption could be established. This will prove his apology to the reader for the smallness of the number of examples of corrupt partiality and injustice which he shall presently charge home upon the press of Dublin, and for his own personal concernment in the greater part of these transactions. The more full and effectual discharge of the great public duty of placing the press of Dublin upon a sounder base, must fall upon the conductors of a national newspaper review ; but for the faithful and effectual main- tenance of such an institution as this, no man, or body of men, can be fit, however rich, or however learned, who have any intimate connection with, or personal interest in, the corruptions of the law, the church property, or the priestly soon after the Moon expired ; took a similarly bold and eccentric course (with the exception of a saving clause in favour of Popish impostures,) and being edited, and we believe chiefly supported in the literary department, by gentlemen connected with, or educated at the Jesuitical college of Clongowes, the force of the above allusion is self-evident. 118 IRELAND, establishments of the country, as their own personal con- cernment in such institutions, or their educational prejudices in their favour, would always act as a bar to the faithful discharge of their duty, as impartial and independent reviewers; and even without a consciousness of crime, would so frequently ascend to the surface of their labours, as completely to defile the current of their writings, and finally render them useless as a correction of the abuses of the press. A Dublin newspaper review must therefore, if it should ever be formed in that city upon just principles, be placed under the direction of men of independent minds, totally unconnected with the parties of the country, as by such men, and by such only, the dignified castigatiou of a corrupt press, can be effectually executed. Nor should this humble effort of the author to procure for his country such a new and useful institution, be rejected, because the reformer who stands forward to procure this protection for the people against the impostures which sur- round them, has not the same claims to popularity as those of a Daniel O'Connell, supported by the Catholic church, in whose bosom he was born ; or those of a Lord Mande- ville, distributing arms to the orange lodges of the North of Ireland. Let those who look for splendid claims to public attention, remember the honest and persecuted people, who laid the foundations of American liberty and prosperity in the sound morality of their institutions, and who, in their native country, were not permitted to enjoy the indulgence that was freely granted to the dogs in the kennels of their oppressors, and to the proud and lofty coursers in their stalls ! Let the Catholics of Ireland, who were themselves an oppressed people, be the last to object to the nature of his claims to the honest approbation of his country, because he could not in conscience travel with the factions, and because he rendered the duties which he owed to his country, sub- servient to those (and to those only) which he owed to his conscience and his God. Let them remember that an act THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES. 119 of injustice committed against the lowest citizen, will soon be committed against the highest, when it can be done with similar impunity ; and that to stifle any portion of public opinion by a contemptuous silence, or by a factious or sectarian conspiracy, or to give false impressions to the public, of speeches and writings, or of the feeling exhi- bited in public assemblies, when that feeling happens to be hostile to the sinister purposes of the press and its con- federates, is not an offence committed merely against the individuals who are misrepresented, but against a nation that is deceived. And although, in the corrupt exercise of its freedom, the press may take shelter under the wing of legal protection, and a generous liberty of choice upon the one hand, and that of the ignorance which it deceives, and the prejudice which it feeds, upon the other; still the effluvia issuing from its internal rottenness is not lessened by the absence of the sense of smelling on the part of its supporters, nor by the similar rottenness with which their constitutions may be infected, nor by the pity and indul- gence of the laws, nor by that generous sense of liberty which a Protestant state derives from nature and the Refor- mation. Rather its crimes are augmented, and rendered more odious, by its gross and scandalous abuses of that liberty, which a generous age and country have deposited in its hands, and which (to the glory of the Reformation) is so fully enjoyed in the Protestant Islands of Great Bri- tain, that an humble caricaturist, who has his bread to earn by his art, may procure his beef-steak and his bottle, even by a joke upon the King. Has it not been frequently asserted, by that (falsely) called the liberal press of Dublin, that the speeches made by Mr. O'Connell in the House of Commons, in his efforts to obtain justice for his country, have sometimes been totally over- looked ; and at other times shamefully garbled by the press of England ; and if these accusations of the Dublin press (of the truth or falsehood of which we know nothing) were in reality well founded ; was not this conduct of the English 120 IRELAND, press a gross offence against the Irish nation, and even against the English public itself, who had a right to be accurately informed of all that was passing in the Legisla- tive Assembly of the nation ; as otherwise how could they form a just opinion of our rights, and of the claims which we have to the sympathy and co-operation of our English brethren in the pursuit of justice ? If the Catholic press of Dublin believej that this conduct of their London contem- poraries, proceeded from a deeply rooted prejudice against O'Connell and his country, why do they exhibit the same mean and unmanly antipathy themselves, towards Protest- ants of unquestioned patriotism, honestly contending for the right of Ireland to a just and generous participation in all the benefits of the state ? Is it because these Protestants have written and spoken against Popery, that their patriotic efforts to promote the interests of their country, have been studiously cushioned ? And if so, with what shew of con- sistency can these bigoted journalists, calling themselves liberal! talk or write (as the hypocrites frequently have the effrontery to do) about the religious or political bigotry of an English or Irish Protestant press, with such stains as these resting upon their acts, and written in conspicuous characters upon their foreheads ? If they deny this charge, we ask them how it happened, that in their report of the proceedings of the Trades political union in Dublin, they should totally overlook one of the most important questions for a revival of the trade of Ireland, (a co-operation for that purpose, proposed to be commenced in the Trades union of Dublin, and gradually extended from that city to all the counties of the coast) that was ever brought before the consideration of any Irish association whatsoever? Was it because the mover of this measure was a writer against Popery ? (This question, we fear, is a nail in a sure place, and we leave it to the hammer of their hypocrisy to force it from their plank.) Important ? yes, the most impor- tant ever brought before any Irish association for the revival of Irish trade. And why ? First, because the plan, if carried THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES. 121 into effect, would have given more or less employment, through all the co-operative societies planted in the country, to unemployed operatives and their families in every district; (it being a regular rule of all such societies to consume their own productions, in addition to all which they can sell to others, and that would be a great deal.) Secondly. Because as these societies increased, (and they would rapidly increase) the means of employment would increase with them. Thirdly. Because, in a regular ratio with the march of these societies, the manufactures of Ireland, of every descrip- tion, would march with them. Fourthly. Because these societies (if conducted by wholesome laws) would not only prove useful to themselves and to the whole country, in the department of trade, but in the equally important depart- ments of intelligence and moral order, without which they could not be successfully conducted : and for proof of this truth, we have only to refer to the institutions of this nature, established in England, and at Belfast, in Ireland, where the intelligence and industry of the members will bear to be examined ; and the books and newspapers introduced into their meeting rooms, as the societies have advanced in wealth, are sufficient evidence of the useful influence of these institutions upon the public mind; but as they are not exactly the element for briefless lawyers and other orators, to bring themselves into public notoriety under the condescend- ing patronage of some great leader, (a mode of trading upon the feelings and passions of the people, peculiarly suited to the meridian of Dublin) this modest and unpretending plan for reviving the trade of Ireland, and giving employment to the bulk of her artizans, was, as might be expected, very coldly received, even by that which calls itself the " National trades union" of a ruined country ! Fifthly. Because the means of originating and universally extending these most impor- tant institutions to the trade of Ireland, and the comfort of her artizans, had no impediment to encounter in the laws, and very little in the amount of the funds essential for the commencement of a co-operative society in any county ; as a 122 IRELAND, subscription of sixpence per week from a thousand inhabi- tants, would, in twelve months, form a sufficient capital to commence with, (and poor as Ireland is, we are almost cer- tain that we underrate the average number of subscribers that would be found in all her counties) and thus the nucleus of a great home trade would be at once formed ; and Ireland, by the cheapness of her labour, and her constantly accumu- lating capital, would soon rise independent of foreign manu- factures ; and not only so, but in due time she would give England enough to do, with all her superior advantages of capital, system, and science, to beat her sister island out of the foreign market. Lastly. As it is a universal rule of these institutions, (if our information be correct) that the profits of trade shall be added to the thus constantly accumulating capital of the companies, (unless in such cases of absolute necessity as shall oblige a member to withdraw his name and his property altogether from the society to which he had belonged) only think for a moment, what an altered aspect Ireland would present to the eye of patriotic benevolence, in the short space of seven years after this machine had been set in motion, and how much better and happier the whole popu- lation would become, if a fourth of the time and talent of the political leaders of the people were steadily exerted to give birth and maturity to such a useful practical system of national regeneration ; and whether this mode of benefiting Ireland would prove more substantially useful to her chil- dren, than the empty political husks (we do not mean empty to the orators, for they milk the prejudices of the people to some purpose) with which these gentlemen have long fed a hungry, a beggared, and a humbup-ged population, let the public judge. This was the measure which the liberal press of Dublin (though their reporters were on the spot taking notes of the proceedings) thought proper, in the depth of their sapient discernment, most profoundly to overlook. But the motion came from the author of this work and the author of this THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES. 123 work was a known enemy of priestcraft and to fill up the measure of his iniquity, if that were wanted, he had pointed his poor puny porcupines against the abuses of the press, (to be sure they were puny, because he had no faction to support him, and he could not purchase human favour by the sacrifice of his duty,) and lastly, the measure contained no inflammatory appeal to the passions of the people, although calculated to promote those substantial interests of the country, from which the author himself could derive no other benefit, than that of the pleasure which the pros- perity of his country would afford him. If the liberal press of Dublin conceived this plan to be im- practicable, they should have first done justice to the mover and his measure, by a fair statement of the case, and then started their objections, which he would have been bound to answer. But whether the cause of their wilful oversight of the measure lay here, or whether it lay in the former bigoted, and much more likely ground of objection ; on either horn of this dilemma we presume to place them ; and whatever imaginary consequence they may derive from the importance of their party, or the supposed value of their estabishments ; or whatever measure of contempt they may feel it convenient to assume; on that horn we immoveably fix them, and request our countrymen will look at them narrowly in that position, by a peep into their curious reports of the trades proceedings on Tuesday, January 3, 1832, when the author of this work (then a member of that union) brought forward his co-operative question. In like manner we request our fellow citizens of the trades who were present in the arena on the 15th of the same month, when he submitted his motion for supplying the members of the union with printed copies of the financial reports, and a printed schedule of the rules of regulation (as no one could remember long-winded reports from hearing them read ; and for law, we saw none there, save the will of a few leaders, who, with this flourish- ing democratic motto placed over their bench, " Jura et leges equales," put down and brought forward by virtue of 124 IRELAND, their sovereign authority, whomsoever and whatsoever they thought proper.) We request our brethren of the trades, we say, to compare the Freeman's report of this proceeding, with the facts of the case (to which many of them were eye wit- nesses,) and which were shortly these, that almost the whole meeting, composed of a thousand or fifteen hundred per- sons, clamoured so loudly for the printed reports, and crowned the motion and the arguments which supported it, with such loud and repeated plaudits, that Mr. Walsh (one of the most talented and popular officers in the union) could scarcely obtain permission to reply!* To upset the argu- ments produced in support of his resolution, even the vigor- ous intellect and extensive information of Mr. Walsh, was not able to accomplish there was too much truth in them ; he therefore made an appeal to what he was pleased to call " the good sense of Mr. Atkinson to withdraw his motion." It was his good nature he should have said, as the officers were in a hobble. In this sense it was taken ; and as the * Why was a printed account of the laws and the money matters refused, since each copy would cost but a few pence, which each member who wished to receive it might pay for in advance ? Or has the union become a job in the hands of a few speculators, (like some other institutions of the country, against which its leaders so loudly brawl) and was the publication of its financial affairs in a printed form, therefore resisted? If any portion of the public money should be given to the press, or to any individuals for public services, why not avow it, since the object is a fair one ? although to bribe the press in order to render it tributary to the schemes of individual leaders, or to any false or corrupt proceeding, would not be quite so suitable for exhibition in a printed statement. Did not the Catholic association make the bribery of the press a public and professed part of their system ; and why not, in the pursuit of a legitimate object ? In the open avowal of any design there is a manliness which commands confidence, while secresy generates suspicion and distrust. The same open and candid course is pursued by the collectors of the O'Connell tribute. Let the leaders of the trades union imitate it. On finding that printed reports were not supplied to the union, the author renewed his notice of motion for a second discussion of the question ; but on the evening when it should have been debated, the question was suppressed ; and a conspiracy to resist it being evidently formed, the mover retired from the union, as Mr. O'Gorman, a most respectable member had done before him, on grounds of dissatisfaction which it is not necessary to repeat. THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES. 125 person appealed to happened to have the heart of a good natured fool within him, he withdrew his motion on an understanding that the forthcoming quarterly report would give every one the financial information that was needful ; and thus when the mover had victory on his finger ends, three-fourths, if not seven-eighths, of the house being with him, he yielded the cause of the people to the wishes of the officers, who never printed a single return ; and, from that time forth, good and secure arrangements were made, that the same question of finances never should have the honour of a second hearing from the same quarter; and a Mr. Corrin, or Curran (a person totally unknown to us) who also mooted it, was hunted down. But as we only notice these transactions in reference to the Dublin press, let us see how the Freeman's report of the proceedings corresponded with the facts of the case, as they occurred in that meeting. The following is an exact copy. " Mr. Atkinson brought " forward in a very lengthy speech his resolution that the " expenditure, rules, regulation, and present state of the " union, be now printed, and given to each member on " paying two-pence. On the motion being put and seconded, " Mr. Walsh rose, and proceeded to address the meeting in " a very forcible and impressive speech. He repudiated the " charge of partiality and favouritism imputed to the com- " mittee by Mr. Atkinson, and after an able vindication of " the officers and the committee of the union, put it to the " good sense of Mr. Atkinson, to withdraw his resolution, " to which Mr. Atkinson acceded, having learned that the " committee would present their quarterly report on the 2d " of February." Let us now analyse the above report. First, the speech of the mover was not " very lengthy," but it was long enough, and not too long, to convince more than a thousand people that the resolution was a good one, and necessary, not only as an act of justice to the members, but also to the purity and prosperity of the union, and to the spread of its moral influence, as an honest patriotic association ; and that this 126 IRELAND, was the opinion of the meeting 1 was clearly proved by its repeated plaudits, and its publicly expressed displeasure with the resistance of Mr. Walsh, who, notwithstanding that he is a vice-president, and highly popular, found himself so overpowered with the clamours of the people, that he turned towards the mover and said, " if Mr. Atkinson were address- ing himself to the meeting, I should endeavour to procure him a hearing, (which the mover did endeavour to do, and finally succeeded.) Now, concerning all this, which literally took place, the Freeman was profoundly silent, from which we justly infer that its object was to give a false and mutilated statement of the proceedings, and thereby to fix an erro- neous impression of this particular transaction upon the public mind; and whether the subject of discussion had much or little merit to recommend it to public notice, the coiTUpt principle of such a mode of reporting is precisely the same. MISREPRESENTATION THE SECOND. Mr. Walsh's speech on that occasion, was neither " for- cible" nor " impressive," since, with all his advantages of popularity, eloquence, and office, it did not cpnvince the meeting ; for if it had, he need not have applied to Mr. At- kinson to withdraw his motion, as a majority of votes in Mr. Walsh's favour would have floored the question. MISREPRESENTATION THE THIRD. Mr. Walsh did not " repudiate the charge of partiality and favouritism imputed to the committee by Mr. Atkinson," because Mr. Atkinson imputed no such thing to the com- mittee, of whose acts he knew nothing. His charge of cor- ruption and fraudulent dealing was made very plainly and homely against the press, for its wilful and corrupt oversight of the co-operative question ; and he also charged a tool of the leaders with having acted partially and corruptly in the chair ; all of which he w r as there ready to prove to their faces and he insinuated pretty plainly his opinion, that these cor- ruptions could not exist if the officers did their duty ; but THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES. 127 against the committee he made no charge whatever, as he knew nothing of their acts at that time ; and when the treasurer and others pressed him strongly to hecome a member of the committee, on the discussion of this question, he refused compliance, (not for want of inclination to serve his country, or the city of his birth,) but because he would not like to take office, or serve in any institution, great or small, that he did not think was founded upon just and open principles. MISREPRESENTATION THE FOURTH. Mr. Walsh's "vindication of the officers" was very far from being an " able" one. It did not take the neck of his brother Vice-president, the aforesaid Chairman, out of the halter of a true charge. His apology for the press, or his denial of the officers' connexions with it, or their accountabi- lity for the mode of reporting the proceedings of the union, came very suspiciously out of the mouth of a man who had volunteered his services as the advocate of the Freeman's Journal, in a quarrel with the president, and with this quarrel he had convulsed a large meeting of the union, very much against its will. The whole, in fact, of the Freeman's report above noticed, goes to give a totally false colouring to the transaction which it professes to represent, and if this has been the case in an affair of comparatively trifling interest, (as to be sure the public will regard it) how shall the reports of the most respectable journals in Dublin be depended upon in affairs of greater moment ? THE SECOND SPECIMEN OF CORRUPTION. So much for this first specimen of the purity of the Dublin press. Let us now notice another, in which Mr. Walsh himself was personally concerned, and the author of this work was not. We beg to inquire by what accident it hap- pened (we are not now referring to the Freeman, but to one or two other Liberals of the same batch] that in a meeting held a little before this time at Home's mart or hotel, in Dublin, on an i mportant public subject, that an exceedingly 128 IRELAND, "lengthy" speech of Mr. Barret, of the Pilot newspaper, should have been given in a full length portrait in the Register, and of course in the Pilot (they being chips of the same block, and printed and published in the same house), and that a speech of Mr. Walsh's on the same occasion, should have been shab'd off with a dry and empty compli- ment to its ability ! Was it that Mr. Barret's speech was full of meaning and Mr. Walsh's empty ? Not at all things do not go that way but as some speeches must be omitted in a large meeting where many speak, a selection is made according to the weight and importance of the speeches ? not at all but according to the weight and importance of the persons. And as a school master (that is Mr. Walsh's profession) does not weigh quite so heavy in the scale of public estimation as an Editor ; the honest conductor of the Pilot (as a matter of course, and one altogether well under- stood) thought it quite fair, in his report of this meeting, to shove Mr. Walsh out, and let himself in ; and consequently, we beg to inform the government, and all sticklers for place in the state, that if they imagine they have got a monopoly of the ins and the outs, they are quite mistaken ; since every little cabal in Dublin, in this particular, imitates their high example. In this meeting the speeches of Mr. O' Council, Mr. Henry Grattan, (the chairman) Mr. Curran, (son of the justly celebrated Curran) &c. were all regularly given, because they are all men of weight ; and next to them, in point of rank, was the Editor of the Pilot; and after justice had been done to all these, and the space allotted to the meeting filled up, poor Mr. Walsh, and another gentleman of some talent, were shoved out. So much then for the ins and the outs of this meeting. SPECIMEN THE THIRD. The third charge relates, neither to the concerns of Mr. Walsh, nor to those of the writer of this work ; but to a sub- ject of much more importance than either of their personal concerns ; namely, the misery and diseases propagated in THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES. 129 the city of Dublin, by the poverty and utter destitution of the working classes. . Dr. Orpen, apparently a gentleman of great humanity, and exceedingly well qualified to fill the office of medical inspector, to which he was appointed by the Irish government some years since, when a contagious distemper was raging in the city ; having, in the discharge of his duty, been brought into con- tact with more misery, filth, and infection, than he had anti- cipated, and finding the poor people whom he visited, unable even to procure the whey that was necessary as a vehicle to their medicine, published a report of the destitute state of the sick poor of Dublin in a pamphlet, in order if possible to draw the attention of the wealthy to their deplo- rable condition ; and vainly supposing that the Dublin press would enter heartily into his views, he ordered the type of his pamphlet to be kept standing, for the purpose of supply- ing copies, as a supplementary sheet to the newspapers, which, he very justly concluded, would be the best possible way of making the then existing condition of the sick poor known to the people who could relieve them. The news- paper men, however, had no idea of becoming godfathers to the poor, in the discharge of a duty for which they had no compensation to receive, save the approbation of Heaven ; and therefore instead of adopting 1 the Doctor's supplemen- tary sheet, and forwarding it to their subscribers in town, as he expected, one of them addressed to him a very " uncour- teous" letter, (this was the modest term given to that letter by the Doctor) and six of these gentlemen treated his appli- cation with silent contempt ! ! ! After this specimen of the virtue of the Dublin press, the public need not wonder at the other acts of illiberality, with which \ve are about to charge them ; and which in comparison of this piece of inhuman cruelty (and let it be recollected that Dr. Open, with an enormous salary of 50 a-year for his services, had printed and circulated a thousand pamphlets at his own expense, besides the money which he could not avoid giving out of his own pocket to the poor in extreme cases.) After K 130 IRELAND, this, we say, every other charge against that press sinks, in point of turpitude, into comparative insignificance. The eye of heaven has, however, marked the conduct of this press, and its providence will perhaps, at no distant day, prepare the elements of a just and impartial censorship for the cor- rection of its vices. We have often heard it said, that when fall out, honest men have some chance of coming by their own. Let the reader who believes that good may be brought out of evil, cast his eye over the following extract of a letter pub- lished in the Morning Register of September 25, 1832 ; and supposed to have been written by Mr. Costello, the presi- dent of the Trades Union, on the corrupt conduct of a Mr. Lavelle, the reputed proprietor of the Dublin Freeman's Journal. " I complain" said Mr. Costello, " that Mr. Lavelle suppressed all that portion of public meetings in which I bore a part, and this outrage upon the public, was committed under the influence of vile personal hatred. I do not pre- tend to attach any peculiar value to my sentiments, but they sometimes constituted a part of public proceedings, and he who wilfully suppresses mine, violates a principle in my person, which compromises every public man, and every pub- lic question. What one paper may do, many may conspire to do what would justify the wilful suppression of one man's name, would be applicable to another. Suppose a conspiracy of the press. There was a conspiracy of the Lon- don press against Mr. O'Connell, when he first entered the British parliament who can forget the natural, the just indignation of the Irish public ? Would the same thing be impracticable in Dublin, if all were actuated by the dark malignity of the Freeman ? There are but five papers in Dublin in the supposed interests of the people ; in fact but four the Pilot, Register, Comet, and Repealer, for I count the hollow trading treachery of the Freeman as worse than open hostility. Suppose, I say, the few papers in Dublin conspired, what public Irish measure could they not strangle ? what public man could they not render useless ? O'Connell THE PRESS AXD THE PARTIES. 131 himself; nay, Repeal of the Union might be strangled by suppression. Suppression produced the three days of Paris ; the crimes against public liberty of the despotic Charles and the infamous Polignac were not that they forced news- papers to publish sentiments contrary to the public wishes, but that they suppressed by forc^, sentiments conformable to the public wishes. What is the difference of injury to the people, whether it be the despot who tyrannically suppresses, or the editor who treacherously excludes ? If a newspaper publish a false statement, even that, bad as it is, gives an opportunity for detection ; but he who takes a newspaper, supposing he will have in it a faithful " brief chronicle of the times," has no resource against suppression, for he is plundered of knowledge, without suspecting the theft. Against every other editorial sin he may be guarded, but against suppression he has no resource. "The great, the capital sin of the press, then, is SUPPRES- SION ! ! ! It is unmixed, unpardonable, irredeemable trea- chery. " I have now gone as far as I thought necessary for my own vindication, and have studiously avoided personal recri- mination. It will, I know, be said by those who would be disposed to find fault with me, do what I would, that I ought not to assail a ' friend to the cause,' for this is the cant, and defence of myself will be called promoting disunion ; to this I answer that I was not the aggressor. " Those, too, who will now be most pathetic in deploring disunion, were never heard to complain of it, when slanders were day after day published against me, or when these slan- ders were the exciting cause of placing two lives in danger, one of them (for I say nothing of myself) justly popular, and if either had fallen, the editor of the Freeman would have been the murderer. No, there were then no complaints about causing disunion ; but now, when the aggressor is about (as my eloquent friend Mr. Reilly said) to fall into the pit he dug for me, then it is terrible to promote disunion. " But I deny that it is disunion between the friends of the 132 IRELAND, people. I don't call Mr. Lavelle a true friend to the people. He has not the honesty, and if he had, he has not the cha- racter of mind, to be a safe or able public guide. Nature gave him the powers and propensities of low cunning, under- plotting, and circumvention, but never endowed him with the expansion of mind to form a politician. " There cannot be a more striking illustration of his cha- racter, as a journalist, than his conduct on Repeal. " When reform was first introduced, and every wise man saw, and every honest man acted upon the principle of for- bearance upon Repeal, for the sake of Repeal itself, the Freeman continued to rave about the question ; but now, when the period is arrived when Repeal ought to be worked, he shrinks from the pledges. In the former case he availed himself of popular excitement, and his paper sold ; in the latter he will be liberally rewarded by the advertisements of the Irish candidates, who will, no doubt, be grateful to the paper that assists them to evade the pledges. " I have now done with the subject, defying my slanderer to sustain any charges against my public or private character. " I shall pass unheeded dark insinuations and scurrilous epithets ; but if a distinct charge be made, as I have refuted the past, so I shall triumphantly dispose of future calumnies. " I remain, Sir, your obedient servant, " MARCUS COSTELLO. " 10, College-green." SPECIMEN THE FOURTH. In the year 1822, when we had the honour of embarking the limited measure of our knowledge, and the liberal mea- sure of our love of justice, in that great question of church property reform, which now occupies the attention of the two countries (but which at that time was scarcely noticed by the Catholic interest of Ireland, and still less by the Pro- testant, to whom the tithe tax was so much less obnoxious.) About that time we published a Review of our country in London, under the title of" Ireland exhibited to England," THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES. 133 in two vols. and here an opportunity was presented, of form- ing a comparison between the liberality of the press of Lon- don, and that of Dublin, our native city. Every member of the former press, who received and retained a copy of that work, gave to the public, either a concise review of its cha- racter and objects, or such extracts from it as were calcu- lated to call the attention of their readers to the publication ; and they did so freely, without any other compensation save that of the books which had been submitted to their inspec- tion, and the pleasure which they derived from the discharge of a duty due to Ireland, and to the impartial and persever- ing labourer in the work of his country's regeneration. Now when the value of the columns of a London journal, the enormous expense at which they are got up, and the heavy duty with which an English paper is encumbered, are duly considered, the generous space devoted by these journalists to a work on Ireland, deserves acknowledgment, as an act of justice to the country, and of generous liberality to the labourer in her cause ; and the same acknowledgment is also justly due to the Liverpool Mercury and other papers, for their generous introduction of this work to the public view ; and eminently so, to a large proportion of the Irish pro- vincial press, which, without any distinction of high church or low church, or without stooping to consider the author's opposition to tithes or to priestcraft, freely lent their columns to his reviews of the country, and consequently, without any other compensation than that which their love of country, and the pleasure which they took in promoting the researches of an honest labourer in her service, afforded to their generous minds. On the author's return however from London to Dublin, (his native city) he submitted a copy of the aforesaid work, to the inspection of an old wily politician, at the head of n'tken very popular paper in the city ; and who (no doubt, as it served his purpose) was a great Catholic association man at that time; although since that period, he has been, by his quondam associates (" all honourable men," as Anthony said) distinguished by the delicate and lady-like cognomen of " a 134 IRELAND, pensioned renegade from his country's cause ! " but how far the honest man deserved this appellation, or whether he deserved it at all, we are not casuists enough to pronounce, and therefore leave the public to decide this question. Having presented our books with a low bow to this able manceuvrer, the gentleman received them with apparent politeness, and promised that justice should be done to the work, either by extract or review in his forthcoming numbers, (he knowing something of its character at that time from what he had read concerning it in the London papers.) The following post however brought his paper to the public, and the next post, and the post after, and many a succeeding post; until the author of the work perceiving the elements of which the Patriot's memory was composed, (somewhat similar to those promises of which Patriots complain, that are spoken to the ear and broken to the hope) he called at the office of the journalist, and resumed the possession of his books, as a hint to the man of letters, that although he had long travel- led in the Moon, and spent many a painful hour in clamber- ing over its hills and mountains, still he was not so ignorant of the business of this present world, as not to know that a material difference existed between meal and moonshine ; and having given this gentle hint to the old wily politician, he placed his books under his arm, and left the man of veracity and letters to the undisturbed enjoyment of his generous reflections. SPECIMEN THE FIFTH. The justice and liberality of the Dublin press, however, did not end here. We had devoted much time and attention to the collection of materials for a review of the value of church property in Ireland, and found, from the best infor- mation we could collect in our travels, that the value of the lands of several sees had been greatly underrated by Mr. Wakefield (the estimate in whose Irish tour was generally received in England as a standard of their value), more par- ticularly the primatical see of Armagh, put down in Mr. THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES. 135 Wakefield's estimate at 140,000 per annum : but which, if let without fines, like other farms, we had good authority for asserting, would bring a much larger annual income than the sum for which it had thus received credit in Mr. Wakefield's Tour. Agreeably to this information, we had an article prepared for publication in " Ireland exhibited to England," when a pamphlet appeared in London (appa- rently from the pen of a gentleman of extensive foreign connections,) which embraced, in a short statistical table, a comparison of the value of English church property, with that of all the other Christian states in the known world, (the value of the property of each state, with the number of the members of each church, being given in detail) and making the former ,44,000 per annum more than all the other kingdoms of Christendom put together ! Regarding this (as it was truly and laconically denominated to us, by a popular literary character in London) as a " smasher," we did not hesitate to make the Irish estimates of our own work (although we believe they were grounded, in some instances at least, upon better information than that of Mr. Wakefield, which had been adopted as the value of Irish church pro- perty in this universal estimate,) we did not, we say, what- ever conviction we might entertain of their greater accuracy, or whatever time and labour we had bestowed upon the collection of these estimates, hesitate to make them yield to the superior importance of that universal table, which was so much better calculated to prove the enormity of our church abuses, by a comparison of those abuses with the practice of other nations, than any separate report of Irish church property, however full or however accurate. We saw very clearly that this pamphlet, from the comprehensive nature of its plan, and the rare and unparallelled extent of information which it contained, had by an irresistible coup de main, laid prostrate that corrupt and oppressive image, which the utmost exertion of our energies could but barely touch. We therefore adopted it, regardless of the credit which might be fairly due to our previous researches on the 136 IRELAND, same subject; and 600 volumes of the work which we pub- lished in London, (with the statistical table of the church property of Christendom, copied into our pages, under the head of " Tithes,") arriving- in Dublin soon after, the sta- tistical table alluded to was obviously pirated from thence by divers of the Dublin journals, for we never saw a single copy of the pamphlet from which we extracted it, on sale in Ireland. Nor should we blame the newspaper press of Dublin for a piracy of this nature, where the object was the public good, had they candidly acknowledged, as we did, the name and publisher of the work in London, to which they were indebted for the important information they had received. But this would be giving the author of that work the credit of his industry and love of justice ; and conse- quently, as two advantages were derivable from the conceal- ment of his name and books, that of robbing a heretic of his merit, and clothing our own jackdaws with the plumes which we had stolen from his books, we, the Dublin liberal newspaper press, knew our business too well to introduce his anti-priestcraft pages to the notice of the Irish public through our columns, by any such act of justice; no, not even although the mines of India had been conveyed, through these vicious and heretical compositions, to the poor of Ireland ! But the evil did not end here; for on perceiving the proofs of the piracy that had been committed, and the total silence of the Dublin press as to the name of the premises from whence the goods had been stolen, we drew up a few lines explanatory of the casej and in some years after presented them for publication to a swaggering mock-liberal in the north, who declared " ''pon his honor" the home charge should appear in his next number. The fellow, however, forgot his honor in the hurry of his press, or in the cunning of his policy, or perhaps in the paper battles in which he was soon afterwards engaged, and which he pompously exhibited under the heads of No. 1, 2, 3, 4, &c. as answers to the messages of a brother journalist whose fire he avowed himself ready to meet on any ground, Irish or Scotch, that THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES. 137 was safe and tenable, when the preliminaries of war had been fairly and finally arranged. Thus was the home charge lost sight of in the prevalence of the printer's honor, and in the hurry of the duelling bombast in which he was thus pompously engaged. SPECIMEN THE SIXTH. We next come to a pamphlet which we published in the spring of 1830, (and now republish in this work) in the form of a letter to the King, on the subject of a local parliament in Ireland for purposes of domestic improvement. Mr. Mor- gan, of the Newry Examiner (a good judge), who read this letter soon after it came forth, gave the substance of its facts and doctrines to the Ulster public, in a very long article in a succeeding number of that able and talented journal which he conducts ; but although copies of the same letter were pre- sented to two or three members of that called the liberal press of Dublin, who were all strong advocates for a local parliament in Ireland, yet we never saw a single extract from, or com- ment upon it, in any of the journals of that city, notwith- standing their zealous advocacy of the question which that pamphlet espoused. Now if any honest and independent Irishman, who is sufficiently acquainted with the affairs of his country, and of sufficiently masculine understanding to trample the mean bigotries of his religion under foot, will read that letter to the King with calm attention, and with a just consideration of the persons, and their principles, for whom it was intended, he will soon discover whether the effort which we then made, to defend the rights and liberties of Irishmen against the monopolies which oppress them, deserved to be rejected, because Popery (as a bugbear in the Protestant eye) had been handled with as little ceremony as any other topic in that letter. Through the whole course of our public labours, it has been our constant aim to stand upon the centre of the beam of justice, and in all we said or wrote, to preserve the equi- 138 IRELAND, librium, and protest against a preponderance of corruption upon either side. But this is a course that will not do in Ireland ; where, if Aristides should rise from his grave, and come to settle, he would vainly expect that his justice would prove an all-powerful passport to the favour of our leaders, or our press. Being a liberal in our politics, and in our religion a Protestant of so determined a stamp, that we protest against Popery and persecution in all churches, we made it a point of duty to speak and write, as we thought and acted. This is what we call LIBERTY; nobly granted to the people by English law, but rejected (in practice, and falsely professed in theory,) by a large proportion of those Irishmen at the head of our cabals, who loudly clamour for what they call EVEN-HANDED JUSTICE ! ! This, however, is a species of justice, that, if we possessed the power, we would grant to all the men, and all the nations in the world. We would allow them to speak for themselves in courteous language, through every visible medium of communication with their country ; and thus speaking, we would not con- spire, by fraud or foul play of any kind, to drown their voices ; no, not even although these voices might be con- scientiously directed against the subversion and overthrow of our own principles! And why? because if these prin- ciples are wrong, they deserve to be overthrown ; and if right, they are indestructible, and cannot be extinguished. THE SEVENTH AND LAST SPECIMEN, (being exactly a charge for every star placed as a guard around the Moon, while passing through the hells of Dublin.) We now proceed to the last specimen of the spirit of the Dublin press, with which we shall trouble the reader in this brief outline ; and we do so the more freely, because it pre- sents us with an opportunity of offering a tribute of respect to the memory of one of the most amiable and liberal men that we ever saw connected with the press of Dublin ; we mean the late Thos. Power, Esq., Editor of the Freeman's Journal. THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES. 139 This gentleman, when the Brunswickers of Dublin (at the meeting already noticed) not only refused us a fair hearing, but were on the point of proceeding to acts of personal violence, until a peace-officer stepped up to do his duty, spiritedly published our defence in a long article of two columns in the Journal just noticed, although, (as Mr. H. a gentleman of unfortunate celebrity in the newspaper his- tory of Dublin, and then the editor of a journal in that city, well observed) "no other newspaper in Dublin would have published that article, even as an advertisement, for ten guineas." ! ! If this assertion was correct, (and Mr. H. had a good right to know the press of which he spoke,) the inference, in reference to the character of the Dublin press, of the factions by which it is supported, and in reference to the dignity of that mind, which had the spirit and the virtue to bid defiance to their corruption, is self-evident. Power was a Catholic who thought and acted upon his own judgment. In an article in the Freeman, evidently directed against religious bigotry, and intended to promote a spirit of charity among Christians, he exhibited a disposi- tion to receive as true, the doctrine of Origen, one of the Fathers (contrary to the creed of his own church), that future punishment would not be eternal ! This was the man, who when the author of this work was assailed in a bigoted and violent assembly of the professors of his own religion, did not fear to publish his defence in the form of an appeal to the Protestants of Ireland. He knew that the author of this appeal was no bigot, and that in labouring to soften down the prejudices of the sects, and to promote a generous amal- gamation of all parties in the state (the only foundation upon which Irish prosperity can be built) he was discharging a paramount duty to the state and to his country. Thus believing, and believing so upon good ground, the editor of the Freeman did not hesitate to publish the whole of that appeal in the writer's own language, notwithstanding the Pope and his religion were treated with as little ceremony in it, as any other system and its supporters, that the writer of 140 IRKLAND, the appeal believed to have been essentially corrupted. This was Power's act ; it evinced what we well knew before, that no narrow bigotry, no secret sentiment of injustice, prepon- derated in his noble mind ; and were we to discover the same divine spark of justice in the Jew, or in the act of the poor Indian, "whose untutored mind Sees God in clouds, or hekrs him in the wind." we would pay no attention to the form of the casket, whe- ther rude or polished, in which the jewel was enclosed, but would honour the diamond for its intrinsic value ; and when dropping a tear upon the tomb where all that was earthly of that diamond lay, we would offer an aspiration to Heaven, that when purified from the dregs of nature with which it had been associated in this earthly mine, that its divine author would place it as a shining gem in the crown of that kingdom, into which no base metal, however emblazoned with the flowers of literature, will ever enter. To conclude. The spirit of faction in Ireland, to which the press of Dublin necessarily bows, has proved equally hostile to truth and freedom. To truth, because it is arrested in its progress by corrupt interests, and by a press, which has been placed by its spiritual and political controllers, as a partial eclipse upon the source of light. To freedom, because the mind is fettered in its operations by the preva- lence of religious bigotry, by the more than Algerine des- potism of the civil and ecclesiastical leaders of the factions, and by a consciousness that offence will be taken when it is not intended to be given, and that final injustice will be done. To make true reports of all public proceedings is the obvious duty of a periodical press ; but whether its reports are a faithful echo of what passes in review before it, and its selections determined by the sense and soundness of speeches and writings, or by the wealth, rank, and popularity of speakers and writers, let the public judge. To deceive the country with regard to what is passing, to THE PRESS AND THE PARTIES. 141 suppress important truths, because they were written or delivered by proscribed persons; to give false or garbled reports, or even lying impressions of the manifestations of public feeling; are all high crimes and misdemeanors against the moral and intellectual interests of the common- wealth. If all the frauds of this kind that have bay one hundred pence for the pleasure which he thus enjoys ! It is pretty plain therefore, that this honest corporation is no respecter of persons ; and that in its administration of justice it spares neither horse nor foot. And as it knows no distinction of persons, neither does it understand any dis- tinction of times. If you pay turnpike at any gate on the King's high road in Ireland, you may pass and repass fifty times through the same gate on the same day, without any far- ther expense; but the corporation of Deny do not understand this vulgar consideration of days and times; and therefore, to save trouble and cut short all accounts, they make one inva- riable rule, from which they never permit themselves to depart, and that is, that so often as you want their bridge, they want your money, and if you do not like their prices you need not touch their goods. The point being thus settled, and all farther discussion with the toll-man about the various times of day when you paid this tax before, being found useless, you push your hand once more into your threadbare pocket, pull out your toll, present it with a sour face to the collector, and then go grumbling over the bridge. As to the ancient history of this maiden city ; its spirited resistance of James II., (whose system of RELIGIOUS LIBERTY is now British law,) its gallantry in a protracted siege ; the unrivalled heroism of its " prentice boys," and SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 255 the magnanimity of governor Walker, " whose praise is in all the churches ;" they are all so well known and so well celebrated in Derry, as to be incapable of deriving any aux- iliary fame from " vain repetition." The scenery of the city being of a more peaceful character than its siege, has been less noticed ; but the validity of its claims to distinction in the picturesque of Irish towns, is not the less certain ; for we know of no town in Ireland of the same dimensions, that commands the same number of pic- turesque views, in the same compact form. One or two of these rich views of the Foyle, and of the seats and scenery beyond it, are visible in your passage through the streets of the city ; and from a position on the ramparts (which form a delightful promenade around the town,) near governor Walker's statue, and within five minutes walk of the very centre of the city, there is as splen- did a view of lawn and water to the distant mountains, with villas sparkling in the space, as any eye delighting in the sublime and beautiful of art and nature need covet to enjoy. This city has the advantage of divers useful institutions, and a few public buildings of decent appearance ; but it is neither large nor splendid ; and appears much more remark- able for its attention to business than for its devotion to amusements, with which many towns of inferior note are more liberally supplied. There are two weekly papers pub- lished here, one of which, called " The Sentinel," (edited by Mr. Wm. Wallen, a very worthy inhabitant of this town,) is the principal journal of the district, and as such, is received and supported by almost all the leading gentlemen in the counties of Derry and Donegal. But of the few use- ful institutions of which this little city may boast, there is none perhaps that has rendered more general service to the inhabitants, or done more credit to the corporation, than the excellent and well regulated markets which are there established. There is scarcely any thing necessary for the supply of a gentleman's table that cannot be procured here at the proper season ; and in this particular (if a good deed 256 COUNTY OF LONDONDERRY, can atone for an evil one) the corporation have made valua- ble compensation to the citizens of Deny for the heavy exactions of their bridge. Deny is probably the third town of trade in the province of Ulster; Belfast, the first; and Newry, we believe, the second. These are the three principal sea poi't-towns in the pro- vince of Ulster; and it is a somewhat singular feature in their history, that Belfast, which is the youngest, and was the last to make its appearance in the world as a town of trade, is now the commercial capital of the province ; thus fulfilling that scriptural prediction, " the last shall be first, and the first last." Before we left Derry, we heard of an improvement intended to render service to the shipping interest of the city, that was about to be erected on the western bank of the river Foyle, by Messrs. P. Skipton and Co., respectable merchants of that town. It is called a patent slip, intended for the accommodation of vessels, when undergoing repairs preparatory to a voyage. It is said to be in general use both in England and Scotland, but had not been attempted here, until the Messrs. Skipton paid a considerable sum to the patentee, (merely because they reside in Ireland !) for permission to compete with the proprietors of similar esta- blishments in the sister countries. So much then for the liberality with which Ireland is treated by those countries, in every transaction in which her commerce is concerned, notwithstanding that she has the name (but it is the name only) of being an integral part of that United Kingdom, in which there was nothing to be known, after the act of Union, but equal and impartial justice ! SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 257 THE FARM. (With a critique upon the nomenclature of our seats.) This is the seat of Sir Robert Ferguson, Bart. M. P. for the city of Londonderry ; and in introducing it to the notice of our readers, we cannot but express a wish that the names by which Irish seats are distinguished, would be found, upon examination, to bear some relation to the natural history of each place, its local position, the prospect which it commands, the family which founded it, ihe trans- actions which distinguished it, or even to the ancient name of the parish or town land in which it stands ; since it some- times happens that very beautiful productions of the finger of art and nature in this country, are not only destitute of any such reference or connection, but give the lie direct to their own topographical distinctions, notwithstanding these are as open and pervious to the eye of the pass- ing stranger as to that of a civil engineer, a landscape gardener, or even the every day observation of the inhabi- tant of a hundred moons. Let us advert, from memory, to a few examples of the blunders of this kind that are so fre- quently to be met with in Ireland (and perhaps in England also, if we were equally well acquainted with its seats.) And first, we shall notice Casi[e-hill, Fruit-hill, and Pros- pect- hill, as names most correct and appropriate for seats standing near the bottom of a valley ! those of Mount Pros- pect and Mount Vernon, for seats (no matter how beautiful when situated on a plain,} in which there is neither hill nor MOUNT to interrupt the deathlike reign of a tame level ! That of Woodview, to a residence which has no wood in prospect ! Harmony-hall, where there may be much har- mony or little, but certainly no Hall of that antique castle splendor that would justify the assumption of this name, (thus forcing upon the imagination, which is ready enough to derive amusement from these swelling titles, that lo\v and vulgar proverb, though sharp enough, " every man thinks his own crow the whitest,") besides various other ridiculous s 258 COUNTY OF LONDONDERRY, cognomens, for which you would in vain endeavour to dis- cover an analogy between the name and the thing intended to be described.