hin
a short period, had been put out of tillage; graziers (whom the writer
calls "that abominable race of graziers") being mad after land then as
they are now. But there were other causes. William the Third, at the
bidding of the English Parliament, annihilated the flourishing woollen
manufacture of Ireland; her trade with the Colonies was not only
cramped, but ruined, by the navigation laws in force; which, amongst
other things, enacted that no colonial produce could come to Ireland
until it had at first entered an English port, _and had been landed
there_. Thus, whilst the fact that vast tracts of the soil had been put
out of cultivation compelled the country to buy food abroad, the unjust
and selfish destruction of her trade and commerce by England left her
without the money to do so.

The people being in a state of great destitution, the author of the
"Memorial" quoted above, said, there should be raised by taxes on a few
commodities, such as tea, coffee, etc., L110,000. L100,000 to buy
100,000 barrels of wheat, and L10,000 premium to those who would import
it. To this the Author of the Answer replies:--"By talking so familiarly
of L110,000 by a tax upon a few commodities, it is plain you are either
naturally or affectedly ignorant of our present condition, or else you
would know and allow, that such a sum is not to be raised here without a
general excise; since, in proportion to our wealth, we pay already in
taxes more than England ever did in the height of the war. And when you
have brought over your corn, who who will be the buyers? Most certainly,
not the poor, who will not be able to purchase the twentieth part of
it.... If you will propose a general contribution in supporting the poor
on potatoes and buttermilk till the new corn comes in, perhaps you may
succeed better, because the thing at least is possible."

Potato culture was clearly on the increase; the corn crop, however, was
still looked to as the food of the nation. But if the growing of
potatoes was on the increase, it seems to have partly arisen from the
very necessity of the case. There was not land enough under tillage to
give food to the people, it was laid down for grazing. Mountains, poor
lands, and bogs were unsuitable to graziers, nor yet would they yield
wheat, nor, in many instances, oats, or any white crop whatever; but the
potato was found to succeed very well in such places, and to give a
larger quantity of sustenance than such land woul