in the weft and fouth, fpecie is abundant, it sanctions an inference, that the abfentees have no influence in increafing the scarcity of gold but furely the fact must be, that the mifchief is merely lefs felt in the north, on account of its being the great depot, I had nearly faid afylum, of fpecie. "The firft deficiency of filver may perhaps be attributable, in a great degree, to the effufion of filver paper-notes during the great circulation of bafe fhillings in the fpring of 1804, the former of which the lower claffes of people preferred; and, in confequence of this cheap fubftitution, the good filver was fent abroad as the best mode of remittance: after the re-appearance of filver, upon the fubfidence of the rebellion, the intereft of individuals induced them to export all the good fhillings they could induftrioufly procare, to England, where twenty-one of them could be exchanged for an English guinea, and in Ireland, no less a number would be taken for an Irish guinea note; the difference between which, in point of exchange, left a handfome profit to thofe who engaged largely in the traffic. Another, and an alarming caufe of the bafenefs of the filver coin, is the facility with which it may be coined, and the frequent impunity extended to coiners on conviction. Coiners of fhillings in Ireland, as well as in England, are punishable with death; but, notwithftanding feveral convictions of this crime, the only punishment that followed, as far as I could learn, for fome years, was that of the pillory; and even that was rarely inflicted. "The filver coin in Ireland has always been inferior to the filver coin in England. In the beginning of the year 1804, the filver was fo adulterated, that the public offices, particularly the treafury at the Castle, refufed to take it from the poft-office, and in confequence the poftmen refufed to take it from the public, and detained their letters; and the fellers of the neceffary articles of life required a higher price for their articles paid for in filver, and this diftreffing difficulty was foftened only by permiffion to the buyer, if he had credit, to keep up a running account with the feller, until the articles fold amounted to a guinea note, when it was paid in paper to that amount. Many perfons of this defcription were obliged to part with what they received as five fhillings for wages, for lefs than half the value in goods. By the government improvidently refufing to take the filver in circu lation without fupplying a better, the public, particularly the artificers and manufacturers, fuffered the moft grievous embar. raffinent at length a representation of its diftreffes was made, on. the 31st March, 1804, to the then Secretary Sir Evan Nepean, from the Lord Mayor and Board of Aldermen in Dublin, the refult of which was the following note: "There is no intention at prefent of ordering the difcontinuance of the receipt of the best of the filver coin, now in circulation, at the public offices as ufual,' which was followed by the Mayor and Aldermen, recommending Bb BRIT, CRIT. VOL, XXVIII. OCT. 1806. their their fellow-citizens "To take in payment the best of the filver coin then in circulation," which beft filver was worth, upon trial, about fixpence, and the worst about half that value; and the proportion of the beft filver to the worst was about equal. In confequence of the public fenfation which this grievance produced, feveral of the retail dealers found themselves in the poffeffion of the bafeft filver to the amount of feven or eight hundred pounds, which they could not circulate. "To the eternal honour of Mr. Fofter, and the Directors of the Bank of Ireland, the latter, under the fagacious advice of the former, iffued a large quantity of filver tokens, enumerated in the table of the current coin, for the accommodation of the pub. lic, fubjecting themselves to the hazard of circulation, and to the lofs attendant upon the redemption of that filver whenever a mint coinage fhould be effected. "The filver fix fhilling Irish tokens were iffued on the 18th July, 1804, to the amount of two hundred thousand pounds; but notwithstanding fo large an iffue, it is a curiofity to fee one, in confequence, as it is fuppofed, of their being locked up by the petty country bankers, to accelerate the circulation of their paper, called filver notes: for this reafon they alfo hoard up large quantities of the genuine Irifh fhillings, called, by the low Irith, mint hogs. Thefe bankers alfo iffue notes from one to three guineas, whilft their refponfibility would tremble at a prompt demand for fifty pounds. In fome parts of Ireland the people are fo embarraffed, by the immenfe effufion of the notes of small banks, that a premium of threepence in the pound is frequently paid for an Irish bank note, although it is in all parts in a state of depreciation; and many of thefe bankers have been known to refufe their