1830.]

Ireland, and its Economy; being the result of observations made in a Tour through the Country in the Autumn of 1829. By E. Bicheno, Esq. F.R.S. Sec. Linn. Soc. &c. 8vo. pp. 308. Post 8vo.

MR.

R. BICHENO, in this able philosophical view of the condition of Ireland, states the cause of distress to be the mercantile principle of treating land as a source of profit, through exchange of produce, and rejection of using it as a means of maintaining the people; in other words, he thinks that in old times the landlord preferred power and influence to luxury and ostentation; and had feelings for his dependants, which the mercantile principle necessarily suffocates. In detailing the processes by which this change was effected, he illustrates the results of changing a tillage into a grazing system; viz. that it takes away the land from providing food for human beings, to that of providing food for eattle, which requires little or no labour, and of course turns off to seek for maintenance, how they can, numbers of useful husbandmen. The position, so far as concerns local, and to a certain degree national support of the population, is unquestionably true, for he who exports cattle, and imports wine in exchange, returns nothing from which his own people derive be nefit, although it may produce profit to the wine merchant, the shipping inte rest, and the foreign producer. The question is not here, what may be the general, but the local action of such a system; and that local action is, that the more land is thrown into grazing, the smaller is the quantity of labour, and in consequence, support of the people, which is required.

Under an Utopian plan, a man ought therefore to make provision for his poor dependants before he turns his arable to grass land, and so throws his people out of employ, and the means

of support.

In England they have found a resource in trade and manufactures: in Ireland they have been driven to bogs and mountain lands, or forced to give for patches of potatoe ground an exorbitant rent, which throws all the profit of industry into the pocket of

the landlord, and leaves only to the poor not a minimum, but minimissimum of maintenance, 1d. per day (see postea). It would be absurd to suppose that persons in such a state of want and ignorance, will not seek refuge from misery, in illicit distillation, in idleness and drunkenness, in gross animal indulgences, in the usual pleasures and habits of savages.

Under the Clan system of the old Celts, Scotch and Irish, Mr. Bicheno observes, that this neglect of the poor could not exist, because, when every Chieftain depended, for the security of his power and property, upon the number and allegiance of his retainers, he of course was obliged to consult the means of their support and comfort. Thus it was, that paternal Providence made good out of evil; for, whatever evil there was in robbery (lifting callle, &c. was the phrase), in forming gangs of banditti, yet the very existence of such clan gangs implied a provision for maintenance of them; and by an impulse not to be resisted, when people are obliged to steal or starve, they commonly prefer the former. As law and governmental power augment in influence, the former becomes dangerous in the extreme, but still the evil exists. In Ireland and England, the evil was partially got rid of in the respective manners before described.

There are for such a state of things but two remedies, which carry relief to the population, viz. adoption of the naval or military profession (the best remedy), but which is checked from the expense in time of peace, or employ elsewhere, or emigration. If the quantum of population in Ireland was no more than equal to its means of employ, all civil and political evil would cease of itself, because the expectancy or possession of property makes people regard the laws, order, and tranquillity; for upon such a state of things entirely depend the security and enjoyment of property. But where labour is not wanted, will capital be applied to it?

In the existing state of things, i. e. one where there is not a common interest between the poor and the rich, but one in an unnatural state, that is, where the rich live by the poor through

the pressure of population upon subsistence, causing exorbitant rent, the affections of the latter are alienated

though the expenditure of an absentee landlord must be represented by the commodities of the country from which he derives his re

ferred to the priests; but kind and amiable as are the feelings of Mr. Bicheno towards that class of men, as to personal conduct, he has omitted to state that his arguments are useless in regard to Ireland, because no fact is better established than that beggary, rags, and indolence, are characteristic of every country where Catholicism is supreme. Spain, Portugal, and Italy, are sufficient testimonies; and more than all, the difference which prevails in this respect between the Protestant and Romish Cantons of Switzerland.

Poor Laws, Mr. Bicheno thinks, would be ineffectual, because for the best of reasons they could not be paid as to any adequate amount, if assessed.

"The Dietary in the Irish House of Industry at Limerick (where no work is done) is—for breakfast, 8 oz. oatmeal, and 1 pint of new milk-dinner, 44lb. of potatoes, boiled, and I pint of sour milk. The cost of dieting a pauper was stated to be 14d. per diem."―p. 244.

Now this is exactly 21. per annum, which, taking the number of paupers at six millions, would be twelve millions yearly, four millions more than the amount of Poor-rates in opulent England. Thus, under all the circumstances, there appears to be no efficient remedy but emigration; any other can be only palliatives; and repeal of the Union, and proposed independence, only aggravations, and measures which would produce war with England, and transportation, if successful, of the yet remaining capital, as well as civil war.

