may have been able to do so in consequence of being better fitted for service. That a supply of labourers who know something of proper farming, and can use improved implements, may be procured from amongst these boys, hereafter, to meet the demand for male labour that is likely to exist, must be of great advantage to the country; and tend to lessen the prejudices against improvements in cultivation hitherto held by the farming classes. The experiment, so far as it has gone in the Newcastle Union, has, I think, fully succeeded."

From Mr. Hall's Report:-"The advantages arising from the Dangan Establishment may be said to consist in the inculcation of a practical knowledge of the most improved system of tillage-farming into the minds of a class of persons who carry with them, when leaving the workhouses, the skill thus acquired, and extend its benefits to the districts in which they may fix their residence. From the operation of this cause, it may not unreasonably be hoped that the antiquated, slovenly, and wasteful method of farming pursued by the poorer class of landholders, in the remote country districts, will gradually disappear, and be succeeded by a system free from these defects, and possessing the recommendation of being practicable with the implements of agriculture which are ordinarily found in the house of every labourer. Secondly, in the means which the institution affords for employing, in a manner calculated to improve their health and enlarge their

understanding, a portion of the workhouse inmates, who have arrived at that period of life in which character begins to be formed, and when a bias for good or for evil will have a material effect on its future development. Thirdly, in providing at all seasons an ample supply of vegetables for the use of the inmates of the workhouse, whereby the injurious effects which have been found to arise from the continued and exclusive use of farinaceous food are counteracted. And, finally, in the fact which the past year's accounts demonstrate, that the institution can be properly worked, not only without loss to the Union, but with some pecuniary benefit.

"The importance of early habituating the juvenile inmates of the workhouse to manual labour, especially in connection with agricultural employment, is fully exemplified in the readiness with which workhouse inmates of this class, when arrived at a proper age, can obtain engagements, as contrasted with inmates of similar years who have not been accustomed to regular work, and cannot be brought to apply themselves steadily to ordinary labour.

"In conclusion, I may remark, that there are evidences clearly manifesting themselves, which indicate that, by a proper system of management, the Union workhouse may become a powerful agent in effecting a permanent improvement in the habits and social condition of the labouring population in this part of Ireland."

7. Number of Paupers, and Cost of Maintenance.I shall conclude these notices by a brief statement of the numbers relieved in the Unions, and the cost of maintenance during the last four years. Both these items are of fearful amount, and place the degraded condition of the peasantry in a most powerful light. But alas, such results are in no way peculiar to Ireland; they are exhibited in an almost equal degree by the English reports, all evidencing something fundamentally and grievously wrong in the social and economical condition of the whole class of our agricultural labourers, and in their relations to the classes above them. The poor-law system is, no doubt a blessed medicine for the temporary mitigation of the malady when it reaches the acute form; and it is therefore so far good: but means of a very different kind must be put in force to check the evil in its birth, or rather to prevent it altogether. Such means are not to be found, however, among the empirical nostrums of charity, applied to individual symptoms as they arise, but must be sought for among those more general, grand, and radical agencies which, like food, air, exercise, and time, in the body natural, change the constitution itself.

Number of Persons Relieved, with the Annual Cost of Maintenance in the Irish Workhouses.

Notwithstanding these enormous sums expended on maintenance, so great are the numbers relieved that the amount expended on each individual is really marvellously small. Taking the average of the weekly averages for the last three years of the above Table, the weekly cost per head is only about 18. 4d., including clothing as well as maintenance. According to the Scottish Reports, the average weekly cost in Scotland is about 1s. 6d. The Poorlaw Reports for England do not enable us to make the comparison with the English expenditure, as they do not give the weekly expenditure in detail.

THE country from Armagh to Newry-about fifteen Irish miles, retains the same character as that already noticed in Antrim and Armagh. The first half of the distance is rather flat and tame; the latter half is more hilly and bolder; but all is cultivated and fertile, and not destitute of English fences.

About five or six miles from Armagh, we passed through the small town of Markethill, adjoining the splendid demesne of Lord Gosford, with its noble mansion: this we had not time to visit. The population of this place in 1841 was 1424, and in 1851 was 1369, a less decrease than usual in similar small towns. We here stopped to bait our horses at the door of a small inn, with its three or four windows in front. One of these windows exhibited for sale cigars and other small articles, sufficiently indicating the humble character of the house. Yet flaming in its forehead it exhibited a huge sign, designating it as "The Victoria Hotel."

While looking at this hostelric pretence of