thus
cruel because his lordship is profligate. He wants money to support
his-mistress, to feed her vanities and excesses, and you must endure
distress and privation, that the insatiable rapacity of a courtezan may
be gratified. His lordship, too, has horses and dogs, in the welfare of
which he feels a deep interest.' 'But why does he not feel an interest
in us?' 'So he does, for are not you the persons by whose toil and labor
he is enabled to support them all?' 'So that in point of fact, we
are made indirectly the agents of his crimes. The privations which
we suffer--the sweat of our brows--the labor of our hands, go to
the-support of his wantonness, his luxury, and his extravagance!
This, then, is his interest in us?' 'Yes--_work, that you may feed
them_--starve, that his mistress may riot in wantonness; perish your
children that his dogs may be fed!' In such a position as this, my Lord,
I shall never place myself, but you may easily find many that will. The
moment your necessities are known, knavery will be immediately at work,
and assume its guardianship over folly. Indeed there is a monarchical
spirit in knavery, which has never yet been observed. The knave keeps
his fool, as did the kings of old, with this only difference, and a
material one it is--that whilst the fool always lived at the king's
expense, the knave lives at the fool's. How your lordship may feel under
the new administration I cannot say, but I am inclined to think, you
will not find it a distinction without a difference. By this, of course,
you understand, my Lord, that I at once resign my agency.

"And now, my Lord, in addition to many other unavailable remonstrances
made by me, not only against your licentious habits as a man, but
against your still more indefensible conduct as a landlord, allow me
to address you in a spirit of honesty, which I fear is not easily found
among the class to which I belong. I look upon this as a duty which I
owe less to you than to my country, because I am satisfied that the
most important service which can be rendered to any man, not ashamed
of either your habits or principles, is to lay before him a clear, but
short and simple statement, of that which constitutes his duty as
a landlord--I should say an Irish landlord--for there is a national
idiosyncrasy of constitution about such a man, which appears to prevent
him from properly discharging his duties, either as a friend to himself,
or a just man to his tenantry.