LETTER XXVI.

Castlebar, Sept. 4, 1813.

ON our quitting Belleek, the concourse of beggars was as great as those who used to assail the travellers in France thirty years ago. A great similarity was observable in their manners. Importunate on the subject of their own misfortunes and misery, they vociferously urged the claims of charity; but while they profusely implored blessings on us, their brethren in adversity were, by the same parties, treated with brutal repulsion. The imposssibility of deciding on claims urged with equal importunity, and the incapacity of relieving one tenth of the number, suspended for a moment the usual donation, for the purpose of considering in what way best to act; the crowd in this short interval became impatient, and supposing there would be nothing given, their blessings were instantaneously converted into curses and execrations, with which we were most liberally treated. There was something so despicable and humiliating in this conduct, that every

Mount Nephin.

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feeling of commiseration fled; and for the first time, under similar circumstances, we parted in no charity with each other.

The fertility which had been so gratifying on our approach to Belleek soon disappeared as we turned our backs on the town. We had twenty miles to reach this miserable place. As we understood we should have to encounter many sharp ascents in the road, I would have lightened our carriage by the weight of our luggage, had not the modesty of a return post chaise driver, to whom I would have consigned it, demanded half his fare for its conveyance.

The magnitude and the form of mount Nephin are extremely grand; its lofty summit being generally enveloped in clouds, it was only at intervals we could obtain a complete view of it in all its majesty. This mountain is situated at the extremity of an immense bog, in the centre of which is Lough Conn. The surface of this great water is broken by a considerable number of scattered islands; its margins are too flat to be considered as entitled to the claim of beauty. We understood that it abounds with the gillaroo trout.

On stopping for the purpose of refreshing

316

Some Account of the Rebellion.

our horses at a miserable public house, we were joined by a well-informed tradesman who was on his road to Castlebar in the return postchaise that was to have taken our luggage. He had been a volunteer during the rebellion, and was communicative of the transactions he had witnessed. This stranger was a very loyal subject, and a zealous defender of the protestant cause, consigning without mercy or discrimination, the whole race of catholics to the disposal of his infernal Majesty. The priest of the hamlet had taken an active part in the rebellion, and many through his influence had been drawn into the error for which he had been executed.

In answer to some inquiries I made as to the situation of these poor deluded people, our rational informer without hesitation replied, "They are rung in the nose like a pig, and bent to the earth-their cabins are wretched-their food most miserable-rent and tithes take the kernel of the nut, and leave the shell only for those who labor-a dreadful state, and loudly calling for redress:" yet it did not occur to him, that a people in so deplorable a situation, so long as they were catholics, were objects of any great pity or commiseration. How inconsistent do our prejudices make us? our very

British Royalty contrasted with the Irish. 317 virtues betray us into uncharitable incongruities!

Royalty in Great Britain is not an empty pageant, a senseless ostentatious sound! but implies power-exercised for public protection -for individual security-for the maintenance of public tranquillity-for the conservation of personal privileges, liberty, freedom, and rightsand for the execution of the laws. Attachment to sò illustrious an office, whence no wrong can issue, and where the fountain of mercy resides, is founded on rational principles, or a compact existing between the governor and the governed. The distribution of benefits is the business of the former-a grateful acknowledgement, and thankful acceptance, the duty of the latter-here, the law is the poor man's shield, and here the dwarf, arrayed against the giant, has an equal chance in the field over which justice presides. What a contrast does the reverse of the medal in Ireland present? Can loyalty or attachment be expected from a people as here described, "rung in the nose like a pig, and bent to the earth?"

Mr. A. Young gives a deplorable account of the county of Mayo, at the time of his visit.

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Horses made to draw by the Tail.

He states that, in defiance of the act of parliament forbidding the practice, the plough was still worked by being attached to the horses' tails. It is supposed that the custom of ploughing by the tail was introduced by the Picts, for it prevailed also in the northern parts of Scotland. An act of council was made in 1606, to stop the barbarous mode of drawing ploughs and carriages in this manner: the penalty for the first offence was the forfeiture of one garron ; for the second, two; and for the third, the whole team. In 1612, ten shillings were levied for every plough so drawn in Ulster: the penalties levied in one year amounted to eight hundred and seventy pounds sterling.

I have been informed that it was not uncommon in those times, to thatch the backs of their milch cows, to protect them against the wet and cold, having no hovels under which to afford them shelter. Bad as things now are, yet these. practices exist only in tradition.

The lay or spade, used here, is of an uncommon shape: it is about ten inches long, having room only for the right foot to work on; it tapers from six inches at top to about four at the bottom, with a handle five feet in length.