* The origin of a name so simple, for a seat standing so well over the river Foyle, and commanding such a view of Lon- donderry as " The Farm" does, requires some explanation ; and this explanation we shall give as we received it from a gentleman, a native of Derry, who professed to have an intimate acquaintance with the circumstances out of which the title arose. " The first possessor of this farm in the Ferguson family," said our informant, " was Dr. Ferguson, grandfather of the present proprietor (and a practising physician in the town of Derry) , who held it, perhaps with a view to his future residence when he should retire from practice, but more immediately for the accommodation, which, as a farm, it afforded to his town establishment ; and having occupied it in this capacity for many years, it was very naturally desig- nated 'the farm,' by the family." Hence, if the Doctor were going out there, he would probably say, " I am going to the farm ;" " if I am wanted, you will find me at the farm," &c. and this, so long as it remained in the exclusive capacity of a farm to the town establishment, was veiy well ; but when built on, planted, improved, and rendered a most respectable residence, this was no longer a proper title, and should have been made to yield to a name more perfectly cor- * In reference to the titles of " Hall," " Harmony-hall," &c., (which have been applied to edifices of very moderate dimensions, very modern taste, and pure from the slightest vestige of the ancient gothic architecture) we beg to observe, that the Halls in our ancient castles, being celebrated in history as LARGE AND DISTINGUISHED APARTMENTS, the scene of the Baron's armour and of his family festivities, where he and his noble guests, after the feast of hospitality, enjoyed the song of the bard and the music of the minstrel, celebrating the achievements of warriors and the softer victories of love ; the title, properly bestowed upon such apartments, cannot be applied without obvious absurdity to a plain country villa, having a hall of simple appearance, unappropriated to festive exercises, of very limited dimensions, and whose exclusive office, is that of opening a free communication to the other apartments of the building. SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 259 responding with its new and regenerated character, and more exalted destination. In this capacity, even " Farm-lodge," (though much beneath the legitimate claims of the country seat of the late chief magistrate, and now member for the city of Derry,) would have been a slight improvement, as would also Deny Lodge, Landscape Lodge, Mount Ferguson, Mount Prospect, Foyle View, Town View, Derry View, and many other names that would bear some relation to the position, prospect, and other associations of the place, and certainly would be more in harmony with its character, as a seat nobly elevated above the Foyle, and enjoying a fine pros- pect of the city, and as the residence of a gentleman closely connected with its interests, than that of a cognomen com- mon to every farm in the country ; and which, obstinately and illegitimately to retain, in violation of all the laws of language, looks like an unjustifiable trespass upon the rights of the honest farmers, who are justly jealous of their titles; to say nothing of the insult which it oilers to the compilers of our dictionaries, who have laboured in vain to draw lines of demarkation between chateatis, castles, cottages, parishes, parks and paddocks, estates, demesnes and farms, if their fences are thus to be thrown down, at the will and pleasure of every gentleman who may choose to set law and order at defiance ! We have a very high respect, both for the public character and private virtues of the proprietor of this seat, (for we are not ignorant how deeply the invaluable seminary at Temple Moyle, and we believe other patriotic institutions in the North-west district, are indebted for their success to his exertions,) but no tribute of praise which may be justly due to him on these grounds, shall make us swerve from that strict line of impartiality which we wish to observe, on every subject that affects either the honour or the accuracy of our country. He must therefore excuse us, if we have made a little free with his farm hobby ; as a reference to these corruptions of reason may contribute, with other causes, to direct the attention of the country to that 260 COUNTY OF LONDONDERRY, just and natural connection between NAME and THING, which should never be lost sight of in the nomenclature of our seats, as the primitive history of NAMES and THINGS abundantly evinces ; in proof of which we refer to the period of creation, when man had neither shame nor sin ; and con- sequently had neither a proud heart nor a blind understand- ing to corrupt or to befool his titles. Having now discharged our duty to this prevalent abuse, we shall proceed to the POSITION AND PROSPECT OF "THE FARM," (If we must so denominate it.) The Farm is situated on the shore road, which opens a direct communication from the city of Londonderry, by the water edge, towards the village of Muff, (not that already noticed near Templemoyle, in the county of Derry, but a village of the same name in the county of Donegal.) To the traveller on this road, the house, lawn, and plantations, proudly elevated above the river, develope their congregated beauties in a front view ; and being situated within a short drive or pleasant walk of two English miles from the city, the Farm unites its charms with those of other distinguished seats and public buildings, to regale the eye of the traveller, and to constitute the shore road an interesting promenade to the citizens of Derry. There are other approaches to the city of Deny by no means destitute of interest; more particularly that from Newtownlimavady, which passes through the estates of two of the London companies already noticed ; but whatever claims these roads and properties may have to the attention of the patriot and political economist, whose researches are directed to the great and paramount purpose of national improvement; in reference to the less useful, but more amusing department of the picturesque, no road in the neighbourhood of Derry can compete with that which opens a communication between the city and the Farm. As a walk or drive from the town it stands pre-eminent; the SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 261 broad waters of the river Foyle, with the various vessels which pass and repass to the city of Deny, being situated on the right; a country gently elevated, richly cultivated, and decorated with public buildings and picturesque villas, on the left ; the road over which you are passing, smooth and in good order, accommodated with a neat foot path for pedestrians, and enlivened with numerous vehicles and pas- sengers (among which latter the pretty figures and dresses of the country belles, with their ribbands and flounces floating in the breeze, might communicate a solitary ray of sunshine even to the stoic's eye) and the whole scenery of the city and neighbouring country in this direction, being grouped in a valley thus richly embellished, watered by the Foyle, and enclosed by the lofty mountains of Donegal and Derry, altogether constitute this rural promenade so pleasing and picturesque, as to cover the timid cheek of Description with a blush of conscious incompetency, when called by her country to the difficult task of imbuing the imagination of her reader with a correct resemblance of the beauties of the living scene. These are the objects which grace the communication between Derry and the Farm, and which constitute the principal features of the rich and picturesque landscape comprehended in the prospect from this seat. There is one view, however, which may be considered as more peculi- arly its own. The larger or more open country which we have just attempted to describe, may be seen to equal or superior advantage from the loftier lands above the house, and from other elevated positions in the neighbourhood of the river; but that which THE ATTIC OF THE HOUSE commands, over the crystal bosom of the Foyle, to the city of Derry, standing on a noble hill, is peculiarly its own. In a lofty and open prospect from a field in the demesne, considerably elevated above the house, (and which, as being devoted to the exercise of the troops of the garrison, should be called " the parade,") you see a large tract of country before you, extending to the mountains ; but in the view 262 COUNTY OF LONDONDERRY, from the attic of the house, the eye passing through a close defile over the crystal surface of the Foyle, to the rich cluster of beauties in THE CITY SCENE, grouped upon a noble hill which terminates the prospect; and fastened upon this scene with irresistible force by the lofty enclosures of the defile through which the eye passes, and which exclude all distant and distracting objects, the rush of pic- turesque beauty upon the organ of vision in this single scene is so perfectly overwhelming, that the hand would be in danger of involuntarily extending itself to burn the canvas that would attempt to represent it ; while the utmost effort of Description, in her highest state of wealth, being utterly incompetent to do it justice; she would be seen sitting down upon the bank of the river in a posture of despair, and yielding with reluctant pride the palm of victory to nature ! DOMESTIC IMPROVEMENTS. Descending from the parade to the public road, you enter through the gate to the house over a neatly sanded walk, through a tolerably dense plantation of beech, fir, and oak, planted about thirty years since; and which, considering the comparative exposure of this tract of country to winds unfavourable to the growth of timber, have made a tolerably good progress. To high perfection they certainly have not arrived, and probably never will ; but still as they are both ornamental and valuable, and in connexion with the more extended and more lightly sporting plantations upon the elevated lands above them, contribute to enrich and beautify the demesne, and to constitute this seat a more eminently interesting feature in the scenery of the river and of the shore road to Muff, than would have been possible had the place been destitute of wood ; the patriot who surveys his country for the valuable purpose of promoting its internal improvement, and drawing the attention of an opulent people to its history, will not forget to produce this proof to the owners of the surrounding mountains, that oak will grow in certain aspects in the region of Lough Foyle (and SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 263 in the argillaceous soils of Lough Neagh, they have arrived to a perfection fit for building ships of war), and conse- quently that even the mountain districts (exclusively of their mineral wealth, which we have yet to learn) might be made to produce a very different income to the purchasers of land here, from that which they now produce to the pro- prietors in their wild and implanted state. Having left this little dense plantation behind you in your approach to the house, the prospect opens upon the left, to the hill already noticed as the parade, surmounted by a light and extensive screen of ornamental trees the whole way along the summit. Under the shade of this lofty screen, a number of milch cows of the long horned Irish breed were grazing on the surface of the soil, which descends in a glacis towards the house; and had the pro- prietor felt disposed to have divided that portion of his lawn, by a sunk fence the whole way across the hill, and to have converted the section uniting with the pleasure ground and the approach, into a deer park lightly stocked with those flippant animals, it would, in our humble opinion, have been a very ornamental appendage to his demesne, although certainly not so profitable as the use to which it is now appropriated. THE HOUSE, ETC. The dwelling-house stands at a moderate distance from the road. It approaches towards the form of a square, and is an edifice of respectable appearance, with a noble portico in the Grecian style, and a commodious balcony above it. The apartments, though not extremely large, are very good, and the views from the principal rooms, picturesque and pleasant (as may be inferred from the description already given of the city scene, in the prospect from its attic). That portion of the lawn, which approximates with the house and the approach, may be regarded as the pleasure ground, being decorated with fancy flower knots, accommodated with nicely sanded walks, and taken in connection with the 264 COUNTY OP LONDONDERRY, lofty parade (encircled with a light plantation) and with the house, garden, &c., may be considered as constituting the tout ensemble of the home view. SOIL AND MEASUREMENT. The soil, from the best information we could collect, is composed of a stiff cold clay on a substratum of slaty gravel ; and the slaty colour of the sanded walks corresponds with this description of the subsoil. It contains no indications of the existence of mineral wealth that we could learn, and is destitute of lime, the mineral of most value to the farmer; but as a grass farm, it is excellent, and with proper cultiva- tion and manure, produces good crops of barley and oats. Mr. Me Clintock, the proprietor of a pretty little seat (called Greenhaw) in the neighbourhood of the farm, informed us that wheat of good quality, and a full average crop, has been produced upon his land. We made farther enquiry into the capabilities of the soil of this neighbourhood for the production of wheat, and this was the amount of our infor- mation, namely, that this section of the country, generally, contains a soil not well suited to that heavy grain, although sound wheat may be produced from certain loamy farms ; but that the very best which these lands will grow, is less profitable to the miller than the wheat of the southern dis- tricts, the husk being much thicker, and consequently the quantity of meal produced from the same weight of grain ? much less. The lands of Greenhaw lie lower than those of the farm, and are perhaps more rich and loamy; for upon no other principle can we account for the difference between these farms, as they so closely approximate. In this respect, low lands descending towards the banks of rivers, receive ample compensation in their loam for their loss of prospect. For heavy crops, and feeding heavy stock, they are infinitely superior to the lofty lands above them; and hence for the farmer and heavy grazier, the fat and marrowy soils on the banks of the Boyne, the Slaney, and the Shannon (but particularly in the southern district SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 265 of the last river) are by far the most profitable tracts of feeding- ground in the whole of Ireland. Nature, in her admirable economy, has so distributed her benefits, that no single portion of her works is supplied with all; and from no single portion is every benefit excluded. We need not go to the torrid and frigid zones, to shew that the most opposite climates are thus favoured, for the proofs are every where ; and among the rest they are found in the lands just noticed. And, in reference to the natural history of these, we may observe, that light hilly lime stone soils are generally sound sheep walks ; and in a wet climate, or a wet season in a dry one, are the best corn soils ; and yet they would not do for heavy wheat crops, neither would they bring heavy beef cattle to perfection. The Farm embraces 110 acres of demesne, thus highly cultivated, planted, and improved ; but whether the mea- surement be English, Irish, or Scotch, we did not learn. Its distance from Londonderry, which is the post town to it, we have already noticed. BALLYNAGUARD. (Query to the Farming Societies Poem on the Broad Oak Remarks on the Criminal Laws.) That respectable feature of the liberties of Londonderry, known by the name of Ballynaguard, constitutes the present residence of Captain John Hart, and at the period of our visit, was the property of his father, the late General Hart, Governor of Londonderry and Culmore, and for many years one of the representatives in parliament for the County of Donegal. It stands on the line of road already noticed in our description of the Farm, nearly midway between that seat and the village of Muff, in the County of Donegal, and Londonderry is the post town to it. The communication from this city to the seat upon which we have now entered, is, consequently, through the same interesting country as that already noticed in our description of the Farm ; but in 266 COUNTY OF LONDONDERRY, addition to the beauties of the Foyle, the Farm, and the other objects already described, the distinguished seats of Broom- hall, Brookhall, and Thornhill, enrich the succeeding pros- pect, upon one side; and a tract of country moderately elevated, and richly cultivated and improved, extends the whole way from the city of Deny to Ballynaguard, upon the other. The aspect of this seat on entering the demesne (which stands enclosed by a stone wall upon the right, as you approach it from Derry by the shore road) is striking, and in this district of the city is peculiar to itself, as it presents to the eye a fine wild prospect of mountain and water, an ancient Danish fort, the ruins of a church, a military fort and village (on a narrow tongue of land, which projects a considerable distance into the river, and with its several buildings, constitutes an interesting object in the front view.) A dwelling-house, which, though not sufficiently elevated to command a view of the city, nevertheless contains apattments, large, lofty, and luminous ; and, in connection with a few necessary improvements in plantation and gardening around it, possesses every necessary accommodation for health and pleasure.* A demesne,with much indeed of the beauty of wild nature in its prospect, but exhibiting very little of the studied formalities of art, although a site for an edifice exists on an elevated position above the river, on which the god of science might have reared an edifice that would have commanded the homage of the country, in addition to a fine and flatter- ing prospect of Londonderry and the intervening landscape, of which the present dwelling-house is totally deprived. * According to onr information, the ancient church of Culmore (whose ruins are above noticed,) was occupied by the Duke of Berwick's horse regiment, as a stable, during the siege of Derry ; and having been completely dismantled, was never since rebuilt. The lands of Ballynaguard were also occupied by a portion of King James' army, it being a formidable position for the prevention of any fleet sailing up the river. The old military fort of Culmore, (above noticed) with the adjoining houses, assuming the appearance of a viliagc, are said to have been repaired and rendered habitable by the late governor, General Hart. SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 267 Thus cheered with a view of Derry, in connection with the river Foyle and the distant mountains, Ballynaguard would have connected with the wild and interesting beauties of its present view, all the charms of that richly decorated city scene, upon which some other seats in this fine district have so largely drawn in favour of their own beauty. The demesne of Ballynaguard is limited to about 100 Conyngham acres ; and yet from its connection with a land and water scene in the front view, extending much beyond the narrow boundaries of its own dominion, the mind receives that kind of impression which is necessarily com- municated by the prospect of an open and extensive terri- tory. But such is the power of nature, when she chooses to exert it on the eye and imagination, that the narrow boundaries of individual possession, and the limited works of art, are all forgotten ; and the fancy, carried captive by the spacious lake and the distant mountain, and the bold promontory, and the blue horizon, forgets that she is standing upon a limited spot of earth, and that the works of nature upon which she is thus fondly pondering, are not in any other manner an appendage to the property which provides her with this feast, than as the heavens are the property of the astronomer, because by his faculties of intellect and vision, he is enabled to take a peep into the order, harmony, and stupendous magnitude of distant spheres.* NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SOIL. IMPROVEMENTS. The soil of Ballynaguard, (in its primitive state,) was soft, spewy, and retentive of water ; but by proper cultivation, and an admirable system of draining (executed by the late John Hart, Esq.) it is now comparatively dry, and eminently * Those who are desirous of having a good front view of Ballynaguard, would do well to take their position on the lands of Coolkeiragh, the property of Major Young, on the opposite bank of the river Foyle. It is the only true position for taking a front view, or a good drawing of the house and lawn of Ballynaguard. 268 COUNTY OF LONDONDERRY, productive ; bearing, as the Captain informed us, a rotation of five successive crops without secondary manure ! Towards the south, it is composed of good black earth ; and in the north-west direction, a stratum of clay exists, adapted to the manufacture of pottery-ware, and the useful purpose of a brick walk. That called the Quarter-land, which is situated on the west, is reputed to be a productive gravel soil, though of late years much impoverished by an exhausting succes- sion of crops, usual to the tenants in this country when the termination of their lease approaches. For this evil we know of no remedy, save that of gentlemen stocking and culti- vating their own lands; or otherwise giving such liberal encouragement to tenants of character and capital, by mode- rate rents, and good leases, as will make it their interest to improve. In any other way, it is vain to expect that the landlord's and the tenant's interests can be brought into a happy and harmonious amalgamation. Trees thrive very well in the low and sheltered soils of this demesne ; but on the elevated positions, which are too bleak for tender plants, the oak only will grow ; but even this tree will not arrive at the perfection of which it is capable in more favourable soils and climates. The argil- laceous soils on the banks of Lough Neagh, are perhaps the best in Ireland, for developing the capabilities of this noble tree. In " Ireland exhibited to England," we gave a spe- cimen, upon indisputable authority, of an oak tree (called the royal oak,) which grew there, that produced to the pro- prietor, between 100 and 150 ! This tree, then, in the soils which are suited to it, is well worth cultivating. Nor was this the only instance of the enormous growth of oak in the region of Lough Neagh. In addition to the above, we also published the history of another tree (called the broad oak,) which covered an area with its branches, of twenty-two yards in diameter! These two specimens of Irish oak being so very remarkable, and the former being denominated the royal oak, we appointed the latter to SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 269 be his Majesty's prime minister; and in these capacities, made them the subject of two separate rhymes, in the work just noticed, which happened to make its appearance in London, a little after the late Lord Castlereagh had put a period to his existence ; and from this event, which com- municated a solemn sensation to the public mind in London at that time, the rhyme composed on the prime minister of the royal oak, appears to have derived a tone of solemnity, which in other circumstances, would scarcely have influenced the composition of such a subject. This broad oak too, was, in some sort, emblematic ; for it grew to an ENORMOUS SIZE, and having been chipped with a turf spade and absorbed moisture, it was found rotten at the heart when it fell beneath the axe ; and hence, in comparison of its service in a sound and healthful state, it was of little value to the owner. As this work, in its passage through families of various classes of rank and taste, may fall into the hands of some individuals who have a penchant for rhyme of a grave description, (we know too well what poetry is, to call dog- gerel by so high a name,) we shall, as we are on the subject of trees, submit the above stanzas on the broad oak to their inspection. If they have nothing else to recommend them to attention, the moral which they contain, will at least prove the author's apology to the friends of virtue and his country, for their republication. THE BROAD OAK. And thou who, next in princely rank, With almost royal splendour shone; How was it, e'er thy time was come, The forest heard thy hollow moan ? It seems corruption seiz'd thy heart, Infus'd itself thro' all thy pow'rs No more thou shadest weary man, Or guards him from descending show'rs. 270 COUNTY OF LONDONDERRY, Slow was the process, yet 'twas sure ! By which thy pride was prostrate laid; Thy coat of mail was pierced thro', And poison issued from the spade. The poison'd spade was not content To rob thee of thy days and hours, Thro' every pore the poison went, And deeply tainted all thy pow'rs. Prostrate thou lay thy crown was fall'n ! Inglorious on thy sotfreign's ground ; All nature trembled with the stroke, And a deep silence reign' d around. The trees assembled to behold Thy opeh'd heart in awful plight, How deeply rotten all was there, The forest trembled at the sight ! And oh ! can honour's lofty pride, And virtue's more endearing name, Be poison'd by a Stygian smoke, Deep issuing from a secret flame ? Alas ! 'tis true the loftiest tree, The purest in the forest's range, May sink beneath corruption's pow'r, And feel a sad and awful change. The demon's tool may touch its bark, The poison may diffuse its pow'r ; The fire, commencing with a spark, May lay it prostrate in an hour. And art thou, tree, to us a sad And awful moral in the shade ? If so, how deep thy warning voice To loftier trees above the glade. If fell corruption taint our pow'rs, If we betray our sacred trust, The forest must corrupted fall, Or lay us prostrate in the dust. SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 271 " One sickly sheep infects a flock," One tainted tree corrupts the glade ; The axe must do its office then, 'Tis better than the poison'd spade. CORRUPTION'S FALL is VIRTUE'S LIFE, No virtue with its power can dwell, >r Tis better that one tree lie low, Than that a forest burn in h 1. Emblem of congregated inen, As thou, O tree, of ruthless pow'r ; Convey your moral to the fools, Who barb the dart of life's short hour ! On gentle gales your warning voice Convey to Britain's loftiest soil ; And teach her ministers to spread Their shadow o'er a nation's toil. So shall their roots strike deep in peace ; So shall their top towards heav'n ascend Then may the watchman cut them down, Ripe for a calm and glorious end. We have already laboured, in many essays, to turn the attention of the landed interest of Ireland to the planting of their mountains; and have produced some proofs of their adaptation to the growth of oak in divers districts of the Irish coast. This timber also has these peculiar recommen- dations, that it is of a hardy substance, and even if it should not arrive at full perfection, still being exclusively applica- ble to boat and ship building of the smaller craft, as also to the manufacture of divers vessels for mercantile and other purposes, to which no other timber is equally well adapted, it will always bring a remunerating price to the mountain planter, whose property, both in value and appearance, must derive considerable augmentation from this equally useful and ornamental species of improvement. Several very handsome stone and slated houses, two 272 COUNTY OF LONDONDERRY, stories high, have been erected by Captain Hart, upon the lands of Ballynaguard, for the accommodation of his labourers. How these men are otherwise provided for we know not, as we find no reference to their wages or periods of employment in the notes before us. But if indeed these houses may be taken as a fair sample of the system by which they are paid and provided for, we must conclude that " the lines have fallen to them in pleasant places." The day on which we visited Ballynaguard and Kilderry, happening to prove unfavourable for much walking, we had not a convenient opportunity of either seeing or tasting certain mineral springs which Captain Hart informed us had been discovered on these lands ; and consequently we know nothing more of these indications of mineral wealth, than what we have just mentioned. A reputed signet of King James (the lion of Scotland) and other gems of antiquity, are said to have been found upon the lands of Ballynaguard ; and to these have been added many coins and curious stones, which the captain informed us he had collected in his travels. A valuable cup, however, which he intends for the encouragement of agriculture in his own district, appearing to us to be of more value to his country than the stones of India, or even the gold of Peru, we shall copy, verbatim, the words which are inscribed upon it. " The gift of John Hart, of Ballynaguard, Esq. to the best and most improving farmer of the Londonderry branch of the North-west of Ireland Society, for three successive yeai*s." Upon this inscription, or rather indeed upon the general practice of the farming societies of Ireland, we shall offer the following interrogative remark. Gentlemen, whether is it of more importance to your country, that you should give premiums to each other, (you, who cover hundreds, or thou- sands of acres with your crops and flocks, and who have access to every source of information and improvement) or that you should apply these premiums, in the larger propor- tion, to the improvement of stock, husbandry, manufactures, SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 273 education, and cottage economy, among those classes of your tenantry, who occupy under you, between ten and one hundred acres of your soils; and who, as professional farmers, and men of small information, require to be stimu- lated, by precept, premium, and example, in the march of every species of profitable industry connected with the pro- duce of the soil ? Be it observed, that we are not insensible to the advan- tages resulting from the improvement of stock, by premium, even amongst gentlemen themselves ; because the emulation to excel that is thus promoted, will finally benefit the pro- fessional farmer, and every class of society connected with the soil ; but still the improvement of those practical men, who may be considered as the locum tenens of the landed interest should be the great moral object of all farming associations ; and under this conviction it is, that we hail the agricultural seminary at Templemoyle, as one of the best institutions for the rural improvement of Ireland, that has yet been established on the soil of that country. Neither are we ignorant of the great moral benefits to be. derived by the working farmers, from those professional and festive associations of the farming interest, which bring the landlord and his tenantry together at a common table. In this particular (and in that of public education, another very important department of rural improvement) the Marquis of Downshire has set a valuable and respectable example to his country ; dining at stated periods with his people ; and encouraging the children of his district in their literary pursuits, by premiums, public examinations, and periodical feasts, at which we are told Lady Downshire, to her great honour, is frequently seen presiding, with a galaxy of beauty in her circle, that must alight with inspiring power upon every spark of genius that Nature had previously implanted in the bosoms of her little charge. And the merit of these exertions may be considered as deriving additional value from this feature of their character, that they are the spontaneous acts of the Downshire family, having (we 274 COUNTY OF LONDONDERRY, believe) been carried on in divers instances, by them, with- out deriving any particular assistance from the farming and other valuable associations established in this country for the attainment of similarly useful ends. Should this act of justice to Lord and Lady Downshire meet their eye (and we might make the same remark in reference to the tribute of just praise bestowed in these pages upon the characters of Lords Farnham and Lorton, as Irish landlords) they will understand the nature and structure of the principle from which this praise proceeds, as they will feel that it is free and independent of any of those personal recollections, which, in some instances, have communicated a jealous and jaundiced hue to the colours of a picture, in which the hero or heroine of the piece was no favourite with the poet or the painter. In addition to the labourer's houses, and the silver cup, (and which, in the eye of a mere painter of character, derive their sole value from their principle,} we feel some pleasure in observing, that in a conversation with Captain Hart, upon the criminal laws of England, we were struck with astonishment (not at his reprobation of these laws, for we never conversed with a virtuous and enlightened man who did not reprobate them, but) to hear our senti- ments upon the Draco code, uttered exactly in our oum language, by a gentleman who had never seen the indivi- dual before, to whom this language, and those sentiments, were so painfully familiar. His remarks upon the superior moral results of the following mode of punishment, as a substitute for the punishment of death (or even that of transportation) for the offence of forgery (and he might have included every other offence in the same catalogue, except perhaps the crime of murder committed or conspired) was more than commonly astonishing to us, because we had con- ceived it to be peculiar to our own thoughts, and regarded it as the primitive and exclusive product of our own mind and feelings. This substitute, which from its evident tendency to dimi- SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 275 nish crime, to preserve human life for a period of repentance, to save the country expense, to make permanent the awful influence of suffering example, and to combine all these advantages with a perfect exercise of humanity, was one perfectly familiar to our own mind ; but which we had never heard uttered by the tongue of a human being but our own, until Captain Hart happened to alight upon it in the course of conversation ; and we could not but regard this proof of just sentiment as a favourable omen of the probably future senator of his country. The sentiment was virtually this. " Would not the ends of justice the great duty of public example and, above all, the reformation of the unfortunate criminal himself, be better answered, by chaining the offender to a barrow, and employing him in repairing the public roads, WITH HIS CRIME PLACARDED ON HIS BACK; than by hurrying him into eternity, by a punishment which shocks morality, hardens public feeling, is soon forgotten, and while remembered, is regarded by the people as a cruel abuse of power, and as setting the law of God, and his authority, at insolent defiance ?" ! ! ! No doubt they would; and when truly virtuous statesmen fill the office, from which a mock reformer of criminal law has been recently excluded, and receive the support which themselves and their cause will merit from a reformed Parliament, then England will be purified from the stain of blood which has disgraced her statutes, and under which the Christian humanity of her people has long groaned in vain ; which has awfully swelled the catalogue of her crimes, as a nation ; and although these crimes may be pardoned upon repentance and reform- ation, yet they may also be awfully remembered when the hour of her judgment comes. Should that day arrive, (which Heaven avert by a timely reformation of her laws,) it will then be matter of astonishment to the humbled and illuminated mind, how the bloody Dracos who created and maintained this system, and who, with the pious Castlereagh of espionage and six acts memory, defended their blood- stained code with obstinate consistency to the last ; it will 276 COUNTY OF LONDONDERRY, then strike with astonishment, that England should have so long submitted tamely to this yoke, under the mistaken plea of necessity ; a plea which the experience of other nations had proved to be fallacious ; and which England herself, under the influence of a reformed system, will also find to be as false in fact, as the theory by which the Draco code has been maintained, is diabolical in principle. But it is thus that selfish and sanguinary men have, in all ages, fenced themselves round with sanguinary laws, under the plea of PUBLIC UTILITY; and while studying the science of government for this purpose, it is astonishing with what success they have cajoled the people into an absurd belief that they were protecting the rights of property and morality, BY A VIOLATION OF THE MOST SACRED LAWS OF GOD AND NATURE ! as if bloody sacrifices were the only remedy in reason for the prevention or punishment of crime ! or as if the religion which these monsters pretend to venerate, was a system so horribly odious and wicked, as to justify the crime of blood-guiltiness for the punishment of offences, in which murder committed, attempted, or even meditated, had no share ! Under this lying and deceitful plea of necessity, the Jews put Jesus Christ to death. " It is expe- dient," said their high priest, " that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not." And again, " If we let this man alone, all men will believe on him, and the Romans will come, and take away our place and nation !" Here was their error they waded through blood to the preservation of their nation, as they thought ; but the blood which they shed sealed their ruin ; and when the cup of their iniquity was filled with blood, then in truth the Romans did come and take away their place and nation, as our Saviour had plainly foretold them J Had they believed in him, he would have saved them with a present and with an everlasting salvation ; but believing neither in HIM, nor yet in their own law, which forbade them to shed innocent blood; they listened only to that policy of their corrupt reason, which told them there was a NECESSITY for his destruction ; and by the counsels of this agent of Lucifer, SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 277 to whom their successors in state policy have also too deeply listened, they filled up that measure of their iniquity, which produced the final overthrow of their nation ; when all the blood which they had shed, " from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between th^ porch and the altar," was visited upon that unhappy race of men at the siege and sacking of Jerusalem. Thus was the evil which they dreaded, and which they had procured by CRIME, accomplished by the very means which they had taken to avert it ! ! ! By the same policy, and under the counsels of the same lying master, did the Roman Emperors labour to exterminate the faith of Christ and its professors. It was no protection to these latter, that they were the best subjects in the state. Pliny, a Roman governor, (we believe it was) that bore testimony to the simplicity of their religious exercises, and to their innocent and harmless manners as citizens. But this was nothing. A state policy (a state necessity, as they called it) required that these Christians should be hunted down ; and accordingly they were mur- dered by wholesale. But how did the war terminate ? In process of time Rome perished, but Christianity remained ! This religion was not to perish ; but the cup of Roman luxury and crime being full, the providential messengers of the de- struction of the Roman Empire received their billet. The Popes, however, when swollen with pride and the lust of power, did not take warning by all which had happened to the state murderers who had gone before them. They played over the same wicked card, unhappy men, while they pretended that they were the vicars of Jesus Christ, and that their kingdom was not of this world ! ! ! These Popes felt that there was a state necessity (necessity is always the word with these murderers) for destroying the Albigenses and other heretics, who refused submission to their church authority ; and they also fulfilled the commission of their master. But. how did this war terminate ? It terminated with them (as with 'other persecutors) in their final discomfiture. The Protestant religion triumphed; and although the Popes remain, they are shorn of their most dangerous fangs, while 278 COUNTY OF LONDONDERRY. the progress of liberty is every day threatening the residue of their oppressive power with destruction. England also travelled in the same track, being under the same NECES- SITY. She could not learn, even with the gospel before her eyes, that the toleration of our brethren in their various opinions (for opinions break no bones) was not only a duty of charity, but a policy which establishes civil government in the strongest of all human holds, the hearts and affections of a free people. But England, even when she gave up her religious persecutions, did not abandon her Draco code of law. She has not reached that point yet ; but as the thing is evidently wrong, and doomed to destruction, that system of destruction has commenced, even at her own expense. The children of those Protestant Dissenters whom she had persecuted and driven from her shores, were the instruments appointed for this purpose. In the temple of liberty which they reared, at her expense, they built an altar, and dedi- cated it to the God of CHARITY; and, on this altar, no victim guiltless of blood is offered up as a sacrifice to the God of JUSTICE ! The reformation of offenders, by whole- some discipline and employment, immediately followed. Crimes were quickly diminished, to the amount of one-third. Many unfortunate men were restored to society and their families. The land was so far cleansed from blood-guilti- ness ; and when the last remains of Negro slavery shall be banished from the United States, that country will have approached as near to the standard of political perfection, as is perhaps compatible with the circumstances of human nature in that state of weakness and depravity, into which it has unhappily fallen by a departure from the order in which God created it. FISHERY. The salmon fishery of the Foyle, the property of the Irish company, is situated in that part of the river which washes the base of this demesne, and may be seen from the margin of the lawn. SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 279 THE HOUSE. We shall now close this description with an observation or two upon the appearance and apartments of the house, which we noticed incidentally in the progress of this essay. As to its exterior, the dwelling-house is a building of plain though respectable appearance ; but when you enter the apartments, you find several of them spacious, lofty, luminous, and richly decorated with family and other paint- ings, the works of eminent artists. Two of these apart- ments on the dormitory floor, present to the inhabitants, in an eminent degree, the pleasures of prospect; one to the Donegal mountains, (a magnificent view when Aurora unlocks the chambers of the east,) the other over the river Foyle, to the romantic mountain-rocks of Magilligan ; and which, though less distinguished by the sublime and lofty dignity of nature, than the former view, connects in a close embrace with the prospect of these mountain -rocks (which nature appears to have flung from her hand in one of her eccentric flights) the calm and chastened beauties of the river view. KILDERRY. This was the family seat of General Hart, the late Governor of Londonderry and Culmore, and sitting member for the County of Donegal at the period of our visit. It is a seat venerable for its age, and stands on a level demesne of 300 acres, distinguished for the value and variety of its timber, and by a large tract of bog with which it approximates. Such being the geography of the soil, whatever of wealth or beauty it can boast, must be sought for within its own precincts ; for it commands no gratifying prospect of distant and richly embellished scenes (not even of the lively city scene in its own district.) It stands much lower than Bally- naguard (as may be inferred from its lying horizontal with a bog or moor;) and of its mineral and other commercial resources, if such exist, we know nothing. The rich and respectable exterior of the mansion house 280 COUNTY OF LONDONDERRY, unite with the value and variety of the timber, the tame level of the soil, the straight avenue, (which constitutes the approach to the house,) and the bog and water with which the scene abounds, to fix an impression of that species of rural respectability, which was peculiar to the last and pre- ceding century, when plain houses, straight lines, and tame levels, were the fashion of the day; and when the good sense of our sober ancestors had fully instructed them in the value of bog and water. Tn reference to the interior of the house, its divisions, subdivisions, and ramifications, we can say nothing ; since they are so numerous and complex as to render description inconvenient, although the curious originality of their number, form, and connection, is exceedingly amusing, and the interest which they communicate to the curious observer is considerably heightened, by the observation of some rich and well executed family paintings. Kilderry being thus situated on a plain, enclosed by trees, and encircled by bog and water, without any interesting prospect to revive and cheer it ; its distinguishing character- istic may be considered as one of solitary grandeur, (such as we might expect to meet with in a rural district . in a country thinly peopled) forming a striking contrast to the proud peculiarities of a modern villa, standing on the sum- mit or declivity of a noble hill, (over valleys thickly inha- bited, richly cultivated, and pregnant with monuments of art) with wings of plantation proudly flying from each extremity of the house ; approaches sweeping by circuitous courses towards opposite sections of the countiy ; with the lady-like mansion looking down in the pride of her elevation, through numerous brilliant reflectors, upon distant valleys (glittering with monuments of art, and rivers of commerce) lying prostrate at her feet, doing homage to her beauties, and deriving a dazzling and soul-cheering ray of splendour from the sunshine of her charms. The village of Muff, in the neighbourhood of Kilderry, (already noticed as communicating with the city of Derry by the shore road) is, we believe, situated on the General's SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 281 estate ; and we heard that he had erected a school house there, for the education of the children of his tenantry resid- ing in that neighbourhood. The distance from hence to Londonderry, which is the post town to Kilderry, is about six Irish miles.* BELLEMOUNT. (Iron Ore.) This is the seat of Wm. Miller, Esq., an active and useful member of the Londonderry branch of the North-west Farming Society, and of the Managing Committee of the Agricultural School at Templernoyle ; to which school we understand he has rendered important services, by an assi- dious attention to the details of the institution, and by an able discharge of the duties connected with the secretary- ship to its managing committee. Bellemount stands in a low position, (comparatively des- titute of prospect) on the shore road, already noticed in our descriptions of the Farm and Ballynaguard. It is a plain lodge (built by Mr. Miller himself) on a small demesne of twenty-five Conyngham acres, which he has ornamentally planted. As such it may be regarded as a respectable fea- ture of improvement on the Irish company's estate, who are also, we believe, proprietors of some part of the ground on which the city of Deny has been built. The soil produces sound corn crops of average quantity, and is admirably adapted to all sorts of vegetable pro- ductions. Iron ore is said to have made its appearance in a dyke at the bottom of the lawn, and to have been turned up by the plough in the cultivation of the farm. Bellemount stands within two English miles of Derry, which is the post town to it. * It has just now occurred to us that KILL-DERRY is a very appropriate name for the General's seat ; as the city of Derry, its hill, valley, and all its neighbouring 1 beauties, are completely killed (kilt the Irish would call it) or cut off, in the view from that place. Or the name might have originated with King James, when his troops were here, labouring to KillDeriy and cut off its supplies. 282 COUNTY OF LONDONDERRY, THORNHILL. This is the seat of William Curry, Esq., and, considered as a lodge in the villa stile, situated on a small demesne of twenty-four acres, it is an interesting feature of improvement on the shore road, noticed in our recent descriptions. Thorn hill approximates with Ballynaguard, and com- mands a considerable proportion of the same prospect. The river Foyle washes the base of the demesne; and the moun- tains of Donegal and Magilligan are good objects in the front view. The house is a comfortable and apparently commodious edifice ; has an extremely neat and well dressed garden annexed to it ; and for the full enjoyment of the land and water view which it commands, its position is sufficiently exalted above the general level of the scene. This seat is distant from Londonderry, which is the post town to it, about three miles. GREENHAW HOUSE. (Fertility of the soil.) This is the seat of Mr. Me Clintock; the gentleman whose soil and wheat crop were noticed in our description of the Farm. It is a new domicile ; deriving, we believe, its whole existence in that character, from the present pro- prietor and resident. In addition to the excellent wheat crop produced here in 1826, (we mean excellent for the soil of this district) it is also eminently adapted to the growth of plants and all vegetable productions ; a single acre, with the benefit of irrigation, having produced, as Mr. Me Clintock assured its, no less than eight tons of hay in a single crop ! ! ! and from another portion of this valuable soil, one of rye grass, and one of turnips in the same season. The soil is also, under proper cultivation, well calculated for the growth of corn crops, as may be reasonably inferred from the wheat crop just noticed, and which is said to have brought the highest price then going in the markets of that country. SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 283 Greenhaw lies much lower than the Farm, which stands elevated immediately above it, on the opposite side of the shore road. It embraces a neat new edifice and about thirty acres of demesne, ornamentally planted ; and although the trees were but six years down when we saw the place, they had made a noble progress. Greenhaw is distant from Londonderry, which is the post town to it, about two miles. BEECH-HILL. (Trade and scenery of the Faughan river.) This is the seat of Connolly Skipton, Esq., and contains about forty Conyngham acres ; being part and parcel of an extensive property, held under the Irish company by the family of this gentleman, from an early period of their set- tlement in this country. It stands, with divers other interesting seats, on the old road communicating between Deny and Dungiven; and from the value and variety of its aged timber, the river Faughan which forms a boundary to it, an extensive bleach green on that river, (held by a company of merchants under the pro- prietor of this seat,) and its connection with a richly planted, highly improved, and, in certain parts on the banks of the river, extremely picturesque neighbourhood; it may be regarded as a feature of highly respectable appearance on that line of road, although it lies too low to command an extensive prospect of the country. Certain parts, however, of the lands of Beech-hill, are considerably elevated above the house. These lands are reputed to be composed of a dry gravel soil, well adapted to grain crops ; and in the low lands, plants of all descriptions so eminently flourish, that one oak tree was produced here, which Mr. Skipton says, sold for 100! Its branches covered a considerable tract of soil, and extending on one side over the river Faughan, were converted into a bridge for the accomodation of foot passengers ! This river sustains divers bleach greens on its banks, and 284 COUNTY OF LONDONDERRY, contributes, in a due proportion, both to the beauty and the commerce of this district. The demesne, though limited in its extent, combines many features of a rich and respectable character ; among which a comfortable dwelling-house, enveloped in the deep shade of its own full grown timber, a richly planted glen, an excellent garden, walled in and in full bearing, and sanded walks for the accommodation of the passenger through its richly wooded lawn, altogether unite to render Beech-hill a respectable specimen of the march of building and planting in this section of the country. In reference to prospect, we have already observed that Beech-hill lies comparatively low. Still, however, it com- mands one interesting view, through a vista in its wood, to a lofty mountain in the county of Donegal, whose blue summit sheds a rich and cheering influence on this domestic scene; while in the opposite direction, a hill called "Ned's top," which terminates the property and the prospect, is a noble object in the topography of the neighbouring lands. Beech-hill is distant from Deny, which is the post town to it, about three English miles. COOLKEIRAGH. (Philippic to the Nobility and Gentry, upon that depression of the landed and commercial interests, to which their indolence and want of energy have conducted Ireland.) Coolkeiragh, which in the Irish language signifies the back of the sheep ; a name that might possibly have been derived from the occupation of these lands as a sheep walk, and from their lofty bearing on this bank of the river Foyle, (as it is generally understood that all the ancient names of our town lands, had reference to some peculiar circumstance in the natural or civil history of the place,) is an ancient property, for some generations in the possession of the family of Major Young, who is now preparing to build and plant, and to make other useful improvements on these lands. SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 285 Coolkeiragh comprehends about 500 Conyngham acres of arable and bog, of which 60 acres are reserved for a demesne, and it is not a hyperbole to say, that when a handsome house has been erected on the summit or declivity of the hill, thus beautifully elevated above the river Foyle, and which commands a front view of Ballynaguard, and of the Donegal mountains over that noble water; together with ornamental plantations adapted to the geography of the soil; that then Coolkeiragh will rank high among the splendid improvements on that section of the river which approx- imates with Derry ; and which, in the scenery of Ireland, is perhaps only exceeded in beauty by the picturesque of Wicklow, Killarney, and Slane. The bog included in this property amounts to about 60 acres only; and, consequently, the larger proportion of these lands is applicable to all the valuable purposes of agriculture. Bog, however, even as an article of fuel, is in good demand in the Derry market ; more particularly as a large proportion of this fuel soil has been recently rescued from the fires of the country, by the growing taste of a rapidly increasing population for agricultural productions; those productions we mean that are so well known in Ireland by the names of horse-corn, true blues, lady fingers, long grenadiers, cups, apples, white eyes, blacks, &c. These latter, however, " the blacks," are, in our estimation, a much more sweet and delicious fruit, than even the loveliest of the white-eyes; but as this is a mere matter of taste, we do not presume to dictate to the Major, as to the kind of eyes which he may think it best to plant and propagate on the lovely lands of Coolkeiragh ; as experience must long since have instructed him in those which are the most sweet and nutritive, the most prolific, and the best adapted to his soil and taste. With this inarch of taste, (notwithstanding the obvious inroads it is making upon the fuel of the country) we have but one fault to find ; it is this ; that the lords of the soil, perceiving that their bogs are beginning gradually to dis- appear, are nevertheless extremely tardy in making a forced 286 COUNTY OF LONDONDERRY, march upon the mountains, in pursuit of another species of fuel, to supply the place of that, which, in certain districts, is so rapidly disappearing. Our own opinion is, that the English and Scotch colliers have profited a little too largely by our want of enterprise in this most necessary branch of domestic industry, by which every description of Irish manufacture requiring fuel, has so deeply suffered, that while in certain towns in England, coal may be had, by the manufacturing interest, for 8 or 9 shillings a ton; in Dublin, and some other towns in Ireland, it frequently cannot be had for less than three times that price ! to say nothing of the intolerably oppressive weight of such an enormous price, for such a necessary of life, upon all the inhabitants of the towns and cities of the coast, and those adjacent to them, who are not engaged in manufactures, and are destitute of turf bog; but particuarly that numerous class, who derive their subsistence from a life of labour at low prices, and who are therefore but ill able to sustain the weight of this intolerable burthen. But where, we beg per- mission to ask, may the source of this incumbrance be found ? Is it in the scarcity of the mineral ? To this we shall make no other reply to any one who knows the natural history of Ireland, than a note of admiration ! Is it in the total ina- dequacy of our capital to the commencement and continu- ance of the necessary public works ? Let the millions that are and have been sent from Ireland in latter years, to the English funds (with but little prospect of their returning to this country, as Ireland is now situated) answer that ques- tion. Is it in the insecurity of life and property in the North of Ireland, the Protestant Province of that country, that the cause exists? Let the thousands of commercial establishments that cover the face of that province, and even in the present low state of trade, give employment to hun- dreds of thousands of the labouring poor, reply. Is it in the enormous profits of the linen trade, that are so seducing, that a guinea would not be withdrawn from it, in order to be vested in any other branch of trade, under any circum- SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 287 stances of encouragement that the landed interest might offer? We think the present circumstances of the linen trade will give an answer to this question, perfectly satis- factory to every man who has a correct idea of the present measure of its profits. Deeply depressed as the staple manufacture of Ireland is at present, there is still a great deal of capital embarked in it ; and thus embarked it must remain, until a something more profitable, and equally extensive, shall come forward to supersede it. There is also a certain proportion of capital in the country lying dormant in the Irish funds ; and, consequently, the high prices of coal, and the paucity of public works, whether of coal, or copper, or iron, is not so much owing to a deficiency of capital, as to a deficiency of encouragement, and of genuine public spirit, on the part of the owners of the soil. Here is the true cause of Ireland's depression. Here is the source of her rapidly increasing poverty. Here is the main-spring of her dependence upon the sister countries for the common necessaries of life. By this her manufactures were destroyed. By this her capital was paralyzed and rendered profitless. By this the income of her soil was alienated from the land which produced it ; and by this, that domestic legislature which was the guardian of her trade, was laid prostrate. And through a continuance of the same inattention to her welfare, she is permitted to remain the victim of a hopeless poverty, a degrading immorality, and a state of anarchy that harrows up the spirit with despair. In the province of Ulster there is both the capital and the character to effect all that can be effected by mere men of trade ; and any deficiency of public enterprise, by which that province is distinguished, is not imputable, in our opinion, to the commercial, but to the landed interest, which, notwithstanding the generous qualities of their cha- racter (and no doubt they are many) have nevertheless been too frequently and generally distinguished by a culpable indifference to their country's wealth. They do not unite, as many members of the English landed interest do, in a 288 COUNTY OF LONDONDERRY, long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether, for the sal- vation of their sinking trade, and for the lasting interest of their own properties. The consequences we see and feel, in every rank and department of this sinking country ; which, for want of union and energy in the landed interest (who hate the cares of trade, and yet love the power and profit, of which trade and commerce are the lasting base) has been long bleeding at every pore. But we have said so much on this subject to the gentlemen of the north, in other sections of this work, that we shall now close the subject with a rapid review of the possible results of Irish trade proceeding backwards (as it has done of late,) in a steady march to that goal of ruin, beyond which it can proceed no further. In this retrograde march be it well observed, that in proportion as TRADE becomes weak and unable to bear the burthens of the state, those burthens must fall, in a similar ratio, upon the LANDS of the country, which alone will be able to sustain them. The poor also continuing to multiply ; and the measure, both of their employment and their wages, con- tinuing to decrease, there is no measure of VIRTUE which human nature can command in such circumstances; nor no measure of PUNISHMENT which human tyranny can inflict, will protect the properties of the comparatively rich from being pillaged. Pillaged they will be, and that often and deeply ; until at length the absentee lords (yes, and the pre- sentee too) finding that the system has begun in right earnest to press heavily upon their resources, will begin, like the Manchester yeomanry, to open their eyes to the existence of a cause for their misfortunes, very different from that to which they had previously imputed it ; and then instead of trampling down the wretches who had endeavoured to wrest an existence from the soil on which they were born, they will begin to perceive that in working the machine of their own interest, and that of the generations who are to succeed them, the labouring poor will prove a useful lever in their hand ; and by the same engine with which they raise their own properties and country in the scale of wealth, they will SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 289 raise the labouring poor above the necessity of pillage. They will strengthen the barriers by which property is protected, by strengthening the barriers of duty and of justice ; but these, universally neglected and trampled under foot by those to whom the poor most justly look up for protection and employment, the foundations of law will sink; and the few sentiments of morality which had been previously che- rished, will yield to the still more loud and imperative claims of distressed nature. Here is the natural and neces- sary progress of society, in a country abandoned by its legitimate protectors, and left to shift for itself, without adequate combinations of character and capital to work its virgin resources to a profitable issue. We should be sorry to see the remote results of such a system, so heavily visited on the Irish nobility and gentry, as to reduce them to the situation of state mendicants, waiting for the crumbs that might be thrown to them from the ministers' table (or contemptuously refused to them after long waiting) while their properties were pillaged, their lands mortgaged, and their tenantry unable to pay them rent ! ! It would be a melancholy sight to see these unfor- tunate Irishmen thus kicked from the minister's table, and compelled to exchange their palaces in St. James's-street, for snug boxes in Islington; or like some French counts and chevaliers in the courtly days of the Louis's, creeping into poets's corners, to live privately with us in the garrets of Grub-street, London ; and feeding, like so many walking shadows upon the ethereal food of spirits, in exchange for the good solid beef and mutton of old Ireland, with plenty of Claret and Madeira to wash them down ! This, to be sure, would be a great revolution in the circumstances of these great men : but let trade be wholly neglected ; let the absentee system be followed up ; let the income of the land be constantly drained out of it, and nothing sent back to the country in return : and let the poor multiply in the land of Egypt, while their poverty increases ; and if, in a few generations more, the story of the French counts and che- u 290 COUNTY OF LONDONDERRY, valiers don't come to pass in our own country, we must only say, that PRINCIPLES and CAUSES have changed their nature ; and that it is now no longer the property of flame to ascend upwards ; of waters to roll their currents to the sea ; or of sovereigns to hecome lessened in their numbers by an exhausting expenditure, without an equivalent in- come to replace the draught. Coolkeiragh stands on the eastern bank of the river Foyle, four miles from Londonderry, which is the post-town to it. ASHBROOK. Ashbrook, the seat of Wm. Hamilton Ash, Esq., is situated three miles east of Londonderry, which is the post-town to it, on the road communicating between Dungiven and that city. It comprehends a good mansion-house, and 150 Conyng- ham acres of a stiff clay soil, retentive of water ; but, under proper cultivation, producing good crops of corn, extremely grassy, and well adapted to the growth of plants. The demesne is bounded on one side by the river Faughan ; and from a road on the bank of that river which commu- nicates with the coach-road between Dublin and Derry, this seat is seen in its best aspect, the plantations taking a copious range on the distant shore, in full view of the traveller in his approach to Ashbrook. The situation of this seat being comparatively low, the prospect from hence is by no means open and extensive ; but the interior features of the place, when inspected on the spot, are found extremely respectable. There are about 20 acres of this demesne under wood, and about 50 under wood and lawn ; and though not enjoy- ing the advantage of an elevated position, it nevertheless contributes a limited proportion of influence to that pic- turesque of the river-scene between Derry and Dungiven, which, for the enjoyment of prospect, constitutes the road between these towns a very interesting drive in the summer season. SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 291 DUNMORE HOUSE. This is the seat (and part of a fee-simple estate) of Robt. M'Clintoek, Esq., and comprehends a good mansion-house and about 100 Conyngham acres of a demesne, exhibiting the aspect and evidences of the style of a century back, when architecture and landscape gardening had made very partial advances towards the beauty and perfection of modern villas. The house stands on a gentle eminence, opening a com- munication through a spacious lawn, by a straight avenue, with the road from Derry to Raphoe, and with the village of Carrigans on this estate, which is situated on the same road. In this village there are valuable flour-mills, held by a merchant of Derry, under Mr. M'Clintock ; and as large lighters have a free water-passage between Derry and those mills, the latter may be justly regarded as a valuable appen- dage to this property. These mills are turned by a stream which issues from Portlough, and empties its waters into the river Foyle. The ordinary crops of this district are oats, flax, and potatoes ; but the acreable produce of the first and last of these staple crops, is not at all equal to that of average soils in the good corn districts of the southern provinces. Oats here usually yield (as Mr. M'Clintock informed us) 120 stones to the acre. In the southern soils, that land is not considered even moderately good, where the same quantity of ground will not produce 196 stones, that is, 14 barrels of 14 stones each. The average of the potatoe crop on the lands of Dunmore, is estimated at 50 sacks of 24 stones each, per acre : that of good southern soils at 400 stones more. We conclude that certain parts of these lands are well adapted to the growth of wheat, as we saw a remarkably dense crop of that grain on the farm of a Mr. Boggs, a respectable tenant on the Dunmore estate. We could not learn, how- ever, that this crop is usual here, and we hence inferred that 292 COUNTY OF LONDONDERRY, the farm just noticed had the advantage in quality, and perhaps in cultivation also, of the lands around it. There is some timber on these lands ; but in the fashion of the age in which the trees were put down, the planter appears to have had his eye fixed exclusively upon value and convenience, and not upon the decoration of the demesne ; as they are not distributed with that taste and skill, by which plantations are now made to contribute so largely to the beauty of our modern villas. There is a valuable quarry of black granite in the neigh- bourhood of this property ; it is a hard stone well calculated for roads, and for this purpose is boated to Deny, by the proprietor, Sir Robt. Ferguson, whose lands form a boundary to this property. Labourers employed by gentlemen in this neighbourhood, receive one shilling per diem. The business of farms is performed by servants at 6 per annum and their board, &c. There is some bog attached to Dunmore, but no lime- stone, and consequently the former is chiefly valuable here as an article for house fuel. As for the potatoe and grain crops produced from unreclaimed bogs, they are generally very soft and bad. Dunmore-house commands an interesting view over the river Foyle to the distant mountains. It is separated from the road which forms a boundary to it, by a stone wall the whole length of the demesne. Its distance from Deny, which is the post-town to it, is about four miles, and from Raphoe (which is a Bishop's See) about eight. PREHEN. Prehen, the seat and property of Lieut.