The Sun.
London, England, 1834-08-11 00:00:00

dustry. During the last eighteen months- the sum of
one hundred and twenty-nine thousand, six hundred
and thirty-three pounds was expended in the improve-
ment of Kingston and Dunmore harbours, the making of
roads on the Antrim coast, and the building of bridges,

and other improvements in different parts of Ireland.
The consequences of these works are already beginning
to be manifested in the improved condition of the in-

habitants in their vicinity, and the altered aspect of
the immediately adjoining face of the country. The

commissioners themselves say that " Wherever a new

road is constructed, flourishing farms at once spring
up, and the carts of the countrymen press on the heels
of the road-makers as the work advances." And in a

preceding pragraph the following most important in-
formation is given :—" In traversing a country
covered with farms, and in a high state of culti-
vation, showing every sign of a good soil and

of amply remunerating produce, it becomes difficult
to credit the fact that, ten or twelve years since, the
whole was a barren waste, the asylum of a miser-
able and lawless peasantry, who were calculated to be
a burden rather than a benefit to the nation ; and that
this improvement may entirely be attributed to the
expenditure of a few thousands of pounds, in carrying
a good road of communication through the district."
We are sorry that the report does not contain a
fuller account of the advantages expected from the
great line of road now being carried, at such im-
mense labour, along the Antrim coast. We should
be extremely unwilling to depreciate the great import-
ance of any public work ; but with our limited info!,
'nation on the subject, we presume to think that works
requiring an enormous outlay for their completion,
and which do not promise an almost immediate re-
turn of the capital expended on them, ought to be
postponed till the country is in a better condition to
bear the charges, and in the mean time, go on with
less expensive projects, producing a speedier return of
outlay. But here we beg to exonerate the Commis-
sioners from all blame. The Act states that 'they
shall not have the power of originating any work,
and are only to approve of such as comes
to them sanctioned with a security that the moiety
granted by Government to carry them on will be re-
paid, with the interest thereon, at a certain fixed time
after the completion of the undertaking.
What Ireland stands most in need of at the present
moment is, a cheap and expeditious means of having
her agricultural produce conveyed from the heart of
the country to the extremities. Now in our judg-
ment the best way of effecting this would be by
canals, of which she stands in the greatest
need. The first of these should be a canal from
Dublin to Galway, which would cut the whole
island across, from east to west, uniting St. George's
Channel with the Atlantic Ocean. This line
of communication between the capital of Ireland
and a great commercial town on the extreme coast,
would be of immense importance to the inhabitants of
both, but of still more so to the whole population of
Connaught, among whom it would be the direct
means of introducing manufacturing industry, and
a taste for the arts, enjoyments, and elegancies of
civilized life. The distance between Dublin and
Galway is about one hundred and four miles,
through which a direct line of canal has already
been carried for forty-two miles,---namely, from
Dublin to Philipstown ; so that in point of fact
the work is already begun, and only wants the aid of
Government, and the assistance of the landed pro-
prietors in King's County, Roscommon, and Galway,
the value of whose estates would be trebled by it, to
effect its entire completion. The next line of canal
should be from Ballyshannon Harbour to Dundalk,
by Enniskillen, by which the greatest facilities would
be given to agricultural and manufacturing improve-
ments in the counties of Donegal, Fermanagh, and
Leitrim ; and more especially to the trade of Bal-
lyshannon and Dundalk, which, though capable
of being made emporiums of provincial indus-
try and wealth, are now little better than marts
for the fish caught along their coasts. How-
ever, great praise is due to Colonel CONOLLY, the
Member for Donegal, who has advanced a thousand
pounds, and given security for four thousand more,
for repairing the harbour of Ballyshannon, which,
when finished, will be of great benefit to the people of
the town, and the inhabitants along the western coast,
from Sligo to Killybegs.
The last line of communication which we would
suggest to the Government, besides the navigation of
the Shannon, which is sufficiently dwelt upon in
the Reports of the Select Committee on that sub-
ject, is a canal from Waterford to Sligo, intersect-
ing the canal from Dublin to Galway somewhere
about Philipstown. This, with such a line of com-
munication from Dublin to Belfast, would unite all
Ireland ; and in a very few years would render the
country as prosperous, as rich, and as contented as
any in Europe. The intercourse which those canals
would give rise to between the people in every part of
the provinces, would extinguish that spirit of religious
animosity which now divides and destroys them. Bring
men only together, and they will soon remove the pre-
judices of each other. The people of Ireland are at
present as much removed from each other at the dis-
tance of fifty miles apart, as if the whole Indian Ocean
rolled between them. Hence the jealousies, and
hatreds, and cherished recollections of feudal wrongs
so common in almost every district of Munster and
Connaught. But let once manufacturing industry
prevail in these districts—let the voice of the mechanic
be heard in the villages—and we will pledge ourselves
that the people of Ireland, with all their alleged love
of mischief, will find other employment than that of
parading nightly in a Captain Rock uniform, or re-
cording vows of vengeance against Sassenachs and
collectors of King's Taxes.
;at

The Rose, 18, Commander W. Barrow, passed
through the Downs yesterday for the East Indies.
The _Etna, surveying vessel, arrived on the 9th at
Spithead, from the coast of Africa.
Vice-Admiral Sir George Cockburn shifted his
Flag, on the 17th July, at Bermuda, from the Vernon
to the President. The Athol troop-ship arrived on
the 9th at Spithead from the West Indies. She left
Barbadoes on the 10th July.
Vice-Admiral Sir Richard King, Bart., late Corn-
inander-in-Chief at the Nore, was buried on Friday
last at Eastchurch, in the Isle of Sheppey, with the
accustomed military honours. Sir Richard is suc-
ceeded in the Baronetcy by his son, Captain Richard
D. King, of the 52d Light Infantry.
Lieut.-George St. Vincent King, Flag Lieutenant
to his late father, Sir Richard King, is promoted to
the rank of Commander.