As to the modern theories of Political Economists, our author justly says, "That they are of insignificant importance when applied practically to the actual circumstances of a country. Theories are educed from a few facts selected from a multitude, while practice proceeds upon the broad and expanded basis of all facts: so that it generally happens, that the theoretic principles are inapplicable to the existing exigencies of society. When for instance it is roundly stated that Ireland sustains no injury from absentee expenditure, because whatever rent is remitted, is without doubt represented in a great degree by the export of Irish commodities, and as far as expenditure is concerned, the chief difference seems to be in the place of consumption. But still,

valent in his own produce. A bill of 1000l. upon Paris may be for the manufactures of Manchester, and not a single ox or quarter of wheat may be represented in it: yet it can hardly be denied that the country must be wronged, where the landed proprietors overlook the interest of their own tenantry, and do not take care that the commodity which is exported, contributes to the employment of their own people."-pp. 296-9,

Emigration, the only efficient réme. dy, is rendered difficult, by the heavy expence: but our author says, that

"The land itself ought to bear the expences of the transplantation; and Ireland has now to make a temporary sacrifice of an amount suited to the urgency of the occasion."—p. 274.

According to this opinion, a tax ought to be levied upon the landed proprietors of Ireland, to pay the cost of emigration.

A Vindication of Dr. Paley's Theory of Morals from the principal Objections of Mr. Dugald Stewart, Mr. Gisborne, &c. By the Rev. Latham Wainwright, F. S. A. Rector of Great Brickhill.-8vo. pp. 204.

THE moral sense, we apprehend,' grows out of the association of ideas; for how can a person distinguish between a feeling of right and wrong without comparison. We are of opinion that intellectual physiology nei ther is or can be understood, because if we know not the laws of vitality, we cannot determine in what manner it acts. We therefore think that all the eminent men alluded to by Mr. Wainwright, in this elaborate and well-writ ten disquisition, have undertaken to define what is beyond their power, because beyond the association of ideas, and its palpable effects. We think that there are no intellectual actions definable, possibly because there are no other existent. We say existent, for it does not appear to us, that there is in mind a single uncombined idea, and if it does not so exist, it cannot have an independent being or origin. If so, the matters of dispute in this treatise turn upon the presumed existence of children which never had parents-spontaneous creations.

1880.]

Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum. A new Edition, with considerable Additions and Improvements. By John Caley, Esq., Henry Ellis, Esq. and the Rev. Bulkeley Bandinel, D. D. In Six Volumes, Folio (divided into Eight), 1830. IT is now nearly eight years since we reviewed the first three volumes of this truly important work (see our vol. xc. part ii. p. 425, for a notice of the first volume; and vol. xc. pt. ii. p; 235, for one of vols. I. to III.); and we have now the gratification of announcing the completion of an undertaking, which confers honour not only on the editors, but on the nation at large. Nor ought our meed of praise, at the very threshold of our notice, to be withheld from Mr. Joseph Harding, the spirited projector of the work, to whom we are indebted for two publications, which whether viewed as to their intrinsic importance or deserved success, have never been exceeded→→→ we allude to the work now under our hands, and to Lodge's "Portraits of illustrious Personages," the latter the most decidedly successful book in modern times.

From the Preface prefixed to the sixth volume, we are enabled to appreciate more correctly the relative labours of Dodsworth and Dugdale, in the original Monasticon. This we endeavoured to set to rest in our vol. xc. ii. pp. 425, 426. And our view of the respective labours of Dodsworth and Dugdale is confirmed by Mr. Ellis, as

follows:

says,

"Several of our best Antiquaries have supposed that Dugdale's share in the two first volumes of this work was much smaller than it really was. Mr. Gough, in his British Topography, says, The Two Volumes of the Monasticon, though published under Dodsworth's and Dugdale's names conjointly, were both collected and written totally by the former and Dr. Dunham Whitaker 'as Dodsworth unfortunately died in August, 1654, before one tenth part of the impression was worked, an opportunity presented itself, which Dugdale had not the fortitude to resist, of associating his own name with that of the REAL COMPILER. Mr. Hamper, however, in his Appendix to Dugdale's Life, has endeavoured to vindicate his memory. That able writer, Sir John Marsham,' he observes, in his PROPYLAION to the Work, whilst he justly gives the palm to Dodsworth as the chief collector of materials, and praises GENT, MAG. July, 1830.

41

less.

"It was first undertaken by the Rev. BULKELEY BANDINEL, D.D. Keeper of the Bodleian Library at Oxford, who was the

sole Editor of the first Three Portions, as far as p. 264 of the First Volume: but great as were the stores of the Bodleian, a residence distant from the metropolis ill suited the researches which were of necessity to be made among the Offices of Record, and before the Fourth Portion of the Work appeared, two other gentlemen were called iu as coadjutors, JOHN CALEY, Esq. Keeper of the Records in the Augmentation Office, and afterwards of those in the ChapterHouse at Westminster, and HENRY ELLIS, Esq. then Keeper of the Manuscripts in the British Museum. To these latter gentlemen the Reader is indebted for the carrying on of the New Monasticon to its close.