-Col. Knox, com- prehends an excellent dwelling-house, and 200 acres of demesne (part of a fee-simple property of 800 English acres) beautifully situated on the river Foyle, and commanding an interesting view of the city of Londonderry, and of divers gentleman's seats beyond the river. SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 293 These lands are said to contain mineral springs; but a more extensive property of this family, situated on the banks of Lough Swilly in the County of Donegal, is much more remarkable for the depth and variety of its mineral treasures. This property in Donegal is distinguished by the name of the Rathmullen estate, as the village of Rathmullen is situ- ated on it. It contains excellent free-stone, lead, and strong indications of iron, with lime-stone for smalting on the spot; and from the value of these various treasures, and the situ- ation of those lands on the shores of one of the finest waters in the world, they must be well circumstanced for manu- factures and commerce. Rathmelton, six miles from Rathmullen, is the post-town to the Donegal estate, and Londonderry to that of Prehen (the family residence) from which it is about two miles distant. N. B. A few of the succeeding seats are introduced under the head of this county, although situated in that of Donegal, as 'they stand in the neighbourhood of the city of Derry, which is the market and post-town to them. BIRDSTOWN. This is the title of an excellent new-built house, and a demesne of 200 acres, ornamentally planted, and is situated in a retired valley at the foot of that part of the mountains of Donegal which approximate with Derry. It is a creation of the Rev. P. B. Maxwell, who appears to be effecting, so far as his jurisdiction extends, a pro- gressive, and yet comparatively rapid regeneration of a wild tract of country. The demesne forms a minor proportion of an extensive tract of mountain and plain, in the barony of Innishowen, in the County of Donegal, held in perpetuity by Mr. Max- well from the Marquis of Donegal, who is the lord of the soil. The lands (with the exception of the rocky summits of 294 COUNTY OF LONDONDERRY. the mountains, which might grow oak the most valuable of all timber) although extremely poor, are obviously suscep- tible of great improvement; and from the capital already expended there, and the visible monuments of skill and persevering labour which the demesne exhibits, we flatter ourselves, if the life of the holder shall be prolonged to the usual period, that he will establish at the foot of those mountains, a triumphant proof of the victory that may be achieved over the poorest soils, by capital and industry; and having thus discharged his duty to his property, he will leave behind him a monument of reproof and shame to those deserters of their country, who have abandoned the post of protection and improvement, which reason and Pro- vidence had so obviously assigned to them, for a residence in foreign lands ; but, in the progress of events, the impolicy of this system may come to be inscribed in legible characters upon the page of -their own properties, when no remedy may remain, but that of drinking, with patient submission to their fate, the cup of suffering privation, which their own hand had mingled. Birdstown stands on a line of road which communicates between Muff and Donegal ; and which also conducts from this seat to the road leading from Buncrana to Londonderry, which latter is the post-town to it, and from which it is distant about six miles. BUET-HOUSE. This is the name by which the seat of Andrew Ferguson, Esq. stands distinguished among the various villages and villas, which grace the banks of Lough Swilly. It is an ancient feature of improvement, (having been in the Fer- guson family for nearly two centuries) on the valuable pro- perty of Col. Chichester in the County of Donegal; and commands a fine prospect over Lough Swilly to the distant mountains, as also of the island of Inch, which rises out of the lough to a considerable height above the level of the sea. This mountain island is one of the finest objects in SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 295 the landscapes of the lough, and being cultivated by resident farmers to the top, it forms a very valuable part of the Chi- chester property. Burt-house stands on a lofty chain of land on the western bank of Lough Swilly; and is indebted to this its finely elevated position for the prospect of that fine land and water scene which we have just noticed. Its avenue descends to a line of road which sweeps round the lough, and opens a communication with the city of Derry and the town of Buncrana, upon one side ; and with the market and post- town of Letterkenny in the County of Donegal, upon the other. Derry, the principal sea-port of this section of the country, being only six miles distant, and Burt-house having a com- munication both by land and water, with the above towns of Letterkenny and Buncrana ; this place is, consequently, well circumstanced for the conveyance of its farming produce to the various public markets. The city just noticed is its post and market-town, as also that of divers other seats in this section of Donegal, and hence we have placed them under the Derry head. FAHAN COTTAGE. This is a little cottage beauty at the foot of the mountains of Innishowen (a little beyond the Bishop of Derry's palace, as you proceed from Deny to Buncrana) that with suitable plantations, and on a more elevated site, would have had a better claim to the title of a villa, than on the margin of the road where it now stands, and where its little beauties enveloped in a rustic wall, lie too low, and are too much concealed from view, to command that attention which every visitor will acknowledge they deserve, on inspecting the interior order and arrangement of the cottage. It stands on the property of a Mr. Norman, of Dublin, and comprises a pretty little cottage and flower garden, on a small farm of ten acres (apparently well cultivated and 296 COUNTY OF LONDONDERRY, improved) with some mountain land, hitherto useless to the tenant. It is a creation of Mr. William Huffington, a respectable tradesman of Derry ; and as he has not displayed very superior skill in the site which he selected for his cottage, we are induced to impute the English neatness and beauty of this little habitation to Mrs Huffington, who appears to be a woman of good sense and taste. The interest which we take in the improvement of our country, justifies us in noticing this little improvement, as an object of imitation to other farmers and tradesmen ; and as an inducement to wise landlords to give due encourage- ment to tenants of this character, whose property and prin- ciples furnish a guarantee to the lord of the soil . for the improvement of his estate, and whose well exerted industry is calculated to enrich the appearance and to raise the repu- tation of their country. Fahan cottage, which is the only proper name for this pretty little lowly thing, on the road-side, and to which the more lofty appellation of Fahan villa, selected by the pro- prietor, is totally unsuitable (a rather more lofty position for the cottage, and a less lofty title for the place, would have been better) stands about seven miles west of Derry, which is the post-town to it. MRS. HEATH OF FAHAN. In the same neighbourhood we visited the residence of that respectable lady, Mrs. Heath of FAHAN, (pronounced FAWHAN by the people of the country,) a word, we presume, intended to designate a town-land, or some similarly small canton ; as it is the name universally given to the district of the bishop's palace ; and we know not upon what principle the whole neighbourhood of that building should be thus designated, unless Fahan be the ancient name of the parish, or of the town-land upon which the palace stands. This seat of Mrs. Heath stands on a level with Lough Swilly, and comprises a plain but convenient old mansion- SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 297 house, in the style of a century or two backwards, together with 32 acres of a demesne, by no means very ornamentally planted, situated on the eastern shore of the lough, with the Inch mountain rising out of that water in the front view. Although Heath is the lady's name that owns this place, there is no manner of connection between her name and her soil, or between her name and her character ; for these are not barren and unfruitful, like " the heath in the desert that knoweth not when good cometh." Derry is the post-town to this place. PENNYBOUKN FLOUR MILLS. These mills are situated on the shore road, already noticed as communicating between the city of Derry and the village of Muff in Donegal ; within two miles of the former, which is the post town to them. They are in the possession of Messrs. John Bond and Co., who employ from fourteen to sixteen hands in their establisment, and purchase annually about 500 tons of wheat, the produce of their own neighbourhood. There is a handsome lodge attached to the mills ; which standing in a shady position on a lawn fenced in from the public road, with the mills at the rear of the mansion house in full view of the traveller ; these buildings contribute, with other objects, to give an appearance of trade, property and population, to the shore road, already noticed as standing pre-eminently distinguished among the roads of Derry for the beauty and variety of the seats and scenery through which it passes. THE RIVER FOYLE. This eminent commercial water takes its rise from two sources ; one from Lough Finn, in the mountains of Donegal, midway between the coast and Stranorlar; and the stream proceeding from this source receives the name of the river Finn, until it forms a junction with the Mourne river at the COUNTY OF LONDONDERRY, town of Lifford. The other takes its rise in a mountain situated between Fintona in the county of Tyrone, and Enniskillen in that of Fermanagh ; and the river rolling from this source (under the denomination of the Mourne) through a section of Tyrone, waters the towns of Omagh and Newtownstewart, in its progress to Lifford, where it forms a junction with the Finn ; when these united waters flowing thenceforth together in the same chanel, they receive the new denomination of the river Foyle. Under this name they reach the city of Londonderry, where they form a broad and rapid water; but increasing in size as they advance in their progress towards the ocean, they receive the designation of LouGH-Foyle, within two miles of the village of Muff, in the county of Derry ; the great expansion of their waters at that place (where they closely approx- imate with the main lough) appearing to justify that more eminently distinctive appellation.* * At Strabane in the county of Tyrone, within half a mile of Lifford, in that of Donegal, they call one of the above branches, as we have denominated it, " the Mourne." At Omagh they call the same branch, "the Cameron;" and at Newtownstewart they give it a cognomen of their own ; so that a stranger who had taken no trouble to trace the course of this river, would suppose the three towns just noticed to be watered by separate streams ; whereas it is one and the same river which passes through or near them. CHAPTER V. COUNTY OF TYRONE. Town of STRABANE its trade, markets, taxes, charities, &c. ; together with critical remarks upon the manner of levying local taxes upon towns and counties iu IRELAND. We entered the county of Tyrone from that of Derry, by the town of Strabane, situated on the river Mourne, on an estate of the Marquis of Abercorn, whose agent, Sir John Burgoyne, an intelligent magistrate, constantly resides in that town or its immediate neighbourhood. Strabane, although not the assizes town of Tyrone, nor sufficiently central for the seat of justice (an important civil distinction but little attended to in many parts of Ireland,) * is nevertheless, the largest and most populous town in this county ; and being accommodated with a canal, extending about four miles from hence to a deep and navigable position on the river Foyle, is, consequently, well circumstanced for trade ; as a communication is effectually opened by these waters with the port of Derry, and the canal navigable for vessels of forty or fifty tons burthen. The merchants of Strabane being thus accommodated * Witness Donegal (the largest county in the north) whose seat of judg- ment is at Lifford, within half a mile of Strabane, on the western margin of Tyrone ! that of Tipperary in the south ; where poor people residing in the northern section of the county, have been obliged to walk forty miles on foot to the assizes at Clonmel; of Antrim, where people are compelled to tra- verse a large tract of country before they arrive at Carrickfergus, the seat of judgment on the coast ! By a perusal of the map, divers other counties may be found similarly circumstanced ; and thus it is that convenience, common sense, and common justice, are permitted to be superseded by customs, having their origin in circumstances that have long since disappeared. 300 COUNTY OF TYRONE, with cheap water carriage to Derry, have opened an exten- sive communication with Liverpool, in the corn, beef, pork, and butter trades ; and maintain also an occasional corres- pondence with Scotland in oats and barley ; receiving from that country, coal and whiskey, in return. In this commu- nication with the sister countries, and in certain important branches of the home trade also, the house of Mr. David Smyth is probably the most extensive in Strabane. He and other merchants have built considerable stores at the canal harbour ; and these, with the li-ght craft occasionally anchored there, and laden with coal, iron, salt, timber and flax seed, from Derry, give that part of the town a rising appearance. But it is not in these respects only that the merchants of Strabane maintain a correspondence with Eng- land. Some of the most extensive import woollen and other goods direct from that country ; and, consequently, are enabled to supply the inhabitants with those goods at nearly English prices. Mr. Stephenson, the most extensive hard- ware merchant here, imports large quantities of manufac- tured iron and steel from Birmingham and Sheffield. The town has also a weekly corn market, a weekly linen market, and what they call an English Woollen Hall ; and no doubt in point of quantity a good deal of business is done in all these various branches, although at most reduced and misera- ble profits, since the linen trade has been so eminently sup- planted by the cotton and capital of England, and by a total suppression of the bounties which had formerly protected it. While this staple manufacture of the country flourished, poverty was comparatively unknown in Ulster; but since the act of Union has developed the full measure of its BLESSINGS to Ireland, even that stamina of Ulster, which was the fruit of many centuries of successful industry (and which carried peace and plenty into every cottage) has been forced to yield ; and now we find poverty and distress in many once comfortable habitations, and even wide spread- ing mendicity (the shame of Christianity and civilization) stalking over a large proportion of the face of Ulster, as in STRABANE. 301 the other provinces, where the hulk of the population have heen so long and so deeply steeped in the lowest stage of human degradation, that to lie upon the same floor and part of the same straw, and to sit in the same corner with the sow and her litter, which pay their rent, is the frequent practice of the working people and their children, to say nothing of the state of nudity in which many of these latter are seen upon the public roads; or the defenceless state of those mudwall hovels (some of them in the gripes of ditches) in which these children are prepared for an introduction into those called the haunts of human and civilized existence, within the pale of that country and constitution which are so proudly called, " the envy and admiration of the world'" ! ! ! PAPER MILLS. There are divers paper mills in the coarse lapping trade in the neighbourhood of Strabane. We believe some of these are to be disposed of; and as there is always a demand for lapping paper in the home market, the purchase of these mills might not be a bad speculation in the hands of an able manager, with a skilful salesman that knows the country. MARKET REGULATIONS. One of the greatest defects in the political economy of most Irish towns (and perhaps even Strabane may be included in the number) is the total inattention of the magistracy to the minor regulations of the public market. You can scarcely find a standard for the weight of bread in any of these towns ! or places fixed (to the total exclusion of the practice of hawking) for the sale of fowl, fish, fresh butter, garden vegetables &c ; and if you want those articles, and who does not ? you may look for them in vain, unless you happen to be an established house holder, and that the hawker with his or her goods may choose to call upon you ! Thus are strangers situated in many Irish towns, when obliged by the nature of their duties to take up their abode pro tempore, in private lodgings, or in a small house for a 302 COUNTY OF TYRONE, limited period of time. Nor can the inattention of the magistracy to the necessary regulations of a public market, prove much less injurious to the inhabitants, than to those unfortunate strangers, who, on their arrival in these towns, find no established and well regulated market to which they may repair for the necessary accommodation of their tables ; and in these circumstances, must either yield to many inconvenient privations, or go through a long course of per- plexing enquiry, in endeavouring to procure for their money some of the most plain and ordinary necessaries of life ! But as, by a little attention on the part of the magistrates and landlords of those towns, the inconveniences resulting from private sale and the absence of established markets might be easily removed, is it not surprising that such an obvious duty should be omitted? But we recollect that these gentlemen have good gardens, plenty of cows, and abundance of poultry on their own premises, and therefore they do not feel these inconveniences in their own persons. This perhaps is the best and most conclusive solution that we could furnish for the difficulties resting upon this market question. The landlords and magistrates do not themselves feel the want of markets for minor articles of produce, and therefore no want exists. Neither did the boroughmongers feel the inconvenience of a corrupt repre- sentation, and therefore that representation was right and pure. Neither do the bishops feel the burthen of tithes, and the princely weight of 100,000 acres of the best land in Europe, as a premium to a single man for doing next to nothing; and therefore these gentlemen are utterly asto- nished at the outcry that is raised against their livings. It is and has been thus in all ages, and in almost every case, where the public good alone was the object to be promoted. But where is the remedy for this disease ? We know of one only to make good laws, and to enforce them. Londonderry, to the credit of the corporation of that city, has established very good market places, and suitable regu- lations for the public accommodation; and, consequently, STRABANE. 303 the inhabitants, and even temporary residents, are at no loss for the supply of their tables with every necessary com- fort; and were it not that the toll of their long wooden bridge is a grievous nuisance, and that the all-engrossing concerns of their trade, and perhaps the latent infusions of a severe sectarian morality, appear to have narrowed the scene of those just and rational amusements, which give such an air of gaiety and generosity to the populous towns of France and England, and even to those of Dublin, Belfast, and Enniskillen, in our own country. Were it not for these, Deny, from its good markets, and good mercantile accom- modations, the highly improved and civilized country in which it is situated, and the beauty of its position over the river Foyle, would constitute an extremely interesting resi- dence for either English or Irish gentlemen retiring to live upon small incomes, and who are consequently obliged to choose cheap markets, and to study a principle of economy, in the indulgence of all their necessary pleasures. Having now touched upon the great inconvenience resulting from magisterial inattention to the market and other regulations of a town, let us briefly advert to another conspicuous grievance, by which the shopkeepers and farmers of Ireland are notoriously and shamefully oppressed. Every one whose destiny has compelled him to reside in Ireland since the act of Union, has been the painful observer of the unparalleled growth of mendicity within that period ; and, if possessed of humanity, these observers must blush to think lhat the burden of this enormous and rapidly increas- ing mass, has been essentially thrown upon the shopkeepers and farmers of the country, upon whose industry and slender profits, so large a proportion of the public taxes necessarily fall. For this great and crying evil we have already pointed out a remedy ; a reasonable and practicable remedy, in our essay on the poor laws, (see table of contents) and to that essay we refer the reader for a solution of the difficulties resting upon this question. Another or two, however, 304 COUNTY OF TYRONE, remain to be explained. The first refers to the unequal and incongruous regulations, by which the local taxes on towns and cities are frequently levied in this country. In Dublin, the town taxes are generally, if not universally, regulated by one master tax (which appears to have no reference to rent, capital, or income !) called " the minister's money," than which a more unequal, and apparently capri- cious standard of taxation, was perhaps never created or even thought of in the world ! If our information be cor- rect, this master tax has its rise in the valuation placed upon the house when built, by the minister of the district for the time being; and whatever changes the house, or even the district itself, may afterwards undergo, this tax, which (like the laws of the Medes and Persians) is not only unalterable in itself, but has the additional bad luck of drawing every other tax after it, remains stationary. And hence, we calculate, that the reverend divines and irre- verend laymen, who have been authorised to collect the Dublin taxes since the Union poured forth the last drop of its cup of malediction upon that devoted city, must have had an exceedingly perplexing card to play, when they came to houses in the Liberty and elsewhere that had fallen into ruin, and were paying with difficulty ten or a dozen pounds per annum rent; although when valued by the minister, they were perhaps worth oQ, 60, or even 100 a year ; and the holder well able to pay that rent, and all the corresponding taxes with it. But it must be recollected that Ireland at that time had something like a trade ; and that she basked under the sunshine of a domestic parliament, with a rich and generous resident nobility and gentry to cheer and to support their country. These reverend and irreverend collectors, must indeed have had a difficult card to play, when they came in regular succession to these old premises to collect SUCCESSIVE CROPS OF TAXATION, amounting in the whole to perhaps twice or even three times the annual sum which the pre- mises were then paying to the landlord in the shape of rent STRABANE. 305 (without fine or any other consideration whatsoever). Yes, indeed, these gentlemen must have looked rather blank when they were offered blank cartridges for their once good and substantial taxes. But if an honest and impartial Englishman marvel at this, and imagine that our picture of the ruin poured upon the Liberty and other parts of Dublin (where the cotton, woollen, and silk manufactures once eminently flourished) has been grossly overcharged ; let such an Englishman, if his business should conduct him across the channel to that city, (which in mockery is called the second city in the British empire) let him, we say, call upon a Mr. Burke, a clothier, in Ardee street, or any other solitary member of the trade, who (like an apple in an orchard after a general shake) may have survived the British wintry storm ; and the Irish tradesman will perhaps be able to remove the English enquirer's incredulity, by conducting him in person to those houses which answer the description we have given, and whose portentous history may be easily collected from the landlords 'of the premises. But let this honest Englishman beware of forming an opinion of the trade and prosperity of Dublin, by the carriages and liveries in Grafton-street, Stephen's-green, &c.; for as a standard of prosperity, these liveries are not much more perfect than the minister's money, as a standard of taxation. The Earl of Heath's Liberty, which was once the scene of many a fruitful loom, is the true spot in which to grope for the genuine pulse of Irish manufacturing vitality, (we must here pause to touch our eye with the corner of an old silk handkerchief of Irish manufacture) and there the honest Englishman should go to look for it, (we say the honest Englishman, for in this essay we are not addressing ourselves to those narrow and selfish grubs, who imagine that England will rise like a Phoenix out of Irish ashes !) But if, notwithstanding this honest warning, John Bull will look for the test of our wealth in our carriages and liveries, &c., he may find himself deeply deceived after he has given us deep credit upon this here shewy principle. x 306 COUNTY OF TYRONE, His patience, we fear, (patient a brute as he is known to be) will be severely exercised when he comes to draw upon the carriages and liveries at pay day. A porter splendidly dressed will meet him at many a splendid gate, with the master's usual compliments, " Not at home." This watch word will never sleep ; and after John has sent in his card for a year or two at least, and has always received the same answer, he will then prove by experience, what he ought to have known before his books were opened ; namely, that it is the trade of a place, and not its carriages and liveries, that constitute the stamina of its strength, and the tine test of its prosperity ; and having paid dear for his knowledge of our country, he will at length learn, that with the excep- tion of the North of Ireland, which is a province almost exclusively commercial, we are, generally speaking, a gay and pleasure loving people (not very particular about the promises which we make to tradesmen} and hence many a lady this, and a Sir Charly that, would sooner go to bed without their supper, and even hide a hole or two in the feet of their old silk stockings at a party, than encumber their creditors with useless cash, or part with a carriage and livery which, in strict justice, are not their own ; and for this good reason, because although they cannot in reality afford to maintain these appearances, still they can much worse afford to part with them, since that would be to part with the only heaven which they know, the smiles of a certain circle of empty hearted belles and coxcombs, who have just as much merit and virtue as they have themselves ! These good people will, therefore, make a shift to keep their carriages and liveries in statuquo; although if about to settle with their creditors, it is ten to one if the whole of this vain artillery and its appendages, with their white silk stockings into the bargain, would pay their creditors three shillings aud sixpence to the pound. In reference to that called the county cess (the last public tax we shall notice in this article) and which is levied by the grand jury off the county at spring and autumn ; this STRABANE. 307 also is said to be raised either by a bad rule, by no fixed rule, or if by any regular rule, by one that has been long and loudly complained of as unjust, and with some appear- ance of reason. Let us take an example. If we may depend upon the testimony of a clergyman in the neigh- bourhood of Strabane, as communicated to us in the year 1830, the enormous sum of 6 3s. 4d. a house, was levied off a certain portion of the inhabitants of that town and parish, as their proportion of the county cess in that year ; while in the same year, upon householders of similar hold- ings in the next parish, the sum of eight or ten shillings only was levied as their proportion of the same tax ! If this has been truly represented to us, and that we have understood it rightly, it is totally impossible that such a revolting inequality of taxation as this, could have been in the contemplation of the law ; and if it has proceeded from an abuse of privilege and power, it is high time that the functionaries who have made such a handle of their privi- leges should be displaced, and the county delivered from their future abuses, by a new and irresistible system of correction. Soon after we received the information of this unequal levy (and which we have communicated to the English reader as an " unvarnished tale " having " extenuated nought, nor set down aught in malice,") we endeavoured, by farther enquiry, to get at the bottom of the mystery by which this unequal machine was worked, but found that to be totally impossible. Those gentlemen, however, whose direct business it is to correct these abuses, and who to that end should search to the bottom of all facts con- nected with them, will probably be able to obtain much useful information from the Rev. Mr. Hamilton, the rector of Strabane, and a magistrate for the county ; and who, in the discharge of the various duties which devolve upon him in these relations, must have a more perfect knowledge of the local machinery of the county, and^of the principle by which it is worked, than any mere traveller could acquire 308 COUNTY OF TYRONE, from the information of others during his passage through a district with which he had no personal connection. CHARITY AND SOUND POLICY OF STRABANE. At the close of the summer of 1830, oatmeal and potatoes, which form the principal food of the working people, be- coming very dear, the inhabitants of the town and neigh- bourhood of Strabane, subscribed a considerable sum ; pur- chased therewith a large stock of oatmeal in the markets of Liverpool and Glasgow, and selling this out at reduced prices in the town, they thereby prevented the forestaller from raising his meal from two shillings and sixpence the peck (ten pounds) to three shillings, to which price it would undoubtedly have risen in a few days, had it not been for the arrival of the English and Scotch supplies, through the instrumentality of this charity. By this timely interference of the gentlemen and mer- chants, (chiefly we believe the latter) oatmeal was soon reduced to the moderate price of one shilling and eight-pence per peck, the farmer and forestaller being obliged to undersell the committee of the charity, in order to obtain a market. Other towns in the North of Ireland, having so far fol- lowed this example, as to adopt a principle of similar effect ; one of the most fearful visitations to which a country can be subjected was happily averted; for a dear summer, pro- ducing famine, pestilence, and an atmosphere pregnant with infectious exhalations, is indeed an awful visitation ! Let those mercenaries, who cannot be moved by a consideration of the duties of humanity, which they owe to their poorer brethren, take warning. Let them contemplate the recent and numerous examples of infectious maladies, arising from bad food, bad air, and a total absence of the means of clean- liness and comfort, in the persons of the poor ; and remove these predisposing causes to infection, before the evil reaches to a certain point, in which that judicious regulation of the non-naturals, that in the first instance would have checked its growth, becomes useless; and the disease raging with STRABANE, 309 inextinguishable fury, spreads desolation through society, and finally plants its thorn with accumulated force, in the oriental pillow of the thoughtless and unfeeling rich, who, by the exercise of a little timely charity might have checked its progress. MINERALS IN THE MOUNTAINS, &C. In that part of the Tyrone chain of mountains, under which the town of Strabane reposes, a considerable tract of coal may be supposed to exist, if the following information which we received from Mr. Orr, (a wealthy and respectable merchant of that town) may be relied on as authentic. The father of this gentleman, who appears to have been a man of some research, had frequently taken with him a scientific friend, with their dogs and guns, as though on shooting expeditions ; but in reality for the purpose of ascer- taining whether the mountains around Strabane contained certain indications of coal, or any other mineral applicable to purposes of trade. In the progress of these investigations, they discovered what they considered to be infallible proofs of the existence of coal ; and to such an extent in a certain district of the mountains, as, in their estimation, fully to justify the outlay of a certain capital. When their minds had been fully satisfied on this subject, the late Mr. Orr waited on the late Lord Erne, (the proprietor of the soil) and offered to give him half the profits, and to incur the whole expense of opening and working these mines, if his lordship would yield the small proportion of land neces- sary to the perfection of the enterprise. Our informant stated that Lord Erne thought proper, (we would say had the folly, if we spoke as we think) to reject this proposal, but at the same time offered Mr. Orr 500. if he would point out to him the particular tract that contained the indications, but which Mr. Orr (probably piqued at Lord Erne's apparent want, both of liberality and discernment) refused to do. We know that coal exists, to a considerable extent, in 310 COUNTY OF TYRONE, the county upon which we are now writing. Mines have been long worked in the vicinity of Dungannon and Coal Island, and from a ravine in a mountain near the village of Drumquin (where the coal appeared in large masses) the country people procured on one occasion (as Mr. Sproule in the neighbourhood of Strabane assured us) nearly two tons of excellent quality, without the aid of any other instrument than a sledge and a crow bar. This mountain was formerly the property of Sir James Galbraith, Bart.; but is now, we understand, in the posses- sion of a Mr. Gordon, a merchant of Belfast. Mr. Alexander, of Sandville, (the proprietor of extensive slate quarries on one of the Abercorn estates) confirms the general report of coal in this district of Tyrone, as also of charcoal applicable to the manufacture of iron, on the ele- vated lands above the Giant's Causeway, on the coast of Antrim. He farther observed, that in the townland of Caw, on the eastern bank of the river Foyle, he saw a strong indication of copper near the farm of a Mr. Robinson, on that part of the lands of the see of Derry, which approxi- mate with Ross's bay. Thus many parts of this and the neighbouring counties exhibit indisputable evidences of mineral wealth. The capital and enterprise to work them are the things wanted, together with proper encouragement from the owners of the soil. This encouragement cannot be expected to flow from them, until they have first made themselves acquainted with the dormant treasures of their own properties; and to the necessity that exists for an active system of research, by a geological survey of these properties, we again earnestly call the attention of the landed interest, for their country's sake, and for their own. A LANDSCAPE. Returning from Sandville to Strabane (as we crossed the country towards the coach road between Dublin and Derry, on which Strabane is situated) one of the prettiest features that we had then seen in the topography of that neighbour- MINERALS. 311 hood, caught our eye. It was a beautiful and apparently circular elevation, covered with an oakwood from its base to its summit; and rising with interesting dignity above the general level of a plain, richly decorated with orna- mental plantations. In our progress to Strabane, we saw at least three more woods of a similar description, on an elevated chain of soil, running nearly parallel with the Dublin and Derry coach road; and all these woods, we were informed, are the property of the house of Abercorn, and have grown spontaneously on these lands. The preser- vation of these woods, so singularly ornamental to the country (and undoubtedly of considerable value) do great credit to the taste and judgment of the Abercorn family, under whose sheltering wing they have grown up and flourished. What a pity it is that the ancient owners of those rocky mountains of the north, where oak will grow, and which a ploughshare cannot enter, had not inserted in the interstices of those mountains, the same timber. How well would it have paid their posterity ; and how largely would these woods have contributed to beautify our country. You may, however, visit the Belfast mountains, and those of Derry and Donegal, and even that noble mountain in the county of Down, which stands with gigantic majesty over the richly decorated valley of Ravensdale, and forms a grand outline to that incomparable valley. You may visit all these, and find the valleys elegantly ornamented with plan- tations, and sparkling (like brilliants set in jasper) with villas of the most animating and attractive aspect ; but when you raise your eyes to the lofty mountains that enclose these valleys (the proper theatre of wood, and where the sound of an axe should not be heard for a hundred years) you see not a single tree ! ! ! THE TYRONE ABERCORN ESTATE. This estate is reputed to measure twenty-three English miles in length, and from one to eight in breadth ! It is 312 COUNTY OF TYRONE, bounded by the river Foyle, the county of Londonderry, Sir James Brace's church lands, the Donemana estate, (late Sir John Hamilton's,) and the property of a Mrs. Hum- phreys, &c. Of its rents, tenures, classes of soil, or the circumstances of its population, we know nothing but what may be col- lected from the few local descriptions contained in these reports. MILLTOWN. This is the seat of the Reverend Stewart Hamilton, and stands within one English mile of Strabane, which is the post town to it, on the old line of road communicating between that town and New Town Stewart, which is also a market and post town in this county. It comprehends a good dwellinghouse, a neatly planted lawn, and about twelve acres of demesne in high order. It is the private property of Mr. Hamilton, the incumbent of the parish (whose name has been already noticed in our description of Strabane) and was purchased by him on account of its proximity to the principal scene of his duties, for which the house now building on the parish glebe is extremely ill circumstanced, being three English miles dis- tant from Strabane, where a population of 6000 souls call daily for the exercise of the ecclesiastical functions. BURN DENNET BLEACH GREEN. This little seat of trade is situated on the Abercorn estate, and is held by Mr. Francis O'Neil, of Mount Pleasant, a reputable linen merchant. It stands in a neighbourhood very much secluded from the public view, near a line of road which opens a passage through this tract of country, for the accommodation of the tenants in these back settlements. Considering that this secluded position is only four miles distant from Strabane, (its post town) we did not conceive that its aspect altogether harmonized with the general wealth and beauty of this SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 313 section of the country. Contrasting its appearance with that of the country from Strabane to Newtown Stewart, which is watered by the Mourne river, and beautified by divers seats and other conspicuous improvements ; or even with that of the wooded hills not far distant from this rude and retired spot ; we could not but clearly perceive, when attempting to place it in juxta position with these better dressed portions of the country (in a portrait of the pic- turesque) that it retired, like a wild Irish girl, rudely from the touch ; and when pursued with rapidity in order to catch its outline upon the pencil, that it retreated (like an Indian woman into her North American fastness) so deeply and rapidly into the shade, that it became totally impossible to sketch it. We would therefore strongly recommend Mr. O'Neill (if indeed he has the savage sure) to dress and civilize this comparatively rude and uncultivated piece of nature ; and when he has tamed, educated, decorated, and made it fit to appear in good company, we shall feel most happy to give it a distinguished place in the best assemblages of its own neighbourhood. Until then, however, we must confess that its only claim to distinction (a very important one by the bye) is that of its useful trade, which embraces an annual bleach of 8 or 10,000 pieces of that class of seven-eighths wide linens, commonly called Coleraines; and which are usually disposed of in a finished state, in the markets of Dublin and London. This establishment unites with many others of the same kind in the same county, to provide employment and sup- port for many honest and industrious labourers ; and after all that may be said about the picturesque (of which never- theless a true patriot is proud) must be regarded as the best of all objects in the landscapes of a country so deeply des- titute of trade and employment for the poor, as that of Ireland. 314 COUNTY OF TYRONE, URNEY HOUSE. This house was built by Dr. Fowler, the present bishop of Ossory (the former house attached- to this glebe, and which was built by Dr. Beresford, the late Archbishop of Tuam, having been burned down.) It was the seat of the Rev. James Jones, the Rector of Urney, when we visited that county in 1830, and certainly was one of the prettiest church residences in that part of Ireland. It embraces a mansion-house, bordering on the magnificent, and 83 Co- nyngham acres of glebe land, elegantly planted and improved, It reposes in a valley (watered by the river Finn) under the shadow of Croghan-hill, and other noble elevations in the county of Donegal, which surmount the scene ; so that when you lift your eyes from that charming palace, and those planted lawns, to the lofty works of nature above them ; and inhale the perfumes of Arabia with which the whole scene is scented ; you will naturally enough conclude, that it is good to be admitted through the splendid portals of the church into the well-dressed gardens of that visible Elysium; in your passage to what country beyond the river we pre- sume not to say (for we do not like to remind our readers of Luke xvi.) but with certainty to that common grave, which is equally the rich man's home, and the poor man's resting- place. This scene of sanctity stands (in the full enjoyment of its own hallowed sweets) on a line of road which opens a com- munication between Strabane and the village of Claudy; and the valley from Urney to Donaghmore (the name of a still more extensive, but much less beautiful paradise of the church than Urney) being richly cultivated and improved, and watered by the river Finn (which, after washing the eastern bank of Urney demesne, pursues its meandring course through the valley, in view of the traveller, the whole way to Donaghmore) renders the drive from Strabane to this latter less beautiful paradise, extremely interesting. To the present rich aspect of Urney House, each resident SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 315 clergyman has no doubt contributed, in his turn, a certain quota of improvement ; but if the traveller may judge from the high and excellent order in which that place appeared in the summer of 1830, it was not more deeply indebted to any of its temporary occupants, for the rich cluster of its exist- ing graces, than to the then existing incumbent ; for nothing short of eastern munificence, and eastern grace, could have maintained in such finished perfection the tout ensemble of that lovely tithe-scented scene. It would be presumptuous to delude the eye and imagination of the reader with a vain attempt to fill up this brief outline with a minute description of those varied minor graces, which so harmoniously com- bine to complete the picture of its beauties. These are the je ne saw quoi, the indescribable charms, which all who have tasted them feel and understand, but which no man (except perhaps the incumbent, who must necessarily taste them with a peculiar relish) was ever yet able to commu- nicate in their full perfection to the taste and feeling of another. It is the prerogative of which the church herself is so peculiarly jealous, that she has never permitted the beneficiaries of her GRACE, to transfer the same sensitive enjoyment of her favours to a second person ; and he who would understand this enjoyment aright, must come under the direct operation of her own inspiring presence, which never touched the heart of sensibility with her celestial finger, without feeling chords, deeply placed in the centre of the instrument, that tremblingly responded to the sweet and soft dictates of her silent favour. It is true, there are many more wealthy and extensive seats in the episcopal paradise of Ireland than that of Urney; but none that came under our observation in this immediate neighbourhood, so perfectly attractive. To describe these rich and splendid establishments of the church, as they ought to be described, is a task far beyond the limited resources of any prose pencil. To do them justice, would require the presence of that towering poetic genius, which, having travelled incognito with Lucifer from 316 COUNTY OF TYRONE, the gates of hell, through the trackless and immeasurahle space which divides earth from his dominions, witnessed his dialogue with Uriel the Angel of the Sun, his subtle and silent descent upon the garden of Eden, his final victory over the innocence and felicity of our first parents; and then returning into this world of woe, published that awful pri- meval tragedy (so often and successfully repeated in courts, countries, churches, and families) known by the name of a " Paradise" confer'd and " lost !" This is the sort of genius which could trace the progress of our Irish ecclesiastical paradise, through all its celestial revolutions ; and to such we leave the execution of that finished picture, which would now prove useful to the British Empire; while, in the conscious inadequacy of our talents to such a task, we have only presumed to touch with our pencil point, a single seg- ment in the mighty circle of its dominion ; and that without intending the least personal reflection upon the present generation of the clergy, the generality of whom are men of benevolence and virtue, and by no means chargeable with the errors of that system by which their country suffers. Strabane, from which Urney is about three miles distant, is the post and market-town to this interesting residence. SHANNON. This is the seat of James C. Ball, Esq., and comprehends a neat cottage, and 160 Conyngham acres of upland, arable, and bog; 100 acres being of the former description, and the remainder, chiefly an improved bog applicable to meadow. According to our information, this seat has been held by the Ball family on the Erne estate for several genera- tions ; but the family property, which they hold under a grant of Charles II., is situated in the Barony of Strabane, and contains about 105 acres of an argillaceous soil, which the present proprietor farms on his own account. These lands are situated on the mail-coach road between Derry and Dublin (within four Irish miles of Strabane, and eight of Berry) and in the opposite direction they are bounded by SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 317 the river Foyle. The Burndennet river also passes through them, so that they are well watered ; and as in certain parts they contain brick and pottery clay, they are hence appli- cable to purposes of trade, as well as those of agriculture. The town of Strabane, from which this seat is about four miles distant, is the post-town to it. MULVOYNE. This is the seat of James Richard Auchinleck, Esq. an officer in his Majesty's navy. It comprehends a handsome cottage (erected, with great taste and judgment, on the summit of a beautiful elevation above the public coach-road, communicating between Strabane and Newtown Stewart) and 100 Conyngham acres of a soil well adapted to corn and green crops, and we have no doubt to the growth and perfection of ornamental trees. It is an interesting and healthful summer residence, admirably situated for the enjoyment of pure air and open prospect ; and is held in perpetuity on the Abercorn estate by the present occupant. When the plantations and other improvements com- menced on this demesne have been completed (and we would strongly recommend the substitution of whitewash or fine plaster for the present muddy colour of the cottage walls ; as white is undoubtedly a better combination with the ver- dure of nature, and particularly with the foliage of trees, than murky mud.) When these improvements, we say, have been completed, Mulvoyne will be a feature of con- siderable attraction on the populous and respectable road just noticed ; and being so contiguous to the market towns of Strabane and Newtown Stewart, it will prove as profitable in reference to its produce, as it is interesting to the Irish patriot, whose feelings are as much identified with every new addition to the beauties and improvements, as with every new advance in the constitutional march of the rights and liberties of his country. This seat stands about two Irish miles from Newton 318 COUNTY OF TYRONE, Stewart, and four or five from Strabane, which is the post town to it. DEER PARK. This is the seat of Dr. John Irvine, held by him in per- petuity on an estate of the late Earl of Blessington, on which the market and post town of Newtown Stewart is also situated. The Deerpark embraces a pretty cottage, standing on a lofty site over a richly cultivated valley, and commanding a highly interesting glimpse of the river Mourne, pursuing its meandring course through that town to Newtown Stewart ; as also of those magnificent objects in the mountain scenery of Tyrone, distinguished from the other members of the mountain family, by the interesting appellations of Betsy Bell and Mary Gray. But in addition to the pleasures of prospect, this cottage scene can also boast some ruins of antiquity. The vestige of a castle, said to have been occupied in early times by a branch of the O'Nial (now O'Neil) family, maintains a con- spicuous position there. Its family comforts are also amply provided for, by a farm of more than fifty acres of mountain, arable, and bog; now rapidly advancing in agricultural improvement, by the taste and industry of the present resident ; and from its proximity to a good market to\vn, this cottage farm is obviously well circumstanced for the sale of its agricultural produce. Deer park stands on the lofty elevation already noticed, within a short distance of the coach road communicating between Strabane and Omagh, by Newtown Stewart, and within one English mile of the last of these towns, which is the post town to it. CROSH HOUSE. This is the seat of Alex. Wm. Colhoun, Esq., and comprehends a neat country lodge, and a tract of several hundred acres of the Abercorn estate, held in perpetuity for SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 319 some generations past at a small chief rent, by the family of the present resident. The elevated lands are pregnant with limestone ; and a large tract of bog being included in the property, the latter is evidently well circumstanced for agricultural improve- ment, of which, lime and peat, are well known to be two valuable elements, when properly combined, and applied to the improvement of the Uplands. These lands are bounded, on one side, by the river Mourne, and are situated on a line of road which opens a communication between Newtown Stewart and Plumbbridge, in this county. Distant from the former, which is the post town to Crosh-house, one mile. PARISH OF ARDSTRAW. The Rev. Dr. Nash, (formerly S. F. of Trinity College, Dublin,) is the rector of this parish ; which is, we under- stand, in the gift of the college of Dublin, by whom he was invested. He has now no interest in his late fellowship ; but his parish is reputed to be worth 2000. per annum, a certain proportion of which he is said to apply to charitable uses. The person who collects his tithe also informed us, that the farmers in this parish hold the latter from him by mutual agreement, at a rate not exceeding one shilling and sixpence per acre for land of the middle class. This how- ever was the established practice, in many parts of the north of Ireland, long before the tithe composition law was enacted ; and how largely a timely adoption of this rule con- tributed to the peace of this province, and to that kind and friendly feeling which should always exist between the clergy and the people, it is needless to remark. Newtown- Stewart is the post town to this glebe. GALLONEY HOUSE. This respectable creation of Mr. John Smyth, (on the Abercom estate) comprehends a noble new edifice, and sixty eight Conyngham acres of a soil originally poor, but 820 COUNTY OF TYRONE, now brought to a high degree of perfection, by the hand oi industry and scientific improvement. Mr. Smyth has a perpetual interest in these lands ; and indeed nothing less would justify the great outlay of capital, by which this respectable feature of the Abercorn estate has been produced and perfected. The house stands on a noble elevation above that beau- tiful valley which is watered by the Mourne river, and opens a communication between the towns of Strabane and Newtown Stewart. The prospect over that valley to the neighbouring country is extensive, and exhibits a richly cultivated scene ; and in reference to the sale of agricultural produce, the latter market town being only five miles distant, and Strabane, a great mart for corn, only two, Galloney House is obviously well circumstanced for a farmers trade. Mr. Smyth gives his labourers one shilling per day the whole year round, and employment as constant as the state of the weather will admit ; the consequence is, that those who entered his service without cow or pig, are now able to purchase and maintain these necessary articles of household comfort; and to suppose that a benevolent master is not well paid for these acts of justice, by the affections and services of a grateful people, is to display an utter ignorance of human nature. Strabane, (where Mr. Smyth once resided as an extensive merchant, and where he is now succeeded by his son) is the post town to this seat. GLENCUSH. This is the denomination of a towrrland in the barony of Strabane, and is the seat of Mr. Robert Me Crae, whose family for some generations have held those lands on the Dunnamanagh estate, late the property of Sir John Stewart Hamilton, Bart. The lands in Mr. Me Crae's possession, include a cottage farm in a state of high improvement (on which he and his SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 321 family reside) with a small estate of several townlands adjacent to it. The soil is said to be composed for the most part, of a light gravel surface, well adapted to oat crops, and producing remarkably early crops of com when pro- perly cultivated. The river Dennet passes through these lands, and forms a boundary to them on the south ; and, in its progress, it is said to exhibit falls of sufficient force, to effect the movement of machinery for trading purposes. Londonderry, which has been selected by the proprietor of Glencush, as his post town, stands seven Irish miles north from thence, Strabane five miles S. W., and Glencush is situated on one of various county roads, which open a com- munication with the mail coach road between Dublin and Deny, from the nearest point of which road it is about two miles distant. CORCREEVY. This is the seat and property of Matthew James Burnside, Esq. It comprehends a respectable feature of improvement in a portrait of the district of Five Mile Town, and is situated on the coach road communicating between that town and Enniskillen, the capital of Fermanagh. Its history may be given in a few words. A handsome house and lawn ; a neatly planted demesne of about eighty Irish acres ; and a fee simple estate of about 250 acres of a valuable soil, part thereof being a dry limestone gravel, and the residue a soft and spewy moor, accommodated with a small quantity of turbary for fuel. Five Mile Town, in its immediate neighbourhood, is the post town to it. OMAGH. Omagh, which is the capital of this county, has a good weekly market, (that is, a good deal of linen cloth is sold there) and a tolerably extensive general retail business ; but it is neither so populous, nor so well circumstanced for Y 322 COUNTY OF TYRONE, trade, as Strabane ; which, by virtue of its water carriage to Derry, and through that port to England and elsewhere, carries on a pretty smart import and export trade. We have not seen any census of the population of these towns. That of Strabane, (as we already noticed in our description of that place) is estimated at 6000 persons, and from a sharp view of Omagh, we calculated 4000 to be its utmost amount. Omagh, although the capital of Tyrone, appeared to us to stand in only the third rank of the trade and population of its towns. Strabane we conceived to be the first, Dungan- non the second, and this the third. In the linen market of Dungannon we believe there is much more business done than in that of Omagh, and in the general retail trade, at least an equal amount; and Dungannon has the advantage of a pretty convenient communication with the port of Newry, chiefly by water; while in reference to its popula- tion, we think, from the area which the town covers, it must exceed that of Omagh by some hundred souls. But if Omagh has only the honour of standing in the third rank of trade and population ; in the weight of men- dicity with which it is burthened, (if we may judge from the multitude of able bodied beggars and their families that we saw there in two days only) it has no competitor among the towns of this county. We could not command leisure to count the numerous trains of these poor people that infested Omagh on the days to which we have adverted ; but we well remember that the impression produced upon our mind by the imposing array which we then witnessed, was this; that these visiters of Omagh would have been found sufficient to colonise the most considerable of our foreign settlements in a very short period of time ; and that if the unemployed peasantry and their families, thus thrown upon the farmers and shop- keepers for support, shall continue to multiply, while these latter, in their own defence, continue rapidly emigrating from the scene of infection, leaving all that is wretched and OMAGH. 323 miserable behind them unless we say, the British government alight upon a better mode of managing Ireland, than this, the final result of this system will prove deeply injurious to England herself. Would it not therefore be vastly better to allow Ireland to avail herself of her own deep and almost exhaustless resources, for the employment of her people, by permitting her to legislate upon her own soil for this special purpose, than to make the slender measure of her capital, and the physical energies of her people, tributary to the wealth and power of foreign states, upon the one hand, while a rapidly increasing population, almost totally unpro- vided for, are made to eat like a canker worm into the few remaining resources of the capital and industry of the country, upon the other? It is true a large proportion of Irish emigrants proceed from hence to Canada, a British settlement ; but what an infinitely large proportion of Irish capital and Irish artizans have been forced into foreign coun- tries by British policy, exclusive of the numerous families now settled in the United States of North America, and con- tributing to enrich that new country by their capital and labours ! This to be sure is very well for the people who have succeeded in escaping from the all desolating plague of poverty and infamy, with which their unhappy country has been visited ; and doubly well for the states which have profited by English policy ! But what of that policy, sayest thou Lycurgus ; or what Solon ; or what William Penn ; or what Fenelon, thou classic founder of Salentum ; since in the range of your political philosophy, we cannot trace this policy, with the sort of glass (we think not jaundiced) that is now before us? Omagh stands in the centre of a tolerably well cultivated country, on a property of the Earl of Belmore, (the pre- sent governor of Jamaica) and which, according to our information, was part of a tract of country extending from Omagh to Ermiskillen, formerly in possession of the Arch- dale family, (who have a property still remaining in this section of the country) and disposed of by an ancestor of 324 COUNTY OF TYRONE, General Archdale to an ancestor of Lord Belmore, one of whose sons, the Honourable Henry Com*, is now mem- ber for this county. MOUNT PLEASANT. This new creation of the Rev. Mr. Crigan, stands on a small estate which he possesses in the neighbourhood of Omagh, and is a very interesting feature of beauty and improvement in a topographic portrait of that town and neighbourhood. It is a purchase of the Rev. Resident, and has been con- verted by him from a wild boggy moor into its present well- merited character of a handsome Irish villa. It comprehends a new and respectable edifice, on the summit of a gentle elevation, which commands a noble prospect of the neighbouring country ; and about 100 acres of a well reclaimed demesne, very grassy, and apparently well calculated for oats, flax, and every species of green crop for cattle feeding ; and from the flourishing appearance of the young plantations, it is evident that no soil can be better adapted to the growth of trees of the light and orna- mental classes. The Struel river forms a boundary to this property on one side, and a part of the estate of the late Earl of Blessington (richly wooded) on the other. The prospect from hence to the Tyrone mountains, over the plantations of Lisanally, and the richly wooded demesne of Mount Joy forest, is incomparably fine. In fact, as the residence of a country gentleman, in the immediate vicinity of a good market town, we know nothing on a limited scale to exceed this seat ; and the beauty, order, and harmony, which have been called into being from a wild and unculti- vated moor, reflect a high distinction upon the taste and understanding which produced them. Mount Pleasant stands within one mile of Omagh, (the SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 325 post town to it) immediately on the coach road which opens a communication between that town and Derry, NEWGROVE. Newgrove, the seat and fee simple estate of Samuel Galbraith, Esq., comprehends a large and most respectable family edifice (converted from an ancient farm house into its present equally useful but more distinguished character) and about 120 Conyngham acres, chiefly of a hay and grass farm, bat with a certain proportion devoted to corn crops ; to all of which we understand these lands are admirably adapted. As Newgrove in its present form has no just pretension to the picturesque as the tame and level scene of which it is a component part, does not present a very strong and pro- minent ground work to the pencil or chisel of the artist and as, until a very recent period, it was not the residence of the present generation of the Galbraith family, but held from the commencement of their reign, or during a long interregnum, by tenants under them ; we must hence regard it as a place, on which Art (in defiance of Nature) has only drawn her first rude outline ; and which cannot become a seat of as high respectability as the finger of Art can make it, until the following constituents of her Newgrove picture, have received the last touches of her skilful pencil ; every stroke of which, from the lofty obelisk that is seen through a close defile in the opening wood, and the wood fringed eye of the crystal lake that brightly sparkles in the distant lawn, to the porter's l6dge, the handsome sweeping avenue, the lightly sporting skreen, and the circular out-post wisely planted upon the distant hill ; are, one and all, conceived, arranged, and executed on principles conformable to the philosophy of TASTE ; and separate from which, no work of art intended for embellishment, can mock the pure and unsullied eye of nature, or even amuse the fancy of the beholder, with a good resemblance of her spirit and her 326 COUNTY OF TYRONE, works. This may be regarded as that science of the true landscape gardener, separate from which the pretender to his art (however he may work as a mechanic for his bread) is no master. Hence for the perfection of the Newgrove picture, time- must be given for the young plantations to grow and flourish. The new dwellinghouse and offices, with corres- ponding gardens, must be finished. The opening of two splendid approaches in the contemplation of the proprietor, to be adapted to a new and splendid line of road, in the contemplation of the county, must be completed. And these, with handsome gate houses, good fences, and an elegant subdivision of the lands, will no doubt do much towards constituting Newgrove what it ought to be, a very respect- able seat on the surface of this county. We could obtain no information of minerals or mineral springs upon those lands ; but they have the advantage of being situated in the centre of an agricultural and manu- facturing district, at once peaceful and industrious (benefits, the full value of which can only be known and felt by occupiers of land in the disturbed districts) on a line of road communicating between Omagh and Irvinestown ; and the former, from which we believe it is about six miles distant, (but we find no reference to this in the notes before us) is the post town to it. SESKINORE LODGE, SESKIXORE, AND MULLAGHMORE. Seskinore Lodge, the seat of Mrs. Perry, (relict of the late George Perry, Esq.) is part and parcel of the Seskinore estate, and comprehends a neat and fashionable lodge, a tastefully planted lawn, and about sixty Irish acres of a farm, well adapted to the growth of flax and corn crops, and to that of garden vegetables and ornamental trees. The de- mesne however lies low, and the prospect from the lodge is exclusively confined to the little beauties of the home view ; in which the rose, the sweet William, and the sweet brier, SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 327 seem to vie, which shall diffuse the larger proportion of its fragrance through the surrounding scene. The ancient residence of this family, was at a place called Mullaghmore, (most likely the Irish name of the townland on which the old family house is situated) but denominated Perrymount, during their occupation of the place ; and this with the beautiful village of Seskinore, erected by the Perry family, in the immediate neighbourhood of the lodge, are parts and parcels of the same property; but of the extent of this property, its natural history, or the names of the townlands composing it, beyond what has been just mentioned, we know nothing. Some who profess (what we do not) to have a deep and extensive acquaintance with the Irish language, maintain that Seskinore, or more properly Sheskinore, is a combination of two Irish words which (by a free translation) may be made to signify " the rich or golden soil of thistles," the thistle weed, when shooting up in large quantities being the sure indication of a rich and marrowy soil. Whether this be admissible as a free trans- lation, or whether it diverges too far from the literal mean- ing of the parent root to come within the limits of a just literary licence, we presume not to say ; but as the best that we could make out we give it, and let the reader who finds fault with our translation provide us with a better. These various respectable features of the Perry property, stand within a short walk (perhaps an English mile or more) of the great coach road between Dublin and Deny, by Omagh, which is the post town to them, and from which they are about five Irish miles distant. N.B. A school for the education of the Protestant children of the neighbourhood, has been established in or near the village of Seskinore, by Mrs. Perry, and when we passed through that country in 1830, it was well attended, and very satisfactorily conducted by Mr. Halcoo, a young man edu- cated for this office by the Education Society, in Kildare- street, Dublin. 