IRiSH INSlXT-IiUiNTEll. 155 



their shoes and stockings, which they had before carried in 

 their hands, or underneath their cloaks ; whether this plan was 

 adopted to protect their feet from the dust, or for the sake of 

 show, — having walked free and unencumbered, for comfort and 

 economy, until they joined the larger throng in the public road, 

 — we must leave till we can inquire next time of their swains 

 and admirers. Round the chapels by the way-side groups of 

 both sexes were kneeling, with a fervour of devotion and reality 

 that one could not doubt. We may say what we like against 

 the Catholic religion, against the tyranny it usurps and the 

 ignorance it fosters, — I am assuredly no Catholic in principle ; 

 I own allegiance spiritual to no man, and to no power on 

 earth, — but there is a zeal, an earnestness, a fervency of piety 

 to be seen in the poor Catholic, to our shame be it spoken, 

 that we rarely discern in the more enlightened but too often 

 cold and formal sectarian. With the Catholic, religion seems 

 to be a part of his very being, a portion of his daily life, 

 the breath of his existence ; while with the Protestant, and 

 highly-professing Dissenter, it is but too frequently only an 

 occasional and often a very irksome duty. We may deplore 

 the delusions to which we think the poor Catholic a victim, and 

 pity, from the bottom of our hearts, what we believe to be his 

 ignorance and his superstition ; but, — 



" Despise hitn not, — liis greatest crime 

 May, in his Maker's eye sublime, 

 In spite of all thy pride, be less 

 Than e'en tluj daily waywardness." 



The next town, Castlebar, would not disgrace any part of 

 England. It consists of a large open square or green, inclosed 

 with post and chain, and one or two broad lateral streets. 

 There is a handsome Court-house, several good hotels, and 

 many excellent residences. A number of respectable persons 

 were gathered to receive the mail, in expectation of its bearing 

 the news of the final close of the Dublin election. The inte- 

 rest this had excited all along the road was intense ; men and 

 women, boys and girls, running out of the cottages to greet 

 the mail as it passed, and inquire. On alighting at Castlebar 

 I was presently surrounded, and acted my brief and important 

 part, answering a thousand questions, by which as many things 

 were settled in no time, in the rapid Irish manner, to their 



