her penal laws, and that they are now no more; that
France had her Bastile, her lettres de cachet, and her
massacre of St. Bartholomew, and that she is now liberal
that the Presbyterians hanged the Quakers, and that they
are now good friends ; and that Catholics and Protestants
in the United States of America, and even in Canada,
under our own Government, live together like good brothers ;
and although we know that no Protestant who speaks his
mind in the bold and determined manner that we do, will
be well received in any Irish Catholic assembly, or sup-
ported by the base, bigoted, and mercenary press of Dublin,
yet we look forward with hope to a period in British history,
when the channels of information being opened wide to
truth and free inquiry, and purified from every unjust
incumberance upon knowledge, the abominable impostures,
by which prejudice and falsehood hold sway, shall be easily
and successfully exposed ; and the people of Ireland, seeing
their true interests, and feeling the advantages of employ-
ment and protection which they derive from a just and
parental government, shall abandon their unhappy courses,
and return to the paths of peace, prosperity, and honour.
These are our sentiments, often and forcibly expressed ;
CAUSES OF ITS COMPARATIVE PROSPERITY. 359
and although they unequivocally avow the opinion which
we have deliberately formed, that the Protestant religion
established in Ulster, has contributed largely to the security
of life and property, and to the peace, moral order, and
commercial prosperity of that district; still we trust the
spirit of charity to our Catholic brethren has been combined
(as it is in our inmost soul) with the spirit of fidelity to our
own conscience; and having now largely treated of the
active influence of the Protestant religion in the production
of the unity, peace, and prosperity of Fermanagh, and in its
comparative exemption from that extreme destitution, by
which the able bodied poor are forced to have recourse to
the charity of the public for support, in other districts, let
us now consider the other principal causes which appear to
us to have combined with this, to produce a favourable
influence upon the character of that county.
The first and principal of these causes may be found,
as we have already noticed, in a resident proprietary. Lord
Enniskillen, General Archdale, Lord Corry, (as his father's
representative) Sir Henry Brooke, and in fact most of the
proprietors of the soil, live and spend their fortunes in the
bosom of their country; mix and mingle with the feelings
and interests of their people ; and the natural consequence
of this home residency is, that the working classes are not
permitted (like many of the wretched inhabitants of Derry,
Donegal, Tyrone, and Cavan) to sink into such utter indi-
gence, as to be compelled to carry on a warfare for existence
with the farmers of the country, and shopkeepers of the
neighbouring towns; upon the charity of which classes
(whether to the honour or dishonour of the legislators of the
land, let the friends of British prosperity decide) the sup-
port of the mendicant population of Ireland has long
devolved !
The second (and which naturally and necessarily flows
from the other as its source) is that of a most respectable
tenantry, some of whom hold their farms for ever, subject to
a small chief rent, (of which we shall give two or three
360 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH,
examples in the progress of our review of this county) and
other farmers of less note, at such rents, and by such good
tenures, as secure to them and to their children, the full
fruition of their capital and labours ; a motive to improve-
ment, and a source of competency and comfort, which no
tenant at will, or dependent upon a twenty-one years' lease,
can possess in Ireland, considering the way that power is
sometimes exercised by the lord of the soil, the middle man,
and the landlord's agent in that country; and because
although the landlord may be a good man, the heir of that
landlord may happen to become an absentee and an oppres-
sor; and consequently, in the existing circumstances of
Ireland, it is the interest even of the absentee landlord, to
give a tenant of known solvency, a lease of three lives or
thirty-one years at least, (binding him to such improvements
in building and planting as the value of his bargain may
justify,) as otherwise capital will not be freely expended
on the estate, and Ireland will remain, as it has too long
been, a nation of slaves and beggars, without reverence and
affection for their laws or rulers.
