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238 London in the year 1728, this is the report on Ireland: "Ireland is, in respect of its situation, the number of its commodious harbors, and the natural wealth which it produces, the fittest island to acquire wealth of any in the European seas; for as by its situation it lies the most commodious for the West Indies, Spain, and the Northern and Eastern countries, so it is not only supplied by nature with all the necessities of life, but can over and above export large quantities to foreign countries, insomuch that had it been mistress of its trade, no nation in Europe of its extent could in an equal number of years acquire greater wealth."

"Ireland," says Newenham, writing eighty years ago on industrial topics, "greatly surpasses her sister country, England, in the aggregate of the endowments of nature. . . . England, abounding in wealth beyond any other country in Europe, cannot boast of one natural advantage which Ireland does not possess in a superior degree."

"With respect to the soil," says M. Carey ("Vindiciæ Hibernicæ," Philadelphia, 1823), Ireland is blest in the highest degree. Arthur Young, an English traveller, who devoted half