to throw upon it."

"There is not probably in Ireland a landlord so popular as I am this
moment--at least among my tenants on that property. Restoring M'Evoy,
however, is but a small part of what I have done. Carson's pranks were
incredible. He was a rack-renter of the first water. A person named
Brady had paid him twenty-five guineas as a douceur--in other words, as
a bribe--for renewing a lease for him; yet, after having received the
money, he kept the poor man dangling after him, and at length told him
that he was offered a larger sum by another. In some cases he kept back
the receipts, and made the poor people pay twice, which was still more
iniquitous. Then, sir, he would not take bank notes in payment. No; he
was so wonderfully concientious, and so zealously punctual in fulfilling
my wishes, as he told them on the subject, that nothing would pass in
payment but gold. This gold, sir, they were compelled to receive from
himself, at a most oppressive premium; so that he actually fleeced them
under my name, in every conceivable manner and form of villainy. He is a
usurer, too; and, I am told, worth forty or fifty thousand pounds: but,
thank heaven! he is no longer an agent of mine."

"It gives me sincere pleasure, sir, that you have at length got correct
habits of thinking upon your duties as an Irish landlord; for believe
me, Colonel B., as a subject involving a great portion of national
happiness or national misery, it is entitled to the deepest and most
serious consideration, not only of the class to which you belong, but of
the legislature. Something should be done, sir, to improve the condition
of the poorer classes. A rich country and poor inhabitants is an
anomaly; and whatever is done should be prompt and effectual. If the
Irish landlords looked directly into the state of their tenantry, and
set themselves vigorously to the task of bettering their circumstances,
they would, I am certain, establish the tranquillity and happiness of
the country at large. The great secret, Colonel, of the dissensions
that prevail among us is the poverty of the people. They are poor, and
therefore the more easily wrought up to outrage; they are poor, and
think that any change must be for the better; they are not only poor,
but imaginative, and the fittest recipients for those vague speculations
by which they are deluded. Let their condition be improved, and the most
fertile source of popular tumult and crime is closed. Let them be