328 COUNTY OF TYRONE, THE VESEY ESTATE. This property is situated on a county road communicating between Fintona and Ballygawley, two market and post towns in this county, at the distance of about two miles from the former, which is the post town to the new family seat called Vesey Hall ; and from Omagh, the capital of the county, about six miles. Some years ago this tract of land was in a very rude and imperfect state ; but since it came into the possession of Dr. Vesey, the present proprietor, a course of improvements in building, planting, and agriculture, (which in a few years will amount to a new creation of the place) have been rapidly advancing this property towards the ne plus ultra of its capable perfection. The soil in this section of Tyrone is, generally speaking, by no means of the best class. In many places it is soft and spewy, but still when drained and properly improved, it will produce very tolerable crops of oats, flax, grass, potatoes, and other green crops ; and trees of the light and ornamental kinds, nourish, both in the mountain lands and in the moors. Nevertheless many parts of this neighbourhood have a wild and implanted appearance ; the fences are frequently very bad ; many of the ditches are bald, and totally destitute of quickset hedges. In a word, the timber bears no proportion to the farms ; and what is still worse, the temperature of trade has sunk far below zero. The manufacturing farmer, who once derived succour from this latter source, is now driven by his necessities to look more for the means of pro- curing an immediate return for his outlay from the sale of his crop, than of advancing the future interests of his family by the enrichment of his land. The soil, consequently, suffers in its interests. The demand for labour remains stationary, or perhaps retrogrades, while the candidates for employment rapidly increase ; and the end of all is, that mendicity follows, as a natural and inevitable consequence of the causes which conduct to it. In this state of things, SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 329 it is by no means surprising, that every movement of the country gentleman in the march of building, planting, and cultivation, is hailed with joy by the people of the country, as an act of temporary salvation ; while the improver himself is very naturally regarded by those people as a pilot sticking to the ship in its worst circumstances, and giving indisput- able evidence to all around him, of the skill and industry he is exerting to weather the storm, and of his inflexible deter- mination to sink or swim with the vessel of his property and country. This being a true picture of many parts of this once flourishing province, it is by no means surprising that we yield a page of this humble volume with great pleasure, to notice the improvements that Dr. Vesey and his son are now carrying on at Vesey Hall ; and, in the execution of which, they have found a good deal of employment for a proportion of the labouring poor in their immediate neigh- bourhood. The Vesey estate embraces about 1,200 acres of the soil thus imperfectly described ; and of this a certain proportion has been reclaimed from bog ; a large section of the residue is undergoing a process of improved cultivation ; a noble new edifice has been erected on the summit of a lovely ele- vation in the centre of a semi-amphitheatre of hills ; these hills are tastefully decorated with young plantations, and the loftiest and most lordly of the little chain is surmounted by a temple, which acts as a sentinel to the scene, disputing with Boreas the passage of the northern hills. This temple, in the progress of the improvements, is to receive a castel- lated form ; but from the summit of such a noble hill, standing over a deep and lovely valley, richly decorated by the finger of the architect and planter, and enclosing half that valley with its base, a lofty spire raising its spheric cone above the wooded vale, and presenting its picturesque point to the eye of the traveller on the distant roads, would be an infinitely nobler appendage to Vesey Hall, than any alteration of the building that would not (as a top-stone to 330 COUNTY OF TYRONE, the whole,} be surmounted by this picturesque spire, in the climax of its ascending beauties. The country around Vesey Hall, having 1 much that is rude and offensive to exhibit to the eye, the selection of a modest, but beautiful elevation in the valley, for the site of the new building, surrounded by the hills just noticed, was most judicious ; as from this position the prospect of that rude country is completely excluded, and every spice of the picturesque existing in the geography of the place (to which the plantations have been admirably adapted) is presented to the eye of the visiter in its most engaging aspect; while from the noble variety of hill and dale which the home scene presents, with the house reflecting its beauties upon the vale beneath, the circumambient hills elegantly planted, and the whole surmounted (as we trust it will) by the spire of a temple on the loftiest of those hills which protect the valley from the country's rude embrace ; we are assured that in a few years hence, when the plantations are full grown, the traveller who enters and beholds the lovely congregated features of Vesey Hall, thus elegantly grouped, will pro- nounce it to be the most perfectly finished feature of retired beauty, of which this section of Tyrone can boast ; and on a scale so compact and comprehensive, that the eye is uncon- scious of exertion while revelling in the picturesque plea- sures of this little panoramic scene, which pi-esses with indescribable vigour and activity upon the organ of enjoy- ment, even in a first embrace. The demesne includes about 120 acres of the property thus planted and improved. A small rivulet, called the Blackwater, (upon which a noble flour-mill was being erected by the proprietor in 1830,) forms a boundary to this property on the south-east, and on the other sides it is bounded by the estates of Mrs. Perry, the Earl of Belmore, Robt. Waring Maxwell, Esq., Rev. Francis Jervis, and Hugh Gore Edwards, Esq. SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 331 ECCLESVILLE AND FINTONA. When we visited Ecclesville in 1830, it was then the seat of the late lamented John Dickson Eccles, Esq. proprietor of the Fintona estate, and a country gentleman of sterling worth, though of plain and unassuming manners. The demesne embraces about 250 acres of this property, lightly and ornamentally planted; but from its compara- tively low position, it commands no prospect of the sur- rounding country ; a fact in its topographic history, which need not be much lamented, since that country exhibits but little of the picturesque, and all that is necessary to a decent domestic landscape, may be found within the confines of Ecclesville demesne. The house, which stands at a short distance from the public road, at the bottom of a valley formed by gently sloping hills, is a plain but noble edifice (the expressive type of the founder's honest mind, where the rich streams of benevolence, flowing through a retired valley to that invisible ocean, where they are now centred for ever, felt too deeply their own intrinsic worth, to court that sweet- smelling cowslip of popular applause, " which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven,") and to this has been added all those plain and useful appendages of a family residence, which are necessaiy to decent rank and to sub- stantial comfort. Fintona, a market and post town on this estate (which has several shops, and does some business in the corn trade) may be regarded as the capital of the property. It stands on a public road a little elevated above the valley of Eccles- ville, of which it commands an imperfect view ; and although the appearance of this town is not remarkably attractive, we understand a good deal of business is done there; to which the policy of granting to improving tenants, leases in perpetuity, of houses and plots for building, must largely contribute ; while a similar indulgence to persons of neither property nor talent, would mar the improvement of the 332 COUNTY OF TYRONE, town, and inflict a needless wound upon the interests of the landlord. To this admirable plan of giving the tenant a perpetual interest in his town holding, we would recom- mend (in every possible case) the addition of a few acres of land for the accommodation of his town establish- ment. This land, being held at a moderate rent on a lease of lives or years, would have a favourable influence on the interests of the whole estate, as the value of farms approx- imating with it would advance in an exact ratio with the wealth and population of the neighbouring town ; and we hope this also is the policy of the Eccles family. The valley of Ecclesville is separated from the town of Fintona by a water called the Casheron river, which passes through the Fintona estate. On this a corn mill has been erected for the accommodation of the tenantry, and a site for another mill with a fall of from seven to ten feet is said to exist upon the same river, and of course presents to some enterprising man of business, an inducement to form a bleaching or manufacturing establishment at that place. If the successors of the late Mr. Eccles follow his example, we have no doubt they will be found ready to give all due encouragement to this and every other instrument of employ- ment to the poor that may be found to exist in their imme- diate neighbourhood; for from all that we could learn of the character of that lamented gentleman, as a landlord, a magistrate, and a man, his sudden removal by death, while we were travelling in his native county, was felt to be a public loss ; and as such was very justly and generally deplored, by the poor and by the public. SPUR ROYAL CASTLE. For the origin of this curious title we were referred (in the absence of the proprietor, who was in France) to the indented form of the castle ; but this not only falls far short of a reason for the pomp of such a title, but is so weak and whimsical an account of the cause producing it, that in jus- tice to the individual (whoever he may have been) from whom SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 333 this strange cognomen was derived, we must suppose that it had its origin in a royal spur found upon these lands, (and which might have been lost there in ancient days, in some sanguinary conflict of the Irish kings with their Danish or English invaders) as, upon any other principle, we are at a loss to know how the sanity of the nomenclator, and the consistent derivation of his title, can be defended and esta- blished. It is the seat of a branch of the respectable family of Bunbury, which settled upon this property prior to the English revolution, and at the period of our visit, a new and magnificent castle (intended, we suppose, from its peculiar form, to perpetuate the memory of the spur) was then being erected by an ingenious architect of the name of Warren, by whom the palace of Clogher, and other conspicuous buildings, were also planned and conducted. Of the extent and natural history of this property, or the circumstances of its tenantry, we could procure but little information ; but it forms such a splendid feature of beauty and improvement in the view of the traveller on the public road between the villages of Augher and Clogher in this county, as to call forth his admiration, and direct his enquiries to the place. We found the castle standing on a spacious and richly wooded demesne, with a lake at the foot of a lovely mount in the front view, to which the family are said to be as deeply indebted for a liberal supply of trout, pike, perch, and eel, as the home view for one of the most vivid and sparkling features of its domestic beauty. This lake is sup- plied by a stream from the black water river, which turns a corn mill in its progress ; and besides these waters, a rapid mountain stream descends into those lands, and sometimes overflowing its banks, visits the crops with an unwelcome irrigation. This, however, we should suppose, might be prevented by embankment, and the stream even rendered useful for the watering of a stock farm, or for the establish- 334 COUNTY OF TYRONE, ment of yarn bleach greens in that linen country, by a proper direction of its current. From an elevation on the road just noticed, which stands over the castle and demesne, this seat with its neighbouring landscape, and noble mountain outline, are seen in their best aspect. Spur royal castle is situated about two miles from Clogher, and five from Aughnaclay, which is the post town to it. THE RAVELLA ESTATE. This is the property of Colonel Montgomery Moore, who resides in France. It comprehends about 6000 Irish planta- tion acres, besides 1000 acres of a mountain tract, now not let for more than about two shillings per acre, though abound- ing with lime for manure, turbary for fuel, and perhaps pregnant with minerals of immense value. The family seat called Garvey House, the present residence of Mr. James Montgomery, (the agent) comprehends 160 acres of the Ravella estate, planted and improved; and to his name might be added, those of a long list of respect- able tenants and substantial freeholders, scattered over the entire face of the Ravella property. There is a valuable spa here, resorted to for scorbutic and other diseases of the blood. Garvey house is situated on the coach road communi- cating between Enniskillen and Aughnaclay, by Clogher, at the distance of about two English miles from the latter, which is the post town to it. KILLYFADDY HOUSE. This is the seat of Robert Warren Maxwell, Esq., a magistrate for this county ; and a most modern and magni- ficent feature it is, of a noble property which this gentle- man (who was residing in France, we believe, at the period of our visit to this country) possesses in the neighbourhood of Clogher, which is the post town to it, and from which this family seat is about two miles distant. SEATS AND ESTATES. 835 With the extent and boundaries of the Killyfaddy estate we are totally unacquainted ; and of its geological resources we know but little. The demesne, however, which forms its most obvious and distinguished feature, (and which, with its infantile plantations, a new and beautiful mansion house, and other modern improvements, give it altogether the appearance of a newly created place) embraces between 3 and 400 acres under lawn, farm lands, and young planta- tions, ornamentally divided and disposed. The superb new edifice and offices just noticed, stand on a green level lawn, (richly decked with the furniture of art and nature) and unite with it, and with the road from Omagh to Clogher, (which sweeps around this lovely lawn, in a beauteous and apparently rapid circle) to remind the traveller of the Roman circus and the Grecian games, to which that extensive and richly decorated lawn would be admirably adapted. Being thus associated with classic imaginations, the beauties of this newly created scene, are viewed with great pleasure, in a drive from the capital of the county to the town of Clogher. The young plantations of this seat are judiciously adapted to the wild and romantic geography of the neighbouring lands (to which the level lawn of Killyfaddy house forms a striking contrast) and the property at large includes a tract of mountain, whose hidden treasures are as little known to the public, as those of the other numerous mountain tracts in this province, of which no geological survey has been yet executed. We collected so much of the natural history of this place as to ascertain, that a tract of turbary sufficient to accommodate the property with fuel for a limited period of time, is attached to it ; as also a small portion of lime stone, the best of all minerals for the farmer ; but beyond these we could obtain no authentic information of its resources. Before our final departure from this section of the country, we had an opportunity of seeing farther specimens of this property, on a line of road which communicates between 336 COUNTY OF TYRONE, Fintona and the village of Augher. Here our attention was drawn (and very gratifyingly in a country badly wooded and by no means picturesque) to the appearance and cir- cumstances of two farms on this estate, which deserve to be noticed ; more particularly if the improvements on these farms may be regarded as the effects of a just and honour- able policy by which the whole property is governed. The first of these farms which attracted our attention, was that of Joseph Wallace, of Ballaghneed. We were proceed- ing to another farm on that estate, when the richly wooded fields of Joseph Wallace, on the left hand side of the road, (a little elevated above the valley through which we were passing) caught our eye; and from the notorious unfrequency of such appearances on the ordinary farms in this part of Ulster, we regarded the neatly divided, newly mown, and richly wood sheltered fields of Ballaghneed, as the indications of our approach towards the comfortably sheltered seat of a country gentleman of small fortune; until the honest old farmer and his son (who were working in one of those fields on the road side) in answer to our enquiries about the planter and proprietor of the place, gave us the necessary information ; and having assured us that the timber which we saw, and which himself or his father had planted, were never regis- tered ; we hence inferred, either that the law which now secures the tenant's interest in the timber which he puts down, did not exist when those trees were planted ; or that the tenantry on this estate had extraordinary confidence in the honour of the Maxwell family ; or lastly, that old Wallace, or his father (who planted those trees) must have been a very good natured fool, to take all this trouble for the benefit of a landlord, without whose express permission they could not cut down as much timber as would roof their farm house, or even make a handle for their spade. The other farm we have alluded to (and to which we were then proceeding) goes by the name of Leslee, and is in the possession of Mr. John Carson, who holds not only this farm under Mr. Maxwell, (who is the Lord of the Manor of Kil- SEATS AND ESTATES. 387 lyfaddy) but also the office of Seneschal of the Manor, or judge of small debts : and certainly if this cottage farm be a fair specimen of the policy by which the whole of the Killy- faddy estate is governed, that policy must be liberal and sound ; for no land in the occupation of a tenant, exhibiting the same marks of high cultivation and cottage comfort (even although destitute of wood) as that of Leslee, would have risen to its present state of improvement, under a narrow and oppressive system of short leases and grinding rents. But we recollect that Mr. Carson is not exactly dependent upon his farm for his means of improvement (being an extensive butter merchant in the English trade) and also that he holds office under the lord of this soil ; and hence, in an estimate of the policy by which the tenantry in this manor are made prosperous and happy, or miserable and mentally degraded, more general and extensive pre- mises must be sought for, than those which are provided by the farm of Leslee ; and to such premises as these (extend- ing our observation to Irish estates in general) we refer (for a certain proportion of the complicated causes of Irish mis- fortune) the British political economists, whose eyes (better late than never) have been at length opened to the indispen- sable necessity of uniting England to Ireland by moral ties. For this wise and only durable result of a legislative union of the two countries, a union of the tenantry of Ireland to their landlords, in the bonds of a well founded family affec- tion and enlightened sense of mutual duty and interest, is perhaps a good and useful preparative; and as such we recommend it to the serious attention of those absentees, who regarding their Irish estates as a mere draw farm essen- tial to their foreign establishments, care nothing about the feelings or interests of their tenants ; but repose exclusive confidence for the security of their Irish incomes, in the policy and the steel of England, which though useful aux- iliaries of a well regulated system, are no certain guarantee against the present disorders and final political results of a wicked and contemptuous neglect of the obvious duties z 338 COUNTY OF TYRONE, which men of their station owe to the country from which they draw their support. So far as the information which a short visit enabled us to procure, could be depended upon, we found the rents of this estate to be extremely moderate, and the tenures good; these latter extending from three lives or twenty-one years, to three lives or thirty-one, as the circumstances of the case appeared to justify ; and this, in every part of Ireland where the tenant has not unlimited confidence in the established principles of his landlord's family, is a policy essential to improvement (and one to which an honest and industrious tenant is well entitled; and no wise landlord will give countenance or support to any other) for it is not here as it is in England, where, if our information be correct, the tenantry at large repose confidence in their landlord's justice, and in the established customs of their country; where an honest and punctual tenant, it is said, is never dispossessed, or his farm (as in many parts of Ireland) set up as an article of sale to the highest bidder ; where the comfort and prosperity of the tenant areas carefully con- sulted, as the rent-roll of the landlord, the improvement of his estate, and the wealth and permanent tranquillity of the country (these component parts of a common system of hap- piness and justice, which are all naturally and indissolubly bound up together) and where the tenant is so perfectly certain of a reasonable interest in his farm, under all changes of circumstance, that it is nearly a matter of indifference to him, whether he hold by a long lease or a short one, or even by a mere title of possession ; since the rent is generally so regulated as to leave-him a living profit for the cultivation of his land; and where if any landlord were sufficiently iniquitous to dispossess an honest tenant of his holding, upon slight and frivolous pretences, the latter could bring his action for every penny he had expended in useful improve- ments, and would receive from the juries of his country, as he ought to do, a verdict for the full amount. SEATS, AND ESTATES. 339 STRAUGHROY COTTAGE. This is the designation of a cottage farm held by Mr. James Buchanan, on the Blessington estate, a short distance from the town of Omagh ; and although in the more highly improved districts of Down and Antrim, it would justly be regarded as a poor and wretched specimen of cottage beauty; yet in that of Tyrone, which is so much less wealthy and embellished, it constitutes a pretty fair medium specimen of the general scale of rural improvement in the plain and humble homesteads of the county. This rude rural residence owed but little to the finger of art, when we w r alked from Omagh to see it in the Autumn of 1830. A staunch stone cottage (capable of being rendered comfortable at a small expense) together with a small tan yard, garden, orchard and offices (on a valuable freehold of forty acres, Irish plantation measure) might then be regarded as the sum total of its existing improvements. To the bounty of nature, however, Straughroy stands deeply indebted for the sweet sequestered vale, in which these rude leathern conveniences have been erected by the honest tanner who dips his skins into the muddy waters of that place ; and who having fixed the children of his people upon a good strong footing in their own neighbourhood, cares perhaps but little for the feast with which nature has provided him in this charming scene, or for the fortunate accident that has thrown him on the borders of Mount Joy forest, (the most splendid assemblage of wood in that part of Ireland) and placed him in the possession of a pretty domestic landscape (and oh ! what a Turk this tanner must be if he have no taste for these enjoyments) in which the picturesque seat of the Rev. Mr. Crigan, (the subject of a former description) is, next to that of Mount Joy forest, the most distinguished work of art that blends with the beauties of nature in this scene. Straughroy communicates with the great leading road between Dublin and Derry, by an old straight avenue 340 COUNTY OF TYRONE, which disclaims all ornament, and has nought but the ver- dure of nature, the beauties of landscape, and the charms of health and convenience, to recommend it to notice. To the mere farmer and trader, this last advantage will be the sole consideration, but the philosophic admirer of nature's soli- tilde and nature's scenes, will find in the sequestered position of this old avenue in its ample space in the views which it commands and in the broad green sod which his foot traverses, while his eye feasts upon the Autumn's evening scene, other sources of gratitude and joy. The sun descend- ing in his golden vestment to paint the western landscape with its richest evening tints the deep green of nature around him the rich and varied foilage of the forest the certain indications of wealth and plenty exhibited by the neighbouring villas the marks of humble comfort and contentment stamped upon the cottages (of the good land- lord) scattered o'er the plain all these will unite with the song of the milkmaid, and the jocund whistle of the peasant (gaily repairing to their respective homes after the labours of the day) and with the melody of a thousand songsters in the neighbouring woods, to call his heart to gratitude and his eye to sensibility, while participating in that silent but sublime carnival of nature, which the sun presents to his enjoyment on the evening of an Autumn day, from the long green avenue of this lowly sequestered spot. Some readers may feel astonished that a place of little comparative importance, should give birth to reflections on the sublime and beautiful of nature in the Autumn's evening scene ; but we beg to remind these admirers of the MAGNI- FICENT, that our reflections have long flowed in the chan- nel of our country's improvement ; and although we behold with lively emotions of pleasure, every splendid domicile on the surface of our native land ; still it is not the princely palaces of Ireland, but the cottages and homesteads scattered over the whole face of that country, which constitute the surer test of its advancement in civilization and the useful arts. To this truth we cannot too frequently call the atten- SEATS, AND ESTATES. 341 tion of our lords in Italy and France ; whether by a por- trait of facts which disgrace their country, and should there- fore be nakedly exhibited; or by those which deserving some measure of praise, have therefore a legitimate claim to a few shreds of that ornamental drapery, which is sometimes stolen, even by the tourist, from the cabinets of poetry and painting, to set off the portrait of a deserted land, " for which God has done so much, and man so little." THE TYRONE ELECTION OF 1830. We had no conception that the peasantry (we beg pardon, the freeholders and yeomanry) of Tyrone, were in such a high and palmy state of civilization as that in which we found them, when Mr. Henry Corry (son of the Earl of Belmore) and Sir Hugh Stewart were elected to serve that county in Parliament, in the autumn of 1830. When the honest freeholders had poured out ample libations of their mountain dew at the altar of their fat and favourite god, and played over a certain number of those wicked pranks, of which the jolly god is so notoriously fond (and in reference to the measure of their oblations to the red-faced deity, mounted on his throne, a puncheon, with a belly of similar rotundity, it was pretty clear that the new members had not stinted these pious worshippers) the language of the Jewish prophet to his people was brought vividly to our recollection. " From the top of your head to the soles of your feet there is no soundness in you, but you are all over wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores !" The sprigs of Shillelagh were put into active requisition ; heroes fought, they knew not why; blood flowed, but not in the defence of king, kindred, or country ; and he who brought home the largest number of wounds from the field of battle, and whose head was enveloped in bandages for the longest period of time, was, no doubt, the greatest hero, and the proudest man ! What a pity that the energies of such a fine people, a people capable of achieving such noble enterprizes, had not received a more rational direction, than that which the 342 COUNTY OF TYRONE, circumstances of their country appear to have given them. The feats of this election jubilee terminated with a tra- gical event. Among the heroes of the circus, there was an elderly man of the name of Orr, a decent farmer, and the father of a grown family, who determined to close the honours of the day with a horse-race. The road towards his home was chosen as the scene (it proved to be the last, poor man !) of competition with a neighbouring farmer ; but he had scarcely cleared the town, when his horse threw and fell upon him, at a short turn, and he expired upon the spot. His competitor was also reported to have perished by a similar accident ; and thus ended the transactions of this uncontested election, in which however one step towards a general reform of election jubilees, is said to have been taken ; that of the new members subscribing 50 each to the poor fund of the town of Omagh ; instead of scattering the same sum in handfulls of silver among the people in the streets, and thus inflaming to madness their natural passion for intoxication and riot at these election meetings; a custom that has done much mischief, that has been too long supported, and which experience instructs us should now be finally and universally abandoned. In the various battles that were fought at this uncontested election, (and if this was the case where there was no con- test for the representation of the county, what dreadful affrays must have taken place in a violent collision of con- tending candidates and their parties, in other counties; a well-known evil, which a little care might cure, by taking the votes of free-holders in their parishes instead of at the county town.) In the various battles, we say, which were fought at this innocent meeting of the county, some of the country gentlemen assembled at one of the hotels in Omagh, were said to have taken an active part ; and among the rest, a tall attorney, distinguished in that country by his volubility of speech and pert flippancy of manner, was reported to have received the salutation of a brick-bat on his cheek in TYRONE ELECTION. 343 the open street; whether for the purpose of reducing the quantity of his JAW, as being superabundant ; or improving the style of his elocution, as being superbombastic, (and in which the egotistical phrase, " I say," " I say," maintained a conspicuous pre-eminence,) we did not hear, nor did we take the trouble to inquire; but hoping that the salutation of the brick-bat might prove useful to his style, without prejudice to his health, we left the arena with a pious wish that the present system of election might be reformed, and that the petulent orator just noticed might so far profit by the charge which his judges had so summarily inflicted, as to be less pointed and overbearing in his future exhibitions, without losing that masculine exercise of his JAW, which is so essential to success in his peculiar profession. One of the worst acts of which the people were guilty in this day's proceedings, (but whether accidental or intentional we did not hear) was an assault committed upon the late Mr. Eccles, one of the most correct and respectable country gentlemen of which that town and neighbourhood could boast ; but on these election occasions, the magistrates, as by common consent, appear to give the country people a licence to riot, (even as the ancient Romans are said to have given their slaves a liberty of abusing their masters with impunity on a certain day) and at this election the licence appeared to have been exercised in its utmost latitude ; for although the police were present, and saw all that was going on, they rested quietly on their oars, having no authority from the magistrates to interfere with the Jutrm- less amusements of the people at the election of jubilee. PETTY SESSIONS AT OMAGH. On the day succeeding that of the election, an opportu- nity of observing another trait in the character of our country (and one with which we had been long and pain- fully familiar) also presented itself; a trait equally injurious, and not much less conspicuous in the Irish character than that of its propensity to battle ; namely, its love of litigation. 344 COUNTY OF TYRONE, To a man of humanity, the prospect of a large court house, filled with a poor ignorant ragged population looking for law, was moving in the extreme (and this in the North of Ireland too !) These poor people, to whom peace with their neighbours might be some compensation for their abject poverty, will go to law with each other about things of the most trifling concern ! This feature of our national character reminds me of that part of Gulliver's history, where two nations went to war about the decision of this important question, whether an egg should be broken at the small end or at the broad, when you are about to use it. Things very nearly of as trifling import as this, will produce a law suit, an angry debate, and perhaps a broken head, in Ireland. Among many such instances of petty litigation that we have witnessed, we shall recite one curious example. A poor woman in the County of Westmeath came to consult us as to the course she should pursue in relation to a litigious tenant of our own, who was continually impounding, or otherwise persecuting her goose, for cultivating a too inti- mate acquaintance with his gander ! We state the case simply as it occured. This was the burthen of her com- plaint, and it was narrated in such a strain of simple Irish eloquence, and with such curious incidents, as it would be ridiculous, and even impossible, to transfuse into the pages of a grave publication, without placing an eclipse on the colours of the native rainbow. The subject, regarded as a specimen of those habits of our country which contribute to swell the tide of national misfortune, was truly serious ; but as a subject of litigation it was so extremely ridiculous, and derived such peculiar colouring from the woman's man- ner of relating it, as to render it impossible to suppress risibility, even at the moment when the heart sickened at the thought of national misfortune. To the pert young tourist who is a stranger to our manners, and even to many Irish writers of comic taste, the humour of such an incident, and its obvious adaptation to the lower walks of Irish PETTY SESSIONS. 345 comedy, would be its only recommendation; but we, who think seriously on every thing- connected with our country, regarded it as one evidence among many, of the polluted springs of our anomalous and complex character, in which the amiable and generous virtues are too often found blen- ded with the most enormous vices of the heart and under- standing. To pierce into these springs and analyze them, was however no part of poor Biddy Egan's business ; her sole object was to procure advice and assistance to put down " the murdering villain " who had vowed vengeance against her goose, for the innocent indulgence of those kind and social propensities which DIVINE BOUNTY had confered, but which human baseness had defeated ; and if she could but accomplish this object, she would never stop to reason about the moral and philosophical bearings of the question by which her goose suffered. Whether the inhuman perse- cutions imposed upon almost all sorts of domestic animals in Ireland, for the mere indulgence of an innocent and useful appetite of nature (and in these persecutions the children of the lower Irish shout and triumph as at a jubilee) whether these have their source, exclusively, in the ignorance and vicious propensities of uneducated youth, or whether they have derived a part of their power from sanguinary laws, and monkish dogmas of morality, (pervert- ing the understanding, inflaming the proud and vengeful passions, and propagating unnatural crimes and all sorts of hypocrisy and lies under a holy name} poor Biddy Egan neither stopped to enquire nor was competent to under- stand. To us, however, (who for nearly half a century have seen and deplored the degrading and demoralizing effects of a government, by terror, poverty, slavery, and supersti- tion,) this was by far the most deep and painful theme of reflection. Led by the facts of our national history to a conviction, that to the sanguinary spirit of our criminal laws the absence of enlightened education the prevalence of poverty and physical suffering and the corrupt systems of religion and government by which our character and cir- 346 COUNTY OF TYRONE, cumstances have been formed, we are still more deeply indebted for the savage ferocity of our manners, than to the propensities of nature, before it has become an article of traffic in the hands of power or of priestcraft, we could not but regard the paltry battle between our tenant and his neighbour, as a subject more serious than its ludicrous tendencies would appear to indicate. Alas ! said we to ourselves, this is a drop from that embittered fountain of vice and discord, in which the religion and policy of the country have too large a share. The incident it is true, which we have just heard, is small, and apparently ridicu- lous ; but when regarded as a bitter drop from that ocean of vice and misery, under which the whole creation of God suffers in this country, by which rebellion against the law of charity is promoted, under a holy name by which men are persecuted for a heroic avowal of the truth, and brutes for an innocent conformity to the law of nature by which envy, hatred, malice, hypocrisy, oppression, grovelling super- stitions, battles, bloodshed, and a love of litigation, with various demoniac passions, are all poured forth in copious streams, upon our unhappy country from the same exhaustless source. When the existence and desolating effects of these, we say, upon the whole state of society in Ireland are perceptible to every eye; then must there not be some deeper and more radically vicious springs of action for all this evil, than any which are found in the pure and uncon- taminated fields of nature ? since it is the property of the springs which bubble in these fields to court the light to fertilize the fields through which they flow to refresh every living thing that is languishing with drought to purify from every external stain and, in a word, to communicate to society all the good of which they are capable, while pro- ceeding in their peaceful stream towards the bosom of that ocean which is their centre and their end. This is a plain and unvarnished view of nature, travelling through those channels (in the primitive order and harmony of creation) in which heaven has appointed her stream to flow; and with PETTY SESSIONS. 347 the rights of nature in this course, no law of man should dare to interfere, unless for the special purpose of strength- ening her embankments, and preserving from every taint of selfish coi'ruption, the freedom and purity of that current, upon which depends the physical and moral health of all nations. Let us, however, for a moment, change the scene, and suppose the finger of oppression and superstition to have poisoned these waters, and to have forced them into rigidly contracted limits for selfish ends. What then would follow ? Why in the first place, the streams which had been forced into contracted channels, would burst the boun- daries that had been unjustly prescribed to them by the tyrants and impostors of the human race In the next, having lost their purity, the fields of society would lose their native green In the third, as physical and intellectual existence would thenceforth derive their nourishment from poisoned sources, the human faculties would become per- verted and deranged Physical and moral disorders of the worst and most dangerous description, would then follow as a natural effect The corrupt and selfish laws (and in pro- cess of time, the deceitful dogmas) which had produced the evil, would be trampled under foot Authority would be resisted or evaded And finally, the flood of misery and moral disorder produced by these evils, would rise to such an enormous height under this system, as to cover the whole land and all its fruits with a universal curse ! Such has been the experience of some of those Christian nations (and in the end will probably be the experience of them all) where poverty, prejudice, and moral disorder, have been entailed upon the people, by priestcraft and oppressive institutions ; and where the laws have been founded in blood, for the protection of overgrown monopolies, and exorbitant misapplications of privilege and public wealth, to the exclusion of the bulk of the people from rational liberty, from enlightened education, and not only from a moderate enjoyment of the comforts of social life, (which is their due) but also from the means of procuring a livelihood 348 COUNTY OF TYRONE, even in the lowest rank of existence by honest labour ; thus forcing them into habits of mendicancy, or into scenes of midnight plunder for the support of life. And it is a fact deserving of remark, that some of those unfortunate men, whose characters had been so deeply deteriorated by this system, as to be obliged to fly from the punishment which pursued the crimes that it had generated and maintained, have become wholly reformed and made useful citizens, when transplanted from the corrupted climates of Europe into that purer moral air of the new world, where the rights of freemen (we lament that we cannot say human nature, in a country where the African is still a slave) have been fully recognised, after ages of suffering and oppression in their native land, and both by law and practice placed upon their proper base. CHAPTER VI. COUNTY OF FERMANAGH. ENTRANCE INTO THE COUNTY, WITH OBSERVATIONS ON ITS GENERAL APPEARANCE. FROM Omagh we proceeded to Enniskillen, the capital of Fermanagh, by Trillick, a rising village situated on an estate of General Mervyn Archdale, one of the representa- tives of this county in Parliament, who occasionally resides at an interesting rural residence, which he holds in his own occupation, in the neighbourhood of that village. After having traversed Fermanagh in all directions, we could not but derive the highest gratification from that appearance of competency and comfort, by which the habi- tations of the farmers were very generally distinguished; and that remarkable exemption from mendicity and want, which appeared to impart to this little county an aspect of charitable policy, or wise landlordship, of which we could not always boast in the neighbouring districts of Tyrone and Donegal, where the hoards of able-bodied poor people with long trains of children, that we saw soliciting relief in the towns of Omagh and Ballyshannon, were quite ap- palling. Let us now trace these peculiar advantages of Fermanagh to the probable causes which produced them. Among these causes, we do not find that important source of wealth to every commercial country which enjoys it, a prosperous manu- facture. Of this it is comparatively destitute ; and yet the face of the county wears for the most part a smiling appear- ance. To those who have glanced at the well-known poverty 350 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH, of some corn countries on the shores of the Baltic, and other parts of the North of Europe,* and who know that it is not to agriculture, but to manufactures and commerce, that England owes her superiority to other nations. To such as these, the apparent exemption of Fermanagh from the rapidly increasing mendicancy of the surrounding counties, may appear somewhat problematical ; more particularly as it has not derived from the profits of past centuries of trade (as Antrim, Armagh, and Downshire have done) a power to resist that generally overwhelming mendicancy, under which even the neighbouring county of Tyrone is conspi- cuously bending, notwithstanding that the coarser branches of the linen trade, with a vast number of bleach-greens and public markets, have been long established, and are in full operation in that county. This, to the closest observers of these counties, must appear somewhat enigmatical ; and, (as the trade of Tyrone, by the profitable employment which it formerly provided for the poor, must have opposed a powerful bulwark to the progress of this evil) can only be accounted for by a decay of trade, rendering manufacturing labour less remunerative than formerly; and a culpable inattention on the part of the property of the county, to the rational and practicable means of arresting the evil of desti- tution, in its progress to that enormous height to which it appears to have recently arisen in various parts of this once prosperous province. It is not then to the benefits of trade and commerce, (powerful as they are known to be) that the comfort and respectability of Fermanagh are to be imputed ; for it has few or no manufactures, no sea-port town ; and the little inland trade which it carries on, is heavily encumbered by the expense of land carriage to and from divers distant ports, and by the obstacles to a free communication with the ocean, which is presented to the men of enterprize in Enniskillen, by the bar of Ballyshannon, and by certain * Under this head might not Prussia, Sweden, Denmark, and the late Poland, be all fairly included? CAUSES OF ITS COMPARATIVE PROSPERITY. 351 existing impediments to the free navigation of Lough Erne, (subjects more particularly noticed in our Review of Done- gal.) But since the trade of this little inland county, in consequence of these impediments, has been so partial ; to what causes may we, with a probability of truth and justice, impute its cleanliness, comfort, and good order, and the advantage which it obviously possesses over several of the surrounding counties, in a comparative exemption from the rapidly increasing evil of mendicity ? The principal causes we believe are these First. A resi- dent proprietary, governing their tenantry (with few excep- tions) by laws of rent and tenure, which have a just and reasonable reference to the tenants interest Secondly. A body of freeholders, as comfortable in their circumstances, and as independent in their own rank, as the lords of the soil above them. And lastly, a very general reception of the free and independent doctrines of the Protestant religion, by the gentlemen, farmers, and shopkeepers of this county. We know that many of our Roman Catholic countrymen will call this latter sentiment, (however strongly supported by evidence) a prejudice of education.) They will throw the Republic of Venice in our teeth (a case by no means in point, if it be true, as some have asserted, that though called a Republic, it was, de facto, an Oligarchy, and that a Popish Inquisition was maintained there.) They will drag in the constitutional monarchy of France to their support (a case still less in point than that of Venice, since liberty had its origin in their hatred and expulsion of the clergy.) They will reproach us with Magna Charta, procured by English Catholic Barons from the cowardice of John ; but they will carefully overlook this important fact, that Magna Charta contained no record of religious liberty. They will talk of English penal persecutions on account of conscience ; but they will not tell you that England derived these from her mother Rome, that she has grown out of them into universal toleration ; while Rome remains stationary, in an obstinate adherence to the most exceptionable doctrines of her religion, 352 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH, and to as large a proportion of religious and political despo- tism, as she dare venture to exercise in the present prevailing hatred of her impostures, and that universal thirst for liberty that is now breaking out in every country in Europe.* Mr. O'Connell will remind us of the liberality of the Pope (as we have heard him do at a breakfast meeting at Home's) in permitting a Protestant church to be built at Rome (one Pro- testant church mind ! for the English embassy and gentry visiting that city) and in refusing to give his sanction to the revival of the Inquisition in Madrid but Mr. O'Connell will not tell you that these are cock boats of improvement, following at an immense distance in the wake of the Reforma- tion ; nor will he notice that act of Ferdinand's government (called an act of faith !) by which a Jew and a Christian are said to have been immolated some years since on the altar of Spanish piety, in defiance of that policy of the present Pope, which we have just reported upon the authority of our Irish member. Neither will Mr. O'Connell tell his people, that that which is granted as & favour in Rome, and which even as a favour is refused in Madrid (that is liberty of conscience,) is given to Catholics as a mere matter of right by every Protestant country ; nor is England contented with making the same provision for the religious and literary instruction of Catholic children that she has made for her own, (by founding schools and a college for that purpose) but she has earned her hospitality to foreign Catholics to the last extreme of virtue, for she has opened her ports and her soil to all those monks and drones of France, who supporting ecclesiastical impositions for the love of God, have been swept by the besom of public indig- nation from the face of that country, and might perhaps have perished if they had not found in the liberal genius of a Protestant government, a sure asylum ! Now when Mr. O'Connell, (who having been educated for a priest himself, * See the note on this subject, under the head of " The Press and the Parties," connected with the passage on Cobbett's Reformation. CAUSES OF ITS COMPARATIVE PROSPERITY. 353 has very naturally a deep and lively interest in the honour of Catholicity,) has brought Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland, to this perfection of liberality. When he can point his finger towards Catholic countries and their colonies, protecting in the exercise of their various creeds, a hundred different sects, some of them exhibiting in their books of saints and martyrs, as many lying legends as the greatest impostors among the poets, and even errors and superstitions (in parts of their public worship and religious pilgrimages) very little inferior to those which are received and prac- tised by the simple inhabitants of Hindostan ! When Mr. O'Connell can procure such examples of liberality as this, in countries purely Catholic When he can make every man equal in the eye of the law, without any other reference to his creed or his superstition (as in Protestant England) save that of the liberty of exercising it in the broadest latitude When he can do this for Italy, Portugal and Spain, as has been done by Protestant liberality for Ireland, then he may reproach us (in his public speeches) with our bigotry, and with the superior liberality of the Pope ; but until then we must adhere to our well proved opinion, that the reformation of religion in Europe, was the greatest benefit conferred upon it since the days of Charlemagne ; that Catholics themselves have derived large and important additions to their liberty from that great event ; that this is proved by their flying to Protestant rather than to Popish countries when they are persecuted : and finally, that we are justified in believing, that the general prevalence of Protestantism in Fermanagh and other districts of Ulster, has proved tributary to the wealth, industry and good order of that province, as being inseparable from that freedom of thought and action, in which is contained the incipient principle of all human improvement. If in coming to this conclusion we have erred from prejudice, it is a prejudice supported by all the great leading facts of the living history of Europe ; while the arguments which assail these facts, are proved by the public notoriety of the facts themselves, to 2 A 354 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH, be false and inconclusive; and Mr. O'Connell, (in his vain attempts to puff off the Pope's liberality , and to assail the generous genius of the Protestant religion in the hearing of a priest ridden populace) to be a prejudiced advocate, labouring to establish, by a system of special pleading, in assemblies where few are able to detect his fallacies, and none dare oppose him with the full vigour of their minds, conclusions that are favourable to Popery, and unfa- vourable and unjust to the Protestant religion.* These are the results to which the most impartial examination of the facts that we are able to command, has unavoidably conducted us. But although our opinion of the liberal and tolerant genius of the Protestant religion is fixed and im- movable, we have not lost sight of the English penal laws and their horrible effects. We have not forgotten that these laws forced upon human nature in Ireland, a deep and slumbering spirit of revenge, and an incurable hatred of the English power. We have not forgotten that though the work of legal reformation has commenced, it is yet very far from being completed. We know that poverty and immo- rality, with mendicity, filth, famine, and disease, have been made the inheritance of the Irish poor, by a wicked neglect of their just interests; and that with this criminal negligence, the men who use the poor of Ireland as tools for their own purposes, are just as chargeable as their honet governors by law. Nor are we ignorant of the fact, that Catholics are compelled to support a church against which they protest ; and the benefits whereof, as a reformed system, have not only been neutralized, but essentially poisoned and rendered * At the celebration of the last centenary of the Reformation, in Germany, an English traveller who was present has informed the public, that he saw several Cathojic clergymen assisting at that ceremony, dressed in their full canonicals ! On perceiving the astonishment of the stranger, one of them addressed him (we believe in French) to this effect, that they (the continen- tal Catholics) derived as much advantage from the Reformation as we did. No doubt they do ; for it forms the sure and irresistible barrier of their rights against the encroachments of the Roman Pontiff. CAUSES OP ITS COMPARATIVE PROSPERITY. 355 hateful to the people by the tithe system, by the overgrown revenues of the Bishops, and by divers impolitic statutes enacted for its support ! We know that the Roman Catholic clergy, the original owners of our church property, were stripped of their livings, and thrown upon their people for a maintenance ; and we cannot but think that in a country where there are church lands of more than a million annual value, that all tithes should be abolished, all the clergy of the country paid out of the income of those lands, delivered thereby from all secular embarrassment, from all sources of discord, from all just causes of disaffection to the state and to each other ; and the people by the same means, from all and every impost now levied by law or custom off those articles of ecclesiastical merchandise, which in the book of Revelations, are significantly styled, " SLAVES AND SOULS OF MEN." We know full well all these unfortunate facts of our Irish history we have long known and long deplored them ; and thus acquainted with the true state of things, we do not expect a sudden transition from war to peace in Catholic Ireland ; although we will do O'Connell the justice to say, that we believe he is honestly favourable to the libe- ralization of the Catholic character ; and that he is success- fully wielding the passions and prejudices of his country against a variety of public abuses, those of his own church (which it is both his interest and inclination to conceal) save and excepted. But with these it is our special business to deal, as plainly, faithfully, and impartially, as with the abuses of the Law Church, or those of any other system. And although a conviction of the intolerance of the Romish Church, has been long forced upon us by the facts of its pub- lic and well known history ; still, as its members are rational beings, blessed with the same faculties as their Protestant brethren, and equally anxious with them to reach the goal of happiness, (whether right or wrong in their notion of the course) it would be wicked and illiberal to suppose that they should not, like other men, derive more or less light and liberality from the observation of those errors and abuses of 356 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH, their church, in the day of her power, which were so clearly brought to light, and so ably exposed by the champions of the reformation ; as well as the errors of her clergy, by Erasmus and other able writers of her own communion. And although Irish Catholics may not feel inclined to abandon the church of their birth and education Although its cus- toms, institutions, and high professions of sanctity, (and with the vulgar its assumed antiquity) may maintain an empire over their judgments and although they have no power to work the slightest alteration in the most absurd, revolting, and superstitious of its rites and ceremonies ; still, as men of education, reading what comes before them, and as men of business, travelling with the reason of the age, and incapable (whatever narrow and bigoted inclinations they may feel) to roll the world back into those dark and iron ages, from which Christendom has been rapidly emerging since the re- formation cast the first broad beam upon the multiplied abuses of the Papal power. As men thus instructed, and upon whom the light of ages has been forced in defiance of the intoler- ance of their church (and it is comfortable to think, thanks to the Reformation, that if Galileo now rose from the dead, he would not, even in Popish countries, be murdered in the dungeons of an Inquisition, by bloody priestly inquisitors, for asserting that the Sun stood still, and that the Earth moved round ! ! !) Intelligent Catholics cannot, in propor- tion as they reflect, but feel ashamed (however they may labour to conceal it) of those errors and atrocities, from which the Reformation derived its birth, progress, and con- summation. And with such sentiments as knowledge of this kind usually imparts, the subjects of that knowledge cannot but feel a disposition to amalgamate with liberal institutions, (however strong and inflexible the despotism of their church) and hence we would wish to see the Protestant government of this realm, begin (and it is time) to manifest to the Catholic Irish of the labouring classes, the just and generous genius of the Protestant religion, by enacting laws that shall protect them against the grinding impositions of their CAUSES OF ITS COMPARATIVE PROSPERITY. 357 various oppressors, and that may have a tendency to teach them by still better and stronger examples, than those of education, history or hearsay, the advantage which a Catholic population derive from being placed under the mild and protecting wing of a Protestant government. It is thus we would labour to prove by the fruits of a true Christian faith, the value of that faith to an unenlightened people ; nor would this labour of love and justice (and these virtues are perfectly compatible with the necessary chastisement of faults) be lost or thrown away upon the warm hearted Irish. The steps however which our church government took for their instruc- tion in former times, were of another character. The inefficiency of these measures, after a long trial, has now appeared ; and until perfect justice has been done to Ireland, a country so long and so deeply mismanaged, we can hardly form a correct opinion of the exact degree of liberality of which the lower classes of the Irish Catholics may be ren- dered capable, by enlightened education and even handed justice. To the wisdom of this true Christian policy, we trust the attention of the British government is now seriously turning. We hope also that Catholicism in Ireland is stea- dily, though slowly, marching towards that goal of religious liberality, of which we regard the reformation of religion as the primitive and parent source; and should Catholicism ever arrive, in the countries where it possesses exclusive power, at this high religious and political attainment, prov- ing by its acts of law and government, that it is as fully capable of granting religious and political liberty to men of all sects and parties, as Protestant England now proves her- self to be ; we should then indeed rejoice at the approach of that happy day, when the nominal believers in the holy name of Christ, had arrived at that point of truly Christian liberality, in which they could regard each other as members of the same family, as children of the same father ; labouring in that character to maintain the balance of charity and justice, fair between the different branches of their common family ; instead of spreading over the face of every country, 358 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH, misery, tears, and desolation, by war, persecution, robbery, and wrong ! as has been the universal course of Christendom in her history of almost 2000 years ! Oh Christendom, thou den of oppressors, this has been thy foul portrait, though pretending to be the disciples of Him who gave " his back to the smiters and his cheeks to those who plucked off the hair ;" and whose last mandate to his disciples was this, (John xiii. 14,) " If I then, your Lord and master have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one anothers feet." To this happy state, we know many Protestants, with the facts of history before them we have quoted, and with many others to which w r e have made no allusion, will not believe it possible that the Roman Catholic Church and its pro- fessors can ever reach ; but we recollect that England had her penal laws, and that they are now no more; that France had her Bastile, her lettres de cachet, and her massacre of St. Bartholomew, and that she is now liberal that the Presbyterians hanged the Quakers, and that they are now good friends ; and that Catholics and Protestants in the United States of America, and even in Canada, under our own Government, live together like good brothers ; and although we know that no Protestant who speaks his mind in the bold and determined manner that we do, will be well received in any Irish Catholic assembly, or sup- ported by the base, bigoted, and mercenary press of Dublin, yet we look forward with hope to a period in British history, when the channels of information being opened wide to truth and free inquiry, and purified from every unjust incumberance upon knowledge, the abominable impostures, by which prejudice and falsehood hold sway, shall be easily and successfully exposed ; and the people of Ireland, seeing their true interests, and feeling the advantages of employ- ment and protection which they derive from a just and parental government, shall abandon their unhappy courses, and return to the paths of peace, prosperity, and honour. These are our sentiments, often and forcibly expressed ; CAUSES OF ITS COMPARATIVE PROSPERITY. 359 and although they unequivocally avow the opinion which we have deliberately formed, that the Protestant religion established in Ulster, has contributed largely to the security of life and property, and to the peace, moral order, and commercial prosperity of that district; still we trust the spirit of charity to our Catholic brethren has been combined (as it is in our inmost soul) with the spirit of fidelity to our own conscience; and having now largely treated of the active influence of the Protestant religion in the production of the unity, peace, and prosperity of Fermanagh, and in its comparative exemption from that extreme destitution, by which the able bodied poor are forced to have recourse to the charity of the public for support, in other districts, let us now consider the other principal causes which appear to us to have combined with this, to produce a favourable influence upon the character of that county. The first and principal of these causes may be found, as we have already noticed, in a resident proprietary. Lord Enniskillen, General Archdale, Lord Corry, (as his father's representative) Sir Henry Brooke, and in fact most of the proprietors of the soil, live and spend their fortunes in the bosom of their country; mix and mingle with the feelings and interests of their people ; and the natural consequence of this home residency is, that the working classes are not permitted (like many of the wretched inhabitants of Derry, Donegal, Tyrone, and Cavan) to sink into such utter indi- gence, as to be compelled to carry on a warfare for existence with the farmers of the country, and shopkeepers of the neighbouring towns; upon the charity of which classes (whether to the honour or dishonour of the legislators of the land, let the friends of British prosperity decide) the sup- port of the mendicant population of Ireland has long devolved ! The second (and which naturally and necessarily flows from the other as its source) is that of a most respectable tenantry, some of whom hold their farms for ever, subject to a small chief rent, (of which we shall give two or three 360 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH, examples in the progress of our review of this county) and other farmers of less note, at such rents, and by such good tenures, as secure to them and to their children, the full fruition of their capital and labours ; a motive to improve- ment, and a source of competency and comfort, which no tenant at will, or dependent upon a twenty-one years' lease, can possess in Ireland, considering the way that power is sometimes exercised by the lord of the soil, the middle man, and the landlord's agent in that country; and because although the landlord may be a good man, the heir of that landlord may happen to become an absentee and an oppres- sor; and consequently, in the existing circumstances of Ireland, it is the interest even of the absentee landlord, to give a tenant of known solvency, a lease of three lives or thirty-one years at least, (binding him to such improvements in building and planting as the value of his bargain may justify,) as otherwise capital will not be freely expended on the estate, and Ireland will remain, as it has too long been, a nation of slaves and beggars, without reverence and affection for their laws or rulers. We do not say that Fermanagh furnishes no instance of the base and beggarly policy of short leases, (for base and beggarly have been its effects in Ireland, however it may have worked in England, where long established custom and the confidence existing between landlord and tenant supply the place of law,) but we do say that, a large proportion of the yeomanry of Fermanagh hold their lands at moderate rents and by good tenures, and that this is one of the causes which have rescued that country, in an eminent degree, from the ravages of a squalid pauperism, and placed it on an equality, in point of decency and comfort, with the most respectable cantons of the sister country. During a general residence of six weeks in the town of Enniskillen, the capital of the county, we did not, in tJie whole of that time, see half as many poor people soliciting relief, as in a single day in the towns of Omagh and Bally shannon. And if this, on the examination of these latter towns, on the days CAUSES OF ITS COMPARATIVE PROSPERITY. 