A TABLE of the Amount of Presentments by the Grand Juries, for the following Counties and Years, abstracted from the Returns to the House of Commons, ordered to be printed 12th February, 1807; 18th March, 1807; 3d of May, and 2d of July, 1809. As these Returns are very defective, I have filled up the blank of Sligo by a Return furnished me by Owen Wynne, Esq. and those of Monaghan and Louth by similar Information procured by John Leslie Foster, Esq; from R. Page, and B. A. Mitchell, Treasurers of those Counties; but the Blanks still left prevent my casting up the Total of more than One Year.

The following Remarks are abstracted from those made on the Returns to the House of Commons.

* ANTRIM. The treasurer not having any document in his possession to enable him to distinguish the taxes laid on lands and those on houses, has been obliged to charge the sums levied upon the farmer, by which the Acreable Tax is made to appear considerably higher than it really is.

† ARMAGH. There is not any county book of acreable proportion in the hands of the treasurer. CARLOW. County rate per acre not cast out.

§ CAVAN. The assessments in this county are not levied by the acre, but by the Carvagh; a Carvagh contains from one acre to upwards of one hundred.

|| CORK. The treasurer never applots the money to be levied on the acres, but sends out his warrant to each high constable, who applots his levy on the several plough-lands in his barony.

▾ DONEGAL. The rate per acre cannot be ascertained, as the grand jury make the apportionment by the parish, each paying a certain rate per pound, proportionate to their size and value, of the total sum to be levied. This is denominated " the Key of the County."

** DOWN. The treasurer is not able to make any return of the number of acres or rate per acre, there being no survey finished, or record, or key of the county, to enable him so to do, farther than to apportion the shares the several baronies have to pay of the money presented on the county at large, before a warrant issues to the high constable of each barony to colleet the same.

†† DUBLIN. The baronies pay for their own roads, and vary so much, that the rate per acre to the whole county cannot be given.

‡‡ FERMANAGH. It is impossible for the treasurer to state the rate per acre, as the county cesses are not levied per the acre, but by the tate or town-land, most of which, he has been informed, differ in the number of acres, although paying in the same proportion to the county cesses.

§§ GALWAY. The public money has not been calculated per the acre, but is always rated by the hundred.

KERRY. The treasurer never applots the money to be raised on each acre; he sends out his warrant to the high constable, who applots the levy on his respective barony.

¶¶ KILDARE. There are, in this county, 201,220 profitable acres of land, 41,035 of bog, and 3,000 on the Curragh.

*** DERRY. The tax imposed by authority of the grand jury is not levied by any rate per the acre, but by the value of property, which value is ascertained by an original survey of the county, which is denominated its key, and which may be found in Sampson's Survey of Derry. ††† MONAGHAN. The treasurer cannot return the rate per acre; he issues his warrant to the high constable of each barony, who levies the sum applotted to be raised on each denomination of land at vestries held in each parish for that purpose.

‡‡‡ TYRONE. The number of acres at large, including mountain and bog, is 387,175, therefore it is to be considered that the rate per acre is apportioned on the land that pays tax only, which varies very much in different parts of the county, according to the old key, by which the tax is applotted.

§§§ SLIGO. Those of the blank years have not been returned, nor has any actual rate been stated. WATERFORD. As this county has not been surveyed, the levies are raised by plough-lands,

therefore the rate per acre cannot be set forth.

¶¶¶ I have printed the tax per acre, as returned to the House of Commons; but, from the above remarks,

it is obviously a very incorrect result.

Parishes have a legal power at vestry meetings, of granting as much as forty shillings to make a road from one town-land to another; but the act which conveys this power is become nearly obsolete and little used.

Independently of the roads for common purposes, Government, immediately after the rebellion in 1798, employed the soldiers in constructing military roads through the mountains of Wicklow and Waterford, and in the former they extend from barrack to barrack.* Very little traffic is carried on by these roads; but they are as smooth as gravel walks, and the whole line being executed under the direction of an able engineer they have been made to wind round the sides of the mountains, so as to obviate any sudden rise. A traveller is some considerable time in ascending them; yet the elevation is so gentle as to be hardly perceptible, and to occasion no inconvenience. By these roads a communication has been opened in districts, before impervious; and they may be considered as useful works, which do infinite credit to the projector.

