Ten or twelve years later, we
find Arthur Young speaking with much approval of the many efforts that
were being made, in various parts of Ireland, to reclaim the
bogs--efforts resulting, no doubt, in a great measure, from this Bill.
In the process of reclaiming the bogs, the potato was an essential
auxiliary.
But of all the means of increasing the growth of that renowned esculent
in Ireland, the Catholic Relief Act of 1793 must, at least in more
recent times, be accorded the first place. That Act, it is said, was the
result of the fears excited in England by the French Revolution. Whether
this was so or not, the concessions it made were large for the time; and
its effect upon potato culture in Ireland is unquestionable. Dr.
Beaufort, in his Ecclesiastical Map, gives our whole population in 1789
as 4,088,226. Sir Henry Parnell says the Catholics were, at this time,
at least three-fourths of the population.[53] And this agrees with the
estimate which the Catholics themselves made of their numbers at the
period; for, in a long and remarkable petition, presented to the House
of Commons in January, 1792, they say: "Behold us then before you, three
millions of the people of Ireland.
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