Notes for the Month. [Nov 



& personal malice against Duncan, for on the head of one of the dead 

 horses was found a rude couplet, to the following effect : 



' James Duncan, you bought the apples out of my hand; 

 For the same, your two horses lie dead on the land.' 



" The horses which belonged to M'Avary, and M'Garry, were probably 

 destroyed, being in the dark, in order that Duncan's should not escape." 



Our readers will not have forgotten that worthy adjuration " By the 

 hate you bear to Orangemen !" In the little, single, sacred feeling, 

 appealed to by that very pathetic admonition, lies the moving spirit of all 

 this kind of atrocity, and of three-fourths of the miseries which are deso- 

 lating Ireland. Here is some miscreant disappointed in a bargain about 

 apples ; probably (from the wording of the precious verse) merely outbid 

 by some dealer, who was disposed, or could afford, to give a higher price 

 for the property ; and, in the feeling by which he is adjured by his teachers, 

 when^he is called upon for a conduct of peace and charity, he destroys the 

 whole means of livelihood of the man who has opposed him, and adds the 

 ruin of two others (into the bargain), in order that the first may not 

 escape ! As long as this accursed disposition lurks in the hearts of the 

 Irish people, it little matters what political measures are pursued as far 

 as regards any real chance for happiness and tranquillity to the country. 

 But we should be curious to know whether, where these outrages are 

 committed by Catholics which must be the case in the greater proportion 

 of instances, from the mere numerical state of the population whether 

 they are disclosed by the perpetrators to their priests in confession and 

 what the kind of penance, or penalty, affixed is ? Because the Roman 

 Catholic system makes the priest, in point of fact and practice, the law- 

 giver ; and a despotic, and an irresponsible, lawgiver. 



A court of Common council was held on Thursday, the 4th of October, 

 to consider of the report of a committee of that body upon the state of the 

 City nightly watch. The principal improvement suggested upon the 

 existing plan the compelling the guardians of the night to keep walking 

 about upon their beats, instead of allowing them to sit in their boxes 

 we rather doubt to be no improvement at all. In fact, we perfectly 

 agree with Mr. Figgins (we believe the worthy common councilman's 

 name is Figgins I) though his remark excited laughter that, as it is if 

 the mountain will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet must go to the moun- 

 tain If the watchman goes to sleep in his box, when you want him you 

 know where to find him ! but, on the altered plan proposed, in case of an 

 accident, there would be to seek him through half the public-houses in the 

 ward; and, if you only sought him in half, just an even chance against 

 finding him when all was done. 



To speak, however, more seriously the object of a nightly watch, like 

 that of London, must be considered as twofold. First, it is to serve the 

 purpose of keeping a number of men ready, who may be easily mustered 

 at a given signal, to repress plunder, or act in case of riot. And next, it is 

 to provide a number of vigilant agents, whose task it is to look to the 

 houses of the inhabitants during the night, and preserve them (preven- 

 tively) from general harm or pillage. Now, the first of these duties our 

 watch executes indifferent well although only indifferent well. The men 

 ought to be better paid than at present at least at the rate of fourpence 

 per hour and never permitted, under any circumstances, to remain more 

 than six hours on duty. Jf these changes were attended to, as their posts 