In the majority of the counties, the roads are not only excellent, but numerous; this great advantage has arisen chiefly from the country gentlemen having a just opinion of their usefulness, and on account of the employment of the people in their construction: but like all other benefits, it has its attendant evils; as frequent in stances of road-jobbing occur, a term given to the making of unnecessary roads, for the purpose of serving a tenant or dependant. The object of the legislature, therefore, should be to retain the beneficial part of this system, and at the same time to get rid of the dirty peculation to which it gives birth.

POSTS. Among the numerous benefits arising from the improvement of public roads, there is one of peculiar utility in a commercial country, which is, that of a speedy and regular correspondence by post. The invention of this establishment is ascribed by Herodotust to Cyrus the Great, and his account is confirmed by the testimony of Xenophon. This mode of conveying intelligence was afterwards adopted by the Greeks and the Romans, and the excellent roads constructed by the latter, enabled

* March 15th, 1809. Wicklow.-The military road winds along the mountain, a deep ditch being cut about forty feet from it, to defend it from the mountain torrents. This is a magnificent and well conducted work, which does honour to those who planned it, and is creditable to the empire. 4 Τετέων δὲ τῶν ἀγγέλων ἔστι ἐδὲν ὅ, τι θᾶσσων παραγίνεται θνητὸν ἐόν· ὅτω τοισι Πέρσησι ἐξεύρηται τότε. λέγεσι ἡ πᾶσα ὁδὸς, τοσῦτοι ἵπποι τε καὶ ἄνδρες διεστᾶσι κατὰ ἡμερησίην ὁδὸν ἑκάστην, ἵπποι Herodel. Hist. lib, viii. cap. 98. edit. Glasg. vol. viii. p. 166.

† Σκεψάμενος γαρ πόσην ἂν ὁδον ἵππος κατανύτοι της ἡμέρας ἐλαυνόμενος ὥστε διαρκεῖν, ἐποιήσατο ἱππῶνας τοσέτι διαλείποντας, και ἵππες ἐν αὐτοῖς κατέστησε καὶ τες ἐπιμελημένες τατων· καὶ ἄνδρα εφ' ἑκάστῳ τῶν τόπων ἔταξι τον ἐπιτήδειον παραδέχεσθαι τὰ φερόμενα γραμματα, και παραδιδόναι, καὶ παραλαμβάνειν τὰς ἀπειρηκότας ἱστες καὶ ανθρώπες, καὶ ἄλλες πέμπειν νεαλεις, Εστι δ' ὅτε ἐδὲ τὰς νυκτὰς φασὶν ἔστασθαι ταύτην την πορείαν, άλλα το hμefira ayyed Tov vuxTepivòv diadixsolás. Xenophont. Cyri Institut. edit. Hutchinson. Lond. 1758. p. 496.

them to render it regular and permanent Charlemagne, it is said, introduced posts into his extensive dominions, and his example was imitated by Louis XI. in France.* But this convenience was intended merely for the service of the prince, and not for the public benefit. The case was the same when posts were first established in England, and the post-houses only furnished horses, the rate of which was settled in the reign of Edward VI. at one penny a mile. In the time of Queen Elizabeth, there was a postmaster nominated by government; but the merchants chose one of their own, till disagreeing among themselves, the city requested that one might be appointed by the Queen. For some time after, however, the management of correspondence was in the hands of private persons, who carried it on at their own expense, and for their own advantage.+

It appears that there was no regular post between either Scotland and England, or Ireland and England till 1634; for in that year it is stated in a proclamation of Charles, that there had been before no certain intercourse between the kingdoms of England and Scotland, and he commands his post-master of England for foreign parts, to settle a running post or two, to run night and day between Edinburgh and London, to go thither and come back in six days; to take with them all such letters as shall be directed to any post town in or near that road; and that by-posts be stationed at interval places out of the road, to bring in and carry out letters from and to Lincoln, Hull, and other towns. The postage was fixed at two-pence the single letter, if under 80 miles; four-pence between 80 and 140 miles; six-pence if under 140; and upon the borders of Scotland and in Scotland eight-pence; and so in pro

