Note 43 — IRELAND.

The beggars of Ireland are spoken of by Bishop Berkeley. But Arthur Dobbs, in the second part of his "Essay on Trade," published in 1731, gives a descriptive picture of the gangs who travelled over Ireland as professional paupers. In the 2,295 parishes, there was in each an average of at least ten beggars carrying on their trade the whole year round; the total number of these wandering paupers he puts down at over 34,000. Computing 30,000 of them able to work, and assuming that each beggar could earn 4d. a day in a working year of 284 days, he calculates that their idleness is a loss to the nation of £142,000. (Pp. 444-445 of Thom's reprint; Dublin, 1861) [T. S.]