The Sun.
London, England, 1810-11-08 00:00:00

CON UATION. ANL). .CONIL'I,E t'101,l•-•
• Gil.l.lEs'S HISTORY OF.•ANCIP.NI' GRIECE,
- ITS ES-, AND CONQUESTS.
. .
.This Day was punhshed,
Handsomely printed in-'Two huge Volumes Quarto, price
• - 41. 4s. in trbaidzi,
•
THE HISTORY of aid' WORLD, from the
Reign- of -AL 4. X AND E R to that of- A U usTus;
coMprehending the latter Ages ill' Europein' Greece, and
the History of the Greek Kingdoms' in Asia AO Africa,
from their Foundation to their Destrudi,..:t tyftti a Pre.
Liminary SUrvey or Alexander's ConqUests ; 'and an Esti-
mate of- his. Plans .tor their ConsOlidation'artd improve.
inept.
By JOHN GILLIES, LL.D. F.R.S and S.A.
Historiographer to• h s Ntajety for Scot faild.
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NOVNIBL'R 8) 1810.

BOGS IN IRELAND:

VIRST REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS APPOINT`-

ED .TO INQUIRE INTO THE NATURE, AND EX-
TENT OF TUE SEVERAL 'BOGS IN IRELAND;
THE PRACTICABILITY OF DRAINING AND

CULTIVATING THEM.

The Warrant under which we are appointed
Commissioners,. having been issued on the of
September, 1869,' we assembled in Dublin on the
t9th day of the same month ; and after having
taken the oath prescribed, proceeded to form a plan
for the execution of the tinsts,reposed in us by the
Legislature
We consider it a fortunate occurrence, that short-
ly previous to our appointment, Mr. Rennie had
been In Dublin, and although his engaerrients in
England precluded us from having-an oppokon;ty
of forMally consulting him at cur Board, yet v‘e
found that two of the Commissioners had-had the
fulleQt communication With him on the subject of
Anir commission, and conceived themselves to be
in. frill possession of his ideas on the subject.

• .After. committing to paper the outline of such
instructions as appeared .to us to be necessary for
!lie guidance of .Dur engineers, and conformable to
Mr. Rennie's ide4, we consulted different engi-
• neers and .surveyors as' to the practical execution of
it in detail, and finarly, reduced the whole.iuto the
Jorni of " the instructions," ,which. forms. the ,first
'aril* of the Appendix to this Report.

The execution of our commission demanding con-
siderable accommodation and space for the maps,
isqctions, and instruments necessary for the investi-
glitnnt of the subject committed • to us, it became
-:an object to obtain the permission rif, the Dublin
Society to hold our meetings in theirihouse ; and
he with the liberality whiCh ever distinguishes them
(when the improlernent of Irthind is the object)
immediately acce,!ed to our request. •
On our part, with a viewf to er..,ooMy, We all—
. poinied their Assistant Secretary, the Secretary of
Corn nisSion ; arid -the Supexintendant of .their
Repository, his,Assistant Clerk ; to the flirmer. we
, gave a salary of cool. per amnia], to the latter one
of 50 guines ; rind these two sums, amounting in
the whole to 2561. Os. 6d. form` the entire annual
expense ()lour establishmerg. •
Our next object (and on the. due attainment of
.Which..-Apended, in a great degree, the success of
our underrakiu) was the proper division of the-bcgs
ot,,lreland into The districts referred to in the fir,,t
article of 'theitistruCt ions ; <tnd further, to deter-
mine in what part we should first•apply those means
intrusted to us, ant which we. at. once perceived
were utterly inad— state to the exe6tiOii,- of any
Plan that should cinbrace the entire•eifedt of Ire-
land. t' •

. .
In forming otir.)ninions on these points, we de-
-rived our principal' assistance from the Great Ord-
nance Survey of. irelagd, executed by ' G'erieral
Vallancey; the • Chairman of our Board, it being
the only map which defines either :the situatiow:
or houodaries .W the • bogs with any tolerable,..ac-'
curacy.
From inspection of this map we were enabledlto
consider- the greater pin of these bogs as formitt
one -connected whole, • and to come to. the general
conclusion, that a. portion_of, Ireland, of little more
'than one-fourth of its entire superficial extent, and
included between a line drawn from 'Wicklow Head
to -Galway, and another drawn, trOm Howth Head
to S4igo, comprises about six-sevenths of the bogs in
the island (exclu,ivept niere mountain bogs, and
bogs of le,s extent than b(10 acres), in its form Te-
scritnling a broad .belt drawn across the,: centre of

