The dwellings and offices of the common farmers are in general humble, even to wretchedness. In the customary mode of letting lands, the erection and repair of farm-buildings are left entirely to the tenant, who is too often equally destitute of capital and emulation. So powerful is the effect of habit, that the miserable character of the Irish farmer's dwelling is certainly a subject of regret with the spectator, new to the manners of the country, rather than to himself. For, if he obtain opulence, he seldom improves his habitation; and it must constantly be held in remembrance by the traveller, that, low as may be the estate of the Irish husbandman, his house and its appurtenances are abject beneath the measure of his condition. This sordid neglect of the respectable vanities of life, we might say of its becoming decencies, acts as a blot on the face of the country, perpetually injurious to its most attractive natural beauties.

We gladly refer as much as is practicable of the unpleasing task of censure, to the pen of a native writer, and extract the following descriptive passage from Mr. Tighe's Agricultural Survey of Kilkenny, but not without previously remarking that future pages will afford us the opportunity of noticing many favourable exceptions::- "The houses of rich farmers are generally far inferior to their means, and are such as exempt them from windowtax and often from hearth-money; but the greatest failing is in the offices; the barn is generally a shed to thresh on, with no floor but the natural soil; the stable a hovel; a cow-house is often not to be found; no yard is appropriated to pigs; the corn stands alone to mark the farm; a shed to protect the implements of tillage was never thought of; the richest farmers always leave the plough and harrow in the corner of the last field they tilled; such parts of harness as may not consist of gads or sugans, is secured in the house; and with the smaller farmers, if the car does not stop some gap, called a gate-way, it may lie against the ditch or on the dung-hill. The offices are sometimes covered with potatoe stalks, which form a very bad thatch."

The dreary aspect of the ordinary Irish farm is increased by the usual character of the fences, or lines of partition between

respective fields. These frequently consist of mere earthen banks, or of stone walls constructed without cement. The neat quickset hedge, which so greatly adorns the farms of England, and, when well managed, forms a fence almost equally impervious with the common wall of stone, in regard to the larger species of animals, is growing into partial use, and will probably meet with a gradual, but universal, adoption in counties where stone does not abound. In the south of Ireland furze is sometimes planted on the banks dividing fields.

The levy of tithes in this country is subject to some peculiarities, which are very generally believed to be of an injurious nature. In the year 1735, the Irish House of Commons came to a resolution that" any lawyer assisting in a prosecution for tithes of agistment, should be considered as an enemy to his country ;" and tithes of this species were formally abolished, by an act of the Imperial Parliament, at the time of the Union. By the term agistment, or herbage, is understood a payment for grazing cattle, made in lieu of the tithe of grass; and thus, the whole tithes of Ireland fall on the land appropriated to tillage, which, as we have shown, is chiefly in the hands of small occupiers, the greater number being only cotter-tenants.

This circumstance is the more severely pernicious, as it is an evil that increases with the augmentation of tillage, which is annually taking place to a considerable extent. The distresses often caused by collecting this partial tithe from the impoverished class on whom it almost entirely falls, would wound humanity in the recital, and not seldom lead to acts of midnight vengeance, the origin of which remains unexplained by popular chroniclers.

Notwithstanding the abolition of tithes on agistment, the tithe of lambs and wool is still demanded. There occur some exceptions to the general system, which are remarkable on account of the irregularity of their operation. Thus, in the province of Ulster, potatoes are not deemed titheable, whilst in Munster tithe is universally paid by this important crop.

Tithes are usually collected in Ireland by an agent, termed a proctor; who, immediately previous to harvest, forms an estimate

of the probable quantity of the crop, and makes a charge to the proprietor, on the scale of the market prices. This mode of collecting is evidently calculated to produce many acts of injustice and oppression.

Except on grazing and dairy farms, the article of capital is rarely taken into consideration. Exempt from heavy taxes and poor's rates, and incurring little expense for machinery, the agriculturalist adventures on the occupation of land, with a reliance on manual exertion. It requires no argument to show that excellence of cultivation must necessarily be a stranger to this career of poverty. So entirely is the farmer unacquainted with the benefit to be derived from the investment of capital in agricultural pursuits, that if, by a course of fortunate industry and penurious living, he amass a sum of money, he frequently buries it in the ground, and draws on the hidden treasure only on some family exigence, as the marriage of a daughter. This system of burying money appears to be a practice of recent origin, but is now very common.

