industry of the inhabitants, the morass grounds had of late, by
burning and proper management, produced surprisingly large crops
of rye and oats. Coarse lands, manured with lime, had answered the
farmers' views in wheat, and yielded a great produce, and wherever
marl was found there was great store of barley. The staple commodity
of the county was linen, due care of which manufacture brought great
wealth among the people. Consequently the county was observed to be
'populous and flourishing, though it did not become amenable to the
laws till the reign of Queen Elizabeth, nor fully till the reign of
James I.' The English habit, language, and manners almost universally
prevailed. 'Irish,' says Harris, 'can be heard only among the inferior
rank of _Irish Papists_, and even that little diminishes every day, by
the great desire the poor natives have that their children should
be taught to read and write in the English tongue in the Charter, or
other English Protestant schools, to which they willingly send them.'
The author exults in the progress of Protestantism. There were but two
Catholic gentlemen in the county who had estates, and their income was
very moderate. When the priests were registered in 1704 there were but
thirty in the county. In 1733 the books of the hearth-money collectors
showed--

Protestant families in the county Down 14,000
Catholic families 5,210
Total Protestants, reckoning five a family 70,300
Total Catholics 26,050
______
Protestant majority 44,250

Our author, who was an excellent Protestant of the 18th century type,
with boundless faith in the moral influence of the Charter schools,
would be greatly distressed if he could have lived in these degenerate
days, and seen the last religious census, which gives the following
figures for the county of Down:--

Protestants of all denominations 202,026
Catholics 97,240
_______
Total population 299,266

The total number of souls in the county in the year 1733 was 96,350.
These figures show that the population was more than trebled in 130
years, and that the Catholics have increased nearly fourfold.

The history of the Hertfort estate illustrates every phase of the
tenant-right questio