We do not say that Fermanagh furnishes no instance of
the base and beggarly policy of short leases, (for base and
beggarly have been its effects in Ireland, however it may
have worked in England, where long established custom
and the confidence existing between landlord and tenant
supply the place of law,) but we do say that, a large
proportion of the yeomanry of Fermanagh hold their lands
at moderate rents and by good tenures, and that this is one
of the causes which have rescued that country, in an eminent
degree, from the ravages of a squalid pauperism, and placed
it on an equality, in point of decency and comfort, with the
most respectable cantons of the sister country. During a
general residence of six weeks in the town of Enniskillen,
the capital of the county, we did not, in tJie whole of that
time, see half as many poor people soliciting relief, as in a
single day in the towns of Omagh and Bally shannon. And
if this, on the examination of these latter towns, on the days
CAUSES OF ITS COMPARATIVE PROSPERITY. 361
(and they are frequent) when the neighbouring poor assem-
ble to obtain relief, shall be found to be a fact of public
notoriety in the history of the counties to which these towns
belong, we justly and reasonably infer, that the proprietors
of the soil of those counties, have been guilty of a high
crime and misdemeanour against the honest and industrious
men, upon whom, in addition to their heavy rents and taxes,
they have thrown the burthen of a mendicant population, to
whose [employment and support, the landlord's knowledge
and ample resources, should have been long since patiently
and vigorously directed. And as we believe a large pro-
portion of lands in the county of Donegal, are in the
possession of the college of Dublin ; this fact, in its existing
history, ought to open the eyes of government to the abso-
lute necessity of entering upon a revision of the enormous
princely revenues, so long and needlessly permitted to re-
main in the hands of a few literary teachers, who would be
well paid for their services by the rents now resulting from
one tenth of those lands, which in the reign of Queen
Elizabeth, when that college was endowed, were probably
not worth more than two or three-pence per acre, and would
now let, in many instances, for more than ONE HUNDRED
TIMES THAT SUM ! We are by no means hostile to a
respectable maintenance of those teachers, for we think that
literary men (whose talents are devoted to the public service)
ought to be made easy in their circumstances ; but if we pos-
sessed the power, we would neither give to them, nor to the
wealthy priests and bishops who are too numerous in this
country, enormous princely revenues, (in a land where the
poor are starving and comparatively destitute of employment)
for services that would be equally well (and perhaps more
humbly and edifyingly) performed for a smaller income.
FACILITIES FOR TRADE.
Let us now make a few observations upon the facilities
for trade, with which Lough Erne provides this county.
This Lough is one of the finest waters in the North of
362 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH,
Ireland; and from its contiguity to Ballyshannon (a town
situated on the Bay of Donegal,) it presents to the enter-
prise of the inhabitants of that town, and to those of the
neighbouring county of Fermanagh, (the subject of this
chapter) the strongest possible incentives to a united and
powerful exertion for the removal of those obstacles which
now exist, to a free communication between Enniskillen,
Ballyshannon, and the western ocean.
The principal of these obstacles is that which is found
in the bar of Ballyshannon (for the particulars of which we
refer the reader to our next chapter upon Donegal). The
others are, the want of a canal from Ballyshannon to
Belleek (a village on the banks of Lough Erne) a distance
of three miles only ; and the lowering of two or three ledges
of rocks in the Lough, so as to admit a steam boat of suffi-
cient power to take vessels in tow from Ballyshannon to
Enniskillen ; and were these impediments to a free commu-
nication with the ocean once removed, (and a persevering
exertion of the landed and commercial interests of Donegal
and Fermanagh would be more than equivalent to the task)
Ballyshannon would soon become, as an ingenious inha-
bitant of the town well observed, the Greenock of the North
of Ireland, and Enniskillen, the Glasgow of the same pro-
vince.
On the event of Ireland becoming an extensive theatre
for the embarkation of English capital, we know no districts
in the Island more likely to be selected by the monied
interest of England for that purpose, than those of Leitrim
and Fermanagh, as the numerous lakes in these counties
contiguous to each other (with the aid of a few short canals)
would furnish peculiar facilities for the conveyance of manu-
factured iron, pottery ware, and glass, &c. (for which Leitrim
in particular has inexhaustible materiae) to the Atlantic
Ocean at Sligo and Ballyshannon; and of course, through
that ocean to the markets of America and the West Indies,
where those goods are wanted, and are likely to pay well.
