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for a season among this long-neglected class of fellow-subjects.

I well remember the surprise and regret which were felt and expressed, both in England and Scotland, when, in 1811, we had to announce that there were sixty-eight inhabited islands on the west coast of Scotland in a state of great destitution, as to both education and books. We shall now, however, have occasion to enumerate more than double this number round the shores of Ireland, and in a state far more destitute ! Here and there a few of these islands have been noticed incidentally, but the reader will search in vain for any distinct account or even list of them as a whole. It is in this light, however, they ought to be viewed. Hitherto left out of all calculations, especially of a moral or religious character, let them now be observed distinct from the mainland. As an important object of separate consideration to the benevolent and humane, let such only conceive in what a lonely and neglected state thousands of these Islanders have lived and died, from generation to generation. Close upon our own native shore, yet as devoid of all the calm and profitable satisfaction which books afford, as if they had lain in the bosom of the Pacific, here it is that, as far as Christianity is concerned, our countrymen have seen Sabbath after Sabbath pass silently away, from one year's end to the other, no church-going bell,—no gatherings of the people to hear the sweet sounds of divine mercy, or, as the Native Irish say, "the story of peace," they have for ages lived and died amidst one unbroken famine, not indeed of bread and water, but of hearing the word of the Lord.

These are not the parties who have figured in the pages of authentic Irish history at any period, and, though round the whole main-land, within sight of shore, they come before us as a people almost entirely overlooked and forgotten. The writer had, in repeated visits to Ireland, made inquiry respecting them, and for years searched after a distinct enumeration of all these islands in books, but could find none, and as for any account of their respective populations, it could not have been given till within a very short period. As soon as the last parliamentary census was examined, however, in its minuter and scattered details, with the assistance of some other means, it then appeared possible to come near the truth. By making the islands an object

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of consideration, distinct from the mainland, or the parishes to which they have been nominally attached, it is hoped that the wants of this people, with regard to Irish education and an intelligible ministry, may now be met. At all events they are now in view, in a manner and to a degree in which they have never been before: and who would not be instrumental of introducing to benevolent consideration a portion of his native country, of which almost every man has been as ignorant as of Borneo or Sumatra, and of which, consequently, many among us have cared as little ?

We shall commence with Innismurry, a small island on the west coast, already noticed, simply because it is the first towards the north belonging to the province of Connaught; and, if the reader chooses to take the large map of Beaufort, and proceed southward round the whole coast, till he arrive at the point from whence he set out, he will find the following islands in regular succession. Even in this large map, however, there is not room sufficient for some of the names; but the islands are all laid down, and the reader can be at no loss by following the order now mentioned. I have corrected the orthography of a very few of the names given by Beaufort, and have numbered the islands for the sake of calculations in a subsequent page. The next column of figures contains the number of inhabited houses, and the third the population in each island, by the latest returns. The present aggregate will be glanced at afterwards.

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Here then are to be found one hundred and ninety-six
Islands, of which at least one hundred and forty were in-
habited, seven years ago, by an aggregate of not less than
forty-three thousand souls. Arranged according to their re-
spective provinces, the following will be the result:-

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Before making any farther observation, there is yet another point of view in which almost all those Islands should be considered, that is, in connexion with immense Parishes on the adjoining coast, an arrangement, one effect of which has been that of sinking them in oblivion, just as it was with our Hebrides, till they were, but a few years ago, made an object of distinct consideration. We shall take twenty parishes for illustration, and see what will be the effect. I only remark that the first column of figures refers to the numbers in the first list, by which the reader will be able at once to ascertain the names of the Islands.

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As a specimen of such an arrangement I might notice this instance. Rev. Mr S. can preach in Irish, and, I believe, does so. But No 37 is distant from him at least fifteen, and Nos 43 and 44 from twenty to thirty miles!

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