THE person who wishes to travel through Ireland, but is

unable to give effect to his will, cannot have a better substitute for an doubtless, sufficient

political and religious prejudices or bias : opinions on these points with Ireland. His book is one of impressions, facts. and personal

that healing measures, coupled with an extensive and practicable system of edit- conclusions, or rather opinions. He started from Dublin in the cation, will gradually diminish the necessity for coercion of any kiwi. Let Go- spring of the present year, with " upwards of one hundred and vernmeut continue to act with moderation; let the Tithe question be settled ; thirty letters of introduction, to persons of all ranks from the peer let the extremes of all parties be discouraged ; let Irish interests be not sa- to the farmer" (to the peasant he introduced himself): and these crificed to a too paltry economy ; let agitation for all dishonest purposes be firmly met, and agitators scorned ; let the Church be wisely, but thoroughly

letters were prolific, producing thrice as many ere Mr. INGLIS re-

turned to Dublin. His route was right round Ireland, with England already give it credit for—a sympathy with the real evils of the occasional trips directly inland, when he deemed any place country, and a determination, spite of landlords, spite of Church dignitaries, 'worthy of inspection, or occasional diversions where the arms spite of agitators of all kinds, to do justice. Let all this be, and Ireland will of the sea— perhaps rather the tongues of land they cause continue but a little while longer the distracted, poverty. stricken, crushed, and offered nothing to excite the curiosity of the traveller, or unhappy land, which a century of neglect and misgovernment has made it. —

the absence of a path barred his progress. The object of the It will be guessed from what has been said already, that the author was to instruct rather than to amuse; to inform us work abounds with extractable matter—gossipy, descriptive, per- sonal, social, and nationally characteristic. Our quotations, bow- best to the actual condition of the Irish people. and to suggest the ever, shall be chiefly confined to one object—that of throwing a best modes of remedying their distresses. His manner of present- ing his ideas, and so far of working out his conclusions, is to write light upon the state of the people or the country. Even here, we down every thing in the order of its occurrence; riot day by day, are obliged to omit many passages that had been marked.

week by week, or stage by stage (for Mr. INGLIS is too old a RENTS AND COTTAGE ECONOMY IN WICKLOW. traveller not to know that a day or a week or a stage may offer I found rents in Wicklow such as, for the most part, could never be paid by little worth recording), but, if one may so say, point by point. the produce of the land ; and the small farmers, as well as labourers, barely subsisting. High rent was the universal complaint; and the complaint was When he comes to a place distinguished for its prospect, be fully borne out by the wretched manner in which I found the people, Catholic describes it; if the aspect of the country in connexion with and Protestant, living. And if the question be put to them why they take the state of the peasantry is the most striking feature, that land at a rent which they know it will not bear, the reply is always the same: matter is noted ; is a good or a bad landlord the distinguishing how were they to live ? what could they do? From which answer we at once mark of the neighbourhood, his character is given in the narrative arrive at the truth,—that competition fur land in Ireland is but the outbiddings of his conduct ; if the household facts of the poor—the rate of of desperate eircumstaw:es. As for the condition of the labouting classes, I found little to bear out the as- wages, the certainty of employment, and the mode of living—be the sertions of some of Illy Dublin friends to whom Wicklow ought to have been matter most worthy of note, they are set down ; should statistics familiar, that I should find all the labourers employed and tolerably comfortable. be the one thing important, statistics are given ; frequently we On one of the afternoons I spent here, I walked up a mountain road, and, after have the appearance of the people ; and, last but not least— a short walk, reached a glen with several cabins scattered in it ; and three of for those who would follow his route—the prices of travelling and these I visited. The first I entered was a mud cabin—one apartment. It was neither air nor the charges at inns: when all or any of these things are conjoined water tight, and the floor was extremely damp. The furniture consisted of a is great, and is not on the decline, if it be not (which it seems to 1 entered one other cabin : it was the most comfortless of the three,—it wits be) increasing; and the necessaries of life are cheap. He found the neither air nor water tight, and bad no bedstead, and no furniture, excepting a stool and a pot ; and there were not even the embers of a fire. In this miser- hospitality of the gentry boundless, the expenditure of the table able abode there was a decently dressed woman with five children ; and her profuse, and, in his own emphatic language, a " starving people." husband was also a labourer, at sixpence per day. This family had had a pig, In the North—where manufacturers are established—there is less but it had been taken for rent a few days before. They had hoped to be able to of distress; in some places, an unembarrassed, humane, and intel- appropriate the whole of the daily sixpence to their support, and to pay the ligent landlord, or his agent, may reduce the misery of their own rent by means of the pig ; but the ncessities of nature, with the high price of immediate tenants; but the bulk of the people vegetate through rotaries had created an arrear before the pig was old enough to be sold. The landlord might not be to blame ; he was a very small farmer of hill land, at life on insufficient food, and, there is too much reason to conclude, I twenty shillings an acre; and was just as hard set to live and pay his rent, as die prematurely from diseases brought on by starvation. I his humbler dependent was.

