any collected, that English coals can be purchased cheaper, even in the interior of the country, than in London, where, it is well known, many of the finer branches of this manufacture are pursued with great success. It is to be observed also, that there is a considerable difference between manufacturing coarse articles, which, to ensure a sale, must be low priced, and the preparing more highly finished ones, which render labour so exceedingly productive: those who manufacture the latter can afford to pay more for fuel, than those who carry on the coarser branches, which are less profitable. Lord Sheffield remarks, "that iron has this peculiar recommendation above almost all other manufactures, that, in every shape of it, its value is simply the product of the labour bestowed on it."* To convey the copper and lead ores of Ireland to an English coal-pit to be smelted, has been found more advantageous, than to transport coals to the place where the ores are dug up. But iron is of too little value to pay the price of transit; and, on that account, unless found in the neighbourhood of coals or wood, it cannot be afforded to the public at a vendible price. If the finer parts of the hardware manufacture, however, answer in London, there seems to be no reason why they should not answer in Dublin, or in other place where English coals could be procured at an equally reasonable rate. This, indeed, would confine the trade within a very narrow compass, to the exclusion of the large articles, such as guns, cannon, naval and military stores, with every thing else which is made in our great manufactories. Disadvantages. of this kind may be felt and regretted; but as Providence has distributed the gifts of nature in such a manner as to create a mutual dependence, we ought to be contented with our lot, and industry will always procure what we may, at first, consider as a deficiency. Every country enjoys some advantages which are not possessed by another. England has its wool and its coals; France, Spain, and Portugal, their wines; Italy and Turkey, their silk; Russia and Sweden, their iron and timber; America its tobacco; the West India Islands, their cotton and sugar; and China its tea. The productions of one region cannot be transplanted to another, according to the caprice of mortals; climate, and other local circumstances oppose it; and, if the attempt be made, they either cost too much labour and expense, or never attain to perfection. In consequence of this wise arrangement, the great family of mankind, however widely dispersed over the face of the earth, and separated by deserts, wilds, and extensive seas, are connected together in friendly intercourse, by means of that exchange of commodities, which is called commerce. Hence we are naturally led to a principle in political economy, which, though of very great importance, does not always meet with that attention which it deserves. When a country can import either the raw material, or the manufactured article, cheaper than it can produce them itself, im * Observations on the Manufactures, &c. of Ireland, p. 213. portation becomes most advantageous, and ought to be preferred.* This is a maxim which should be pointed out to the people of Ireland, who, without allowing themselves time to reflect, always exclaim so loudly against importation from England. But this subject has been placed in such a clear light, and illustrated in so familiar a manner, by a late writer,+ that, I flatter myself, it will be rendering a service to some of my readers, who may not, perhaps, have an opportunity of seeing the work itself, to transcribe the passage to which I allude. "Soil, climate, habitual direction of industry, and other particulars, render certain countries peculiarly fit for the production of certain commodities. The foreign commerce of a country may generally be said to consist in the exportation of the excess which it has produced of such commodities above the demand for home consumption, and in the importation of other commodities, to the production of which other countries are better adapted. An example will best explain the benefit of such interchanges to the several parties concerned in them. "If England would, like France, devote her finest fields and vast quantities of manure to the growth of tobacco, without doubt she might produce enough of that article to supply her consumption, without any importation of it from Virginia. But as the climate of England is particularly favourable to pasturage, and consequently to the breeding of sheep; and on the contrary, the scorching sun of Virginia, and her extent of virgin soil, are ill adapted to pasturage, but yield tobacco of a superior quality to any grown in Europe; can there be a doubt, that both England and Virginia are gainers by exchanging the surplus wool of the one, for the surplus tobacco of the other? "To make this still clearer, let us vary the terms by which value is usually desig nated, and instead of pounds sterling and dollars, speak of days' labour. Then I say: "1st.-England parts with a thousand cwts. of woollen goods, which cost her a thousand days' labour in exchange for a quantity of tobacco, which would have cost her two hundred thousand, if she had raised it at home. "2d.