The Sun.
London, England, 1827-08-10 00:00:00

CHARACTER of the IRISH PEASANTRY,

They are far more generally submissive and
respectful to their superiors, more disposed to
honour and obey a gentleman because he is a
gentleman, more resigned when favours are
denied, more grateful for favours given, more
obliging, flexible, and anxious to please, than the
peasantry of England. There is, however,
greater giddiness and unevenness of character
amongst them than amongst the English. It is
a common saying with themselves, that they are
honest with good looking after. They do not
scruple to tell lies to screen themselves when they
commit a fault, and when detected, to pass off
the lie with a jest. When they labour for others,
they are apt to idle or get into mischief, if
they be not well watched ; they are prone
to gossip and dawdle over their task ; whether
from an innate indolence or a love of sociality, I
will not pretend to determine, certain it is they
have a special aversion to working alone,
and you will see three trooping off with facks in
hand to perform a job which one man would set
about at once in England, nor will these three
accomplish more in the day than two of them-
selves would do, if you could employ them sepa-
rately or apart, so that they should lose no time
in talking. In passing th:vootrikgilnigtheincotuhlearyfiehlderse,
you frequently see numerous groups of men,
women, and children,
while in England you would almost suppose the
ground were cultivated by magic, or in the night,
so rarely do you see people at work. They cer-
tainly, with us, do not, in general, labour so hard
as the English ; it is to be remembered, how-
ever, that this is chiefly when they are badly paid
and insufficiently fed. They do not even hesi-
tate to urge this reason for their insufficiency,
nor is it unreasonable they should. I have been
assured by practical men—Mr. Nimmo, the en-
gineer, for example—that a given piece of ma-
nual labour cannot be executed more cheaply in
Ireland than in England or Scotland, where wages
are treble their amount with us. My own expe-
rience would not go the length of justifying this
assertion, but in any case it does not disprove
the capability and willingness, of the Irish la-
bourer to exert himself with as much industry and
effect as others, when placed under the like cir-
cumstances, because it is notorious that Ireland
supplies every part of the King's dominions with
the hardest-working labourers they have. In
their dealings one with another, our people are
hard and over-reaching ; they are so little accus-
tomed to the possession of money, that they
greatly overate its value, and, on the other hand,
they have such a superabundance of unoccupied
time, that they can scarcely be made to under-
stand that time is at all valuable. Two men
will travel four or five miles and wrangle half a
day before a Magistrate for some trumpery affair
that does not matter sixpence to either ; and what
is most strange, they will appear at drawn dag-
gers, whilst addressing the Justice, and will use
the worst and most abusive language towards
each other, but the moment he dismisses the
case, (which he very often does by telling them
they are a pair of great fools, and to go home
And mind their business, and not pester them-
selve or him with nonsense,) they walk away on
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1827.

MANCHESTER POTATOE MARKET.—Aug. B.
Potatoes, ss. 6d., —s., Os., and Cs. Od. per load of 12 score and
121bs. ; New ditto, ss. 6d.; 6s. 6d., and 78. per ditto; Turnips,
Os. Od., 9s. Od. and 10s. Od. per load of 16 pecks ; Onions, small, Od.
per lb.