best peopled province of the island; Connaught the least so: of the latter, perhaps the best soil in the island, with only a population of 162 on the square mile, the same author elsewhere says, "The poor throughout Connaught live in a state of great wretchedness, oatmeal is a luxury which they seldom taste1." Even Mr. Curwen, who, throughout his Irish tour, overflows with Mr. Malthus and his demonstrations, nevertheless distinguishes the cottiers of the north from those of the south, as evidently superior, notwithstanding it is quite clear that they have smaller farms and worse land: and adds generally, "I should conclude the people of these southern districts to suffer more privations than those in the north"." But to advert to a period of general distress, as that of all others the best calculated to put to the test the important question relative to the comparative condition of different parts of the country: in the work of Drs. Baker and Cheyne, previously quoted, we find these minutely examined and classed, for purposes distinct from those to which I am now applying them; and are informed, on the result of actual examination, that "the circumstances of the people of Ulster and Leinster are more comfortable than in Munster and Connaught3; the great mass of the people in the southern and western provinces living more exclusively upon potatoes than those of Leinster and Ulster." Here, then, we have the provinces of Ireland classed, in point of comfort and

3

I Wakefield, vol. i. p. 753.

Curwen, Obs. on the State of Ireland, vol. i. p. 367.

3 Drs. Baker and Cheyne, Account of the Fever, vol. i.

p. 95.

well-being, in precise conformity with the density of their population, and inversely to their prolificness; Ulster,-Leinster,-Munster, Connaught.

If these facts require further confirmation, it is at hand. In the distribution of the succour afforded by the nation, as well as public subscription, on that afflicting occasion, every county in Connaught, and nearly the whole in Munster, participated, but none in the provinces of Ulster and Leinster: consequently, if the charity of the nation were not grossly abused on the occasion, though doubtless the distress was great throughout, it was so much the more urgent where the population was the thinnest (notwithstanding the known superiority of the soil) as to demand and receive the whole!

(6.) And it is likewise pertinent to remark, that another principle, which will be found much insisted on in the work to which I again allude, is exemplified in this comparative view of Ireland. It is there asserted, and I trust proved, that a country is prosperous, or otherwise, in reference to that necessity of exertion which numbers of inhabitants call into action, rather than from natural fertility of soil, or extent of territory'. Ulster, which, as before observed, now stands at the head of the provinces of Ireland, in regard to inhabitants, though the most affluent, is, however, "the most mountainous and barren part of the kingdom." Connaught, on the other hand, the worst peopled, and confessedly the most wretched part of the country, is nevertheless "the sweetest soil

'Dr. Campbell, Historical Sketch, &c. p. 371.

of Ireland'." Plenty, therefore, is diffused; at least that proportion of it which absenteeism allows to remain in the country, not in proportion to the prolificness of the soil, any more than the paucity of the inhabitants, but in exactly the opposite ratio.

(7.) Presenting, therefore, the foregoing calculations and results, not as conjectures, but as incontrovertible facts; not as accidents, but as the sure and constant effects of adequate causes; I ask those who are proposing to thin Ireland by clearances, dispersions, or emigrations, or by whatsoever methods, whether they will still venture to proceed? It is clearly true, in respect to Ireland, as I shall show it to be of all other countries to whose statistics I have been enabled to appeal, that to lessen the population at any particular time, or in any given district, by whatever means, would, agreeably to an irreversible and benevolent law of nature, be the certain means of simultaneously increasing the prolificness of the remainder, and that, without "room being made" for an increased number of marriages, as some, who have not examined into this singular, but universal fact, ignorantly suppose. And seeing, moreover, that, even in Ireland, as well as every where else, the distress

! Spenser's View of Ireland, Works, vol. vi. p. 116.

The proof of this singular fact forms the subject of two chapters. of the book so frequently alluded to, where it is shown to be a universal law of nature.

I say every where. Thus, in North America, so confidently, because so ignorantly, appealed to on the subject of population, such was the case, even exclusively of the earlier periods of its history, which, as it is well known, were those of great distress. The full proof of this is reserved for a future occasion; one only instance shall be now subjoined. "The harvest hath once and again grievously failed in these years, and we have been struck through

E

is the greatest, and ever has been, at those periods and in those parts where the people are the fewest; and that larger numbers there, also, are but other terms for a greater measure of prosperity; on what imaginable foundation do our theorists rest their anti-national propositions? Presuming them ignorant of some of the foregoing truths, still, as the expedients to which they would resort, in order to cure Ireland, have been tried over and over again, ages ago, and have invariably aggravated the evils they proposed to eradicate, why are they still persisted in, at the expense of injuring one branch of the empire, and outraging the feelings of the rest? Supposing they could reduce Ulster to the "level" of Connaught, in point of population, and Connaught to that of Sutherlandshire, cui bono? I repeat the question: Is the distribution of the population of Ireland, taken in connexion with their condition, such as to sanction their views and arguments, or to contradict and silence them for ever? Even in Ireland, wretched and impoverished as she is, where is it that the inhabitants make the closest approaches to a state of happiness and prosperity, or, in a word, obtain the nearest to a fair share in the comforts which the empire at large. administers to its people? Where, but in Ulster, in which, I repeat, there are 407 inhabitants on the Irish mile. Where is it that the wretchedness is the most conspicuous, and seems to be the most hopeless? In Connaught, where there are only 264, or about twenty

with terrible famine.-A lamentable cry of bread! bread! hath been heard in our streets."-(Sermon, at Boston, September 27, 1698. Magnalia, b. viii. p. 113.)

acres to every family! and where, by the bye, we are told, on indubitable authority, that the distress was at least as great as at present, when there were twenty acres to each individual'! What is it that makes the difference? I answer, in the words of one who wrote much upon the subject, and to good purpose, had he been attended to,-"numbers of men!" And yet these would, had they it in their power, create, what they are, I observe, perpetually raving about, “a vacuum:" GOD, however, has decided for a plenum; and the inspired voice of nature and reason, as well as of revelation, proclaims his command, Multiply— replenish the earth; and subdue it: and the experience of thousands of years has taught the world, and ought to have instructed such, that this is the only certain road to national prosperity, as well as individual happiness.

But to return to the arithmetic proofs which Ireland affords of the truth of the principle of population, so frequently asserted, and of which I wish to leave an undisturbed impression in the mind of the reader :

(8.) There is yet a more strict method by which to put that principle to the test, than the one previously adopted, and one which will obviate the only objection which, as I can imagine, can be advanced against the foregoing results. It may be supposed that the different habits which obtain in the several provinces of Ireland, may have some considerable effect in pro

1

' Dr. Smith, Topographical Hist., pp. 75, 76. He exclaims, "Is it not amazing, that the most fertile part of Ireland, washed by so noble a river as the Shannon, cannot support its people with bread!"