Amongst the few solid advantages possessed by the Irish farmer must be mentioned the absence of poor's rates,* which, as it affects himself, is a benefit of great importance. The land is, likewise, generally enclosed, and he is thus exempt from the embarrassing prevalence of the open, or common field, and lammas lands. There are radical evils which no experimental association can remedy, but it is with pleasure we notice the existence of an institution which is creditable to the national spirit, and promises to be of distinguished service to the science of rural economy. The Farming Society of Ireland was founded in the year 1800, and consists at present of about one thousand members. Its objects are the improvement of agriculture and live stock, and the encouragement of planting, together with the cultivation of

It is almost superfluous to observe that Ireland is entirely exempt from "Poor's Laws," or compulsory levies for the maintenance of those who are at once indigent and helpless. This is usually deemed a great advantage to the country; but it would appear that the abuse, rather than the existence of Poor's Laws, is injurious to national welfare.

Sheer

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industry, sobriety, and cleanliness, among the lower orders connected with husbandry. This society has two principal establishments; the one in Dublin and the other in Ballinasloe, a town celebrated for the importance of its cattle fairs. Annual exhibitions of fat cattle, sheep, and swine are held in Dublin, and of breeding stock at Ballinasloe. Attached to the establishment at Dublin is a manufactory of implements on an approved plan.

MANUFACTURES AND COMMERCE.-Manufactures, cultivated on judicious principles, are peculiarly desirable in a country like Ireland, where the population greatly exceeds the demand for agricultural labour. But it is to be regretted that many causes operate in retarding the increase and prosperity of manufactures, on a large and diversified scale. A deficiency of fuel has long prevented a due application of industry to the mines of iron* and copper, which are frequent in this island; and, in regard to several other branches of manufacture, an evident want of stimulus proceeds from the habits and manners of the country. The internal trade of Ireland is much less than would be expected from its extent of population, even after making allowance for several circumstances unfavourable to the diffusion of competence. This paucity of commercial interchange proceeds from the rude ease with which a great proportion of the inhabitants supply themselves with the sordid necessaries of life; and to nearly all its superfluities they are entire strangers. On this head, the descriptive remarks of Sir William Petty (in his Political Anatomy) are still applicable to the bulk of the people: "they live in such cottages as themselves can make in three or four days; eat such food as they buy not from others; and wear such cloaths as the wool of their own sheep, spun into yarn by themselves, doth

make."

* Before the commencement of the seventeenth century, when Ireland still possessed considerable tracts of woodland, iron, in an unwrought state, was exported to England in considerable quantities. Mr. Chalmers observes, in his " Historical View," p. 408, note, on the authority of a "curious document," that 449 tons of iron were exported from Ireland, in the year 1626. Sir William Petty affirms that, in the year 1672, there were "2000 persons employed in making iron."

1

The only manufacture that is so far of national importance as to produce a surplus for exportation, is that of linen, the chief seat of which is the province of Ulster. In the pages descriptive of that district we present more extended remarks on the history and present state of this distinguished branch of Irish commerce (the great staple of the kingdom!) which first attained a flourishing aspect in the reign of Charles I. under the auspices of the Earl of Strafford, then lord deputy.

Although Ulster is the national emporium of the linen manufacture, various branches of industry, connected with the trade in linen, extend through nearly the whole of Ireland. The growth of the flax-plant, and the several operations it undergoes before it is made into cloth, afford employment to numerous persons in each of the provinces. In many parts the flax is grown merely as an article of agricultural produce; and in others the manufacture extends no further than to spinning. Frequently the whole process, from the growth of the flax to the weaving of the cloth, is carried on by the same family. But, in every district except the north, the manufacture chiefly consists of a coarse article.

The cotton manufacture was introduced to Ireland so lately as the year 1785. Due machinery is employed in this beneficial trade, which appears to be of increasing importance, and has been lately extended to muslins, with considerable success.

In some parts of the south, and particularly in the neighbour. hood of Cork, the manufacture of sail cloth is cultivated; but the article in general produced is not judged equal to the cloth of Russia and Germany.

The manufacture of woollen cloth was in so thriving a state in the seventeenth century, as to create an illiberal and impolitic jealousy in the English manufacturers, who obtained, in the reign of William III. an act prohibiting the exportation of wool, yarn, and "new and old drapery," from Ireland to any other place than England, under a penalty of £500 for every offence, besides forfeiture of the ship and cargo. Thus restricted, the manufacture declined, and at length became almost extinct; but it is lately revived, with no inconsiderable show of vigour, in the south. No