by way of punishment produces little beneficial effect; for the trifling sum they receive, when put into competition with their own domestic occupations, is often below their notice. In fact, except in the middle of winter, it is frequently very difficult to bring them from home, and recourse must be had to driving.* The practice of task work is increasing much in this county, and only wants to be better known to be generally adopted. It requires some experience to ascertain the value; but the simple method of devoting one day to superintend the execution of a given number of perches, or part of any kind of work, will enable any person to estimate the value; but a resolution must be forined to insist that the pattern, when properly arranged, shall be implicitly followed, making ample allowance always for unforeseen obstructions. In most cases it will be necessary to enforce the accomplishment of the work in a given time, otherwise it may be executed at a season that will not only increase the difficulty of the execution, but ditches or drains executed, or at least finished in winter, suffer severely from frost or heavy rains. In very few cases should a ditch be made at once; in land that will run at the bottom, (and which is the general case in this county,) if the ditch is intended to be seven feet by six deep, it should be sunk only about three feet deep and three feet broad the first year; the following • As the meaning of the word driving, may not be generally known out of Ireland, it is necessary to state, that from the general poverty of cottier tenants, and I may say of most Irish tenants, half a year's rent, called the hanging gale, generally remains unpaid; this, on failure of coming to work, and frequently for some misdemeanor, is exacted, by driving some beast to pound, which is usually released on coming to work, or some other accommodation; if not, the animal is advertised and sold in a few days. I fear in many cases this is a great source of oppression, but in many others highly necessary. year it may be finished, and in many situations it will have run so much on the sides from the issue of water long pent up, and the action of frost, that there will be little more than paring the sides to make the ditch of the intended breadth. A great extent of draining by task has been executed at Mount Bellew; and on the Netterville estate I had executed in two years upwards of fifteen miles of ditches and master drains, but in both cases a statement of the value, owing to difference of dimensions, and unforeseen obstructions, might only tend to mislead. At some future period I may probably give a table of the rate of wages, and hope I may be favoured with assistance from those who have pur sued this method of executing work. The wages of a house carpenter is from two to four shillings per day; those of a plough or car maker, usually called a hedge carpenter, from eighteen pence to two shillings and sixpence, and his diet; a thatcher the same; other tradesmen usually by measurement, at the usual rates, or according as advantage can be taken of his necessities. Shepherds have usually a house, small garden, some tillage ground, and grass for a cow and heifer, and generally keeping for a brood mare. As they are servants of some responsibility, they have commonly many indulgences, and no person would take a herd without his possessing some stock, as they are frequently the only security from neglect or misdemeanor. PROVISIONS. THE prices of provisions are so very fluctuating, that I cannot see to what purpose I should give a list of them; they not only vary almost every week, but in different towns at the same period. The bread of this county, in general, is excellent, which does no little credit to the millers, for except in some particular districts the wheat is very inferior to the growth of other parts of Ireland, and where their flour frequently does not keep pace with the goodness of their wheat. The superiority of the flour of this county may be accounted for by the millers being mostly practical men, and superintending their own concerns; those, and their mills, are the description that are useful to the tillage of a country, (and I wish there were more of them,) as they bring the market home to the farmer, who, where those mills do not exist, loses, besides his expenses, two or three days by bringing his crop to Galway; and as his horses and cars are both generally very weak, the quantity he can draw seldom exceeds two barrels (forty stone) of wheat, or three of oats (forty-two stone). This is a heavy tax on his profits, exclusive of the loss of seasons for his different operations. The farmers have also adopted the useful practice of selling by sample, which saves them much trouble, and does not put them so completely in the power of the miller as those who bring their sacks to market. Formerly there was a considerable export of beef and pork from Galway, but for several years that trade has been lost. The merchants of Galway have lately exerted themselves to encourage an export of butter; I fear there has not been much success attending their praiseworthy regulations for its encouragement. I cannot understand why it should not succeed, as a considerable quantity of good butter is made to the west of Galway, and in many other parts of the county, and I am informed has always brought the highest price at foreign markets. SECTION V. STATE OF TITHE-ITS GENERAL AMOUNT. THERE can be no second opinion about the right the clergy have to tithes; the right to estates cannot be stronger; even those who are most adverse to this mode of provision for the clergy do not deny this, but they exclaim against the mode of collection, and as far as I could collect their opinions, they seem to think that every incumbent should, by immediate agents, collect his tithe, and not let it to others, who again employ proctors or inferior persons to view and set the tithe, and those frequently of very questionable character. Another great objection seems to be valuing tithe by the acre, without making sufficient allowance for inferior or bad crops. The prices charged for tithe, per acre, are very various; in some parishes, wheat a guinea to one pound six shillings; oats 12s.; barley 12s. to 20s.; sheep 45s. to 50s. per 100; lambs 50s. per hundred: in others, 9s. 9d. to 11s. 44d. for wheat; oats 5s. to 7s. ; barley and bere 8s. to 9s.; sheep a guinea to twentyfive shillings: near Loughrea, 12s. to 14s. for wheat; 9s. to 10s. for oats and barley; 50s. per 100 for sheep: in another place, 10s. for wheat; 7s. for oats and barley. The late Rev. Mr. Russell, for the parishes of Ballindoone, Moyne, Omagh, and Ballynakill, charged no more than he did fifteen years ago, and all by composition. The greatest hardship in my mind is, the exemption of cattle. In 1735 the Irish house of Commons (what a house of Commons !) passed a resolution against tithe for cattle, called the tithe of agistment, which frees the rich grazier, and lays the burden on the poor tiller of the soil. Before this period it had been received by the clergy of Ireland as well as England; which appears by the act of Henry VIII. 33. chap. 12, which enumerates and provides for the due payment of corns, hay, pasturage, and other sorts of tithes and oblations commonly due. It appears that between the years 1722 and 1735, forty-three suits for agistment tithe were instituted in the Exchequer in Ireland, and in all of which that were decided, the judgment of the court was in favour of the claims of the clergy. Surely the enormity of this exemption must strike every thinking mind. How praiseworthy would it be to take the tithe off the crop of those who can so badly bear it, and lay it on that which requires so little exertion; and on no other terms do I wish it. I trust the legislature of the present day will view this affair in a very different light from their conscientious brethren of 1735. On the other side, I am perfectly convinced that many who complain most loudly of the hardships they suffer, have less cause than many others: I recollect one extensive farmer complained to me that he only paid formerly about £15. for his tithe, and indeed, truly, the incumbent had the conscience to charge him £60. I had heard the circumstance before, and a little cross examination at length brought out, that he had broken up a large additional quantity of grass land for corn, and increased to a great amount his stock of sheep; yet he was so unreasonable and uncandid as to expect his tithe at the old valuation. It is ridiculous to suppose that if the land was made tithe free the landlord would not increase the rent to the full value of the tithe. In an examination of Mr. Emmet by the house of lords in 1798, he says, "I am 66 sure if tithes were abolished, the people taking new "leases would be obliged to pay more in proportion for "lands, than the value they now pay for tithes." There have been many modes proposed for making the burden |