-Virginia, in exchange for tobacco, which only stood her one hundred thou sand days' labour, receives woollen goods which would have required two hundred thousand, if in order to produce them she had converted her tobacco grounds into pastures, and her field labourers into spinners and weavers. "In the like manner, the natural advantages of, perhaps, every branch of foreign commerce might be demonstrated, if the pieces of gold and silver transferred in the course of it were considered in their true character;-merely as counters to indicate value, and facilitate the operations of barter." employed * Mr. Huskinson adverts to this point in his Pamphlet on the Depreciation of Paper Currency, p. 65. + Sir Francis D'Ivernois, in Effects of the Continental Blockade upon the Commerce, &c. of the British Islands, London, 1810, p. 7. "If governments," continues the author, "could, in stating their public accounts of commercial transactions, exhibit the value of commodities imported and exported in days' labour instead of money, the world would then perceive foreign commerce to be what it really is; a source of great mutual profit to all nations who carry it on, although some conceive that they gain nothing by it. Nay, even those which fancy that they are losers by it, would immediately perceive that they import the articles for which they have occasion, at much less cost than would be incurred to produce them at home, and that they receive for their surplus produce exported, considerably more than they could obtain by diverting to other objects the labour employed in producing those articles.of export." Gunpowder. Of this article there is no manufactory in Ireland, but that belonging to government, in the neighbourhood of Cork. Some particulars respecting it will be found under the head of national defence. DISTILLATION. Distilling, brewing, grinding corn, and curing provisions, though they do not properly fall under the denomination of manufactures, may be introduced here; because they are occupations, which, like manufactures, contribute to give employ ment to the people, and to render labour productive. Of the arts exercised by mankind for the sake of gain, none, perhaps, considered in all its consequences, both immediate and remote, is attended with more pernicious effects to the interests of society, than that of distillation. The benefit which arises from it to the revenue, by increasing the amount of the excise, is always considered an advantage: but this is a fact which I deny, believing that the total revenue is lessened by the mass of vice, idleness, and misery, which this addition to the excise creates. The use of strong liquors, when they become general, is seldom confined within the bounds of moderation: besides injuring the health, and checking population, it`tends in no small degree to vitiate the heart, and corrupt the morals, for it not only inflames the passions, and gives rise to quarrelling and broils, but in consequence of the temptation which it holds out to elude the duty by the establishment of private stills, introduces a regular system of fraud; and men, losing all sense of moral obligation, become bad citizens, habituated to a contempt for the laws. If the duty imposed is high, the inducement to pursue illicit distillation is rendered stronger; if it be lowered, facility to purchase spirits is increased, and the inferior classes, indulging in them without restraint, become melancholy victims to disease, wickedness, and poverty. For the invention of this art, if any obligation can in such a case exist, we are indebted to the Arabians. About the end of the 13th century, the celebrated Raymond Lulli obtained a knowledge of it from these people, and communicated it to Aruold de Villanova. By the latter it was made known to some Genoese merchants, who converted it to a source of profit, as they employed it in the preparation of brandy, which they put into small phials, and sold at a dear rate, throughout every part of Europe, as a valuable balsam, under the name of aqua vita. At first, this balsam, as it was called, was distilled from wine lees; but the Genoese soon discovered the method of preparing it from juicy fruits, and even from grain; and in the fifteenth century, on the decline of the Genoese trade, the secret was carried to other countries; but for a long time, these spiritous liquors were confined to the apothecaries' shops, where they were sold only as a medicine. They were not brought into general use till the sixteenth century, and seem first to have been introduced among the northern nations, where a strong inclination for them has since prevailed.* Storch thinks that they were made known to the Russians from the Crimea, at the period when it was in possession of the Genoese, and that as all savage nations are much attached to intoxicating things of every kind, they were substituted by them in the stead of mead, a liquor which they before used, and of which they were exceedingly fond.