What are the causes of this frightful state of things ? In Mr.

TasesLe all he alleges. Something, however, is chargeable on the impro-

Ireland in 1834. A Journey throitehoht Indent during the Spring, Summer, and vidence of the national character ; much on the grasping cupidity Autumn of MI. By Henry I). Inglis. Author a " spain iu 1s30," "The Channel of hard-hearted and embarrassed landlords ; a good deal may be

ninesApee. assigned to the factions and feuds of the peasantry and the people

Life or Sir Walter Scott, Baronet ; %hit Critical Notices of his Writings. By George generally, as well as to the corruptions of the magistracy ; all of Allan. Esq. Irenad.Ediaburgh. the most revolting cases of misery might be alleviated by a well- Ten ARNUAEL heath's Book of Beauty, for 1931 Edited by the Countess of Blessington. regulated Poor-law. But the great root of the evil is the want of Longman awl Co. employment, and the competition for land ; which last, indeed, is t N tl j,IS'S _IRELAND I N 1 834.

consequent upon the want of employment. In other words, he- ov

land is at present to support her population: if all that Mr. beaus recommends were or could be carried into effect at the excursion than Mr. Iecus's volumes. He will miss, of course, some time, her resources might be sufficiently developed to era- the novelty and excitement attendant upon motion and change of ploy and support them now : but, as things are, and as they are scene; and his general ideas of external objects, derived from likely to continue, those who dwell in the land cannot be fed. description, will be very faint in comparison with the impressions of reality. We suspect, however, that the million will learn more The remedies Mr. INGLIS proposes are as numerous as the from the book, and see more too with their " mind's eye," than if causes of the disorders. The chief are as follows. He would

have the landlords lower their rents ; but this, though a matter of they actually scampered over the ground traversed. Mr. INGLIS prudence on their parts, is obviouely beyond the reach of le Isla. is an experienced and a cheerful traveller. He can see something

ton. Ile wriuld introduce a Poor-law ; a most desirable measure, where others find all barren ; he also knows where to look for the as it would alleviate the horrible scenes of distress which at pre- most striking things that are to be seen ; practice and necessity sent are rife in Ireland, and compel the landowners to attend to have rubbed off the reserve or the mauraise honte of a new tourist, the condition of the people. But a Poor-law, be it remembered and not only enabled him to make himself at home with all (though many, by their talk and their acts, seem to fancy other- classes, but to "rough it " when needs must. He has also many wise), has no magic power of creating wealth; it can only alter

But let me observe, that the causes of these disturbances are the same as those

he no doubt has, though we really know not what they are. which answer to the call of political agitation—imperfect civilization and want The reader must not from all this derive exaggerated notions of Of employment. Education, employment for the people, and a vigorous ad- Mr. Ireaus's work ; or expect that, in a tour of a few months, he ministration of the law, will dissolve the elements of these as well as of all to solve all the questiones v

to maintain in Ireland any thing like order and decorum, I have as little doubt reformed ; let, in short, the Government continue to show—what the people of

I

I am only beginning my journey : this is but the county of Wicklow; and I sae told that I should find all so comfortable in Wicklow, that from the com- paratively happy condition of the peasantry there, I must be cautious in form- ing any opinion of the peasantry generally. While I write this sentence, I write in utter ignorance of what I may yet see ; for I write this work almost in the manner of a diary—noting down my observations from week to week : but from what I have already area, I am entitled to fling back with indignation the osertion that all the Irish industrious poor may find employment. But what employment? employment which affords one stone of dry potatoes per day for woman and her four children.

