t the
present time, a commission in the revenue police is considered, if
not a more fashionable, at any rate a more lucrative appointment than
a commission in the army. Among these officers some of course would
be more active than others, and would consequently make more money;
but it will be easily imagined, that however much the activity of
a sub-inspector of revenue police might add to his character and
standing at headquarters, it would not be likely to make him popular
in the neighbourhood in which he resided.

Myles Ussher was most active in the situation which he filled;
whether an impartial judge would have said that he was too much so,
would be a question difficult to settle, as I have no impartial judge
on the subject to whom I can refer; but the persons among whom he
lived thought that he was. At the time I allude to, about ten years
ago, a great deal of whiskey was distilled in the mountains running
between the counties of Leitrim and Cavan, and in different parts
of the County Leitrim. Father Mathew's pledge was then unknown;
the district is a wild country, not much favoured by gentlemen's
residences, and very poor; and, though it may seem to be an anomaly,
it will always be found to be the case that the poorer the people are
the more they drink; and, consequently, Captain Ussher, as he was
usually called in the neighbourhood, found sufficient occupation for
himself and his men.

Now the case is different; the revenue police remain, but their
duties have, in most districts, gone; and they may be seen patrolling
the roads with their officers accompanying them, being bound to walk
so many miles a day. It is very seldom one hears of their effecting a
seizure, and their inactivity is no doubt owing to the prevalence of
Father Mathew's pledge of total abstinence.

Myles Ussher was a Protestant, from the County Antrim in the north of
Ireland, the illegitimate son of a gentleman of large property, who
had procured him the situation which he held; he had been tolerably
well educated; that is, he could read and write sufficiently,
understood somewhat of the nature of figures, and had learnt, and
since utterly forgotten, the Latin grammar. He had natural abilities
somewhat above par; was good-looking, strongly made, and possessed
that kind of courage, which arises more from animal spirits, and from
not having yet experienced the evil effects of danger, than from real
capabilities of enduring its consequences. Myl