ment of the labourer to decide, whether the work of the farm on which he was settled, and the occasional employment which he might elsewhere obtain, would enable him to pay his rent, and procure the proper assistance for the cultivation of his potatoes In this state of things, aided by the singular advantage, that in the cultivation of potatoes in Ireland, the attention of the cottar is directed to a small portion of good land, instead of a comparatively large portion of poor land, as in most other countries, great scope would naturally be given to the principle of increase; and the abundance of labour thus produced, would react upon the agriculture of the country, and force on a production of capital, and of funds for the maintenance of labour, in spite of every disadvantage of government. The indolence of the Irish peasantry, which has been so frequently the subject of remark, has naturally been occasioned by this redundancy of labour, combined with the habit of working for the farmers, on whose lands they are settled at a fixed and under price. But, paradoxical as it may at first appear, it is probable, that this indolence, and the number of holidays that it prompts them to keep, has rather tended to improve, than to lower their condition, and has been one, among other causes, which has prevented the price of labour from falling, in proportion to the cheapness of the food on which it is supported. But though it is certainly true that the Irish peafant has hitherto been able to command a greater quantity of the food to which he is accustomed, than the English labourer can of bread, yet by no means follows that his general condition fhould be proportionably better. Something elfe befides food is required to make life comfortable; and the furplus potatoes of the Irishman, when converted into money, will have but a fmall power in purchafing other articles. Owing to the deficiency of manufacturing capital in Ireland, and the indolent habits of workmen in general, the conveniences of clothing, furniture, &c. are as dear as in England; while the pecuniary wages of the Irifh labourer are not equal to half the earnings of the Englishman. Hence arifes the unfparing meal of potatoes noticed by Mr Young, at which the beggar, the pig, the dog, the cat, and the poultry, feem all equally welcome; while the cabin that affords fhelter to all these vai Y 4 ous * Mr Newenham says in a note, page 273, that labour is more than twice as high as in the year 1777; but, as far as we have been able to learn, the average is rather under than over 10d. There is a great difference in the prices both of potatoes and labour in the towns of Ireland, compared with the country, on account of the bulk and weight of potatoes, and the consequent expense of carriage. ous inhabitants, is hardly fuperior to an English pigftye ;-its furniture confined almoft exclufively to the pot in which the potatoes are boiled; and the clothing of its human inmates as deficient in quantity as it is wretched in quality. Mr Young observes, that an Irifhman and his wife are much more folicitous to feed than to clothe their children; but the fact is, that they have the power of doing the one, and not that of doing the other. This kind of fupport, though it might be fufficient to give play to the strong principle of increafe among a people long oppreffed and degraded, could never prefent very flattering profpects of happinefs; and when joined to the occafional difficulty of getting fufficient employment to enable them to pay the rent of their potatoe grounds, would naturally prompt them to emigration. Ireland has, in confequence, long been confidered as the great officina militum, not only for England, bur for other countries. It has been calculated, though it is probably an exaggeration, that, from 1691 to 1745, 450,000 Irishmen perished in the fervice of France; and, for fifty years of the laft century, the annual emigration to America is eftimated, by Mr Newenham, at 4000. During three years from 1771, of which there are accurate accounts, the average annual 'emigrations to America alone, were 9533. Additional encouragement would, of course, be given by thefe emigrations, to the habit of early marriages, the prevalence of which in Ireland Mr Newenham particularly notices and though fuch drains muft neceffarily prevent the poffibility of a full development of the power of increase in the country where they take place; yet it is probable, that, in the actual state of things, the population of Ireland was not diminished by them; and that the remaining inhabitants were always as numerous as the progress of its refources would enable it to employ and fupport. Thefe emigrations of different kinds were checked by the American war; but about the fame time, the difgraceful code under which the Catholics had been fo long oppreffed, began to be relaxed; and fhortly after, under a lefs fhackled trade, and a fomewhat improved government, a new life was given to industry; and the rapid increase of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, found employment for a great increase of people at home. These advantages, the effects of which are detailed at large by Mr New enham, appear to have more than counterbalanced any difadvan tages which may be fuppofed to have arifen from the increafing dearness and fcarcity of land: and, on the whole, there feems to be good reafon to believe, that, in fpite of the late rebellion, and the two years of fcarcity, the progrefs of population fince 1777 has been decidedly above the average rate of the century. The confequences of fuch a rapid rate of increafe deferve our molt moft ferious attention. Either the increase will continue at its prefent rate, or it will not. If the rate continue, Ireland will contain twenty millions of people in the course of the present century; and we need not infift upon the result. With fuch a phyfical force, it is quite impoffible that it should remain united to Great Britain, without sharing, in every respect, the full benefits of its constitution. If the rate do not continue to the end of the century, which is certainly the more probable fuppofition, it will be interesting to afk ourselves, what will be the principal caufes of its retardation, and in what manner they will practically operate? The caufe first generally felt, will be the dearnefs of land; and the advance of rent will continue, till the ufual quantity of land confidered as neceffary to fupport a large family, cannot be obtained for the amount of the average earnings of a year's labour. Smaller portions will then be taken; but even thefe, in time, becoming fearce, and difficult to be procured, the cottar fyftem will be gradually destroyed, and give place to a fet of labourers earning their pecuniary wages like the peafantry of England, but ftill living upon potatoes as their principal food. These potatoes will then be raised by the farmers, and will become a principal object of cultivation for the market, as