d the matter. "It is
not to be expected that you should, my lord," said Plunket, "for in
England the wind raises the kite, but in Ireland the kite raises the
wind." The lord chancellor was no wiser than before, and the counsel was
obliged to have recourse to a less metaphorical explanation.

So late as the time of the Union old Irish families lived in the way
described by De Ounce. When a lad of fifteen he visited Ireland with his
young friend Lord Westport. He was even then a keen observer, and his
remarks on the Irish nobility of that date are worthy of attention. He
first notices that the tardiness and difficulty of communication, the want
of newspapers, etc., must in those times have kept the provinces two or
three generations in the rear of the metropolis, and accordingly the old
Irish rural nobility stood in this relation to English manners and
customs. The houses were often large and rambling, in the style of antique
English manorial chateaux, ill-planned as regarded convenience and
economy, with long winding galleries and innumerable windows, but
displaying in the dwelling-rooms a comfort and "coziness," combined with a
magnificence, not always so effectually attained in modern times. "Here
were old libraries, old butlers and old customs that seemed to belong to
the era of Cromwell, or even an earlier era than his; whilst the ancient
names, to one who had some acquaintance with the great events of Irish
history, often strengthened the illusion." In fact, the aristocracy of
Ireland was divided into two sections--the native Irish, who were
territorial fixtures, and those who spent so much of their time and
revenues at Bath, Cheltenham, Weymouth, London, etc. as to have become
almost entirely English. It was the former whom De Quincey saw most of,
and though they lived in the amplest comfort and exercised the most
unbounded hospitality, still they were greatly behind the English
commercial gentry as to modern refinements of luxury. There was at the
same time a strength of character and a raciness of manner which could not
fail to interest and impress a stranger. Although there was much sterling
worth to be found in this class, a high-handed lawlessness broke out now
and then. Doubtless, a daily familiarity with the wrongs perpetrated under
cover of the penal laws undermined their natural sense of justice. A
remarkable instance of the tyranny sometimes practiced occurred in a
family well known to the writer. A gentle