spared to augment the surface capable of yielding sustenance to man; and I feel satisfied that, _if the extent of bog-land now existing in Ireland were in the central provinces of China, five years would not elapse without its being made fertile and productive_. Ought the people of England or of Ireland to show inferiority to the Chinese in the most requisite of all labour? Ought the government, in deference to some abstract principle, to refuse the fulfilment of the first natural duty--the providing food for its subjects?"[3] [3] _Ireland before and after the Union._ By R. M. MARTIN, Esq., 3d edit., p. 88. Examples are not wanting in Ireland itself to show the feasibility of this plan of relief to its poverty. "Mr Stuart French, of Monaghan, has reclaimed three hundred acres of mountain-land in four years, and raised its value from two shillings to thirty-five shillings per acre. The entire cost was repaid by the crops in three years. Mr Reade, of Wood-Park, county Galway, reclaimed five hundred acres of moorland and mountain at a cost of from £10 to £17 per acre, which was repaid by the crop of the second year, and the land, formerly worth two shillings and sixpence per acre, now pays twenty shillings per acre annually. This same Mr Reade, who has made the experiment on a large scale, and can speak from experience, says, _there are 128,000 acres of such reclaimable wastes in Galway, where thousands have died during the past year_, and many are now (April 1848) dragging out a miserable and useless existence. Mr Coulthurst, in county Cork, reclaimed a bog farm for which the tenants could not pay four shillings per acre. The drainage and reclamation cost £16 per acre, which was repaid before the fifth year, and the land is now rated at the poor-law valuation at £4 per acre. Sir Charles Sligh, Bart., and his amiable lady, have effected great good on their estate in Donegal, by locating the surplus population on the waste lands, and assisting the poor farmers to cultivate them. This English family gave up their rents for two years, and _permanent employment has been found for six times as many persons as the land could formerly support; and its produce has been multiplied tenfold_."[4] [4] _Ireland before and after the Union._ By R. M. MARTIN, Esq., 3d edit., p. 90.