IRISH INSECT-HUNTER. 153 



and enlightened conviction of having found the more excellent 

 way, we are at liberty and bound to persuade ; but having used 

 our best endeavours, we must leave every man to the result of 

 his own conviction, and should respect it as much as our own. 

 No man, or set of men, have any right to assume that they, and 

 they only, are in the right, and possess the key of light and of 

 truth. It is truly astonishing and deplorable to observe liow 

 this realli/ popish principle of our own infallibility pervades 

 every sect and denomination, and seems, as it were, to be one 

 that is engrafted in the very constitution of the human mind. 

 True Christianity is utterly opposed to any such assumption, 

 and to every species of narrowness and sectarianism, in its 

 whole spirit and tendency. Its distinguishing character is 

 breadth, and universality, in its perfect adaptation to the wants 

 of every member of the human family, wherever situate, and 



under whatever condition or circumstance in life t was glad 



to find the Protestant and titular Archbishops of Tuam, who 

 reside close together, were on friendly terms ; which example 

 extended itself to the population, and is generally the case 

 where either one party or the other greatly preponderate. 

 The proportion here is about one Protestant to one hundred 

 Catholics. The city of Tuam is irregular and dirty, without 

 any recommendation either in itself or the surrounding 

 country. 



From the first stage out of Tuam the character of the scenery 

 begins to change. Beyond the flat, dreary bog-level you catch 

 the first glimpse of the Nephin chain of mountains, and peer- 

 ing beliind and above them all the peak of Croagh-Patrick, or 

 *' the Reek," is seen still at a distance of forty miles. Along 

 the road the edges only of the bog continue to be cultivated, 

 principally in patches of potatoes and barley, with an increased 

 proportion, as you approach westward, of that most elegant of 

 all crops — the flax. The villages of Roundfort and Holymount 

 are the next stages. A little before reaching the latter place is 

 a handsome building, which, on inquiry, we found to be an 

 agricuhural school, belonging to an English Company, but 

 about to be given up and sold for want of support. We could 

 not very distinctly learn the causes of failure, but gathered 

 that it was the difficulty of obtaining scholars, from the inapt- 

 ness of the Irish to learn upon sz/steiii, rather than any defect 

 or mismanagement on the part of the Company. It is a great 



NO. 11. vol.. V. X 