361 (and they are frequent) when the neighbouring poor assem- ble to obtain relief, shall be found to be a fact of public notoriety in the history of the counties to which these towns belong, we justly and reasonably infer, that the proprietors of the soil of those counties, have been guilty of a high crime and misdemeanour against the honest and industrious men, upon whom, in addition to their heavy rents and taxes, they have thrown the burthen of a mendicant population, to whose [employment and support, the landlord's knowledge and ample resources, should have been long since patiently and vigorously directed. And as we believe a large pro- portion of lands in the county of Donegal, are in the possession of the college of Dublin ; this fact, in its existing history, ought to open the eyes of government to the abso- lute necessity of entering upon a revision of the enormous princely revenues, so long and needlessly permitted to re- main in the hands of a few literary teachers, who would be well paid for their services by the rents now resulting from one tenth of those lands, which in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when that college was endowed, were probably not worth more than two or three-pence per acre, and would now let, in many instances, for more than ONE HUNDRED TIMES THAT SUM ! We are by no means hostile to a respectable maintenance of those teachers, for we think that literary men (whose talents are devoted to the public service) ought to be made easy in their circumstances ; but if we pos- sessed the power, we would neither give to them, nor to the wealthy priests and bishops who are too numerous in this country, enormous princely revenues, (in a land where the poor are starving and comparatively destitute of employment) for services that would be equally well (and perhaps more humbly and edifyingly) performed for a smaller income. FACILITIES FOR TRADE. Let us now make a few observations upon the facilities for trade, with which Lough Erne provides this county. This Lough is one of the finest waters in the North of 362 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH, Ireland; and from its contiguity to Ballyshannon (a town situated on the Bay of Donegal,) it presents to the enter- prise of the inhabitants of that town, and to those of the neighbouring county of Fermanagh, (the subject of this chapter) the strongest possible incentives to a united and powerful exertion for the removal of those obstacles which now exist, to a free communication between Enniskillen, Ballyshannon, and the western ocean. The principal of these obstacles is that which is found in the bar of Ballyshannon (for the particulars of which we refer the reader to our next chapter upon Donegal). The others are, the want of a canal from Ballyshannon to Belleek (a village on the banks of Lough Erne) a distance of three miles only ; and the lowering of two or three ledges of rocks in the Lough, so as to admit a steam boat of suffi- cient power to take vessels in tow from Ballyshannon to Enniskillen ; and were these impediments to a free commu- nication with the ocean once removed, (and a persevering exertion of the landed and commercial interests of Donegal and Fermanagh would be more than equivalent to the task) Ballyshannon would soon become, as an ingenious inha- bitant of the town well observed, the Greenock of the North of Ireland, and Enniskillen, the Glasgow of the same pro- vince. On the event of Ireland becoming an extensive theatre for the embarkation of English capital, we know no districts in the Island more likely to be selected by the monied interest of England for that purpose, than those of Leitrim and Fermanagh, as the numerous lakes in these counties contiguous to each other (with the aid of a few short canals) would furnish peculiar facilities for the conveyance of manu- factured iron, pottery ware, and glass, &c. (for which Leitrim in particular has inexhaustible materiae) to the Atlantic Ocean at Sligo and Ballyshannon; and of course, through that ocean to the markets of America and the West Indies, where those goods are wanted, and are likely to pay well. We caniiot look to the lords of the Irish soil, with any FACILITIES FOR TRADE. 363 rational prospect of success, for the establishment of such public works as these. It is not merely capital that is wanted, but a taste for those laborious pursuits of trade and commerce, which require great industry, patience, and per- severance, to bring them to a successful issue. The gentle- men of Ireland, generally speaking, would much rather hunt a fox than a coal mine ; or try the quality of the claret in their cellars, than of the iron (or even the silver, lead, and copper, if such existed) at the bottom of their moun- tains. Their lore of ease and pleasure, has however in some respects a favourable influence upon their character as gentlemen, inasmuch as it produces a taste for hospitality and other generous virtues, and engenders a spirit superior to that extreme parsimony and suspicion, which many con- sider as a concomitant of the commercial character, that, in the existing state of the world, cannot altogether be sepa- rated from the pursuits of trade. But if, as Irish gentlemen, they derive a feature of honour, and a feather of well-merited pride, from their princely qualities ; the population of their country languish under the effects of their indolent repose ; and their want of union and industry to render their capital available to the improvement of their fortunes, and the employment of their people, in reference to the effects which it produces, is an evil so effectually neutralizing all the natural wealth and energies of their country, that we cannot overlook it. It is by an effectual combination of the rank, capital, and industry of England, that the resources of that country have been rendered so eminently tributary to its wealth and power; and it is from the accidental absence of this needful union in our own country, that we are forced to look to England for the means by which our population may be employed, and the deep and dormant treasures of our soil brought into effectual operation for the public good. And although we should be sorry to see the generous and hospitable virtues of the Irish gentleman and landlord, altogether swallowed up in the soul-consuming cares of the manufacturer and merchant ; yet for the sake 364 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH, of that immense majority of the people, who are dependent upon their labour for a livelihood, and many of whom for want of profitable employment, are in a state of deep desti- tution, we cannot but wish that such portions of our soil in the North of Ireland (where property is secure) as are pecu- liarly applicable to purposes of trade and commerce, were quickly transferred into the hands of English commercial companies, on an express understanding that capital to a certain amount should be embarked and employed there. Among the counties in Ireland thus favoured by nature, there are perhaps none which maintain a more distinguished position on the map of that country, than those of Tyrone, Fermanagh, Leitrim, and Donegal, (more particularly the three latter) all closely approximating; and yet, with the exception of Tyrone (which abounds with coal, and where a few pits are worked) there are perhaps no tracts in which less advantage has been taken of the various mineral trea- sures deposited by Nature in the soil, than in those just mentioned. Of the numerous resources of Leitrim (one of the smallest and least known counties in the Island) we gave some striking specimens in two or three succeeding editions of a former work ; and although this county is not in the N. W. district, yet as it lies contiguous to it, and a communication between Lough Allen in Leitrim, and Lough Erne in Fer- managh, might be opened through Lough M'Naine and other waters, at a very moderate expense, we think it may not be amiss to connect this county with our observations on the N. W. district, for the purpose of drawing the atten- tion of those capitalists who may not have seen the descrip- tion of Leitrim in other works, to an attentive consideration of the natural history of a district with which it unites to form a great and important theatre of trade. Convinced we are, that if a sufficient capital could be raised to work the resources of these counties (and in order thereto to connect the Leitrim and Fermanagh lakes with each other, and with the Atlantic Ocean at Ballyshannon FACILITIES FOR TRADE. 365 and Sligo) that no district of country in Europe would be found to contain a larger variety of materials for a great and extensive trade with North and South America and the West Indies, and with all the principal ports of the home market. And knowing also that from the superior cheap- ness of labour and provisions in Ireland, the advantage of embarking capital in that country is much greater than in any other district of the British Islands, we respectfully invite the attention of the English reader to the following strong specimens of the natural wealth of Leitrim ; which, being the result of an actual survey of its principal mineral district, stands upon firmer foundations than the mere reports of coal and iron in Fermanagh, of which no geolo- gical survey has yet been executed, although we believe mines were formerly worked on the lands of Clonelly ; and also that coal fit for manufacturing purposes (though unfit for fuel) has been discovered on the lands of Sir Henry Brooke, Bart. ; iron on those of the Earl of Enniskillen ; and minerals applicable to trade, on the lands of General Archdale, and those of a Mr. Brien, on the western shore of Lough Erne : but the gentlemen of this county do not appear to have much taste for trade, and as the bogs are plenty, and they feel no scarcity of fuel, it is probable they pay but little attention to the indications of coal or iron in their lands, although their existence in the County of Fermanagh is well understood. EXTRACTS FROM OUR REVIEW OF LEITRIM, (Published in several editions of a former work.) The peculiar advantages which this county possesses for the employment of capital in trade, although well known to its own intelligent inhabitants, and to a few men of science who have explored it, is nevertheless but very partially known to the mercantile interests of England, to whom the eye of Ireland is now very justly directed for a fair participation in the trade and capital of that country. In an effort therefore to contribute our mite towards a great 366 COUNTY OP LEITRIM, moral amalgamation of the two countries, we think it our duty to challenge an inquiry into the natural history of this country, convinced, that in no similar portion of His Majesty's dominions, will a tract of soil he found more deeply and generally pregnant with all the necessary mate- rials for a great and extensive trade. Its natural wealth embraces iron, tin, coal (and some say copper) fuller's earth, black and yellow ochres, pipe clay, potters' clay and fire clay, clay for bricks, stone for building, and slate for roofs, to say nothing (though the soil in many parts is poor) of agricultural produce, cheap labour and live stock, hides, timber, and bark for tanning, all of which can be procured here. And to these may be added, great and extraordinary facilities of water carriage (with a comparatively small expenditure of money) to North and South America and the West Indies, and to many principal ports in the home market. And yet, in the present state of Ireland, all these advantages are lying dormant for want of capital, notwith- standing this little tract is capable of being made one of the most distinguished theatres of trade in the British empire (a second Staffordshire upon the soil of Ireland.) To the perfection of its navigation, a grant of Parliament of most trifling amount, in comparison of the magnificent effects to be produced, would be sufficient. It abounds with lakes, and enjoys the advantage of water carriage by the Royal Canal to Dublin ; to Athlone and Limerick, by the river Shannon, which passes through it ; and with the aid of a canal of about sixteen miles from Lough Allen, in Leitrim, to Loughgill (which opens upon the Atlantic Ocean at Sligo) it would command an open communication with the West Indies and the two Americas ; facts more largely explained in the history of that more eminent mineral region, with which we usher in a few specimens of property in this county; and to the facts of that history, as we received them from an authentic source, we refer the public. The soil of this county is so deeply and extensively fer- ruginous, that a gentleman of property residing here, ob- FACILITIES FOR TRADE. 367 served to us, that iron was its curse ! The people have no means to turn this mineral to account; and the surface of the soil, which they can alone cultivate, being injured by it, it is not surprising that they should regard this ferruginous matter as the bane of their county. Such is the language made use of by some persons who have a considerable interest in the Leitrim soil; and it bears not alone upon this branch of the natural wealth of Ireland, but by some of those landlords and legislators, into whose hands our unfortunate destiny has cast us, it is applied with equal freedom and with a stronger practical effect, to the rapid growth of our population. Thus, in reference to Ireland, it may be said, that those gifts of the God of nature which constitute the wealth and power of other states, by some singular perversion of the bounty of Providence are constituted her curse ; a fact which reminds us of a threat of vengeance held out in the Mosaic history " I will curse your blessings." It is true we can perceive our country (and we thank God for this proof of her native energy) forcing the genuine characteristics of her soil and people upon the view of mankind, and more particularly on that of England, who has so deep an interest in her actual resources ; but still she has a great deal to do, and her genuine patriots are loudly called upon to bury in oblivion their party quarrels, and to unite in a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether in the improvement of their common country; and, particu- larly, in an effort to place the character of the population upon a sound moral base ; as by this alone the confidence of England can be secured to us, and a clear and confidential channel opened for a free and unrestricted influx of the capital of that country into this neglected land. 368 COUNTY OF LEITRIM, LEITRIM AND SLEIBHANERIN klNES. These valuable mines are situate in the Baronies of Lei- trim, Mohill, and Dromahaire, and comprise the parishes and townlands of Aughacashell, Derreens, Gurtnewane, Mullaghorrow, Knockacullen, Auskinamuck, Clarenmore, Clarenbeg, and Colliery Mountain, by Drumshambo, in the County of Leitrim. They are bounded by the lake of Lough Allen on the west, and the counties of Fermanagh and Cavan, on the north and east. They are distant sixteen miles from the port of Sligo, thereby opening on the Atlantic Ocean, and holding direct facilities of communication with the new and old world. They are also situate within three miles of the Royal Canal, which connects the mines and adjacent country with the port of Dublin ; and the rate of charge on the canal being only eleven shillings per ton, they have therein another (and almost equally as cheap a) mode of communication with the principal ports of the United Kingdom. The principal towns in the vicinity of the mines are, Carrick-on-Shannon, distance twelve miles; Leitrim, eight; Drumshambo, five; Ballinamore, eight; Cashcari- gan, five ; and Mohill, twelve ; and there are several other towns within easy distances, and connected by county roads. This vast mineral property is in a virgin state. From time immemorial, the division of Aughacashell has been called Sleive in Erin, or the Iron Mountain, the peasantry and surrounding country having called it by no other name; but, while its great riches were thus seen and universally acknowledged, no opportunity presented itself for bringing them to account. The extensive domains in the western counties of Ireland, which were originally held by patent from the Crown, were subsequently set out in smaller pro- portions, and so divided on leases for three lives, renewable on a trifling fine, that these mineral properties, which it was essentially necessary should be held together, in order that the product of the one might give the means of raising the other, became thus in a measure broken and wholly useless. MINES, ETC. 369 Captain Johnston's ancestors, who held a considerable part of this property for many generations, had been in the inva- riable practice of setting it out in small divisions, rearing cattle on, and cultivating the surface ; and a numerous and poor tenantry had neither the means nor the skill to benefit themselves by the riches on which they trod. At present, the several denominations and tracts of mining property are combined, and form A. R. P. Aughacashell 320 8 Gurtnewane 310 22 Mullaghorrow 407 38 Derreens 1711 025 Colliery Mountain, Sec. 369 2 25 3118 38 With the Lands and Royalties of A. R. p. Clarenmore 268 23 Clarenbeg 239 1 21 Drumsdrisden 369 2 15 877 19 3995 1 17 equal to 5,000 English acres. And are contiguous to tens of thousands of acres of other royalties, with right of working on payment of a small fine; so that this combined mineral property is very extensive, and, as will be.incontestably proved, inexhaustible. CAUSES OF REMAINING UNWORKED. The cost of carrying to Dublin was formerly <4 per ton, and is now only 11,9. per ton, in consequence of the Royal Canal having been formed, and which has been completed within the last few years. The road to Sligo was formerly wretchedly bad, and incapable of having a rail-way. At this time Government having greatly improved the roads, and shortened that to Sligo three miles, and taken a more level route, avoiding the windings it formerly presented, there is now a most convenient line for a rail-road, and which, when formed from the product of the mines, can be laid down at a very small charge. The divided and unsettled 2 B 370 COUNTY OF LEITRIM, state of the country, and men of rank or influence quitting after the Union, to reside near the centre of power and patronage ; and capital being occupied in the operations of war. But it will be seen that no investment of capital can be so sure and productive, as when employed at home, and for minerals, which, as here, only require to be taken up. CAPACITIES. These mines are indisputably inexhaustible in stores of iron-stone, coal, lime-stone, fire-clay, fine potter's clay, ful- ler's earth, black and yellow ochres, black and red pottery clay, stone-jar stuff, pipe-clay, stone for building, slate for roofs, clay for bricks, each superior in their kind, and within a small circle. In the Royalty there is known to be tin, and firmly believed, lead and copper. The shores of the lake supply the fine sand for plate-glass, now so much in demand ; and at a distance of eleven miles, the coast is covered with sea-weed for burning kelp to any extent; besides every facility for a successful fishery, and for the manufacture of salt for curing ; thus affording a cheap and never-failing source of food, and preventing the price of labour from rising with the demand for it. Corn-mills, worked by water, are closely adjacent. The iron ore is of the very finest quality, varying from 50 to 82 per cent., and the faces of the lodes shew frequently large masses of almost pure metal ; and every part of the immense iron mountain can be worked either by sinking shafts, or running levels at pleasure, thereby requiring no drainage. The coal is of a kind peculiarly favourable for smelting purposes ; and there are two seams, which from the easy access to them, are wrought by the peasantry ; one seam is eleven feet in thick- ness, and the other nearly nine. The lime-stone is imme- diately on the spot, and in vast quantities. And the concentration, within a limited and convenient space, of iron-stone, coal, and lime-stone, together with every other requisite for smelting and manufacturing, form an union of power and wealth, which no other mineral property in the MINES, ETC. 371 United Kingdom can display. The clays are so varied, and of such excellent descriptions, that the late proprietor of that part of the country where they are most abundant, was applied to for permission on the part of some intelligent parties, to form a company in London, for the express pur- pose of working them, independently of the other properties. FACILITIES. The mines being situated in the midst of a large and almost unoccupied population, employment would concen- trate, without raising the price of labour to an inconvenient standard. The ordinary wages of the most able hands are from 3s. 6d. to 5.9. per week. The lake and the canal, with other connected waters which form a part of the boundary, afford a cheap and ready conveyance to the home and foreign markets for all the necessary purposes of intercourse ; and thereby the products are able to defy competition in price as well as in quality. The roads to Sligo, and those generally throughout this part of the kingdom, are being shortened, levelled, and judiciously improved, on a grand scale, under commissioners appointed by the Government, asssisted by Mr. Nimmo. The communications by water throughout the interior, by connecting the numerous lakes, rivers, and canals, with the formation of others, will infuse new life and character, and thus shewing the actual riches and wealth of the country, give vigour to enterprize and industry; and justify the investment of capital to any amount. See the Reports on the Roads, Canals, &c. in Ireland, as ordered by Parliament in a late and previous session. See also the interesting and able remarks made by J. Leslie Foster, Esq. (now Baron Foster) in the House of Commons, as applying to a part of these identical properties. 372 COUNTY OF LEITRIM, COMPARISON OF WEALTH FROM POSITION AND LOCALITY. From the foregoing it has been shewn, under the head of "Capacities," that the inexhaustible stores of iron-stone, coal, lime-stone, and every other requisite for the smelting and manufacture of iron, in all its stages, are here on the spot. Under the head of lt Facilities," it is also shewn, that the extraordinary concentration is assisted by the abundance and cheapness of labour. And in contrast to these flattering and important facts, the hitherto unequalled and valuable works, so well know as the Carron Iron works, in Scotland, appear absolutely in the shade. For in the highly esteemed statistical works of Sir John Sinclair, Bart, he states^ in reference to the latter, as follows. " They are supplied with iron ore from Lancashire and Cumberland, and with iron-stone from Banton, Derry, and Bonnyhill, &c., in this vicinity ; and from the county of Fife, &c. They have lime- stone from Bumtisland, &c. &c. and coals from Kinnaird, Carron-hall, and Shield-hill. All the materials which are made use of at these works, are brought to them by water carriage." Statistical accounts, vol. xix. p. 94. ESTIMATES. Cost of Manufacture of one ton of Pig metal from the ore. s. d. . s. d. To 3 tons of iron ore at 4 6 013 6 4 tons of coals "5 1 1 ton of lime-stone "3 6 3 6 Managers, Engineers, Labourers, and Keeper's wages, with sand, and wear and tear of engines 10 6 Total cost of one ton of pig metal at these mines 2 7 6 Cost of Manufacturing Pig Metal into Refiners Metal. .. s. d. . s. d. Toltonl cwt. 2qrs. pigmetal,at 2 7 6 per ton 210 7 4 sacks of coals atO 1 4 5 4 Wages, Is. 6d. blast and sundry expenses, Is. 6d.. 030 Total cost of one ton of refiner's metal 2 18 11 MINES, ETC. 373 Cost of Manufacturing Refiner's Metal into Bar Iron. . s. d. . s. d. To 1 ton 2 cwt. 1 qr. of refiner's metal at 2 18 11 per ton 348 Pudling coals, wear and tear, waste, &c 6 6 Sand Is. 6d., wear and tear of engine Is. 6d 030 Rolling 3s. 6d. waste in ditto, 3s. wages, 4s. 6d 11 Use of engine, water-wheel, oil, grease, leather, &c. . 4 6 498 Carriage of 1 ton to Dublin 11 Total cost of 1 ton of perfect iron from these mines, de- livered free at Dublin 5 8 or 6 Delivered free in London The two last year's contracts for Gas Pipes, were taken at from ,11. to 12. 10s. per ton. From these Mines they could be delivered in London at 5. 5s. per ton, with a profit, as appears by the following- liberal calculation of actual cost. To pig metal 2 7 6 Running into pipes 13 Freight and charges of delivery in London or any other port 1 14 Actual cost per ton for gas pipes 4 14 6 Machinery of every description commands a still larger profit. On the subject of erecting engines, it is to be observed, that each engine will work two furnaces, and each furnace can make, if required, 70 tons of metal per week ; but 50 tons is the ordinary product. So that on only six engines being erected, and consequently twelve furnaces, there will be a certain weekly product of 600 tons of metal, or of 31,200 tons annually; and which, if brought into any market, at the usual prices of iron, would give a net profit of from 6. to 7. per ton, or at the lowest estimate of 156,000. per annum. The foregoing is a certain result on the application of only one-third of the capital proposed to be invested. And, notwithstanding the increased attention given of late to mining pursuits generally, and the vast quantity of iron which this undertaking will also add to the present supply, 374 COUNTY OF LEITRIM, it is nevertheless the concurrent opinion of practical engi- neers and scientific men, that the use of all metals is aug- menting, while the application of iron is as yet only in its infancy ; hence ensuring a constant, and probably even a larger profit in the manufacture of it in future. This is strikingly illustrated in the price of copper ore, which a few years ago varied from .102. to 110., and is now actually 138. per ton. REMARKS ON ESTIMATES. It is chiefly in the first and last stages of manufacture, that the advantage over the Welsh and Staffordshire mining and smelting works lies; the first costing them full 40s. more per ton, and in the last, the manufacture here so perfectly equals the Swedish, as to obtain an extra price. The easy working, and on one spot, of all the requisite materials, and the consequent saving of carnage, and the general cheapness of labour, form the ground of the first advantage; the superiority of those materials the last. The canal charge to Dublin, when added to the freight to Lon- don, or the shipment at the port of Sligo, will frequently be less, never more, than the freight from Staffordshire or Wales, it varying in each quarter according to seasons and circumstances. The Royal canal runs direct into the Liffey and the Irish Sea. Coals can be delivered in Dublin at from 15s. to 17s. per ton, where they cost on an average from 20. to 30s. per ton. Fire-clay is in London, about 90s. per ton, and could be delivered with a profit at 50s. Potters clay will afford a large profit, either to erect potteries or to export. Glass in all its branches can be manufactured to immense advantage. Tin certainly, and no doubt copper, might be found and worked with great facility and success. Lime-stone, for use and sale, to considerable benefit. And to keep a permanent level on the price of labour, a small fishery might be cherished and made the medium of con- siderable profit, as connected with the making of salt, and burning kelp. MINES, ETC. 375 ADDITIONAL MEANS OF WORK AND EMOLUMENT. Within short distances of these mines, are both lead and copper mines now at work, but which are obliged to smelt in Wales, and thereby incur a great charge in freight, labour, &c. These will instantly contract for smelting at these mines, on the works being completed ; no coal so entirely adapted for smelting purposes, being found in any other part of Ireland. In proof of this, Mr. Griffith, government inspector of the Royal Mines in Ireland, states, in reports to Parliament in a late session, that the coal of the district of these mines is, for all smelting purposes, so superior to any in the sister kingdom, that one half of the quantity suffices for the smelting of a ton of iron, compared with what is required for the same effect at the Carron works in Scotland ! This is an important difference : and hence it will necessarily follow, that ore raised in Ireland will be smelted at these works in future, instead of being shipped to England or elsewhere for that purpose. Cheapness of labour being in all manufactories, and coal in many, a most material point, it is intended to use all the advantages of situation, by extracting the iron from the ore, and bringing it into its quite perfect state, in the manufac- ture of the most important articles in general use, whether in cast or wrought iron ; viz. anchors, chains, cables, &c- for shipping ; cannon ; pipes of all kinds, for gas, water, &c. ; columns, beams, pillars, balustrades, railing, &c. ; steam boilers, pots, fire grates, stoves, &c. ; and machinery of different descriptions. The capital here invested will give employment to 10,000 individuals, the by far greater part of whom are now idle, and in a comparatively starving state ; and so highly is the product and utility of working these mines estimated in Ireland, that a great portion of the investment is offered from thence. Added to the actual products of the mines and works, there will also accrue a large income, arising from ground 376 COUNTY OF LE1TRIM, rents, in buildings to be erected by tradesmen as brewers, distillers, grocers, bakers, butchers ; and in setting out on leases or otherwise, the surface of so many thousand acres of land, which, being both arable and pasture, are suited for more extensive and improved cultivation. DIRECT ATJTHORTIIES FOR THE SEVERAL STATEMENTS. FIRST. Reports from Mr. Griffith, Government Inspector of Royal mines in Ireland ; also Messrs. Guest and Grieve, eminent surveyors ; printed and laid before Parliament in June, 1824. A report made to the Dublin Society in 1814, on the particular examination and inspection of the most eminent mineralogists and miners, as well practical as theo- retical, of this country. SECOND. The application, when too late, of individual capitalists, who tendered their proposals on most liberal terms, while on the mountains themselves, with their engineers, for the pur- pose of inspecting the properties; and who stated they must have them at any price. THIRDLY. The proposals made at different times by the Royal Irish and other established mining companies. Such applications and anxiety being the result of mature and deliberate inves- tigation, in ascertaining the most eligible and judicious situations for carrying the objects of their large capitals into effect. COLLATERAL PROOFS. The petition of the three surrounding counties to the Lord Lieutenant; and who, unknown to the proprietor, presented their memorial, praying for pecuniary aid to enable the mines to be worked with spirit, and so to dis- pense extensive employment. Could such a request to such a quarter, arise from any thing but a firm conviction of the great advantages to be derived from such an investment of MINES, ETC. 377 capital, and in the large scope for industry afforded by so comparatively a national undertaking, added to the certainty that the government were as fully assured on these points ? And that this impression is correct, Mr. Goulburn has already shown, in audiences given by him on the subject, and wherein he regretted their being no specific fund under government for such advances, but expressed his determina- tion to use his influence with the well informed capitalists of Ireland, who, he was glad to find, were at last alive to the great advantages, facilities and riches of these mines. And the Corporation of Dublin are already in accord with Mr. Goulburn, in having handsomely offered to wave all dues on the landing or transit of the produce of these mines. GENERAL EEMARKS. The mineral riches of Ireland have been from the earliest records the theme of successive historians. Mineralogists and Geologists have from time to time surveyed her vast fertility, and wondered at the variety of her many produc- tions. No one has looked at her mines and natural resources without feeling regret, that with so kindly and generous a people, such riches should have been hitherto so little avail- able. Happily the advance of science, and the labours of such distinguished men as Sir Humphrey Davy, and a Rennie, and others, visiting this country for the purpose of inspect- ing her resources, aided by the liberal spirit of the age, and an universal peace, have given an impulse favourable to the developement of her powers. Ireland will hereafter hold her rank as the brightest gem in the British crown.* Mining is in every way a legitimate and highly praise- worthy pursuit. England owes a proportion of her present greatness to her mines, and more especially to those of iron, and the manufactories arising therefrom. These mines will afford no inconsiderable addition to the wealth of the United * That she may do with a local legislature, but never without it. ED. NOTE. 378 COUNTY OF LEITRIM, Kingdom ; for the proprietor, (Captain Johnson,) having personally inspected the iron mines of Sweden, Russia and Norway, with the most considerable establishments of his own country, feels a conscious satisfaction in being able to declare, that in no kingdom or district which has ever fallen under his observation, are such vast mineral riches to be found, as are concentrated within these mines; nor can the general facilities for working them, or of conveyance to all the markets of the world, be any where equalled ! Merthyr Tydvill, formerly an inconsiderable village, is now, from her ,jron works, become the most considerable town in Wales, having a population of 40,000 inhabitants.* The village of Carron (in Scotland) has been similarly aug- mented and enriched. Why shall not the Leitrim and Sleiveanerin mines, from their wonderful capacities, produce a more striking result ? The shares of the Carron company, originally only 250. each, have been sold for 4000. each ; and it is hoped that the public spirit which now throws open the Shares of the Leitrim and Sleiveanerin mining association, in sums adapted to annuitants, and the effective classes of the British public, will, in the course of a few years, display a similarly proud result. N. B. Lough Allen lies at the bottom of the Sleiveanerin mountain. The Royal canal unites with this lough at Druin- shambo ; and with the aid of the river Shannon, opens a communication between this great mineral district and the city of Dublin. A canal of sixteen miles would open a passage from Lough Allen to the Atlantic ocean at Sligo, and between Leitrim and Lough Erne, (which washes the counties of Cavan and Fermanagh) there are divers lakes which might be rendered tributary, with Loughs Erne and * Has the prosperity of this Welsh town injured England, we would ask? or rather has it not contributed its due proportion to the wealth of the state ? Why then give way to that mean and paltry jealousy of Ireland and her resources, by which the energies of her people have been crushed and her trade extinguished ! The truth is, that England has been both the blessing and the curse, the crown and the thorn of this unhappy country. En. NOTK. MINES, ETC. 379 Neagh, to a communication by water with Belfast, as also with the counties of Cavan, Fermanagh, and Armagh, many parts of which are destitute both of lime and fuel, with which they could be abundantly supplied from Lei- trim ; and undoubtedly the long talked of Ulster canal (to open a communication between Loughs Erne and Neagh) would, in this point of view be a great public benefit, were justice once done to the town of Ballyshannon (in relation to its bar) and to that of Enniskillen, in relation to the impe- diments which exist to the free navigation of Lough Erne ; to the previous execution of which latter, and certainly more important works to the landed and commercial interests of Donegal and Fermanagh, we earnestly recommend the timely attention of the inhabitants of these counties, (See our reflections on this important subject, in the concluding chapter of this work, under the head of Donegal) and when these had been completed, and justice thus done to Donegal and Fermanagh, then the Ulster canal would prove generally useful in the progress of improvement. By a computation heretofore gone into by the grand jury of this county (Leitrim) about ten miles of a canal between Lough Allen and Lough Erne (with the aid of the river of Ballyhady in the county of Cavan) would complete the navigation between these lakes. TOWNS, TRADE, CHARACTER OF THE PEASANTRY MAGISTERIAL PERSECUTIONS OF THE POOR. We have already alluded to the towns approximating with the aforesaid principal mineral district of this county (which latter, alas ' we believe to be still lying comparatively dor- mant !) and shall now offer a brief remark upon those towns, as they came under our own personal review. We know of no town in Leitrim deserving of notice, in reference to the measure of its trade, population, and build- ings, &c. except that of Carrick on the river Shannon, the as- sizes town, which being situated on this mistress of our rivers, does a little boating business with Dublin in the provision 380 COUNTY OF LEITRIM, trade, &c. and has several respectable shops and next to it in appearance, and in the enjoyment of a wretchedly poor home trade, are Ballinamore and Mohill ; but within the whole circle of this county, we believe there is not as much business done as in the neighbouring towns of Athlone and Longford. For however eminently favoured by Nature, the County of Leitrim may be, it is a characteristically poor and wretched district; and for this reason, because the people have no means of profiting by the subterraneous treasures of their county, and are thrown by their want of capital upon the culture of a soil, extensively impoverished by the preva- lence of its ferruginous wealth. Hence the labouring poor, who walk naked and unemployed over all its dormant miner- als, present to the view of humanity a true subject of com- miseration, and a wretched picture of the narrow and blasting policy of that country, which, by foreigners who only see it at a distance, has been denominated the envy and admiration of the world! Besides the towns just noticed, there are also Leitrim (composed of a group of miserable hovels) from which the county takes its name, the neat, though small villages of Drumsna and James-town, contiguous to each other, and which, as being the seat of divers respectable families, and connected with a part of the country on the banks of the Shannon, planted, improved, and embellished with various gentlemen's seats, contribute a due proportion of influence to the beauty of the county. In the department of scenery, however, the picturesque is much more eminently promoted by that wild grandeur of nature by which some landscapes of the interior are distinguished, (where spacious lakes, and eccentric hills burst suddenly upon the view, and give a peculiar interest to the feelings of the stranger who has a taste for the romantic) than by any work of art whatever. This being the state of the County of Leitrim, as Nature and civil government have made it, let us now take a brief glance at the character of the peasantry, and at the sensible gratitude to God which has been produced in their hearts, by the gift of British justice, as they feel its happy influences TOWNS, TRADE, ETC. 381 in the administration of British law by the magistrates around them. The peasantry, from all that we could perceive and learn, (and our gig and travelling baggage, with all our books and clothing, were sometimes unavoidably left to their mercy in publicly exposed places for a whole night together, and were left untouched !) are naturally kind, warm-hearted, and with few exceptions, amenable to the laws ; in proof of which we refer to a prominent fact in the history of this county namely, that for nine or ten years previous to 1827, when we procured this information from Mr. Irwin, the excellent governor of the county prison (and who had filled that office for thirty preceding years) only one execution had taken place at Carrick, the county town, notwithstanding that hundreds of unfortunate men had been plunged by the magistrates of that county in the dungeons of the county prison, (of whom two only were convicted) and kept there from one to six months, as the case might be, on charges of rape ; and by these persecutions (followed up for reasons best known to the magistrates themselves) a principle of hatred to English law and Irish justice, must have been deeply infixed in the minds of these unfortunate men ; their cha- racter and circumstances effectually ruined ; and a reckless- ness of mind produced, which would effectually prepare them for any future conspiracy (against the laws and institutions of this country) that might happen to be formed. That within the precincts of this county there are some just and virtuous magistrates (we think we knew one of this sterling stamp, who is now no more) charity, and even common fame oblige us to believe; but whether (as has been reported of some magistrates in other places) there are any here who would on certain conditions, and for certain reasons, comply with the wishes of some private pros- titutes to force paramours of their own rank (with whom they had frequently cohabited) into the matrimonial yoke, we leave the public to infer from the above information, faithfully copied from the mouth of the governor of the 382 COUNTY OF LEITRIM, county prison ; and if it is thus that the wretched peasantry of Ireland are to be treated, is it not surprising- that there is an hour's peace, or an hour's security for life and property in such a country. Let the public look to the County of Clare, where the laws can only be maintained by a strong armed force ! How have the peasantry and small farmers been treated in that county ? It would be a tedious tale to go over the whole history of the landed interest in that dis- trict. We have already touched upon some of its prominent points in " Ireland exhibited to England," and therefore in this volume we shall content ourselves with observing, that one day, while travelling in that county, perceiving a crowd of people running rapidly through the fields in pursuit of some object unknown to us, we asked a few foot soldiers (belonging to a party of the 23rd foot stationed in the neigh- bouring village of Kildimo) who were standing in the gripe of a ditch upon the road, as spectators of the hunt (which proved to be a rape hunt) if they knew what was the purpose of the chace, of which we had just caught a glimpse through the carriage window. " It is the country people (said one of the soldiers who acted as spokesman for the rest) who are running with a constable that has a warrant to execute upon a man, procured by a woman, who has been long in the family way by him, and now wants to force him to marry her, which the man does not wish to do, and there- fore she has sworn a rape against him ; and he, upon hear- ing that the constable was approaching with the warrant which was to make an honest woman of the lady, has fled ; and the people that you see running with the constable, are in pursuit of him." To this effect we received an account of the transaction from the soldiers ; and happening soon after to mention this circumstance to a Protestant clergyman in the neighbourhood, he conducted the inquiring stranger to the hall-steps of his glebe-house, and pointing with his finger towards a house of worship within view, (whicli proved to be the Catholic chapel) he asked the stranger did he see that chapel ? and on being answered in the affirm- ative " Well Sir," said he, "I have known twenty mar- TOWNS, TRADE, ETC. 383 riages to have been solemnized in one day in that chapel upon charges of rape?" that is, as the worthy minister might have added, with halters placed by the magistrates around the bridegroom's necks, as a short method of pro- curing lawful fathers for the forthcoming children, whoso- ever might have begotten them; of which to be sure the magistrates could know nothing, save and except as the ladies chose to swear ! " Be hanged or marry your sweet- heart my love," was the language of the warrant ; and it could not be expected in such circumstances that any magistrate would say, " It is my sweetheart my love that I want you to marry." And is it thus that the people of this country are to be treated ? Is it thus that a criminal law is to be made the instrument of ruin to the King's subjects, on the evidence of self convicted prostitutes, or of women rendered furious by a disappointment of their hopes. It is a melancholy thing to think, that in the nineteenth century of Christianity, and in an age and country so eminently enlightened, that laws made by barbarians in a remote and bloody age, should be retained among the criminal statutes of a Christian country in an age of reason ; and that under the authority of such statutes, corrupt magistrates and vile prostitutes may plunge the King's (otherwise peaceable and well conducted) subjects into the vaults of a prison, and afterwards put them upon trial for their lives, for hav- ing given those women the kiss, which in ninety-nine cases out of every hundred, they have positively courted; and which if pure and chaste (as they usually affect to be) they need never have received; for there is a certain repulsive power and severity of reproof, in the countenance and manners of a woman of rigid virtue, that not only repels improper familiarity in its first approaches, but even deprives an ordinary libertine of the power of perpetrating an act of violence in which there can be no pleasure, as is evident from the law of nature, exhibited in the well known acts of inferior creatures, who have always recourse to coaxing and caresses (and never to physical force alone) in order to subdue the reluctance of the female. 384 COUNTY OF LEITRIM, We should like to know what opinion an intelligent Heathen would entertain of Christian senators, who retain such bloody laws as this among their enlightened statutes ! Or, of such magistrates as enforce those laws, to gratify women, who, to say the very least, have brought themselves into unpleasant circumstances by their own unguarded con- duct ; and in most instances, by a free and wilful indulgence of the law of nature. SPAS-DERRYCARN. This county is said to abound with chalybeate and sul- phureate springs, some of which are found on the lands of Derrycarn, the property of Francis Nesbitt, Esq., treasurer of the county. These lands also abound with iron ore, of which a mine was once opened and extensively worked here. They are also supplied (as our notes instruct us) with fuel, free-stone, and bark for tanning; and being situated on the banks of the Shannon (a navigable river, where manufactured goods could be boated on the spot) on the event of capital being embarked in this county, this district of the river will deserve the attention of the commercial interest. There are 100 acres of timber on these lands, including oak, ash, bog-yew, and other valuable trees, besides a large tract of similar wood on the Castle Forbes estate, (the pro- perty of the Earl of Granard) which forms a junction with that of Derrycarn on the south side. This latter property extends from the neighbourhood of Notley's Inn towards the village of Husky on the river Shannon, (within view of the mail coach road between Dublin and Sligo) a distance of several English miles. At the village of Drummond it has a site for a mill on the river Eslin, which drops into the Shannon with a fall of seven feet. In all these particulars, therefore, those lands are well circumstanced for trade, which we are sure would meet with every encouragement from the liberal proprietor of this place, who, no doubt, beholds with regret, the uuor- MINERALS, SPRINGS, ETC. 385 ganised condition of the rich resources of his county, inclu- ding an active and peaceful population on the banks of a navigable river, without any adequate measure of capital and science, to render those resources available to the public good. Husky is the post town to Deny earn. We had almost forgot to mention a very great evil which prevails in Leitrim, and which is by no means peculiar to this county namely, partnerships in plots of land. It is an evil to which the rapid growth of families, and the total inequality of profitable employment to that increase, has given birth. A small farmer, on the marriage of his chil- dren, must divide his land with them, as there are no factories in the country to employ the people. These lands are fre- quently held in partnership, in the nature of a commonage, with equal right of stock and tillage, and being frequently transferred by the original holders to others, the quarrels (to say nothing of the consequent battery and bloodshed) that result from these partnerships, is frightful. This is an evil that calls loudly upon the agents of estates, and upon all magistrates of Christian consideration, to diminish, by inter- posing their influence to procure equal divisions of those lands, and an establishment of each person in the possession of his own plot, with the execution of such good mearing ditches between the parties, as would prevent trespass and preserve peace. Although this is not a duty imposed upon magistrates by the authority of law, it is nevertheless one, which reason and conscience loudly claim from the humanity of resident gentlemen ; and we are sure if they would take the trouble to exert their influence with the numerous parties that appear before them, upon quarrels of this nature, these latter would be prevailed on, in most instances, to submit to a division of their lands, which could be easily effected with the assistance of honest and intelligent arbitrators, residing near them. 2 c 386 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH RESUMED, GARDEN-HILL, (With observations on the advantages resulting to a county from the example and labours of industrious resident landlords.) This is the seat of William Hassard, Esq. (the present treasurer of Fermanagh,) and being situated in a district of the county, romantically grand, and removed to a consider- able distance from the splendid seats and more populous neighbourhood of Enniskillen ; distinguished also by the waters of Lough Me Naine (which communicate with Lough Erne, by the river Arney, and form a boundary to this property on the south) and by a great mountain district in the neighbourhood, whose treasures are said to be in a virgin state, constitute the lands of Garden-hill, both in reference to their scenery and soil, an object of interest to the Irish patriot, and worthy the attention of those mem- bers of the English interest, who are disposed to embark capital in Ireland, where a safe and proper theatre appears. With the extent of the lands of Garden -hill we are unac- quainted; but have heard from good authority, that more than 1000 acres of mountain are included in the tract of * soil in possession of the proprietor of this seat. This moun- tain tract abounds with a species of limestone gravel, well calculated for the improvement of the mountain moor, which, thus renovated, becomes very grassy, and produces good oats and rye, but in a mere state of nature the surface is of little value. The arable lands are said to be based upon a stratum of limestone, and consequently they constitute an equally good corn and sheep soil. Of this latter species of stock, Mr. Hassard observes, that a large proportion of these lands will feed five sheep (of 25 Ibs. per quarter) to the acre, and a beef cow of 5 cwt. to the same. Iron in particular is known to abound in certain of the mountains here, which were carefully explored during the life time of the proprietor's father ; and as a communication between Lough Me Naine and Lough Allen could be SEATS, ETC. 387 opened by a single level ; if minerals applicable to trade exist here, this district of Fermanagh might be made to participate in the benefits to be communicated to Leitrim, by a canal between Lough Allen and Lough Gill at Sligo. The scenery of this neighbourhood is romantically grand The lands beyond Lough Me Naine, at the base of the mountains in the front view, have been tastefully planted, both by Mr. Hassard and the Earl of Enniskillen, whose estate is there, and whose various plantations uniting with the watery expanse of the lake, the lofty mountains beyond it, and an extensive tract of country, thus distinguished by the bold and beautiful of nature, the interest produced by an observation of this sequestered scene is deep and sensible. The proprietor of Garden-hill is not one of those idle gentlemen, who occupy themselves in foreign tours, and an occasional residency in London; or with the mere amuse- ments of their own unfortunate conntry, if by some singular accident they should chance to visit it ! He is an industrious man of business ; and in this capacity carries on an exten- sive trade with England in live stock (a certain proportion of which are prepared for market on his own lands) and agreeably to the English adage, " it is the master's eye makes the horse," Mr. Hassard very frequently, if not generally, attends the English market (to make sale of the stock thus prepared) in his own person. Mr. Archdale of Riversdale (although not engaged in what is commonly termed trade) is spoken of in Fermanagh as a country gentleman of the same useful habits and pro- pensities. It is these industrious, pains taking, plough plodding, mill building, mine hunting, timber planting, land reclaiming, and peasantry improving landlords, that are wanted in Ireland. Well accustomed to turn up the soil, and to feel by experience the labour that procures the crop, they would enter more feelingly into the interests of their country, and into the rights and comforts of the working population ; and knowing the value of their soil, they would not despise the coal or the iron stone upon 388 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH, which their pick axe or their plough share stumbled; nor the signs of more precious metals, if the mountain torrent should happen to wash down, through a ravine to the vale below, those smaller portions of precious ore, which are sent to them as indications of their duty, and of the bounty of the God of nature to their soil and people. Garden-hill stands on a line of road which communicates between Enniskillen and Sligo ; from the latter of which it is twenty-one Irish miles distant, and from the former, which is the post town to it, nearly twelve English miles. COLEBROOK, (With observations on minerals and tenures, and a brief notice of the Lisnaskea estate.) Colebrook, in reference to the splendor of its edifice, furniture, and paintings, the extent of the demesne, and the value and variety of its timber, is a seat suited to the rank and fortune of its proprietor : but from the tame level on which it stands, it presents no other prospect to the eye, than that which is to be found within the narrow limits of its own lawn and plantation. The house is an edifice somewhat in the Grecian style, having a lofty and splendid portico in front, supported by pillars of the Ionic order. The remarkably fine free-stone of which this noble colonnade is composed, is the produce of the Colebrook property ; nor is this the only subter- raneous treasure discoverable in the natural history of the soil, as the lands are said to abound with that species of coal already noticed, as being unfit for domestic use (at least unless it be combined with a better description of fuel) but well calculated for smelting iron, &c.: but as the quan- tity of peat attached to this property is said to be very con- siderable, this defect in the quality of its coal is not likely to be felt by the tenantry for at least a century to come. That Fermanagh contains fine materials for building, the edifice just noticed, and divers others in this county, demon- strably prove that minerals applicable to purposes of trade SEATS, ETC 389 do also exist here, may be fairly inferred, from the various discoveries that have been made, and more particularly from the coal mines formerly worked on the lands of Clonelly (but whether discontinued from a failure in the market, the money, the mineral, or the men, we did not learn). The indications of such wealth being, however, sufficiently strong- to justify the lords of the soil in a system of research that shall place this question upon its true base, we trust when the improvements in the bar of Ballyshannon, and in the navigation of Lough Erne, now under consideration, have been completed, that they will employ able mining engineers to ascertain with precision, the nature and extent of their minerals applicable to purposes of trade; and if found to be such as would justify an outlay of capital in extensive works, that they will give due encouragement to the formation of companies on the banks of Lough Erne for that purpose. During the election of 1830, the proprietor of Colebrook is said to have advanced to Enniskillen at the head of 300 of his freeholders, all as well mounted as himself, in order to put in his claim to the representation of that county, in which his property holds such a distinguished place. To those honest freeholders and other farmers, to whom his lands are parcelled out in small tracts of from ten to thirty acres, he grants leases of three lives or thirty-one years at moderate rents (a title, which secures to the tenant the fruits of his industry) and hence the obvious comfort of his free- holders, and the comparative exemption of his property from poverty and rags; and we believe the same may be said in truth of most of the other leading members of the landed interest in this county ; although in reference to the tithe composition law, so much more reasonable in itself than tithe in kind (if indeed any modification of that tax be reasonable since the extinction of the Jewish system) and so much better calculated to hold the balance of justice fair between the tenant, the landlord and the clergy, we heard some hints concerning certain of those gentlemen that 390 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH, did not do equal honour to the justice and generosity of their hearts. With the tenures granted on the other properties, we are not quite so well informed as concerning those usually given on the Brookborough estate ; but from the generally im- proved appearance of the county, we naturally concluded that the English short lease policy, so totally unsuitable to the circumstances of Ireland (which requires to be pushed forward in the march of improvement by strong encourage- ments) had not been generally adopted in this county. Of the extent and natural history of the Lisnaskea estate, we received no information (and in most instances found it extremely difficult to collect facts of this nature) neither can we tell whether the proprietor is only an occasional, or a constant absentee from his country ; but if the latter, we believe this is not the general practice of the proprietary of Fermanagh. Nevertheless from the appearance of divers farm-houses and homesteads on the Lisnaskea estate, an inference highly favourable to the policy by which that property is governed (or to the confidence which is reposed by the tenantry in the honour of the Creighton family) is certainly deducible; although, in relation to the tenures granted here, if the information which we received upon the spot may be depended on, they are those of one life only, or twenty-one years ; a kind of lease, which, in many parts of Ireland, and with great reason, would not secure an outlay of the tenant's property in permanent improvements ; and although experience may have taught the tenants on this estate that fortune has connected them with a family of good principles, we nevertheless maintain, from an exten- sive observation of the fruits of the short lease system in Ireland, that their tendency has been to check the progress of improvement in planting and building, and that in rela- tion to tenants and their families, whose industry and good character have been fully proved, it is a narrow and illiberal policy. The demesne of Colebrook contains about 500 acres, and SEATS, ETC. 391 is perhaps the most distinguished feature of beauty, in a rural territory of 30,000 acres, of which Colebrook may be regarded as the seat of government. A small river or rivulet, waters the demesne; but as nothing material appears to have been done to enlarge and beautify even that part of it which passes through the lawn in view of the house ; and as it is surmounted by a little bridge in ruins, where a splendid Chinese bridge, and a spacious arm of the river, should have been exhibited to public view in the approach, it appears doubtful whether these objects should be regarded as an ornament or a nui- sance to a seat so splendid. Brookborough (a market or post town on this estate) is the seat of its post office. Colebrook is situated within about two English miles of that town, on a line of road which opens a communication between Belfast and Enniskillen by Fivemile town ; and from Enniskillen, the capital of Fer- managh, it is distant about ten miles. CASTLE COOLE. (Observations on the utility of commercial surveys preparatory to manufactures and commerce. Serious address to the landed interest of Ulster.) Castle-Coole, the splendid seat of the Earl of Belmore, (the present governor of Jamaica,) is situated within one Irish mile of the town of Enniskillen, on the mail coach road communicating between Ballyshannon and Dublin, by Cavan Kells and Navan ; and Lisnaskea (by the appoint- ment of Lord Corry, the Earl's eldest son, who is one of the representatives of this county) has been . made the post town to it. It is a most princely feature of improvement, in a portrait of that respectable county in which it maintains so distin- guished a position ; uniting at once the architectural splen- dour of a palace, with all those scenographic charms of mountain, wood and water, by which the Enniskillen section of Lough Erne and Fermanagh, stands so eminently dis- tinguished in the topography of Ulster. 