A labourer in this county considers himself fortunate in having daily em- ployment at sixpence throughout the year; and many ate not so tortunate. I tound some who received only fivepence ; but there are many who cannot ob- tain constant employment, and these have occasional labour at tenpence or one shilling ; but this only fur a few weeks at a time. I found the small farmers living very little more comfortably than the labourers. A 'little butter-milk added to the potatoes made the chief difference.

THE DEAD LETTER AND THE LIVING TRUTH : THE FALLACY OP STATISTICS.

But let me leave externals, and ask, in what state are the people of Kil- kenny ? I wish I could have contemplated their situation with as much com- placency and pleasure as I did the city itself, and the natural beauties that sur- round it; but I am compelled to say, that I found the most wide-spread and most aggravated misery. The population of Kilkenny is about 25,000; and I tin enabled to state, after the most anxious inquiry and close personal obser- vation, that there were at the time I visited Kilkenny, upwards of 2000 persons

totally without employment. It chanced that I was at Kilkenny just after the debate on the Repeal question; in which the prosperity of lieland was illus- trated by reference to that of Kilkenny, of whose prosperous manufactures honourable mention was made, condescending even upon the number of water wheels at work,—which were said to be eleven in number ; and the carpet-inanu. factory, too, was spoken of in such terms that it was said to be owing to its success that the weavers of Kidderminster had petitioned for Repeal. 1 visited these prosperous factories immediately after the account I have mentioned was received : the principal of these factories used to support two hundred men with their families. It was at eleven o'clock—a fair working hour—that I visited these mills ; and how many men did I find at work ?-0NE MAN ! And how many of the eleven wheels did I find going ?-0NE! and that one, not for the purpose of driving machinery, but to prevent it from rotting. In place of find- ing men occupied, I saw them in scores, like spectres, walking about, and lying about the mill. I saw immense piles of goods completed, but for which there was no sale. I saw piles of cloth at 2s. a yard, with which a man might clothe himself from head to foot for 10s. ; but there were no buyers—the poor of Kil- kenny are clothed from Monmouth Street. I saw heaps of blankets, enough to furnish every cabin in the county ; and I saw every loom idle. As fur the carpets which had excited the jealousy and fears of Kidderminster, not one had been made for seven months ; it was but an experiment, and had utterly failed. And just to convey some idea of the destitution of these people, when an order recently arrived for the manufacture of as many blankets for the Police as would have kept the men at work a few weeks, bonfires were lighted about the country—not bonfires to communicate insurrection, but to evince joy that a few starving men were about to earn bread to support their families. I speak warmly on this subject ; but how can I speak otherwise than with warmth ? Surely I need not say, that I do not accuse any one of false invention, or wilful misrepresentation ; but I accuse some one of having furnished to the advocates of the Union lies in place of truth. Their views required no such props ; and I, who am no Repealer, regret that an argument should be thus furnished to the Repealere. The supporters of the Union advance as an argument against the Repeal of the Union, the prosperity of Ireland ; and Kilkenny is quoted as an illustration of that prosperity. The statement turns out to be utterly false; and thus the Repeaters boast that they have a stronger case.

THE LIBERTY BOYS AT HOME.

