statute acres of each county, and the other of the total area under crops in 1854, and we add a final column of the total valuation of each county, according to Griffith's return, so that the reader may see at a glance the acreage of the entire surface of each county, and its present value, the number of acres producing food, and the number absolutely waste, and may then work out by the rules of arithmetic the number" nominally in pasture, but in reality producing nothing."

Accompanying Mr. Griffith's tabular return to the Devon Commission, there is a detailed commentary on the waste of each county, and this shows that what Mr. Griffith considered "unimproveable" would, probably, in the hands of a peasant proprietary, be very speedily reclaimed. If the celebrated Pays de Waes were left to Mr. Griffith and the Board of Works, it would be to this day in all its native barrenness. A few extracts will illustrate his notions of the "unimproveable."

"From the foregoing it would appear that the twelve counties of the province of Leinster contain 731,000 acres of land in a state of nature. Of this extent it is probable by judicious arragements that about 186,000 acres may be drained and cultivated to advantage so far as to produce both corn and green crops; 345,000 may be improved by draining at a moderate expense, and thus rendered available as pasture for sheep or young cattle, and 200,000 acres situated chiefly in elevated and rocky districts must be considered as wholly unimprovable, at least such as would not remunerate the undertaker.”

Of the province of Ulster he does not give such a resumé raisonnée, but of one of its counties he says:

"It is probable that within the limits of the County of Donegal there are about 150,000 acres which might be improved for cultivation, 250,000 might be drained and thus rendered available for the rearing of young cattle; and 369,000 acres of mountain-land, which, it is probable would not repay the expense of draining."

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Of the province of Connaught he says, it contains on the whole about 1,906,000 acres of unimproved pasture land, of which about 430,000 might be drained and reclaimed for cultivation, 726,000 might be drained for pasture, chiefly for young cattle, and 750,000 acres may be considered as not capable of improvement at a remunerative cost."

"And Munster," he says, " contains about 1,893,000 of unimproved mountain or boggy land; of which 390,000 may be advantageously reclaimed for cultivation, 630,000 acres may be drained for pasture and coarse meadow; and 873,000 may be considered as unsuitable for improvement at the present time."

Of the entire 6,290,000 acres of waste, he thinks "1,425,000 acres might be advantageously reclaimed and improved so as to produce both corn and green crops; 2,330,000 acres might be drained for coarse meadow toge

ther with pasture for sheep and young cattle, and 2,535,000 acres would appear to be unsuitable for improvement inasmuch as it would not repay the expense of effective draining.'

The great advantage which society would derive from the reclamation of these tracts is exemplified by one example taken from the summary of the county of Cork, where wastes "which were valued for sale at the rate of 4d. per acre per annum ;""have been since successfully improved under the direction of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests." and "now vary in value from 7s. 6d. to 20s. per acre. Let us suppose that all the wastes are on an average worth a rent of 1s. an acre per annum now, and could be reclaimed so as to be worth 20s., and the clear gain to society (the rent being considered only a third of the entire annual value) would be upwards of £18,000,000 a year. That is to say, society in Ireland would have £18,000,000 a year more to spend, to enjoy, and contribute to the general resources and revenues of the kingdom than at present. The importance of this, even in an imperial financial view is well indicated in the report of the Poor Law Inquiry Commission of 1837. Speaking of the Poor Law and the measures of amelioration to which it would, they fancied, necessarily lead, they say:

"What ought to be done we trust will be done; the improvement of Ireland is of the deepest importance to every part of the United Kingdom; at present with a population nearly equal to half that of Great Britain, she yields only about a twelfth of the revenue to the State that Great Britain does; nor can she yield more till more she has to yield. Increased means must precede increased contributions, and to supply Ireland with these, is the great object of our recommendations. We anxiously hope that they may conduce to it, and that Ireland may at length become, what Sir William Temple so long ago declared that by wise and judicious government it would become, the right arm of the empire."