Ireland, with its-narwwest end nearest to the eapital
--apd..gradnally extending in breaZith as it approaches
the 'Western
This great division.of the island extending _from
east to-west is traversed by the Shannon from north
to south; and is thus divided into two parts ; of these
the division to the westward of the . river, contains
more than, double the extent of the bogs which
are to be found in the 'divisoli to the eastward; so
that if we..suppose the whole of the bogs of 'Leland
(exclusive of mere mountain bogs, and of bogs un-
der, fiver hundred acres) to. be.divided into. twenty
parts, we shall find about seventeen of them com-
prised,within, the
~great division we have now de-
scribed,.tweive to, the westward and five to the east-
ward of Cat. Shannon;. and of the remaining three
parts,...abotu .two are to the south, and one to the
north of this of the positive amount of
their contents we have as.yet no.,data that eln en-.
able us to speak, with, any -precision, but we are led
to believe, from: various communications with our
engineers, chit the bogs. in the eastein divis* of
the great district above described, amount to about •
vip,ooo Englishmares,.Which, on the proportion- al-,
ready mentioned, .would give:ratbermore than one
Million of English acres as the total clmtents of the
1...:g4 of Ireland "; excluding however from consider-
ation mere mountain bogs, and also 'all bogs of less
extent' tbap 566 acres,, of 'each of which descrip-
lion th?,fi'lpo. tint is_ very considerable; of the extent
pt the la(te;(sOme idt.a may: be formed from a fail
vvliicli Y:'4llla+eleartii.d from Mr. Larkin, that in the

single i•ountyOrCiiva!i,. which he has ~urveyed, there
,are a.boye ninety bOgs, no one of which exceeds 500
Irish acres, but which taken collecii%ely contain
above 11,06(r Irish, which is equivalent to above
17,660 English acres,' besides. many smaller bogs,
va'6.ing in size from five to to enty, acres.
Must of the bogs which lie to the eastward of the
Sh:innon; and which occupy a considerable portion
of dig_ Couniy and County of Kildare,: 20
generally ktio.wu by the Itayae of the J 3.),,; of Allen

[PRICE S.IXPENCE IiAtrPENNY.

=_~.+~:.

it must not, however, be supposed that this name
is applied to any one, great cnoy.issk op the contrary,
the bogs to whichsit is appli,d'are pet feealy distintt
from each other; Ofteti.S.epalatV3 by high' ricifelcif
dry country, and inclining towards • differ.ent,foers,
as their natural direelions for drainage ; so inter-
seded by-dry and cultivated land-,
affirmed genetally, there is no,_spot of these
,bog
(to the eastward of the Shannon) so mod) as two
Irish miles distant from the upland nod
districts..
With this brat and general view of the subjea, we •
-had no hesitation in selecting at once the, whole of
the eastern portion of the great above
re-
4et to, as the object toL tour first inquiries, fOrm-
ing in itself one whole, whose parts had more or
less connexion with each other, lying in the centn.;
of Ireland, in the immediate'vicinity of some of
richest and best cultivated counties;.. int.crsected
also by the two great lines of navigation, the Grand
and the Roval Canals, and .pre'entiog in cow-
m n very considerabl;Onstacies to •
improvetnentj :he .overcoming. of which wculd
in itself demonstrate the practicability of the nn-
provement of the Bogs of Irelana in most other
cases.

• We were further induced to form .this sclealon on
ihe'general principles 4.heginning at the end of the
great division above-referred t 9, which lies'nearest.to
the Capital, and proceeding gradually to its-termi-
nation at' the Western Ocean ; not, however, co:,s:-
dering ourselves precluded iron) waking occivional
excepions, where particular cireninsiances
appear to require.it. -

The proportion which the bogs in `this'Aiiitria
bear to the entire of the bogs of irelapd,.nppeared,to, .
us a further inducement ; and we are the more dis-
posed- to mention this, as we find that by some' to
have been thought to have embarked in the tit st
in-
stance on too great a-scale: on this we shall merely
observe, that locitlg two yeats allotted to uslor the
duration of our commiision, we tthdertook at once
rather less than one-third of our task, in the soppo,
Sition that it would require about eight months for
its execution....