+ The distilleries in Ireland may be divided into two classes, the legal and the illicit; the former working under a license obtained from the government, and the latter privately, without paying duty. The suppression of the illegal stills, those sources of loss to the revenue, particularly when the duty is high, and the temptation to fraud great, has at all times engaged the attention of the legislature, and various means have been devised, and numerous laws enacted, with a view to remedy the evil. At one time, stills were allowed to be of any size, according to the option of the persons to whom they belonged; at another, they were limited, and during the period I was in Ireland, distillation was prohibited altogether, except from sugar, and even the drawing spirit from that article was restricted to some distilleries in Dublin. But, although the legal distilleries were thus nearly stopped, dis tillation from grain was carried on to a very great extent by the numerous adventurers who were making "pocheen" throughout all the northern counties; and this practice is now extending to the south, having long been established in Cavan, Fermanagh, Sligo, Donegal, and Tyrone. In whatever point of view the subject is considered, it has so great an influence on the manners and habits of a people, as, doubtless, to become a very important subject of investigation, and an inquiry into the causes of its increase, can alone lead to the means of restraining it. The principal reason of its extension, is, in my opinion, from the nature of the food used by a great portion of the inhabitants. Living partly on oatmeal, they get their corn ground without exciting any suspicion, which would instantly arise in other parts of Ireland; and to this may be added, the advantage of kilns for • Treuers Erfindungsgeschichte des Branntweins in Sclözers Briefwechsel. No. 37, p. 3. Leidenfrost' Revolutionen der Diät in Europa. Ibid. No. 44. p. 93. + Hist. Stat. Gemälde des Russischen Reichs, vol. iii. p. 263. drying their corn, which are universal throughout these counties, and in which both oats and barley are dried, previous to distillation. The law also, which imposes a fine of £50. on a town-land, parish, barony, or county, according to circumstances, on the discovery of an illicit still at work therein, instead of answering the purpose for which it was intended, has produced a contrary effect, and acted as an encouragement to the erection of new ones. Many a still, which was purchased originally for three guineas, has been sold, when burned out, for £50.* Had a reward been offered to the parish-officers for the discovery of stills, instead of subjecting them to a fine for one being found within their jurisdiction, they would have been as anxious to search for them, as they are now careful to conceal them from the officers of the revenue. It is a well-known fact, that the latter receive a more regular rent while the still is at work, than any landlord does for his land, and they often divide with the proprietor half the value of its sale, by the receipt of the fine. The farmers encourage it on account of the great market which it holds out for his grain, and the distillers are induced to brave every risk in consequence of the ready sale which this noxious beverage finds among persons of every description. Whisky from illicit stills is sold as openly as if it had been gauged by the excise-officer; it has peculiar smoky taste, different from that which has been regularly and carefully distilled, and which the people imagine to have acquired its white colour from vitriol: were one to find fault with the whisky in the northern counties, the immediate reply would be, "It's as good 'pocheen' as any in Ulster, for it never paid a happ'eth of duty." Illicit stills are completely established in all the north-western counties, and afford a striking proof that a branch of industry may flourish, and be extended, without the aid of premiums. The late restrictions, which prohibited legal stills from using corn, have given more stability to this kind of distillation; and I am convinced, whatever penal laws or regulations may be made, that it is almost impossible to extirpate illicit distilleries from the mountains. It has been represented to me, and I believe with truth, that they are erected in the kitchens of baronets, and in the stables of clergymen. The mountains are covered with them, and they are to be met with in the very last places where an English excise-officer would expect to discover them. A very great profit arises from this trade,+ hence the strong temptation to *This law is now repealed. It is impossible for the most rapid writer or printer to keep pace with the progress of the distillery laws in Ireland. Those made in one month, are seldom those of the next. + August 29, 1808. Belleisle.—It is estimated that four stone of barley, or six of oats, will make a gallon of whisky. A sack of barley, which contains 24 stone, will, however, be sufficient for 10 gallons. The expenses are as follow: Malting 5s., grinding 2s., carrying to the mill 2s., mashing and distilling 5s. 5d., hire of vessels 5s. 5d., fuel 3s., barley 5s. A tin still costs three guineas, a copper worm three guineas, a copper still five guineas; a still will hold 70 gallons. It is reckoned that a copper still makes the best whisky. September |