392 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH, As we see no reason why the complimentary title of " Palace," should he conceded to a Bishop's residence, and withheld from that of a temporal Peer, who has expended a fortune in the erection of a house that does honour to his name and country ; and which, in reference to the impor- tant appendages of wood, water, prospect, and demesne, far exceed in beauty, value and extent, the generality of those seats which have been created for the accommodation of our spiritual Peers on the ecclesiastical domains of this country. As we see no reason, we say, why this compliment should be paid to a Bishop's residence (now that the days of eccle- siastical monopoly are passing rapidly away) and withheld from that of a temporal Peer, merely because he is a plain honest Lord, who acknowledges he is a sinner like another man ; so in the description of Castle Coole, we shall not hesitate to call Lord Belmore's house a palace, notwith- standing his Lordship may be a sinner and no Bishop ; nor shall we withhold the same title from the domicile of the Earl of Enniskillen, whose seat deserves this distinction, although its noble owner is a sinner also ; nor from that of General Archdale, who is another ; nor from the seat of Sir Henry Brook, Bart, in the same county, who is probably as honest a sinner, and as little fit to be a Bishop as any of the other three ; and for this just reason, because any one of these residences (namely Castle Coole, Florence Court, Castle, Archdale, and Colebrook,) is fit to entertain any Prince of any country ; and we have no doubt, if some of the Princes of Germany were to arrive here and visit Castle Coole, in a tour through Ireland, but they would cordially support our protest against a church monopoly of Princely distinctions, in a reform of the nomenclature of our seats for who can see the style of the mansion house of Castle Coole; the cheerful splendour of its apartments, the beauty of its furniture and paintings, the rich views of mountain, wood, and water, which it commands, the skill exhibited in the plan and retired position of the fine suite of offices attached to the house ; and, in a word, the order and perfection of all SEATS, ETC. 393 the parts which unite to constitute the tout en semble of that seat, so signally blending together the influence of the soft and the sublime. Who, after contemplating the extent and symmetry of a noble palace built of Portland stone, and standing on the summit of a fine elevation, over a landscape pregnant with beauty, life; and animation. After traversing the apartments and piazzas, and enjoying from thence and from the lawn, the various views of mountain, wood and water which the scene presents. After feasting his eyes with the chaste and expanded bosom of a crystal lake in the demesne, which (like the influence of the planet Venus upon the celestial system, or of that system upon the face of nature in an autumn evening scene) reflects the sparkling beauty of its silver surface upon gently swelling lawns, richly wooded in the distance, and exhibiting such varied views, as are well calculated to gratify that patriot passion for the picturesque, which hangs with fondest and sweetest plea- sure upon the scenes of HOME, and neither sighs for the romantic of Switzerland, nor for the terrific of the Pyren- nees. Who that has witnessed these beauties, and possesses a soul of sensibility and a patriot's heart, but will say with us, that the country which abounds with such scenes as this ; and where the splendid works of nature at Wicklow and Killamey (that have no parallel for beauty in these parts of Europe) are always within view. Who that knows these scenes, and knows, as we do, the contempt with which that country has been treated by her apostate lords; her beauties bartered for foreign pleasures, and her numerous treasures trampled under foot ! Who, with these threefold advantages of Ireland, her beauty, her fecundity, and her wealth, placed upon the one hand with her poverty, desti- tution, and the foreign pleasures of her lords, placed upon the other. Who that sees the remote point of ruin to which this foreign policy will lead in the progress of its exhausting draught, and then raises his eyes to England (a speck like our own upon the globe) and contemplates the wealth and glory to which that country has raised itself by its union, 394 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH, industry, and arts ; while Ireland, with superior resources, has sunk into ruin and decay! Who with the love of country, and the goal in view, to which this " road to ruin " leads, and in which Ireland has been steadily travelling downwards for the last twenty years. Who that with a broken heart, and a tearful eye fixed upon this goal, wait- ing for the fatal moment when the vessel shall be broken at the cistern, but will remember those appropriate words of Pantheus to ^Eneas, when he saw the Greeks revelling in the flames of Troy, " Venit summa dies et ineluctabile tempus ! " * or those of Lacoon, when he beheld the infatuation of the Trojans, contrary to his expostulation, dragging in the wooden horse, " O miseri, quoe dementia, cives!"f Virgil, Book 2. The demesne of Castle Coole embraces 1500 Irish acres, thus richly wooded, watered and improved ; and the entire property of which it is a part, about 20,000 acres of the same measurement, including about 5000 acres of bog and mountain. The top soil of this demesne (and the same may be said of various other portions of the soil of this county), is soft and retentive of water, and therefore more eminently bountiful to the planter of trees and the grower of green crops, than to the grain farmer. The water of which we speak, is not underwater, proceeding from subterraneous springs that may be discharged through main drains into a bog or river, (and which are sometimes found in nutritive pastures and rich meadows) but a surface water peculiar to cold soils (such for instance as that part of Meath which approximates with Dublin, and exhibits the appearance of a poor whitish sterile clay) and for lands of this class, a judicious system of shallow surface drains with falls, and the liberal use of a * Our last day has come, and our lamentable period has arrived ! f O miserable citizens, what a madness is this! SEATS, ETC. 395 rich lime compost ; or burning the surface for manure (if the soil be deep) are perhaps the best remedies. In reference to the mountain district on this property, we could not learn that it has ever been regularly explored by mining engineers ; and, consequently, its mineral treasures, if it have any, are but little known ; and yet the expense of getting executed by subscription, a geological survey and map of the Fermanagh mountains would be inconsiderable. Should the navigation of Lough Erne be completed, and the obstacles to trade in the bar of Ballyshannon once removed, this geological survey of Fermanagh would be of the utmost importance to the future commercial interests of that county; since it is not from agriculture that a country derives its wealth, but from manufactures and commerce, to which the progress of Scotland in science and all useful learning, has been rendered so eminently tributary, that though her soil is most wretched, and her resources (by the best accounts we have received of them) many degrees behind those of Ireland; still by her rapid march in knowledge, and her unremitting application of that knowledge to the slender resources which she has, she has far outstripped our country in the race of trade, and is now actually advancing in wealth, while we are as rapidly sinking into the depths of insolvency and decay ! The few discoveries of mineral wealth that have been made in this county, in the absence of any survey, would appear to justify a more general system of research; and that such must precede any well organised plan of mining and pottery, or any similar branch of manufacture, is self- evident ; and yet up to this period, no such survey has been made. That the formation of companies in England for the introduction of capital into this country (a hope held out largely to her by the British minister at the period of the union) has been the only hope of Ireland since the failure of her linen manufacture, and the drain upon her resources by the absentee system; is now very little short of self- 396 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH, evident ; and if any scepticism could remain upon this sub- ject, a knowledge of what the North of Ireland was before that act took place, and what she now is (and we remember both) would effectually remove it. To facilitate this object, a literary periodical, essentially devoted to the interests of Ireland, should be established in London, as a medium of correspondence between the com- mercial interest of England and the landed interest of Ireland; and through which, all difficulties resting upon this subject might be met, all useful information commu- nicated, and the advantages that would result to both countries from this amalgamation of interest, explained and established. But to what purpose are literary works, in reference to any property or county in Ireland, when no commercial survey (embracing the soils, waters, and minerals, appli- cable to purposes of trade) has yet been completed ; where no association exists to promote this necessary department of research ; where very few gentlemen appear to have devoted any portion of their time and attention to an examination of the strata of their own mountains, or to any of the indications of mineral wealth which those mountains are reported to contain ; and where even the provincial papers that announce the labours of the patriot, are either totally overlooked, or heard with a yawning indifference, that perfectly harmonises with all the other proofs of that love of ease and pleasure, which renders the bounty of nature to our country useless, which enables every other country to outstrip ours in the march of trade ; and thus it is that Scotland with a most wretched soil, and in its other resources vastly inferior to Ireland, has passed us by with a smile of contempt in the progress of improvement ; and, by persevering industry, procured for herself a position in the republic of trade and science, to which a union of Ireland's sons, and a total oblivion of their party feuds, would not enable this country to arrive in less than two centuries. We shall conclude these observations with an appropriate SEATS, ETC. 397 quotation from the Roman Satirist, as it contains a useful hint to the Lords of our destiny. "In cicere, atque faba, bona tu perdasque lupinis, Latus ut in circo spatiere, et aeneus ut stes, Nudus agris, nudus nummis, insane, paternis ?" Hor. Sat. 3, Lib. 2, L. 185. Will you in largesses exhaust your store, That you may proudly stalk the circus o'er ? Or in the capitol embronz'd may stand, Spoil'd of your fortunes and paternal land ? CASTLE ARCHDALE, (Scenery from thence to Belleek.) This is the denomination of the seat of General Mervyn Archdale, one of the representatives of this county in the Imperial Parliament. It stands over a scene richly decora- ted with the mountains of Fermanagh, the waters of Lough Erne, and divers beautifully planted seats on the distant shore ; about nine miles north of Enniskillen, which is the post town to it, and on a line of road which opens a communication between that town and the village of Pettigo in the same county. It derives its name from the castle of the Archdale family, of which an interesting ruin is still standing ; and is seen by the traveller on the public road just noticed, peeping through the plantations which enrich and decorate the demesne, as a standing monument of the claims of this seat to the venerable recollections of antiquity. In the progress of our review of this county, we waited upon the proprietor of this seat, who had the politeness to conduct us through the beautiful gardens of the castle ; which are in perfectly good keeping with the extent of the demesne, the value and variety of the timber, the magni- ficience of the scenery, the respectability of the modern mansion house ; and with the noble site on which this building stands, over the splendid land and water scene already mentioned. Thus distinguished by the beauties of art and nature, which are here eminently combined, 398 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH, Castle Archdale may be regarded as the most conspicuous feature of improvement on that shore of the Lough, to which the road from Enniskillen to Pettigo forms the traveller's outline in his passage through this county. Those who are anxious to see the seats and scenery of Lough Erne to advantage, and who are traversing the County of Fermanagh for that purpose, are recommended (in their progress from Enniskillen to Pettigo) to turn to the left a little beyond Castle Archdale demesne, by a road which conducts the passenger from the main road between those towns to the lodge of a Mr. Humphrey's, called Clareview ; and if, in this little drive of one or two miles, they do not find three views of mountain wood, and water, (with which Castle Archdale is intimately connected) ex- hibiting as chaste a combination of the sublime and beautiful of art and nature, as the picturesque of this or any other section of the Lough can shew (on a scale of similar extent) why then we must resign all proud preten- sions to that species of sight, sensibility, and keen discrimi- nation, by which alone the mystic influence of those scenes that are the glory of perspective, can be adequately tasted, distinguished, and described. Indeed, if we were to have recourse to the impassioned language of an enthusiastic admirer of Nature (and a very slight acquaintance with our taste would convince the reader that we are no stoics when living beauty is in view) we would say, and not altogether without a patriotic interes in the honour of the place, that we could not but lament to find, that Castle- Archdale should be dependent on so obscure a road as this, for the only proper views that can be taken of itself in its best aspect, and of the still more extensive and splendid scenery of Lough Erne and the distant mountains, with which it is so intimately and yet magnificently grouped, in the ichnography and ornaments of this fine picture. Here the pencil would find a subject for its finest skill. But why do we talk of the pencil or the canvas, when such scenes as these are to be imprinted upon the mind. We SEATS, ETC. 399 have always admired the art of painting, and wished to see the industry encouraged, by which these puny attempts to imitate nature, have given profit and employment to a mild and ingenious class of our fellow-citizens in the republic of taste and talent. But the attempts of these inge- nious men, however splendid, to paint the magnificent scenes in which we had personally luxuriated, and of whose sweets the tincture has never left our mind ; always appeared so extremely contemptible in comparison of the scenes them- selves, that we could never afford more than a smile of pity to the limited intellect that was capable of being entangled and carried captive, in the puny cobweb chains that were thus woven to entrap them by the painters of the canvas ! We do not apply this remark to the faithful execution of a magnificent building, a human portrait, or any other single work of art or nature ; for an accurate delineation of these is strictly within the limits of the painter's art, and it is his exclusive province faithfully to represent them. But when the scenes of Wicklow, Killarney, or even those of Lough Erne, are to be imprinted upon the human imagination, will the dwarf be able to carry the elephant upon his back, or the elephant the globe ? (as some poor simple children of nature used to imagine was the pedestal that sustained it!) When indeed the elephant shall be found strong enough to sustain the globe, and the tortoise the elephant, (as these children of Nature thought) then the painter of landscapes will be able to convey the mighty scenes of Wicklow and Killarney faithfully to the eye upon his canvas ; but until then we conceive, without any imputation of defective talent (for the defect lies not in the painter, but in the nature and materials of his art) the artist will be able to do no more than to embellish a fine room, give a momentary amusement to the eye, and furnish ocular evidence to the world, that it is not in the province of his art, successfully to represent those works, in which Nature herself, for the full display of her own magnificent design, has been obliged to select for the scene of her operations, a spacious theatre, which (like 400 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH, the monuments of power and beauty that she rears upon it) mocks with the majesty of uncreated power, the pigmy efforts of the puny painter's skill. After having thus spoken of the feeble powers of the pencil (which within the limited range of any single object, can give an infinitely more perfect imitation of art or nature than any written description) it may be deemed presump- tuous to assert, that it is the province of the poet, and his only, to produce upon the absent mind, the best impression that can be produced by art, of any scene, in which the beauties of space, variety, and bold contrast, are eminently united. We very well understand the extremely poor and partial power of creating representative images, which we ourselves have received from Nature ; and we know too well what constitutes the poet's lofty name to have the presump- tion to assume it. We know also that education of the highest order is necessary to the full development of the capabilities even of lofty genius, in an age wherein science is marching forward towards perfection, and a taste for the fine arts is universally cultivated in all the distinguished walks of life. Thus feeling correctly concerning the cha- racter and qualifications of a poet, in such an age as this ; and recollecting that, in addition to the scanty measure of our genius, that the studies of our early life at Ballit.ore, were not so much directed to the flowery walks of literature, as to the sciences connected with the useful walks of trade ; hence, in attempting to give the outlines of some fine scenes which we have visited in our travels, we have felt it safe to move steadily upon that lowly but firm ground of the his- torian, upon which no critic archer can take us down ; and if, with an eye frequently fixed upon the loftiest works of Nature, whose historian we are, we are sometimes, in a moment of forgetfulness, drawn by her attractive power from our lowly station into her giddy heights ; the moment that we become sensible of the dangerous elevation into which she has raised us by her illusions, we look hastily around to see that none of the London or Edinburgh reviewers are in SEATS, ETC. 401 sight; and thankful for finding the coast clear of those cunning archers (who take good care to write no books them- selves) we let ourselves down by a silken cord, which Nature, after laughing at our confusion, always has the charity to lend us, and then descending by slow gradations upon terra firma, when safely landed, we shrug our shoul- ders, and vow by the clods of the valley, and the waters of St. Bridget's well, that we will fly no more towards those giddy heights. But although we thus confess ourselves unequal to the poet's lofty task, and feel security only in the historian's beaten track of simple facts, still the proposition stands good, that no painter can discharge the debt which is due to Nature's extended works, and that it is the province of the poet, and his only, to transmit them, by faithful images, to the mental eye. Should this axiom be disputed by the painters of the day, we shall take the liberty of reminding them that the images of a Milton and a Byron, are before the world. And we shall add, that, the whole tribe of painters, with Reynolds, Raphael, and Michael Angelo at their back, would not be able to paint the scenes which those poets have made immortal by their genius, and which cannot be read by any one competent to understand them, without producing a transmigration of the mind into regions, of which the painter cannot give the most remote conception upon his canvass ; notwithstanding that the authors of those scenes (big with momentous characters and actions) have placed them in living and imperishable colours before the eye and intellect of all succeeding ages. We remember one night having found a little book on our toilet, (at a gentleman's house where we slept in the progress of our travels) entitled " Warner's Walks through Wales." We never saw that book before nor since; and had only time to read a few pages of it before we retired fatigued to rest. The impression, however, produced upon our mind, by the short description of a single scene which the writer visited, was so vivid and deeply interesting as to 2D 402 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH, produce a sensation upon dropping into the arms of Mor- pheus, that we would not have exchanged for a prospect of all the paintings in the gallery of Athens. The subject was a mountain scene, with divers rural objects in the neigh- bouring valley ; and the whole was so vividly described, as to imbue the imagination with the same interest and feel- ings, (you may say charming illusion if you please) as if the reader had accompanied the author in his walks, sur- veyed with him the altitude of the mountain, visited the aqueduct, traversed with him the banks of a canal, or the plain which conducted to a celebrated ruin ; and mingling with the honest country people in the evening dance upon the verdant sod, collected such images of the place and people, as on their arrival at the next Inn, weary with their pleasurable toils, gave fancy an opportunity of treating them to a second edition of "Warner's Walks through Wales," while sweetly sleeping under the enchanting in- fluence of those poppies, which Morpheus had kindly scat- tered over their welcome couch. It was the description of a rural scene so faithful to nature, as to communicate her incomparable influence to the reader's feelings, that produced a charm, which remains even to this day; although the incidents of the scene are almost forgotten in the multitude of other and more important objects which have since engaged the reader's mind ; but in the nature and duration of the charm, the poet's power is found ; and what that power is, we shall not attempt describing to the stupid, for they would not understand it ; and to the child of nature it is needless, because she feels it within herself. Advancing from Pettigo towards the village of Belleek, along the banks of Lough Erne ; a new and imposing spec- tacle commences its operations on the eye, with the woods of Castle Calwell, the seat of Major Bloomfield, imme- diately on the margin of the lake. In a short time the Church of Belleek, standing on a proud elevation at the north-west extremity of Lough Erne, is seen raising its lofty tower above the world of wood and water at its base, SEATS, ETC. 403 adding a feature of gothic grandeur to the scene, calling back the memory and imagination to past ages, and deceiv- ing the eye with an impression that this may be the tower of an ancient castle, where the feudal lord of the scene, once exercised his despotic jurisdiction, looked down with con- scious pride upon his watery dominion (exhibiting at that place a beautiful crystal expanse of twenty British miles, richly studded with wooded islands) and upon the cottages and cultivated fields of his vassals upon the distant shores ; all reposing in silent tranquillity under the lofty shadow of the mountains of Donegal, which formed a boundary to his ancient territory on the north ; but have now the honour of filling the surrounding country with thousands of those fiery spirits, which spread fits of idiotism and madness in every family and hamlet, where they obtain an ascendant over reason in the domestic government of the place.* The properties, of which Castle Archdale may be con- sidered as the seat of government, are situated in the coun- ties of Fermanagh and Tyrone. We could neither ascertain their boundaries, their measurement, nor the proportions of mountain bog and arable which they contain ; and of their commercial resources we could only learn that the lands contain divers lakes, and rivers with falls for mills, together with indications of coal and other minerals on certain parts of these estates ; but concerning the precise places where these indications exist, or by whom discovered, the written answers to our queries say nothing. These answers however inform us, that nearly the whole barony of Omagh, in the county of Tyrone, formerly belonged to the Mervyn family, and that it now pays a chief rent to the proprietor of this seat, as the living representative of that family ; and as they close with the following remark, viz. " the demesnes and islands in Lough Erne contain 1000 acres," the reader will naturally infer that these demesnes and islands belong to the Mervyn property, or * The mountains of Donegal, reputed to be famous for the manufacture of illicit spirits. 404 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH, why mention them in the skeleton report of that property with which the agent favoured us ? In relation to the state of the population on the Archdale estates, which according to the reports before us contain " towns and villages, whose inhabitants are comfortable and industrious," we have already offered our opinion, founded on the obvious aspect of the country ; and more particularly (in reference to these properties) on that of Trillick, a rising village already noticed in this review ; and for further infor- mation on this subject, we refer the reader to the general remarks with which we ushered in our local descriptions of this county. FLORENCE COURT. This splendid seat of the Earl of Enniskillen, stands upon a plain, romantically connected with a chain of hills that cover it on the rear; while two more BOLD and BEAUTIFUL elevations ornamentally planted, called Benaghlin and Cuilca (pronounced Queelka by the country people) invest the house and lawn with all the mighty majesty of shade, and even diffuse an influence of beauty over that entire plain, of which Florence Court, considered as a work of ART, is thejnost conspicuous and distinguished ornament. The view of this seat, from an elevation on the road within a few miles of Florence Court, as you approach it from Enniskillen, is open and distinct. The house standing upon a plain, the country in the front view, and the hills which cover them on the rear, are all very plainly dis- tinguished in this prospect; but still in comparison of the imposing effect of the same scene, when standing on the lawn of Florence court in front of the house, under the hills just noticed (and which in this intimate connection are seen in all their grandeur) that remote prospect from a position on the road some miles distant, sinks into utter insig- nificance. Of the extent or natural history of this place (with the exception of a report of iron and marble having been dis- SEATS, ETC. 405 covered on the lands of Lord Enniskillen, as already noticed in our notes on this county) we know nothing, as we saw no statistical or geological history of the place, nor do we believe, from all that we could learn, that any such survey of the Enniskillen property has been yet executed. Florence Court stands on a line of road which opens a communication between Sligo (the capital of the county of that name) and Belturbet, a market and post town in the County of Cavan, at the distance of about nine English miles from Enniskillen, which is the post town to it. DERRYBRUSK HOUSE. This is the seat of John Deering, Esq., K. C. and the observation of this rapidly improving place afforded us much gratification. Although it does not stand in the very first rank of rural magnificence in this county; still it unites so many proofs of judgment and good taste in its internal arrangements (some of which shall be particularly noticed). And in the aspect of divers handsome cottages and lodges, with their appropriate plantations, scattered through the neighbouring country, such evidences of the existence of a happy and independent yeomanry, as to render the dis- charge of our duty to this interesting feature of the country, a source of gratification to ourselves. The approach to this recently regenerated seat, from the town of Enniskillen, is by the mail coach road which opens a communication from that town to Dublin (by Cavan Kells and Navan). It stands on the eastern shore of Lough Erne, almost surrounded by water, and from divers beau_ tiful elevations on the demesne, it commands so many and varied views of the sublime and beautiful of art and nature, including a generous proportion of the scenery of the Lough, a bold mountain outline of many miles in circumference, a noble hill beyond the town of Cavan (more than twenty miles from the scene of observat HI) the princely seats of Castle Coole and Florence Court; with so many minor features of beauty and improvement, as to constitute Derry- 406 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH, brusk, if not the most splendid, yet certainly one of the most interesting- and rapidly improving places in this fine county. The demesne, embracing a peninsula of about 200 acres, extends, in a kind of oblong figure, from the public road to a remote point of the lake, a distance of nearly two English miles. The soil, like most others in this district, is, by nature, soft and spewy, the redundant water proceeding, in some instances, from deep springs, which have been sub- verted by drains coming at their source, and by minor drains communicating between the main channels and the lake, for all of which there is a good fall from the elevated lands to the Lough beneath them : and besides these deeper and larger drains, shallow surface drains have been execu- ted and proved useful in carrying off the surface water ; and if the proprietor will try the effect of manuring the lands, thus dried by draining, with a compost of old clay, &c. strongly impregnated with lime, we are deeply deceived if it will not warm, enrich, and advance this soil from ten to twenty per cent, beyond the present measure of its pro- ductive power. We were very much surprised to see, not only black store cattle, which are hardy and have good hide (and will there- fore thrive on cold spewy soils) but also sheep (the tenderest of all stock) on the lands of Derrybrusk, and apparently doing well. As dry limestone soils are, however, well known to be the best adapted to the health and improve- ment of these latter, we think this ought to operate as an additional inducement to Mr. Deering to try the lime com- post that we have just mentioned, in the benefit of which his crops also would largely participate, as a very small experiment in the first instance would satisfactorily prove to him. There is evident proof of a mineral tendency in the sub- strata of these lands, from the fact of a gentle chalybeate infusion being perceptible in the springs with which the soil abounds; one of which (a healthful water in common SEATS, ETC. 407 use) we tasted at its source, and found it evidently impreg- nated with iron. Limestone and freestone of good quality, are brought here from the neighbouring country, but are not indigenous to these lands ; nor does any river with falls for mills pass through them, so that they appear to have been intended by nature, rather for pastoral than for commercial purposes, although certainly Lough Erne at their base, would furnish useful facilities for the conveyance of manufactured goods to market, if such goods were there. Derrybrusk is distant about four miles from Enniskillen, which is the post town to it. BELLEVUE. Bellevue, the seat of Captain Knox, stands within a short distance of the mail coach road communicating between Ballyshannon and Dublin, within two miles of Enniskillen, which is the post town to it. The approach is by a superb avenue, which commands a most interesting view of Lough Erne, and Lisgoole Abbey on the distant shore ; and from the nobly elevated site upon which the house stands, the varied scenery of the Lough, in the opposite direction, is distinctly seen. To the excellent mansion house, offices, and gardens, forty Irish acres of demesne are appended, and unite with the various improvements on its proud platform, to constitute Bellevue a most gentlemanly residence in this fine neigh- bourhood. LISGOOLE ABBEY. This seat (which derives its name from the site of an ancient abbey on which the house stands, and from those called " the abbey lands," formerly connected with it) is the residence of Michael Jones, Esq. It comprehends a good family edifice modernised ; and 400 Irish plantation acres of a soil peculiarly adapted to the growth of vegetable plants, and producing ash and other timber of the first quality. 408 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH, It stands on the eastern shore of Lough Erne, within a few miles of Enniskillen, the capital of the county ; and in addition to this fine sheet of water, which washes the base of Lisgoole lawn, the new canal proposed to be opened from hence to Lough Neagh, is expected to form a junction with Lough Erne at this place, within view of the lawn of this beautifully secluded seat of antiquity, which will derive a new feature of crystalline beauty and interest, from this long and anxiously expected " meeting of the waters" There is no fall adapted to the movement of machinery, on that slender arm of the Lough, which sweeps round the lawn of Lisgoole Abbey ; nor could we learn that any indi- cations of minerals applicable to trade had been discovered here but the truth is, we believe, they were never sought for ! This would not surprise us if the old monks of the abbey were now living there; as they would find plenty of people to supply them with the necessaries of life without taking thought for the morrow. But in these modern days, in which a certain proportion of the popula- tion are every thing but eating each other (and the trade in strangulation and dead bodies now earned on, is at least equal to the crime of Anthropophagy) this inattention to the resources of the soil, and their application to the improve- ment of the country and the employment of the people, is a singular oversight on the part of intelligent gentlemen, whose whole stake is in the soil of Ireland, and who are perfectly capable of perceiving the end to which a total loss of trade would conduct that country. The soil of Lisgoole Abbey being thus maintained in that virgin state in which the monks left it, is now chiefly dis- tinguishable for its pastoral uses, its picturesque connection with Lough Erne, and those reminiscences of the venerable of our ancient institutions, with which its history is so intimately connected. The elegantly planted lawns of Bellevue, Castle Coole, and Killyhavlin, beyond the lake, are in full prospect, and unite with this charming water to constitute the picturesque SEATS, ETC. 409 of this most interesting scene, which is situated within a mile and a half of a new line of road, now opening between Enniskillen and Sligo, by Florence Court ; and the town of Euniskillen, from which the Abbey is about four miles distant, is the post town to it. RIVERSDALE. This seat of Edward Archdale, Esq., is a constituent of the see lands of Clogher, which, according to our informa- tion, has been for two centuries in possession of the Archdale family. It embraces an excellent new built mansion house, at a due distance from the road, and on a good site for commanding prospect. The home view is ornamentally planted. The lawn extensive and handsomely improved. There is an excellent flour mill and corn mill, on a river which passes through these lands ; and nearly 200 acres of a good vegetable and corn soil. This seat commands an inter- esting view of the distant mountains, and is situated near the principal road communicating between Enniskillen and the towns of Pettigo and Donegal, at the distance of about four Irish miles from Enniskillen, which is the post town to it. No minerals applicable to trade are known to exist here ; consequently the mills already noticed, and that proportion of the produce of the soil which is sent to market, constitute the whole of its commercial history. CROCKNACRIEVE. This is the seat and fee farm of John Johnston, Esq., and comprehends a nice new built house on the summit of a noble elevation, standing above a demesne of about 100 Irish plantation acres, beautifully dressed and planted. It is situated on the post and circuit road (communicating by the town of Trillick on General Archdale's property) between Omagh and Enniskillen, the capitals of two counties. And at the rear of the concern, another main road communicates 410 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH, between Enniskillen and Deny, (by Strabane) through Irvinestown and Drumquin. The soil is well adapted to the growth of wheat and other corn crops ; and trees and vegetable plants of all classes, are said to thrive extremely well here. Enniskillen, from which this seat is distant about five English miles, is the post town to it. JAMESTOWN. This is the seat of George Lendrum, Esq., and compre- hends a neat mansion house, and about 200 acres of a light dry soil ornamentally planted. It is said to constitute a wholesome walk for sheep and young black cattle; and though dry, to be favourable to the growth of trees. It stands on that called the circuit road, noticed in our last description (so called because the judges and lawyers passed over it in the Autumn of 1830, in their progress from Omagh to Enniskillen) and is distant from the latter town, which is the post town to it, about six Irish miles. ROSSFAD. This is the ancient name of a town land, held as a fee farm by Major Richardson and over the crystal bosom of Lough Erne, upon whose shore it stands, it commands a very fine view of the elegantly planted seat of the Marquis of Ely, beyond the water. It is a small but interesting feature of improvement in the general scenery of the Lough, and had the level lawn which sustains the house, in a position horizontal with the lake, provided a lofty mount as a site for the mansion house, with gradually sloping banks towards Lough Erne, upon one side, and the public road communicating between En- niskillen and Castle Archdale upon the other; then Rossfad, (proudly elevated above the fine land and water scene which surrounds it) would have been a still more distinguished feature of beauty and improvement on that interesting line of road, which forms an outline to the scenery of the Lough, SEATS, ETC. 411 in your progress from Enniskillen to Ballyshannon, by Castle Archdale and Pettigo. Situated however as it is, the view from the spacious level lawn to the Lough, and to the scenery on the distant shore, is open, calm and interesting ; deriving the tranquillizing power of its chaste and unimpassioned attractions, chiefly from the influence of natare. In the family property of Major Richardson, (situated in another section of the region of this Lough) there is a large tract of mountain which has never been explored. Should this be found to contain clays and minerals applicable to trade ; on the event of capital being embarked here, these mountains may yet become an appendage of great value to that property, of which they now form a partially neglected feature. No river with falls for the movement of machinery passes through the lands of Rossfad ; nor have mineral treasures of any kind been sought for, or found, in these properties, that we could hear of. Enniskillen, from which this seat is about five English miles distant, is the post town to it. GRAAN-HOUSE. Graan-house is a respectable feature of the Fermanagh estate, of General Archdale ; and is the seat of Adam Nixon, Esq., clerk of the peace for the county of Fermanagh ; and we believe for that of Tyrone also, but are not quite certain as to this latter county. It stands on a proudly elevated lawn of thirty-four Irish acres, apparently well cultivated, and embellished with use- ful and ornamental trees. It commands a pleasing prospect of Castle Coole (the seat of the Earl of Belmore) and of Patora, a school splendidly endowed, and standing on a noble elevation above the town of Enniskillen. Also a glimpse of that Lough which is the glory of Fermanagh, and which (though the spot that is seen is but as a speck in the ocean) communicates a ray of beauty and brightness to this little scene. 412 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH, Graan-house constitutes an interesting retreat from the noise and bustle of Enniskillen, the seat of office more par- ticularly on the evenings of those solemn days, when the books are open and the judgment sits ; and when the " Thrust Outs, Demurrers, and Daily Orators," of the law, having no hope in this life, repair with broken hearts to the taverns of the town, to drown the last surviving remnant of their reason and their fortunes, in those seas of burning fluid, that are known in these countries by the name of "Scotland and Ireland's blue ruin" This comfortable and well circumstanced retreat, may be regarded as a pretty fair specimen of the numerous respectable homesteads of the yeomen of Fermanagh, that are scattered over the face of all the principal estates in that county. It is distant from Enniskillen, which is the post town to it, about two miles. . HOLLYBROOK. This is the seat of Andrew Nixon, Esq. (brother to the gentleman last noticed) and is a respectable feature of improvement on the Lisnaskea estate, the property of Colonel Creighton. The dwelling house (which is a very comfortable edifice, and with its various appendages, another good specimen of the respectability of the tenantry of this county) stands near the public road which forms a boundary to it, on the summit of a lawn that descends in a glacis to the river of Lisnaskea, which sweeps round it. This river, though by no means a water of high distinction in the geography of the county, Mr. Nixon observes, con- tains an abundant supply of water and falls of ample force for the accommodation of mills. It derives its name from the village of Lisnaskea, through which it passes in its descent from the mountains; and though not a water of high pretensions to fame (as we have just observed) is never- theless deserving of notice, in an estimate of the facilities for future trade which this county possesses. Hollybrook stands on the old road which opens a commu- SEATS, ETC. 413 nication between Enniskillen and Cavan, ten Irish miles from the former, and fifteen from the latter ; and Lisnaskea, in its immediate neighbourhood, is the post town to it. CURRAGH. This is a cottage beauty, situated on the old road noticed in our last description. It is the seat of Wm. Chartres, Esq., and stands on a demesne of forty Irish acres, planted, improved, and beautified by a fine prospect of the neighbour- ing country. It is distant from Enniskillen, about seven English miles, and four from Lisnaskea, which is the post town to it. FORPHY HOUSE. This is a neat new villa, comprehending a handsome edifice, and seventeen acres of an ornamentally planted farm, commanding an extensive prospect of the distant mountains. It is the seat of Henry Leslie, Esq., and is a pretty feature of improvement on the Leslie estate, situated near the old road noticed in our last description. Lisnaskea, in its immediate neighbourhood, is the post town to it. KILLYHLAVIN COTTAGE. This is the denomination of an extensive cottage farm of 3 or 400 acres, held under the Earl of Belmore, by Richard Deane, Esq., his Lordship's agent. It stands in the immediate neighbourhood of Enniskillen, on the margin of a lake, which contributes to the pictu- resque of this cottage scene, when inspected on the spot ; but the effect of this water upon the home view would have been much greater, if the cottage instead of standing upon a low site near the margin of the lake, had been erected on the summit of a tract of open and elevated land under which it now lies buried and concealed from public view. With a more elevated site for a new and handsome edifice in the cottage style, with plantations suited to the geography of the laud and water ; the superior lustre of the lake, when 414 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH, viewed from this proud position through a vista in its wood, in connection with the beauty of the surrounding country, which it would then enjoy, and of which it is now totally deprived ; altogether united, would add a hundred a-year to the value of this place, if it were to be disposed of when thus finished, to a man of taste and fortune ; and one thousand pounds at most, would accomplish all that we have now mentioned. Enniskillen, in its immediate neighbourhood, is, of course, the post town to this farm. LISBOFIN. This is the seat of Charles Fausset, Esq., and by virtue of his valuable improvements, has been made a very respect- able feature of the Archdale property; in the honour of whose family a proof of high confidence has been here exhi- bited, by the liberal sum expended in permanent improve- ments on a lease of three lives or thirty-one years ; which though a just and generous tenure, will, in all probability, leave behind it, buildings and plantations of still consider- able value. Lisbofin comprehends a handsome new edifice in the villa style, standing on the summit of a gentle elevation over a farm of 100 acres, which commands the prospect of an open landscape extending to that lofty elevation which is known by the name of Knockninny, to the lofty lands beyond Lough Me Naine, to the Tophet mountain beyond Ennis- killen, to the summit of Brucehill beyond Cavan, (20 miles distant) and in its own neighbourhood, to the fine planta- tions of Florence Court ; and various other improvements by which the scenery is enriched. The soil is grassy, and well adapted to the growth of vegetable plants, and to a run for store cattle; to which latter use it is chiefly appropriated. The distance from hence to Enniskillen, which is the post town to this seat, is four Irish miles. SEATS, ETC. 415 MAGHERAMENA. This is the seat and part of the estate of Robert Johnston, Esq. K. C. It stands in the immediate vicinity of Lough Erne, on a line of road which communicates between Ennis- killen and Ballyshannon, by the villages of Pettigo and Bel- leek ; and although situated on a plain, it commands an open prospect of the lake, the river of Castle Archdale, and of a grand mountain outline, by which a large tract of coun- try is bounded on the distant shore. Nevertheless the tame level on which the house stands is unfavourable to artificial embellishment, and the chief value of this plain unadorned property, is found in its good lime-stone soil, and in certain facilities for trade which it obviously possesses. Magheramena estate embraces a tract of about 400 Irish acres, of which upwards of 100 are appended to the house, in the character of a demesne and home farm. The uplands are composed of a dry lime-stone soil, producing good com crops, and constituting a sound and nutritive sheep walk ; and there is a sufficiency of turbary attached to the concern for present consumption ; but the decline of this useful soil for fuel is now perceptible ; and in another century, it is probable coal will be much wanted in this and other districts, to supply the deficiency of the rapidly disappearing peat. We could not learn that any minerals have yet been found or sought for in these lands ; but that they are well circum- stanced for trade, if capital should be embarked in manufac- tures on the shores of Lough Erne ; and equally so for the conveyance of agricultural produce and live stock to the English market, may be inferred from their close connection with this Lough, and from their proximity to the port of Ballyshannon. This property is distant from Enniskillen twenty-three Irish miles ; from Pettigo about seven ; from Belleek two, and from Ballyshannon, in the county of Donegal, which is the post town to it, five Irish miles. 416 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH, THE ROCKFELT PROPERTY. The Rockfelt property (if we may so denominate it, as it pays a small chief rent to the lord of the soil) comprehends, according to our information, upwards of 400 Irish acres, let by modern leases in the farm way at about forty shillings per acre, (a rent by no means uncommon in the middle system, once so eminently prosperous in Ireland) and for farms of twenty or thirty acres, with a comfortable dwelling house, &c. from two to three guineas per acre. These, however, (if we can depend upon the best information we were able to collect) are far higher rents than are paid by any portion of the tenantry of Fermanagh to the lords of the soil for lands held in the farm way; and may therefore be justly regarded as an exception to the general practice of the county, the leading estates of Lord Belmore, Lord Ennis- killen, General Archdale, and Sir Henry Brooke, not being let out at more than from a pound to thirty shillings per acre, in the farm way. These being the general rents of a county, chiefly dependent upon its agriculture for support, we hence infer that to a people destitute of manufactures, forty shillings per acre must be felt as a grinding rent, in the present low state of the markets ; and that hence the Rockfelt tenants, if their history were accurately known, would, in many instances, be found grappling with great difficulties, and forming a striking exception to the enjoy- ment of that decency and plenty, by which a great majority of the tenants in this county are so happily distinguished. Whether the information that we received upon this subject is correct, we can only infer from the rents just noticed ; as we know nothing more of the private circumstances of the people. These lands are situated, for the most part, in that inter- esting section of Fermanagh, which opens a communication between Enniskillen and Ballyshannon, in full view of the finest scenery of Lough Erne ; and if the beauties of nature could mitigate the severities of the middle system, these SEATS, ETC. 417 poor people would find a sweet and interSurjsa counterpoise to their hardships, in the liberality with which the Author of nature has dispensed his favours to this place. To these favours, some pretty cottages have been added (at high rents) by the hand of art, among which that of Gabbolusk, the residence of a Mr. Groham, a respectable tenant on this property, is not the least distinguished by its neatness and beauty on that road. In the same section of the county (but not on this pro- perty) there is a cottage freehold, immediately 011 the road- side, so remarkable for its characteristic coziness (if we may be allowed to introduce a colloquial phrase into print) that we cannot overlook it. The cottage (neatly thatched, and separated from the road by a lawn of perhaps two English acres, inclosed by a low stone wall) stands upon a farm of forty acres, held for ever, subject to a small chief rent, by Mr. William Graham. The neatly cropped garden and fences, and every other feature of this place obvious to view, is so indicative of comfort, and so exactly what the home- stead of a yeoman should be, that in passing and re-passing through that section of the county, we several times stopped to take a taste of its cottage comforts ; and we recollect to have once drank a glass of very good home made wine there. These are the kind of habitations that do credit to a county and its landlords ; and to the honour of Fermanagh be it said, that they are both numerous and respectable upon all the principal estates. PROSPECT HILL. This is the seat of Captain Maguire, a magistrate for the counties of Fermanagh and Leitrim; and is appropriately called Prospect-hill, as it stands on a pleasing elevation, which commands a view of the Benaghlin mountain over Florence-court, together with an extensive tract of the plains of Cavan and Fermanagh. It comprehends a com- fortable mansion house and forty Irish acres of demesne, 2 E 418 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH, held bythis gentleman, from his brother Dr. John Maguire, who is the lord of the soil. The low lands in this southern section of Fermanagh (as in parts near the centre of the county, already noticed) are soft and spewy ; but in the elevated tracts, there is a sub- stratum of lime-stone or lime-stone gravel, which renders them more favourable to the growth and perfection of grain crops, and may therefore be considered as a redeeming qua- lity in that section of the soil. Captain Maguire's personal property is situated in the county of Leitrim, and embraces a considerable tract of mountain land near Manorhamilton, and a similar one near the town of Ballinamore ; but as neither of these tracts have been surveyed by mining engineers, he knows nothing of their subterraneous resources. The prevalence however of divers valuable minerals in other mountain districts in this county, and the well known liberality of nature to Leitrim, in the department of mineral wealth, furnish a reasonable presumption that Captain Maguire's mountains are not without some portion of her hidden treasures. Prospect-hill stands on a county road, which opens a communication between Swanlinbar and Belturbet, in the county of Cavan, nine miles south of Enniskillen, and one from Swanlinbar, which is the post town to it. SWANLINBAR. We visited this pretty little village in the county of Cavan, because it is situated on the borders of Fermanagh ; in the neighbourhood of what some would term " a fine sporting country," in the region of the mountains. It contains a few respectable habitations, besides a large number of small white-washed houses of lesser note ; and among the former of these, the residence of Mr. Montgomery, (a solicitor of Dublin) though a building of plain and unassuming appear- ance, is so distinguished by the neatness of its internal arrangements, and the peculiarly beautiful order of the garden appended to it, as to render it impossible to select a SEATS, ETC. 419 more perfect and respectable specimen of the neatness and regularity of the whole hamlet. No person passing through Swanlinbar, and perceiving the plain and unoruamented appearance of Mr. Montgo- mery's habitation, would suppose the premises to contain a garden of such singular beauty, as stands at the rear of that humble building, modestly retired from public view. The prospect from thence to the surrounding neighbourhood is open and beautiful. The various compartments, with their neatly dressed beds, sanded walks, and wall fruit trees in full bearing, are all in good keeping, with the purity of the air, the openness of the prospect, and the order and harmony of the whole establishment. No confusion prevails in any part. No heavy masses of apple trees (vulgarly distributed through the plots) encumber the beds, or obstruct the pros- pect. Nothing intercepts the passage of the eye, or the free circulation of sun and air through all the vegetable tribes; and the only description of people that would be likely to find fault with this open and beautiful platform, are lovers wishing to bill and coo in the shades of Arcadia, who would certainly find no heavy groves here to hide their kisses, or conceal the lady's blushes from the piercing and intrusive eye of any Paul Pry, who might happen to steal in, with his umbrella under his arm, upon their sweet enjoyments. There may be many more splendid and extensive gardens than this in the county of Fermanagh, but we are sure there are few, if any, to exceed it, in the still more essential proper- ties of beauty, order, and convenience ; and to the good taste and apparently intelligent mind of Mrs. Montgomery, the Queen of this place, we impute much of that order and per- fection, which are so strikingly conspicuous in the whole establishment. How the people live who inhabit the lesser houses in this village, we cannot exactly say ; but we presume a little dealing in the town, with a little spinning and weaving, and the cultivation of a little land in its immediate neigh- 420 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH, bourhood, constitute their scanty sources of support. We were much pleased with its cleanly appearance; and had we not known that Poverty in Ireland, frequently takes up her abode within white-washed walls, we would have inferred from the appearance of this place, that it was the theatre of plenty ; but of trade, or profitable industry of any kind (with the exception of one respectable public house) we saw no sign in our walks through it. A CIRCUIT DRIVE. Drove from Enniskillen, through the parishes of Cleenish and Kinawley, to Swanlinbar, the subject of our last descrip- tion, and back to Enniskillen, a circuit of about 30 English miles. In this direction there is an extensive mountain tract, affording fine shooting to sportsmen ; and in one of these mountains we heard of a fox cover, near the appropriate residence of a clergyman of the name of Fox, who is reputed to be an excellent shot, and has, no doubt, noble sport in this fine mountain country. This reminds us of a dissenting preacher in London or Liverpool, who is said to make 700 a year of his trade, drives his own carriage, and is reputed to be one of the best whips in all that part of England ! The game however, which the pious Fletcher (the English Baxter of the last age) pursued in his vicarage of Madeley in Salop, was of another kind. Which of them was on the better scent we shall not presume to say ; as the Stoics and Epicureans among the ancients, and the Lough Derg peni- tents and Protestant bishops, among the moderns, have not yet decided that important question. The begging Friars we have not introduced into this picture, because it is notorious that they live like the sons of Indian kings, when they return laden with corn from Egypt, into the generous fellowship of their own convents. In this drive we had the pleasure of seeing the beautiful glebe and church of the Rev. Mr. Swiney, a very gen- tlemanly man, who is said to have a tract of 20 miles long A CIRCUIT DRIVE. 421 in his parochial jurisdiction, and of course two or three curates to assist in the performance of the duties of this long union. This gentleman had just returned from France (as we were informed) and looked extremely well indeed after his visit to the continent. His travels however in a foreign country had not caused him to forget that generous hospita- lity which is the pride of his own, and which he politely tendered to us, in an invitation to spend a night or two with him, while traversing his neighbourhood. We thanked him for this tender of the hospitality of his house, but for cogent reasons begged permission to decline it. The Protestant clergy appear to be a very happy race of men in the north of Ireland, where they enjoy the undis- turbed possession of their fine livings. The religious climate of the southern or western country, however, is better suited to the taste of Mr. Tom Maguire, the Catholic controversialist, whose face shows him to be a jolly fellow, a pleasant pot com- panion, and as good a sportsman as Sir Harcourt Lees, or the Protestant Fox, just noticed. We do not blame these gen- tlemen for taking care of No. 1, while they are preaching hell and patience to the people. There is nothing more natural. And indeed if sense is to be our guide, the good things of this life which the clergy so amply enjoy, and of which they are said to be proverbially fond, are vastly preferable to the hermit's hair cloth, the monk's mendicity, or the sour salad of the sober sectarian. No doubt the clergy are of this opinion, or they would not stick so close to them. TITHE COMPOSITION LAW. While in this county, we made inquiry, in a certain parish (as in various other parishes in the course of our researches) whether the tithe composition law was in force there. In answer to this inquiry, we were informed, that the parish- ioners had offered the rector 500 per annum, as a com- position for his tithes ; to which he agreed, but afterwards recanted ; asserting that the college of Dublin, in whose 422 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH, gift the parish is, would not consent to take so small an income ! equivalent nevertheless (and let this be well noted by the public) to more than 800 per annum during the late war, when the products of the loom, and of the land, were nearly, if not fully, 100 per cent, higher than they are at present. Here then is a corporation of princely school- masters, (for as to the princely enormity of 200,000 acres of land to such men ; and nearly 14,000 to endowed schools, where education is also highly paid for by each pupil, that speaks sufficiently for itself. As to men thus munificently provided for in a period of unparalleled depression, having) resolved, in the exercise of their princely despotism, to grind down the industrious interests of this country by enor- mous demands ; and that too notwithstanding that in addi- tion to the German principalities, which a heavily encum- bered state so foolishly permits those schoolmasters to enjoy, they are well and richly paid by every student of property, for every inch they travel with him through the sciences they teach, and for every stroke of the literary hammer with which they batter Horace and Homer into his brains. Here then is a corporation (if the report conveyed to us be true, and we believe it is) dead to the calls of justice, in an op- pressed country from which they derive an income, far exceeding that which is derived by many royal princes, from their subjects, in divers European states ! And for what, or for why, may we ask, without treason, are the lands of this coun- try thus sacrificed to the cupidity of schoolmasters, who are so well paid by their pupils for the languages and sciences which they teach ? Is itbecause Queen Elizabeth, to her honour, chose to secure a small living to the predecessors of these masters, by giving them lands in Ireland that were then worth TWO or THREE PENCE per acre, and which now, in many instances, are worth TWO POUNDS ! that this impo- verished country shall continue to be made the victim of enormous monopolies upon the one hand, and of enormous beggary and bankruptcy upon the other ? Is it thus that millions of industrious citizens and their families shall be TITHE COMMUTATION LAW. 423 forced to perish, in order to glut a handful of priests and schoolmasters with the plunder of a nation? ! This is a curious policy at a time when common sense has begun to awake from a lethargy of ages, and to lay her finger of reform upon the masses of political putrescence that had been permitted by ignorant and corrupt governments to rise mountain high in Ireland, until they stank in the nostrils of all honest and enlightened men and nations, who had worked the purification of their own states. This system will not do or if it be good, let it be acted upon still more perfectly. Let one farmer-general be sent forth with AN UNLIMITED COMMISSION to carry off the fruits of ALL THE LANDS IN IRELAND, and ALL THE MOVEABLE PRO- PERTY that he can find there ; and having shipped the whole of this to one appointed granary, let the population of Ireland (and be it remembered that this is no fictitious picture, but A FACT OF PUBLIC NOTORIETY in relation to many.) Let the people, we say, when the stock has been thus effectually cleared off", creep out of their empty houses, like the pigs that had preceded them; and on such roots and other garbage as the pigs had left behind, and which the farmer-general could not spare time to burn and destroy, feed with contentment and humility, until the period of their punishment expire; and the time, in the order of Divine Providence arrive, when they shall be once more restored, like Nebuchadnezzar, from the state of quadrupeds, (to which the policy of man has degraded them) to the rank of citizens, to which the Almighty, by his own just and special policy, will soon raise them, far above the grasp of tyrants in the shape of men. To the point of degradation just noticed, or to one verging very closely upon it, millions of human beings have been driven in Ireland by the existing system ! nor was there any violent straining of the operations of that system in the figure of the farmer-general, which was obviously nothing more than ITS TRUE AND GENUINE PRINCIPLE CON- DUCTED TO THE END. And are these divines and school- 424 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH, masters, the WORTHIES that have gone about to convert the Irish pigs, the papists, from the error of their ways ? Good Heavens ! how natural is it for us reformers to see the mote that is in our brother's eye, and to forget the beam that is in our own to strain at the gnat of our brother's faith, while we place the camel of his resources very quietly in our pockets ! Oh yes, this has been the course of Irish converters and conservators ; but what has been the result ? We know it Heaven blasted their polluted labours, and it will blast them to the end for if the lawn and the mitre, or the cross and the crozier, be " the outward and visible signs of the inward and spiritual grace" of the Christian priesthood, the opulent clergy must prove this to the people BY SOME GREAT AND NOBLE EXAMPLES OF PUBLIC JUSTICE ; or otherwise, they who are looked up to by the people as learned men, will cause Christianity to be doubted; since if they truly believed it to be divine, they would not sell it to the enemy for so many pieces of silver ; or sacrifice all its just and generous injunctions to an inordinate lust of gain. Whether this practical impiety of the clergy has contributed more largely to the spread of infidelity throughout Europe, than all the infidel writings in the world put together, we leave these gentlemen to judge. But of this we are certain, that when their cupidity has developed the full measure of its fruits in the public mind (and it is now making rapid progress) the plank of plunder to which they have so obstinately adhered, will be torn from under them, and sink for ever. LOUGH ERNE FLOODS DESTRUCTION OF CROPS. EN- DEMIC DISEASES. CHOLERA. In all wet seasons, it is said that the crops on the banks of Lough Erne, a tract of many thousand acres (Dr. Beatty of Enniskillen says 20,000) are much damaged, and some- times wholly swept away by floods ! If this be a fact of public notoriety, one cannot but feel surprised that the remedy for such a serious evil had not been long since LOUGH ERNE FLOODS, ETC. 425 adopted by the landed interest of the county. Captain Galbraith of the same town, who has only twelve acres thus situated, informed us, on the authority of an eminent engineer, that a sum of 3,000 would open such an outlet for the surplus water, as would keep the Lough at the sum- mer level in the wettest season ; that towards this fund he offered a subscription of 100 for the benefit of his little plot, but that he could not get a member of the landed interest to join him; and consequently that this essential improvement was abandoned ! Previous to our departure from this county, a meeting of the nobility and gentry was about to take place, in which an improvement in the navigation of Lough Erne was to be seriously considered. Whether measures were adopted by that meeting for so useful a purpose, we cannot say, as at the time of holding it we were in the County of Donegal ; but as an opinion generally prevailed, that Lord Enniskillen and other great proprietors of Fermanagh, were turning their attention seriously to the subject, we think it right to notice this communication concerning a public evil which may be so easily removed ; and we should not be surprised if the landed and mercantile interests of Donegal would join in the expense, as they have an obvious interest in the waters of Lough Erne. In addition to the crops that are lost and damaged by the floods, there is also another evil reported to result from these floods, that is of serious consequence to the country. When they have begun to sink in the spring season, leaving heavy masses of putrid mud behind them, it is asserted that endemic diseases become prevalent in the region of the Lough, and spread their baneful influence through an exten- sive district. If this also be true, ought it not to induce the gentlemen of the country to remove the cause of such an evil, at a time when so many nations of Europe have been visited with an awful epidemic, to which the putrid air of this Lough in the spring season must be a strong predis- posing cause ? 