We caniiot look to the lords of the Irish soil, with any
FACILITIES FOR TRADE. 363
rational prospect of success, for the establishment of such
public works as these. It is not merely capital that is
wanted, but a taste for those laborious pursuits of trade and
commerce, which require great industry, patience, and per-
severance, to bring them to a successful issue. The gentle-
men of Ireland, generally speaking, would much rather
hunt a fox than a coal mine ; or try the quality of the claret
in their cellars, than of the iron (or even the silver, lead,
and copper, if such existed) at the bottom of their moun-
tains. Their lore of ease and pleasure, has however in
some respects a favourable influence upon their character as
gentlemen, inasmuch as it produces a taste for hospitality
and other generous virtues, and engenders a spirit superior
to that extreme parsimony and suspicion, which many con-
sider as a concomitant of the commercial character, that, in
the existing state of the world, cannot altogether be sepa-
rated from the pursuits of trade. But if, as Irish gentlemen,
they derive a feature of honour, and a feather of well-merited
pride, from their princely qualities ; the population of their
country languish under the effects of their indolent repose ;
and their want of union and industry to render their capital
available to the improvement of their fortunes, and the
employment of their people, in reference to the effects
which it produces, is an evil so effectually neutralizing all
the natural wealth and energies of their country, that we
cannot overlook it. It is by an effectual combination of the
rank, capital, and industry of England, that the resources
of that country have been rendered so eminently tributary
to its wealth and power; and it is from the accidental
absence of this needful union in our own country, that we
are forced to look to England for the means by which our
population may be employed, and the deep and dormant
treasures of our soil brought into effectual operation for the
public good. And although we should be sorry to see the
generous and hospitable virtues of the Irish gentleman and
landlord, altogether swallowed up in the soul-consuming
cares of the manufacturer and merchant ; yet for the sake
364 COUNTY OF FERMANAGH,
of that immense majority of the people, who are dependent
upon their labour for a livelihood, and many of whom for
want of profitable employment, are in a state of deep desti-
tution, we cannot but wish that such portions of our soil in
the North of Ireland (where property is secure) as are pecu-
liarly applicable to purposes of trade and commerce, were
quickly transferred into the hands of English commercial
companies, on an express understanding that capital to a
certain amount should be embarked and employed there.
Among the counties in Ireland thus favoured by nature,
there are perhaps none which maintain a more distinguished
position on the map of that country, than those of Tyrone,
Fermanagh, Leitrim, and Donegal, (more particularly the
three latter) all closely approximating; and yet, with the
exception of Tyrone (which abounds with coal, and where
a few pits are worked) there are perhaps no tracts in which
less advantage has been taken of the various mineral trea-
sures deposited by Nature in the soil, than in those just
mentioned.
Of the numerous resources of Leitrim (one of the smallest
and least known counties in the Island) we gave some
striking specimens in two or three succeeding editions of a
former work ; and although this county is not in the N. W.
district, yet as it lies contiguous to it, and a communication
between Lough Allen in Leitrim, and Lough Erne in Fer-
managh, might be opened through Lough M'Naine and
other waters, at a very moderate expense, we think it may
not be amiss to connect this county with our observations
on the N. W. district, for the purpose of drawing the atten-
tion of those capitalists who may not have seen the descrip-
tion of Leitrim in other works, to an attentive consideration
of the natural history of a district with which it unites to
form a great and important theatre of trade.
Convinced we are, that if a sufficient capital could be
raised to work the resources of these counties (and in order
thereto to connect the Leitrim and Fermanagh lakes with
each other, and with the Atlantic Ocean at Ballyshannon
FACILITIES FOR TRADE. 365
and Sligo) that no district of country in Europe would be
found to contain a larger variety of materials for a great
and extensive trade with North and South America and the
West Indies, and with all the principal ports of the home
market. And knowing also that from the superior cheap-
ness of labour and provisions in Ireland, the advantage of
embarking capital in that country is much greater than in
any other district of the British Islands, we respectfully
invite the attention of the English reader to the following
strong specimens of the natural wealth of Leitrim ; which,
being the result of an actual survey of its principal mineral
district, stands upon firmer foundations than the mere
reports of coal and iron in Fermanagh, of which no geolo-
gical survey has yet been executed, although we believe
mines were formerly worked on the lands of Clonelly ; and
also that coal fit for manufacturing purposes (though unfit
for fuel) has been discovered on the lands of Sir Henry
Brooke, Bart. ; iron on those of the Earl of Enniskillen ;
and minerals applicable to trade, on the lands of General
Archdale, and those of a Mr. Brien, on the western shore of
Lough Erne : but the gentlemen of this county do not appear
to have much taste for trade, and as the bogs are plenty,
and they feel no scarcity of fuel, it is probable they pay but
little attention to the indications of coal or iron in their
lands, although their existence in the County of Fermanagh
is well understood.