the great ftaple food of the country. The other, and ultimate cause of retardation, will be fuch a rife in the price of potatoes, compared with the price of labour, as will give the labourer no greater command over fubfiftence in the fhape of potatoes, than he has at present over corn, in some of the stationary, or flowly-increafing countries of Europe. When the Irish peafant can only earn the maintenance of five, instead of ten perfons, the habit of early marriages will neceffarily be checked; the rearing of families will be impeded; and the cabins will cease to swarm, as they do at prefent, with overflowing broods of healthy children. But before this laft caufe has produced an approach to a stationary population, Ireland will contain, in proportion to its fize, a prodigious mafs of people. It is the first and only country that has yet fully taken to a fpecies of food, which, at the most, requires only one third of the land neceffary to yield the fame nourishment in wheat. Its effects, hitherto, have been truly aftonithing; * According to Mr Young, the average produce of the whole kingdom is 82 barrels per Irish acre, (Irish Tour, vol. ii. p. 120.) each barrel weighing 20 stone. This, in pounds, amounts to 22,960, and divided by 4 to reduce it to the solid nourishment of wheat, will be 5740 pounds. The average produce of an Irish acre in wheat, nifhing; and, in its future progrefs, it may be expected to produce proportionate refults. We should not wonder if Ireland were deftined to become an instance of the greatest density of population yet known in the world: and it has fometimes truck us as poflible, that the prodigious phyfical force thus created in a particular country, might, like the ftanding armies introduced into modern Europe by France, occafion the adoption of the same fyftem in the neighbouring states. We own that we do not contemplate fuch a change as favourable to the happiness of mankind. That fo great an increase of human beings, if they could be well fupported, would be highly defirable, cannot admit of a doubt; but it seems scarcely poffible that they fhould be fo fupported; and we feel convinced, that if the lower claffes of fociety lived exclufively upon potatoes, they would not only have lefs power to purchafe the conveniences and comforts of life, but would be much more expofed to the preffure of fcarcity than they are at prefent. As long as potatoes can be kept to act only as fubfidiaries to the main food of the country, they appear to be calculated to produce the highest benefits to the poor, as affording a moft admirable and timely fupply to those who have larger families than usual; and the beft and cheapest refource in feafons of fcarcity. Thefe advantages would be still further extended in England, if cattle, pigs and poultry were more generally fed upon them; as the store would then be greater in a deficiency of corn. In the actual ftate of things, however, both in England and Scotland, the poor derive great benefit from them. But when once they hall have become the main food of the country, fo as to be the principal regulator of the price of labour, the fcene will be moft decidedly changed. The never-failing bellyful to all the children of a family, noticed by Mr Yourg, as the circumstance which must ever recommend potatoes, was procured, not by any quality necessarily and unalterably inherent in this kind of food, but by the rapid increase of the 'funds for the maintenance of labour in Ireland, at the time that he made his tour, is 4 quarters, which, at 460 pounds the quarter, amounts to 1840, less than one third of the solid nourishment yielded by an acre of potatoes; independently of the important circumstance, that the cultivation of wheat requires the intervention of more fallows or green crops, than that of potatoes. If we take Mr Newenham's estimate of three pounds of potatoes to one of bread, the produce of an acre of potatoes will be at once more than quadruple that of an acre of wheat. A certain weight of wheat will yield nearly the same weight of bread, on account of the water absorbed in its composition, which about balances the loss of the bran and coarse parts. tour, by causes, in short, similar to those which secure to the American labourer, and all his children, a never-failing bellyful of bread. But, when these funds cease to advance with the same rapidity, which they necessarily must do in time, there is no reason why potatoes should not ultimately be as scarce, and as economically consumed, as the bread and cheese of the English labourer. And, under such circumstances, there can be no doubt, that the lot of the labouring poor would be worse, than if they had still continued to live upon bread corn. But to return from this digression, which has led us further than we intended. Although it is quite certain that the population of Ireland cannot continue permanently to increase at its present rate, yet it is as certain that it will not suddenly come to a stop. Mr Newenham, assuming that it will go on for some time, at least, as it has done of late years, supposes that the country will contain 8,413,224 inhabitants in 1837; and enters into an elaborate calculation to show that it is fully capable of maintaining such a number. Knowing the uncertainty of all particular estimates of future population, we shall not give our sanction to the present, though it is certainly not impossible, nor even very improbable; and we feel confident, that a much greater population might in time be supported in that country if potatoes continue to be its staple food. But what we wish to notice at present is, that Mr Newenham stops short with 1837, the period of doubling from 1791, and, satisfied with having proved that Ireland will be able to maintain the numbers which he supposes it will then have, dismisses the subject without consideration of further consequences. It is quite clear, however, that if Ireland can only maintain the number which the present rate of increase will produce in 1837, such a number will not be found in it in so short a period. Both theory and experience uniformly instruct us, that a less abundant supply of food operates with a gradually increasing pressure for a very long time before its progress is stopt. It is difficult indeed to conceive a more tremendous shock to society, than the event of its coming at once to the limits of the means of subsistence, with all the habits of abundance and early marriages which accompany a rapidly increasing population. But, happily for mankind, this never is, nor ever can be the case. The event is provided for by the concurrent interests and feelings of individuals long before it arrives; and the gradual diminution of the real wages of the labouring classes of society, slowly, and almost insensibly, generates the habits necessary for an order of things in which the funds for the maintenance of labour are stationary. We may be quite certain, therefore, that, without external violence, |