BEAUTIFUL PROSPECT. 331 of beautiful objects, uniting the charms of nature with those elegancies and comforts of life, which result from commercial wealth and civilization. At your foot, the island and little town of Dalkey, with the busy scene of the quarries for supplying the works at the new harbour of Kingstown, formerly Dunleary*, which gives the idea of full security to the shipping in the bay, some at anchor, others moving into port, or passing outwards to their various destinations. Beyond the bay the promontory of Howth, over the neck of which are seen the cultivated hills of Louth, terminated by the irregular sky-line of the mountains of Mourne. Turning again towards the west, the city spreads her smoking extent over many a mile, diversified with steeples, squares, monuments, and other architectural beauties, the rich plains of Kildare in the distance; the whole constituting, perhaps, one of the most magnificent views in the world. The picture becomes finished with the space between the city and the observer, luxuriantly cultivated, and thickly set with innumerable country seats, rivalling each other in taste and decoration, whilst the huge mass of granite, called the Dublin Mountains, shelters these charming retreats of civic opulence from the rude visitation of the southerly storms. This variously-chequered, grand, and delightful scene, cannot fail to fill the mind with the most pleasing images, notwithstanding the miseries that brood upon the land. -- * This great work, I am informed, owes its existence chiefly to the persevering exertions of Mr. BERNARD O'REILLY, — and a splendid monument it is of unrequited industry. ( 332 ) It would scarcely be imagined by any one who has not tried the experiment, how difficult it is to ascertain the population of Ireland. There exists amongst the peasantry an unconquerable aversion to tell the exact number of which their families consist, and in nine cases out of ten they will represent it under the truth. On what ground this prejudice rests I am not able to explain; but I had ample experience of the fact. I am indebted to relations and respected friends, who gave up much of their time to collect information, from which the following table is principally formed; and after all the attention that has been given to the subject, it is feared the statement is far from correct. Had I trusted entirely to my own observation, the result would have been considerably greater. I am quite certain that the view here given is much below what it should be; indeed I had many opportunities of proving it; but deference for those who kindly interested themselves in the inquiry, and whose local knowledge should give weight to their opinion, has induced me to adopt their calculations. It will be observed that the counties are not arranged in their provincial order, but according to their geographical dimensions; the area of each in square miles is taken from the work of Mr. Wakefield. Table of the Total and Comparative Population of IRELAND, up to the end of the Year 1822. "The re • Mr. Hardiman, in his History of Galway, page 192. says, ( 334 ) of 1812, amounted only to 24,484; but those to whom the enumeration was entrusted were, according to their own subsequent accusations of each other, guilty of gross neglect and omission in the execution of that duty. The general and most probable opinion is, that the population amounts at present (1820) to 40,000, which comprehends a vast number of daily increasing poor, without trade, manufactures, or adequate employment." In 1814, before a committee of the House of Commons, the population of Galway was stated to be 50,000. I regret to say, that the charge of "gross neglect and omission," set forth in the preceding note, is fully borne out by my own observations in a great many parts of the country. Desirous of having some conversation with the " enumerators," I made many inquiries about them, but did not happen to pass through a district where any one appeared to know or even to have heard any thing at all of such persons. PART III. REFLECTIONS ON THE FOREGOING MATTERS. THE HE state of Ireland is an anomaly among nations. Although possessing almost every requisite for making a nation prosperous and happy, still the people are poor though industrious; discontented amidst abundant natural advantages; starving, though surrounded by plenty; and, whilst other nations are progressing in the arts and blessings of civilization, this alone seems to retrograde in every useful improvement. The question to what causes is owing such an unnatural state of things? irresistibly forces itself on the thinking mind, and urges to investigation. To this most important question it must be answered, -the causes are manifold; most of them, however, may be marshalled under certain general heads; the avarice of landlords, the unwise system of tithe exactions, the want of employment and education, — political disability and political monopoly: these are among the most prominently mischievous. That these are the principal and proximate causes of all the miseries under which Ireland has long groaned, and that they tend to perpetuate her degradation and augment her suffering, is unequivocally proved by the concurring testimony of history and the experience of ages. It is an axiom both in physics and metaphysics, that a cause must be removed before its effects can cease: if, therefore, it be intended or wished that the genial beams of prosperity |