girls' 123. Both schools are industrial as well as literary; the boys of proper age working a part of the day on the farm, the girls at needle-work. All the girls above nine years are employed at work after two o'clock, the previous part of the day being occupied in the school. Two thirds of all the children are either orphans or have been left on the parish by the emigration or absence of their parents. All the children receive religious instruction, according to the form in which they had been previously trained; even orphans are brought up in the religion of their parents, if this is well known. Foundlings and others, the religion of whose parents may be doubtful, are educated as Protestants.

In the official report of these schools, published by the National Board, it appears that in September, 1850, there were in attendance 165 boys and 161 girls. The decreased numbers now on the books are obviously accounted for by the great decrease of the general amount of paupers. It will at the same time be remarked, that the proportional decrease of the children is much less than that of the adults, a circumstance easily to be explained by the orphaned condition of so large a proportion of them preventing their removal from the house.

It is most important to remember that the girls are not allowed to leave this or any other workhouse until they have attained the age of fifteen, unless they are removed by their parents or the guardians of their parish, or by some private house

holder of known character, who undertakes to protect them as servants. In the year 1848 the guardians sent out to Australia 107 young women, between the ages of fifteen and twenty-two. The most favorable reports of these had been received. Many of them had sent home money to enable their relations to emigrate. Some striking and affecting instances were mentioned of this devotedness of the emigrants to the ties of kindred and old associations-as, for example, that of a young wife whose husband had become paralytic, and consequently unable to work, but who, nevertheless, succeeded not only in supporting him, but in saving sufficient money to enable some other of her relations to go out to them.

The result of my inquiries respecting the state of Temperance in Enniskillen was almost identical with what I had found in the great majority of the places I had already visited. At the period of Father Mathew's visit, and afterwards, there were many hundreds who took and kept the pledge in the town of Enniskillen, and full 2000 are believed to have flocked from the country to join the movement. It is said that there is a considerable proportion of these pledged men still remaining in the country villages. In the town it is believed that though there may be about 200 practical Teetotallers, there are hardly more than 20 who are actually pledged to abstinence. There was a Temperance Hall here

for several years; but it has ceased to exist for a considerable time. The chief causes of the breaking up of the Temperance organisation in this place, are said to have been the fear of cholera and fever, and religious dissention aggravated by an election. It would appear, however, that here, as in every other town visited by me, the habit of temperance has survived its organised source; the people being generally very abstinent in the use of all kinds of intoxicating drinks.

In my memorandums of things seen, I have not of late said aught of rags and beggars. The truth is that both have shown themselves to me in considerably less force since I left the county of Kerry, though they have been visible everywhere to a certain extent. I believe, also, that they have been still less conspicuous since leaving the county of Galway, and would appear to be progressively decreasing as we advance northwards. In Westport, Sligo, and Enniskillen, for instance, these indications of poverty have certainly been much less obtrusive; although some allowance must be made for our eyes getting more accustomed to them, and consequently attending to them less. In our journey from Sligo to this place we had very few appeals made to our generosity, and we certainly saw nothing comparable to the looped and windowed raggedness which had beset us in Wicklow, Carlow, Cork, and Kerry. The day being Sunday, we saw in several places the

country people going to and coming from chapel, all decently clad; and the young women, especially, handsomely bedight in their bright-coloured shawls, with well-arranged hair and well-cleaned shoes. No doubt, on this occasion, many a pretty foot was for the first time hid from view since the last visit to chapel.

The men were much less presentable, owing to that abominable habit, so long prevalent among the poor in Ireland, of wearing the cast-off clothes of others. It is, however, but just to my Leitrim friends to say that this costume was seen but comparatively seldom among them, compared with places further south and west; but still it was seen much too often. This habit, originating, no doubt, in poverty, has, I think, been carried much further than was absolutely necessary, merely because it had become a habit. I think it must be beginning to wear out, as I observe that a fair proportion of the boys and young men show themselves, at least on Sundays, in jackets and short coats, evidently originals. When such a change has become general, it will enable Old Ireland to put a much better face, at least, upon her poverty, if, indeed, the change itself may not be looked on as evidence of the diminution of that calamity.

Nothing could convey to a stranger a stronger impression of wretchedness and untidiness, than this vicarious costume of the Irish, disfiguring at once to the person of the wearers, and calling forth in the

mind of the observer the most disagreeable associations. Even when not in holes, as they too often are, those long-tailed coats almost touching the ground, and those shapeless breeches with their gaping knee-bands sagging below the calf of the leg, are the very emblems and ensigns of beggary and degradation.

I believe, moreover, that the use of such garments is a great mistake, and not by any means so inevitable a result of the want of means as is commonly supposed. Like all cheap bad things, they prove, in the end, much dearer than good new clothing, which will last three or four times as long as most of these refurbished but rotten commodities. A little management, with the aid of their more well-to-do neighbours to plan for them and to act for them, would soon bring the new clothing within easy reach of many who now think themselves only able to grasp the old. Once adopted, the improvement must be permanent, as the very first suit would be found to carry the wearer further on than the two old suits he had been accustomed to buy for about the same money. Then should we see Paddy "his own very self" at last, exposed in all his native strength of thew and sinew, and as smart without as within-no longer transmogrified into that vile travesty of a man, which has become the butt of the stage and the standing theme of caricaturists. Who would not like to look on Paddy in his new costume? Who would not like to look on Nora