I came from Ireland by the western road, about a fortnight ago. My expectations were fully satisfied with the appearances of the "Giant's Causeway." The arrangements of rocks of the Northern Cape of Ireland appear to me to present facts equally irreconcilable upon either the Plutonic or Neptunian theory; and I am convinced that general fanciful theories will lose ground in proportion as minute observations are multiplied. The Irish are a noble race, degraded by slavery, and bearing the insignia of persecution, extreme savageness, or the lowest servility; yet they are ingenious and active, and seem to me to possess all the elements of power and usefulness; but amongst the lower orders there is a most unfortunate equality, destructive of all great and efficient exertion; and amongst the higher classes the greatest degree of activity is awakened only by the desire of imitating the English, and that not so much in their virtues and talents, as in their luxuries and follies. I hear from all quarters of the good effects of your late exertions in Parliament. May your efforts tend to establish the reign of good sense and pure philosophy, in a place where they have been too often found to yield to empty sounds! Yours, &c. H. DAVY. TO THOMAS POOLE, ESQ. London, Oct. 9, 1805. MY DEAR POOLE, I MADE a very rapid journey to Cornwall with Mr. Bernard, merely for the sake of showing him the country, and for the purpose of spending a week with my mother and sisters. We made an effort to come to you at Nether Stowey, but the people at Bridgewater would not take us round, through Stowey, to Taunton, without four horses; and at all events we could only have spent two or three hours with you; and it is difficult to say whether the pleasure of meeting, or the regret at parting so soon, would have been the greatest. I long very much for the intercourse of a week with you. I have very much to say about Ireland. It is an island which might be made a new and a great country. It now boasts a fertile soil, an ingenious and robust peasantry, and a rich aristocracy; but the bane of the nation is the equality of poverty amongst the lower orders. All are slaves without the probability of becoming free; they are in the state of equality which the _Sansculottes_ wished for in France; and until emulation and riches, and the love of clothes and neat houses, are introduced amongst them, there will be no permanent improvement.