assed through
the country, the hovels in which the poor were lodged, which
were then far more wretched than they are at present, or than
they have been for the last twenty years, the black tracts of
bog, and the unusual smell of the turf fuel, were to him
never-ceasing topics of reproach and lamentation. Mr. Day's
deep-seated prejudice in favour of savage life was somewhat
shaken by this view of want and misery, which philosophers of
a certain class in London and Paris chose at that time to
dignify by the name of simplicity. The modes of living in the
houses of the gentry were much the same in Ireland as in
England. This surprised my friend. He observed, that if there
was any difference, it was that people of similar fortune did
not restrain themselves equally in both countries to the same
prudent economy; but that every gentleman in Ireland, of two
or three thousand pounds a year, lived in a certain degree of
luxury and show that would be thought presumptuous in persons
of the same fortune in England.

'On our journey to my father's house, I had occasion to vote
at a contested election in one of the counties through which
we passed. Here a scene of noise, riot, confusion, and
drunkenness was exhibited, not superior indeed in depravity
and folly, but of a character or manner so different from what
my friend had even seen in his own country, that he fell into
a profound melancholy.'

It was to remedy this wretched state of things in Ireland that
Edgeworth resolved in 1782 to devote his energies.

It is curious to read his account of the relations between landlord
and tenant in Ireland at this date. He soon learned that firmness
was required in his dealings with his tenants as well as kindness.
'He omitted a variety of old feudal remains of fines and penalties;
but there was one clause, which he continued in every lease with a
penalty attached to it, called an alienation fine--a fine of so much
an acre upon the tenant's reletting any part of the devised land.'

He wisely resolved to receive his rents himself, and to avoid the
intervention of any agent or driver ('a person who drives and
impounds cattle for rent or arrears'). 'In every case where the
tenant had improved the land, or even where he had been industrious,
though unsuccessful, his claim to preference over every new
proposer, his tenanfs right, as it is called, was admitted. But the
mere plea of "I have lived under your Honour, or your Honour's
father or