* Baron Bielfield says, that "the first idea of posting is very old, since the Theodosian code, under the title de Cursu Publico, makes mention of post-horses; but we are not to imagine that this establishment was then regulated, as it is at present among the polished nations of Europe. The modern institution of posts is one of the greatest benefits that could be conferred on mankind. The office of Messenger of Pomerania, &c. still exists in the University of Paris; and formerly a messenger went every year to Pomerania, or other distant countries, to receive letters and parcels sent by the parents of young men, who were prosecuting their studies in that University, which for a long time was the only one in Europe. Posts are said to have been established in France under Louis XI. about the year 1475; but in Germany not till the beginning of the seventeenth century, when they were introduced by Baron Taxis, who, as a reward for this service, received in fief, from the Emperor Mathias, in 1616, the office of Post-master General." Institutions Politiques, Yol. i. p. 129.

"It is not certain that the Greeks and the Romans had regular posts before the time of Augustus. In the west they were called Viatores, and under the emperors of Constantinople, Cursores. After the downfall of the empire, the posts were very much neglected in the west. For their re-establishment we are indebted to the University of Paris, which appointed messengers to go to certain towns in the kingdom, for the convenience of the students. When Louis XI. established posts in 1462, throughout all France, the University did not give up its privilege; but in 1719, it resigned it to the King, on condition of receiving a twentyeighth part of the sum at which the posts were farmed." Dictionnaire des Origines, vol. i. p. 329. + Campbell's Polit. Survey of Great Britain, vol. ii. p. 254, note.

portion for double letters and packets. The like regulations were to be observed to West Chester, Holyhead, and thence to Ireland.*

In 1652, the postage of England, Scotland, and Ireland, was farmed to John Manley, Esq. for £10,000. per annum; and this agreement was confirmed by Cromwel in 1654. From this it has been inferred, that the privilege of franking was not at this time exercised by members of parliament.+

Some new regulations were made for the postage of the three kingdoms of the commonwealth, and these were confirmed at the restoration by Charles II.

The rates of postage for England and Ireland were again established by act of parliament in 1660. By this regulation a letter of one sheet from England to Dublin paid six-pence; from Dublin to any part forty miles distant two-pence, and for a greater distance double. Letters of two sheets to pay double, and larger packets in the proportion of quadruple postage per ounce.§

In 1711, the former laws for establishing post-offices in both kingdoms of Scotland and England were repealed, and one general post-office, and also one general postmaster, were appointed for the united kingdom, and chief letter offices were erected at Edinburgh, Dublin, New-York and the West-Indies. ||

In 1784, the Irish post-office became independent of that of Great Britain, and in consequence of this change several regulations were enacted for the carriage of letters, newspapers, &c. between the two kingdoms, and for the settlement of accounts between the post-offices. I

For the accommodation of the trade with Ireland, post-office packets were estab lished between Milford Haven and Waterford** in the year 1787.

At present there are three posts, by which the mail bags for Ireland are conveyed from England to Ireland. One from Port-Patrick to Donaghadee; another from Holyhead to Dublin, and a third from Milford to Bolton, near Waterford. Packets which carry over passengers, sail from Ireland to each of these ports every night when the wind serves, except on Sunday, and from Port-Patrick, Holyhead, and Milford, every day, except that on which the Sunday night's mail coach arrives, but brings no mail bag from London. Between Dublin and Holyhead there are express boats, which are sent out when the weather is so bad that the packets cannot put to sea.

* Rhymer's Fædera, vol. xix. p. 649, and Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, vol. ii. p. 383. + Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, vol. ii. p. 450. The right of franking was declared by a resolu tion of a Committee of the House of Commons, on the 28th of March, 1735, to have been coeval with the

establishment of the post.

Ibid ib. p. 496.

Ibid ib.

|| Ibid, vol. iii. p. 13.

¶ 24 Geo. III. sess. i. c. 6.-Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, vol. iv. p. 43.

** 27 Geo. II. c. 7.—Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, vol. iv. p. 123.