Suggested Until this is the case, it is in vain that we make local Improvements. regulations, establish saving banks, form cheap-book, friendly and farming societies. These institutions can produce no permanent good, unless the minds of the people are prepared, and meliorated by education, then with decency of mind will follow a desire for decency of external appearance, both as to persons and houses, a law of reputation will follow, by which dishonesty, riot, idleness, drunkenness, and disorder would be discountenanced. To complete the work of civilization, there must be a more extensive circulation of the scriptures: this book has ever had the most powerful effect in enlarging and meliorating the mind of man: here precept comes with authority, not to be either gainsayed or resisted; the words are the words of God, and as of education being an injury to the public, would thereby be effecually counteracted their general improvement as certainly secured. There is no reason to doubt that at this moment, the majority of children in the poorer schools in Ireland, are taught to read, from books, the objects of which are vicious, or at least, unimproving. Impressed with the truth of information afforded by persons conversant with the state of such schools, and of the lower classes in Ireland, a plan is conceived of publishing useful and instructive works, at a very cheap rate, for the use of the poorer schools and peasantry throughout the country. The committee in pursuing this object, will not interfere with any establishment intended for the dissemination of religions knowledge; and they know of none, which supplies the glaring chasm in the system of education now pursued in Ireland, arising from the want of useful and instructive books for the poor. A Society is therefore established for that purpose-its object is, to provide for the poorer Schools in Ireland, and for the use of the lower classes in general, cheap editions of books, the object of which shall be solely to cultivate moral principles and useful knowledge." The founders and original committee of the Cheap Book Society were lords De Vescy, Lorton and Valentia, sir Richard Steele, II. Arabin, Samuel Bewley, Sheffield Grace, H. Hamilton, James Hall, R. Jebb, T. Lefroy, W. Monsell, James and Edward Scott, Cham. Walker, J. D. La Touche, C. Vesey, William and Thomas Parnell, G. Evans, and the secretary James Bessonnet, es qrs. ments. the peasant reads the history of him whom he calls Suggested his Redeemer, he finds that history so interspersed Improvewith the simplest parables and precepts of morality and truth, addressed to him in the tender language of him, whose name he bears, that it is impossible not to influence his mind, to introduce some reflection, to check the licentiousness and disorder that so sadly fills it, to soften its barbarism, and to prepare him for every advance in civilization. As to this its temporal effect on the condition of man, experience has fully proved it, and while the most pernicious books are largely circulated, it is time to circulate that book, which under the awful sanctions of God's law, declares, that "no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him, and that he who hateth his brother is a murderer." Men will read this book, when they will not read any moral treatise that can be put into their hands: it is a happy thing for the nation that its circulation is advancing so rapidly, and it will be yet found that the men who have actively engaged in this work, have been the best benefac"tors to their country. Many other suggestions for improvement have been mentioned in the preceding Surveys, as the cultivation of bees, of buck wheat for fowl, and similar suggestions. The cultivation of flax, and the introduction of linen weaving for an established market, would relieve much of the poverty and distress arising from a superabundant population; the landlords should likewise search for culm and coal beds, open them, employ a regular miner, and work them with some simple machinery: this would greatly facilitate the burning of lime, give plenty of fuel to the country, employ many poor people, and fully repay the landlord and the tenant on whose lands they may be opened. At the colliery two miles beyond the Improvements. Suggested parish, the farmers get all their culm for lime and fuel, and pay 1s. 8d. a kish for it, while it is to be found equally good in many parts nearer home, but the farmers now would conceal it, if it was discovered, lest the landlord should trespass on their grounds, and not recompense them; the landlord alone can carry on such a work properly, and he should do it in a manner that would encourage the farmer to assist him in the process. It is a sad thing †The tenant indeed is at his post, but where is the landlord to be found for the purposes of assistance and co-operation? He must be sought for in London, or Bath, or Harrowgate, or perhaps in those "piping times of peace" at Paris, or it may he at the foot of the capitol in Rome. His duties, in his own estimation at least, are to give receipts for his rents, and to issue directions to his agents at due intervals of time for the raising the rate of their perception. But he must bear to be told that there are other and very serious duties associated, as conditions to the holders of landed property, and that bowever his rights may and ought to be