'Never speak to me nor
question me about what we saw last night, and try only to remember it
as a dream. And now let me tell you how I intend to amuse you in the far
west.'

Here the priest began a spirited and interesting description of the
scenery and the people--their habits, their superstitions, and their
pastimes. He sustained the interest of his account with legend and
story, now grave, now gay--sometimes recalling a trait from the older
history of the land; sometimes detailing an incident of the fair or the
market, but always by his wonderful knowledge of the peasantry,
their modes of thinking and reasoning, and by his imitation of their
figurative and forcible expressions, able to carry me with him, whether
he took the mountain's side for his path, sat beside some cotter's
turf-fire, or skimmed along the surface of the summer sea in the frail
bark of an Achill fisherman. I learned from him that in the wild region
where he lived there were above fifteen thousand persons, scarce one of
whom could speak or understand a word of English. Of these he was not
only the priest, but the ruler and judge. Before him all their disputes
were settled, all their differences reconciled. His word, in the
strongest sense of the phrase, was law--not indeed to be enforced by
bayonets and policemen, by constables and sheriffs' officers, but which
in its moral force demanded obedience, and would have made him who
resisted it an outcast among his fellows.

'We are poor,' said the priest, 'but we are happy. Crime is unknown
among us, and the blood of man has not been shed in strife for fifty
years within the barony. When will ye learn this in England? When will
ye know that these people may be led, but never driven; that they may be
persuaded, but never compelled? When will ye condescend to bend so far
the prerogative of your birth, your riches, and your rank, as to reason
with the poor and humble peasant that looks up to you for protection?
Alas! my young friend, were you to ask me what is the great source of
misery of this unhappy land, I should tell you the superior intelligence
of its people. I see a smile, but hear me out. Unlike the peasantry of
other countries, they are not content. Their characters are mistaken,
their traits misconstrued---partly from indifference, partly from
prejudice, and in a great measure because it is the fashion to recognise
in the tiller of the soil a mere drudge, with scarce more intelligence
than th