apping his young master into the difficulties
which lay around, offered not a bad opportunity for the display of
his talents.

That such a man as Brady is described to be, should exist and find
employment in a country, is a fact which must shock and disgust;
but that it is a fact in great parts of Ireland, those who are most
conversant with the country will not pretend to deny. It is true,
that by paid spies and informers, real criminals may not unfrequently
be brought to justice; but those who have observed the working of the
system must admit that the treachery which it creates--the feeling of
suspicion which it generates--but, above all, the villanies to which
it gives and has given rise, in allowing informers, by the prospect
of blood-money, to give false informations, and to entrap the unwary
into crimes--are by no means atoned for by the occasional detection
and punishment of a criminal.

Let the police use such open means as they have--and, God knows, in
Ireland they should be effective enough; but I cannot but think the
system of secret informers--to which those in positions of inferior
authority too often have recourse--has greatly increased crime in
many districts of Ireland. I by no means intend to assert that this
system is patronised or even recognised by Government. I believe the
contrary most fully; but those to whom the execution of the criminal
laws in detail are committed, and who look to obtain advancement and
character by their activity, do very frequently employ what I must
call a most iniquitous system of espionage.

A very few years since I was walking down the street of a small town
with a gentleman who was at that time in the immediate employment
of the Government. It was a fair day, and we were strolling through
the crowd, which was moving slowly hither and thither, as though in
absolute idleness. The dusk was fast commencing, and he pointed out
to me two or three men, who had come in from the country like the
others, telling me that they were waiting till it was dark to speak
to him; that they did not dare to speak to him during the light;
that they were in his pay; and that they had information to give him
respecting illegal societies, and hidden arms. He ridiculed me when I
questioned the propriety of his system; in fact he was so accustomed
to it that he could not conceive the possibility of going on without
it. In the same way I have had men pointed out to me by the officer
leading a p