excessive augmentation of their numbers; and, nothing can be more
perfectly futile than to expect any real or lasting amendment of
their situation until an effectual check has been given to the
progress of population. It is obvious too," he continues, "that the
low and degraded condition into which the people of Ireland are now
sunk is the condition to which every people must be reduced whose
numbers continue, for any considerable period, to increase faster
than the means of providing for their comfortable and decent
subsistence."--_Principles_, 383.

The population of Ireland did increase with some rapidity, and the
reason for this was to be found in the fact that poverty had not yet
produced that demoralization which restricts the growth of numbers.
The extraordinary morality of the women of Ireland is admitted
everywhere. In England it is remarked upon by poor-law commissioners,
and here it is a fact that cannot fail to command the attention of the
most superficial observer. How it is at home we are told by Sir
Francis Head, whose statements on this subject cannot be read without
interest:--

"As regards the women of Ireland, their native modesty cannot fail to
attract the observation of any stranger. Their dress was invariably
decent, generally pleasing, and often strikingly picturesque. Almost
all wore woollen petticoats, dyed by themselves, of a rich madder
colour, between crimson and scarlet. Upon their shoulders, and
occasionally from their heads, hung, in a variety of beautiful folds,
sometimes a plaid of red and green, sometimes a cloak, usually dark
blue or dingy white. Their garments, however, like those of the men,
were occasionally to be seen in tatters."--P. 119.