EXTRACTS FROM OUR REVIEW OF LEITRIM,
(Published in several editions of a former work.)
The peculiar advantages which this county possesses for
the employment of capital in trade, although well known
to its own intelligent inhabitants, and to a few men of
science who have explored it, is nevertheless but very
partially known to the mercantile interests of England, to
whom the eye of Ireland is now very justly directed for
a fair participation in the trade and capital of that country.
In an effort therefore to contribute our mite towards a great
366 COUNTY OP LEITRIM,
moral amalgamation of the two countries, we think it our
duty to challenge an inquiry into the natural history of
this country, convinced, that in no similar portion of His
Majesty's dominions, will a tract of soil he found more
deeply and generally pregnant with all the necessary mate-
rials for a great and extensive trade. Its natural wealth
embraces iron, tin, coal (and some say copper) fuller's
earth, black and yellow ochres, pipe clay, potters' clay and
fire clay, clay for bricks, stone for building, and slate for
roofs, to say nothing (though the soil in many parts is poor)
of agricultural produce, cheap labour and live stock, hides,
timber, and bark for tanning, all of which can be procured
here. And to these may be added, great and extraordinary
facilities of water carriage (with a comparatively small
expenditure of money) to North and South America and
the West Indies, and to many principal ports in the home
market. And yet, in the present state of Ireland, all these
advantages are lying dormant for want of capital, notwith-
standing this little tract is capable of being made one of
the most distinguished theatres of trade in the British
empire (a second Staffordshire upon the soil of Ireland.)
To the perfection of its navigation, a grant of Parliament of
most trifling amount, in comparison of the magnificent
effects to be produced, would be sufficient. It abounds
with lakes, and enjoys the advantage of water carriage by
the Royal Canal to Dublin ; to Athlone and Limerick, by
the river Shannon, which passes through it ; and with the
aid of a canal of about sixteen miles from Lough Allen, in
Leitrim, to Loughgill (which opens upon the Atlantic Ocean
at Sligo) it would command an open communication with
the West Indies and the two Americas ; facts more largely
explained in the history of that more eminent mineral
region, with which we usher in a few specimens of property
in this county; and to the facts of that history, as we
received them from an authentic source, we refer the public.
The soil of this county is so deeply and extensively fer-
ruginous, that a gentleman of property residing here, ob-
FACILITIES FOR TRADE. 367
served to us, that iron was its curse ! The people have no
means to turn this mineral to account; and the surface of
the soil, which they can alone cultivate, being injured by it,
it is not surprising that they should regard this ferruginous
matter as the bane of their county.
Such is the language made use of by some persons who
have a considerable interest in the Leitrim soil; and it
bears not alone upon this branch of the natural wealth of
Ireland, but by some of those landlords and legislators, into
whose hands our unfortunate destiny has cast us, it is applied
with equal freedom and with a stronger practical effect, to
the rapid growth of our population. Thus, in reference to
Ireland, it may be said, that those gifts of the God of nature
which constitute the wealth and power of other states, by
some singular perversion of the bounty of Providence are
constituted her curse ; a fact which reminds us of a threat
of vengeance held out in the Mosaic history " I will curse
your blessings."
It is true we can perceive our country (and we thank God
for this proof of her native energy) forcing the genuine
characteristics of her soil and people upon the view of
mankind, and more particularly on that of England, who
has so deep an interest in her actual resources ; but still she
has a great deal to do, and her genuine patriots are loudly
called upon to bury in oblivion their party quarrels, and to
unite in a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether in
the improvement of their common country; and, particu-
larly, in an effort to place the character of the population
upon a sound moral base ; as by this alone the confidence of
England can be secured to us, and a clear and confidential
channel opened for a free and unrestricted influx of the
capital of that country into this neglected land.