I was now in O'Connell's country : here was the property of Daniel O'Con- nell, Esq., or the Liberator, as the people call him ; there, the property of Charles O'Connell, Esq. ; and there again the property of another O'Connell : but the greater part of the O'Connell property—almost all that of the O'Connell— is held under head landlords; and he is only an extensive middle. man. Near to Cahir-siveen is the birthplace of the greatAgitator. It is a ruined house, situated in a hollow near to the road ; and when I reached the spot, the driver of the car pulled up, and inquired whether I would like to visit the house. But the driver of my car was not a native of these parts; for be it known to the reader, that O'Connell is less popular in his own country than he is elsewhere. if you ask an innkeeper, or an innkeeper's wife, anywhere in O'Connell's district, what sort of a man their landlord is ? " Och, and sure he's the best o' landlords!— he takes the chatter by the hand, and he wouldn't be over proud to dthrink tay with the landlady." But if you step into a cabin, the holder of which owns Daniel O'Connell, Esq. as his landlord, and if vou ask the same question, he'll scratch his head, and say little any way. Shortly before I visited Cahir-siveen, there was a road-presentation in that neighbourhood, and the rate-payers who have now a vote iu these matters, refused at first to pass it, unless the ()Ton- nells would pay two thirds of the expense; " Because," said they, "the O'Con- nells have lived long enough out of road presentations!"

GOODNESS OF THE INNS.

I have already spoken of the goodness of the Irish inns. My remarks, how- ever, were made before I hail travelled into the remoter parts of the country ; and when I remarked to any Irish person, that I had found the inns better than 1 expected, I was told to suspend my judgment until I had visited the less-fre- quented parts of the country. I have now travelled through the remotest ex- tremities of the wilds of Kerry, and I find no reason to retract the opinion I expressed. At Kenmare, at Cahir-siveen, at Dingle, at Listowel, and now at Tarbert, I fouud condonable and clean inns. I have at this inn a well and newly-carpeted room, with good mahogany chairs, three excellent mahogany tables, a handsome glass over the chimney-piece, clean chintz window-curtains, white blinds, and the walls of the room well papered. My bed-room is as unexceptionable ; and every thing is comfortably served up at table. Prices continue nearly the same: dinner is generally charged 2s., tea Is., breakfast I.. 3d., bed Is. 8d. and whisky 5d. per glass, with water and sugar.

SPANISH CHARACTER OF GALWAY.

Galway, the capital of the wild West, is a large, and on many accounts, an extremely interesting town. I had heard that 1 should find some traces of its Spanish origin ; but I was not prepared to find so much to remind me of that land of romance. At every second step I saw something to recall Spain to my recollection. I found the wide entries and broad stairs of Cadiz and Malaga; the arched gateways, with the outer and inner railing, and the court within,--• needing only the fountain and flower-vases to emulate Seville. I found the sculptured gateways and grotesque architecture, which carried the imagination to the Moorish cities of Granada and Valencia. I even found the little sliding wicket, for observation, in one or two doors, reminding one of the 'secrecy, mystery, and caution, observed where gallantry and superstition divide life between them. Besides these Spanish resemblances, Galway has a more Popish aspect than any other Irish town. It contains friars, as well as priest.; in the Catholic chapels devotees are found at all hours of the day ; and, au the burying.. ground, are seen, in hundreds, those little black crosses which distinguish all the Continental burying-grounds. There are many good streets in Galway, and excellent, if not splendid houses; and, with the exception of Cork and Limerick, it had more the air of a place of importance than any other town I had seen, though less of bustle than Clonmel, or perhaps even than Tralee. In population, Galway ranks, at present, the fifth town in Ireland,—coining immediately after Belfast. It contains about :34,000 inhabitants. I found an extensive dock—now in the course of being con- structed—which it is expected will have a very favourable effect, when completed, upon the prosperity of the town. Several hundred labourers find employment on the work, at ten-pence per day ; but the wink cannot proceed during rain ; and, in this uncertain climate, as at Tralee, on the ship-canal, it too often happens that the workmen are dismissed, with a pittance, after working hada day.

The population of Galway, and its neighbourhood, has a picturesque ap- pearance when congregated. The windows of the hotel (the only one in Galway) faced the market-place ; and I could not help fineying the surprise which an Englishman would feel, if, without the intermediate journey, lie could be at once placed in the window of the hotel of Galway. The whole female po- pulation—congregated iu hundreds—wore red jackets and red petticoats ; and not a single pair of shoes and stockings were to be seen throughout the market- place. Boys, with scarcely any covering at all, except a waistcoat, and shirt, hanging in stripes behind and before, were exercising their various juvenile pro- pensities ; and, in every few pence laid out on potatoes (for potatoes were the only commodity at market), there were so 'navy gestures, so much loud talking, and, apparently, such threatening attitudes, that one expected, every moment, to see

the market-place converted into a battle field. Most of the laborious work was performed by the women. They appeared to think nothing of whipping up a sack of potatoes, weighing eighteen stone, and trudging away umber the load, as if it were no way inconvenient.

