before us, undertaken to afford a more comprehensive view of the resources of his native country and of the substantial benefits which England may derive from them. On this, as on the former occasion, we have pleasure in expressing our sense of Mr. N.'s liberal and benevolent intentions. His information with regard to the Catholics, in point of population, of habits of life, and of political feeling, is particularly interesting at an epoch when they have been taught to consider the termination of their restrictions as arrived. Though himself a Protestant, and allied, as he informs his readers, chiefly to persons of his own persuasion, he is as zealous an advocate for the comfort and respectability of the Catholics, as if he had been from his childhood a member of that neglected body. His book may be divided into two general heads, the great natural advantages of Ireland,' and the obstacles to the improvement of these advantages; at least, such is the view which we shall take of it, without dwelling on the long and embarrassing titles in which Mr. Newenham is fond of dealing. An abstract of the work will be useful for two reasons, of a very different nature; viz. the value of its information, and the difficulty of obtaining that information in its present shape. As it stands at present, the volume has neither the clearness of a dictionary nor the interest of a connected disquisition, but consists of a mass of facts, as unskilfully illustrated as if authorship were in its earliest stages, and our laborious profession of criticism were an "art unknown."

Natural Advantages of Ireland. In comparing the situation of Ireland with that of other maritime countries, Mr. Newenham has no hesitation in giving to it the preference over that republic (Holland) which has afforded the most striking example, according to its means, of commercial greatness in history. No country surpasses Ireland in number and excellence of harbours. The extent of her coast, exclusive of such parts as lie within the smaller estuaries or beyond good anchorage, will be found to exceed 1700 miles, containing not fewer than 130 harbours and anchorage-grounds; and taking the average given by these numbers, it appears that the medium distance of one harbour from another would be only thirteen or fourteen miles. The magnitude and capacity of these harbours are not less remarkable than their extent. Lough Swilly on the northern coast is twelve miles long, and, where broadest, three miles and a half across, with soundings varying from two to twelve fathoms. The well known Bantry Bay is twentytwo miles long and five broad, with soundings from seven to thirty-two fathoms. Cork harbour, though much inferior to these spacious bays, is six miles long, and three miles wide,

with deep anchorage. The river Shannon affords at Scattery island another fine and spacious harbour. Even names that are scarcely known to ordinary readers, such as Blacksod, Birtirbui, Broadhaven, Crookhaven, and Castlehaven, are found to be the designations of harbours as good as or better than those of Kinsale and Waterford. Greatly superior as England is to her continental neighbours in extent of maritime accommodation, she must be acknowleged to fall considerably short of Ireland. Her acccess to the south and west, with the prevailing winds, is much less easy; and on a comparison of the sea-ports in the sister-kingdoms, we perceive that several of those of England are artificial. It follows that, when Ireland shall have been blessed with an equally long enjoyment of commerce and good government, a considerable augmentation of her harbours may be expected to take place. She counts above one hundred estuaries on her coast, and many of them might without difficulty be fitted for the reception of ships.

The connection between good harbours and depth of water along a coast is nowhere better exemplified than in Ireland. The soundings are generally upwards of twenty fathoms within a quarter of a mile of the land; and the approach without a pilot is less hazardous in Ireland than in most other countries, three-fourths of its shore being free from hidden dangers. The chief exception to this statement is that part of the east coast which extends from Dublin harbour to the Saltee islands in the county of Wexford. In describing the navigable rivers with which Ireland abounds, Mr. Newenham has no hesitation in putting the Shannon in competition with the Thames; next to the Shannon, he ranks the Barraw, which is navigable for a course of sixty-eight miles; and then the Suir, navigable for forty-three miles. Many others fall not greatly short of these admirable streams; proving that, when inland navigation shall become general in Ireland, the conveyance by water, natural and artificial, will be as commodious as an ardent well-wisher of commerce could desire.

With respect to roads, Mr. Newenham makes an equally favourable report of the state of his native country. No where, he says, are better materials to be obtained for the construction of level and durable highways. Lime-stone and lime-stonegravel are found in most parts; and since the absurd custom of mending roads by compulsory labour has been exchanged for an assessment in money, under the direction of the Grand Juries, the condition of the Irish roads, great and small, has been progressively improving. This alteration took place in 1759, when it was enacted that old roads should be widened to twenty-one feet in the clear, and that no new road should A a 3 be

be of a less width than thirty feet. The intervention of the Grand Juries was rendered necessary by the appropriation of the public money, in an undue proportion, to the improvement of those parts of the country in which the estates of certain individuals of influence were situated. The total amount of the sum raised annually throughout Ireland by authority of the Grand Juries, for roads, bridges, jails, and other public works, exceeds half a million, of which nearly 300,000l. are expended in roads alone. This sum is, we believe, much too large for the means of the country, and has been productive of serious insurrections. Those which were raised by the "Hearts of Oak" and "Hearts of Steel Boys" having occurred among Protestants, and at a season when all was quiet in regard to religion, can hardly be ascribed to any other cause. Newenham declines entering on the expediency of so heavy a tax, and seems at a loss to say whether the money is properly expended or not. He finds himself justified in using the language of confidence on a topic of much greater interest, the climate of our sister-island:

Mr.

