would be correspondent with the other salt-work reserved for Earl Edwin's other manor at Acton *; and the third penny of the hundred would be appropriately due to a manor held by Earl Edwin before the Conquest, and constituting one of the free burgs of the earldom after it.

"On referring to the original survey, these conjectures (founded on the copy printed by parliamentary authority) were fully confirmed; and an additional circumstance was observable, which greatly corroborated them. The two lines describ ing Alretune were inserted below the regular line, at the foot of the column, having been apparently omitted by the transcriber in the first instance, and afterwards added without a consciousness that he was transferring to Goderic's petty_estate_the privileges of the great lordship of Frodsham, the description of which became divided by this interpolation.

"An error generally extends itself beyond the first subject of it. After Alretune, and before the notice of another hundred (Dudestane) come descriptions of the vills of Alredelie, Done (supposed Utkinton), and Edesberie. Mr. Squire, in the very accurate copy of Domesday, given in Leycester's Antiquities, states the first to be described in Bochelau, and the hundred of the two next to be omitted. This, however, was his conjecture, and was what ought to have been, but was not the fact. The general title of Roelau hundred must be supposed coutinued, according to the official mode of reading Domesday †, and the marginal note of Bochelau to relate to Alretune only; and in this case, Aldredelie‡ will be severed from the adjacent towns in Old Bochelau Hundred, and transported to the other side of the county into Roelau, or Edisbury Hundred. If we invert this, and make the marginal notice of Bochelau apply to all that follows, until another Hundred is mentioned, similar violence must be offered in the removal of Utkinton and Edesbury from the hundred of Roelau into Bochelau.

"The errors here pointed out are presumed not to be matter of mere curiosity: the proof of antient demesne rests with Domesday; it is also appealed to in the courts, (among other things) in proving the contiguity of mills, and in setting up prescriptions in non decimando §. The accuracy of the original surveyors is not here questioned, but it is presumed to be proved that descriptions have been severed from the parts to which they refer, by inattention or the want of local knowledge in the transcribers of those surveys; and how is this to be rectified. Can a judge be supposed to possess local knowledge, or could antiquarian conjecture, however accurate, be produced as legal evidence? Could it shake, if necessary, the antiquity of a molinum hiemale' at Alretune, or transfer it to its proper place at Frodsham? If it could not, it is presumed that no more reliance can be placed on Domesday than on any other work of patient labour and judgment, and that it must descend from the rank it holds in the Courts of Law, to a subordinate but high situation, to be considered the royal foundation-stone of English Topography." Part vii. p. 391.

70.

(To be continued.)

Observations on the State of Ireland, principally directed to its Agriculture and Population; in a Series of Letters, written on a Tour through that Country. By J. C. Curwen, Esq. M. P. 8vo. 2 vols. 822. pp. Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy. UPWARDS of forty years since, the indefatigable Secretary of the Board of Agriculture (Mr. A. Young), published his celebrated • Tour' through Ireland; in which he did of the state of agriculture and of the not present the most delightful view peasantry, though many pleasing exceptions occurred, of enlightened cultivators, who diffused plenty, happiness, and a spirit of industry around

sa

§ “Ellis's Introduction, p. cv.”

them.

1820.]

them. In the long interval which has elapsed, much important information has at different times been communicated to the publick respect ing the Sister-Island: but an account of its actual state, by a candid and intelligent agriculturist has hitherto been a desideratum. This deficiency is now supplied by Mr. Curwen, to whom (though we differ toto cœlo from him in many of his political views,) we are happy on the present occasion to award our approbation, and our thanks for the mass of interesting statistical information which he has here collected.

Mr. Curwen's Tour was performed in the Autumn of 1813. Having traversed part of Scotland, he embarked at Port-Patrick and landed at Don

haghadee, whence he proceeded through the principal agricultural districts of Ireland.

As indicated in the title-pages of his volumes, Mr. C. directed his attention chiefly to the state of agriculture, and of the lower classes. The result of his investigations is by no means agreeable; poverty and wretchedness, filth and ignorance, are the general characteristics of the Irish cottiers or cabin-holders; for which our Author assigns the following causes, in different parts of his work, viz. Inadequate active employment for the male population; the great demand and consequent competition for small farms, which necessarily enhance the price of land; improvident and early marriages; the oppressive manner in which tithes are collected (from which, however, Mr. C. honourably acquits the Clergy); the prevalence of illicit distillation; and the great number of absentee land-owners, who spend in other countries the rents which their tenants can with difficulty pay. These statements are substantiated by numerous heart-rending facts, which we will not pain our Readers by relating. The remedies he suggests, are, the furnishing of suitable occupation for the large mass of persons at present unemployed (amounting nearly to five-sixths of the entire population), by the judicious introduction of cotton and woollen manufactures, in addition to the staple manufacture of Ireland,a better mode of letting lands, a ge neral commutation of tithes, and above all, the residence of absentee.