These are the views which have always influenced our suggestions for the material improvement of this country, but we confess we begin to think that there is some spell upon our rulers, that prevents them from exercising any common sense in the administration of our affairs. It may be an interposition of Providence to keep alive, by

their folly and injustice, our ancient love of nationality, and to secure the fulfilment of the prophecy, that this land should belong to the Gael for ever. Indeed, in any other way it is difficult to account for the singular obstinacy with which they have persevered in doing what they ought not to have done, and leaving undone what they ought to have done.

The first practical question with regard to the wastes is, Ought the landlords to be allowed to lock up this immense quantity of land from society, to put society to the expense of protecting it for them, and not themselves to pay a farthing towards the cost of its protection? A tract of bog, which feeds only a few hares or grouse, really costs society more for its protection than the richest corn fields, inasmuch as game is, of all sorts of property, the most difficult of protection; and every piece of land, even the wildest heath, has the full benefit of the protection of her Majesty's horse, foot, and artillery, just as much as if they were posted on its boundary ditches, with swords drawn, bayonets fixed, and matches lighted. Towards the expense of these costly appliances the owners of our wastes do not contribute a shilling, for there is no Land Tax here, and these wastes producing nothing do not bring the owners within the grasp of the Income tax, or the Succession Duty collector. Neither do they pay Poor rates, County rates, tithes, excise duties, or in short, contribute anything whatever to the local or general revenue. If the common law of England, as Sir E. Coke says, favours tillage, certainly the Statute law of Ireland favours waste.

All the attempts at reclamation hitherto made have been failures, simply because they were confined to enabling and permitting the landlords to reclaim, and the people had no right to do anything but to look on. Time enough has been lost on this folly, and some effective step should be at once taken. The reclamation of these wastes is of more importance to the state than the making of any bridge, canal, or railway, and the private caprices or interests of the owners ought to be made to give way to the paramount interest of society. We are not without authority for this position. Mr. Sergeant Byles, in his Sophisms of Free Trade, in commenting on the sophism that we are not to interfere with a man's management of his own property, says,-.

“Non-cultivation, or even improper or imperfect cultivation, should with proper guards and regulations be a ground of forfeiture or escheat to the public.

"Ought an Irish landlord, like the dog in the manger, to own land of which he can make no use at all, but on which thousands of his fellow-countrymen might live and be happy?"

So Mr. Kay indicates the folly of not taking the matter out of the hands of the landlords.

"Nearly one-third of this rich island is wholly uncultivated, and is nothing more than bogs, moors, and waste lands; the cultivation of the remaining part is generally of the most miserable kind. Most of the great proprietors have no spare capital to invest in the improvement of their estates, or in bringing any of their waste lands into cultivation. Few, even of those who have capital, are energetic or intelligent enough to expend it in so rational a manner. Many, if not most, of the resident landlords in the south and west of Ireland, are a jovial, careless, hunting set of squires, who think and care ten times more about their sports than about their lands or tenants, while the farmers, and under-lessees of the farmers, will not invest capital in the cultivation of their lands, or in reclaiming the bogs, because they have no leases, and no security for the outlay, and because they do not feel sufficient interest in the land of another to induce them to expend their own savings in improving it; but instead of doing so have often, as is well known, placed their spare capital, from the want of better investment, in the banks of Ireland, or of England. Many of the squires would willingly sell part of their lands, in order to get capital to improve the other part, while nearly all the larger farmers have spare capital, and would willingly and gladly purchase land and improve it, but both parties are prevented by the present laws relating to land.

"Nor is civilisation in Ireland merely stationary; it is actually going backwards. In the last few years hundreds of thousands of acres have actually been thrown out of cultivation, owing, on the part of the landlords, to inability to sell, and to want of capital and activity; and on the part of the farmers to want of security, and to being prevented purchasing any part of the strictly entailed estates."PP, 305-11.

Mr. Kay's work was published four years ago, but notwithstanding the paragraphs from time to time in the newspapers respecting the wonderful improvement of the country, the agricultural statistics show that the above statement is literally correct at this day, and that year by year the land is turned from tillage to pasture and waste. Thus "the entire breadth of land under crops in 1853 was