we may receive as a safe criterion the augmentation and improvement manifested in commercial and domestic buildings.

The FISHERIES of Ireland, if cultivated with judgment and vigour, would amply atone for any deficiency in manufacture or trade; and, to use the emphatical language of Sir W.Temple, "might prove a mine under water, as rich as any under ground." The coasts are the resort of vast shoals of herrings, cod, ling, hake, mackarel, turbot, soles, haddock, plaice, sprats, and numerous less useful fish. The rivers and lakes abound in salmon, trout, pike, eels, perch, tench, and fish of other delicate kinds. A want of capital is usually mentioned as the cause of the little attention bestowed on many branches of the coast fishery; but there are few pursuits, of such high national importance, which require the employment of less extensive funds. The deficiency of capital would appear, in this instance, to be at least equalled by the want of enterprize and activity.

The Herring fishery wore a promising aspect throughout a great part of the eighteenth century, but is in a declining state. It is commonly asserted that these fish have abandoned most parts of the Irish coast; but there is reason to doubt the accuracy of such an opinion. Sufficient herrings are still taken to supply the inhabitants of the coast; and it is probable that a want of proper vessels and skilful management, by restraining the fishery to a small distance from the land, prevents their being found in greater abundance.

Cod, ling, and hake, constituting what is usually termed the white fishery, still abound on the Irish coast, and particularly in the vicinity of the Nymph bank, on the south of the island. The fishery of this bank, if cultivated with skill and activity, would probably equal that of Newfoundland. The western coast is particularly well adapted to an extensive fishery; but, in a great part of this district, no other boats are used by fishermen than the antient canoe of the Celtic tribes, consisting merely of a rude frame of wood, covered with the hide of the horse or bullock. The fishery of Galway is of great local benefit, and affords a sufficient M 2

proof that myriads of valuable fish animate the waters of the Atlantic in the contiguity of Ireland.

The inland fishery is extremely productive. The Irish salmon is universally allowed to be of a very superior quality, and abounds in the principal rivers. Large quantities of this, and other fish taken in the fresh waters, are sold at a moderate price, throughout nearly the whole of the island.

CANAL NAVIGATION. The great natural facilities of commercial interchange possessed by Ireland, in the happy distribution of her numerous rivers, have received the laborious addition of extensive lines of CANAL NAVIGATION. These works hold forth the promise of future benefit to the public, but are at present of circumscribed utility. They were, indeed, boldly commenced on a contrary principle to the policy which usually leads to such undertakings. In other countries it has been customary for productive trade and established manufactures to precede the formation of canals; but, in Ireland, canals have been formed with a view of stimulating commerce, creating manufactures, and encouraging speculators to seek and work mineral veins of wealth.

In the reign of George II. a corporation, furnished with liberal funds by parliamentary grants, was created, "for promoting and carrying on an inland navigation in Ireland." By these commissioners numerous works were commenced, but scarcely any completed, although very large sums were expended on each undertaking; and it was found necessary to add the stimulus of private interest to that of duty towards the public. The different branches of inland navigation were accordingly "vested, as properties, in the hands of associated companies, upon certain conditions, and under certain restrictions; and to these have been granted one third of their expenditure, as a bounty from the public."

The line of the Grand Canal was commenced in the year 1755, by the corporation noticed above; but, in 1772, a subscription was opened, and the subscribers were incorporated, under the name of the " Company of Undertakers of the Grand Canal.' By this Society the work has been completed. This canal unites

the capital with the rivers Shannon and Barrow, the former river being distant sixty-one miles and three quarters, and the latter forty miles and a half.

The width of the canal is forty-five feet at the top, and twentyfive feet at the bottom. The depth of water in the body of the canal is six feet. The harbour in which this work commences is situated in the western extremity of Dublin, and is noticed in our description of that City. From thence, as is stated from ample sources of intelligence in Walsh's History of Dublin, the canal “ascends seventeen miles, by four double and fourteen single locks, to the summit level, which is 202 feet four inches above the level of the harbour in James's Street, and 261 feet ten inches above the tide water in the Liffey. From this level, and at the distance of twenty and a half Irish miles from Dublin, the canal divides into two branches; by one we descend 103 feet and half an inch in twenty-two and a quarter miles, to the Barrow at Athy, and through two double and nine single locks, with one ascending single lock of eight feet six inches, at Monasterevan; by the other we descend 163 feet eleven inches in forty-one miles, to the Shannon, at Shannon Harbour, about two miles northward of Banagher, and through one double and seventeen single locks; the double locks varying in elevation from thirteen feet four inches to nineteen feet seven inches, and the single locks from four feet three inches to thirteen feet four inches."

