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The hides of common cattle have, but within these few years, been

put among the enumerated commodities which the plantations can

send nowhere but to the mother country; neither has the commerce

of Ireland been in this case oppressed hitherto, in order to

support the manufactures of Great Britain.

Whatever regulations tend to sink the price, either of wool or of

raw hides, below what it naturally would be, must, in an improved

and cultivated country, have some tendency to raise the price of

butcher's meat. The price both of the great and small cattle,

which are fed on improved and cultivated land, must be sufficient

to pay the rent which the landlord, and the profit which the

farmer, has reason to expect from improved and cultivated land.

If it is not, they will soon cease to feed them. Whatever part of

this price, therefore, is not paid by the wool and the hide, must

be paid by the carcase. The less there is paid for the one, the

more must be paid for the other. In what manner this price is to

be divided upon the different parts of the beast, is indifferent

to the landlords and farmers, provided it is all paid to them.