426 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH, QUERIES, Concerning the expense of Leases to Tenants, the Tithe Composition Law, &c. Before our final departure from Fermanagh, we requested a freeholder of the county to favour us with written answers to certain queries, among which were the two following. The first query proposed for consideration in the original list (if we recollect right) related to the law charges usually made to the tenants in Fermanagh for the execution of their leases, and was rendered necessary by the shameful impositions practised upon tenants, on divers properties in divers coun- ties, by those jobbing agents, into whose merciless hands they had been thrown by their own honest landlords I We suppress the answer to this query, in consequence of a strik- ing discrepancy appearing between the freeholder's written report, and his previous verbal assertions ; but we do not on this account consider it to be a subject the less deserving of notice in a history of Irish abuses (if such could be arrived at) as we have been told of great and unreasonable imposi- tions having been practised upon many of the tenantry of Ireland in this lease-conveying department. If we had the honour of knowing the names of those landlords (if indeed there are any such) who have seen and placed a check upon the growth of this evil in Ireland (it is a species of abused patronage) we should feel great pleasure in publishing their just and conscientious conduct to the world, as an object of imitation to other landlords. But as this is a duty (and the knowledge connected with it,) more immediately within the range of the provincial press of that country, to the virtuous and public spirited members of that press we refer it. QUERIES. Q. Have the landlords of your neighbourhood promoted or retarded the salutary purposes of the tithe composition law ? A. " Landlords in my neighbourhood have used the most strenuous exertions to defeat the beneficial purposes of the tithe commutation law. At a vestry, held in the parish in QUERIES. 427 which I reside, for the purpose of carrying it into effect, a landlord attended to vote against the measure, claiming a right as a 50 freeholder (not being otherwise entitled) though possessed of a large demesne, tithe free, and whose tenants were the first in calling for the vestry. At the same vestry a 50 freeholder, not in possession of an inch of ground in the parish, (whose miserable tenants pay as much in one year at present as perhaps they would pay in five if the measure were brought into effect) also attended and voted against the measure." Q. What schools have you for the education of the poor ; how are they attended, how are the masters qualified, and what amount of compensation do they receive for their services ? A. "The only school worth notice is one near Lisnarrick, established by the Kildare-street Society; the teacher has undergone the usual examination, as to qualification, at the Society's house in Dublin ; he is a Roman Catholic, he has about fifty pupils, from each of whom he receives Is. 6d. for reading and writing, and if farther advanced 2s. per quarter beside 6 per year from the Society. There are two or three other schools in the parish with which I am unac- quainted." REMARK. What a wretched compensation is the above for a person properly qualified to perform the arduous duties of a moral and literary teacher of fifty pupils ! Something more (and not much) than <20 a-year without bed or board ! ! CHAPTER VII. COUNTY OF DONEGAL. BOUNDARIES. THIS county is bounded on the east by Tyrone, Deny, and the waters of Lough Foyle ; on the north and west by the Atlantic ocean ; and on the south by Fermanagh and the bay of Donegal, sometimes denominated the bay of Ballyshannon, as this town is situated on the shore of that bay, and is the principal port of trade in this large county. EXTENT. From the northern to the southern extremity of the county, it is supposed to embrace a tract of about seventy miles in length; while the breadth (from its remarkable inequality) varies from fourteen or fifteen to thirty or forty British miles. CLIMATE. The climate is more cold and humid than that of the southern districts of the same province ; nor is this surpris- ing, considering that in addition to its northern latitude, it stands more open to the westerly rains and north west winds blowing with violence from the Atlantic, than any other county in the north of Ireland ; and in addition to these causes, it may also be observed, that it is, in a large propor- tion, a wild mountainous country, with but little wood, or even good white thorn fences, to protect its habitations and homesteads from the fury of the tempest, and the heavy vapours of the western ocean. SITUATION AND RESOURCES. 429 SOIL. A certain proportion of the soil of Donegal is poor and rocky ; and many extensive mountain tracts, in their present rude and uncultivated state, are comparatively unproductive to their owners. Between these mountains, however, there are many rich and fertile valleys, particularly in the baronies of Kilmacrennan and Ennishowen ; but the lands upon the western shore, those in the barony of Raphoe, and a certain proportion on the banks of Lough S willy, embrace, in all probability, the most rich and fertile tracts of soil in the whole county. Those which are attached to gentlemens seats, are in many instances, richly planted and improved ; but these form indeed a very minor proportion of the soil of Donegal. COMMERCIAL RESOURCES. This county presents to the farmer and commercial specu- lator, many deserving objects of attention. It contains lime stone, the best of all minerals for the farmer, and indispen- sable also to the manufacturers of certain metals. It has various veins of lead, stone marie, large tracts of brick and pottery clays, and slate quarries, in a state of nature. Within one mile of Lough Swilly, there are strong indications of coal. On the lands of Sir Edmund Hayes, (where much talk has taken place about forming a Protestant colony) there are said to exist beds of limestone, limestone gravel, marles, and manganese. On those of Mr. Hamilton, of St. Ernans, (where large sums of money have been expended on the lands) there is said to be manganese also. North of the town of Ballyshannon, there are yellow pyrites. Lead ore is to be seen on the mountain of Portnocken, and near Port- new, in Boylagh. Iron ore is reported to have been found in different parts of Muckish ; lead ore on the sea shore at Ards ; and silicious sand on the Murkish mountains, within a few miles of the safe and deep harbours of Sheephaven and Dunfanaghy. This sand has been proved to be of such 430 COUNTY OF DONEGAL, superior quality for the manufacture of glass, that it has been purchased in large quantities for the Belfast glass house. In the islands of Wye and Arranmore, there are said to be large quantities of manganese ; and iron ore in the latter. There is rich lead at Multenboyle, in Glantice. At Noren, Drumnacross, and on the middle mountain, lead also. Iron ore appears in the broken face of the mountain at Croy, in Boylagh, and in the bay of Inver, in a precipice over the sea. In the parish of Tolobegly, large lumps of Iron ore were raised by the country people ; and as coal is supposed to exist in the neighbouring mountains, it is to be hoped this discovery may yet prove useful. In the island of Torrey there is a species of clay, which the country people manufacture into pots for boiling their potatoes, &c. ; and in various places not noticed, there are tracts of marie, lime- stone, and soap rock, &c. Such farther information of minerals and fossils applicable to trade, as we received in our visitation of particular places, shall be noticed in our brief description of those places as we proceed. KTLDRUM LEAD MINES. These mines are carrying on under the direction of the mining company of Ireland ; and by the best information we could procure at Letterkenny, were proceeding very suc- cessfully up to the Autumn of 1830, when we visited this county. They are situated on the coast of Donegal, within a few miles of the Atlantic ocean, and twenty -five from Letter- kenny, which is the nearest market town. The ore (of which a few specimens were produced to us) is considered by some intelligent people in that neighbourhood to be of superior quality ; and as the intercourse which these individuals maintain with the conductors of the mines (who are the best judges) must render them familiar with the dis- tinctions of the metal, the opinion and report of such people (even although they are not professional miners) are entitled to some credit. Of the profits of the establishment we can say nothing ; MINERALS AND WATERS. 431 but as we understand these mines have been working for a course of years, and employ from 200 to 250 constant hands, the materiel must be valuable, both in quantity and quality, to justify the permanent continuance of such an establish- ment. SULPHUREATE SPRINGS AND INDICATIONS OF IRON AND OTHER MINERALS. Dr. Swan, of Donegal, informed us, that the springs here adverted to, have been analyzed by an eminent chemist, namely, Mr. Farady, M. R. S. of London : that the water resembles that of Harrowgate, and is decidedly useful in scrofula and all cutaneous complaints. The iron-stone and other indications of iron, such as chalybeate springs and strong chalybeate streams, flowing from the neighbourhood of Mount Charles, on the Marquis of Conyugham's estate, he asserts have been examined by Sir Charles Lewis Giescky, Professor of Mineralogy to the Dublin Society, and by an eminent mineralogist from Scotland. The Doctor adds, that indisputable evidences of coal and lead are to be found on Mr. Young's property near Lough Eask, and that he himself has collected some very fine amethysts on the lands of Mr. Brooke, in the same neighbourhood. BUNDORAN AND THE MINE IN ITS YICINITY. During the time that Ballyshannon was our head-quarters, we drove to Bundoran, a bathing hamlet of some note on the eastern shore of the Bay of Donegal, about three miles distant from that town. It is a place that we understand is much resorted to in the bathing season, by the gentry of the neighbouring counties, the waters being reputed strong, and the neighbourhood well accommodated with houses and cottages for the reception of strangers. There is also a good shop, and an apparently comfortable Inn maintained here, by a Mr. James Kerrigan, a wine and spirit merchant of that place ; besides warm and cold baths, fresh and salt, for those invalids who prefer a dip in the village near their 432 COUNTY OF DONEGAL, warm beds, to a plunge in the ocean, and a walk or a ride, in the open air at "an earlyjiour in the morning. The country adjacent [to this village is said to be distin- guished by strong indications of coal and lead, in confirm- ation of which, we annex to this brief notice of our visit, a report of Mr. John Hamilton, an ingenious inhabitant of Ballyshannon, that we believe to be authentic, and deserv- ing the attention of the commercial interest. Bundoran, together with Ballyshannon (its neighbouring post-town) are situated, we believe, on college lands in the possession of Colonel Connolly, whose name we have heard mentioned as that of a liberal landlord, and whose obvious interest it is to give due encouragement to the embarkation of capital in this place. Consequently we infer that any individual or company wishing to settle here in trade, would receive every possible measure of support from the gentle- man just noticed. It may not be amiss to mention, that in the opinion of men of science who have inspected this coast, many thou- sands of acres of land might be reclaimed from the sea between Ballyshannon and Donegal ; and in reference to the value of such land, it is scarcely necessary to observe that these alluvial soils are the best in the whole island. The following is the report which we received concerning the mine just noticed. " About the 20th of March, 1830, a quarter of a mile distant from the sea and from the village of Bundoran, strong indications of a very promising descrip- tion of coal were discovered by Serjeant Davidson, of his Majesty's Royal Sappers and Miners, then on the survey of Ireland at that place. From his long course of experience, as a professional miner, in the search of coal in different parts of Scotland and England, there is every reason to rely on his report. From the principal mine, which he describes as being at forty feet from the surface, in beds of considerable thickness, much may be expected. The local circumstances of the place afford the prospect of many advantages in the working of such a mine. First, all the FARMS, PEASANTRY, ETC. 433 necessary machinery could be driven by water power ; the coals also conveyed from the mouth of the pit by boats down the river, quarter of a mile only to the sea for shipment. It is also most conveniently circumstanced for the supply of the different markets on the western coast of Ireland, and equally so, for that of the whole country in the region of Lough Erne, as it is but five miles distant from this fine sheet of water; and thus very strong inducements to the embarkation of capital in this branch of trade, are here pre- sented to the commercial interest by this apparently fruitful mine." " The property in which it is situated belongs to Trinity College, Dublin, and is held by Colonel Connolly." WATERS. The principal waters of Donegal are those of Loughs Foyle and Swilly, as being applicable to the more extended purposes of foreign commerce, (but although denominated Loughs or Lakes, they are inlets of the sea, to which the rivers Foyle and Swilly give their tributary names) Lough Derg, (a place famous in Ireland for the penitential pil- grimages of the peasantry to that place) and Lough Eask (a fine sheet of water) are next to these, for beauty and extent; and the river Finn, and that of Foyle, which latter verges on the county, are the most respectable rivers of the district. FARMS. In the rich and level soils, these are supposed to extend from 10 to 50 acres. In the mountain districts from 50 to 500 (including, in some instances, an unmeasured mountain run.) The tenures are various, as in other districts. In the mountain region the fences are generally very bad, (loose dry stone walls, or poor bald clay ditches,) and with the exception of gentlemens seats, the lands are generally implanted and have a bleak appearance. The habitations of the farmers (when interiorly inspected) are found, in some instances, to be snug and comfortable ; 2 F COUNTY OF DONEGAL, but, in a much larger number, quite the reverse. The prac- tice of collecting 1 manure and dirty water about their doors, (instead of at THE REAR OF THEIR OFFICES, which would be the proper place, as the manure and water of their stables should have a fall from thence into their dung pit ; and open sewers under the back stable walls or doors should be made for that purpose; and to see these improvements executed would be the proper business of an agent of health and morals, which every Irish landlord of rank should employ and pay ; and should also choose a man of good sense and great humanity, for the discharge of the duties of such an office ; as a person destitute of these essential qualifica- tions would do evil instead of good.) This practice, we say, is nearly as common here, as in the worst districts of Leinster, Munster, or Connaught ; but you never see this unclean and unwholesome custom adopted by decent farm- ers and manufacturers in Antrim, Downshire, or Armagh, where the sense of decency and the tone of moral feeling, have been raised to a standard of very high respectability, by a happy coincidence of favourable events. PEASANTRY. The peasantry of this county, so far as we had opportu- nity of observing, are generally peaceable in their conduct, and disposed to improve their circumstances by industry, if they did but possess the- means ; but the comparative absence of manufactures, the want of capital and knowledge to improve their condition, and the wretched hovels in which many of them live (and in which, in some instances, what- ever cattle they have, herd in the same hovel with the family) altogether promise a very slow advancement in knowledge and in the arts of civilized life, until vigorous efforts shall be made by the landed interest of the county to improve their condition. That person and property, however, are generally secure in this county, must be a great source of comfort to the respectable inhabitants; and under favourable circumstances , will prove a strong inducement to the embarkation of capital upon the soil ; nor, with the exception of the affrays that FARMS, PEASANTRY, ETC. 435 sometimes attend illicit distillation (a custom we believe that under the operation of a wise policy will totally decline) did we hear of any of those fights or factions, that, in so many other districts of Ireland, are so injurious to the peace, and so deeply disgraceful to the country. CAPABILITIES OF IMPROVEMENT. That embryo powers of production are enveloped in the poorest and wildest tracts of uncultivated soil, which this and many other counties on the coast of Ireland exhibit that treatment suited to those soils is alone wanted to call forth those powers into profitable results ; and that the produce (for a certain series of years) of one half of any given tract that has been effectually reclaimed (and portions of some fine demesnes in this county are said to have been reclaimed from barren heath) will repay with interest the improver's outlay upon the whole, is a proposition now confidently put forward by certain agriculturists of experience ; and which, from the deep stake that the landed interest of those coun- ties have in the truth of the proposition, that ought to be searched by the light of some well known experiments, even to the bottom. If this doctrine be true, it holds forth a powerful induce- ment to colonization companies, and to agriculturists of capital, to take long leases of these mountain tracts. And even if no such speculators should present themselves, it ought to act as a powerful stimulus to the lords of the soil to appropriate some proportion of their dormant capital to the regeneration of their waste lands, seeing that, in a course of years (if this calculation be correct) the lands which they had effectually reclaimed, would pay them 100 per cent, for the money thus profitably applied to the improvement of their properties. In an investigation of the truth or falsehood of this propo- sition, gentlemen wishing to take lands in Donegal, might be materially assisted by Mr. Hamilton, of St. Ernans, (who has expended a good deal of money in this way) also Mr. 436 COUNTY OF DONEGAL, Stewart, of Ards, Sir James Stewart, of Fort Stewart, and divers other gentlemen in Donegal, who are said to have expended large sums of money in reclaiming portions of their own estates ; that is, if these gentlemen and their pre- decessors, have indeed kept a regular dehtor and creditor account between the land and the cash embarked in this system of improvement, from the beginning to the end ; as otherwise it would be totally impossible for them to furnish a solution to a question, which requires fifteen or twenty years experience to establish its results. INTRODUCTION TO THE LOCAL DESCRIPTIONS. In the progress of our partial review of this county, we penetrated it from three different positions. First, from the city of Londonderry ; secondly, from Strabane, in the county of Tyrone; and thirdly, from Enniskillen, the capital of Fermanagh. From this latter town we arrived at Bally- shannon, and here we shall commence our local descriptions of the county ; but previous to our entering upon an exami- nation of this port (as a place of very great importance to the trade of Donegal, Fermanagh, and other counties in the region of Lough Erne) we beg to offer a few general obser- vations upon the obvious aspect of this great peninsular (or semi-peninsular) district, of which about two thirds are sur- rounded by water. Donegal, in a portrait of the north of Ireland, stands dis- tinguished from the other counties of that province by fea- tures peculiar to itself. It is the largest county in this pro- vincial district. It is perhaps the most mountainous. In proportion to its surface it is the most destitute of wood (although parts of the south and south west of Cavan, are as horribly bleak and ugly whose estates are they ? as any eye desiring to do penance could possibly enjoy. ) It is the wildest in its aspect, taken as a whole. In reference to its population, (if we except the whisky makers and the guagers,) it is perhaps the most civil and submissive ; and more IRISH in its language, dress, and manners, than any BALLYSHANNON. 437 county on the Ulster coast. Two thirds of its outline being surrounded .by the sea, the inhabitants are distinguished by that honest simplicity of manners, for which the people of the coast and of a mountainous country are much more remarkable, than the generality of those who inhabit the rich and populous plains of the interior. Indeed so emi- nently distinguished are the peasantry of this county for quiet simplicity of manners, that many respectable families residing near the coast, have declared, that even in the winter season it was a matter of indifference to them, whe- ther they retired to rest with their doors locked and bolted, or without any other protection than that of Heaven and a closed door to keep out the night air ! We have heard the same character of the peasantry on the coast of Wexford, and we believe it; for their good conduct and cleanly appearance in the markets of the town of Wexford ; and the decency and good order of their little cottages and farms, in the baronies of Forth and Bargie, were sufficient vouchers for the truth of this report. In other districts of the coast of Ireland, where land is cheap, fish plenty, and sea weed for manure very easily procured, we believe the case is not very dissimilar. Hence we infer that the disorders by which Ireland has been so long and so deeply disgraced, have their origin in causes, totally distinct and separate from the natural character of the people. To repeat these causes here, after having dwelt so largely upon them, and upon the rational methods of removing them, in the introduction to this work, would be a needless trespass upon the reader and ourselves. We proceed therefore, without farther pre- face, to a brief description of the town of BALLYSHANNON. Ballyshannon is the principal sea port town on the coast of Donegal ; and from the open communication which it would command, were the difficulties of its bar once effectu- ally surmounted, with the markets of the western world, through the Atlantic ocean ; and with a large tract of coun- 438 COUNTY OF DONEGAL, tiy in the region of Lough Erne (were the impediments to the navigation of that Lough removed also) it hence becomes our duty to give this town precedence of all others, in a brief review of that county, of whose commerce it is the key, apparently intended by Nature to unlock the treasures of this district to England and the western world, and the trea- sures of England and that world to it. In this brief review, therefore, we shall first observe, that although the imports and exports of Ballyshannon (in the present state of its bar and of Lough Erne) are by no means equal to those of Deny ; yet from the large tract of country whose commerce it would command, were the obstacles to its free communication with that tract and with the ocean, once eflfectually removed ; we infer that the period is not far distant, when it will outstrip the town of Derry in the march of trade, as it is the natural key of commerce to the larger proportion of Donegal, to the whole of Fermanagh, the north of Cavan, part of Monaghan, part of Leitrim, and a large proportion of Tyrone ; and therefore has a peculiar claim to the attention of all these counties ; but more parti- cularly to the landed interest of the two which stand fore- most in this important list ; and we may also add, to that of such English speculators as wish to find cheap lands for improvement, and a noble theatre for trade, without exposing their persons and fortunes to the risk of a long voyage to countries beyond the line, whose inhabitants are barbarous and bloody to unknown intruders, whose diffi- culties in settlement must be numerous and great, and whose civilized colonists must have much to contend with, before the future generations of their children can be established in the enjoyment of a profitable and peaceful commerce in these distant lands. In an attempt to communicate to the understandings of such as these, a rude conception of the capabilities of this port, and of the sources from whence its commerce should be drawn, we shall direct our attention more particularly to two points namely, the tract of country likely to form a theatre for the consumption of its BALLYSHANNOX, 439 imports (when in the exercise of an unfettered trade) and the obstacles which Nature, in connection with great adv n- tages of water carriage, has presented to its commerce, in the circumstances of its bar, in the few rocks which inter- cept the navigation of Lough Erne, and in the absence of a canal or rail road to connect the ocean with that Lough. Nature, in her admirable economy, appears to have permit- ted these obstacles to the trade of Ballyshannon and Ennis- killen to exist, as a stimulus to the industry and enterprise of the surrounding country, whose opulent inhabitants, by a simultaneous exertion of their means, could easily subdue them ; and the rapidly increasing wealth of whose descend- ants, both of the landed and commercial interest, would be the certain result. Enniskillen, we believe, as it is now circumstanced, derives the principal part of its foreign pro- ductions, through merchants carrying on business in the ports of Dublin and Deny. Some individuals may import their goods direct from England; but, in comparison of these, the number of traders who have not this advantage, is vastly greater ; but were the navigation of Lough Erne perfected, arid Ballyshannon raised to the rank of a great mart of commerce (of which it is quite capable) this inequa- lity (between the circumstances of one, or perhaps two opulent traders, and the rest) would be quickly removed. Every man of small capital in the towns approximating with Lough Erne, would then be able to procure his goods upon the best terms and subject to the least expense ; the con- sumer of foreign produce, living on the spot, would profit by this advantage ; the English market (and consequently the English prices for his surplus produce) would be open to the Irish farmer, through his corn merchant residing on the spot ; and the trade and growing wealth of the district (in which divers intervening interests now too largely partici- pate) would be concentrated within itself. As capital increased, manufactures would grow up with commerce. Factories would be established upon the banks of Lough Erne, and elsewhere in the immediate neighbourhoods of 440 COUNTY OF DONEGAL, Enniskillen and Ballyshannon (as in that of Belfast) both by natives and strangers. The working classes (between these improvements and the rapid regeneration of waste lauds, which would now become increasingly valuable) would be well employed, and well paid for their labour. Agricultural produce would always approach very nearly to the English standard of price, in such a commercial and manufacturing district ; and in such a district the landlord would never want his rent, and would always have a merchant or a banker on the spot to negociate his bill. Lands in the vicinity of Enniskillen and Ballyshannon, and for many miles around, would rise rapidly in value ; and for these necessary and not very remote effects of the improvements alluded to, we have only to look at Belfast and Liverpool, to see every scintilla of the truths which we here point out, fully exem- plified. This however would have been totally impossible, if those interested in the prosperity of these latter towns, had not met the difficulties to be surmounted; since no place, however favoured by Nature, is wholly free from some obstacles to the perfection of its trade ; and yet that the landed interests of Liverpool and Belfast (or more properly speaking in those regions of Lancashire and Antrim that are interested in the commerce of these towns) have as deep a stake in the prosperity of their trade, as the merchants who reside there (and a much more imperishable one) the superior value of Lord Donegal's Belfast estate, and of all the lands within six or seven miles of Liverpool, pretty clearly prove ; while this exclusive advantage attaches to the landed inter- est, that while the properties of many merchants may be lost by foreign failures, and by the accidents of a treacherous element, that of the proprietors of land, is not only impe- rishable in its nature, but is sure of advancing in its value, in an exact ratio with the aggregate wealth and population, proceeding (as in Liverpool and Belfast) from a steadily increasing commerce. Having now closed our prefatory remarks (which may be worthy the serious consideration of the landed interest of BALLYSHANNON, 441 Donegal and Fermanagh) let us cast our eye over that tract of country which Nature appears to have designed as a theatre for the consumption of the imports of Ballyshannon, and those of Enniskillen, through that port. We do not forget that the IMPORTS of a mart of com- merce must always be in an exact ratio with the consumption and demand; that is, with the wealth and population of the surrounding country (and to the peculiarly favourable situation of Belfast in this particular, more than half its prosperity may be imputed ; for it commands the trade of counties so wealthy and respectable, that a large proportion of its inhabitants can consume a fair proportion of every good thing which the world produces, both foreign and domestic) and hence the import trade of Ballyshannon, even if no impediment to that trade existed in its bar or neighbouring lough, would be in an exact ratio with the wealth and population of that tract of country to which it has been made by Nature the key of commerce. Let us then take a view of the tract with which it is thus physically connected. And first, there is the county of Donegal (the largest county in the North of Ireland) of which it is, strictly speaking, the commercial capital. This county is certainly inhabited, in a considerable proportion, by peasants and farmers of the lower class, who, with the exception of tobacco, flax-seed, and a few common dye stuffs, would consume little that is foreign ; but then, on the other hand, they would contribute largely to the cultivation of waste lands, and to the produce of corn for the English and Irish markets. The second class, though not quite so numerous, is never- theless very considerable both in number and importance, considered as consumers. This is the middle class, com- posed of the merchants, shop-keepers, rich farmers, and gentlemen of small fortune, and they constitute in every county, as well as in that of Donegal, not only the principal consumers of tea, sugars, timber, and all sorts of foreign pro- 442 COUNTY OF DONEGAL, ductions (expensive wines, silks, and trinkets excepted) but also, without offence to the grandees, the pith and marrow of the virtue, industry, and intellect of the country, and the main pillars upon which the commercial temple of the British Empire rests, as upon its own native and substantial pedestals. The third and last class is composed of families of fortune, who reside upon their own estates; and this class (notwithstanding a few absentees who draw every thing from Ireland, and give her nothing in return) very happily for the interests of Donegal, is pretty numerous in this county. Taking then the whole population of Donegal at 250 or 260,000 souls, the consumption of foreign produce must be very considerable, even in this county. The next that comes under review, as an appendage to the trade of Ballyshannon, is that of Fermanagh ; a small county, it is true, but possessing in proportion to its size, a more gene- rally wealthy and respectable population than that of Done- gal ; and, consequently, making up in some degree for its paucity of number, by its weight of wealth; and to the honour of this county also, most of its great proprietors (if we may judge from what we saw) live and spend their for- tunes on their own native soil, in the bosoms of their people, where every father of a family ought to live, (and, to make a momentary digression, he is not indeed the father of his people, but a foreign tax-gatherer, who lives in a distant country, and pays no attention to the moral and social wel- fare of the people by whom his revenues are raised.) But in addition to the present capability of Fermanagh for con- suming imports, the political economist must place his eye upon the vast increase to this capability that would neces- sarily flow from the trade introduced into that county from distant countries, through the port of Ballyshannon and the waters of Lough Erne ; to say nothing of the wealth which the factories likely to be established upon the shores of that lough would pour into the lap of all the industrious interests. The next counties that appear to be naturally connected with this port and Lough, are those of Tyrone and Cavan, BALLYSHANNON. 443 which at present receive the whole or principal part of their foreign produce from the ports of Dublin, Newry, Deny, and Belfast (and Fermanagh is comparatively in the same situation) ENCUMBERED WITH INTERMEDIATE PROFITS, and in most instances, with A HEAVY ADDITIONAL EX- PENSE OF LAND CARRIAGE, all of which would be mate-, rially diminished by a free and easy communication with the Ocean through Ballyshannon and Lough Erne. That half the trade of Tyrone (a large and populous county) and that of the whole of Cavan, would be likely to flow into this port, on a free and easy communication being established between them, through Lough Erne, is a conclusion natu- rally resulting from the geographical connection of those counties with the waters of that Lough. Next to these, it may be observed, that if a water communication should be opened between the county of Leitrim and Lough Erne, (and which from the intervening lakes would be easy of execution) then Enniskillen and Ballyshannon would be likely to come in for a large proportion of the trade of this county also, although in the absence of such a communi- cation, Sligo is the more convenient port. And lastly, if Ballyshannon and Lough Erne should become famous for their manufactures and commerce, like the port of Belfast, (and their natural facilities for an extensive trade are much greater) in such circumstances it is highly probable that the trade of Monaghan would be transferred from Dublin to Enniskillen, as the land carriage to and from that city is so considerable, while Enniskillen and Lough Erne are com- paratively in its own neighbourhood. We have now cast our eye over that spacious tract of country, which, on the event of Ballyshannon and Lough Erne being disencumbered of their obstructions, would become the steady and extensive consumers of their imports; while Enniskillen, on the margin of Lough Erne, would become the magnificent granary of the exports of this extended tract; for on these improvements taking place, Enniskillen would have her import and export merchants, 444 COUNTY OF DONEGAL, as well as the town of Ballyshannon, and would be still more eminently a depot for the supply of the counties just noticed, with all sorts of goods manufactured on the banks of Lough Erne, as being so much more convenient to them than the port of Ballyshannon ; and Enniskillen would also become the grand depository, as we have just noticed, for the corn and other provisions of those counties intended for exportation to the English market. Let us next enter upon a consideration of the impediments to the rising prosperity of Donegal and Fermanagh, that unhappily exist in the bar of Ballyshannon, and in the rocks which intercept a free navigation through the waters of Lough Erne. In proceeding to this section of our subject, it may not be amiss briefly to recapitulate the advantages that would result to this tract of country from a successful exertion of the private and parliamentary interest of the gentlemen of those counties, to have the improvements completed, that would offer a powerful inducement to the capitalists of our own and other countries to embark in trade in the towns of Ballyshannon and Enniskillen, and on the shores of that lough with which they are so closely connected. And first, the facilities for a great home and foreign trade thus created, would communicate an irresistible impulse of industry to all the farmers and provision dealers in the various counties around Lough Erne, to whom an easy communication with the English market would be thus opened. Secondly. These farmers and provision dealers, and the shop-keepers in all the counties to which they belonged, would find it their interest to deal at Enniskillen for manufatured goods, in preference to Dublin, it being so much nearer to their homes, and the sale of their various produce drawing them so frequently to that town ; and thus a powerful impulse would be given to the establishment of cotton and other manu- factories on the banks of Lough Erne, for the supply of a demand which would be steadily and constantly created by the intercourse thus opened. Thirdly. The benefits thus derived by each class from its commerce with the other, BALLYSHANNON. 445 would cement their affections with their interests, enlarge the sphere of their knowledge, instruct them to avoid all those petty sectarian disputes and distinctions by which the social and commercial relations of a country are weakened, its peace violated, and the virtuous and useful habits of industry and good neighbourhood, interrupted and broken. And avoiding the evils just noticed, and pursuing those things which make for peace, their attachment to civil government and the laws, would advance with the increase of their properties ; and hence their characters as citizens and subjects, would be improved by the very same means which improved their fortunes. Thirdly. As the wealth thus created by trade would be diffused through all the channels of society in the surrounding counties, improve- ments in building,- planting, and agriculture, would neces- sarily follow ; waste lands would be reclaimed ; and corn (as a valuable export) raised on every soil that could be made capable of producing it. The benefits that would thus flow to THE LANDED INTEREST from the free and unob- structed progress of commerce and manufactures (through Lough Erne and Ballyshannon) between the counties before mentioned, and every part of the known world where a merchantman could find a market, need not be dwelt upon. Suffice it to say, that the rent-roll of these counties (more particularly that of Donegal and Fermanagh upon which the trade of Ballyshannon and Lough Erne would have a powerful effect) would experience a rapid increase ; and the security of this increase would be guaranteed by the exist- ence of numerous factories, together with the countless villas and other corresponding improvements, to which the resi- dence of wealthy merchants and manufacturers (and farmers participating in the common benefit) would infallibly give birth. Lastly. The men of Enniskillen, Belturbet, and other towns (Ballyshannon herself, though a sea-port, not excepted) who are now obliged to procure English and other goods in a secondary way, at the distant ports of Dublin, Deny, or Belfast, would be rendered totally independent of 446 COUNTY OF DONEGAL, these ports, by a free and open communication between Lough Erne and the ocean. And that these happy and harmonious effects would result, in a larger or lesser mea- sure, primarily to the whole body of the landed and com- mercial interests in Donegal and Fermanagh; and secon- darily, to all the counties within the region of Lough Erne, must be obvious to every eye and intellect, that have not been unhappily placed within an asses head, and thereby rendered incapable of reasoning upon the necessity of an unfettered CAUSE producing an EFFECT proportioned to its propelling power, and to the force of its attraction. That the opening a free and effectual communication between the inland country and the Atlantic Ocean, through Lough Erne and Ballyshannon, would constitute the propel- ling power of the commerce of that tract of country ; and libe- ral encouragement to capitalists to settle there, the principle of attraction which would unite with that power to render the moving cause perfect, must be evident to common sense ; and that this cause cannot be created and maintained work- ing, without producing effects proportioned to the power of its spring, and to the strength of its attraction, may be easily understood, without reference to the schools of Archimedes and Newton, in which the connection existing in Nature between causes and their effects, are demonstrated and esta- blished. Having now briefly recapitulated the benefits that would flow through Ballyshannon and Lough Erne, to the counties approximating with this Lough; and particularly to Fer- managh and Donegal, from a free communication of those counties with the ocean, let us proceed without farther digression to examine the obstacles to this free communica- tion which exist, and the means by which these obstacles may be most effectually surmounted. They are reducible to three principal heads; all of which, at a comparatively moderate expense, might be easily removed by the applica- tion of skill and persevering labour the first is found in the bar of Ballyshannon ; the second in the want of a canal or BALLYSHANNON. 447 rail road between that town and Lough Erne, in its imme- diate neighbourhood; and the last in a few ledges of rocks which present an impediment to the free navigation of this water. In reference to Ballyshannon it may be observed, that the passage of vessels into this port (even in the best circumstances of the channel) is intercepted by large loose rocks or stones inside the bar; and in the summer season (as an augmentation of this evil) the channel being fre- quently choaked up with sand, unless there happens to be a sufficient fresh in the river to keep the passage to the bar open, it is extremely difficult for vessels to effect a landing at that place. A dreadfully heavy sea runs in here ; and in addition to all the other evils of the channel, it is so extremely narrow, that large vessels coming up to Ballyshan- non sometimes touch the bank upon either side, and when they come into contact with the fresh and the ebb tide going down the channel, have, in divers instances, been thrown on shore and wrecked. All of these facts (to which the mer- chants and men of all remedies at that place bear testimony) go clearly to prove that no patchwork plan for the improve- ment of that bar will meet the evil ; but that in devising a permanent plan for securing the benefits of the ocean to Ballyshannon and the inland country, that bar must be com- pletely cut off, and a communication opened with the At- lantic at a safer point. In the pursuit of those facts, upon which the present report is grounded, divers of those patch- work schemes for the improvement of the bar of Ballyshannon (which have their origin in a mistaken notion of economy) were kindly suggested for the government of our report; but the more deeply we entered into a consideration of the impediments which Nature and accident appear to have thrown in the way of that bar, (and in the facts and conse- quences of which, the various merchants of that port, how- ever differing about the remedy, all heartily agreed) the more fully we became convinced that the only feasible plan for an effectual deliverance of the whole neighbouring coun- try from the evils of that bar (and the collateral evils of 448 COUNTY OF DONEGAL, Lough Erne) is one that appears to have been first thrown before the public by Messrs. Hamilton and Magowan, of Ballyshannon ; but which we are inclined to believe was derived from that eminent coasting engineer, who planned the Eddystone light house, as Mr. Hamilton (who is a pub- lic spirited man) laid a plan of the bar of Ballyshannon and its neighbouring coast before him, and in the conversation and explanations which then took place, it is highly proba- ble, this reasonable and apparently EFFECTUAL REMEDY for the comparative loss of trade inflicted upon all the sur- rounding counties, by the circumstances of this bar and those of its neighbouring Lough, found its origin. Regardless, however, of the source from whence the remedy proceeded (although by no means undervaluing the well-balanced opinion of an experienced coasting engineer) and judging of the efficacy of the plan by its own evidence, we have, on a deliberate conviction of its exclusive merit, thrown overboard all the patch-work plans with which we were so kindly accommodated, and in the journey of our country's improvement (Mr. Magowan being a coach owner, and Mr. Hcimilton a manufacturer of vehicles of public wealth) have placed ourselves in the manly and sweeping vehicle of Magowan and Hamilton alone, convinced that if this well-built carriage do not bring us to our journey's end, that the result of an experiment in the rickety machines of other manufacturers would be a quick break down. Concerning the probable expense of carrying these various plans into execution, a variety of opinions have been put forward in Ballyshannon ; all, however, floating between the paltry sums of four or five thousand and fifty thousand pounds : but to which, or whether to any of these estimates, implicit credit is due, is not so much the question, as whether the tide of commerce and consequent prosperity shall be prevented from flowing into a large tract of country, in order to save a paltry present expenditure ; or whether Parliament and the public shall immediately combine to remove the impediments to that prosperity, at an expense BALLYSHANNON. 449 that may be made to return to those who incur it (and that by a small toll upon trading and other vessels that would scarcely be felt) a more than ample interest for one of the most important applications of public money that has yet been applied to the improvement of any single district in this comparatively neglected land. Of what importance are five, or fifty, or even an hundred thousand pounds, when placed in competition with the moral and social benefits naturally flowing from the salutary employment of 5 or 600,000 people ; to say nothing of the liberal returns which the government itself would derive from the introduction of manufactures and commerce into a large tract of country, where many thousands of persons have no profitable employment, and, consequently, can con- tribute little or nothing towards the general expenses of the state. The plan of Hamilton and Magowan is as follows. To open a ship canal that would avoid all the difficulties of the bar of Ballyshannon, by being conducted about two miles across a neck of land, from the small harbour of Bonatrou- ghen (where there is no running sand to impede vessels) to a safe point of the water at a place called the General's boat house ; together with a canal or rail road from the said ship canal to the village of Belleek, on the banks of Lough Erne, (a distance of about four Irish miles) but which, in our poor opinion, should be conducted about two miles farther to the deep waters of the Lough beyond Roscorr, where vessels could be easily and safely launched. And for a corresponding improvement in the navigation of Lough Erne, they (or the engineer alluded to if he has been their adviser) recommend the blasting, to a certain necessary extent, of those ledges of rocks which intercept the navigation of the Lough, until an excavation of sufficient depth should be effected to admit a flat steamer, taking three or four feet of water, to pass with light vessels in tow between Belleek and Enniskillen, and other towns on the margin of Lough Erne, (and here we shall observe that if a canal were cut from the contemplated ship 2 G 450 COUNTY OF DONEGAL, canal to the deep waters at Roscorr, and which would be much better than a rail-road communication between this latter and Lough Erne, the trouble and expense of lading and unlading at Belleek or elsewhere upon the Lough would be effectually saved.) Here is the substance of the plan proposed by these gentlemen (and we deem it to be the most excellent) for opening a free communication between the Atlantic ocean and the richly peopled counties approximating with Lough Erne ; and in comparison of the benefits to be produced by it, we regard the expense as NOTHING. The harbour of Bonatroughan, being only a boat harbour, would require to be sunk and widened ; and two piers, we understand, should be erected to protect vessels entering the port of Bally- shannon from the tempests to which that point of the coast stands so exceedingly exposed; and from the heavy sea which runs in here when the wind blows from the south west, to which the mouth of the bay of Donegal stands directly open. Now if government could be prevailed on to undertake this work (in connection with the gentlemen of the landed interest in the neighbouring counties) and have it executed by able engineers, by contract, on sufficient securities, as in other government works, then a reasonable expectation might be entertained that the work would be put forward without needless delay ; and that under the superintendence of a reformed parliament, the public money would neither be wasted nor embezzled; an abuse that has been often and justly complained of, when parliament for public works (seldom well executed, and sometimes not half executed) have entrusted individuals with the arrangement of large public grants. The first step in this proceeding would of course be, to employ one or two able coasting engineers, (not inland engineers, who are perhaps no competent judges of such works) to inspect the whole theatre of land and water upon which it was proposed to effect these improvements. This duty (attended with a small expense only) ought, in reason, BALLYSHANNON. 451 to be discharged by the gentlemen of Donegal and Fer- managh, as having the first and the deepest stake in the results of this noble experiment; and on the report of such engineers, their application to Parliament for assistance, would be well and profitably grounded. Having now briefly noticed the plan of this eminently useful public improvement, we beg permission, en passant, to advert to what we conceive to have been an exceedingly injudicious allusion of some writer on this subject in the Erne Packet (a respectable journal published in Enniskillen) to the long talked of Ulster canal ; a work that, no doubt, would prove very useful to Belfast, and other parts of the North of Ireland, corresponding, or intended to correspond in trade with that port, (and probably harmless to Donegal and Fermanagh, if the improvements here noticed were previously completed, and the trade and connections con- sequent thereon, WELL AND FIRMLY ESTABLISHED) but, which, in our humble opinion, should it obtain precedence of these improvements, would prove FATAL to the commercial interests of Enniskillen and Ballyshannon, and through that (then perhaps irretrieveable misfortune} deeply and perma- nently detrimental to the landed interest of Donegal and Fermanagh ; and, in a secondary degree, to that of other counties approximating with Lough Erne. To this important fact we earnestly call the attention of the landed interest of all these counties ; convinced that if the absorbing power of Belfast, as a mart of commerce, shall reach to Fermanagh and Donegal, through a union of this contemplated canal with Lough Erne (to its junction with Lough Neagh there can be no objection) before Ennis- killen and Ballyshannon have been placed in possession of their RIGHTS, that it will have a gradually sinking influence upon the landed, as well as the commercial interest in the entire region of Lough Erne, by rivetting the dependence of that region upon the port of Belfast for its various manu- factures, and for the whole or principal part of all its foreign merchandize, which, on the event of justice being done to 452 COUNTY OF DONEGAL, Mnniskillen and Ballyshannon, would be received exclu- sively from distant nations through these towns. Hence instead of rivetting the dependence of their counties for all sorts of merchandize upon a distant port, by opening a canal to that port from their own doors ; the gentlemen of Donegal and Fermanagh should be busily engaged in open- ing the commerce of the world to their own tenantry, by removing every obstacle which exists to a free communi- cation between Enniskillen and the ocean. Were this free communication once completed, and the towns of Ennis- killen and Ballyshannon in the full fruition of the trade of their surrounding counties, then indeed we should have no objection to the Ulster canal paying its compliments to Lough Erne, as it could do no more than produce a whole- some competition between rival ports (in which the nearest port would always have the advantage of the stranger) but to introduce such a canal to Lough Erne, before justice had been done to the towns in trade upon its shores, would not be opening a door to healthful competition between two flourishing ports, but planting a dagger in the bosom of the commercial interests of Donegal and Fermanagh, while that interest was yet in a weak and fainting state ; and whether thus to rivet the chains of their dependence upon Belfast, be the interest of the proprietors of the soil of those counties, let their reason judge. In addition to this argument, which is addressed exclu_ sively to those whose interests are identified with the com. mercial prosperity of their own counties, there is another of still greater importance to the public at large, as being founded on principles of national justice and the general good, and which we therefore address more particularly to the government of the country ; convinced at the same time that the friends of justice, and of the general improvement of Ireland, will feel its force. It is this Belfast, and the territory naturally connected with it, are rich ; and, in comparison of many other districts, are in the full enjoy- ment of a good home and foreign trade. Ballyshannon, BALLYSHANNON. 453 and the territory connected with it, as a sea-port, are com- paratively poor, very slenderly provided with manufactures, have hitherto struggled with difficulties which they have not been able to surmount; and, in consequence thereof, the interests of a large tract of country (to the shame of the landed interest of that tract) are, to this moment, deeply suffering. Here then is an argument in national justice and sound morality, for raising this equally valuable and well-conducted district to an equality of advantages with the other ; and consequently for giving its claims pre- cedence to those of the Ulster canal, which might be use- fully introduced, when the claims of Ballyshannon and Lough Enie had been answered, and the two great districts of the north, thus placed upon a fair and equal footing of honourable competition. To do so however before justice has been done to this part of the north-west district, would, in our opinion, be a corrupt and unjust policy ; and as such ought to be firmly resisted by the landed interest of Donegal and Fermanagh, as otherwise we fear the chance of raising these counties to their just level in the scale of commerce, will be bad indeed. It must be evident to the gentlemen just noticed, that to retain their counties in a state of abject dependence for mercantile accommodation upon the ports of Dublin, Derry, and Belfast, is to inflict a wound upon their own interests, by the benefits of which they and their tenantry shall con- tinue to be deprived, so long as they remain in a state of dependence upon secondary or perhaps third rate sources of supply! They have been already reminded that goods thus procured, in addition to the profits of the different houses through which they pass, are also heavily laden with the costs of carriage and package ; from the larger proportion of which they would be effectually protected by A CLOSE HOME TRADE. And as the purchasers of these heavily encumbered goods arc chiefly those of the landed interest (from the landlord to his lowest tenant) the owners of the soil, if they reason at all upon the subject, must see that in the 454 COUNTY OF DONEGAL, establishment of a great mart of commerce upon their own shores, and in a free and easy communication of the neigh- bouring country with that mart, they have a direct personal interest, exclusive of the obvious and much more permanent influence of such a trade, upon the future prosperity of their estates ; while in opening a free and easy communication with a distant and rapidly ascending emporium of trade (such as Belfast is) before justice has been done to their own counties, they are rivetting the dependence of their people upon that distant port, contributing to the continuance of their own commercial degradation, to a proportionate reduc- tion in the value of their lands, and discouraging those valuable and enterprising traders on their own estates, who, if properly supported, would become the seeds of the future wealth and power of their own counties. Our advice therefore to the landed interest of Donegal and Fermanagh, is this. Give no portion of your property or parliamentary interest to the Ulster canal, until you have first removed every obstacle to the commercial prosperity of your own towns of Ballyshannon and Enniskillen, and of the whole neighbouring country in the region of Lough Erne, through those incipient marts of trade ; since by the discharge of this first duty, you will have converted Bally- shannon into the Glasgow of the North of Ireland, and Enniskillen into its corresponding Greenock ; and may then with propriety, but not before it, turn your attention to any other public work that may appear calculated to give efficacy to the operations of your own district, when placed in the possession of all the necessary facilities for an extension of its commerce, and for maintaining a just and honourable competition with other ports. This is the true view to be taken of this case, as a question of interest and common sense ; and although public spirited men are of the utmost value to every rising country, yet none but fools are expected to sacrifice their property to the production of a distant and secondary good, until the more BALLYSHANNON. 455 immediate and pressing claims of their own soil and neigh- bourhood have been first answered. No accessible source of information was overlooked by us, in our attention to this great and paramount question. We conversed with Mr. Davis, who for many years was an officer of the port of Ballyshaunon ; with several of the principal merchants of that port ; and with various other intelligent inhabitants, whose knowledge of the coast and Lough, qualified them to shed light upon this vital question. The result, we trust, has been such, as to place this sub- ject with sufficient clearness before the landed interest of Donegal and Fermanagh, as well as before the eye of the English manufacturer and merchant ; and should it prove insufficient to arouse them to a sense of the interest which they have in the commerce of this district, we feel that any farther writing or printing upon the subject would be useless. The following is a concise account of the goods usually imported and exported, to and from the port of Bally- shannon, at we received it from Mr. Green, a merchant of that town. Imports. Memel timber; North American, ditto; Nor- way, ditto; from Liverpool, iron, sugar, coal, rock and white salt, and ear then- ware ; from Glasgow, coal and metals. Exports. Corn only to the ports of Liverpool and Glasgow ; passengers occasionally to America. N. B. There is no butter exported from Ballyshannon ; that which is casked here is conveyed by land to Sligo and Londonderry ; and the report farther mentions, that even for iron, sugar, metals, and earthenware, Londonderry is the principal market, thus getting these articles at second hand through another port ! ! 456 COUNTY OF DONEGAL, PRINCIPAL PROPRIETORS OF THE SOIL OF DONEGAL. From the best information that we could collect upon the spot, the principal proprietors of Donegal are as follows : The Marquis of Conyngham; The Marquis of Donegal; The Marquis of Abercorn ; The College of Dublin (under whom Colonel Conolly is an extensive holder ;) The See of Raphoe ; Alexander Murray, Esq. of Broughton in Scotland ; Sir Edmond Hayes, Bart. ; Sir Charles Styles, Bart. ; Sir James Stewart, Bart. ; Stewart, Esq. of Ards ; The Earls of Leitrim and Wicklow ; the Hamilton and Brooke pro- perties are probably less extensive. But besides these there may be a few lesser, or even larger estates, of which we know nothing ; or which may have been overlooked or for- gotten, in the notes of information that now lie before us. THE CONYNGHAM ESTATES. These estates are situated in the baronies of Banagh, Boyleigh and Raphoe, and embrace about 120,000 Irish acres of those soils, two thirds of which are supposed to be composed of bog and mountain. But this latter class of soil (constituting a large proportion of this wild county) is so frequently and deeply enveloped in bog, as, without a regular process of boring, to render extremely difficult, if not totally impossible, any effort of science to collect the indications of minerals applicable to trade, which their surface might otherwise exhibit. An attempt however (a noble attempt we would call it) to collect the best indications that could be collected of their mineral wealth, was made some years since by the late Lord Conyngham and Mr. Murray, (whose lands approximate) in the person of a mining engineer, (we believe from Scot- land) who discovered indisputable indications of lead and copper in that part of the barony of Boyleigh, which unites with other districts to form a boundary to the ocean on the north west coast. The situation of these lands on the shores of the Atlantic, and the consequent facilities which THE CONYNGHAM ESTATES. 