among the inhabitants of this mansion. The Archbishop himself very rarely quits its precincts from the apprehension of insult. On the second day of our abode in his house, while sitting with him in his apartment, a Turk of surly and forbidding aspect, and evidently of the lower class, entered the room, seated himself unceremoniously on the sofa, filled his pipe, and took coffee from the attendants. The Archbishop was obviously embarrassed, but made no comment. After a short interval, he took a coin from his purse and put it silently into the hand of the Turk, who immediately disappeared." (P. 270.) "The (Greek) habitation, which our Tartar selected as one of the best in the village, consisted of a single apartment with naked mud walls, and a flooring of naked earth; one end of the room occupied by horses, the other inhabited by two large families, with no other furniture than a few wooden and earthen vessels, and the straw mats and woollen coats which they used for their nightly covering. There was an aspect of meagre wretchedness and of absolute privation about them, which I have seldom seen equalled. Our arrival, and the ferocious manner in which our Turkish attendants broke into the house, produced at first much alarm. The eldest daughter of one of the families, who in another sphere of life might have been a beauty, was hurried away into a neighbouring hovel. In the faces and manner of those who remained, there was silently expressed an habitual expectation of ill-usage, which it was painful to contemplate." (P. 384.)

Concerning Sicily, the last country named in the comparison, we have a cloud of authors, who have left us nothing to desire as to the knowledge of

her internal situation. From Mr. Leckie downwards, through the writings of Mr. Galt, the Abbate Balsamo, Mr. Blaquiere, Mr. Thomson, and a variety of others, one uniform language is held. Houses unroofed, bridges broken down, large towns abandoned, immeasurable tracts of waste land without an inhabitant, are the usual objects which present themselves. "But to

describe the sufferings of those, who are driven to mendicity without any resource whatever in their parishes, or the most distant prospect of obtaining employment, is far beyond the power of expression: and while the causes already mentioned must have contributed greatly to increase the number of the poor, agriculture has been gradually declining all over the Island. At no period of its history is Sicily recollected to have been so completely dependent upon strangers for support. It is said that, in the present year, near a million of dollars has been paid for imported corn." This is the testimony of one traveller. Another writes, "It will hardly be conceived, that although in this fertile soil it is only necessary to put the grain into the ground to ensure plentiful crops;-yet, still in most of the villages there are seldom or never to be found the necessaries of life;-meal never,—often not bread. Frequently I have not perceived any appearance of the country being inhabited or cultivated; and even where it is, the population and the habitations are so thinly scattered as sufficiently to prove the oppressed state of the inhabitants." "There is nothing that conveys so · pointed a stigma upon the present order of things in Sicily, as a comparison of the ancient and modern population."

Such are the accounts rendered by travellers of

H

should be imposed in the due preservation of the system. If the increased temptations of the civilized state were not met by the augmented necessity for exertion and moral precaution, which this difficulty brings with it, but were fostered by the same facilities of indolent gratification which may safely exist in the more simple conditions of society, there would not only be great danger of a total relaxation of morals, but a fair impeachment might be made of that perfect moral equality, which the wisdom and goodness of God have established among the several states of society, as well as among the individuals of each community. The present condition of Ireland may perhaps be cited in support of this reasoning. By its close connexion with Great Britain it has been exposed to the increased temptations of high civilization which is prevalent among some ranks of its society, while the mass of the people is in a situation very far behind that of the sister island, indeed very much below what ought reasonably to be expected from the intelligence of the higher ranks, and the vicinity of Ireland to the most civilized country in Europe. Into the remote causes of this state of things it is not my present wish to enter. But the proximate cause is evidently to be found in the want of that increased exertion and moral precaution on the part of the leading members of the community, which are necessary to oppose the temptations, arising out of the partial progress of prosperity, and the facilities of intercourse attendant upon the general improvement of the British empire. From this cause the people of that interesting country have been suffered to vegetate in the same indulgence of indolent gratification, in which they were found by a respectable

traveller in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who freely professed, that Ireland in general would yield abundance of all things, if the people could possibly bee industrious therein;—and if this publike good were not hindered by the inhabitants' barbarousnes, making them apt to seditions, and so unwilling to inrich their Prince and Countrey; and by their slothfulnesse, which is so singular as they hold it basenesse to labour." (Moryson's Itinerary, Book in. p. 160.)

To the neglect of amending this unfortunate disposition by wholesome laws, the encouragement of industry, and the developement of the natural resources of the country, are to be joined other circumstances peculiar to Ireland, and particularly connected with the subject matter of this Treatise. From the mildness of the climate, the natural fertility of the soil, and the facility with which a turf cabin and a potatoe ground were to be acquired, through the neglect or mistaken kindness of the proprietors, a superabundant population has sprung up in many of the least improved parts of Ireland, totally uncalled for by the demand for labour, therefore totally unemployed, and, as a matter of course, altogether neglected as to their morals, habits, and pursuits, by their superiors. This moral deterioration has in its turn aggravated the evils which the injudicious neglect of the proprietors, and the mildness of the climate, originally introduced. By degrading the people, and preventing them from acquiring a taste for the comforts and decencies of life, premature marriages have been encouraged; the offspring of which have been preserved in existence by the plenty of vegetable food, and the general benevolence of the people, until they now constitute a mass of popula

tion which would severely press against the means of subsistence, if those means were distributed as they necessarily must and ought to be among a decent, moral, and well ordered community; and which does in fact produce the extreme of wretchedness among individuals, especially in the principal towns. The very extent of the population, therefore, offers something like a physical impediment to the improvement of the society. But I am not entirely without hope that the check which has lately been given to the exportation of corn from Ireland, by reducing its price and encouraging its consumption among the lowest ranks of the people, may tempt them to desert their potatoes for bread, which would advance them more rapidly towards better habits than may at first sight be imagined. For by introducing into the character of a necessary of life a more expensive article of food,-as corn again rose in price, it would on the one hand become necessary for the peasant to increase his industry to procure it-and on the other, premature marriages would be checked, by rendering the prospect of providing for a family more precarious: the quantity of surplus labour in the market would therefore be reduced. Thus by stimulating the industry of the people, and rendering it more valuable to their employers, the remuneration of labour would rise, to the obvious advantage of both; superabundant population would be checked, and the decencies and moralities of life proportionably encouraged, which would permanently prevent its future excess.

But whether this speculation be true or false, I apprehend that no reasonable and well informed man will deny, that the general state of Ireland is such as