The country, for six or eight miles around the metropolis, is beautifully diversified with gentlemen's seats, the gardens and grounds of which generally display a considerable share of taste. Lucan, a delightful village six miles from town, is celebrated for a spring strongly impregnated with sulphur; its medicinal qualities are differently estimated by different persons as they have happened to get better or worse during its use. Rents are high in this county, though the land is by no means of a superior quality. The natural defects of the soil, however, are often compensated by manuring, and a superior method of cultivation. Wheat, hay, and potatoes, are the principal productions; a very small proportion of oats is raised, and scarcely any flax. Limestone is very abundant, and as it enters into the composition of the soil in most parts of this county, it is seldom used as manure.

6th June. In company with Drs. Harty and Gamble, I visited some of the prisons, of which I shall submit a brief sketch. It will seldom fall to any one's lot to see a worse gaol than the Dublin Newgate, which is badly situated, badly constructed, and badly managed. In space, classification, inspection, education, and employment, it is eminently deficient. The manners of its inmates, particularly the females, are distinguished by horrific ferocity. The most that can be said in its favour is, that it is kept as clean as circumstances will permit.

The City Marshalsea exhibits a crowded picture of human wretchedness, reflecting disgrace on the callous-hearted individuals who have the power, but want the humanity, to

On the scale of geographical dimensions this county ranks 29th, there being only three smaller in the kingdom. It contains 338 square miles, and a population of 448 nearly, to the square mile; giving a total of 173,824, of whom 154,510 are Catholics.

meliorate its condition. Dr. Harty says, "the Sheriff's prison is, in many respects, a more filthy and noxious prison than either of the former; it consists of twenty-five lodging apartments, each about twelve feet square, containing generally from three to ten inmates!!" I am unable to say which of these wretched prisons is the worst.

Smithfield Penitentiary, although injudiciously constructed, is a creditable institution; industry, and its moral attendant, good order, are observable in every part of it. Boys and girls are here taught useful trades, by the exercise of which it is hoped many of them will in future be able to gain an honest livelihood. The new Bridewell is a very valuable institution, though a much more commodious building might have been erected for less money than has been expended on this. Education and employment experience that care and encouragement their importance merits, and there is every reason to hope that their results will be happy.

7th. At six this morning, I left Dublin. The weather being fine, I preferred travelling outside on the coach, which enabled me to see something of the surface of the country. There happened to be a quaker gentleman, Mr. J. Christy, going by the same coach; on getting into conversation with him, he proved exceedingly wellinformed.

The long want of rain is severely felt and regretted by the farmers. The dry and parched state of the corn-fields plainly shews that the process of vegetation is every where impeded, and in many places almost suspended, Several small parties are employed in planting potatoes; they are principally poor persons who, having worked for the large farmers while they had any thing to do, are now at liberty to work for themselves; but the lateness of the season must

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naturally cause their labour thus directed to produce nothing but weak and defective crops..

It is painfully interesting to witness the manner in which that wretched class of the Irish peasantry, denominated cotters, toil to cultivate the little patch of ground set apart for family support. In front of the cabin, and close to the walls on each side of the door, is a pit for the collection of manure, consisting of dung and filth of every kind, accumulated throughout the winter and spring. When the season arrives for its removal to the potatoe plot, the man is seen up to his ankles, and sometimes nearly to his knees in sludge, scraping up matter, both animal and vegetable, in a state of semi-decomposition, partly in a fluid state, which is called gullion. This he fills, heedless of the effluvia, into a square wicker basket, called a kreel, (the interstices being clogged to prevent the contents from running out,) which he carries on his back to the "garden,' where his wife is employed in spreading this stuff on the ground with her hands, while some of the children, of whom there is seldom any scarcity, are employed in depositing the seed potatoes on the beds. A certain quantity of ground being thus prepared, the man sets about to cover in the ridges, in which he is often assisted by his wife, but more frequently she goes home to prepare the dinner, which is simply boiling a few potatoes. When boiled, the potatoes are turned into a basket; the pot is placed in the middle of the floor, and is the table on which the feast is placed. There is generally a stool or two, or, in better circumstances, perhaps a chair and a stool for the father and mother; the children either stand or sit on the floor.

As I travel to the northward the quality of the land im

any county in Ireland. Its eastern side is washed by the sea, between the Nanny-water and the Boyne, an extent of nearly ten miles. A small portion only of this county can be called waste land, there being little mountain, and scarcely bog enough to supply the necessary fuel: coal is principally used by the gentry. Extensive tracts are set apart for grazing; but great quantities of wheat are raised: the heaviest grain in the kingdom is said to be raised here. *

Between Drogheda and Dundalk I noticed five children running about completely naked, and a great many others very nearly so; the weather was unusually hot, which seemed providentially favourable to the circumstances of these rustic cupids. The cabins, as they fell under observation, although not admitting of any thing like an idea of comfort, were greatly superior to many I had formerly seen in other parts of the country; most of these had chimneys, and some even were provided with two windows. The appearance of the peasantry differed but little from what it was twenty-five years ago. About seven in the evening I arrived at Armagh.

Lime appears to form the principal geological feature of the country between Dublin and Armagh; that is, limestone forms the substratum of the greater part of that district. Here and there grey-wacke alternating with amorphous blocks of basalt, is observable; and occasionally there are traces of serpentine. Between Dundalk and Armagh, clay-slate is met with; but it appears to enter sparingly into the materials of which the north of Ireland is composed. Around Armagh a reddish co

* Meath, according to its size, ranks eleventh on the scale of geographical proportion; it contains 965 English square miles, and supports a population of 2244 to the mile, which gives a total of 216,401, of whom 211,123 are Catholics.

loured stone exists, I believe in considerable quantity, to which the name of marble is given.

On the morning of the 8th, I got a very good postchaise to convey me to Blackwater town, a distance of four miles; the country both beautiful and rich: about halfway there are two bleach greens, one on each side of the road, which give a pleasing diversity to the scenery. I breakfasted with my brother, who supplied me with a saddlehorse, and accompanied me in a short excursion into Tyrone, where the country exhibited a different aspect. The quality of the land is very inferior to that of Armagh, Louth, Meath, or Dublin. The farms are less, the tenants poor, and their mode of farming more contracted, almost despicable.

There is not, I believe, one in seventy of the tenants in this county who can individually set a plough going on a farm; by far the greater number have only one horse, which is lent to a neighbour for a certain number of days, who lends his in return for the same length of time. Those who have land, but no horse, and there are a great many such, get their land ploughed at the end of the season, for which they pay by labour. But it is not always they can obtain that accommodation. I have often seen poor people, men, women, and children, dig up their ground in order to keep pace with the season, and endeavour to break it with a three-pronged fork, called a grape, and an iron rake, such as is used by gardeners: nothing but wretched crops can be expected to result from such a mode of culture.

* In point of geographical extent, Tyrone is seventh in the list of counties; it contains 1271 square miles, and 2364 persons to the square mile, which gives a population of 300,592, of whom 257,650 are of the