457 they possess for the exportation of manufactured iron, cop- per, or pottery clay, to the West Indies and the two Ame- ricas, where these manufactures are in an infant state, need not be enlarged upon ; as the motives which they hold out to commercial research and enterprise are self-evident. It is however well worthy the attention of English capitalists, that a large proportion of the natural wealth of Ireland, applicable to such manufactures, are found in the moun- tain districts (witness that of Leitrim, so eminently distin- guished for its mineral wealth) and not unfrequently (if the reports of travelling miners may be depended on) in those mountain regions which extend themselves in lines nearly parallel with the coast (for proof of which we refer to the discovery recently made at Bundoran, on the coast of this county, to the collieries at Ballycastle on the coast of Antrim, to the silver mines found near the coast of Wicklow ; and to many indisputable indications of similar wealth, which have been discovered by men of science in other mountain regions of the Irish coast) and in the county on which we are now writing, and in which various facilities for trade are known to exist, the cheapness of its lands and labour, the abundance of its fish and sea weed, its immediate connection with the western ocean, and the perfect peace and security with which capital to any amount might be embarked here ; form a combination of inducements to the introduction of trade, with which no part of England could for a moment maintain a successful competition. That it would not be difficult to treat with the owners of these mountain districts in the County of Donegal, or even with the farmers who hold under them, for any portion of these lands essential to the accommodation of manufacturing establishments, we infer from the use to which these lands are generally appropriated ; namely, that of an unmeasured run for poor mountain cattle (for in many instances they are not at all measured, but thrown in with farms by the lump) and that in addition to the facilities for foreign com- merce with which the western ocean provides them, tho 458 COUNTY OF DONEGAL, numerous lakes in the counties of Donegal, Fermanagh and Leitrim (which at a very moderate expense, might be made to communicate with each other, and with the ooean at divers points) offer equal facilities for the conveyance of goods manufactured in the mountain districts, to all the ports in the home market ; to which useful object the river Shannon and the Royal canal in the neighbouring County of Leitrim ; and Lough Erne, in the still nearer county of Fermanagh, would enlist their respective services in the attainment of the one great end. And to these commodious mediums of communication with the home and foreign markets, we have already called the reader's attention to the important additional advantages with which this coast pre- sents the English speculator, beyond any thing with which his own more highly improved country could pretend to provide him ; namely low priced provisions, cheap manual labour, and the facilities for a great fishing trade, as an aux- iliary to the support of more valuable and extensive works ; altogether uniting to present to the commercial interest of England, a fine field of enterprise ; and one much more likely to repay their outlay of capital, than the climates of Africa, (witness the millions of money that have been lost at Sierra Leone) and the countries beyond the Equator, where such a large proportion of the wealth of England has been already transported, at infinitely greater peril, and perhaps upon less certain speculations of future profit, considering the perfect safety, and the very small expense of ascertaining with mathematical certainty, the precise nature of the premises and the prospects, upon which the temple of commerce could be erected upon this part of the Irish coast. THE HALL. The family seat attached to the Marquis of Conyngham's Donegal estates, goes under the trite appellation of " The Hall." It comprehends a good plain edifice, with about 200 Irish acres of demesne, situated on the northern shore of the bay of Donegal, within a few miles of the town of ESTATES, SEATS, ETC. 459 that name, and in the immediate vicinity of the village of Mount Charles, from which the Marquis's son, the Earl of Mount Charles (one of the representatives for this county) derives his title. SCENERY. The surrounding scenery is wild ; and from this distin- guishing feature of the country, even the sea views are not exempt. Indeed for solitude, and an almost total exclusion from society, no place can be better circumstanced than " The Hall ;" but still there are a few fine seats in this part of the country; and fine grousing and hare hunting for those who are disposed to enjoy the amusements of the field. Donegal (from which the county derives its name) is the post town to this seat. THE MURRAY ESTATE. The whole of Mr. Murray's soil in this county, has been estimated by a gentleman acquainted with these lands, at 30,000 Irish acres; two thirds thereof being bog and moun- tain. Its natural history, including certain specimens of copper, &c., is pretty similar to that of Lord Conyngham, the subject of our last description ; and there are also divers small lakes and rivers, which might be rendered tributary to purposes of trade ; more particularly one deep and rapid stream which falls into the bay of Killibegs (where there is good riding and safe shelter for shipping, an advan- tage not always to be had upon this coast) and this stream is said to contain a supply of water, and falls of sufficient force, for the movement of machinery in any manufacturing department. These lands are chiefly situated in the barony of Banagh, which extends from the bridge of Donegal to the village of Ardaragh, a distance of about thirteen Irish miles. The lakes noticed in this property are said to be pregnant with trout, and the rivers with eel and young salmon ; but the mineral wealth of this wild mountain district, if accu- 460 COUNTY OF DONEGAL, rately known, would perhaps be found the most valuable feature in its natural history. The larger proportion of this, however, must remain a secret even to the proprietors them- selves, unless they cause a geological survey and map of their mountain districts to be executed by men acquainted with this branch of science. To the utility of such a survey (as a useful preliminary to the embarkation of capital in mineral manufactures in this mountain region) we now respectfully recommend the attention of these proprietors, as a debt of justice, equally due to Ireland and to themselves. LOUGH EASK. Lough Eask (so called from a lake of this name, which forms a beautiful feature in the home view, and is pregnant with the char, a fish which, in England, is supposed to be peculiar to the lakes of Cumberland) is the seat and pro- perty of Thomas Brooke, Esq. It reposes at the foot of the wild rocky mountains of Barnsmore and Glashcairns; and the property, of which it is the seat of government, is said to contain about 10,000 Irish acres, of which nine tenths are composed of bog and mountain ! As these latter lofty lands are said to abound with lime- stone, free stone and granite ; they, consequently, compose a sound and wholesome pasture for those inferior descrip- tions of sheep and young cattle, which are usually met with in wild mountain districts ; and should the god of commerce extend the manufactures, buildings, and other improvements, which follow in his train, over the surface of this county, the utility of these valuable fossils to its trade and agricul- ture, will then be understood. These lands are distinguished by a valuable lead mine, which was tried and approved of by experienced Scotch miners, in 1798. They also contain slate quarries, ame- thysts, and an abundance of pearls, in a river which issues from Lough Eask; and besides these (a feature of improve- ment rather rare in Donegal) they contain 200 acres of wood in one tract ! ESTATES, SEATS, ETC. 461 An inferior kind of coal, called blind coal, is supposed to exist here ; and from divers chalybeate springs in the lands of Lough Eask, the existence of iron is inferred. These lands are situated within three miles of Donegal, which is their post town ; and, in reference to their present income, are said to form the less valuable part of Mr. Brooke's interest in this county. THE ABERCORN ESTATE. This property is reputed to extend about seven miles in length, and from three to five in breadth. It is bounded by the river Foyle, the Earl of Erne's estate, the property of a Mr. Sinclaire, the church lands of Raphoe, the glebe of Clonleigh ; with other glebes and properties, unknown to us by name. The principal mountains are those called the Binion and Do wish. The estate contains (if the report of the land surveyor may be regarded as accurate) 300 acres only of bog or peat unreclaimed ! with a quantity of worn out bog ready for cul- tivation ; but how much, the report before us does not say. The classes of soil are, good, bad, middling, and ordinary, arable and pasture ; and, , undoubtedly, the land surveyor, from whom we received the classification, is a good judge. The property contains a tolerably good slate quarry or quarries ; but no geological survey of that property having been executed, its mineral wealth is consequently, unknown. On the river of St. Johnstown there are falls for mills. On some of these falls mills have been erected ; on others, none : but besides this river, there are streams proceeding from the Dowish hill or mountain, which have falls also. The farms on this estate extend from 10 to 150 Irish plantation acres, held immediately from the lord of the soil, on short leases of twenty-one years in all recent tenures ! According to our information there are no middlemen on this property ; nor is it likely that there are (either for trade or private residence) any very splendid improvements in 462 COUNTY OF DONEGAL, building or planting, under this short lease system ; although comfortable form houses may have been erected, in a confi- dence resulting from experience, that the lands will not be taxed for these improvements, on a renewal of the tenant's lease; and some individuals may even have sufficient confi- dence to expend a little in embellishment under this short lease system ; but considering that self-preservation is the first law of nature, we flatter ourselves the number of these confiding tenants will be very small ; and that few splendid establishments in trade or otherwise, will be found under the withering influence of such a system. The usual rents charged upon this property, have been reported to us, as follows. For best arable land, from thirty to forty shillings per Irish acre (the largest acre in the British islands.) For middling from twenty to thirty. Ordinary and bad from twenty to eight, late Irish currency. According to the report before us, there is no manured land (for potatoes) let by the acre for the current season to the peasantry ; nor land to put their manure upon ; but this we conceive must refer exclusively to the lord of the soil, as we think it could not apply to the practice of farmers, in any part of a country where the peasantry live upon potatoes, which they could not raise in sufficient quantity without con acre land, as the gardens of mere labourers are usually very limited. The usual wages of labourers on this property, appear to be pretty fair for an agricultural district ; as they generally are in all those parts of the north of Ireland, where a proper sense of humanity, and of practical duty to the labourer and his family, maintains an ascendant. We were about to give Protestant liberality the credit for this virtue, but we sup- pressed it; although we cannot forget how rich Catholic farmers and great landed proprietors, treat their labourers, in Munster and Connaught ! The average of a labourer's wages in the agricultural districts of these latter provinces (when he is constantly employed) does not we Lelieve exceed six-pence per day ; or at the most seven pence, including all ESTATES, SEATS, ETC. 463 benefits ! On this property, we are instructed that it is one shilling per day in summer and ten pence in winter, for constant employment; and fifteen pence for occasional work in summer ; but whether with or without board, the report before us does not mention. ST. ERNANS. This is the seat of John Hamilton, Esq. (a gentleman of private fortune, and not the ingenious John Hamilton, spoken of in our description of Ballyshannon.) It is said to derive the name which it bears from that of its patron saint, the ruins of whose abbey bear testimony to the antiquity of the place. It stands on a small island of six Irish acres, in the Bay of Donegal ; and is connected with Mr. Hamilton's estate on the main land, by a stone causeway of about one furlong. These lands, upon which the proprietor is said to have expended a very large sum of money, for the double pur- pose of improving his property and employing his people (for in the discharge of his duty to the poor, this gentleman bears the character of one who imitates the BENEVOLENCE of his divine Master) are now in a state of improved culti- vation, and well adapted to the growth of corn and green crops. St. Ernans is situated within two English miles of Done- gal, a town that has made a considerable advance in trade within the last few years. Should capital from England reach this town, the lands of St. Ernans, from their advan- tageous situation on the Bay of Donegal, will be found well calculated for commercial purposes ; and from the humane character of the lord of the soil, it may be well believed, that any measure having a tendency to improve the circum- stances of his tenantry and neighbours, would be well received, and warmly supported by him. In this neighbourhood their are mineral springs, and valuable quarries of lime stone, free stone, and granite. There is also a limited portion of peat for fuel ; but, in the existing circumstances of the country, there does not appear 464 COUNTY OF DONEGAL, to be much encouragement to search for coal, or for any other valuable mineral lying deep beneath the surface of the soil. Brown hall, situated within two miles of the village of Ballintra, in this county, was, we believe, the original seat of the proprietor of St. Ernans, and is still held by a mem- ber of his family under the college of Dublin. It is distin- guished by a lake and river ; on the latter of which there is said to be falls of sufficient force for manufacturing purposes. This river, at a certain point, takes a subterraneous course, and, in connection with the sombre aspect of the demesne, which appears to be tolerably well wooded, a good mansion house and other useful improvements, and certain caves which are said to exist here, constitute it an equally inter- esting and respectable improvement on the surface of this county. Donegal is the post town to St. Ernans. DRUMBOE CASTLE. (With a hint to Irish Colonization Societies.) The house and demesne of Druniboe castle, the seat of Sir Edmund Hayes, Bart., are handsome and well planted ; the approach respectable and suited to the geography of the place ; the lawn shady and neatly enclosed ; and the river which sweeps by the demesne under a rich plantation, and separates Drumboe castle from the public road, altoge- ther unite to constitute this seat a feature of distinction, suited to the value and extent of that large and respectable property of which it is the seat of government. This property (according to our information) is held by the Hayes family from the crown, under a grant of Charles I. ; and is reputed to contain between 20 and 30,000 acres ; of which considerably more than one half are composed of bog and mountain. The whole of these lands, which embrace two manors, can be held by the proprietor in his own personal possession, tithe free, by virtue of the original grant. ESTATES, SEATS, ETC. 465 They are bounded on the south, by the estate of Lord Lifford ; on the west, by that of Sir Charles Style ; on the north, by the property of the Rev. Joseph Pratt, and on the east, by the estate of Robert Montgomery, Esq. Eight hundred acres of a mountain district (a considerable part composed of improvable land) were to have been rented by the Protestant Colonization Society, from the proprietor of this seat, at the moderate annual rent (if our recollection has not deceived us) of 150. Now as this county is extremely peaceable, and well calculated for such a colony, we hope the society will not, like many of their country- men, give up their intended work of charity (in which we could not learn that any progress had been made at the period of our visit to Donegal, in 1830.) We hope, we say, that they will not give it up, like many of their countrymen embarked in similar schemes of improvement, when the fervour of their fudge has cooled ; but that having placed their hand upon the plough, they will continue to cultivate the field, until their colony shall be made a precedent for all similar institutions in this divided country. We cannot well avoid remarking in this place, that beginning good works, but not "continuing and ending" them, is a thing very common in this country. We could fill a few pages with the facts, if they were all before us ; but in turning towards them, in the confusion of a hurried retrospect, the visions of divers intended charities, of sleeping monuments, of broken bridges, of half finished harbours, of canals cut short, of piers sliding down the current, and a thousand other schemes of improvement, for which large sums of pub- lic money have been sometimes granted, pass before the mental eye in regular succession ; while in the rear of the procession, numerous bodies of men come marching forward in the character of parliamentary trustee men, English cha- rity trustee men ! (oh blessed be the use made of that charity !) Ireland improvement society men, Irish manufac- ture wearing men, Irish land reclaiming men, Irish refor- mation men, Irish conservation men, Irish conversion men, 2 H Kil COUNTY OF DONEGAL, Irish colonization men, Irish navigation men, Irish trade reviving men, Irish peasantry improving men, with divers other groups of Irish experimentalists ; all beginning their plans of improvement with great zeal, but seldom ending them to the glory of God and the good of mankind, as they appear to have at first intended. For the instruction of gentlemen engaged in those kind of good works, which are " begun, continued, and ended," with brilliant conceptions, a useful book might be written in the style of Swift, under the title of " WAKING VISIONS." Hoping that the Protestant Colonization Society will not need this mirror; but that they will accomplish in fact what they have adopted in theory, we shall, in a hopeful anticipation of this fortunate result, submit the following hints to their consideration, and to that of the founders of all future colonies in Ireland. Gentlemen, Do not allow your colonists to split their little farms; that is to divide or subdivide them among their children. Let one son be brought up as the heir or inheritor of the farm, and let the rest be put out to trades, or made to earn their bread as labourers or servants. Let your women be similarly educated. It is no uncommon thing to see female weavers and shoemakers in the north of Ireland, as well as female cooks and kitchen maids. We have even seen a woman assisting her husband to cut timber in a saw pit. Therefore let trades and other departments of useful labour be made the inheritance of those who are not intended to occupy the farms. If you build a town in your colony, make provision for the instruction of the children of your colonists in all useful arts, and maintain a fund for the emigration of your surplus labourers and tradesmen. You will then have no occasion to split your fields and to multi- ply cabins upon your farms ; but if through ignorance, indolence, or undue parsimony, you neglect to make provi- sion -in due time for the wants of an increasing population, you will finally be compelled to split your fields, to multiply hovels upon your farms, to see your colony become a nest ESTATES, SEATS, ETC. 467 of naked paupers, and all the ends of a city of refuge from the poverty and divisions of your country effectually blasted. Stranorlar, in the immediate neighbourhood of Drumboe castle, is the post town to it. FORT STEWART. Fort Stewart, the seat of Sir James Stewart, Bart., stands distinguished among the various seats which beautify the banks of Lough Swilly, in this county, by the open and graceful prospect of that Lough which it commands. The eye extends over that fine sheet of water, to a rich and well elevated chain of soil on the distant shore, by which a land communication is maintained between Lon- donderry and Letterkenny ; as also between that city and the town of Buncrana, situated in a more northern position than that of Letterkenny, on the eastern shore of the same Lough ; and whether we regard this seat in reference to its connection with the calm and sublime scenery of the Lough on whose shore it stands ; its silent and secluded position from the din of men ; its beautiful situation in a valley sur- rounded by mountains; or the accommodations for trade and shipping, which the Lough presents to Letterkenny and other little towns upon its banks, and the interest which the eye of benevolence must take in the observation of vessels of commerce passing by Fort Stewart with the wealth of nations to these little rising towns; we are equally bound, by all these living features of its portrait, to give it a place of high distinction among the beauties and improvements of this romantic district of the emerald isle. The property of which Fort Stewart is the seat of govern- ment, contains (according to the information kindly commu- nicated to us by an English gentleman then actively engaged in a scientific survey of this county) about " 5,500 acres of arable, well tilled and fertile, and 2,400 acres of bog, scarcely any of which is mountain ; and constitutes about one third of the extent of the parish of Tully-Augh- nish." " The peasantry on this estate," our correspondent 468 COUNTY OF DONEGAL, observes, " are much move wealthy and industrious than in any other part of the barony of Kilmacrennau ;" and he imputes their superior wealth and moral respectability to " an almost total absence of illicit distillation." He farther states that " the tenants are mostly Protestant, and employed in the useful occupations of farming- and weaving." " It is right perhaps to remark," (continues our friendly correspondent) " that very much inconvenience must arise to the Protestant inhabitants of this parish, on account of the distance of the church," it being the unusually long space of eight miles from many of their residences ! And as the meeting houses in this part of the country are but thinly scattered, we may hence infer that the Protestant places of worship are but badly attended. He proceeds to observe that some years ago, " Tully Aughnish was divided into two distinct and separate parishes, those of Tully and Aughuish ;" and hence the dis- tance to, and the very frequent absence of the people from the service of the church (if such be the fact as we presume it is) may be easily accounted for. Of the mineral wealth, or any other facts in the history of this property, save those which we have just noticed, we know nothing, having received no farther information. For trade, however, with America and the sister countries, these lands are obviously well circumstanced, as there is no finer or deeper water than that of Lough S willy, which is capable of bearing from foreign ports, vessels of the heaviest burthen to the deep waters, and various landing-places, at the very doors of the inhabitants. A ferry and piers are maintained on the Lough, directly opposite to Fort Stewart house ; and by this means the communication with Deny is much shortened, being only nine miles across the water. Rathmelton (a little sea port town situated on Lough Swilly, and on this property) is the post town to Fort Stewart. ESTATES, SEATS, ETC. 469 CASTLE GROVE. This is the seat of Mrs. Brooke, (relict of the late Thomas Brooke, Esq.) It is situated on the same shore of Lough Swilly as that of Fort Stewart, and enjoys a liberal propor- tion of its scenographic advantages. The grounds are beau- tifully circumstanced on the margin of the Lough, and command a noble view of the Faan and the Bert, two charming mountains on the distant shore. Of the extent of these lands or their natural history we could procure no information. Letterkenny is the post town to Castle Grove, from which it is distant about four Irish miles. ROCK HILL. Rock Hill (situated in the Lough Swilly region of Donegal) is the seat of Daniel Chambers, Esq. It stands on a lofty position in a circle of the neighbouring moun- tains ; and commands an interesting front view of the spire of Letterkenny church, and of one or two finely elevated and richly decorated seats on the distant bank of the river Swilly. The house and lawn, from whence you enjoy the front view just noticed, surmount a demesne of about 130 acres, beautifully planted and improved ; and the property to which the domicile is attached, is reputed to contain 3000 acres of mountain, arable, and bog. According to our information, Letterkenny (its post town) is situated on this property ; which is also distinguished by the waters of Lake Gartan ; a lake deserving of peculiar notice, as it appears to be connected with some of the most useful and valable features of accommodation and com- merce, in the natural history of this estate. The River Lennan issues from Lake Gartan, and running into the sea at Rarthmelton, turns several mills in its rapid procedure to Lough Swilly. There is a good salmon fishery on this river, and the fish are said to have the peculiar qua- lity of being in good season during the winter. In the natural history of this neighbourhood it is also 470 COUNTY OF DONEGAL, worthy of notice, that some very fine white marble has made its appearance on the shores of Lake Gartan. Mr. Cham- bers says this marble was inspected by a statuary and pro- nounced good. Lead ore of good quality is also known to exist here, as various portions of this ore have been washed down from the mountain of Glendone, by a stream which issues from that mountain ; and thus it is that by one instru- ment or another, Providence brings the treasures of the earth before the view of those intelligent beings for whose benefit they are intended. We wish we could say that its bounty to Ireland had not been frustrated by the jealous and blast- ing policy of her professed sister. The average rent of good arable land in this district of Donegal, is about one pound per acre ; and the usual wages of a labourer for constant employment, ten pence per day ; " but," (observes Mr. Chambers, with great candour) " it must be sorrowfully acknowledged, that not one half of our labouring population can obtain employment on any terms, except in the busy periods of spring and harvest, &c." According to our information, the proprietor of this seat has property in the three neighbouring parishes of Leek, Cornwall, (or Conwall) and Gartan ; and the tithe composi- tion law was not in force in any one of these, when we col- lected our information from this neighbourhood, late in the year 1830 ! With such proofs of the prevalence of unjust and oppressive principles, it is no wonder that the heavy hand of public indignation should be laid upon the tithe system. Rockhill is situated on a line of road, which opens a com- munication between Letterkenny and Dunfanaghy (by Churchhill) at the distance of two miles from Letterkenny which is the post town to it. WOODLANDS. This is an odd name, by the bye, for a place where no wood appears ! A few young plantations had been recently put down, in a rough tract of soil in a rude mountain dis- SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 471 trict ; but these were totally imperceptible to the traveller on the public roads, when we visited that place in 1830. We give due credit to those gentlemen who are laying the hand of regeneration on their rough mountain tracts, and thus calling order out of chaos ; but we do not wish that an Irishman should be liable to the imputation of offending against common sense, by the adoption of a name, which conveys the idea of a forest where not a tree appears. Instead of Woodlands, Roughlands would have been the proper title of a place, which had scarcely got out of its swaddling clouts when it was dubbed with this pompous title. It is the seat of James Johnston, Esq., who has built a good house there, and commenced the regeneration of his soil, which embraces 800 acres of this rude country, 120 whereof (attached to the house) have been set apart for the purposes of a demesne ; and in the course of another half century or less, when the plantations are full grown and the ground well cultivated, this place will, of course, present to the eye of the spectator, a new aspect. The uplands, though rude in their appearance, are said to constitute a good corn soil ; and the low moory lands have eminent supplies of water for irrigation, if such should be wanted in the progress of improvement. A communication also having been kept open between these lands and the river Finn, which is navigable for boats of twenty tons burthen from Castle Finn, (a village within three miles of this seat) a correspondence by water with the port of Deny, has been hence reserved for the farmers on this property, who have now a cheap and easy conveyance for the sale of their pro- duce at the best market in the North-west district. Stranorlar is the post town to this seat. GLENDOEN GLEBE. This glebe comprehends an excellent dwelling house for the incumbent, beautifully elevated above the River Swilly (within two English miles of Letterkenny, which is the post 472 COUNTY OF DONEGAL, town to it) and thirty acres of glebe land apparently well cultivated and improved. It was the residence of Dr. Stop- ford, the rector of Con wall, in 1830 ; but of the value of its revenues, or the extent of its parochial jurisdiction, we know nothing. ROCKVJLLE. Rockville (which we believe has been so denominated from the rocky surface of the surrounding soil) is the name of a pretty little lodge, built by Dr. Crawford of the Done- gal regiment (as a retreat from the noise and bustle of Bal- lyshannon, in whose neighbourhood he has chosen to locate himself) upon a small demesne of about twenty English acres, which he has skilfully cultivated and improved. It stands upon a pleasing elevation above the town and neigh- bouring waters, of which it commands a copious view ; and in the hour of relaxation from professional duty, it consti- tutes an interesting retreat from the noisy scenes of men- dicant exhibitions, to which the towns of Ireland, situated in poor and unemployed districts, are heavily subjected. As comfort and accommodation are more directly the characteristics of Rockville, than beauty and embellishment, so they constitute it a peculiarly suitable retreat for a physi- cian and philosopher, who smiles at the short-lived pageantry of human pomp ; whose meditations on mortality require solitude ; and whose knowledge of the brevity of human life (considering the accidents to which it is exposed, and the hands through which it passes) qualify him to say to his patients in the emphatical language of experience, " This world is not your home ;" look forward to a better ; for of all the truths inscribed upon it, there is none more true than this, " Man wants but little here below, nor wants that little long." But it is not to these grave and solemn subjects only that Rockfield has devoted the operations of its master mind. Justice and benevolence of the highest order have made that modest residence their throne; as innocence and literary SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 473 merit, pursued by the Stygian tongue of slander in a saintly robe, would tell if they could speak ; for they found shelter under the protecting wing of that master mind, when cruel and cold-blooded hypocrisy had pursued them, " like a staunch murderer steady to his purpose," through every lane of life, even to the verge of that grave into which the poisoned shaft of malice drops harmless upon the sufferer, who there rests secure from the effects of every judgment, save the judgment which his actions justly claim. Should a French- man, in the progress of this world's revolutions, become the proprietor of this nicely decorated lodge, it is not likely he would rest contented, like an Irish doctor, with the rude and rocky origin of its present name. His vast imagination would extend much farther it would embrace that mighty element which sweeps the western world, and pours its tributary waters into the Bay of Donegal. Standing upon the shores of this bay, with his arms extended towards the ocean, and his eyes raised with the vastness of his imagi- nation over the mighty element ; it is in accordance with the character of his nation to suppose, that he would plunge his Rockville in the waters of the bay, and having drawn it forth from this mighty font, and replaced it upon its base, that he would then, with solemn emphasis, thus address the newly regenerated place: " Rockville, I have baptized thee in the bay of Donegal, and I now draw thee forth from the waters of purification, and present thee pure and spotless to the world, under the new and more noble title of " ATLANTIC LODGE." BUNCRANA CASTLE, AND THE TOWN OF BUNCRANA. Buncrana Castle derives its title from the castle of Sir Cahir O'Doherty, which once flourished here, and a wretched remnant of whose ruins is still standing, enveloped in the deep shade of a plantation near the present mansion- house; to which (in the exercise of all due authority) it appears to have transferred the title of a castle. Thus associated with the venerable recollections of anti- 474 COUNTY OF DONEGAL, quity, to which the castellated appearance of the garden walls has been forced to contribute; surrounded also by that wild mountain scenery, which maintains such an ascendant in the topography of Donegal ; and intimately connected with all the neighbouring beauties of Lough Swilly ; the stranger who visits this part of Ireland in pursuit of the romantic of its history, or the resources of its future trade, and who should like to collect such data as would enable him to draw a parallel between the blessings of our present and our ancient state, may visit the curious castle of Sir Cahir among other objects, and from thence go back to that period of our history when the churches of our country were com- posed of wicker-work, with which the little splendid ruin just noticed might well correspond. The lands of Buncrana Castle, which are held in per- petuity from the Marquis of Donegal, by Daniel Todd, Esq. the proprietor of this seat, embrace about 10,000 acres of a fine wild and romantic country. The town or village of Buncrana, about half a mile distant from the castle, is situated on those lands, and next to Lough Swilly (whose facilities for trade may be regarded as paramount) it is the most distinguished visible feature in the commercial history of those lands ; for their subterraneous treasures, if they have any, are perfectly unknown. An extensive sail-cloth manufactory (unfortunately con- sumed by fire) once flourished in this neighbourhood. Its ruins constitute an interesting but melancholy object in the general landscape; and the view from the castle, (as the house is called) to the town of Buncrana, and to a few pretty cottage improvements in the neighbourhood, derives no mean auxi- liary influence from the wild, mountainous, and rather thinly inhabited country, that surrounds it. The town of Buncrana quite exceeded our expectation. It exhibits a good market-house, a church with a handsome spire, several good shops, and respectable habitations ; has a post-office, a dispensary, a weekly market, four fairs in the year, and may probably contain a population of about SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 475 1,500 persons. It has also a salmon fishery in its neigh- bourhood, and a good fishery of soal and plaice ; and being situated on the deep waters of Lough Swilly, which open into the ocean, and where ships of war can ride (even those of the heaviest calibre) it is obviously well circumstanced for trade ; that is, if it had manufactures to employ the people, and a wealthy population around it to consume imports, as these are the sources from whence the wealth of a sea-port town is necessarily drawn. The lands of Buncrana are said to abound with lime and turf bog, and consequently contain within themselves two very important elements of agricultural improvement; as these, united with head-lands, old ditches, forts, mounts, the scouring of old gripes or stagnant pools, and above all with well pulverised road dirt, constitute an excellent com- post, when well turned, and left for a sufficiently long period of time to combine and ferment. Sea-weed is found in large quantities on the shores of Lough Swilly. It is brought to the land in boats, and sold to the farmers for manure at low prices. When mixed with other ingredients, and left to ferment, it may perhaps con- tribute largely to the composition of a strong and permanent manure ; but, separate from these, we have always heard it spoken of as a weak manure that will produce but one crop. The Crana river passes through these lands, and turns several mills of importance to the accommodation of the country. A good stone bridge which surmounts this river, in view of the castle; as an architectural object in that prospect, contributes to the interest of the domestic scene. The entrance to Lough Swilly is protected by batteries upon both sides ; and several officers and engineers are sta- tioned in the town and neighbourhood of Buncrana, to discharge the duties connected with their station on that coast. The mansion-house of Buncrana (if its title of a castle has not been wholly derived from the ruin already noticed ; and 476 COUNTY OF DONEGAL, that it stands, de facto, upon the foundations of an ancient castellated building) has been so far modernized as to leave no trace of the Gothic architecture in its external appear- ance. But many similar edifices, in which portions of the strong thick walls peculiar to our ancient castles, have been retained, have nevertheless been so far modernized, in roof, windows, and apartments, as to leave no visible clue to their antiquity, save certain vestiges of the old walls alone. The town of Buncrana is the post-town to this ancient seat. ROOKFORT AND THE MOUNTAINS OF INNISHOAVEN. Rockfort, the seat of the Rev. Hamilton Stewart, is a respectable feature of improvement on the property of Daniel Todd, Esq. of Buncrana Castle, the subject of our last de- scription, and is situated within a short distance of the town of Buncrana, which is the post-town to it. It comprehends a good mansion-house, and eighteen acres of a handsome lawn, whose base is washed by the waters of Lough Swilly. The view from hence, over the crystal sur- face of the Lough, to the mountains of Kilmacrennan, the village of Rathmullen at their base, and to the noble island of Inch, in the opposite direction, is calm, composing, and picturesque. The neighbouring vallies are eminently fertile, producing with proper cultivation, good crops of barley and oats, and well adapted to the growth of plants. Of the mineral wealth of this section of Donegal, we neither saw nor heard of any peculiar indications ; nor could we learn that the Marquis of Donegal had paid any atten- tion to the geological history of his mountains in the barony of Innishowen, or had taken the trouble of planting even a single tree there ; and yet he resides at home, and has, we believe, the well merited reputation of being a liberal and indulgent landlord. But this need not surprise us, as his lordship's Antrim mountains remain also in statu quo, as Nature placed them ; and, for any thing which the Marquis SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 477 is likely to do to the contrary, will so remain, like Sutton and Potten, until the world's rotten ! Nevertheless the treasures of these mountains will yet be examined, should the country be thrown upon its own resources, and Ireland once more placed in a capacity of maintaining an honourable competition with the sister countries, in every useful art; an object very likely to be promoted, under favourable cir- cumstances, by those respectable secondary proprietors, upon whose spirit and enterprise, the improvement of a large pro- portion of the barony of Innishowen appears to have now devolved. THE MOUNTAIN ISLAND OF INCH. This island is the property of Col. Chichester, and is situated in Lough Swilly, about six miles from London- derry. We do not know what its superficial measurement may be ; but from frequent observation and the best infor- mation we could collect, we may venture to hazard a con- jecture that it is about six miles in circumference at its base. It is reputed to be inhabited by about 500 persons, whose families hold it in small farms of from ten to thirty acres, and maintain three places of worship there, namely, a church, a Roman Catholic chapel, and a Presbyterian meeting-house ; and these sects, we believe, live happily and harmoniously together. The soil is reputed to be pecu- liarly good for barley ; and as there is generally a liberal price for that description of grain in this proverbially whiskey country, we have no doubt that the larger pro- portion of the surplus corn of Inch is of this description. The island produces to its cultivators most of the necessaries of life, except fuel, which they are obliged to boat across the water from the neighbourhood of Rathmelton and Buncrana. We could perceive no wood growing there, in our various drives around the Lough, nor do we know the sort offences by which their fields and farms are enclosed; but in reference to the influence of this mountain island upon most of the land- 178 COUNTY OF DONEGAL, scapes in the region of Lough Swilly, but particularly in the northern section of that water, it is perfectly transcendant. The island is seen rising- with modest dignity above the surface of the sea, in a gradual ascent from its shores to the summit of the mountain, which is cultivated nearly to the top ; and exhibiting its colossal bulk (in a nearly circular form, inclining towards a point as it ascends) in close asso- ciation with the grand sheet of water, by which it is sur- rounded ; and these united objects, bearing with irresistible effect, from their proximity to the eye, upon all the land- scapes of a country rising beautifully from the shores of Lough Swilly, into proud elevations, decorated with divers handsome villas and warm farm-houses, their mystic influ- ence upon the surrounding scenery, is not easily conceived by the eye and imagination, that have not been drawn by duty or by pleasure, within the magic circle of this eloquently silent picture. COXTOWN. Coxtown is the seat of Alexander Hamilton, Esq., and with divers other seats in this section of the county, it forms a respectable feature of improvement on the valuable and widely extended territory of the college of Dublin. It comprehends a good mansion house and 130 Irish acres of demesne, bearing the marks of improved cultivation, exhibiting a lawn and elevated lands neatly planted, and uniting with the appearance of a little wild moor in the distance, and with a still more distant mountain outline on the north, to communicate to this scene, such a blenditure of the works of Art with the wildness of Nature, as is well calculated to give a peculiar interest to the feelings, when the mind is in a calm and heath ful state. No geological survey of these lands having been executed that we heard of, nor any search made for the indications of mineral wealth by men of science ; their known interest is consequently reducible to the fertility of the soil, and to the works of artificial improvement that have been erected upon it. Coxtown stands on the public coach road communicating SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 479 between the towns of Ballyshannou and Donegal, four miles from the latter, and six from the former, which is the post town to it. DONAGHMORE GLEBE. The whole glebe attached to the parish of Donaghmore, of which the Rev. Mr. Trvinge is the incumbent, contains, according to our information, 1300 Conyngham acres, of which about 200 are appended to the house in the character of a demesne, being situated within the precincts of the parish. We believe these are College lands, and that this parish is in the gift of the College of Dublin ; but, be this as it may, it is somewhat singular that 1100 acres of glebe land should be appended to a parish in which it is not situated This however may be one of the old regulations that will undergo a change, when the property of the church and of the college come under the reforming finger of the law ; an event which, according to the signs of the times, that, in all probability, is not very far distant. But whatever may be the nature of this reform, it ought not to affect the life interest of any gentleman, who, under the protection of existing law, has paid a large sum (as we hear this gentle- man did) for the enjoyment of his parish. The reformers however of this branch of our system, appear to agree, that the present generation of incumbents should not be dis- turbed in the possession of their livings, but that the new system should commence with every succeeding incumbent ; and supposing the legislature willing to adopt this plan, would it not be the interest of the clergy to receive an equivalent for their tithes, and to enter at once upon a system of peace with their parishioners ? The soil of Donaghmore is well adapted to the growth of trees and plants. The various valuable trees with which the glebe lawn is enriched and beautified, prove this. A chalybeate spring is also said to exist here, but in an evi- dently neglected state. 4SO COUNTY OF DONEGAL, The house is a light and commodious edifice, and the church which stands within the precincts of the demesne, is no mean appendage to the beauty of the place. The River Finn forms a boundary to this property on the south, and on the east the demesne is protected by a wall of stone and lime. In this direction stands the village of Castle Finn, within about one and a half mile of the glebe house. It has a post office, and is called the post town to this seat. The lands of Donaghmore demesne, appear to rise with a gradual ascent from the lawn and river to their highest ele- Tation at the north; and from the summit of this lofty tract, they command a prospect of the spire of the cathedral of Deny, and a most interesting view along the vale. But what is of still more consequence, white granite, evidently capable of an exquisite polish, and that might be made to vie with the finest Italian marble, exists in this elevated land, of which we saw a striking specimen in that neigh- bourhood ; and yet our gentry cannot be satisfied without sending to foreign nations for a similar production at a ten- fold price, while the valuable fossils that would compose the most useful and interesting ornaments of their houses, are lying dormant in their own country, and the tradesmen and labourers that would derive a subsistence from their prepara- tion, destitute of employment and in want of bread ! OAKPARK. Oakpark, the seat and property of William Wray, Esq., embraces about 400 Conyngham acres on the western bank of Lough Swilly, a part of which (an alluvial soil reclaimed from the Lough) is perhaps the best land on the whole pro- perty.* As these lands on the banks of Lough Swilly are so well circumstanced for trade ; a mountain tract on this property (known by the name of Knockabrin) which contains strong * It is highly probable that some thousands of acres of land might be reclaimed from the sea at various points of Lough Swilly, by the adoption of proper measures. SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 481 indications of lead, may yet prove a valuable acquisition to the Wray family. This seat stands on a pleasing 1 elevation above the Lough, and commands an open view of the neighbouring country. It embraces a good mansion house and seventy-eight acres of demesne ornamentally planted ; situated on a line of road which opens a communication between Letterkenny and Rathmelton, at the distance of two miles from the latter, which is the post town to it. RATHMELTON. This is a little sea port town situated on the western shore of Lough Swilly, and watered by the River Lennan, which has its source in Lake Gartan (a Lake noticed in our recent report of Rockfield) surrounded by mountain land. This river, after having watered Rathmelton, and turned an extensive flour mill, a linen bleach mill, and several corn and flax mills, in its progress from Lake Gartan to this place, pours its tributary waters into Lough Swilly in the immediate neighbourhood of the town, which, though of very limited dimensions, carries on a small trade with Ame- rica and Norway, in timber, and exports corn to Liverpool and Glasgow. Small vessels of a hundred tons burthen can unlade here; and if the population of the neighbouring country had a prosperous manufacture, the trade of this little port would rapidly advance. Rathmelton is situated on the principal estate of Sir James Stewart, Bart, whose seat and lands have been already noticed in the reports of our visit to this county ; and from the liberal policy adopted by the lord of this town towards his tenantry, it will not be his fault if the town should not rapidly extend itself, as he grants leases in per- petuity of all plots for building ; and as a necessary conse- quence the town is improving ; it has many good buildings, and the houses are generally slated and look comfortable. 2 l 482 COUNTY OF DONEGAL, BALLYBOFEY AND STRANORLAR VILLAGE INNS. Ballybofey and Stranorlar are two proximate villages, separated from each other by the river Finn. They are situ- ated on the public coach road between the towns of Donegal and Letterkenny; and in a wild mountain country, not thickly inhabited, and so generally destitute of wood as is the county of Donegal, they are distinguished by certain natural and artificial advantages, which enable the compa- ratively animated landscape of these villages, to exercise the despotism of beauty by the force of contrast. The soil of this district of Donegal is by no means of the first class ; nor does it exhibit, so far as our information extends, any certain indications of mineral wealth. There is one respectable establishment however, in the neighbour- hood of those villages, that, in a commercial point of view, deserves the particular notice of the patriot. This is the linen bleach green of Mr. Johnson, of Naveny, within a mile of Ballybofey, where about 12,000 pieces of 7-8ths wide linens are annually bleached, and disposed of in the markets of Dublin and England. In such a wild mountain district as that of Donegal, and in such a period as the present, when the linen trade is in the lowest state of depression, we derived no small gratification from the observation of one bleaching establishment (and we believe there are a few more in the county, and a few only) maintaining a respect- able position on the map of this wild district, in defiance of all the calamities that have shaken the manufactures of our country to their base ; and we need hardly remark, that the clean and healthful employment afforded to some of our honest and industrious countrymen by this respectable esta- blishment, constituted no mean part of this just and plea- surable feeling. In reference to the comparatively animated beauties of the landscape just noticed, they commence, in your progress from Donegal to Letterkenny, with the plantations of Drum- boe castle, the seat of Sir Edmund Hayes, Bart., which , SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 483 extend about a mile along a verdant bank, beautifully ele- vated above the river Finn, which forms a boundary to this demesne ; and, in its wild and eccentric course through the vale beneath, exhibits to the eye, one of the most chaste and interesting objects in the scenery of the district through which it passes to the sea. To enjoy this prospect to advantage, a better site can scarcely be selected than that of Summerhill, the prettily elevated lodge of Mr. Charles Johnston (a cottage beauty, constituting, like that of Naveny, a very interesting feature of improvement on the Marquis of Conyngham's estate.) From this favourable position, the plantations of Drumboe castle are seen uniting with those of a Mr. Stewart, (on a noble hill richly planted, and forming a conspicuous feature of dignity and beauty in all the landscapes of this neigh- bourhood,) as also with the river Finn (pursuing its meand- ring course through the vale below) with the villages on its banks ; and with a valley better wooded and more thickly studded with cottages and farm houses, than is usual in this country, to complete the tout en semble of a scene, which, in such a county as that of Donegal, where combinations of this kind are not numerous, derives a comparatively powerful influence over the eye of observation from the force of contrast. But with all these advantages of prospect and aspect, Bal- lybofey and Stranorlar, are, with few exceptions, inhabited by an apparently poor and distressed people. Each of these villages has, nevertheless, an inn for the accommodation of strangers; but we would recommend as many of those travel- lers passing through Ireland, as can command the means of establishing themselves in populous towns, never to lodge at a village inn (unless in such very well frequented districts as those of Wicklow, Armagh, and Downshire) or they may perhaps, when too late, have occasion to repent of the confidence which they had reposed in them. The opulent public, who are not compelled by profes- sional duty to take up their abode at houses that are not 484 COUNTY OF DONEGAL, much frequented ; have but little idea of the evils that are sometimes entailed upon the constitution, by the damp beds and lodging rooms so frequently to be met with in these village habitations; although generally in what is called the best houses of this sort, great care is taken to conceal these evils beneath the beauties of a white counterpane, and the deceitful temporary blaze of a strong fire, introduced into the chamber upon the arrival of a stranger. And if, by a change of circumstances, the stranger happen to get rid of these deeper dangers (and of the petty frauds and impositions that sometimes accompany them, such as rotten hay and a wet bed for his horse, and half a crown for a salt herring, as a Dublin merchant once paid for this accommo- dation.) If, by shifting the scene, he should happen to escape from these deeper dangers, and alight upon a bed where consumption is not secretly lingering in the sheets and feathers ; and where no ungenerous imposition is prac- tised by the honest people of the house upon the stranger and his horse in a word, where the house is less pretend- ing, but more just and righteous in its dealings than the white counterpanes and blazing fires of higher rooms and prouder rank ; then the traveller may have to prepare him- self for the enjoyment of a new species of hixury, less fatal and deceitful it is true ; but still not very flattering to his feelings on a winter night, after having encountered the inclemency of the weather during the whole of a cold and stormy day such luxuries, for instance, as a plug of an old blanket stuck into the sash of his room window, as a sub- stitute for glass ; a total absence of all shutters and window curtains to dispute the entrance of the keen blast and the damp night air ; an eld tattered quilt that had perhaps done duty in all its various relations for half a century, thrown over the frame of his bed, as a substitute for a bed curtain ; with various other little items of honest homely simplicity of a nearly similar description, that it would be ridiculous to mention, and entirely too tedious to detail. We therefore recommend travellers of fortune to visit the SEATS, TOWNS. ETC. 485 rural districts of Ireland in summer only ; to take up their abode at the best frequented inns (at Newrath bridge in the County of Wicklow, there was one of this description, when we visited that county fourteen or fifteen years since) and at the end of every day devoted to observation and research, by no means to stop all night in houses which they do not know, but rather return every evening (until their final departure) to the house which they have PROVED, and where they have had sufficient evidence of safety to enjoy the innocent pleasures of their tour, without being goaded by bad treatment, or suffering under a painful anticipation of future ills. WOODS AND FENCES. The reader will observe in his passage through these notes, a frequent advertence to the generally bleak appearance of this county. This proceeds not only from the extremely limited number of woods and forests existing in this wild peninsular district (the naturally bold inequality of whose surface, and whose intimate connection with the ocean, would prove eminently favourable to the grandeur of these objects) but also from the absence of quickset fences and hedge rows, which give a country a wooded appearance ; and for which dry stone walls and bald clay ditches are the general substitutes. This state of affairs accounts for the generally bleak appearance of this peninsular (or semi-peninsular) district, in which, nevertheless, there is much natural wealth, some highly embellished seats, and even a few fine landscapes. TOWN OF DONEGAL. CONCLUSION. From the information of mariners we learn, that small vessels only can approach this town ; but at the distance of a mile from thence, there is said to be deep water, and every other necessary natural advantage, for the accommo- dation of ships of any burthen. This however, or any similar advantage, cannot force the trade of Donegal beyond 486 COUNTY OF DONEGAL, the level of its consumption and demand ; and this, in the circumstances of the surrounding country, must be very limited ; as, with the exception of some families of fortune, (and of these we believe, two or three of the most eminent are absentees) the majority of the inhabitants are poor, and consequently are not in a capacity to consume imports; while that wealthy and substantial class of the second rank, who are the chief supports of trade in all the countries that enjoy it, appear to be few in number in the country around this town. Since the settlement, however, of one or two spirited mercantile men in Donegal, (we believe from the neigh- bourhood of Belfast) the trade of this town is said to have made a very considerable progress, as the shop-keepers can now procure their goods at the best markets, and at the least possible expense ; although previous to the settlement of these merchants, and the establishment of some small vessels at this port, they were obliged to purchase their goods from a superior kind of shop-keepers at second hand, subject also to the heavy expenses of package and land carriage from distant towns in their own island. Donegal, from the circumstances of its local district, can never expect to have more than a limited trade, so long as Ireland shall remain destitute of manufactures ; whereas if the existing obstacles to the trade of Ballyshannon and Enniskillen were removed, the period is not far distant (considering the rich and populous counties around Lough Erne that would consume their imports) until they would rival Belfast in manufactures and commerce, and far outstrip Derry in the march of trade and wealth. They would indeed be the Greenock and Glasgow of the North of Ire- land, (as Hamilton and M'Gowan have well observed) for Nature, and other most favourable concurrent circumstances, unite to prepare them for the enjoyment of a great trade. All that is wanted to accomplish the purposes of Providence, is a little assistance from the hand of Art. We do not expect to live to see that assistance granted but we believe that SEATS, TOWNS, ETC. 487 it will be granted in a little time ; for the stake of the landed interest of Donegal and Fermanagh in this question, is too deep to be much longer trifled with. In the mean time we have laboured, in our own humble department, to do our duty ; and trusting that the landed interests of Donegal and Fermanagh will do theirs, and that Ballyshannon and Enniskillen will yet be the glory of the North-West district ; we beg the reader's indulgent attention to the foregoing specimens of that district, with which we now close our Tour; and soliciting his favourable allowance for the nume- rous errors and defects to which age, infirmity, and a variety of acutely painful circumstances, have unavoidably exposed us; we have the honour to remain, with best wishes, his very faithful, and obedient, humble servant, THE AUTHOR. NATIONAL EDUCATION. As this subject, so important in itself, and so fruitful oi public disputation in a divided country, has been only noticed incidentally in the progress of this work, we wish to make a few remarks upon it, under a distinct and separate head, before we close this volume. We are, then, decidedly of opinion, that a deep and fatal wound to the moral and literary interests of Ireland, was inflicted upon that country by the LAW, when Parliament, withdrawing its support from the system of education con- fided to the Society at Kildare-street, Dublin, disturbed the operations of that system, and gave birth to a rival scheme in direct opposition to it. Before we had deeply weighed and considered this ques- tion, our anxiety to promote a kind and friendly intercourse between the children of our country, had rendered us favour- able to a system of education, from which the Scriptures (as a book fruitful of controversy) should be excluded ; and a reading book, furnished with moral precepts from the New Testament (to which all Christians nominally subscribe) substituted in its place, as a book of general instruction; leaving the clergy of the contending churches to instruct the children of their respective flocks in their chapels, and at their own houses, in those dogmas of theology which they feel to be essential to the maintenance of their respec- tive systems, a mode, we were perfectly aware, that would meet the views of the Catholic clergy ; as a school-book (however furnished with moral precepts) would not maintain that authority in the minds of Christian youth, that the New Testament would be likely to do, being received and acknowledged by the clergy of all Christian churches as the Word of God. This (from the anxiety which we felt for the adoption of measures calculated to promote a moral amalgamation of NATIONAL EDUCATION. 489 the people of a divided country) was our first impression but when we had considered the subject more deeply, and found cause to suspect that a wish was entertained by laics and clergymen of the popular party to hoodwink the people, and to obtain an ascendant in the government of education, for purposes which we deemed to be corrupt and selfish, our opinion of this great and important subject underwent a change ; and that change was confirmed and rendered final, by an attentive consideration of the impartial system adopted by the Kildare-street Board, for the government and instruc- tion of their schools ; the Catholic and English versions of the New Testament, without note or comment, being dis- tributed by them for the accommodation of the children of the two churches ; and teachers properly qualified for the instruction and management of the schools, sent down from Dublin, without reference to their religious creeds. So long then as the Kildare-street Board of Education acted upon these impartial principles, we think it ought not to have been disturbed; more particularly as the Lancas- terian system of education, which it administered, always embraced the New Testament, without note or comment, as a part and parcel of the system of instruction adopted by Joseph Lancaster in the management of his schools. And to this system, when first introduced into Ireland, the Irish public of all parties, actively or passively subscribed, as the best which could be introduced into that country, for the instruction of the poor, under existing circumstances. To disturb it, therefore, when firmly established, and doing much actual good, was, in our deliberate opinion, an act of great moral injustice to the poor of Ireland; for if the Scriptures of the New Testament be indeed a record of the will of God, a Christian Government should cause them to be read and supported ; and if they are not that record, they should be rejected as an imposture; for between these extremes we can see no medium ; and as to the commen- taries of men, their object may be seen through at a single glance, since the duties which we owe to each other are 2 K 490 NATIONAL EDUCATION. made so plain in the New Testament, that he who runs may read them ; and in reference to religious theories, about which the sects differ (and by which the priests of all parties live plump and happy) experience has proved that human commentaries cannot reconcile them and since God has not thought proper to append a comment of his own to the book which he has given (reserving to himself, who is alone equal to the task, the office of enlightening the human mind upon its mysterious doctrines) the overweening solicitude of the Catholic clergy for the establishment of their own expla- nations of the text, may be easily accounted for ; and this alone, if there were no other reason, would convince us, that the British government acted extremely wrong when they displaced the Lancasterian system of education, that had been long established, and was doing well, in order to make room for that milk and water system of moral and literary instruction, into which the persevering clamours of the Catholic leaders of the poor of Ireland did at length cajole them. As to the infallibility of those commentaries to which the Catholic clergy generally attach so much importance, this indeed may do very well for the poor of Ireland who are ignorant of the question ; but to those persons of common observation, who know that the notes and commentaries of Catholic divines upon the Sacred Volume have been so various, that the late Roman Catholic Archbishop Troy, of the diocese of Dublin, having given an incautious appro- bation to one of those commentaries upon an authorized version of the Catholic Bible, afterwards felt himself bound, upon a closer inspection of the notes, to recant this appro- bation ; a recantation for which he is said to have been menaced with a law-suit by Gumming, the Dublin book- seller, who had undertaken to print and publish the work upon the strength of the Doctor's name ; the cunning Scotch bookseller well knowing that under the protection of this name, with the odour of those black and demoniac descriptions of the Protestant Reformers, which the notes NATIONAL EDUCATION. 491 contained, the book would have sold well in the Irish market; (for Ireland is the market for such books as this;) and no doubt had Gumming proceeded in his prosecution of the suit, he would have recovered large damages from Doctor Troy for this serious disappointment. So much, then, for the infallibility of those corrupt explanations of the Word of God, which the Catholic clergy insist on as essen- tial to a knowledge of its true meaning ; and so much for the wisdom of a Protestant government in up-rooting a useful and well-established system of liberal Christian edu- cation, in deference to the clamours of an injured body of men, who, by a wise government, would, long since, by a state provision, have been rendered independent of a nefa- rious traffic in human credulity, and in ignorance, its inse- parable attendant. Those who have heard of the famous notes just noticed, have also, in all probability, received some account of the luminous biblical commentaries of a Catholic bishop, whose demoniac descriptions of the Protestant heretics and heresy, and his confident predictions of their approaching ruin (a work generally known in Ireland by the name of Pastorini's Prophecies) led numerous Irishmen to believe that a total overthrow of the Protestants and their religion, would take place in Ireland about three years since. At that time a general massacre was talked of by many; but when the predicted period arrived, Mr. O'Connell, by an ingenious explanation of the prophetic figures, postponed the fulfil- ment of the prophecy for a year or more ; and as without his approbation there can be no massacre (and he will never sanction it) the necessary consequence has been, that from that period to this, the pious and infallible prophecy of Pastorini has remained in abeyance ! So much, then, for these infallible notes, and for destroy- ing the best system of education that was ever established in Ireland ! The cause, however, of Catholic opposition to the New Testament, without note or comment, is probably this, and 492 NATIONAL EDUCATION. we derive our opinion of this cause from the well-known operations of nature, when forced by untoward events into a vicious circle, which its interest commands it to defend. The Catholic clergy, and the Irish poor, were robbed of their property by the state. From that state they received no equivalent. In the Protestant warfare which succeeded against them, the Bible was made the religious auxiliary of the English arms. It was a war of liberty against religious despotism, and thank God that it succeeded but still as the Catholics were the losers in this warfare, it is not surprising that they should have a sore feeling towards the English Bible, which was played off against them with such singular success. Our recommendation therefore to the English government is, to give an equal and impartial trial to the two systems of education, until that which is intrinsically the best for a free country, shall evidence its superiority to the other, by the superior beauty and benevolence of its fruits. D. MARPLES, PRINTER, LIVERPOOL. ^ I ~ LII7 1 liirrl ti ~Z "3=