In respect of mildness and equability, the climate of Ireland is sur passed by very few, if by any other in Europe. Its general mildness indeed is such, that, except in the northern counties, the rich pastures, or those which have been fairly treated, exhibit, in the midst of winter, the most beautiful verdure imaginable, affording sustenance to cattle throughout the year. The rigours of the winter, which, together with the scantiness of natural manures, render the beasthouse and foddering yard primary objects of the farmer's attention, in other countries, are seldom, and in few parts, experienced in Ireland. And accordingly, there is not a country in Europe, north of the Alps, where places for the accommodation of cattle are so rarely to be found. To a want of capital among the farmers this circum. stance has generally been ascribed; and to such want it is, no doubt, in some degree, ascribable. Had loss or injury of cattle, however, been the consequence of their exposure to the weather, it is certain that, in a country so much dependant on pasture as Ireland has been, proper places for their reception, during the winter, would have been every where made at the expence either of tenant or landlord. A very great proportion of the fat cattle sent to Waterford, Limerick, and Cork, are never housed. The cattle slaughtered in the market of Cork in the months of February and March, with the exception of those fattened at the distilleries, are, eight out of ten, fattened wholly on grass. The vigorous growth of arbutus and myrtle in several parts of the south of Ireland, and in elevated situations, sufficiently evinces the general mildness of the winters.

The intense frosts which so long interrupt the labours of the husbandman, and obstruct internal navigation in other countries, and the heavy snows which so long render the roads impassable, are but rarely and transiently experienced in Ireland,

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The atmosphere of Ireland is certainly more humid than that of England; but, according to the observations which the writer has been in the habit of making in both countries, for several years, the rains are neither heavier nor more frequent in the former than in the latter. It is to be observed, too, that the humidity of the Irish atmosphere proves by no means injurious to the health of the inhabitants.

The climate of Ireland, confessedly as favourable to the produc tion of barley and oats as that of England, has generally been considered otherwise with regard to wheat. This, however, with the exception of some of the northern counties, the writer can by no means admit.

The true immediate causes of the acknowledged general inferiority of the Irish to the English wheat, are, inattention, slovenliness, and want of skill on the part of the Irish farmers.'

This account of the climate is followed by an enumeration of the minerals and fossils of Ireland, in which we cannot now follow the author, farther than to remark that the great misfortune attendant on the beds of iron-stone in Ireland is the want of firing in their neighbourhood. Coal is generally in deficient quantity; and as to timber, so true is the old accusation, that Mr. Newenham is inclined to believe that more trees are cut down in one year in the single county of Montgomery than in all Ireland together. However, one striking exception from the disadvantages commonly attendant in Ireland on the site of these metallic treasures is to be found in the case of Arigna, in the county of Leitrim. A variety of fortunate circumstances appear to be combined in this favoured spot. Abundance of ore, plenty and cheapness of fuel, and an easy access to navigation both by the Shannon and the two great canals, are advantages which must one day render the manufacture and exportation of the iron of Arigna a source of extensive wealth. Next comes the subject of fisheries, on which Mr. Newenham has adduced the opinion of former writers, together with some observations of his own :

"The fishery of Ireland," says Sir William Temple, "might prove a mine under water, as rich as any under ground, if it were improved to those vast advantages it is capable of." Mr. Arthur Young truly remarks, "that there is scarcely a part of Ireland but what is well situated for some fishery of consequence."

Mr. Brice, in his report to the Committee on the Irish Fisheries, declared that as many herrings might have been caught off the Rosses in 1782 as would have loaded all the ships in England.

In 1784, the herrings came upon the north-west coast about the last week in June, and continued until about the last week in September. There was, for a considerable part of that time, no other demand than from the country, and the take was so very great, and the demand so small, that incredible numbers were thrown away; and,

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upon an average price for a month, they did not exceed 10d. per thousand.

Since that year, the herring fishery of Ireland has greatly declined. These fish, however, still frequent its numerous harbours and rivers' mouths, in sufficient abundance to supply the wants of the people in the adjacent districts; and to furnish a small supply for foreign markets and their return in their former shoals may be rationally expected. In fact they re-appeared and were taken, in great abundance, last winter off the Western coast. The sprats still arrive in prodigious shoals. The writer has seen immense quantities of oil obtained from them at Kinsale; and their remains employed in manuring land.

As for the cod, ling, and hake, they are in as great abundance as ever. The report of Captain Fraser in 1801, respecting the fishery on the Nymph Bank, off the South-eastern coast, represents it in an extremely favourable light. He considers it as superior to the fishery on the Dogger Bank.

Plaise, sole, haddock, and turbot, abound on many parts of the coast. In some of the small towns on the west and south-west coasts, the last may be frequently purchased for two and three shillings a piece. In the city of Cork, where the Roman Catholics are to the Protestants as upwards of three to one, seated moreover in a very populous district chiefly inhabited by the former, whose fasts induce a greater demand for fish than is the case in Protestant countries, the ordinary price of a good cod-fish, which would sell for at least sixpence per pound, or from 10s. to 128. in England, is only two shillings; and the prices of all other fish are proportionately low.

The salmon fisheries of Ireland are, in proportion, infinitely more numerous and productive than those of any other country the natural history whereof has fallen into the writer's hands.'

In treating of the produce of the land, Mr. N. sets out with the assumption of its being very generally admitted that the increase of food may be made to surpass the greatest probable increase of people.' Now the fact is that, since the circulation of a well known work on population, a contrary opinion has become general; although the converts to it would be shaken in their faith by an attentive consideration of the example of Ireland. Wretched as is its system of agriculture, the mere circumstance of the general cultivation of potatoes affords a proof of the practicability of a vast extension of our means of subsistence. An acre of land under potatoe-culture will supply nourishment, after a suitable deduction for their watery nature, to six times as many persons as an acre of wheat; and by an improved method of cultivating that valuable root, it is possible to double and even treble its ordinary produce. The average growth of potatoes throughout Ireland is about fifty barrels for the English acre: but, by a new mode (that of Mr. Rawson *)

* See the Statistical Survey of the county of Kildare.

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