354 Some Instances of Farmers becoming rich.

availed themselves of the events of late years, so propitious to farming undertakings: but I should think it difficult to produce many instances of an independency being obtained by the occupation of farming at the present advanced rents.

The county gaol is particularly well constructed, and has the advantage of being both well warmed and ventilated.

If your patience be not long since exhausted the fault is not mine! I think you will admit I have taken pains enough to effect it; though none are requisite to assure you that I am always yours. Adieu!

J. C. C.

LETTER XXIX.

Ennis, Sept. 7, 1813.

THE fabrication of news appears to be a thriving trade in this country, if we may judge by the avidity with which it is purchased. Few towns of any size are without their weekly papers, and perhaps two; for the general state and feeling of parties here are such, that no sophistry could produce a palatable cookery that would be relished by both. I know not whether the remark applied to attorneys is equally appropriate to editors, "that a single one starves, but that two make fortunes."

I have heard an anecdote of two farmers, who on having some trifling dispute, by accident resorted to the same lawyer. After hearing the whole story from the second client, he lamented it was not in his power to be of use to him, but that he would give him a note to a friend of his hard by, a most able and honorable man, to whom the party might safely trust his cause. As the note could appertain to no one but

356 Evils from the State of the Irish Press,

himself, he made free with the seal, and after reading, Two geese from the country have quarrelled, good brother: I'll pluck the one, and have sent you the other," he thought it most prudent to exhibit the note, and make offer of a conciliatory shake of the hand, which was wisely accepted by his neighbour.

Serious evils arise from the luxuriant produce of those weekly hotbeds of intemperance: prejudices are fomented and fortified-discord perpetuated-every object seen, every circumstance heard, is distorted, and truth suffocated or wholly extinguished on both sides. If the state of the press could be considered as a fair indication on which to form an opinion of the refinement in the manners of a people, the result would by no means be favorable to Ireland. The insufferable vulgar abuse which is so libe rally bestowed on the late Lord-lieutenant, is too contemptible to be worthy the attention even of his adversaries: the absence as well of wit to excite risibility, as of argument to elicit a reply, evinces the editor's stupidity, as well as that of his reading. The enthusiasm of party devotedness disqualifies both sides from the fair exercise of their judgment, and blinds them to all objects not presented to their view in their own favorite colors. The supporters of government

exhibiting Slander and abject Flattery. 357

are so fulsomely lavish of indiscriminate praise, that merited commendations are unheeded, and, instead of leading to favorable conclusions, nauseate and dispose the reader to view the whole as abject flattery deserving only of contempt.

In the suspicion of similar views, with which public praise is always accompanied, I am ready to admit the attempt to be a much more difficult task than that of slander. The style and tone of the periodical prints are here far below the provincial papers in England. A show, at least, of argument and reason is necessary there, to satisfy even those who are most decided in their opinions, and to ensure a favorable reception...

Some of the advertisements we have lately seen are amusing, and prove that haste and want of care subject parties to similar mistakes in their writings, with those for which they have long been renowned in their conversation. In one instance, fifty pounds reward is offered when a person accused of murder "will be lodged in prison." In another, a gentleman cautions his tenants "not to burn the mountains."

358 Forethought and Order little regarded.

The carriage most in vogue is the jaunting car, which is calculated to carry four persons and the driver; kind-hearted as the Irish are in general, they appear to have little feeling or consideration for the brute creation. Their horses are hard driven, and ill taken care of the stabling is universally bad, and the grooming execrable. We complain not-we continue to get through our difficulties, and laugh at them--but a night does not pass in which I do not feel very severely on account of our poor horses.

Two causes, from which spring most of the comforts of life, are unknown here-I mean forethought and order; if there be a bell, for instance, the chances are in favor of there being no pull to it, or that the wires are broken. The hours are preposterously late, the dinner hour is generally six o'clock. In former times the Irish are represented as having two meals a day, one in the winter before day-light, the other, and principal one, late in the evening. At Galway the play did not commence till after eight, and was not finished till near two the next morning.

Our road hither was round the head of the