ommittee of 1830, that the almost
total extinction of the Kilkenny blanket-trade was attributable to the
combinations of the weavers; and O'Connell admitted that Trades Unions
had wrought more evil to Ireland than absenteeism and Saxon
maladministration. But working men have recently become more prudent
and thrifty; and it is believed that under the improved system of
moderate counsel, and arbitration between employers and employed, a
more hopeful issue is likely to attend the future of such enterprises.

Another thing is clear. A country may be levelled down by idleness and
ignorance; it can only be levelled up by industry and intelligence. It
is easy to pull down; it is very difficult to build up. The hands that
cannot erect a hovel may demolish a palace. We have but to look to
Switzerland to see what a country may become which mixes its industry
with its brains. That little land has no coal, no seaboard by which
she can introduce it, and is shut off from other countries by lofty
mountains, as well as by hostile tariffs; and yet Switzerland is one of
the most prosperous nations in Europe, because governed and regulated
by intelligent industry. Let Ireland look to Switzerland, and she need
not despair.

Ireland is a much richer country by nature than is generally supposed.
In fact, she has not yet been properly explored. There is copper-ore in
Wicklow, Waterford, and Cork. The Leitrim iron-ores are famous for
their riches; and there is good ironstone in Kilkenny, as well as in
Ulster. The Connaught ores are mixed with coal-beds. Kaolin,
porcelain clay, and coarser clay, abound; but it is only at Belleek
that it has been employed in the pottery manufacture. But the sea
about Ireland is still less explored than the land. All round the
Atlantic seaboard of the Irish coast are shoals of herring and
mackerel, which might be food for men, but are at present only consumed
by the multitudes of sea-birds which follow them.

In the daily papers giving an account of the Cork Exhibition, appeared
the following paragraph: "An interesting exhibit will be a quantity of
preserved herrings from Lowestoft, caught off the old head of Kinsale,
and returned to Cork after undergoing a preserving process in
England."[6] Fish caught off the coast of Ireland by English fishermen,
taken to England and cured, and then "returned to Cork" for exhibition!
Here is an opening for patriotic Irishmen. Why not catch and preserve
the fis