unless suitable habitations are provided for them, will increase every year, and landowners who reside any distance from towns must provide houses for their workmen on their lands, and even with this inducement they do not find it easy to get good men." Mr. W. P. Prendergast, the Inspector for the North-Western district, reports: "The applications for new loans have not been numerous, as owners do not, for the most part, feel disposed to expend money on farms in the hands of tenants, and the greater number of resident landlords in these counties had already improved the land in their own occupation; but wherever any ground falls under the immediate control of a proprietor, there is ample proof that drainage and other improvements are far better understood than in former years, and that it is not from any objection to the terms of the Acts, or to the regulations of the Board,* that the fund is not more * The Board of Public Works has been in existence since 1831. During forty years upwards of £11,000,000 have been advanced for public works, of which about £6,000,000 have been repaid, and nearly £5,500,000 remitted, chiefly in times of national distress. In the financial year 1871-72 they made advances amounting to £161,202. Of this sum £85,500 was advanced to proprietors for improving their estates, under the Land Improvements Acts, and £45,830 to tenant-farmers to enable them to purchase their farms, under the provision of the Landlord and Tenant Act of 1870. frequently resorted to. I find in all quarters more attention paid than hitherto to the question of improved dwelling-houses and offices for farmers and labourers, and the advance of money at 5 per cent., to clear both principal and interest in thirty-five years, has been considered a most useful and liberal provision. The improvement in all newly-constructed country dwellings is accompanied by an equally marked change in dress, furniture, and food among the farming classes; and in the smaller towns, supported altogether by the agricultural population, there are now permanent shops with meat and bread, where such supplies were only to be procured once a week, on market days, when I first acted for the Board in this part of Ireland. The consumption of tea, coffee, and sugar is so much increased in the farming districts that a great portion of labourers' wages is expended on them, and shops with modern imported articles of dress are now well supported in the same towns and villages where no such things were seen prior to the potato failure. New banks have also been established in numerous towns, frequented exclusively by farmers, and which have not increased in size, but derive their business from the agricultural profits brought in. The breed of live stock of all kinds-cattle, sheep, pigs, and poultryhas vastly improved. Prices for all farming produce, especially what is sold by the smaller farmers in this district, such as butter, pigs, eggs, and poultry, have risen so much that the rewards for exertion are felt to be quite different from what were formerly known; and the use of money is better understood by the rural population, so that while higher wages are demanded than employers ever before paid-and some check is said to be given to works of drainage and land improvement from this cause-it can only be considered as a temporary stoppage, similar to what occurs in manufacturing enterprise." Earl Spencer, in his speech at Belfast, at the Agricultural Meeting last August, said that, notwithstanding the unwonted temptation from high prices, the number and value of live stock showed an increase on the previous year, in fact, had reached higher figures than ever before. I noted the remark specially, from the statement being an unexpected one. Shortly before, I had been talking to a farmer about the high prices horses were fetching: "There is not a horse left in the country," was his answer, in Hibernian exaggeration. "Oh, but you will breed plenty more, with such a demand." "Sure, they've taken over the brood mares, too," he replied. Judging by prices, and the numbers constantly bought for England and the Continent, I fancied that the farmer's broad assertion implied a great diminution in number. But Lord Spencer was speaking by the book, for, according to the Report of the Irish Registrar-General, there were actually 2,250 more horses in the country than at the corresponding time of 1871. The estimated value of the horses in Ireland is not far short of five millions sterling. With the exception of pigs, of which there was a slight decrease of number, due probably to the lessened population, there was an increase in every other live stock. The increase in cattle was 80,250 over 1871, and the increase of estimated value £521,625. The total value of Irish cattle was set down by the Registrar, for 1872, at £26,368,045, but this is much below the real amount, as the value is still taken the same as thirty years ago, "in order to facilitate comparison." In Thom's Statistical Directory the value is given, for 1871, at £35,114,828. The increase of value of all live stock, cattle, sheep, and pigs, has been rising steadily ever since 1865, when it was estimated at £41,278,331. In 1868 it was £44,234,313, and in 1871, £46,955,529. There is scarcely a single department of Irish statistics which does not afford similar proof of progress. The average amount of property which paid duty on passing under probate and administration, annually, during the years 1846-1850, was £2,534,611 ; during the years 1856-1860 it was £4,222,395; in 1871 it was £5,014,795. I reserve for separate consideration the most important of all conditions of progress-those of education and of religion. The few facts cited in the present chapter are only connected with the domain of civil government and political economy, with things common to countries Catholic or Protestant, Pagan or Christian. Law, police, public health, dwellings, food, property, and all such matters, can be tabulated in statistics, and show progress, or the reverse, without looking closely at the political, still less the religious life of a nation. The connection between the material and moral condition is important, but these can be viewed separately, and are so viewed generally by the mere statistical reporter and political economist. Looking at the records of all that is commonly taken to constitute "the wealth of nations," the condition of the country is good and hopeful. No one who visits Ireland after a few years' absence will hesitate to admit that there has been improvement. The report will be most favourable from superficial observers or holiday tourists. Leaving London in the morning by the North-Western Irish express, and making a swift passage in the splendid Holyhead boats, it is pleasant to arrive the same evening at the Gresham, or the Shelburne, or other of the comfortable hotels for which Dublin is famous. To any part of the island the railways convey us with as much com |