debarkation to receive them, as a mark of respect;
and now Mrs. Carlaw manages the dairy, and
her children attend the school with the
infantry of the district.

These operations had not long proceeded,
when the Argus eyes of the constabulary
"dropped down" upon the experimental
miniature plantation. It is, indeed, from a
comprehensive and lucid report, drawn up by
a private in that corps, that we derive the
information here given.

"I conversed," says the policeman in
his report to the head officer in Dublin,
"with all the people on the farm, with
Mr. Brannigan, the overseer, with labourers,
apart, and then with people wholly
unconnected with the farm. The former think the
concern will pay a large amount of interest,
while the latter class say it will take five
years before it can pay the sum already
expended. They speak approvingly of the farm,
its manager, and management. On the whole,
decided advantages have arisen to the
neighbourhood from the settlement of these people
in it. Work has been given, instruction in
agriculture to the labourers has been
imparted, children have been taught in the school,
meat and money in a time of need have been
distributed."

The report of the clever Irish P. C., further
states, that "the people are perfectly
satisfied," and "like the farm work; that Mr.
Carlaw gives satisfaction, decidedly. Many
of the country people, of a different
religious persuasion, speak well of him. He
minds his own business—the farm—and
nothing else." A glowing description is
given of the "old castle, beautifully situated
at the bottom of the valley;" of "a lovely
cottage, flanked and backed by trees;" and
of the "little river, which winds its way
through this charming valley." The oats "are
the best I have ever seen"—"barley and
potatoes excellent; far more than an average
crop. The country is perfectly peaceable, and
safe for strangers to live in." The whole
country turned out to see the wonders of
Scotch broad-cast sowing; grass seed rolling
in; turnip drilling; boys and girls became
expert at the hoe, "and this implement was
utterly unknown here before." At school
"the average daily attendance was from
eighty to one hundred."

Such is the deserved interest which this
experiment has excited, that ladies of rank
and quality, not contented with subscribing to
it, have travelled alone and in mid-winter to
the spot, to verify, with their own eyes, the
reports of the overseer. Model farm account-books
are kept by sturdy James Carlaw, and
the sheet of the week's entries regularly
transmitted to the Treasurer, at Edinburgh,
for examination by the Committee.

The entire Townland of Ballinglew, on
which the farm is situated, is to be exposed
for sale, under that invaluable measure, the
Encumbered Estates Act. The rental, at
present, is three hundred and ten pounds; it
consists of nearly one thousand five hundred
acres; it is tithe and land-tax free; and it is
expected that the whole will go for three
thousand five hundred, or four thousand
pounds! In England the rental would
warrant a price of ten thousand pounds, and
the acreage eighteen thousand pounds. Amid
the cry of Protection and Agricultural
Distress, here is an ample field for the
enterprise of English and Scotch farmers. No
agriculturists in Europe have the advantages
of such cheap land and labour as are offered
to our bucolic Britons in Ireland. Able-bodied
labourers at sixpence; and useful
weeders and hoers at threepence per day;
with land, bearing fine crops of oats, barley,
turnips, and potatoes, at four shillings and
eightpence per acre; and to be had, prospectively,
at less than three shillings, with a
profit to the landlord of five per cent, on a
price of four thousand pounds!

We feel convinced that an interview with
James Carlaw would soon reassure an English
farmer that he may devote his energies to
the cultivation of Ireland, without any fear of
being "shot from behind a hedge." The vast
tide of emigration which is flowing from that
country to this island, of the labouring poor—
and to the Colonies and United States, of the
small farmers—indicates a voluntary
relinquishment of the soil by the native occupiers,
which may satisfy the reflective that a clear
stage is left in the Sister Kingdom for British
agricultural enterprise, which could not fail
to be crowned with success. Sir Robert Peel
suggested the plantation of Ireland, which
means its settlement, not by isolated
emigrants, but in such numbers as to constitute a
neighbourhood; an aggregation of English
and Scotch in a district, such as would keep
each other in countenance, and cheer their
hearts by co-operation. Ireland is yet destined
to be our right arm, in place of being our
wooden leg; she may be regenerated by
green hearts and cheerful hopes, throwing off
her leprosy, and recovering her elasticity, "so
that her flesh shall become as the flesh of a
little child." She has been bled and blistered,
sweated, and drugged, to no effect, but to
reduce her strength, and aggravate her
symptoms. It is time rulers should be asked—
as the proprietor of the sorry nag was, under
similar circumstances—"Have you ever tried
him with oats?" The first trial of the
experiment has succeeded at Ballinglew. We
hope it will not be the last.

A BRETON WEDDING.

THE customs and habits of the Bretons
bear a close and striking resemblance to those
of their kindred race* in the principality of

*Pitre-Chevalier says, in his "Brittany," ("La
Brétagne"), "We Celts of Lower Brittany require nothing
more to recognise as brothers the primitive inhabitants of
Wales, than the ability to salute them in their maternal
tongue, after a separation of more than a thousand years."