own notes in payment for rent, without a discount being allowed: the mifchief produced by fuch a combination is very great, and calls loudly for the interference of the legiflature. The tenpenny and fivepenny tokens were iffued on the 11th June, 1805, to the amount of four hundred thousand pounds. The copper coinage of penny, halfpenny, and farthing pieces, which has been recently fent over to Ireland, amounts to one hundred and forty thousand pounds; owing to the wretched ftate of the fmall circulating medium in Ireland, this was a most sea. funable fupply, and is in high demand and rapid circulation. There are very few, if any, counterfeits of the large tokens; but thofe of the tenpenny pieces are very numerous, and difficult of detection, owing to the bad execution of the originals. One cargo of tenpenny piece counterfeits, to a very large amount, has been recently fent over from England, intrinfically worth about threepence lefs than the originals: thefe require the niceft eye to difcover them. The coining of thefe tokens is punishable with feven years tranfportation. In the north of Ireland, fince I vifited it, I find that the bank filver tokens are at a discount, at the fame exchange as between notes and gold; and dollars that pafs pafs for five fhiilings and fivepence in Dublin, pafs there only for four fhillings and tenpence halfpenny. Sixpences are frequently objected to in the capital, as well as in the country. I have given a beggar one of thefe pieces of coin, and he has requested me to give him a penny piece instead." P. '. 59. The above appears to involve fo much of the national intereft, that it cannot be perufed without ferious regret joined to the anxious defire of feeing the metallic fpecie increased, as furely it ought to be. There can be no doubt but that this publication will be a favourite book of amufement among the people of whofe manners, language, wit, and humour it in every part conveys fo favourable a representation. If we were to follow Mr. Carr in circumftantial detail through his tour, we might be induced to fay, that fome of his jokes are flale, his extracts too long, and not of fufficient intereft, his anecdotes not a few of them trifling, but on the whole it would be rendering him extreme injustice, not to allow that we have been exceedingly gratified. The following fpecimen will demonftrate how much the author has ftudied, and how perfectly he understands what he has undertaken to exhibit. "I have in the course of this tour mentioned fome circum. ftances to illuftrate the character of the low Irish; and a little clofer view of it may not be unpleasant. "In this clafs of fociety, a itranger will fee a perfect picture of nature. Pat ftands before him, thanks to thofe who ought long fince to have cherished and initructed him, as it were in mudder's (mother's) nakedness." His wit and warmth of heart are his own, his errors and their confequences, will not be regis tered against him. I speak of him in a quiefcent ftate, and not when fuffering and ignorance led him into fcenes of tumult, which inflamed his mind and blood to deeds that are foreign to his nature. We know that the beft, when corrupted, become the wort, and that the vulgar mind, when overheated, will rush headlong into the moft brutal exceffes, more especially if in purfuing a fummary remedy for a real or fuppofed wrong, it has the example of occafional cruelty and oppreffion prefented by those against whom it advances. "The lower Irish are remarkable for their ingenuity and do. cility, and a quick conception; in these properties they are equalled only by the Ruffians. It is curious to fee with what fcanty materials they will work; they build their own cabins, and make bridles, ftirrups, cruppers, and ropes for every ruftic purpose, of hay; and British adjutants allow, that an Irish recruit is fooner made a foldier of than an English one. "That the Irish are not naturally lazy, is evident from the quantity of laborious work which they will perform, when they Bb z have have much to do, which is not frequently the cafe in their own country, and are adequately paid for it, fo as to enable them to get proper food to fupport fevere toil. Upon this principle, in England, an Irish labourer is always preferred. It has been af ferted by Dr. Campbell, who wrote in 1777, that the Irish recruits were in general fhort, owing to the poverty of their food; if this affertion were correct, and few tourists appear to have been more accurate, they are much altered fince that gentleman wrote; for most of the Irish militia regiments which I saw exhibited very fine-looking men, frequently exceeding the ordinary ftature; and at the fame time I must confefs, I do not fee how meagre diet is likely to curtail the height of a man. Perhaps the Doctor might have feen fome mountaineer recruits, and mountaineers are generally lefs in all regions, according to the old adage "The higher the hill, the fhorter the grafs." "If I was gratified by contemplating the militia of Ireland, I could not fail of deriving the greatest fatisfaction from seeing thofe diftinguished heroes, the Volunteers of Ireland: this army of patriots, compofed of catholics as well as proteftants, amounts to about eighty thousand men; when their country was in danger, they left their families, their homes, and their occupations, and placed themselves in martial array against the invader and the difturber of her repofe: they fought, bled, and conquered; and their names will be enrolled in the grateful page of hiftory, as the faviours of their native land. "What they have done, their brethren in arms on this fide of the water are prepared and anxious to perform; and whenever the opportunity occurs, will cover themfelves with equal glory. "The handfomeft peasants in Ireland are the natives of Kilkenny and the neighbourhood, and the moft wretched and fqualid near Cork and Waterford, and in Munster and Connaught. In the county of Rofcommon the male and female peafantry and horfes are handfome; the former are fair and tall, and poffefs great flexibility of mufcle: the men are the best leapers in Ireland: the fineft hunters and most expert huntsmen are to be found in the fine fporting county of Fermanagh. In the county of Meath the peasants are very heavily limbed. In the county of Kerry, and along the western fhore, the peasants very much refemble the Spaniards in expreffion of countenance, and colour of hair. "The lower orders will occafionally lie, and fo will the lower orders of any other country, unless they are inftructed better; and fo fhould we all, had we not been corrected in our childhood for doing it. It has been afferted, that the low Irish are addicted to pilfering; I met with no inftance of it perfonally. An intelligent friend of mine, one of the largest linen-manufacturers in the north of Ireland, in whofe houfe there is feldom lefs than twelve or fifteen hundred pounds in cash, furrounded with two or three hundred poor peasants, retires at night to his bed without bolting a door, or faftening a window. During Lady Cathcart's imprifonment in her own houfe in Ireland, for twenty years, by the orders of her husband, an affair which made a great noife fome years fince, her Ladyfhip wifhed to remove fome remarkably fine and valuable diamonds, which she had concealed from her husband, out of the house, but having no friend or fervant whom fhe could truft, fhe fpoke to a miferable beggar-woman who ufed to come to the houfe, from the window of the room in which fhe was confined. The woman promifed to take care of the jewels, and Lady Cathcart accordingly threw the parcel containing them to her out of the window; the poor mendicant conveyed them to the perfon to whom they were addreffed; and when Lady Cathcart recovered her liberty fome years afterwards, her diamonds were fafely restored to her. I was well informed, that a difpofition to inebriation amongst the peafantry had rather fubfided, and had principally confined itself to Dublin. "The inftruction of the common people is in the lowest state of degradation. In the fummer a wretched uncharactered itinerant derives a fcanty and precarious exiftence, by wandering from parish to parish, and opening a fchool in fome ditch covered with heath and furze, to which the inhabitants fend their children to be inftructed by the miferable breadlefs being, who is nearly as ignorant as themfelves; and in the winter thefe pedagogue pedlars go from door to door offering their fervices, and pick up juft fufficient to prevent themfelves from perishing by famine. What proportion of morals and learning can flow from fuch a fource into the mind of the ragged young pupil, can eafily be imagined, but cannot be reflected upon without ferious conA gentleman of undoubted veracity ftated, not long fince,. before the Dublin Affociation for diftributing Bibles and Teftaments amongst the poor, that whole parishes were without a Bible. "With an uncommon intellect, more exercifed than cultivated, the peasantry have been kept in a state of degradation, which is too well known, and which will be touched upon in a future part of this sketch. "Their native urbanity to each other is very pleafing; I have frequently feen two boors take off their hats and falute each other with great civility. The expreffions of thefe fellows upon meeting one another, are full of cordiality. One of them in Dublin met a camrogue, in plain English, a boy after his own heart, who, in the fincerity of his foul, exclaimed, "Paddy! myfelf's glad to fee you, for in troth I wish you well."—" By my fhoul, I knows it well," faid the other, "but you have but the half it; that is, the pleasure is divided. If you ask a common fellow in the streets of Dublin which is the way to a place, he will take off his hat, and if he does not know it, he |