is to say, scratch them out of the
earth with their paws, toss them into a pot without washing, and when
boiled, turn them out upon a dirty board, and then sit round that board,
peel the skin and dirt from one at a time and eat the inside. Mr. Curwen
was delighted with "_Irish hospitality_," because the people there receive
no parish relief; upon which I can only say, that I wish him the exclusive
benefit of such hospitality.

80. I have here spoken of a large quantity of each of the sorts of food. I
will now come to a comparative view, more immediately applicable to a
labourer's family. When wheat is _ten_ shillings the bushel, potatoes,
bought at best hand, (I am speaking of the country generally,) are about
_two_ shillings (English) a bushel. Last spring the average price of wheat
might be _six and sixpence_, (English;) and the average price of potatoes
(in small quantities) was about _eighteen-pence_; though, by the
wagon-load, I saw potatoes bought at a _shilling_ (English) a bushel, to
give to sheep; then, observe, these were of the coarsest kind, and the
farmer had to fetch them at a considerable expense. I think, therefore,
that I give the advantage to the potatoes when I say that they sell, upon
an average, for full a _fifth_ part as much as the wheat sells for, per
bushel, while they contain four pounds less weight than the bushel of
wheat; while they yield only five pounds and a half of nutritious matter
equal to bread; and while the bushel of wheat will yield _sixty-five
pounds of bread_, besides the ten pounds of bran. Hence it is clear, that,
instead of that _saving_, which is everlastingly dinned in our ears, from
the use of potatoes, there is a _waste of more than one half_; seeing
that, when wheat is _ten shillings_ (English) the bushel, you can have
_sixty-five pounds of bread for the ten shillings_; and can have out of
potatoes only five pounds and a half of nutritious matter equal to bread
for _two shillings_! (English.) This being the case, I trust that we shall
soon hear no more of those _savings_ which the labourer makes by the use
of potatoes; I hope we shall, in the words of Dr. DRENNAN, "leave Ireland
to her _lazy_ root," if she choose still to adhere to it. It is the root,
also, of slovenliness, filth, misery, and slavery; its cultivation has
increased in England with the increase of the paupers: both, I thank God,
are upon the decline. Englishmen seem to be upon the return to beer and
bread, f