less than 400,000 acres have been disused for this purpose.[3]

Wheat can be bought better and cheaper in America, and imported
into Ireland ground into flour. The consequence is, that the men

who worked the soil, as well as the men who ground the corn, are
thrown out of employment, and there is nothing left for them but

subsistence upon the poor-rates, emigration to other countries,
or employment in some new domestic industry.

Ireland is by no means the "poor Ireland" that she is commonly
supposed to be. The last returns of the Postmaster-General show

that she is growing in wealth. Irish thrift has been steadily at
work during the last twenty years. Since the establishment of

the Post Office Savings Banks, in 1861, the deposits have
annually increased in value. At the end of 1882, more than two

millions sterling had been deposited in these banks, and every
county participated in the increase.[4] The largest

accumulations were in the counties of Dublin, Antrim, Cork, Down,
Tipperary, and Tyrone, in the order named. Besides this amount,

the sum of 2,082,413L. was due to depositors in the ordinary
Savings Banks on the 20th of November, 1882; or, in all, more

than four millions sterling, the deposits of small capitalists.
At Cork, at the end of last year, it was found that the total

deposits made in the savings bank had been 76,000L, or an
increase of 6,675L. over the preceding twelve months. But this

is not all. The Irish middle classes are accustomed to deposit
most of their savings in the Joint Stock banks; and from the

returns presented to the Lord Lieutenant, dated the 31st of
January, 1883, we find that these had been more than doubled in

twenty years, the deposits and cash balances having increased
from 14,389,000L. at the end of 1862, to 32,746,000L. at the end

of 1882. During the last year they had increased by the sum of
2,585,000L. "So large an increase in bank deposits and cash

balances," says the Report, "is highly satisfactory." It may be
added that the investments in Government and India Stock, on

which dividends were paid at the Bank of Ireland, at the end of
1882, amounted to not less than 31,804,000L.

It is proper that Ireland should be bountiful with her increasing
means. It has been stated that during the last eighteen years

her people have contributed not less than six millions sterling
for the purpose of building places of worship, convents, schools,

and colleges, in connection with the Roman Catholic Church, not
to speak of their contributions for other patriotic objects.

It would be equally proper if some of the saved surplus capital
of Ireland, as suggested by Mr. Parnell, were invested in the

establishment of Irish manufactures. This would not only give
profitable occupation to the unemployed, but enable Ireland to

become an increasingly exporting nation. We are informed by an
Irish banker, that there is abundance of money to be got in

Ireland for any industry which has a reasonable chance of
success. One thing, however, is certain: there must be perfect

safety. An old writer has said that "Government is a badge of
lost innocence: the palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of

the bowers of paradise." The main use of government is
protection against the weaknesses and selfishness of human

nature. If there be no protection for life, liberty, property,
and the fruits of accumulated industry, government becomes

comparatively useless, and society is driven back upon its first
principles.

Capital is the most sensitive of all things. It flies turbulence
and strife, and thrives only in security and freedom. It must

have complete safety. If tampered with by restrictive laws, or
hampered by combinations, it suddenly disappears. "The age of

glory of a nation," said Sir Humphry Davy, "is the age of its
security. The same dignified feeling which urges men to gain a

dominion over nature will preserve them from the dominion of
slavery. Natural, and moral, and religions knowledge, are of one

family; and happy is the country and great its strength where
they dwell together in union."

Dublin was once celebrated for its shipbuilding, its
timber-trade, its iron manufactures, and its steam-printing;

Limerick was celebrated for its gloves; Kilkenny for its
blankets; Bandon for its woollen and linen manufactures. But

most of these trades were banished by strikes.[5] Dr. Doyle
stated before the Irish Committee of 1830, that the almost total

extinction of the Kilkenny blanket-trade was attributable to the
combinations of the weavers; and O'Connell admitted that Trades

Unions had wrought more evil to Ireland than absenteeism and
Saxon maladministration. But working men have recently become

more prudent and thrifty; and it is believed that under the
improved system of moderatecounsel, and arbitration between

employers and employed, a more hopeful issue is likely to attend
the future of such enterprises.

Another thing is clear. A country may be levelled down by
idleness and ignorance; it can only be levelled up by industry

and intelligence. It is easy to pull down; it is very difficult
to build up. The hands that cannot erect a hovel may demolish a

palace. We have but to look to Switzerland to see what a country
may become which mixes its industry with its brains. That little

land has no coal, no seaboard by which she can introduce it, and
is shut off from other countries by lofty mountains, as well as

by hostile tariffs; and yet Switzerland is one of the most
prosperous nations in Europe, because governed and regulated by

intelligent industry. Let Ireland look to Switzerland, and she
need not despair.

Ireland is a much richer country by nature than is generally
supposed. In fact, she has not yet been properly explored.

There is copper-ore in Wicklow, Waterford, and Cork. The Leitrim
iron-ores are famous for their riches; and there is good

ironstone in Kilkenny, as well as in Ulster. The Connaught ores
are mixed with coal-beds. Kaolin, porcelain clay, and coarser

clay, abound; but it is only at Belleek that it has been employed
in the pottery manufacture. But the sea about Ireland is still

less explored than the land. All round the Atlantic seaboard of
the Irish coast are shoals of herring and mackerel, which might

be food for men, but are at present only consumed by the
multitudes of sea-birds which follow them.

In the daily papers giving an account of the Cork Exhibition,
appeared the following paragraph: "An interesting exhibit will

be a quantity of preserved herrings from Lowestoft, caught off
the old head of Kinsale, and returned to Cork after undergoing a

preserving process in England."[6] Fish caught off the coast of
Ireland by English fishermen, taken to England and cured, and

then "returned to Cork" for exhibition! Here is an opening for
patriotic Irishmen. Why not catch and preserve the fish at home,

and get the entire benefit of the fish traffic? Will it be
believed that there is probably more money value in the seas

round Ireland than there is in the land itself? This is actually
the case with the sea round the county of Aberdeen.[7]

A vast source of wealth lies at the very doors of the Irish
people. But the harvest of an ocean teeming with life is allowed

to pass into other hands. The majority of the boats which take
part in the fishery at Kinsale are from the little island of Man,

from Cornwall, from France, and from Scotland. The fishermen
catch the fish, salt them, and carry them or send them away.

While the Irish boats are diminishing in number, those of the
strangers are increasing. In an East Lothian paper, published in

May 1881, I find the following paragraph, under the head of
Cockenzie:-

"Departure of Boats.--In the early part of this week, a number of
the boats here have left for the herring-fishery at Kinsale, in