In different parts of its progress the Grand Canal crosses the Kilmainham, Esker, and little Morell rivers, by aqueducts of a single arch. It crosses the Milltown river by an aqueduct of three arches; and, at the distance of fifteen miles from Dublin, passes over the river Liffey by an aqueduct bridge of five arches, with two other arches and a tunnel, to carry off superfluous waters in times of floods, to which this latter river is extremely subject.*

The proprietors are stated to have expended on the works of the Grand Canal more than one million and a half of their private

* The aqueduct thrown over the Liffey was erected at the expense of £7500, and is stated to be seventy-eight feet longer than the Pont de Cesse, the principal aqueduct on the Royal Canal of Languedoc,

property, since their incorporation in the year 1772. Considerable quantities of turf, dug from the bog of Allen, are conveyed to Dublin by means of this canal; and some corn is also brought to the metropolis, from different parts of the country. Passageboats proceed daily, to and from Dublin, along both branches of the canal. These boats are large, and have commodious covered apartments. Refreshments are provided for the passengers at regulated prices; and the whole establishment is, assuredly, a great convenience to the public, though of trivial import in proportion to the magnitude and expense of the work in which it originates. When we find that the traffic of this costly line of water is at present limited to the above particulars, we hear, without surprise, that the affairs of the concern are far from being in a prosperous state.

The Royal Canal also forms a communication between the City of Dublin and the river Shannon, but is directed towards the source of that river, whilst the line of the Grand Canal points towards its middle and lower parts. The company of subscribers was incorporated by royal charter in 1789, and had additional powers subsequently granted by the legislature. This canal enters its harbour, for the accommodation of trade and passengers in Dublin, by an aqueduct thrown over the great north-western road; and communicates, by a branch one mile and a half in length, with spacious docks in the vicinity of the custom house. In its progress towards the Shannon it visits Carton, Maynooth, and Kilcock; whence it proceeds to the town of Mullingar. Crossing the river Inny it passes through part of the county of Longford, and terminates at Tarmonbury, on the Shannon.

The width at the surface, is forty-two feet, and at the bottom twenty-four feet. Before it reaches the Inny it passes by aqueducts over the Rye water and the Boyne. The structure which affords it a passage over the former stream consists of no more than one arch, but the erection was attended with considerable difficulty, and the expense amounted to £30,000. The ascent to the summit level, from the high water mark in the docks, near the Dublin custom-house, is 307 feet, through twenty five locks, of

of which eleven are double. The rise is at first so rapid as to require eleven locks in a distance of five miles and a half; after which the locks become less frequent. The summit-level prevails for a distance of rather more than twelve miles. The depth of water is calculated for boats of from eighty to 100 tons burthen. Passage boats, regulated in the same manner as those previously noticed, are employed on this canal.

The Royal Canal has proved unfortunate in nearly every point of view. Its affairs were ill-conducted by the chartered company, and the calculation of its opening new avenues of commerce has not been verified. One of the principal objects contemplated, was the trade to be derived from the collieries and iron-works in the vicinity of its track. But these works have not answered the expectations entertained, as the produce is, in fact, not able to stand a competition, in price, with the coal of Cumberland and foreign iron. The immense expenditure incurred in forming the two principal canals of Ireland has compelled the directors to demand tolls so heavy, that land carriage is employed with superior advantage in the conveyance of many articles from parts not far distant from the capital; and tillage is still in an infant state in districts towards the interior. Thus, these truly noble " liquid roads," merely present the means of facilitating such manufactures and commerce, as may be created by the capital and enterprize of a more advanced stage of national prosperity.

In the year 1812, the Royal Canal Company was under the necessity of suspending the payment of interest on the loans it had received, and of abandoning the further prosecution of the work. The canal was then completed only to Coolnahay, distant fifty-three miles and a half from its commencement, at the docks near the custom-house of Dublin, and about twenty-four miles from its present termination, at Tarmonbury on the Shannon. The affairs of the canal were subsequently placed under the direction of the Board of Internal Navigation; and government has since completed the line at its own expense. The work was finished in the summer of 1817.

The above are the principal lines of canal in Ireland. Several