ists of a country, (and a reasonable
security to others assisting them,) has now been fairly recognised
and _acted on_, in reference to Ireland. It is distinctly avowed
in the following extract from Sir Robert Peel's speech at
Tamworth, 1st June 1847. 'We have experience of the evils of
periodical returns of destitution in Ireland; we see periodically
a million or a million and a half of people absolutely in a
starving state,--in a state which is disgraceful, while it is
dangerous to the security of life and property. I believe it is a
great point _to give security to those people_ that they shall not
starve,--that they shall have a demand upon the land. I believe it
is necessary to give _a new stimulus to industry_,--_to impress
upon the proprietors and the occupying tenants, that they must
look on the cultivation of the land in a new light_; and that the
demands of poverty will not be so great when all persons do all
that they can to lighten the pressure.'

We shall quote only a part of Dr Alison's observations on Ireland, but
they contain information of some interest.

"In proof that the natural resources of Ireland, in the absence of
this stimulus, have been equally neglected as those of the
Highlands, I may quote a few sentences from the official Report of
the Commission on the Occupation of Lands in Ireland. 'The general
tenor of the evidence before the Commissioners goes to prove, that
the agricultural practice throughout Ireland is _defective in the
highest degree_, and furnishes the most encouraging proofs, that
where judicious exertions have been made to improve the condition
and texture of the soil, and introduce a better selection and
rotation of crops, these exertions _have been attended with the
most striking success and profit_.' 'The lands in almost every
district require drainage; drainage and deep moving of the lands
have proved most remunerative operations wherever they have been
applied, but as yet they have been introduced only to a very
limited extent; and the most valuable crops, and most profitable
rotations, cannot be adopted in wet lands.' (See Report of that
Commission in London newspapers, Sept. 3, 1847.)

"The Commission above mentioned stated as their opinion, that the
potato may perhaps be regarded as the main cause of that inertia
of the Irish char