The intelligence was made known in April or May; and then began a rush of thousands, - men leaving their former employments in the bush or in the towns to search for the ore so greatly coveted in all ages.
Compelled by the second Restoration to retire into private life, he devoted his leisure to writing the history of his times, an occupation for which his previous employments well fitted him.
He has left an amusing acccunt of his employments in the country, where his love of study was at once inflamed by a large and unwonted command of books and checked by the necessary interruptions of his otherwise happy domestic life.
His political and courtly employments, however, did not absorb all his time, and he contributed during his stay in Bavaria a number of papers to the Philosophical Transactions.
The increased freedom of trade with which Ireland was favoured, the introduction of the cotton manufacture by Robert Joy and Thomas M`Cabe in 1777, the establishment in 1791 of shipbuilding on an extensive scale by William Ritchie, an energetic Scotsman, combined with the rope and canvas manufacture already existing, supplied the inhabitants with employments and increased the demand for skilled labour.