368 COUNTY OF LEITRIM,
LEITRIM AND SLEIBHANERIN klNES.
These valuable mines are situate in the Baronies of Lei-
trim, Mohill, and Dromahaire, and comprise the parishes
and townlands of Aughacashell, Derreens, Gurtnewane,
Mullaghorrow, Knockacullen, Auskinamuck, Clarenmore,
Clarenbeg, and Colliery Mountain, by Drumshambo, in
the County of Leitrim. They are bounded by the lake of
Lough Allen on the west, and the counties of Fermanagh
and Cavan, on the north and east. They are distant sixteen
miles from the port of Sligo, thereby opening on the Atlantic
Ocean, and holding direct facilities of communication with
the new and old world. They are also situate within three
miles of the Royal Canal, which connects the mines and
adjacent country with the port of Dublin ; and the rate of
charge on the canal being only eleven shillings per ton, they
have therein another (and almost equally as cheap a) mode
of communication with the principal ports of the United
Kingdom. The principal towns in the vicinity of the mines
are, Carrick-on-Shannon, distance twelve miles; Leitrim,
eight; Drumshambo, five; Ballinamore, eight; Cashcari-
gan, five ; and Mohill, twelve ; and there are several other
towns within easy distances, and connected by county
roads. This vast mineral property is in a virgin state. From
time immemorial, the division of Aughacashell has been
called Sleive in Erin, or the Iron Mountain, the peasantry
and surrounding country having called it by no other name;
but, while its great riches were thus seen and universally
acknowledged, no opportunity presented itself for bringing
them to account. The extensive domains in the western
counties of Ireland, which were originally held by patent
from the Crown, were subsequently set out in smaller pro-
portions, and so divided on leases for three lives, renewable
on a trifling fine, that these mineral properties, which it was
essentially necessary should be held together, in order that
the product of the one might give the means of raising the
other, became thus in a measure broken and wholly useless.
MINES, ETC. 369
Captain Johnston's ancestors, who held a considerable part
of this property for many generations, had been in the inva-
riable practice of setting it out in small divisions, rearing
cattle on, and cultivating the surface ; and a numerous and
poor tenantry had neither the means nor the skill to benefit
themselves by the riches on which they trod. At present,
the several denominations and tracts of mining property are
combined, and form
A. R. P.
Aughacashell 320 8
Gurtnewane 310 22
Mullaghorrow 407 38
Derreens 1711 025
Colliery Mountain, Sec. 369 2 25
3118 38
With the Lands and Royalties of A. R. p.
Clarenmore 268 23
Clarenbeg 239 1 21
Drumsdrisden 369 2 15
877 19
3995 1 17 equal
to 5,000 English acres.
And are contiguous to tens of thousands of acres of other
royalties, with right of working on payment of a small fine;
so that this combined mineral property is very extensive,
and, as will be.incontestably proved, inexhaustible.
CAUSES OF REMAINING UNWORKED.
The cost of carrying to Dublin was formerly <4 per ton,
and is now only 11,9. per ton, in consequence of the Royal
Canal having been formed, and which has been completed
within the last few years. The road to Sligo was formerly
wretchedly bad, and incapable of having a rail-way. At
this time Government having greatly improved the roads,
and shortened that to Sligo three miles, and taken a more
level route, avoiding the windings it formerly presented,
there is now a most convenient line for a rail-road, and
which, when formed from the product of the mines, can be
laid down at a very small charge. The divided and unsettled
2 B
370 COUNTY OF LEITRIM,
state of the country, and men of rank or influence quitting
after the Union, to reside near the centre of power and
patronage ; and capital being occupied in the operations of
war. But it will be seen that no investment of capital can
be so sure and productive, as when employed at home, and
for minerals, which, as here, only require to be taken up.
CAPACITIES.
These mines are indisputably inexhaustible in stores of
iron-stone, coal, lime-stone, fire-clay, fine potter's clay, ful-
ler's earth, black and yellow ochres, black and red pottery
clay, stone-jar stuff, pipe-clay, stone for building, slate for