ABSTRACT
Education was then only one weapon in the struggle to alleviate the condition of the masses. It had to be combined not only with the sort of reforms just noted, but also with the Poor Law and with emigration. And in the case of Ireland the need for all three was particularly urgent.
Pauperism in Ireland was a problem which concerned all the classical economists to a greater or less degree, and McCulloch like most of his contemporaries believed it both a pressing and an alarming problem. He only visited Ireland once,2 but he took a considerable interest in Ireland, was friendly with Thom, the Dublin publisher, and built up a collection of tracts on Ireland which he described as 'one of the best collections of Tracts on Ireland that has ever been brought together'. 3
