pasture or of cereal produce. (The monosyllable corn would be equally expressive, but it looks "mean and poky," as Martha Penny said of the Protestant religion, when compared with "cereal produce.") Then there is abundance of manure close by, in the sea-weed and coral-sand; and under the soil lie rich veins of marble, rose-colour, and yellow, and white, and green; and of which you may purchase specimens from the little merchants who come round the car. But where, it may well be asked, are the hands to ply the mattock and pick? For famine, and ejection, and the Exodus, have swept away the working men; and though it is evident, from the number of children, that great efforts are being made to repopulate the country, there seems to be no staff on the spot for any large undertakings. But men are to be found when they are wanted by master-minds; and the Irish and English labourers, instead of deserting for America and Australia a land so full of promise,† would readily be induced, by leaders of energy and capital, to appropriate advantages nearer home. The sale of encumbered estates (one of the cleverest, cleanest cuts, that surgeon ever made, to save his * According to the Report of the Registrar-General, the population has decreased to the number of half a million since the Census of 1851. + See Letters from The Times' Commissioner, ed. 2, p. 271, and The Saxon in Ireland, chapter x. patient from mortification), amply justifies the healthful hope that English and Scotch farmers* will soon be numerous upon Irish soil, not to become, like the Norman visitors of yore, "ipsis Hibernis Hiberniores," but to inoculate Paddy with their own activity and earnestness, and to persuade him, just for once and by way of a change, to work in his own land, as he can and will in any other. The Saxon says that the Celt (how one despises those malicious nicknames, stereotyping hate, and perpetuating a lie, as if there were a true Celt or Saxon extant!) that the Celt will shoot him; and, perhaps, he may, if nothing is done to conciliate, but everything to offend his prejudices. Those prejudices are the growth of ages, and will not vanish before slang and compulsion, but only before goodness, teaching by example a better and a happier way. If I wish to propitiate a high-spirited unbroken steed, not warranted free from vice, and can do so by checking him sharply with the curb, and by sticking in both spurs, without ruining the horse, and finding myself in a position to take an uninterrupted view of the firmament, Mr. Rarey and reason plead in vain. John Bull is a magnificent * 66 Why are there so many more Scotch than English? It appears that there are 756 'Britishers' agriculturally settled in Ireland, and of these 660 are natives of Scotland."--Agricultural and Social State of Ireland in 1858, by Thomas Miller. fellow, but his mere repetition of "curse the Pope" will do no more to evangelise mankind than Grip the Raven's "I'm a Protestant kettle;" nor can we specify any signal blessings as likely to accrue to the human race, when "Sawney, with his Calvinistic creed in the one hand, and allaying irritation with the other," denounces smiling on Sunday as a deadly sin, or goes "Bellowing, and breathing fire and smoke, At crippled Papistry to butt and poke, Hunts an old woman in a scarlet cloak.” Were I desirous to impress upon the people of Connaught the advantages of protecting their feet with leather, I should scarcely proceed to demonstrate my proposition by kicking them with hob-nailed boots; and although bread as an article of food is vastly superior to potatoes, few men would essay to enforce this argument by pelting the peasantry with quartern loaves. The Saxon says that the Celt will shoot him; and nothing can be more vile and despicable than those cowardly murders which disgrace Ireland. But we must not forget, in our righteous horror, that our own capital convictions are thrice as numerous, according to population, as those in the sister-country; and, though this does not denote the exact proportion of crime, because conviction in Ireland is far more difficult than with us, it may still suggest a wholesome restraint, when we are minded to sit in judgment upon others. CHAPTER VIII. CLIFDEN. WE arrived at Carr's Hotel, in Clifden, between 5 and 6 P.M., and strolled down the main street before dinner. The whitewashed houses are much less miserable than the cottages we had seen in the country, but we can give no more than negative praise, the general aspect of the town being dreary enough. There are happy associations, nevertheless, connected with it, for the whole place arose from a benevolent attempt of Mr. D'Arcy, once the owner of Clifden Castle, to improve the condition and evoke the energies of his neighbours; and though the estate has passed into other hands, a D'Arcy still maintains, as pastor of the people, an honoured name for charity and zeal. After dinner we had a most delightful ramble on the cliffs, which overlook |