while every thing else has been in motion, and are obliged in consequence to sell their estates, and retire into towns, where they become different men, and better subjects, but leave the country unhappily not to great proprietors, for they reside only a few months in the year on it, but to the professions, who plunder it; particularly the country attorneys, the scourge of all that is honest or good, and the farmers, who uneducated and centered in their never ceasing pursuit of gain, are incapable of comprehending anything beyond it.
Ireland
"This is not the place to enter into the political or moral state of Ireland. It may not be amiss however to observe that it becomes and interests any one, who has property in Ireland, to be acquainted with its general history. Its progress may be distinctly traced by reading the following Books: Hibernica, a Collection of Ancient Tracts, printed and published in Dublin, Moryson's Itinerary, Sydney's State Papers, Sir John Davis's Works, Sir William Petty's Works, Lord Stafford's Letters, Lord Chancellor Clarendon, and Ludlow's Memoirs on what regards Ireland, Lord Clarendon's (son of the Chancellor) Letters, Boate's Natural History of Ireland, and several MSS. in the library at Lansdowne House.
"The History of Ireland may be read to considerable advantage, and more than the history of most countries, for as every other country had always more or less of a settled government, their history consists of little more than an account of sieges and battles, except now and then some civil wars; whereas the History of Ireland is in fact a history of the policy of England in regard to Ireland, and will be found to give the best idea of the principles, knowledge and passions, which prevailed in each reign and characterized the times. It will be found to have always been the shame of England, as Sicily was of Rome and is now of Naples, and Corsica was of Genoa. God never intended one country to govern another, but that each country should govern itself. Ireland has of late made