333

proprietors on their estates. These various topics are discussed with much temper and moderation; and many pleasing instances are introduced of resident land-proprietors, whose examples and encouragement of indus try have in a great degree improved the condition of their peasantry. We extract, with much pleasure, the following brief account of the Bishop of Meath.

"The attention paid to the comforts of the lower orders surrounding the palace does great credit to the feelings and humanity of his Lordship. Greatly is the possessor of wealth to be pitied whose pursuits are exclusively directed to the search after gratifications of a sensual description. To confer and promote the happiness of others, is to a benevolent mind the most enviable prerogative of riches. The warmth which emanates from the sun gives an animation to all created beings, in which every eye luxuriates ! Gratitude for kindness received conveys

to the heart of him who bestows a substantial self gratulation which the sensu alist has no power to conceive or means to procure!"

"The practice of this house is highly becoming the sacred office executed under its roof. Prayers are read by his Lordship morning and evening so entirely without affectation, and with so proper a regard to what is fit and right to be done, that the service cannot be attended without inspiring an earnest desire that the custom prevailed in every family. The time occupied is not of such duration as to interfere either with the pleasure or business of the heads of the house, or the duty of their dependants and servants."

This eminent prelate of the Irish Church does not confine his attention exclusively to the comforts of his dependants: his efforts have also been directed beneficially to revive and promote the interests of the Established Church in his Diocese.

"The disorders which had so long prevailed in the Established Church had been a source of regret to its friends;the obstacles to a correction of them, many and powerful. Notwithstanding the odium and unpopularity attending the attempt, the Bishop of Meath has, in his diocese, done much towards a reform. Above thirty churches and parsonage houses have been built and repaired. The strict regularity with which residence has been enforced, has obtained his Lordship the approbation of every candid individual."

In the course of his tour, Mr. Cur

wen

wen passed through most of the principal towns and cities of Ireland; his accounts of Dublin and Cork, as well as of his visit to the Lakes of Killarney, are very interesting, but do not admit of abridgment: and they would suffer by partial extracts. Generally speaking, the state of Agriculture is but indifferent, though some gratifying exceptions occur, in the estates of the public-spirited resident landproprietors above alluded to. Filthiness, exorbitant charges, want of order and comfort, and execrable wines, are stated to be the characteristics of most of the inns in Ireland. Education is described as being at a low ebb; though the people were in many places desirous of procuring instruction for their children.

Mendicity prevails to an enormous extent; and the beggars are not more remarkable for their importunity than for the ingenuity with which they urge their requests, we had almost said demands, for charity. While Mr. Curwen was at Derry he noticed, what he considers as a singular custom, but what the writer of this article has seen in other towns, in the South of Ireland. A number of beggars was permitted to take their stations by turns in the vestibule or lobby of the principal inn, for a certain time. Two or three changes of these wretched objects took place while Mr. C. stopped. From some cause, however, which he could not ascertain, he observed but few beggars at Dublin.

Many curious facts relative to the Natural History of Ireland, and to the character and manners of its inhabitants, are interspersed through these volumes, which we have not room to specify. While they contain much that will gratify the general reader, they present much to engage the most serious attention of the Irish members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom; under whose consideration the affairs of Ireland will probably come, in the ensuing

Session.

the Monastery must have been on the stocks of Mr. Ballantyne, at the time of the publishing of Ivanhoe. This latter production, for which an unprecedented demand has been made, and which, at this present time, has hardly reached the remote corners of the empire, is so full of theatrical episode, that both the patentee theatres, as well as some of the minor ones, are contending to pick up the best tale, and turn it to the best advantage. This eagerness of the theatrical caterers may answer their views, but shows a dearth of historical subjects for tragedy, and comic authors capable to find in our present manners sufficient opportunities of handling the whip of satire: and from thence the prevailing bad taste of encouraging none but mongrel dramas founded upon old ballads, or antisocial and barbarous manners of former centuries. This, how. ever, is no disparagement to Ivanhoe as a novel or romance; on the contrary, it shows that the author knows so well the road to the heart, that, if we dare make use of the simile, not unlike our most renowned pastrycook near the Royal Exchange, he seasons his mince pies so well, that, as they come out of the oven, they are eagerly bought, and greedily devoured. Such has been the destiny of nearly thirty volumes, which, in the short space of little more than six years, have come from the wonderfully-prolific pen of the Author of Waverley.

The Monastery is preceded by an introductory letter to a Captain Člutterbuck, which, with the answer, forms almost a third part of the first volume. From the latter we are in. formed, that these most interesting and delightful novels are not due to the happy combinations of fortuitous circumstances:

"No, Captain, the funds from which I have drawn my power of amusing the publick, have been bought otherwise than by fortuitous adventure. I have buried

myself in libraries, to extract from the

nonsense of antient days, new nonsense of my own. I have turned over volumes, which, from the pot-hooks I was obliged to decipher, might have been the cabalistic manuscripts of Cornelius Agrippa, although I never saw the door open and the devil come in' *. But all the domes

"See Southey's Ballad on the young man who read in a Conjuror's Book,"