hat the rent which they would readily double (for better
tenements) if they were fully employed and fairly paid, now benumbs and
crushes them, and their little patches of land, which ought to be in the
highest degree productive, are often the worst cultivated of any this
side of the Alps. Ignorance, want, and hopelessness have paralysed their
energies, and the consequent decay of the Peasantry has involved most of
the Aristocracy in the general ruin. The Encumbered Estates Commission
is now rapidly passing the soil of Ireland out of the hands of its
bankrupt landlords into those of a new generation. May these be wise
enough to profit by the warning before them, and by uniting to elevate
the condition of the Laboring Millions place their own prosperity on a
solid and lasting foundation!

GENERAL ASPECTS.

The South of Ireland is decidedly more fertile and inviting than the
North or West. There is a deeper, richer soil, with far less stone on
the level low lands. The railroad from Dublin to Limerick runs
throughout over a level plain, and though it passes from the valley of
the Liffey across those of the Barrow, the Durrow and the Suir to that
of the Shannon, no perceptible ridge is crossed, no tunnel traversed,
and very little rock-cutting or embankment required. Although the
highways are often carried over the track at an absurd expense, while
the principal depots are made to cost thrice what they should, I still
cannot account for the great outlay on Irish railroads. They would have
been built at one-half the cost in the States, where the wages of labor
are thrice as much as here: who pockets the difference? Of course, there
is stealing in the assessment of land damages; but so there is
everywhere. When I was in Galway, a case was tried in which a
proprietor, whose bog was crossed by the Midland Railroad, sued the
company for more than the Appraisers had awarded him, and it was proved
on the trial that his bog, utterly worthless before, had been partially
drained and considerably increased in value by the railroad. There seems
to be no conscience in exacting damages of those who invest their money,
often most reluctantly, in railroads, of which the main benefits are
universal. In Ireland they have palpably and greatly benefited every
class but the stockholders, and these they have well nigh ruined.

There are fewer remains of dwellings recently "cleared" and thrown down
in the South than in the West of Ireland; tho