The industrial resources of Ireland / By Robert Kane.

  • Robert John Kane
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The industrial resources of Ireland / By Robert Kane. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    449/492 (page 427)
    professional duties, I have thought it not unimportant, at the present time, to offer for public consideration. I have not en- tered into every source of employment which this country could afford. Thus I have touched but lightly on the details of the cultivation of waste lands, and not at all alluded to the subject, so important in itself, of fisheries. These topics I did not in- troduce, because their importance and their practicability are universally recognized. My object was to point out that the constitution of the rocks and soil of Ireland, its contents in ores and fuel, its supply of water, its extent of lakes and rivers, its harbours, all fitted it for industry in agriculture, in manufac- tures, and in commerce, in a degree, which, although not en- titling it, like England, to grasp at the commercial and manu- facturing sceptre of the world, would certainly enable it to be the source of employment and comfort to its own people. For the attainment of this end, it was necessary to remove some errors regarding the true foundations of industrial success, to describe, with a certain detail, how far the materials for in- dustry exist naturally in Ireland, and to point out, how in- dispensable to the employment of even the richest gifts of na- ture is practical education in industrial knowledge. Ifevena few are induced, by the facts and arguments I have brought forward, to reflect upon these topics, to discuss them, and, if satisfied, to act steadily upon them, I shall consider my objeet as being gained.