being moister than England, but if they have
eyes let them open them, and see the verdure that clothes their rocks,
and compare it with ours in England--where rocky soils are of a russet
brown however sweet the food for sheep. Does not their island lie more
exposed to the great Atlantic; and does not the west wind blow
three-fourths of a year? If there was another island yet more westward,
would not the climate of Ireland be improved? Such persons speak equally
against fact, reason, and philosophy. That the moisture of a climate
does not depend on the quantity of rain that falls, but on the powers of
aerial evaporation, Dr. Dobson has clearly proved. "Phil. Trans." vol.
lxvii., part i., p. 244.

Oppression.

Before I conclude this article of the common labouring poor in Ireland, I
must observe, that their happiness depends not merely upon the payment of
their labour, their clothes, or their food; the subordination of the
lower classes, degenerating into oppression, is not to be overlooked.
The poor in all countries, and under all governments, are both paid and
fed, yet there is an infinite difference between them in different ones.
This inquiry will by no means turn out so favourable as the preceding
articles. It must be very apparent to every traveller through that
country, that the labouring poor are treated with harshness, and are in
all respects so little considered that their want of importance seems a
perfect contrast to their situation in England, of which country,
comparatively speaking, they reign the sovereigns. The age has improved
so much in humanity, that even the poor Irish have experienced its
influence, and are every day treated better and better; but still the
remnant of the old manners, the abominable distinction of religion,
united with the oppressive conduct of the little country gentlemen, or
rather vermin of the kingdom, who never were out of it, altogether bear
still very heavy on the poor people, and subject them to situations more
mortifying than we ever behold in England. The landlord of an Irish
estate, inhabited by Roman Catholics, is a sort of despot who yields
obedience, in whatever concerns the poor, to no law but that of his will.
To discover what the liberty of the people is, we must live among them,
and not look for it in the statutes of the realm: the language of written
law may be that of liberty, but the situation of the poor may speak no
language but that of slavery. T