have patience to glance over these pages. Feeling how little claim I had on public confidence, I have endeavoured to illustrate and corroborate every statement and opinion of my own by a reference to such authorities as are held in universal esteem, and the text of my pamphlet is accompanied throughout by a running commentary of notes, and quotations from various authors.
On no work have I drawn so largely as on the Digest of the Evidence taken before the Devon Commission. I have also frequently appealed to the authority of Mr. Mill, Sir G. C. Lewis, Mr. Cobden, Mr. Thornton, Mr. Fawcett, Dr. Hancock, and other equally honoured names in support of many of my views. With regard to the agriculture of foreign countries, I have taken M. de Laveleye as my guide for that of Belgium, and M. de Lavergne for that of France.
In the General Appendix will be found the answers I have received from a great number of gentlemen living in different parts of Ireland, to whom I ventured to address a series of questions connected with the subjects under discussion, as well as some extracts from Dr. Hancock's valuable pamphlet on the alleged decline of prosperity in Ireland, and an interesting paper on the present condition of agriculture in the counties of Cork and Kerry, drawn up by Mr. Robertson, a very well informed and intelligent agriculturist; who proceeded this spring at my request, to the South
