toes. attributed to the ufe of falt meat or fish with potaStomach complaints are common in the North of Ireland with those who use much oatmeal, and animal food is the best remedy. In the county of Meath, the labourers who emigrate from counties where fuel is plenty, get agues from fleeping in damp barns without fuel. The poor are fo convinced of the infufficiency of potatoes to give them the full use of their limbs, that in harvest, if they can afford it, they procure a little bread, to enable them to work harder; particularly the mowers; and perhaps one reason why they get fo much higher wages in England as labourers than the natives, is, that the more nutritious food they get there, enables them to make exertions they could not have made while feeding on potatoes. I have known a fingle labourer clear twenty-one pounds in fix months in England. Is it not a melancholy thing that fuch industry muft export itself to find materials? Has not every one seen that, where they had fmall patches of land in their hands, their labour not pre-occupied, and their tenure fufficient, their induftry did wonders. have seen them throw from the point of their fpades, fods that thofe who revile their indolence could not lift. A man of the name of Armitrong cleared an acre of ground near Ballymahon, in the county of Longford, of rocks five or fix feet cube, on condition of having it rent free for two years. The fame acre of land, which had been cleared, fet for only twenty-fhillings an acre. I know a I man 要 at man who took a few acres, not more than ten, abou two miles and an half from Waterford, on the Paffage road, the ground overgrown with rocks and with furze; he paid thirty fhillings an acre, he broke the rocks with fledges, and worked them down the fide of the hill with his fingle labour. When I returned to that country a few years after, I found he had built three houses, and fet off enough of the land to leave him rent free during his leafe. I understand that in the county of Clare, wherever a fmall rough patch has been let for any confiderable time, the poor have fhewn great industry and had great fuccefs. In the county of Longford I understand fome men thrive on three-acres, three guineas an acre, holding it at double the Farmer's price, and at will. At Elphin in 1787, land near the town was five guineas an acre, labourers five-pence a day and half the year no demand, this neighbourhood fent great numbers of emigrating labourers to England, and this with the women's. fpinning at four-pence a day, was what principally fupported them. There lives a man a little beyond Mr. Cope's lime-kiln at the beginning of the Miltown path-way, he holds two acres at eleven guineas an acre for thirty years, has built an houfe on the land, and supports a pretty large family by his own labour and that of an old father. Another poor man at Coldblow-lane, holls fix acres at the fame price, thefe have the Dublin market for fresh milk and garden-ftuff. But a mile and half from Waterford ten guineas an acre is paid for potatoe ground, ground, if near enough to the river to be conveniently manured by the river mud. Every perfon at all acquainted with the country can multiply fuch obfervations without end. Contraft this fituation with that of America, excepting the immediate vicinity of large cities: their labour is five or fix fhillings a day, and land for ten-fhillings an acre, may be purchafed rent free for ever. The numbers of the people encrease, independently of the arrival of strangers, much fafter than in European countries, and every encrease, fo far from embarraffing is an evident advantage to every district; beggary is unknown. Spallanzani fays the Lipari iflands though extremely poor, barren, and wonderfully populous, have no beggars, and affigns as a reafon that every man has a little land. Hence we may conclude, that the great defiderata in the political economy of Ireland are thefe, to encrease the value of labour, and to diminifh the price of land, preferving every man's property. To effect thefe objects many schemes may be propofed, I fhall mention fome which I think deferve confideration. I fhall first hastily detail one of thefe, and then explain the grounds of these points most likely to objection. Let £200,000 be raised on the fecurity of Government in addition to the loan of the year, and let thofe, who choofe to fubfcribe to this loan, have the promise of Government, that the money fhall be applied for the purposes to be mentioned. Let eftates be purchased, preferring the following cir cumftances cumstances; that they are nearly out of leafe, that the Farmers fhould confent to fell their interefts, or many of them, on reafonable terms, that the eftate fhall contain a good deal of that coarfe ftony ground, which can more conveniently be tilled with the fpade, than with the plough, let eftates be bought as reasonably as poffible, and as many as may be of the Farmer's purchased out. The commiffioners appointed to make thefe purchases might advertise, that on a certain day, they would receive fealed proposals for the fale of eftates, or farms, of such and fuch deferiptions, and that the propofals should not be altered, except all were rejected; after the propofals were given in, furveyors fhould be appointed to judge of the eligibility of different offers and the best be clofed with. The commiffioners fhould be obliged to publish all their offers, and the reafons of their preference. Survey the purchased ground, and divide it into lots. If the ground be fuch, as to a Farmer, taking fifty acres, would fet at thirty fhillings, let the lots be four acres each. If the ground be of the coarfe kind above mentioned (which I think would answer beft for this scheme,) and fuch as would fet to a Farmer at fix or eight fhillings an acre, the fize of the lots fhould vary from feven to eleven acres. The fize of the farms should be determined principally by the facility of procuring manure; the eafier that, the smaller the farm might be. The nature of the foil fhould be the next confideration. The distance from market would be of much lefs confequence than than might at first be fuppofed. If turf bog was convenient, a portion fhould be annexed to each lot. When a confiderable number of lots were marked, and ready for fale, after fix months notice by advertisements and pofted bills, thefe fmall farms fhould be fold by public auction to the highest bidder of rent for ever. If the total of the rents exceeded fix and one-half per cent on the purchase money, and expences of dividing, then every man's rent fhould be proportionably reduced, until the total was reduced to fix and one-half per cent. Leafes fhould be given containing a claufe of furrender on the part of the tenant, for the first three years, at fix months notice, and a clause to give liberty to fine down the rent, at twenty years purchase, and conditions to build a house in fix months, and refide three years, or forfeit the leafe. But after this the leafe fhould be entirely at the difpofal of the purchafer. The following preferences only fhould be given, of. married men to bachelors, and of married men having three children, to the married men not hav ing them, each of these gradations might be an equivalent for one shilling in the pound, when in com-. petition with the inferior. The Cottiers who were found on the land fhould have their lots undivided, if not much exceeding the appointed fize, and if lefs, encreased, and fhould have a confiderable preference to every other bidder for their own ground. The Farmers who were bought out if they choose to continue in the neighbourhood, fhould have two or three |