protected in a court of justice here, there is yet another tribunal before which he will be called for his audit and his account strictly scanned. But let us look to the instance before us. In the days of the landlord's residence at Courtstown castle, several small aqueducts from the hills above collected and conveyed the waters of the springs and the floods from the rains into a succession of fish-ponds near the castle, whence they found an issue in a rivulet which, flowing by, received and bore them away. Neither bogs among the bills, nor swamps upon the lower grounds, were the subjects of complaint, though the evils of both were afterwards severely felt. There was at that time also a road paved in the centre to the width of about twenty feet, which indeed still extends from the castle in the direction of Kilkenny for the distance of two miles, and we cannot therefore say of this, that "etiam periere ruinæ," for it remains in a state of dilapidation. Its restoration would be attended with the most beneficial consequences to a circumference of neighbourhood, not easily definable at present, by giving the necessary facilities to the transport of fuel, without which, in our climate, life itself can with difficulty be sustained. During the residence of the Grace family at Courtstown, the whole of the fuel used by it, and its numerous dependants, was drawn from the property itself, whether in the shape of wood from the hills, or of coal raised in the same place. The disastrous effects of absenteeism, have been far too often exemplified, but in no place can a more melan Improve to think how many natural advantages in this rich Suggested and fertile country are lost from the carelessness, ments, neglect, and inattention of landlords to the local circumstances of their estates, and to the consequent jealousies, fears, ignorance, and indolence of tenants. There are no grounds in which irrigation could be practised with greater effect, as all the streams flow through calcareous beds, of course with the best impregnations for fertilizing, yet it is but little practised, and many meadows, where it would be most effectual, are manured with a top dressing, which is much wanted to enrich their potatoe grounds. The rearing of green crops, and occasionally housing the cattle, would greatly assist the growth of grass, create manure, and enable trampled grounds to throw up their herbage; but landlords or their agents should direct and encourage all these improvements, and until they take up those things warmly, and instruct and assist their tenants in carrying them on, improvement will proceed very slowly among the farmers. The subject has been attended to by the gentlemen of this county. A committee has been formed for the purpose of carrying it into effect, and a market is to be established for 7-eight linen, of a certain number of yards in the piece, which it is hoped will soon afford employment for many poor families; the sowing, plucking, saving, steeping, hackling, &c. would employ many women and chilcholy illustration of the fact be perhaps found than upon this property. The patriarchal connexion through many a century of the Grace family with the surrounding population, possessed a value, both moral and profitably beneficial, which it would be difficult, if at all possible, when once broken, to readjust, under such a very different order of things. At the same time, it remains, and must ever remain, the interest of every proprietor whether old or new, to keep up a closeness of communication with his tenantry, so mutually advantageous. dren, and a weaver with a cabin and a garden, would find his family a blessing, instead of a burden; the struggle for small farms, on which so many are half starving in great wretchedness, would cease, and every labourer would endeavour to make his children weavers. In this county there are many advantages to encourage this, among others the linen factory, under the Incorporated Society, where forty boys are taught to weave, who being taken up by the gentlemen, and fixed in the country as weavers, as fast as their time expired, would soon introduce the manufactory through every part. The local suggestions are, the establishment of lime kilns on the different estates, by the landlords, with a couple of men whose business it would be, to collect lime-stone from the beds of the streams, where it is in great plenty, and from every place where it may be found in masses, some of which in many places are so large, that they require blasting to remove; individual farmers cannot build kilns, nor have they time to collect those stones, they therefore procure lime from the neighbouring parishes, although there is plenty in appearance for their use, which lies neglected; it would pay the landlords ten-fold, and greatly facilitate the reclaiming of all the uncultivated land: they should likewise search for marl beds, open them for the use of the tenantry, and honestly recompense the farmer on whose lands they are found, for the trespass. APPENDIX. As there is no market in the parish, the prices of grain and provisions can only be struck by the Kilkenny market, which are as follows, taken from the paper of March 27, 1818. Second flour..60s. to 64s. per bag. Pork, fresh.... 4d. to 5d. ditto. Wheat....... .48s. to 52s. per bar. Ditto, salt..... 6d. to 8d. ditto. ... Barley. Fresh butter....16d. to 18d. do. |