reland, and three fourths of it is beaten flat to the earth.
Wheat is injured and poor, though not so generally prostrate; Oats look
feeble, and as if half drowned; some of these are, and considerable
Barley is thrown down; Grass is light, much of it uncut, and much that
is cut has lain under the stormy or cloudy skies through the last week
and looks badly; only the Potatoes look strong and thrifty, and promise
an ample yield. I shall be agreeably disappointed if Ireland realizes a
fair average harvest this year.

Belfast is a busy, growing town, the emporium of the Linen Manufacture,
and the capital of the Province of Ulster, the Northern quarter of
Ireland. It seems prosperous, though no wise remarkably so; and I have
been painfully disappointed in the apparent condition of the rural
peasantry on the line of travel from Belfast to Dublin, which I had
understood formed an exception to the general misery of Ireland. Out of
the towns not one habitation in ten is fit for human beings to live in,
but mere low, cramped hovels of rock, mud and straw; not one-half the
families on the way seem to have so much as an acre of land to each
household; not half the men to be seen have coats to their backs; and
not one in four of the women and children have each a pair of shoes or
stockings. And those feet!--if the owners would only wash them once a
week, the general aspect of affairs in this section would be materially
brightened. Wretchedness, rags and despair salute me on every side; and
if this be the best part of Ireland, what must the state of the worst
be?

From Belfast we had railroad to Armagh, 35 miles; then 13 miles by
omnibus to Castle Blayney. We came over this latter route with ten or
twelve passengers, and a tun or so of luggage on the outside of the
Railroad Company's omnibus, with thirteen of us stowed inside, beside a
youngster in arms, who illustrated the doctrine of Innate Depravity by a
perpetual fight with his mother. Yet, thus overloaded we were driven the
thirteen miles of muddy road in about two hours, taking at Castle
Blayney another railroad train, which brought us almost to Drogheda,
some 25 miles, where we had to take another omnibus for a mile or two,
for want of a railroad bridge over the Boyne, thus reaching another
train which brought us into Dublin, 32 miles. The North of Ireland is
yet destitute of any other railroads than such patches and fragments as
these, whereby I am precluded from seeing Lond