ined to ascertain the facts and particulars
of the outrage. Down I went, therefore, again, and entering the
tap-room, found that in truth a table had been broken, and a chair too,
not to speak at all of the heads; but, on further investigation, it
appeared that the table, being weak in constitution, sunk under the
weight of one of the belligerents, who jumped upon it to assail the
other with advantage,--and that the chair had been smashed by coming in
contact with the table; the gentleman on the ground having thought it
fair to use a chair in his defence when his enemy took to the larger
piece of furniture:--hence the awful crash, crash--that awoke me from
my--vision.

So far well--but further inquiry brought forth further truths. It came
out that one of the party had called the other "a beggarly bogtrotter,"
for which he received in reply a blow upon his nose. Thus the row
commenced; but better still, it appeared that _one_ of "the dreadful
Irishmen" _was a Welshman_! and that it was _he_ who called poor Paddy
"a bogtrotter."

First then, said I to myself, the table was _not_ broken on the
Irishman's head; it was smashed by the Welshman's _foot_--and it was
_not_ "_two_ dreadful _Irishmen_," but _one_, who had been engaged in
the fray, and he was insulted; therefore, at the most, ONLY ONE HALF OF
THE STORY IS TRUE! _And in about that proportion have I since found
almost all the stories and charges against the lower class of my unhappy
countrymen_--and so will others too, who please to investigate facts.

* * * * *

Amongst my earliest introductions to "London Society" was "St. Giles's."
Notwithstanding the warnings of my friends, as to the danger attendant
even on a walk through its streets, I ventured a little farther; and who
ever may have suffered there, I have not, except from witnessing the
almost indescribable misery of its inhabitants. Throughout my entire
search into its wretchedness, I never received even an uncivil answer
but on one occasion, and I am the more desirous to state this fact,
because, although "St. Giles" sounds to English ears as a spot
_contaminated_ by the abode of Irish only, I found many and many an
Englishman there, as wretched as my own wretched countrymen.

In the instance I allude to, I had entered the first lobby in one of
the houses of a most miserable street, where I saw a woman "rocking" in
the manner the lower class of Irish express silent agony o