STATE OF THE POOR IN

But there are objects of a far different nature iu the old town of Limerick ;— objectaof a deeper and more melancholy interest. The reader will recollect, that in Cork, Waterford, Kilkenny., and in other towns which I have visited, I have made it a part of my duty to inquire into the condition of the poor ; and having beeu informed by those upon whom I thought tonne reliance was to be placed, that I should find more and deeper destitution in Limerick than in any place which I had yet visited, my inquiries in Limerick were prosecuted with all the care which I was capable of bestowing ; and I regret to say that I found too dreadful confirmation of the very worst reports. 1 spent a day in visiting those parts of the city where the greatest destitution and misery were said to exist. I entered upwards of forty of the abodes of poverty ; and to the latest hour of my existence I can never forget the scenes of utter and hopciess wretchedness that presented themselves that day. I shall endeavour to convey to the reader some general idea of what I saw.

Some of the abodes I visited were garrets, sonic were cellars ; some were hovels on the ground-floor situate in narrow yards or alleys. I will not speak of the filth of the places ; that could not be exceeded in places meant to be its receptacles. Let the worst be imagined, and it will nut be beyond the truth. In at least three fourths of the hovels which I entered, there was no furniture of any description, save an ironimt,—no table, no chair, nu bench, no bedstead ; two, three, or four little bundles of straw, with, perhaps, one or two scanty and ragged mats, were rolled up iu the corners, unless where these beds were found occupied. The inmates were sonic of them old, crooked, and disca-cd ; sonic younger, but emaciated, and surrounded by starving children ; sonic were sitting on the "amp ground, some standing, and many were unable to rise from their little straw heaps. In scarcely one hovel vault! 1 find even a potato. In one which I entered I noticed a small opening. leading into an inner room. I lighted a bit of paper at the embers of a turf %%inch lay in the chimney, and looked in. It was a cellar wholly dark, and about twelve feet square : two bundles of straw lay in two corners; on one sat a bedridden woman ; on another ray two naked children—literally naked—with a torn rag of sonic kind thrown over them both. But I saw worse even than this. In a cellar which I entered, and which was almost quite dark, and slippery with damp, I found a item sitting on a little saw- dust. He was naked ; lie had not even a shirt : a filthy- and ragged mat was round him : this man was a living skeleton ; the bones all but protruded through the skin ; he was literally starving. In place of forty hovels, I might have visited hundreds. 'In place of seeing, as I did, hundreds of men, women, and children, in the last state of destitution, I might have seen thousands. I entered the alleys, and visited the hovels, and climbed the stairs at a venture ; I did Out select ; and I have no reasuu to believe that the forty which I visited were the abodes of greater wretchedness than the hundreds which I passed by.

I saw also another kind of destitution. The individuals I have yet spoken of were aged, infirm, or diseased ; but there was another class, fast approaching infirmity and disease, but yet able and willing to earn their subsistence. I found many hand-loom weavers, who worked from five in the morning till eight at night, and received from a taskmaster front half-a-crown to four ehillings a week. Many of these men had wives and fatuities ; and I need scarcely say, that confinement, labour, scanty subsistence, and despair, were fast reducing these men to the condition of the others, upon whom disease and utter destitu- tion had already laid their hands. The subsistence of these men consisted of one scanty meal of dry potatoes daily. I will only add one other instance of destitution. Driving in the neighbour- hood of Limerick, on the Adair road, in conipanv with a medical gentleman, the apparition of a man suddenly appeared by the side of our car. The gentle-

man who accompanied me knew him ; lie had been a stone-breaker' but had become infirm, and at length utterly disabled, by disease, from labour : his cabin was close lay, and we ascertained that he and his family had subsisted, during the last three days, ou the leaves of that yellow-flowered weed which grows among the cora ; and which is boiled, and eaten with a little salt. I think f have already mentioned the use of this weed for a similar purpose, by

the destitute poor of Kilkenny; or, if I have not, I ought to have done so.

