ill crowding
emigrant ships in all our ports, deserting their country with the same
bitter feelings that animated the Ulster men a century ago, hating our
Government with a mortal hatred, and ready to fight against it under
a foreign flag! We have no Primate Boulter now in the Protestant
hierarchy to plead the cause of an unprotected tenantry; but we have
the press, which can concentrate upon the subject the irresistible
force of public opinion.

As a churchman, Primate Boulter naturally regarded the land question
in its bearings on the interests of the Establishment. Writing to Sir
Robert Walpole in 1737 he said that he had in vain represented to the
landlords that, by destroying the tithe of agistment, they naturally
discouraged tillage, lessened the number of people, and raised the
price of provisions. By running into cattle they caused the young men
to enlist in foreign service for bread, there being no employment for
them at home, 'where two or three hands can look after some hundreds
of acres stocked with cattle.' And by this means, said the primate, 'a
great part of our churches are neglected; in many places five, six, or
seven parishes bestowed on one incumbent, who, perhaps, with all
his tithes, scarce gets 100 l. a year.' But there was at that time a
member of the Irish House of Commons who was capable of taking a more
enlarged view of the Irish question. This was Mr. Arthur Dobbs, who
belonged to an old and honourable Ulster family--the author of a book
on the 'North-west Passage to India,' and of a very valuable work on
the 'Trade of Great Britain and Ireland.' He was intimately acquainted
with the working of the Irish land system, for he had been many years
agent of the Hertfort estate, one of the largest in Ireland. There
is among Boulter's letters an introduction of Mr. Dobbs to Sir Robert
Walpole, recommending him as a person of good sense, who had applied
himself to the improvement of trade, and to the making of our colonies
in America of more advantage than they had hitherto been. He was
afterwards made Governor of North Carolina. I have mentioned these
facts in the hope of securing the attention of landlords and statesmen
to the following passage from his book accounting for the deplorable
condition of the province of Ulster at that time, and the emigration
of its industrious and wealth-producing inhabitants. In my humble
opinion it furnishes irresistible arguments in favour of a measure
which should