ad great
weight with him,--but his own personal predilections had also a
considerable share in doing so.

The three leading resident gentlemen in the neighbourhood were Sir
Michael Gibson, Mr. Jonas Brown, and Counsellor Webb; they were
the three magistrates who regularly attended the petty sessions at
Carrick; and as they usually held different opinions on all important
subjects relative to the locality in which they resided, so all their
neighbours swore by one of them, condemning the other two as little
better than fools or knaves.

Sir Michael was by far the richest, and would, therefore, naturally
have had the greatest number of followers, had it not been that it
was usually extremely difficult to find out what his opinion was.
He was neither a bad nor a good landlord--that is to say, his land
was seldom let for more than double its value; and his agent did
not eject his tenants as long as they contrived not to increase the
arrears which they owed when he undertook the management of the
property; but Sir Michael himself neither looked after their welfare,
or took the slightest care to see that they were comfortable.

On the bench, by attempting to agree with both his colleagues, he
very generally managed to express an opinion different from either of
them; and as he was, of course, the chairman, the decisions of the
bench were in consequence frequently of a rather singular nature;
however, on the whole, Sir Michael was popular, for if he benefited
none, he harmed none; and he was considered by many a safe
constitutional man, with no flighty ideas on any side.

Jonas Brown was hated by the poor. In every case he would, if he had
the power, visit every fault committed by them with the severest
penalty awarded by the law. He was a stern, hard, cruel man, with
no sympathy for any one, and was actuated by the most superlative
contempt for the poor, from whom he drew his whole income. He was
a clever, clear-headed, avaricious man; and he knew that the only
means of keeping the peasantry in their present utterly helpless and
dependent state, was to deny them education, and to oppose every
scheme for their improvement and welfare. He dreaded every movement
which tended to teach them anything, and when he heard of landlords
reducing their rents, improving cabins, and building schools, he
would prophesy to his neighbour, Sir Michael, that the gentry would
soon begin to repent of their folly, when the rents they had redu