In common with the greater part of Ireland, Gal way employs some of its people in the linen manu facture, and it seems to be the only kind of manu facture in it worth notice. At the town of Galway there is a considerable salmon fishery, and in the bay of that name herrings and other fish are caught in quantities more than sufficient for the supply of the inhabitants. Lobsters and crabs abound on the shores of the bay; such as in Dublin would bring 7s. or 8s. may be often bought there for 6d., and sometimes for even less. The oysters found at Pouldoody have long had a high reputation, and are much sought after in Dublin. In Lough Corrib there is a fresh water muscle that produces pearls, " of which," says Beaufort, " I have seen some very fine specimens." The number of men enrolled as sea fencibles, which comprehended all the fishermen of Ireland, was for this county 452, nearly the medium of all the maritime counties of Ireland.
Among the towns, the principal is Galway, which, though situated on a bay, sheltered by the Isles of Arran, and having a safe harbour, with a sufficient depth of water, has, nevertheless, very little foreign trade. Its population has been stated con jecturally at about 15,000. It is the only Parlia mentary borough. Tuam is a place of some note, containing the Archbishop's palace and the remains of several religious houses, said to be of great anti quity. Ballinaaloe is a well-built, thriving town, pleasantly situated on the western bank of the river Suck. Here the greatest fairs in Ireland, for sheep, cattle, and wool, are held in July and October. In the lower districts, there is a number of villages, but none of them considerable.
According to Mr Wakefield, the wages of com mon labour, in 1811, were 9d. a-day ; and, in hay and corn harvest, 1 s. Id. The price of potatoes was Sid. per stone ; beef 50., and pork Sid. per lb. ; oatmeal 14s. per cwt. ; milk 2d. and buttermilk id. per quart ; and herrings 5s. Sd. the hundred.
The county sends two members to Parliament, and the borough of Galway one. The landed pro. perty of the Roman Catholics returns the members fur the county ; but there is no commanding territo rial influence. The freeholders amount to 4000. The borough is said to be under the influence of two gentlemen of the name of Daly, who return the member alternately.
The Arran isles, which form a part of this coon ty, are of considerable extent, having a rocky sur face, and a precipitous coast, which, in many places, shoots up. into stupendous cliffs. They are inhabit ed by a hardy race, who, like the people of the western islands of Scotland, are at one season of the year fishermen, and at another husbandmen. The cavities and fissures on their coast are the resort of great numbers of sea fowl, which are caught for their feathers, by men suspended by a rope from the summit of the precipice. The flesh of the small sheep of these islands is highly esteemed for its taste and flavour. On a high cliff projecting in to the sea, in the island of Arranmore, there is a citcle composed of very large stones, piled up with out cement, called Dun Angus ; and, in the same island, there is said to have been an abbey, which was burnt early in the eleventh century. These islands are called South Arran, to distinguish them from an island of the same name on the coast of Donegal. They gave the title of Earl to the Butler family, lately extinct; it is now in the family of Gore. In 1313, they were pillaged and burnt by Sir John D'Arcy, Lord Justice of Ireland. Of the other islands on this and some other parts of the Irish coast, little is known to strangers, as they are only noticed incidentally, when noticed at all, by the latest writers on Ireland.
According to Beaufort, the population of Galway, in 1192, was 142,000; and the number of houses, by the returns of Mr Wray, Inspector-General of Hearth-Money, was, in that year, 24,268, of which more than a fourth were exempted from the tax. In 1809, the Catholics were, to the Protestants, as 40 or 50 to one. In the western parts, there are dis tricts of 50 miles, perhaps, in extent, where there is neither a church nor a single Protestant inhabitant. The Militia are nearly all Catholics : and ten Catho lics are called on the Grand Jury. The Protestant population seems to be stationary ; but, in several parishes, the increase of the Catholic, in 15 years be fore 1811, is stated to have been as 51 to 7. In the town of Galway, the services of the Catholic Church are performed by the priests in the Irish language. —See the works formerly referred to under the Irish counties. (A.)