ustice, which
equally disregard the prejudices of any and every party. After all, I am
of opinion that the spirit in which the work is written will be found,
whilst it correctly delineates the state and condition of the country
during the fearful tumults and massacres of the Tithe Rebellion, to have
left little, if anything, to be complained of in this respect.

In constructing narratives of this sort, it is to be understood that
certain allowances are always made for small anachronisms that cannot be
readily got over. The murder of the Bolands, for instance, occurred in
the year 1808, and the massacre of Carrickshock, as it has been called,
in 1832. It was consequently impossible for me to have availed myself of
the annexed "Narrative" and brought in the "Massacre" in the same story,
without bringing down the murder of the Bolands to a more recent date.

It may be objected that I have assumed, as the period of my story, one
which was calculated to bring into light and action the worst feelings
and the darkest criminals of my country. This, however, was not my
fault. If they had not existed, I could not have painted them; and so
long as my country is disgraced by great crimes, and her social state
disorganized by men whoso hardened vices bring shame upon civilization
itself, so long, I add, these crimes and such criminals shall never be
veiled over by me. I endeavor to paint Ireland, sometimes as she was,
but always as she is, in order that she may see many of those debasing
circumstances which prevent her from being what she ought to be. In the
meantime, I trust the reader will have an opportunity of perceiving
that I have not in the _Tithe-Proctor_, any more than in my other work,
forgotten to show him that even in the most startling phases of
Irish crime and tumult, I have by no means neglected to draw the warm,
generous, and natural virtues of my countrymen, and to satisfy him that
a very few guilty wretches are quite sufficient, however unjustly, to
blacken and degrade a large district.

There is, however, a certain class of pseudo-patriots in this country,
who are of opinion that every writer, professing to depict our national
character and manners, should make it a point of conscience to suppress
all that is calculated "to lessen us in the eyes of the world," as they
are pleased to term it, and only to give to the public the bright and
favorable side. It is unnecessary to dwell upon the moral dishonesty
and mea