The million-peopled city
Garwood, John
1853
Their Country and their Race.
The mere fact that, according to an estimate made in , 5,340,736 out of 14,603,473 statute acres are waste and unprofitable, illustrates how little of industry and enter- prise there has been in that unhappy country. And the decrease of its population in only ten years, from to , by 1,659,350,-a number in itself greater than the entire population of the island in ,-illustrates how fearful must have been its recent sufferings. | |
Yet possesses as a country great natural advan- tages. Its climate is, generally, conducive to health, being free from those extremes to which large tracts of land are subjected. Great facilities are afforded to commerce, scarcely any part of the large island being more than 50 miles distant from the sea, and the moisture which this circumstance occasions is favourable to tillage, while it cre- ates, with mountain scenery and extensive lakes, natural beauties which, in themselves, are calculated to attract the tourist from our own shores, to spend a portion of his time and his savings on Erin's shores. | |
The Irish race also possess many decidedly interesting and valuable characteristics. Their origin is Celtic, and they are descendants of the brave and renowned Gauls. was not peopled from Britain, although the two are | |
247 | in such proximity to each other, neither has its history at all resembled our own. Not a single Roman is supposed to have set foot on Irish ground for nearly 400 years after the Romans had military possession of Britain. |