"With the exception of a few small Monasteries, descriptions of Monastic Seals, notices of Records, and some other occasional paragraphs, the English preliminary Accounts have been written, and the Work, since the Third Portion, entirely arranged by Mr. Ellis: Mr. Caley, in addition to the paragraphs already mentioned, communicating numerous copies of Records, Abstracts of the Ministers' Accounts, and the Abridgements of the Valors of Pope Nicholas and Henry the Eighth; assisting in the correction of the sheets; and aiding in continual suggestions. Dr. Bandinel, since the publication of the Third Portion, has contributed occasionally only but the Reader is indebted to him for the Abstracts of the Godstow and Eynsham Chartularies: and here it may be stated, once for all, that the Abstracts of Monastic Registers, which fill some of the Notes in these Volumes, will be found, in point of utility, to form one of their most important features.

"HUNDREDS of RELIGIOUS HOUSES

which Dugdale knew nothing of, have been,

introduced into the present Work, together with those of the different Orders of FRIARS, and Accounts, as far as they could be obtained, of very numerous DESTROYED MoNASTERIES. Such CATHEDRALS also have

been added of which Dugdale gives no description: but the CATHEDRAL of ST. PAUL LONDON it has been thought desirable to exclude; its History and Charters, greatly enlarged, and richly embellished, had been separately published in a style of uniformity with the Monasticon, by one of the Editors of that Work; so that to have reprinted them here, when nearly the whole of the same persons were subscribing for both Works, would have been materially enhancing the extent and cost of the Monasticon, without increasing its value to the

Subscribers.

"It was at first intended, too, that a Life of Dugdale should be prefixed to the First Volume of the Monasticon; but Dugdale's own Account of his Life having been prefixed to the Reprint of St. Paul's, and a separate Volume having since appeared in the Life, Diary, and Correspondence of Sir William Dugdale,' edited by William Hamper, Esq. superseding further research, the intention was given up: nothing new could have been discovered of his Life, and the expense of the Work, already thought too great by the Subscribers, must have

been enhanced."

"The Index has been compiled by Mr. Richard Taylor, author of the Index Monasticus to the Diocese of Norwich."

Not to mention the immense mass

of new matter introduced into the work, in the proportion probably of three to eight, as compared with the old edition, the great advantage of the present edition over the former one, consists in the English descriptions of the religious foundations, and the abstracts of their registers, both omitted by Dugdale. The work has thus been rendered, by the unsparing research of its Editors, equally useful to the General Reader, the Antiquary, and the Lawyer.

From the passages which we have already extracted, the reader may judge of the immense labour bestowed on the work by Mr. Ellis, assisted, as he doubtless has been, by the constant advice of Mr. Caley. We have thus preferred adopting the words of the learned Editors to inserting any remarks of our own. We however congratulate them on the completion of their arduous task; as we do the public, on the possession of an edition of the " Monasticon," which comprises all that is valuable, not only

in the original work by Dugdale, but in the Continuation by Steevens, and embraces a very large accession of materials from Leiger Books, Rolls, and Dugdale's time, thus giving a complete other documents brought to light since History of all our Monastic Foundations. This important work will probably never be superseded, but will form a necessary portion of every im portant Library in England.

It was at first intended to have copied all the Embellishments in the original edition; and in pursuance of this, the chief of the prints by Hollar have been re-engraved. But the plates by King, &c. being utterly worthless, this intention was happily abandoned; and the embellishments of the new edition have been chiefly confided to Mr. John Coney, "an artist," as the editors justly observe, "whose execu tion possesses the freedom and delicacy of Piranesi, without his occasional obscurity and coarseness."

These plates have been admirably etched by Mr. Coney, from his own drawings made exclusively for this work, and we believe they form the largest collection of Gothic architecture ever published.*

A rich series of Seals of the Benedictine Monasteries has been engraved by Mr. Coney, from the treasures under the care, and in the collection, of Mr. Caley. But we cannot speak equally in commendation of Mr. Coney's labours with respect to the Seals. The style in which they are etched is much too rough and undefined. They fall far short of the engravings of Seals by Messrs. Blore and Le Keux, in Surtees's" History of Durham," which are perfect in their kind, and admirably represent those beautiful specimens of antient art.

Sketches of a Collection of Antiquities lately imported at Liverpool from Alexandria in Egypt.

THIS is an elegant and valuable collection belonging to Mr. Waring, a merchant of Liverpool, and consists of Egyptian, Greco-Egyptian, and Greek remains. The pure Egyptian is known

The etchings of "Cathedrals, by Mr. John Chessell Buckler," form good additional Illustrations, being equally faithful, and executed in a bold and masterly manner.