Having deterrniried to gite in charge the whole
Of this ti:striCl„:it became the next objea .1 our
considerxion, on what principle we should sutdi •
vide, it into the smaller
.distritts Jeterred to. in t_je.
first article of our insp-taiong, for the rm-poSe of
being assigned to separate engineers. Alajor-Tay-'
lor'S exCellent map of the Colluty of hill. re
fat-
niched us with every_ necessary far. .
as 'that county wits in iittesti,A) .5 but of the
,King's County there 'was Ito map pub:ished; and'
as it. contains not less than 124,0 C"? F li h acres
:•
of hog, it became a most- importani otijeCt 'io pos-
E ss ourselyeS of
.the Li.ccess!ary,information rwitbre.,
spea tothen].

We therefore thottghrourstlves fortunate in find-
. ing that Mr. Larkin, - a surveyor of eorinence, had,
surveyed:4lle _county for the Grand Jury ; and. I:4a
contracted with.bint to furnish, us with a rnap of
fit, on the large 'scale required by our itistrue
• lions;. and Mr.. Larkin 'making himself rr-spon-:
sink tor•the accuracy of the gurvey,( we agreed to.
give him for it 3001. being at- the ra t of less than
i.
4riree farthings per acre for every acve of bog it con-
hied.
-. r;With these, .and the assistance of other docu-
ments, we divided all the- bogs, containing above
fiyl.Fundred ,acres, in the Counties "of Kildare,
Ki. County, Tipperary, Wcsitneattr, 'and Long-
ford, into seven districts; of these we gage- the one
'which forms the north-eastern part of the Bog of
Allen,, in charge to Mr. Richard Griffith ; tire scitith-
eastr:rn to Mr. Brassington ; the north7westerti to
Mr. Townsend;. the bouth4estern to Mr.- Long-
fieW ; a district lying•priricipally in Westtueath; to•
Mr. Jones; and the bogs in the County of Longford;
and on boat:banks' of the river 'lnny, to Mr. Edge-
worth.

Wt; also.gave a large distria of bog in the County
of Tipperary, which runs nearly parallel to the Suir,
from Roscrea to Cashel]. in charge" to Ali. Aher,
wishing to take aclvautego of the circumstance of his
bang able. to give a portion of ,his time to that dis-
triat, although not to any. on account of his
other engagements.. • .

We next laid down the prirciples which we to
govern our expenditure, in such inannras to se-
cure that the amount of our disbursements should
depend in every instance on the degree of.lbour t*O
be performed. •

With these views, we fixed the pay of engineers
at two guineas a day for every day actually emplot ed,
and one guinea a day iri I.teu of allolkances tor tra-
velling and board and lodging. That of their itlr-
Neyorsat one guinea a day for eacn,'w brit.' employed,
to be at once their pay and in. lieu of 'all Atiwaiicts
ofevery description. For the statimen,
and labourers, we intrusted the_ engines to make
the best bargains in their power, not e)i'Ceeding
per day im any instance; and these term's we_ trust
will appear extremely.. moderate, \viten con-Tared
with those usual in'Great B itaiti, &id .c(trs•derng
the hardships attendant on this peculiar scr-ticr% Thc •
appointment of the engineers ‘kr nec ss it 1j ir, Id ift
;our hands, and selea theth under the (Vbii:atton of
our oaths the. appointment of the' sui-Vcyors we
commit entirely to the enginfors, holding
responsible for the 'qualifications of the persons- they
employ.

We account with every engineer once a Wcek,
and be makes his return to us upon his o.i:b. '
To give an idea of the scc and nature of, Oär cx-
pendi:ure, we subjoin, as the .2d and ::14 ariiocs cf
Appendix, copies of accounts. already thr by
your,iivo. House. '
[Tg 6e ccntinkcd .3,