I think it is impossible for me to select a better opportunity than this to advert briefly to a topic on which I have not hitherto offered any direct observations. I allude to the disputed question, whether thete be, or be not, a necessity for some legal provision for the poor ; and I confess, that with such scenes before me as 1 have at this moment, it does seem to me an insult to humanity and common sense, to doubt the necessity to which I allude. I might carry the reader back with me together arguments from Kilkenny, Waterford, Cashel, and, indeed, from almost every tuwn, village, and hamlet, that has lain on my way ; but the situation of the poor of Limerick is at this moment fresh in my memory ; and I ask any man of ordinary intelligence, whether such a state of things can, or ought to be allowed to continue? Why should Lord Limerick, in Ireland, be exempt from the duty which Lord Limerick, in Eng- land, must perform? Why, under the same Government, should men be allowed to starve in one division of the empire, and not in another? I mention the name of Lord Limerick, not because I suppose he, or any other man, can prevent pauperism on his city property ; but because, when I inquire who are the individuals that contribute to keep the bodies and souls of these miser- able creatures together, and when I ascertain that many a humane citizen contributes more than the noble owner of all the property, then I perceive that there is something wrong ; and that—leaving for a moment the question as it

relates to the poor out of consideration — ju.tice demands that iu the ratio of their abundance men should be forced to contribute.

Prices are always an important matter to many, and here are those at Mitchelstown. They do not seem to differ greatly, in other places, except fish, which of course varies; but we select these as the most complete.

Mitchelstown is a very cheap place of residence; and, in proof of this, I annex the following list of prices. Beef sells at from Bid. to 4d. per lb. Mutton, at from 4d. to 5d. Lamb, in the season, about 3d. Veal is rarely to be had, and is not of a good quality. Pork, about 2id., but is sometimes as low as lid. per lb. Bacon pigs average 208. a cwt.

Fish is scarce. A good cod may be bought for 2e. 6d. A haddock, fid to Is. The very best salmon may be bought at 5d. per lb., and trout at Is. a dozen.

Rabbits are sold at 8d. a couple. Turkies, 3s. a couple ; geese, Is. 10d. a pair ; ducks, Is. pair; fowls, 10d. to Is. a pair. Bread of the first quality is 2d. per lb. Fresh butter. 9d.per lb. in sum- mer ; and Is. or Is. Id. In winter. Milk is sold at Bid. for four pints, all the year round. Vegetables are not supplied in great variety, or plenty, except potatoes, which average about 21d. per stone.

Coals are 26s. a ton ; turf, Is. 8d. a horse load. • A mason will receive for his labour 2s. a day; a carpenter, 2s. 6d. ; a slater, 2s. ; but they cannot get constant employment.

The rent of a good house, containing two sitting-rooms, three bed-rooms, good attics, a commodious basement story, with garden, coach,house, and stables, rents at about 201. per annum. Smaller, but respectable houses, may be had for 101.

The object, scope, and matter of the work, have been pretty fully stated already : at the same time, it is but fair to say that many points have of necessity been unnoticed. The manner of the writer can be gathered from the extracts ; which have been selected without any regard to style. Considered as a whole, the impression left upon the mind by Ireland in 1834 is not, however, equal to that produced by the Channel Islands. The work is more hasty, less condensed, and not so systematically arranged. Mr. INceis is indeed too habitually skilled in compo- sition to allow traces of haste to appear in writing, but the same thing is sometimes repeated, or at least a similar thing; and we miss some of the neatness, fulness, and vigour, which a careful revisal helps to impart. After all, this is considering too curiously. The greatest value of the book consists in its trutlitelling cha- racter—in its power of presenting things day by day as they occurred ; and perhaps this character would have been destroyed by a more elaborated style—most assuredly by a generalized sys- tem of arrangement.